Current affairs Weekly Roundup January 2nd Week (8th to 14th)
World Bank holds meet with
India on Indus Water Treaty India asked the WB not to rush in brokering a deal on its
dispute with Pakistan over Ratle and Kishenganga projects coming up in Jammu
and Kashmir.
Ebola virus found hiding
in lungs Scientists for the first time found
potential evidence of the Ebola virus replication in the lungs of a person
recovering from infection.
Roberto Bautista Agut
beats Daniil Medvedev to win 2017 Chennai Open He belongs to Spain.
PM Narendra Modi announced
Pravasi Kaushal Vikas Yojana It is a part of the government’s efforts to leverage the
employment opportunities available in the developed countries.
Rohan Bopanna and Jeevan
Nedunchezhiyan win Chennai Open Men’s Doubles title The duo defeated compatriots Purav
Raja and Divij Sharan in the summit clash held in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
Sania Mirza wins 2017
Brisbane International Women’s Doubles title The top-seeded Indo-American duo scored 6-2 6-3 against the
second-seeded Russian team of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the final
of the tournament.
16th meeting of Financial
Stability Development Council held in New Delhi It was the first win of the season
for Mirza.
China to set up world’s
highest altitude gravitational wave telescopes in Tibet close to Line of Actual
Control (LAC) with India.
Suresh Nagarajan appointed
as Chief Financial Officer of Reliance Power At present, Nagarajan is working as the Senior Executive Vice
President of Reliance Power.
12th World Hindi Day
celebrated across the world At
present, Hindi as a language is spoken in more than 20 countries around the world
and is being taught in 150 Universities across the globe.
Home Minister Rajnath
Singh lays the Foundation stone for new NDRF campus at Kondapavuluru village of
Gannavaram mandal in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh.
IIT Kharagpur alumnus
Parag Havaldar wins Technical Oscar Award He was awarded for the development of expression-based facial
performance-capture technology at Sony Pictures Imageworks.
Kalyan Krishnamurthy
appointed as CEO of Flipkart He came over to the e-commerce giant from Tiger Global, a New
York-based investment firm, which is also Flipkart’s largest investor.
Cristiano Ronaldo named
Best FIFA Men’s Player 2016 Ronaldo
garnered 34.54% of total votes to grab the title. He beat Barcelona’s Lionel
Messi, who scored 26.42% of total votes, and Atletico Madrid’s Antoine
Griezmann (7.53% of total votes) to the prize.
Pakistan test-fires first
nuclear-capable submarine cruise missile Babur-3 This launch gives Pakistan a
“credible” second-strike capability.
Maharashtra Government
launches India’s largest WiFi service ‘MumbaiWifi‘ to empower people digitally. It is
also claimed to be one of the largest wifi service in the world.
PM Narendra Modi
inaugurates India’s first international stock exchange at GIFT city (Gujarat International Financial Tech
City (GIFT)) It is named as International exchange-India (INX) and is
wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
Air India launches ‘Fly
For Sure’ scheme under
which passengers can board any other AI flight on the same sector on the same
day on missing their booked flight.
China launches first
commercial space mission with Kuaizhou-1A rocket As a part of the mission, three
satellites namely Jilin Linye-1 forestry satellite (JL-1), CubeSats XY-S1 and
Caton-1 were launched into space.
Pakistan test-fires first
nuclear-capable submarine cruise missile Babur-3 capable of carrying a nuclear
warhead.
World Bank releases
January 2017 Global Economic Prospects report In its latest report, WB said, immediate withdrawal of a
large volume of currency in circulation and subsequent replacement with new
notes in November contributed to slowing growth.
Roman Herzog, former
President of Germany, passes away Herzog used the presidency to serve as a moral guardian for
liberal and democratic values. He often talked about Germany’s moral
responsibility for the crimes of its past.
Kalyan Krishnamurthy
appointed as CEO of Flipkart He came over to the e-commerce giant from Tiger Global,
a New York-based investment firm, which is also Flipkart’s largest investor.
HDFC launches Humanoid
robot IRA (Intelligent Robotic Assistant), at
Mumbai. It was developed in association with Kochi-based Asimov Robotics to
assist the customers in banking activities.
Cristiano Ronaldo named
the world’s best player for 2016 the world’s best player for the year 2016 at the inaugural
Best FIFA Football Awards held in Zurich, Switzerland.
The World Hindi Day
observed on 10 January it
is observed to mark adaptation of Hindi written in Devanagari script as
the Official Language of the Union by the Constituent Assembly on 14 September
1949.
World’s largest street
light replacement programme dedicated to the nation The Street Lighting National
Programme is implemented by the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) of
the Union Ministry of Power.
Indian Railways launches IRCTC Rail Connect app. It has been developed to bring the power
of next generation e-ticketing system like high performance and enhanced security.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has recently released its 12th
edition of the Global Risks Report 2017, which highlights the most significant long-term risks worldwide. This
year’s report will provide an outlook on the threats facing the world in 2017
and examines some of their root causes: rising inequality, political
polarization and nationalism, and disruptive technological change.
The U-13 squash player of India, Shreyas Mehta has recently
won the 2017 Scottish Junior Open Squash championship by defeating Colombia’s Juan Jose
Torres Lara in the final at Edinburgh, Scotland.
