Padma Awards 2015

  Padma Awards - one of the highest civilian Awards of the country, are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The Awards are given in various disciplines/ fields of activities, viz.- art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc. ‘Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service; ‘Padma Bhushan’ for distinguished service of high order and ‘Padma Shri’ for distinguished service in any field. The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year.

These awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March/ April every year. This year the President of India has approved conferment of Padma Awards to 104 persons as per the list below. The list comprises of 9 Padma Vibhushan, 20 Padma Bhushan and 75 Padma Shri Awardees.  17 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 17 persons from the category of foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and 4 Posthumous awardees.

 

Padma Vibhushan

S. No.	Name of the Awardee	Discipline	State/Domicile
1.	Shri L. K. Advani	Public Affairs	Gujarat
2.	Shri Amitabh Bachchan	Art	Maharashtra
3.	Shri Prakash Singh Badal	Public Affairs	Punjab
4.	Dr. D. Veerendra Heggade	Social Work	Karnataka
5.	Shri Mohammad Yusuf Khan alias Dilip Kumar	Art	Maharashtra
6.	Shri Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Swami Rambhadracharya	Others	Uttar Pradesh
7.	Prof. Malur Ramaswamy Srinivasan	Science and Engineering	Tamil Nadu
8.	Shri Kottayan K. Venugopal	Public Affairs	Delhi
9.	Shri Karim Al Hussaini Aga Khan (Foreigner)	Trade and Industry	France/UK

Padma Bhushan

1.	Shri Jahnu Barua	Art	Assam
2.	Dr. Vijay Bhatkar	Science and Engineering	Maharashtra
3.	Shri Swapan Dasgupta	Literature and Education	Delhi
4.	Swami Satyamitranand Giri	Others	Uttar Pradesh
5.	Shri N. Gopalaswami	Civil Service	Tamil Nadu
6.	Dr. Subhash C. Kashyap	Public Affairs	Delhi
7.	Dr. (Pandit) Gokulotsavji Maharaj	Art	Madhya Pradesh
8.	Dr. Ambrish  Mithal	Medicine	Delhi
9.	Smt. Sudha Ragunathan	Art	Tamil Nadu
10.	Shri Harish Salve	Public Affairs	Delhi
11.	Dr. Ashok Seth	Medicine	Delhi
12.	Shri Rajat Sharma	Literature and Education	Delhi
13.	Shri Satpal	Sports	Delhi
14.	Shri Shivakumara Swami	Others	Karnataka
15.	Dr. Kharag Singh Valdiya	Science and Engineering	Karnataka
16.	Prof. Manjul Bhargava (NRI/PIO)	Science and Engineering	USA
17.	Shri David Frawley (Vamadeva) (Foreigner)	Others	USA
18.	Shri Bill Gates (Foreigner)	Social Work	USA
19.	Ms. Melinda Gates  (Foreigner)	Social Work	USA
20.	Shri Saichiro Misumi (Foreigner)	Others	Japan

