CURRENT AFFAIRS

AWARDS AND HONOURS

1. PM Modi presents National Bravery Awards to 25 children

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the National Bravery Awards 2016 and distributed bravery awards to 25 young recipients in Delhi. Motivating the students and addressing other attendees at the event, he gave some valuable tips and guidance to the young students in order to lead a successful and an educated life. He started off his speech with conversing with these young kids and asked about their qualities.

2. Ronnie O’Sullivan wins record 7th Masters title

British snooker professional Ronnie O’Sullivan sealed a world record seventh Masters Title. In beating Joe Perry 10-7 here, O’Sullivan was winning his 17th of what are regarded as snooker’s ‘grand slam’ titles of the Masters, the World Championship and the UK Championship.

3. Delhi airport wins Corporate Social Responsibility award in aviation sector

The Delhi International Airport (Private) Limited (DIAL) has won the ‘Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the transportation sector under the Aviation category for the year 2016. The award reaffirms our unflinching commitment towards achieving exemplary results for our society while following the best practices.

Delhi Airport has also been adjudged the world’s number one airport in ACI ASQ survey in 25- 40 Million Passengers Per Annum (MPPA) category for two consecutive years – 2014 and 2015.

APPOINTMENTS 

4. Birender Singh Yadav and Ashok Warrier accredited as the Ambassador of India to the Republic of Burkina Faso & Republic of Congo

Shri Birender Singh Yadav (1FS,1997), presently High Commissioner of lndia to Ghana, has been concurrently accredited as the Ambassador of lndia to the Republic of Burkina Faso, with residence in Accra.

5. Vishal Kaul appointed as COO of Ola

Ride-hailing service Ola named Vishal Kaul, a PepsiCo veteran, as its chief operating officer (COO) and elevated current COO Pranay Jivrajika as founding partner. Kaul, who joined PepsiCo in 1999, has been vice-president (marketing), vice-president (business operations) and most recently, general manager (Thailand, Myanmar and Laos).

6. Siddhartha Murarka is appoints as ICSI Chairman

Siddhartha Murarka has been appointed as the Chairman of the Eastern India Regional Council of The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI). His term began from January 19,

• Murarka, a fellow member of the ICSI, was the head of risk management and compliance at a member firm of the PwC before starting his own practice.
• Murarka is also a “regular faculty”at ICAI and other professional bodies and chambers of commerce like the Merchant Chamber of Commerce and the BCCI.

7. Foreign Secretary Jaishankar gets one-year extension

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, whose tenure was to end on January 28, he got a one-year extension. The nod for the extension of his tenure till January 28, 2018 was given by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. With Jaishankar getting the extension, many senior diplomats including India’s ambassador to Italy Anil Wadhwa (1979-batch) and Secretary (West) Sujata Mehta (1980-batch) will retire without getting a shot at the top position.

8. Indian-American Ajit Pai appointed as head of FCC

President Donald Trump has picked a fierce critic of the Obama-era “net neutrality” rules to be chief regulator of the nation’s airwaves and internet connections. Pai had been one of the two Republican commissioners on a five-member panel that regulates the country’s communications infrastructure, including TV, phone and internet service.

9. Use Aadhaar e-KYC to verify mobile users: TRAI

Telecom regulator Trai to recommend to the Department of Telecom (DoT) that Aadhaar-based eKYC be allowed even for outstation customers who want to get a mobile connection in a particular service area.

Further, the regulator may suggest that the existing mobile subscribers in the country should be encouraged to go in for Aadhaar-based eKYC verification, for which telecom service providers could offer incentives like free data or talktime.

10. Cabinet approves Bill empowering IIMs to award Degrees

A bill aimed at granting statutory powers to IIMs, enabling them to give full-fledged degrees, received the Union cabinet’s approval. The human resource development (HRD) ministry may table the proposed draft of the Indian Institutes of Management Bill 2017 in the budget session of Parliament. The bill provides for complete autonomy to the IIMs, combined with adequate accountability.

