Current Affairs Power Capsule November 2014 (The Hindu Review)

1. 9th G-20 Summit of major economies was held in Brisbane, Australia. The summit focused on
promoting economic growth and set the target of boosting global growth by 2 percent in five years. The
next summit will be hosted by Turkey in Antalya on 10 November 2015.

2. 18th SAARC summit was held in Kathmandu, Nepal.

3. 12th ASEAN-India Summit was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. The summit was held on the sidelines
of 25th ASEAN Summit. The Next ASEAN-India Summit will be held in Cambodia in 2015.

4. 9th East Asia Summit was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. The summit was held on the sidelines of the
25th ASEAN Summit.

5. 83rd Interpol General Assembly was held at Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.

6. 25th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. Myanmar
chaired the ASEAN summit for the first time.

7. The International Buddhist Conference 2014 was held in Lumbini, Nepal.

8. 7th Summit on the Global Agenda was held in UAE. The Summit on the Global Agenda for the year
2014 was organized by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the Government of the United
Arab Emirates and Government of Dubai.

9. 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit was held in Beijing, China. The summit was held
under the theme of Shaping the Future through Asia-Pacific Partnership. The next APEC Summit will be
held in Philippines in 2015.

10. The World Economic Forum in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry hosted the
India Economic Summit in New Delhi.

11. 6th World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) was held in New Delhi.

12. India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and

Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC) was held in New Delhi. The next session of the IRIGC-TEC will be held in
Moscow in 2015.

13. International Counter-Piracy Conference was held in Dubai.

14. New Ministers

1

Manohar Parrikar

Defence Ministry

Suresh Prabhu

Railways Ministry

Jagat Prakash Nadda

Health Ministry

Ch. Birender Singh

Rural Development

Bandaru Dattatreya

Labour

Rajiv Pratap Rudy

Skill Development

Dr. Mahesh Sharma

Tourism

15. Prasar Bharti announced to re-launch DD National with new tagline Doordarshan National Desh Ka
Apna Channel.

16. Mithra Shakthi exercise: three week mock war drill between Special Forces of Indian and Sri Lankan
Army.

17. A Torpedo Recovery Vessel, TRV-72 of Indian Navy sank off the Visakhapatnam coast during a naval
exercise.

18. Sachin Tendulkars autobiography Playing It My Way was released.

19. Sutirtha Bhattacharya will be the new Chairman and Managing Director of Coal India Limited.

20. Actor Farhan Akhtar was appointed as UN Women Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia.

21. Former Indian Police Service Officer K C Reddy was appointed as the member of United Nations
probe panel on Gaza.

22. Government appointed GS Sandhu as Chairman of National Chemical Weapon Convention.

23. Anita Kapur (IRS) was appointed as the new chairperson of the Central Board of Direct Taxes.

24. The Italian physicist Fabiola Gianotti was appointed as first woman chief of CERN particle physics
research centre.

25. Rajiv Mehrishi took charge as Union Finance Secretary under the Union Ministry of Finance.

26. Former Indian cricket captain Dilip Vengsarkar received the prestigious BCCI-instituted Colonel C K
Nayudu Lifetime achievement award.

27. Tamil superstar Rajinikanth was honoured with the centenary award for Indian Film Personality of
the year 2014 at the 45th International Film Festival of India.

28. Chintan, a non-government organisation was conferred the Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award, 2014.

29. Steel Authority of India Chairman CS Verma was conferred with the IIM- JRD Tata Award for
Excellence in Corporate leadership in Metallurgical Industries for the year 2014.

30. Veteran classical vocalist Pandit Jasraj was conferred with the Sumitra Charat Ram Award 2014 for
Lifetime Achievement.

31. Neha Gupta was awarded with the prestigious International Childrens Peace Prize 2014.

32. Radio Kashmir Jammu won prestigious Gandhian Philosophy and Public Service Broadcasting award
2014 for its programme Jeevan Rekha.

33. President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the 49th Jnanpith Award on eminent Hindi poet Kedarnath
Singh.

34. The Darjeeling Zoo or the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park was selected for the prestigious
International Award the Earth Heroes Award 2014.

35. The Hockey India chief Narinder Batra was awarded the prestigious President's Award by the
International Hockey Federation at Morocco.

36. Former Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh received the Japans top national award The Grand
Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers 2014.