Padma Shri

1.	Dr. Manjula Anagani	Medicine	Telangana
2.	Shri S. Arunan	Science and Engineering	Karnataka
3.	Ms. Kanyakumari Avasarala	Art	Tamil Nadu
4.	Dr. Bettina Sharada Baumer	Literature and Education	Jammu and Kashmir
5.	Shri Naresh Bedi	Art	Delhi
6.	Shri Ashok Bhagat	Social Work	Jharkhand
7.	Shri Sanjay Leela Bhansali	Art	Maharashtra
8.	Dr. Lakshmi Nandan Bora	Literature and Education	Assam
9.	Dr. Gyan  Chaturvedi	Literature and Education	Madhya Pradesh
10.	Prof. (Dr.) Yogesh Kumar Chawla	Medicine	Chandigarh
11.	Smt. Jayakumari Chikkala	Medicine	Delhi
12.	Shri Bibek Debroy	Literature and Education	Delhi
13.	Dr. Sarungbam Bimola  Kumari Devi	Medicine	Manipur
14.	Dr. Ashok Gulati	Public Affairs	Delhi
15.	Dr.  Randeep  Guleria	Medicine	Delhi
16.	Dr. K. P. Haridas	Medicine	Kerala
17.	Shri Rahul Jain	Art	Delhi
18.	Shri Ravindra Jain	Art	Maharashtra
19.	Dr. Sunil Jogi	Literature and Education	Delhi
20.	Shri Prasoon Joshi	Art	Maharashtra
21.	Dr. Prafulla Kar	Art	Odisha
22.	Ms. Saba Anjum	Sports	Chhattisgarh
23.	Smt. Ushakiran Khan	Literature and Education	Bihar
24.	Dr. Rajesh Kotecha	Medicine	Rajasthan
25.	Prof. Alka Kriplani	Medicine	Delhi
26.	Dr. Harsh Kumar	Medicine	Delhi
27.	Shri Narayana Purushothama Mallaya	Literature and Education	Kerala
28.	Shri Lambert Mascarenhas	Literature and Education	Goa
29.	Dr. (Mrs.) Janak Palta McGilligan	Social Work	Madhya Pradesh
30.	Shri Veerendra Raj Mehta	Social Work	Delhi
31.	Shri Tarak Mehta	Art	Gujarat
32.	Shri Neil Herbert Nongkynrih	Art	Meghalaya
33.	Shri Chewang Norphel	Others	Jammu and Kashmir
34.	Shri T. V. Mohandas Pai	Trade and Industry	Karnataka
35.	Dr.Tejas Patel	Medicine	Gujarat
36.	Shri Jadav Molai Peyang	Others	Assam
37.	Smt. Bimla Poddar	Other	Uttar Pradesh
38.	Dr. N. Prabhakar	Science and Engineering	Delhi
39.	Dr. Prahalada	Science and Engineering	Maharashtra
40.	Dr. Narendra Prasad	Medicine	Bihar
41.	Shri Ram Bahadur Rai	Literature and Education	Delhi
42.	Ms. Mithali Raj	Sports	Telangana
43.	Shri P. V.  Rajaraman	Civil Service	Tamil Nadu
44.	Prof.  J. S. Rajput	Literature and Education	Uttar Pradesh
45.	Shri Kota Srinivasa Rao	Art	Andhra Pradesh
46.	Prof. Bimal Roy	Literature and Education	West Bengal
47.	Shri Shekhar Sen	Art	Maharashtra
48.	Shri Gunvant Shah	Literature and Education	Gujarat
49.	Shri Brahmdev Sharma (Bhaiji)	Literature and Education	Delhi
50.	Shri Manu Sharma	Literature and Education	Uttar Pradesh
51.	Prof. Yog Raj Sharma	Medicine	Delhi
52.	Shri Vasant Shastri	Science and Engineering	Karnataka
53.	Shri S. K. Shivkumar	Science and Engineering	Karnataka
54.	Ms. P. V. Sindhu	Sports	Telangana
55.	Shri Sardara Singh	Sports	Haryana
56.	Ms. Arunima Sinha	Sports	Uttar Pradesh
57.	Shri Mahesh Raj Soni	Art	Rajasthan
58.	Dr.Nikhil Tandon	Medicine	Delhi
59.	Shri H. Thegtse Rinpoche	Social Work	Arunachal Pradesh
60.	Dr.Hargovind Laxmishanker Trivedi	Medicine	Gujarat
61.	Shri Huang Baosheng (Foreigner)	Others	China
62.	Prof. Jacques Blamont (Foreigner)	Science and Engineering	France
63.	Late Shri Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin (Posthumous)	Others	Maharashtra
64.	Shri Jean-Claude Carriere (Foreigner)	Literature and Education	France
65.	Dr. Nandrajan “Raj” Chetty (NRI/PIO)	Trade and Industry	USA
66.	Shri George L. Hart (Foreigner)	Others	USA
67.	Jagat Guru Amrta Suryananda Maha Raja (NRI/PIO)	Others	Portugal
68.	Late Shri Meetha Lal Mehta (Posthumous)	Social Work	Rajasthan
69.	Ms. Tripti Mukherjee (NRI/PIO)	Art	USA
70.	Dr. Dattatreyudu Nori (NRI/PIO)	Medicine	USA
71.	Dr. Raghu Rama Pillarisetti (NRI/PIO)	Medicine	USA
72.	Dr. Saumitra Rawat (NRI/PIO)	Medicine	UK
73.	Prof. Annette Schmiedchen (Foreigner)	Literature and Education	Germany
74.	Late Shri Pran Kumar Sharma alias Pran (Posthumous)	Art	Delhi
75.	Late Shri R. Vasudevan (Posthumous)	Civil Service	Tamil Nadu

