Current Affairs Feb 07, 2014

Current Affairs

Feb 07, 2014

National Affairs

1. Legendary bhajan singer Juthika Roy, who had people like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru among her fans, died after prolonged illness, hospital sources said.

2. The Union Cabinet cleared the Telangana Bill in a special meeting held today. Hyderabad will be the joint capital for Telangana and Seemandhra rather than making it a Union Territory as demanded by Seemandhra leaders. The bill, which was sent back by the Andhra Pradesh Legislature after discussions in the two Houses, got the Cabinet’s approval at its special meeting held in New Delhi today. The bill is likely to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha on February 12. The bill will also be sent to the President for consent.

3. Four Trinamul Congress candidates and one CPI (M) nominee have won in Rajya Sabha elections from West Bengal today. Famous actor Mithun Chakraborty, painter Jogen Chowdhury, businessman K.D.Singh and Ahamed Hassan from Trinamool Congress and CPIM nominee Ritabrata Banerjee have been elected to the upper house of the Parliament from the state.

4. The Indian government pegged the economic growth rate for 2013-14 at 4.9% on 8^th February compared to 4.5% in 2012-13. The growth is projected to be marginally lower than the finance ministry’s estimate of a 5% growth, dragged down by a contraction in the manufacturing sector, as per the Central Statistics Office. While manufacturing growth is seen at -0.2% versus 1.1% year-on-year, the services growth is projected at 6.9% versus 7% year-on-year. The ‘agriculture, forestry and fishing’ sector is likely to show a growth of 4.6% in its GDP during 2013-14 compared to 1.4% in previous year.

5. Finance ministry has extended Upendra Kumar Sinha’s tenure as SEBI head for another two years on 7^th February. He has been doing a phenomenal job and this extension will give more time to continue pursuing reforms aimed at bringing more transparency to stock markets.

6. Union Cabinet approved Vodafone’s proposal yesterday to buy out minority partners and own 100% of Vodafone India in a USD 1.6 billion deal. Vodafone, which entered India in 2007 by buying Hutchison’s local cellular assets in an USD 11 billion deal, directly and indirectly owns a combined 84.5% of Vodafone India, the country’s No 2 telecoms company by users and revenue. Vodafone will buy rest of the stake from Piramal Enterprises and Indian businessman Analjit Singh to own 100% stake.

7. All India Management Association (AIMA), the national apex body of management professionals in the country, has conferred the high performance brand award for 2013 to Amul, the milk brand marketed by Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF). This award was given in reorganization of the path breaking achievements of GCMMF which has successfully used commercial marketing to enrich the lives of millions of farmers. It has achieved market leadership in all the categories that it operates in. AIMA and RK Swamy BBDO had instituted the Award in 2009.

8. India’s largest paramilitary force CRPF has appointed five-time world boxing champion and Olympic bronze medalist M C Mary Kom as its brand ambassador.

9. India extends visa-on-arrival facility to tourist from 180 countries.  

The facility, currently enjoyed by a handful of 11 countries, will continue to exclude people from 8 nations namely Pakistan, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Somalia. It would be valid for a period of 30 days from the date of their arrival. 

International Affairs

10. Children’s Nobel Prize

i. Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai has been nominated for the World Children’s Prize in Sweden for her crusade for education rights for girls.

ii. Malala was last year nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and won the European Union’s Sakharov human rights prize for her fight for the right of all children to education.

iii. The 16-year-old, who lives in Britain following extensive medical treatment, was shot by the Taliban in 2012 for her outspoken views supporting education for girls in Pakistan.

iv. The World Children’s Prize, also known as the ‘Children’s Nobel Prize’, was founded in 2000 and aims to raise awareness of children’s rights in 60,000 schools in 110 countries through educational programmes.

The two other nominees for this year’s award are founder of the US-based education charity Room to Read, John Wood and Nepali activist who helps prisoners’ children Indira Ramanagar.

11. The global conversation organisation, WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) has appointed Marco Lambertini as director-general (DG) of the WWF International on 6 February 2014 with effect from 1^st May this year. His appointment was announced by Peter Schei, Chairman of BirdLife’s Global Council in a message to the BirdLife Partnership and in a news released today.

With 25 years of global conservation leadership, Marco Lambertini began his association with WWF as a youth volunteer growing up in his native Italy. Prior to his current role as Chief Executive of BirdLife International, Marco was Global Director of Network and Programme for over a decade.

12. India and China will hold talks on the boundary question and discuss bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest during the 17th round of Special Representatives Talks beginning Monday in New Delhi.

13. Vivek Lall, famous Indian aerospace and cyber security expert, becomes United Nation's special advisor on cyber security.   

He will contribute with policy framing and its implementation in the area of broadband and associated cyber security issues. 

He is currently the president and CEO of Reliance New Ventures Limited. 

Awards

14. Vishwanath Tripathi, an acclaimed Hindi writer, has been selected for the prestigious 'Vyas Samman' for the year 2013 for his memoir 'Vyomkesh Darvesh' - a biography of noted Hindi scholar Acharya Hazari Prasad Dwivedi.   

15. The annual literary award, instituted in 1991 by the K K Birla Foundation, is given to outstanding literary work in Hindi published during the last 10 years.

16. Times Now “Amazing Indian Award” has been awarded to Arunima Sinha - the first female amputee to climb the Mount Everest in the world.

Business and Economy

17. PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi and ICICI Bank Managing Director Chanda Kochhar are ranked among Fortune magazine’s list of 50 most powerful women in business. Indra Nooyi was ranked 3^rd and Chanda Kochhar was ranked 18^th in the same list.

18. General Motors CEO Mary Barra, the first woman to run a global automaker topped the Fortune list of ’50 most powerful women in business: Global edition. IBM Chairman, CEO, President Ginni Rometty secured 2^nd spot, Petrobras CEO Maria das Gracas Silva Foster secured 4th spot, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg ranked at 11^th, Yahoo President and CEO Marissa Mayer ranked at 14^th and Google’s Senior Vice President for Ads and Commerce Susan Wojcicki is ranked at 20^th in the same list.

19. Google took aim at office meeting rooms with the release of a Chromebox for video conferencing. Chromebox-for-meetings is available in the US at a starting price of USD 999 and is to be released later this year in Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, and Spain. As many as 15 people can take part in a Chromebox video conference using smartphones, tablets, laptops or other Internet linked computers. The first model box comes with a high-definition camera and a speaker with a microphone. A monitor must be provided. There is also an annual management fee of USD 250 for the videoconferencing setup.

Sports

20. The 22nd Winter Olympics start at Sochi in Russia today and it will continue till 23^rd February. Around 2500 athletes will take part in 98 disciplines in the games. Shiva Keshwan, Himanshu Thakur and Nadeem Ikbal will represent India in the Winter Olympics. Though there will be no tricolour at that opening ceremony, as the three Indian athletes who have qualified for the Games, are competing as independent athletes.

21. The famous England batsman Kevin Pietersen’s international career ended by England Cricket Board this week. His career was ended unexpectedly as he was excluded from the team for the upcoming tour of the West Indies and later the World Twenty20 Championships. In his 9 year long career, he played 104 Tests and 136 ODIs and scored 8181 and 4440 runs respectively.

22. Kumar Sangakkara becomes 4th player to score 400 runs in a Test match…He scored 424 runs.

23. Five-time world boxing champion and Olympic bronze medalist M C Mary Kom could soon be donning a new role — endorsing country’s largest paramilitary force CRPF as its brand ambassador.

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