11. EC permits Government to present Union Budget

Election Commission, EC has given its nod to the Centre to present the Union Budget on 1st of February ahead of the Assembly polls in five States. The commission told Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha that in the interest of free and fair elections, no state-specific schemes shall be announced to influence voters in the five poll-bound states. The Commission also said that in the Finance Minister’s speech, the government’s achievements with respect to the five states should not be highlighted in any manner.

12. N K Singh panel submits report on changes in FRBM Act

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents the Budget, the N.K. Singh panel submitted its report on revising the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act to Mr. Jaitley.

• The five-member committee — including Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel, former Finance Secretary Sumit Bose, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian, and National Institute of Public Finance and Policy Director Rathin Roy — was constituted in May 2016 following Mr. Jaitley’s announcement, in Budget 2016-17, of the creation of a panel to review the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act.

13. Goa becomes first state to send postal ballots via electronic mode

Goa will become the first state in the country to opt for electronic transmission of postal ballot to service voters in the upcoming assembly polls, chief election commissioner (CEC) Syed Nasim Zaidi.

The returning officers will transfer the postal ballots to service voters by electronic means so that the service voters can download it, fill it and send it via e-mail to returning officer.

14. Tamil Nadu Assembly unanimously passes Jallikattu Bill

Tamil Nadu assembly unanimously passed Jallikattu bill to replace the ordinance issued earlier. After the Supreme Court ban on the bull sport in Tamil Nadu, the state has been hit by protests and agitations in last one week.

Despite promulgation of an ordinance for conducting the sport, the protesters had vowed to carry on with their agitation till a permanent solution was found to ensure that the sport is held annually without any hindrance.

15. Uber to Bring Food Delivery App ‘UberEATS’ In India

Uber Technologies Inc. will soon launch food delivery service UberEATS in India. Uber’s entry into the food delivery segment comes at a time when most food start-ups are struggling with poor unit economics, while some have shut shop because of a dearth of funds.

UberEATS, which is a separate app, was first piloted in 2014 in Los Angeles. The service has since been expanded to 58 cities across the world, including New York, Paris, Seattle, Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong. The service works on two models.

16. T-Hub launches ‘GIS Innovation Hub’ powered by Esri India

T-Hub, the start-up engine catalysing innovation has announced the launch of ‘GIS Innovation Hub’ (GIH) for start-ups. The GIH is powered by Esri India, the Geographic Information System (GIS) software and solutions provider. The facility was inaugurated by Jack Dangermond, Co-founder, President and CEO of Esri Inc. The GIH will be a platform for start-ups, within the T-Hub ecosystem, to leverage the power of GIS through Esri India.

17. Rajasthan textbooks to include chapter on demonetization

The Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education has decided to include a chapter on demonetisation and cashless economy in the Class XII textbook of economics. The present scenario in which the government is pushing for cashless economy, the board has decided to include a chapter on demonetisation and cashless economy in the text book of economics of Class XII,” Meghna Chaudhary, secretary of the board.

The Rajasthan government has been taking steps to make the Centre’s idea of a cashless economy a reality. Ajmer is among the top five districts in the country to go cashless in a major way. Jaipur Metro has also gone cashless with the entire transaction of purchasing tickets made cashless.

IMPORTANT DAY

18. 24 January: National Girl Child Day

January 24 is National Girl Child Day and it is being celebrated today at a special function in the capital city. The function honours all those brave and talented daughters of the country who have achieved exemplary goals during last year.

National girl child day has been started as a national girls development mission by the Government of India. This mission raises the awareness among people all over the country about the importance of girl’s promotion. It enhances the meaningful contribution of the girls in decision making processes through the active support of the parents and other community members.

BANKING AND FINANCE

19. Rescheduled Education Loan will not be considered NPAs: RBI

In order to encourage banks to provide education loans, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said rescheduling of payment period of such loans due to unemployment of borrower will not be treated as restructured accounts for computing NPAs.