Appointments in India 2015

• National Institution for Transforming India (Niti Aayog) : Narendra Modi, Chairman
• Lok Sabha, Speaker : Mrs. Sumitra Mahajan

• Lok Sabha, Secretary-General : T. K. Viswanathan

• Rajya Sabha, Chairman : Mohammad Hamid Ansari
• Rajya Sabha, Deputy Chairman : P. J. Kurien
• Rajya Sabha, Leader of House : Arun Jaitley
• Rajya Sabha, Leader of Opposition : Ghulam Nabi Azad

• Rajya Sabha, Secretary-General :Shumsher K. Sheriff

• National Institution for Transforming India (Niti Aayog) Vice-Chairman : Arvind Panagariya

• Chief Election Commissioner : Harishankar Brahma
• Election Commissioner : Syed Nasim Zaidi
• Comptroller and Auditor-General of India : Shashi Kant Sharma
• National Human Right Commission (NHRC) Chairperson: Justice K. G. Balakrishnan, 

• Cabinet Secretary : Ajit Kumar Seth 
• Principal Secretary to Prime Minister : Nripendra Misra
• National Commission for Backward Classes : Justice V. Eshwaraiah, Chairman
• National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) : Ms. Shanta Sinha, Chairperson
• National Commission for Scheduled Castes : Dr. P. L. Punia, Chairman
• National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) : Dr.Rameshwar Oraon, Chairman
• Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) : Deepak Gupta, Chairman
• National Commission on Farmers (NCF) : Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, Chairman
• National Security Adviser and Special Adviser to PM (Internal Security) : Ajit Kumar Doval
• National Investigation Agency (NIA) : Sharad Kumar, Director-General
• Railway Board : A. K. Mital, Chairman
• Intelligence Bureau (IB) : Syed Asif Ibrahim, Director
• Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) : Anil Kumar Sinha, Director
• Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) : Alok Joshi, Director
• National Security Guard (NSG) : Jayanto Narayan Choudhury, Director-General
• Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) : Prakash Mishra, Director-General
• Border Security Force (BSF) : Devendra Kumar Pathak, Director-General
• Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) : Arvind Ranjan, Director-General
• Railway Protection Force. (RPF) : P. K. Mehta, Director-General
• Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) : Parkash Mishra, Director-General
• Sashastra Seema Bal : B. D. Sharma, Director-General
• Indian Coast Guard : Vice-Admiral Anurag G. Thapliyal, Director-General
• Defence Intelligence Agency : Lt. Gen. Avtar Singh, Director-General
• University Grants Commission (UGC) : Prof. Ved Prakash, Chairman
• Defence Research and Development Organisation. (DRDO) : Dr. Avinash Chander, Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister and Secretary
• Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government : Dr. R. Chidambaram
• Space Commission and ISRO : A. S. Kiran Kumar, Chairman 
• Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Dept. of Atomic Energy : Ratan Kumar Sinha,Chairman
• National Commission for Minorities : Naseem Ahmad, Chairperson
• Staff Selection Commission (SSC) : Amitava Bhattacharya, Chairman
• Indian Council of Medical Research : Dr. Vishwa Mohan Katoch, Director-General
• India and Census Commissioner : C. Chandramouli, Registrar-General
• Law Commission : Justice D. K. Jain, Chairman
• Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) : Dr. B. N. Suresh, President
• National Forest Commission : Justice (Retd.) B. N. Kirpal, Chairman
• National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) : T. Nanda Kumar, Chairperson
• Border Roads Organisation : Lt. General AT Parnaik, Director-General
• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) : Dr. Raghuram Rajan, Governor
• Press Council of India : Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad, Chairman
• Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) : Ravindra Pisharody, Chairman
• Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) : R. K. Tewari, Chairman
• Central Board of Excise and Customs : Mrs. J.M. Shanti Sundharam, Chairman
• Competition Commission of India : Ashok Chawla
• Central Administrative Tribunal : Justice Syed Rafat Alam, Chairman
• National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) : R.S.T. Sai, CMD
• Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) : R. S. Sharma, CMD
• GAIL : B. C. Tripathi, CMD
• Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) : S. Behuria, Chairman
• Oil India Ltd : Sunil Kumar Srivastava, CMD
• Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) : Dr. Satbir Bedi, Chairperson
• Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) : U. K. Sinha, Chairman
• National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) : Dr. Harsh Kumar Bhanwala,Chairman
• State Bank of India (SBI) : Smt. Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman 
• Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) : M. S. Raghavan, Chairman 
• Company Law Board : Justice Dilip Raosaheb Deshmukh, Chairman
• India's Permanent Representative to UN : Hardeep Singh Puri 
• Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) : S. K. Roy, Chairman
• Central Water Commission : Ashwin Pandya, Chairman 
• National Commission for Women : Ms. Lalitha Kumarmangalam, Chairperson
• 14th Finance Commission : Dr. Y. V. Reddy, Chairman
• National Statistical Commission : Dr. Pronob Sen, Chairman
• Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) : Pahlaj Nihalani, Chairperson
• Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) : Dr. Rakesh Tewari, Director-General
• Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) : Dr. Jyotsna Suri, President
• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) : Dr. Rahul Khullar, Chairman
• Enforcement Directorate : Dr. Rajan Katoch, Director
• Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) : R. V. Verma, Chairman
• Bhabha Atomic Research Centre : Dr. Sekhar Basu, Director
• Indian Olympic Association : N. Ramachandran, President
• National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) : Prof. B.K.Tripathi, Acting Director
• Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) : Ajay S. Shriram, President
• Prasar Bharti Board : Dr. A. Surya Prakash, Chairman
• Investment Commission : Ratan Tata, Chairman
• Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) : Shivlal Yadav, Interim President
• NASSCOM : R. Chandrasekaran, Chairman
• National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) : Ramesh Sippy, Chairman
• United News of India : Ravindra Kumar, Chairman
• Press Trust of India (PTI) : Mahendra Mohan Gupta, Chairman
• Indian Newspaper Society (INS) : Kiran B. Vadodaria, President
• The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) : Rana Kapoor,President

