Current Affairs February 10, 2014

Current Affairs

February 10, 2014

National Affairs

1. Sikkim becomes the first state in India with 100% sanitation coverage. All 6,10,577 inhabitants have latrines with high sanitation and hygiene standards. This is a significant achievement for the state and it has done remarkably well to achieve this. The state has also sensitised people to adopt a holistic approach to improve sanitation and hygiene in a clean environment while accelerating its overall development.

2. Sushil Koirala, leader of Nepali Congress, is to be the next Prime Minister of Nepal. The breakthrough, ending months of political deadlock after the last year’s elections, was achieved when his party acceded to a six-point deal with CPN—UML.

3. N Ramachandran is elected unopposed as the president of the Indian Olympic Association. He has earlier served as the chief of World Squash Federation. The election may pave the way for lifting of suspension Indian Olympic Association is currently undergoing. 

4. The National Green Tribunal bans burning of tyres at public places to check its harmful effect. Many groups indulge in this hazardous activity to demonstrate protest or festivities.

International Affairs

5. The US economy added 113,000 jobs in January; which is weaker than expected for the second month in a row. The unemployment rate dropped to 6.6% in January compared to 6.7% in December 2013. This is the lowest level since October 2008.

6. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has sacked Zaka Ashraf as the Chairman of the PCB and suspended the Governing board with immediate effect on 10^th February. Ashraf was removed by the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif because of his mishandling Pakistan’s case in the recent changes brought in the ICC last week which give most of the power to India, England and Australia. Nawaz Sharif also appointed the former interim PCB chief Najam Sethi, the PCB former chairman Shaharyar Khan and the former Test cricketers Iqbal Qasim and Zaheer Abbas among the ad-hoc committee members.

Banking and Economy

7. The Reserve Bank of India has removed the 26%interest rate cap on loans given by microfinance companies regulated by it and linked the interest rate to the cost of funds. After this move microfinance lenders will be able to charge more than 26% if their cost of borrowing from banks is higher. On the other hand, the lending rate will fall if the cost of borrowing goes down. It will provide a greater leeway to the lenders from April 1 once this will be applicable.

RBI also said the microfinance institutions (MFIs) should arrive at the lending rate by calculating their cost of funds plus a maximum 10% margin or the average base rate of the five largest commercial banks by assets multiplied by 2.75 times, whichever is lower.

8. India’s largest passenger car maker, Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) has stopped producing its iconic car brand Maruti 800 which was associated with millions of middle class Indians since its launch in 1980. While the production is stopped in January 2014, its parts will be available in the market for next 8-10 years.

9. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have been named joint top US philanthropists for 2013. The couple has donated 18 million Facebook shares worth of more than USD 970 million to a Silicon Valley foundation. The Silicon Valley Community Foundation is a charity that manages and distributes charitable funds.

Awards

10. Bangladesh’s film maker Kamar Ahmad Simon’s 90-minute documentary, ‘Are You Listening’, has won the Golden Conch Award for the Best Documentary Film at the Mumbai International Film Festival in the “Documentary, Short and Animation Films” category. Germany’s Maria Stodtmeier’s “In Between : Isang Yun in North and South Korea’ won the award in the Best Documentary Film upto 60 minutes category. Kashmiri film ‘Tamaash” won the Golden Conch award for the Best Short Fiction Film in the National Competition.

Sports

11. BCCI chief N Srinivasan’s son-in-law and former Chennai Super Kings team principal Gurunath Meiyappan was indicted on charges of betting by the Justice Mukul Mudgal committee, formed by the Supreme Court to inquire into spot-fixing and illegal betting in the Indian Premier League last year. This clearly means that Srinivasan’s claim earlier that Meiyappan was just a ‘cricket enthusiast’ has been rejected by the probe panel.

The reports also suggest that role Raj Kundra andShilpa Shetty, owner of Rajasthan Royals IPL team, should be investigated further. The report states that the conflict of interest on Srinivasan holding post of BCCI chief and ownership of an IPL franchisee is a serious issue and needs to be considered by court. The report also said that Influx of hawala money and involvement of terrorist elements in betting and fixing of sports is causing serious threat to national security and it should be handled seriously.

12. Olympic Medal winner Indian shooter, Abhinav Bindra won third gold-medal in the Inter-Shoot Tri-series Shooting in the Air Pistol event. With this win, He became the first person to win three gold medals in the event that is being held at the Hague, Netherlands.

13. India has retained its second position in the latest ICC Test rankings even after losing the first test against New Zealand last week. South Africa retained No 1 rank with 131 points followed by India with 117 points and Australia with 111 points.

South Africa’s A.B. Devilliers retained No1 rank in the list of batsmen followed by Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara. India’s Cheteshwar Pujara is ranked at 6th and Virat Kohli is ranked at 11th position in the same list. Vernon Philander retained No 1 rank in the bowlers list followed by Dale Steyn. India’s Ashwin is ranked as the world’s number one test all-rounder followed by Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan.

14. Yulia Lipnitskaya, 15-years-old, became the youngest Russian athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics currently being held at Sochi, Russia. She won the medal in free skating in the team figure skating competition. Yulia scored 141.51 points and earned a combined total of 214.41 under the International Judging System.

15. Yuki Bhambri trumps Alexander Kudryavtsev of Russia 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 to lift the singles title of 'Shriram Capital PL Reddy Memorial ATP Challenger tennis tournament' held at Chennai.  He also captured the doubles title with Michael Venus (New Zealand) beating the Indo-Slovakian pair of N.Sriram Balaji and Blaz Rola 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the final.

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