Current Affairs February 12, 2014

Current Affairs

February 12, 2014

International Affairs

1. Finland topped & Syria listed in list of journalists in danger: World Press Freedom Index (WFPI) study conducted by Reporters Without Borders (RWB) released on 11 February 2014. The study has highlighted Syria in the list of nations among one of the countries, where journalists are most in danger. In its highlight the report said that the Syrian crisis has had dramatic repercussions on the freedom on press across the region as at present journalists in Syria are the soft targets for group attempting to control news in Syria and its neighbors. The last three positions are again held by Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea, three countries where freedom of information is non-existent. At the other end of the index, Finland topped the index for the fourth year running, closely followed by Netherlands and Norway, like last year.

2. Australian astronomers discovered oldest known star in universe: Astronomers of Australian National University discovered the oldest known star in the Universe on 11 February 2014. The discovery was published in the journal Nature. The star, known as SMSS J031300.36-670839.3, is in the Milky Way galaxy and some 6000 light years from the Earth. The star was formed shortly after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago. The star was discovered using the ANU SkyMapper telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory, which is searching for ancient stars as it conducts a five-year project to produce the first digital map of the southern sky. The discovery of the star was confirmed using the Magellan telescope in Chile.

National Affairs

3. India has been ranked 140th in the list of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index 2014 published by the Organisation “Reporters Without Border” in its latest annual report. As per the report, India experienced an unprecedented wave of violence against journalists, with eight killed in 2013. They are targeted by both state and non-state actors. India’s neighbours China and Pakistan were placed at 175th position and 158th position respectively.

4. Paris-based Organisation Reporters without Border published its latest annual report today in which Finland has been ranked first in the list followed by Netherland and Norway. The ranking of the US has dropped to 46th position from last year’s 32^nd rank. With rank 158, Pakistan remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.

5. According to India’s IT Industry watch body, Nasscom, the Indian IT and Business Process Management (BPM) industry will add incremental revenues of USD 13-14 billion in 2014-15 with an annual growth rate of 13-15%. This is the highest growth rate forecast since 2011. Indian IT industry is expected to clock revenues of USD 86 billion this fiscal year 2013-14.

6. President Pranab Mukherjee conferred Award of Honour of Rotary International: The President of India, Pranab GKMukherjee was conferred Award of Honour on 11 February 2014 in New Delhi. The award was presented by Ron Burton, President of Rotary International at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The President, Mukherjee was awarded for the leadership he has provided and the India’s victory over Polio. Recently India completed three years without reporting any case of polio on 13 January 2014. Officially the World Health Organisation (WHO) certified India as polio-free on 11 February 2014. The WHO on 24 February 2012 removed India from the list of countries with active endemic wild polio transmission.

7. The Chartered Accountants Institute has appointed K Raghu as its new President. Earlier, he was Vice-President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), and was elected the President of the second largest accountancy body in the world on 12^th February. The Central Council of the CA Institute has also elected Manoj Fadnis as the Vice-President for 2014-15.

Business Affairs

8. Kingfisher Airlines posts Rs 822 crore Q3 loss: Kingfisher Airlines, on Thursday reported a net loss of Rs 822.42 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2013. The airline which has not flown for more than a year, had reported a loss of Rs 755.17 crore a year earlier, Kingfisher said in a filing to the BSE. With planes remaining on the ground, the airline had nil sales in the reporting quarter, similar to zero sales a year ago.

9. Mark Zuckerberg became the most generous donor of America in 2013:

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg became the youngest and the most generous philanthropist of America in 2013. This was revealed by the Chronicle of Philanthropy on 10 February 2014.He had given almost 1 billion dollar of his fortune to the charity. The charity was made to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. He along with his wife Priscilla Chan dedicated their 2012 funds managed by the group for health and education.Mr. Zuckerberg at 30 is the youngest benefactor ever to top the annual charitable donations list.

10. Yahoo India has appointed Gurmit Singh as Managing Director, overseeing the Internet major’s business in the country. He will report to Yvonne Chang, Vice-President & Head of India and South-East Asia at Yahoo. Before that, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Forbes India at Network 18.

Sports

11. The two day player auction for the 2014 edition of the Indian Premier League has begun today. India’s Yuvraj Singh attracted the biggest price of Rs 14 crore in the auction. Delhi Daredevils retained Kevin Pietersen for Rs 9 cr which is the highest amount attracted by any foreign cricketer. Major changes include, Delhi Daredevils bought Dinesh Karthik, Manoj Tiwary and Murali Vijay, Kings XI Punjab bought Virendra Sehwag, Mitchell Johnson and Cheteshwar Pujara. KKR bought Jacques Kallis, Piyush Chawla and Robin Uthappa,

12. Karnataka defeated Rest of India by an innings and 222 runs in the Irani Trophy final at M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore today. With this Karnataka won the Irani trophy for the fifth time. Earlier, Karnataka had ended 15 years of drought by winning Ranji Trophy by beating Maharashtra last month.

13. Yuvraj, Dinesh Karthik big draws at IPL-VII auction: All-rounder Yuvraj Singh drew the biggest bid after the first four rounds of the Indian Premier League players’ auction with Royal Challengers Bangalore clinching his services for a whopping Rs. 14 crore in Bangalore on Wednesday.Tamil Nadu wicket-keeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik emerged as a surprise big draw going for Rs. 12.5 crore to Delhi Daredevils, who had decided not to retain a single player before the auctions.

14. Ishant, Raina get the axe for Asia Cup: Ishant Sharma and Suresh Raina emerged the most prominent omissions as the Indian squads for the Asia Cup and the ICC World T20.Ishant was left out of both teams while Raina found a place in the T20 side. Against the backdrop of unflattering ODI results in South Africa and New Zealand, neither decision came as a huge surprise.

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