GENERAL AWARENESS PRACTICE QUESTIONS FOR ALL BANK EXAMS

1. Which of the following has been replaced by NITI Aayog?
1) Finance Commission
2) National Innovation Council
3) Union Public Service Commission
4) Planning Commission
5) National Integration Council

2. Ahmet Davutoglu is the Prime Minister of which of the following countries?
1) Iran 
2) Turkey
3) Syria 
4) Lebanon
5) Yemen

3. What is the present repo rate?
1) 8 per cent 
2) 7.5 per cent
3) 7.75 per cent
4) 8.5 per cent 
5) None

4. Who holds the record for the fastest one day international cricket century?
1) Corey Anderson
2) Shahid Afridi
3) AB de Villiers
4) Brian Lara 
5) Rohit Sharma

5. Which committee recommended the segregation of Chairman and Managing Director posts in public sector banks?
1) Parthasarathi Shome
2) Arvind Mayaram
3) Raghuram Rajan
4) C. Rangarajan 
5) P.J. Nayak

6. Avinash Chander has been sacked as the Chief of?
1) CRPF 
2) ISRO
3) DRDO 
4) RAW
5) CISF

7. The 2014 Nobel Literature Prize winner is from?
1) Germany 
2) France
3) USA 
4) Japan
5) Norway

8. Ryder Cup is associated with?
1) Tennis 
2) Squash
3) Motor Racing
4) Golf 
5) Boxing

9. Space Application Centre is located in?
1) Ahmadabad 
2) Bangalore
3) Chennai 
4) Mumbai
5) Sriharikota

10. What is the present Cash Reserve Ratio?
1) 3.5% 
2) 3% 
3) 4%
4) 4.5% 
5) None of these

11. Who has been appointed the Governor of Haryana recently?
1) K.N. Tripathi
2) Ch. Vidyasagar Rao
3) K. Rosaiah
4) Kaptan Singh Solanki
5) Aziz Qureshi

12. Who is the present Solicitor General of India?
1) Mukul Rohatgi
2) Ranjit Kumar
3) Rohinton Nariman
4) Ram Jethmalani
5) None of these