37. The US President Barack Obama will be the Chief Guest at 66th Indias Republic Day celebrations
2015. He will be the first US President to attend the Republic Day Parade of India.

38. Neel Mukherjee was in news because his book Lives of Others was shortlisted for Costa Book
Awards.

39. Union Government nominated Dr. Hasmukh Adhia as a Director on the Central Board of Directors of
the Reserve Bank of India.

40. US Navy SEAL commando Robert ONeill who shot Osama bin Laden at his Pakistan hideout in
Abbottabad on 2 May 2011 revealed his identity.

41. Indian-American Nikki Haley won second term as South Carolina Governor.

42. Mallikarjun Kharge, a leader of Congress in Lok Sabha was inducted into the three-member Chief
Information Commissioner Selection committee.

43. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited to Fiji. He is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the Pacific
countries after Indira Gandhi who visited in 1981.

44. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Australia as part of G-20 summit and bilateral summit with
Australia. He became the first Indian Prime Minister to address the Australian Parliament.

45. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited Israel to discuss bilateral issues including strengthening
security ties and fight against terror.

46. President Pranab Mukherjee visited Bhutan. During his visit, the two countries signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Nalanda University.

47. Oscar award winner Mike Nichols died.

48. Legendary Kathak danseuse Sitara Devi died.

49. Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Murli Deora died after a prolonged illness.

50. Mathematician Alexander Grothendieck died in France.

51. Baiji in Iraq was in news because Iraqi authorities claimed that Government forces have recaptured
the strategic northern town of Baiji from Islamic State for Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

52. Prime Minister Narendra Modi adopted Jayapur village in Varanasi under Saansad Adarsh Gram
Yojana (SAGY).

53. Anbar in Iraq was in news because of massacre of 322 people of Iraqi Al-Bu Nimr tribe by ISIS
militant group.

54. Child Rights and You (CRY) launched Project Unlearn with an aim to end child labour and encourage
children to go to school on 14 November 2014 on eve of Childrens Day.

55. Mumbai recorded 16.4 million internet users surpassing Delhi and Kolkata. Delhi recorded 12.15
million internet users and Kolkata recorded 6.27 million internet users.

56. Akash surface-to-air missile was test fired by the Indian Air Force from Integrated Test Range at
Chandipur near Balasore, Odisha. The missile is a medium range surface-to-air anti-aircraft defence
system with a strike range of 25 km.

57. 4th India-China Joint Training Exercise Hand-in- Hand 2014 began at Aundh Military Station in Pune,
Maharashtra.

58. Surface-to-surface nuclear-capable Dhanush ballistic missile was test-fired from a naval ship off the
Odisha coast with strike range of 350 kilometer.

59. Prithvi-II surface-to-surface missile was test fired at Chandipur, Odisha. Prithvi-II was developed
indigenously which is nuclear capable and has a strike range of 350 km.

60. India test fired nuclear-capable Agni-II strategic ballistic missile with a range of 2000 Km. It was
conducted from Wheeler Island, Odisha.

61. President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated India International Trade Fair 2014 at Pragati Maidan in
New Delhi. Partner country of the trade fair is South Africa. Focus Country of the fair is Thailand while
the focus state is Delhi.

62. Deepak Gupta was appointed as chairman of Union Public Service Commission.

63. Securities Exchange Board of India on announced to de-recognise Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE) on the
allegations of serious irregularities in its functioning.

64. Railways, one of the biggest consumers of energy, is moving towards harnessing green power with a
26 MW windmill proposed to be built in Rajasthan.

65. Klaus Iohannis won Romanian Presidential elections.

66. Kerala and Goa have become first states in the country with every household having at least one
bank account. In addition, Goa, Chandigarh, Puducherry and Lakshadweep and three districts of GujaratPorbandar, Mehasana, Gandhi Nagar, have also covered all households under PMJDY with at least one
bank account.

67. Ratan Tata has been appointed to the board of Interpol Foundation.

68. Union Home Minister and Lucknow MP Rajnath Singh has adopted Beti village in the district under
the Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojna.

69. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) cleared the decks for the Indian armys proposal for 814
155mm/52 caliber mounted guns systems (MGS), at a cost of R15,750 crore ($2.55 billion).