Banks may allow up to three spells of moratorium (not exceeding 6 months each) during life cycle of education loan, taking into account spells of unemployment/underemployment, without treating the exercise as restructuring.

20. Utkarsh Micro Finance Launches its Small Finance Bank

UK’s Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC)-backed Utkarsh Micro Finance is ready to begin its banking journey and plans to disrupt the market with higher deposit rates. As the bank, it will remove 1% loan processing fee for new borrowers to start with, while look to reduce lending rates in the future. At present it will lend at 15-25% annual rate.

21. BCSBI to organise ‘know your rights’ programme

To educate awareness on banking codes at grass root level, The Banking Codes and Standards Board of India (BCSBI) will organise “know your rights” programme in all the states. For this, the organisation will adopt a three-fold approach in the awareness programme focussing Tier II cities, metros and other backward areas.

With the opening up of innumerable Jan-Dhan accounts and increased usage of formal and transparent modes of financial transactions, it is now imperative for the lesser privileged section of the society to understand their right.

22. Kwality Ltd Signs MoU with Bank of Baroda for Rs 4000 Cr Loan to Farmers

Dairy firm Kwality Ltd has signed an agreement with Bank of Baroda for providing Rs 4,000 crore loans to the former’s one lakh farmers from whom the company procures milk. The company has a network of about 3.25 lakh across about 4,500 villages in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan which are amongst the largest milk producing states of India.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

23. US Senate confirms Mike Pompeo as CIA Director

The U.S. Senate confirmed Representative Mike Pompeo as President Donald Trump’s CIA director, after a delay tied to some lawmakers’ worries he might expand surveillance or allow the use of certain interrogation techniques widely considered torture.

Sixty-six senators backed Pompeo and 32 voted against. All the opposition was from Democrats, except for Senator Rand Paul, a leading Republican advocate for strict control of surveillance. Shortly afterward, Pompeo was sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence.

• Turkish Parliament Approves Presidential Rule Paving Way for Referendum

The Turkish parliament has backed a plan to strengthen the powers of the presidency, paving the way for a referendum on the issue in spring which, if passed, could allow President Tayyip Erdogan to stay in office until 2029.

Erdogan says the reform will provide stability in the European Union candidate country at a time of turmoil and prevent a return to the fragile coalitions of the past. His opponents fear it will herald increasingly authoritarian rule.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

25. Scientists spot sunspot with centre twice the size of Earth

A new view of the dark, contorted centre of a sunspot that is nearly twice the diameter of the Earth, along with other invisible details of our Sun, has been unveiled by scientists.

• The results are an important expansion of the range of observations that can be used to probe the physics of our nearest star.
• The Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) antennas had been carefully designed so that they could image the Sun in exquisite detail using the technique of radio interferometry.

SPORTS

26. Postal Department releases stamp cover on Sindhu, Sakshi and Dipa

The Indian postal department has released a special stamp cover titled Golden girls of India – Pride of Nation during a district-level philatelic exhibition in Agartala to honor the sporting personalities in the country.

• The special covers feature the 2016 Olympic medalist gymnast Dipa Karmakar, shuttler PV Sindu and wrestler Sakshi Malik. They were also awarded the nation’s highest sports award Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2016.
• Besides the three, the cover also depicted the image of Dipa’s coach Bishweshwar Nandi who was awarded the 2016 Dronacharya award.

27. Virat Kohli becomes fastest cricketer to score 1000 runs as ODI captain

Indian skipper Virat Kohli has became the fastest to get to 1000 runs as captain. Kohli is playing only his fifth match as full time ODI captain but he has led the team in the 50 over-format on 14 other occasions in the absence of MS Dhoni.

Kohli has got to 1000 runs in 17 innings as captain. Trailing him is South Africa’s AB de Villiers, who took 18 innings to get there. Sourav Ganguly is the fifth fastest captain to het to the total. Above him at fourth is Alistair Cook (21), who is trailing Kane Williamson (20).