13. World Development Information Day is celebrated on?
1) October 24 
2) October 16
3) October 14 
4) October 8
5) October 15

14. Who was awarded the top Danish literary prize, the Hans Christian Anderson Award in August 2014?
1) V.S. Naipaul
2) Salman Rushdie
3) Jeet Thayil
4) Amitav Ghosh
5) Anita Desai

15. Who is the present Chief Executive Officer of Google?
1) Eric Schmidt 
2) Sergey Brin
3) Larry Page
4) Marissa Mayer
5) Mark Zuckerberg

16. Which city will host the 2018 Commonwealth Games?
1) Melbourne 
2) Hamilton
3) London 
4) Glasgow
5) Gold Coast

17. In the 17th Asian Games who among the following won a gold medal in Discus Throw?
1) Mary Kom
2) Saketh Myneni
3) Seema Punia
4) Jitu Rai 
5) None of these

18. Which of the following cities is known as 'White City'?
1) Damascus 
2) Chicago
3) Bangalore 
4) Belgrade
5) Washington D.C.

19. Who is the author of the book "The Chronicles of a Corpse Bearer"?
1) Cyrus Mistry
2) Kiran Desai
3) Arundhati Roy
4) Aravind Adiga
5) Jhumpa Lahiri

20. Who won the 2014 US Open tennis men's singles title?
1) Kei Nishikori
2) Novak Djokovic
3) Marin Cilic
4) Rafael Nadal
5) Roger Federer

21. Which of the following is not a public sector bank?
1) Bank of Baroda
2) Bank of Maharashtra
3) Bank of India
4) Dena Bank
5) Karur Vysya Bank

22. Who is the present Chairman of Forward Markets Commission?
1) UK Sinha
2) Rahul Khullar
3) Ranjit Sinha
4) Ramesh Abhishek
5) Yogesh Agarwal

23. Where is the headquarters of European Union?
1) London 
2) Lyon
3) Brussels 
4) Paris
5) Vienna

24. Who among the following functioned as RBI Governor?
1) Bimal Jalan
2) C. Rangarajan
3) Yashwant Sinha
4) Both 1 and 2
5) All 1, 2 and 3

25. Who was appointed by the International Cricket Council as Ambassador for the 2015 World
Cup?
1) Ricky Ponting
2) Shane Warne
3) Adam Gilchrist
4) Saurav Ganguly
5) Sachin Tendulkar

26. Joko Widodo is the current President of?
1) Malaysia 
2) Cuba
3) Indonesia 
4) Fiji
5) Thailand

27. Who is the author of the book "The Dramatic Decade: The Indira Gandhi Years"?
1) Pranab Mukherjee
2) Sonia Gandhi
3) Natwar Singh
4) Manmohan Singh
5) Pratibha Patil

28. Eduard Shevardnadze passed away recently. He was the President of?
1) Russia 
2) Ukraine
3) Georgia 
4) Kazakhstan
5) Tajikistan

29. Who is the Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog?
1) Narendra Modi
2) V.K. Saraswat
3) Arun Jaitley
4) Arvind Panagariya
5) Rajnath Singh

30. Payment banks can be set up with a minimum capital of?
1) Rs. 100 crore 
2) Rs. 50 crore
3) Rs. 500 crore
4) Rs. 200 crore
5) Rs. 1000 crore

31. Which country will host the IBSA Summit in 2015?
1) Brazil 
2) South Africa
3) India 
4) Singapore
5) None of these

32. Nadine Gordimer passed away recently. She was a Nobel Prize winning author from?
1) Israel 
2) South Africa
3) Germany 
4) Poland
5) Portugal

33. Which is the first Indian company to cross the Rs. 5 lakh crore mark in market capitalization?
1) Infosys 
2) Wipro
3) Tata Consultancy Services
4) Tech Mahindra
5) None of these

34. Who won the 2014 Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award?
1) Amjad Ali Khan
2) Gulzar 
3) Salim Khan
4) Muzaffar Ali 
5) Javed Akhtar

35. Which is the first country to legalize child labor, reducing the minimum age of employment
from 14 years to just 10?
1) Uzbekistan 
2) Iraq
3) Belgium 
4) Netherlands
5) Bolivia

