Latest Current Affairs January 29 2017
- Bruno Mars’ album ’24K Magic’ wins 7 Grammy Awards
R&B star Bruno Mars tasted 24 carat gold as he emerged the top winner at 2018 Grammys with five highest honours, including Album of the year and Record of the Year for his LP “24 K Magic”.
The album “24K Magic” also won the Best R&B Album award.
- Carrie Fisher wins posthumous Grammy award
Veteran actor Carrie Fisher won the Best Spoken Word Album Grammy, at the 60th annual ceremony.
Fisher posthumously won the prize for her audiobook recording of “The Princess Diarist”, a memoir culled from her diaries during her time shooting the first Star Wars film and portraying Princess Leia.
- Finland re-elects President Sauli Niinisto for second term
Finland have re-elected their popular and pragmatic president Sauli Niinisto, who is credited for maintaining a balanced relationship with the nation’s powerful neighbour Russia at a time of simmering relations between Moscow the West.
Niinisto, 69, avoided the need for a second-round of voting and won outright, a first since Finland introduced a two-round presidential election by popular vote in 1994.
- IT ministry tests LED-based wireless communication tech
The country’s IT ministry has successfully tested LiFi – a wireless commmunication technology – in a pilot jointly conducted with the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras and lighting company Philips India.
LiFi, or light fidelity, aims to replace WiFi by using lights to transmit internet signals. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are used as visible light transmitters.
- Pune launches free WiFi hotspots across the city
Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) launching a free Wi-Fi facility at 150 locations in the city from January 26 (Republic Day), 2018.
The PMC plans to cover the entire city under the free Wi-Fi scheme in the near future with the target of making Pune a ‘digital city’ set for the year 2020.
- Haryana CM announces free travel for Kashi pilgrims
Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has announced that the state government will provide free travel facility to pilgrims from Haryana to Kashi in Uttar Pradesh.
The facility will be provided on first-come, first-served basis in Indian railways from next year (2019). Every year, about 5,000 people could avail it.
Punjab had also provided free religious tours to pilgrims from all 117 assembly constituencies of the state under the ‘Mukh Mantri Tirath Darshan Yatra Scheme’ through special trains.
- Delhi to get its first ever Haj house in 2019
Haj pilgrims embarking from Delhi will get to stay in the city’s first ever Haj house from mid-next year.
The Delhi government, after nearly a decade since land for the Haj house was allotted at Dwarka Sector 22, has prepared the building layout of the proposed house.
The project is going to cost at least Rs 93.47 crore, work for which is likely to begin from April.
- ISB ranked 28th in Financial Times global MBA 2018 ranking
The post-graduate programme of the Indian School of Business (ISB) has been ranked 28th among the top 100 global MBAs by the Financial Times.
ISB has slipped by one rank as it was ranked 27th last year. It is also the top ranked business school in India.
- IMT Ghaziabad selected as United Nations PRME Champion
Ghaziabad-based Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) has been selected as one of the champions of the United Nations’ initiative on Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME).
The aim of the PRME Champions group is to work towards developing and promoting activities which focus on United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- Google confirms investment in Uber’s Indonesia rival Go-Jek
Google has made its first ride-hailing investment in Asia by pumping money into Go-Jek, as the Indonesian start-up and deep-pocketed rivals rapidly expand their app-based services and digital payments in Southeast Asia.
Rivals Grab and Uber are backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group, while Go-Jek has secured investments from Chinese technology giants Tencent Holdings Ltd and JD.com Inc.
- Federer lifts record 20th Grand Slam after winning Australian Open
Switzerland’s Roger Federer became the first male tennis player to win 20 Grand Slam titles, after winning a joint-record sixth Australian Open title on Sunday.
The 36-year-old defending champion beat Croatia’s first Australian Open finalist Marin Cilic 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. Only Margaret Court, Serena Williams and Steffi Graf have won more singles Grand Slams in tennis history.
- Billionaire Ikea Founder Ingvar Kamprad dies aged 91
Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died. The 91-year-old billionaire passed away at his mansion in Smaland, Sweden.
Multinational Ikea, which has hundreds of stores across dozens of countries, has long been the world’s largest furniture retailer.
