09/01/2015
CURRENT AFFAIRS 2014 AT A GLANCE :
❖ Latvia adopted the Euro currency on January
1, 2014 and became the 18th member of the
Eurozone.
❖ Corey Anderson of New Zealand scored the
fastest century in One Day International cricket
history on January 1, 2014. He scored a hundred in just 36 deliveries against the West Indies. He beat the previous record of 100 off 37 balls set by Shahid Afridi of Pakistan in 1996.
❖ Sheikh Hasina was sworn in on January 12,
2014 for the third time as Bangladesh's Prime
Minister. Her party is Awami League.
❖ India's first monorail service was started in
Mumbai on February 2, 2014.
❖ Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and eminent
scientist CNR Rao were conferred the Bharat
Ratna, the highest civilian award of India on
February 4, 2014. The award was announced on November 16, 2013.
❖ Harish Rawat was sworn in as the Chief
Minister of Uttarakhand on February 1, 2014.
❖ 'Chronicles of a Co**se Bearer' is a book
written by Cyrus Mistry, which won the DSC
Prize for South Asian Literature at the Jaipur Literary Festival 2014. This award in 2013 was won by Jeet Thayil for his novel 'Narcopolis'.
❖ Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland beat
Spain's Rafael Nadal to win the 2014 Australian
Open men's singles tennis title. Li Na of China
won the women's singles title by defeating
Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.
❖ The prestigious Padma Awards for 2014 were announced which includes Padma Vibhushan for two individuals, Padma Bhushan for 24 and Padma Shri for 101 people. Out of 127 awardees 27 are women. Padma Vibhushan awardees are Raghunath Mashelkar (Science & Engineering) and yoga guru B.K.S. Iyengar.
❖ Shinzo Abe became the first Japanese Prime
Minister to be the chief guest at India's 65th
Republic Day celebrations on January 26, 2014.
❖ Janet Yellen is the first woman ever to head
the United States central bank Federal Reserve.
❖ Sub-Inspector K. Prasad Babu was conferred
the Ashok Chakra posthumously on the 65th Republic Day by the President Pranab Mukherjee.
K. Prasad Babu was from Andhra Pradesh. Hewas given this award for an anti-Maoist
operation near Andhra Pradesh- Chhattisgarh
border. Ashok Chakra is India's highest
peacetime gallantry award.
❖ Matteo Renzi became the youngest Italian
Prime Minister in February 2014. He is 39 years
old.
❖ Sushil Koirala assumed office as the Prime
Minister of Nepal on February 11, 2014. He is
also the President of the Nepali Congress Party.
❖ N.Ramachandran was elected the new
President of the Indian Olympic Association
(IOA) in February 2014. He is also the World
Squash Federation President.
❖ Satya Nadella, an Indian American, was
appointed the Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft on February 4, 2014. He succeeded Steve Ballmer.
❖ Former Supreme Court judge Ashok Kumar
Mathur has been appointed the Chairman of the
7th Pay Commission.
❖ Eminent Gandhian and environmentalist
Chandi Prasad Bhatt was selected for the 2013
Gandhi Peace Prize. He is one of the pioneers of the Chipko movement. He was awarded the
Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1982.
❖ Famous Hindi writer Vishwanath Tripathi has
been selected for the prestigious Vyas Samman
for the year 2013 for his memoir 'Vyomkesh
Darvesh'. Vyas Samman is a literary award given by the K.K. Birla Foundation.
❖ Odia became the sixth language to get
classical language status after Sanskrit, Tamil,
Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
❖ The Expert Committee to Revise and
Strengthen the Monetary Policy Framework,
headed by RBI Deputy Governor Urjit Patel
suggested the central bank to adopt the new consumer price index for anchoring the monetary policy.
❖ Facebook announced its acquisition of
WhatsApp Inc. for $19 billion. WhatsApp was
founded in 2009 by Brian Acton and John Koum. It is an instant messaging app for smartphones.
❖ The Winter Olympics were held in Sochi,
Russia in February 2014. Russia topped the
medals table with13 gold, 11 silver and 9 bronze. It won a total of 33 medals. India did not win any medal. Next Winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang in South Korea in 2018.