The book “My Odyssey: Memoirs of the Man behind the Mangalyaan
Mission” has been authored by Dr. K Radhakrishnan, the former chairman of the Indian
Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The World Bank has recently decelerated India’s growth for
fiscal FY 17 (2016-17 ) to 7.0% from its previous estimate of 7.6% due to
demonetization, in its latest report. As per the report, an immediate withdrawal of a large volume of currency
in circulation and subsequent replacement with new notes in November 2016
contributed to slowing growth.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently inaugurated the
Nobel Prize Series India 2017 at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in
Gandhinagar, Gujarat to
stimulate innovation and creative thinking. The Nobel Prize Series will feature
a 5-week long Science Exhibition, which is organized by the Department of
Science and Technology (DST/DBT) and Nobel Media.
The Assam government will launch its indigenously-developed
e-Wallet “Tokapoisa.in” to enable
the people of the state for hassle-free online transactions in local language.
Apart from an e-Wallet, it will be a virtual payment terminal and will also
enablegovernment-related transactions.
The 2017 World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting will be
held in Davos, Switzerland from
January 17th to 20th under the theme “Responsive and Responsible Leadership”.
The purpose of the meeting is to improve the state of the world and discuss the
most pressing issues facing the world.
The World Hindi Day (WHD) is observed every year on January 10 to promote Hindi across the world and
to mark the anniversary of first World Hindi Conference (WHD) which was held in
1975.
Peter Eardley Sarstedt (75), the well-known English
singer-songwriter, has recently passed away in Sussex, England. He was born in Delhi in 1941, when
India was part of the British Raj, where his parents were civil servants in the
British administration.
The Indian hockey team captain, PR Sreejesh has become a
member of International Hockey Federation Athletes’ Committee. The committee consists of a total of
8 current and former hockey players who have the responsibility to act as a
liaison between the FIH and the athletes to make sure the players have voice in
the FIH decision making process.
Norway has become the world’s first country to shutdown the
Frequency Modulation (FM) radio broadcasting network and started its’ switching to Digital
Audio Broadcasting (DAB) that offers a wider range of broadcasting options and
greater sound quality.
Daniel Ortega, a former rebel fighter, has been sworn-in for a
3rd consecutive term as President of Nicaragua with his wife Rosario Murillo as the
new Vice President.
The International Conference on ‘Disability Communication:
Perspectives and Challenges in the 21st Century (ICDC-2017)’ was held at
Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini in Mumbai, Maharashtra from January 9-11, 2017. The purpose
of the ICDC-2017 was to establish a forum for dialogue on the study of
interaction, learning and identity formation.
The “Festival of India” will be organised by Ghana from
January 25 to March 16, 2017. The activities of the Festival include amalgamation of Indian classical
dances, Sufi & Folk Music, and Saptarang – confluence of seven classical
dance forms culminating in Vande Matram.
India’s second Kalvari-class Scorpene stealth submarine “INS
Khanderi” has been launched at the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited in Mumbai,
Maharashtra. It has
superior stealth and the ability to launch a crippling attack with torpedoes as
well as tube-launched anti-ship missiles whilst underwater or on surface.
Roman Herzog (82), the former President of Germany, has
recently passed away at Bad Mergentheim, Germany. He was the first President of Germany
to be elected to office after the reunification of Germany.
Indian cueist, Pankaj Advani has won the 3rd edition of
Kolkata Open National Invitation Snooker Championship 2017 by defeating Aditya Mehta by 5-1 and
wins the 3rd Kolkata Open National Invitation Snooker Championship 2017 at the
Bengal Rowing Club in West Bengal.
The United Kingdom has become the first country in the world
to officially recognise parkour as a sport. Parkour, also known as freerunning, involves
negotiating terrain using only the natural strength of one’s body, principally
through running, jumping and climbing surrounding features.
The book “The Untold Story of Talking Books” has been authored
by Matthew Rubery. The book
focuses on the social impact of audio- books.
Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
and Managing Director (MD) of TCS, has been appointed as the new chairman of
Tata Sons.
He’ll be first non-Parsi
chairman of Tata Sons and will take charge from Feb 21, 2017.
India’s first-ever solar powered boat “Aditya” has been
launched by the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at a function held in Vaikom
boat jetty at Vembanad Lake in Kochi, Kerala. The 75-seater boat fitted with 78 rooftop solar panels, will
ferry along a 2.5-kilometre route between Vaikom and Thavanakkadavu 22 times a
day.
The world’s first “Gender Literature Festival” will be held in
Patna, Bihar in the second week of April 2017. The Gender Resource Centre of Bihar’s
Women Development Corporation (WDC) will be organising the festival.
The Chhabra Thermal Power Plant (CTPP) is located at Chowki
Motipura village in Baran district of Rajasthan. The planned capacity of power plant
is 2650MW at the end of 12th Five year plan.
William Peter Blatty (89), the US author and filmmaker, has
recently passed away at Bethesda, Maryland. He was best known for his novel “The Exorcist” and for the
Academy Award-winning screenplay of its film adaptation.
The 21st edition of National Youth Festival (NYF) has started
in Rohtak, Haryana from
January 12 and will continue till January 16, 2017. The 2017 theme of festival
is “Youth for Digital India”.
The book “An Unsuitable Boy” is the autobiography of Karan
Johar, the well-known Indian filmmaker. The book is an honest, heart-warming and personal account of Karan
Johar’s life and the business of Bollywood.
The committee under the Chairmanship of former Finance
Secretary Sumit Bose has recently submitted report on Socio Economic and Caste
Census (SECC) to the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD). The committee was constituted to
study the objective criteria for allocation of resources to States and
identification and prioritization of beneficiaries under various programmes
using SECC data.
Recently, the Airtel Payments Bank has officially launched its
nationwide operations in all 29 states of India. It is the India’s first payments bank
and is a fully-digital and paper-free bank.