36. The Human Development Index is calculated by?
1) UNDP 
2) ILO
3) UNICEF 
4) UNESCO
5) World Bank

37. Which is the best performing State in terms of gross state domestic product (GSDP) and per
capita income growth, as per the 2013-14 Economic Survey?
1) Bihar 
2) Gujarat
3) Tamil Nadu
4) Uttar Pradesh
5) West Bengal

38. The first bullet train will be run between Mumbai and?
1) New Delhi 
2) Bangalore
3) Jaipur 
4) Ahmadabad
5) Chennai

39. Ebola virus affected which of the following countries severely?
1) Guinea 
2) Liberia
3) Sierra Leone 
4) Both 1 and 2
5) All 1, 2 and 3

40. India's GDP grew at what percent in the first quarter of 2014-15?
1) 4.6% 
2) 5.4% 
3) 5.3%
4) 5.7% 
5) 5.9%


ANSWERS:
1) 4, 2) 2, 3) 3, 4) 3, 5) 5, 6) 3, 7) 2, 8) 4, 9) 1, 10) 3 
11) 4 12) 2 13) 1 14) 2 15) 3 16) 5 17) 3 18) 4 19) 1 20) 3 
21) 5 22) 4 23) 3 24) 4 25) 5 26) 3 27) 1 28) 3 29) 4 30) 1 
31) 3 32) 2 33) 3 34) 4 35) 5 36) 1 37) 1 38) 4 39) 5 40) 4

Current Affairs 2014 at a glance

● Two Indian Americans Sriram Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe became the co-champions of the
Scripps National Spelling Bee contest held in USA.

● The Tax Administration Reform Commission (TARC) headed by Parthasarathi Shome suggested
abolition of the post of Revenue Secretary and merger of CBDT and CBEC.

● The 40th G7 Summit was held in Brussels, Belgium in June 2014. This Summit was held without Russia.

● Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari visited China to celebrate the 60th anniversary of signing of the Panchsheel in June 2014.

● Indian-origin V.K. Rajah was appointed the Attorney-General of Singapore.

● General Dalbir Singh Suhag succeeded General Bikram Singh as the 26th Chief of Indian Army on July 31, 2014. Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha took over as the Chairman of the
Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) on July 30, 2014.

● Shashi Kant Sharma, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) became a Member
of the United Nations Board of Auditors for a term of six years.

● The President appointed new Governors for six States in July 2014. They are: Kaptan Singh
Solanki - Haryana, Balramji Das Tandon- Chhaatisgarh, Keshari Nath Tripath- West Bengal, Ram
Naik- Uttar Pradesh, Padmanabha Acharya - Nagaland and Om Prakash Kohli - Gujarat.

● S.S. Mundra is the fourth Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. He will have tenure of 3 years.

● Former External Affairs Minister and a senior Congress Party leader K.Natwar Singh released his
autobiography 'One Life is Not Enough'.

● Out of 187 countries, India is ranked 135th in the 2014 UNDP Human Development Index. Norway is the topper

● Germany won the 2014 FIFA World Cup. It beat Argentina in the final played at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 13, 2014. It is Germany's 4th World Cup Football title.

● Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeated Roger Federer of Switzerland in Wimbledon men's singles tennis final. In the Wimbledon women's singles final Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic beat Eugenie Bouchard of Canada.

● The 6th BRICS Summit was held in July 2014 in Fortaleza, Brazil. The leaders signed a document to create the $100 billion New Development Bank. Its headquarters will be in Shanghai, China and the first President will be from India for a six year term. It is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first Summit.

● Sadananda Gowda presented the Railway Budget on July 8, 2014. Union Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley tabled the Economic Survey 2013-14 in Parliament on July 9, 2014 and presented his maiden Budget on July 10, 2014.

● Harry Potter fame actress Emma Watson was appointed Goodwill Ambassador by UN Women. Tennis player Sania Mirza is the brand ambassador for Telangana State.

● Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the new President of Turkey and Ahmet Davutoglu is the new Prime Minister of Turkey.

● General Prayuth Chan-ocha took over as the Prime Minister of Thailand in August 2014.

● In August 2014 four more States got new Governors. Rajasthan - Kalyan Singh, Maharashtra - Ch. Vidyasagar Rao, Karnataka- Vajubhai Vala and Goa- Mridula
Sinha.