❖ Michelle Bachelet was sworn in as the
President of Chile on March 11, 2014. She
already served as the President once from 2006
to 2010.
❖ The third edition of the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) was held in The Hague, Netherlands in March 2014. The NSS aims to prevent nuclear terrorism by reducing the
amount of dangerous nuclear material in the world.
❖ Renowned Hindi author Govind Mishra was
selected for the Saraswati Samman for the year
2013 for his book "Dhool Paudho Par". He is the
second Hindi author to receive the honor after
the late Harivansh Rai Bachchan in 1991.
❖ ESPN cricinfo presented the Cricketer of the
Generation award to Sachin Tendulkar.
❖ The International Women of Courage Award
2014 was presented by the US first lady Michelle Obama to Laxmi, a Delhi acid attack survivor.
❖ Mortal remains of about 282 Indian soldiers of 1857 mutiny were exhumed from a well at Ajnala in Amritsar district of Punjab in March 2014.
❖ The Reserve Bank of India had extended the
deadline for Indian banks to meet capital
requirements under the Basel III norms by a year to March 31, 2019.
❖ Mizoram defeated Railways to win the 68th
Santosh Trophy Football championship in Siliguri in March 2014. It is the maiden Santosh Trophy title for Mizoram.
❖ Viswanathan Anand won the World Candidates chess tournament title at Khanty Mansisyk, Russia.
❖ Khushwant Singh, a renowned author, passed away on March 20, 2014. He authored books such as 'Train to Pakistan', 'With Malice towards One and All', 'The Sunset Club', 'Truth, Love and a Little Malice', etc.
❖ Eminent film lyricist Gulzar was chosen for the coveted Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2013. This award is the highest film award in India
❖ The people of Crimea voted to become part of Russia in a referendum in March 2014. The leaders of Group of Eight (G8) countries suspended Russia from the group on the issue of annexation of Crimea by Russia. Crimea was separated from Ukraine.
❖ The third Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi
Sectoral, Technical and Economic Cooperation
(BIMSTEC) Summit was held in Nay Pyi Taw,
Myanmar in March 2014. India, Bangladesh,
Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand are the seven members of this group. Sumith Nakandala of Sri Lanka is the Secretary General. The Secretariat of BIMSTEC is established in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
❖ Assam is the first State in India to observe
Child Protection Day to secure the future of
children on March 4, 2014.
❖ The armies of Nepal and India held a joint
military exercise named Surya Kiran VI in Nepal.
❖ Admiral Robin K. Dhowan assumed office as
the Chief of Naval Staff on April 17, 2014. He
succeeded Admiral D.K. Joshi.
❖ R. Gandhi has been appointed as a Deputy
Governor of Reserve Bank of India. RBI has four
deputy governors.
❖ The 2014 Goldman Environmental Prize was
awarded to Ramesh Agrawal of Chhattisgarh.
❖ Koyal Rana won the Miss India 2014 crown.
❖ India - born poet Vijay Seshadri won the 2014
Pulitzer Prize in the poetry category for his
collection of poems "3 Sections".
❖ Ex-coal secretary P.C. Parakh released his
book titled "Crusader or Conspirator? Coalgate
and Other Truths".
❖ Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Colombian
novelist, died on April 17, 2014. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. His major
books include One Hundred Years of Solitude,
Autumn of the Patriarch, Chronicle of a Death
Foretold and Love in the Time of Cholera.
❖ Renowned cinematographer V.- K. Murthy
passed away. He won the Dadasaheb Phalke
Award for the year 2008. He shot India's first
cinemascope movie 'Kagaz ke Phool'.
❖ RBI gave approvals to IDFC Ltd and Bandhan
Financial Services Private Limited to start new
banks. IDFC is an infrastructure finance company based in Mumbai and Bandhan is a micro lender based in Kolkata.
❖ Sun Pharmaceuticals will buy Ranbaxy
Laboratories.
❖ Sri Lanka won the World Twenty 20 title for
the first time defeating India by six wickets in
Mirpur, Bangladesh in April 2014.
❖ Australian women cricket team won the
Women's World Twenty 20 Cup 2014 by defeating England in the final in Mirpur, Bangladesh. This is the third successive
Women's World Twenty20 title for Australia.
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