● Congress leader K.V. Thomas is the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament.

● Former Chief Justice of India Justice P. Sathasivam was appointed the Governor of Kerala in September 2014.

● Daman Singh, the daughter of the former Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh, has written a book "Strictly Personal: Manmohan and Gursharan".

● Narendra Modi launched Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) on August 28, 2014. The aim of the scheme is the financial inclusion of all Indians.

● Manjul Bhargava, a mathematician of Indian origin won the Field Medal. He was conferred
the award at the International Congress of Mathematicians held
in Seoul, South Korea in August.

● Former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan was appointed the Chairman of the Expenditure Management Commission.

● Jaipur Pink Panthers beat U Mumba to emerge champion of the inaugural STAR ProKabaddi League in Mumbai on August 31.

● The 2014 Summer Youth Olympics were held from August 16 to 28, 2014 in Nanjing, China.
China topped the medals tally with 65 medals, including 38 Gold. India got two medals. Weightlifter Ragala Venkata Rahul bagged a silver medal and Atul Verma won a bronze in Archery.

● Shah Rukh Khan was appointed the ambassador of 'Turn Back Crime' campaign of Interpol. Amitabh Bachchan is Maharashtra's horticulture ambassador.

● India and Australia signed a civil nuclear agreement on September 5, 2014. The deal was signed during the visit of the Australian
Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

● The 20th edition of the Commonwealth Games was held from July 23 to August 3, 2014 in Glasgow, Scotland. England topped the medal chart with 174 medals. India bagged 64 medals
and finished fifth.

● Marin Cilic of Croatia defeated Kei Nishikori of Japan to win the 2014 US Open men's singles tennis title. Serena Williams of USA won women's singles title beating Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the final. The mixed doubles title was won by India's Sania Mirza and Brazil's Bruno Soares.

● The 17th Asian Games were held in Incheon, South Korea from September 19 to October 4, 2014. China topped the medals tally with 342 medals. India won 57 medals and took the 8th position.

● Chennai Super Kings won the Champions League T20 title, defeating Kolkata Knight Riders
in the final in Bangalore on October 4, 2014.

● Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission on the birth anniversary of Mahatma
Gandhi on October 2, 2014. The Mission aims to make India clean by October 2, 2019, Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary.

● Ancient Nalanda University was inaugurated after 800 years on September 19, 2014 by External
Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Bihar. The Chancellor is Amartya Sen and the Vice Chancellor is Gopa Sabharwal.

● The Union Government launched Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Antyodaya Yojana for urban and rural poor on September 25, 2014.

● The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit was held in Wales, UK on September 4-5, 2014.

● Ashraf Ghani was sworn in as the new President of Afghanistan on September 29, 2014.

● John Key was re-elected the Prime Minister of New Zealand.

● O.Pannerselvam became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu succeeding Jayalalithaa.

● Justice H.L. Dattu became the 42nd Chief Justice of India on September 28, 2014.

● Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award 2014 was presented to A. Sivathanu Pillai, an eminent missile scientist.

● October 31 was celebrated as National Unity Day. It is the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India's first Home Minister.

● Devendra Fadnavis became the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Manohar Lal Khattar was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Haryana in October 2014. Both are from BJP. Laxmikant Parsekar of BJP is the new Goa Chief Minister.

● India was reelected to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for the period of 2015 to 2017.

● Dilma Rousseff was re-elected for her second four-year term as the President of Brazil.

● Australian author Richard Flanagan won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for his novel "The Narrow Road to the Deep North".

● Pakistani girls' rights activist Malala Yousafzai shared the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize with India's Kailash Satyarthi. She also won the World's Children's Prize given by Sweden and America's Liberty Medal.

● Former Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg became the 13th Secretary General of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on October 1, 2014.

● Arvind Subramanian is the new Chief Economic Adviser and Rajiv Mehrishi is the new Finance Secretary of India.

● Indian Prime Minister attended the 9th G20 Summit in Brisbane, Australia in November 2014.

● The 18th SAARC Summit was held in November 2014 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

● Anil Kumar Sinha is the new Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Rajinder
Khanna is the new Chief of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Prakash Mishra is the
new Director General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

● The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2014 is given to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

● Rolene Strauss of South Africa was crowned Miss World 2014 in London on December 14, 2014.