70. Additional Director R K Dutta will now head the CBI probe in the 2G spectrum scam after the
Supreme Court directed the agency Chief Ranjit Sinha to recuse from the investigation.

71. The work on the much-talked about Turkmenistan AfghanistanPakistanIndia pipeline (TAPI)
would start in 2015. The steering committee meeting for the cross country pipeline was held at
Ashgabat in Turkmenistan.

72. Switzerland agreed to join the global framework that allows automatic exchange of tax information.

73. Government re-launched Kisan Vikas Patra. Finance minister Arun Jaitley said the KVP would help
poor, gullible investors to channelize their savings towards a trusted government scheme instead of
some Ponzi schemes. KVP would be a bearer instrument without name of the holder. KVP will be
available in the denomination of R1,000, R5,000, R10,000 and R50,000. It has no upper ceiling for
investment and can be encashed after a lock-in period of 30 months. Amount invested in KVP would be
doubled in 100 months. The KVP certificates will be sold through post offices initially, but they will later
on be made available to the investing public through designated branches of nationalised banks.
However, there wont be any tax benefit for investment in KVP.

74. The G20 leaders committed to put in place a mechanism for automatic exchange of tax information
between member countries by 2017.

75. Indian Railways has identified toilets as one of the 17 special areas where 100 per cent FDI can bring
about major investments. Earlier, the government had relaxed the FDI norms permitting 100 per cent
investment in rail projects, such as high-speed trains, suburban service, dedicated freight corridors,
freight and passenger terminals.

76. Government fixed the subsidy for domestic LPG at Rs 40 per kg (or Rs 568 per cylinder of 14.2 kg) to
be shared between government and public sector oil companies.

77. Asia Pacific countries agreed to cooperate on the extradition of corrupt officials, enhance asset
recovery efforts and establish an anti-corruption transparency network to share intelligence on graft.
The network, called the APEC Network of Anti-Corruption Authorities and Law Enforcement Agencies
(ACT-NET), is the first such network that members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group had
worked to set up.

78. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government is planning to bring down its stake in public sector
banks to 52 per cent so as to meet Rs 3 lakh crore capital requirement.

79. Arundhati Bhattacharya, the Chairperson of countrys largest bank State Bank of India (SBI), has been
named as the most-powerful woman in business in India by Fortune Magazine. ICICI Banks Chanda
Kochhar and Shikha Sharma of Axis Bank follow Bhattacharya at the second and the third place
respectively.

80. Prime Minister Narendra Modi re-constituted a high-level climate panel and dropped well known
environmentalist Sunita Narain and top industry leader Ratan Tata from the council. TERI chairperson R
K Pachauri, economist Nitin Desai and retired diplomat Chandrasekhar Das gupta were retained by Modi
as nongovernment members.

81. Japanese company Soft Bank, kick-starting its plans to put in about $10 billion in India announced
investments in home-grown market place Snapdeal and popular mobile app for cab bookings Ola.

82. Modi announced the operationalisation of the $100 million line of credit for Vietnams defence
purchases.

83. Union Tribal Welfare Minister Jual Oram launched the Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana (VKY), aimed at
improving the infrastructure and human development indices of the tribal population.

84. BSE is planning to make a foray into commodity exchange business, now dominated by Multi
Commodity Exchange (MCX) and NCDEX.

85. The governments of India and Russia have agreed that BrahMos missile will be exported to a list of
mutually agreeable countries for defensive purposes.

86. Union government submitted, in a sealed cover, a list of 627 Indians holding black money abroad in
Supreme Court.

87. Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the signing of a memorandum of understanding with
Mozambique for cooperation in the field of oil and gas.

88. The Reserve Bank of India has raised the limit for urban co-operative banks (UCBs) to sanction loan
against gold collateral to Rs.2 lakh from Rs.1 lakh at present.

89. Education Ministers and officials of eight SAARC countries have resolved to collaborate on increased
use of information technology and improving the quality of education.

90. Under pressure from India over the safety of United Nations Peacekeeping forces, U.N. SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon has set up a 14-member panel, including an Indian to review peacekeeping
operations worldwide. The panel is headed by Jose Ramos-Horta.

91. Vijay Laxman Kelkar has been appointed as Chairperson of the Finance Ministrys think tank National
Institute of Public Finance & Policy (NIPFP). He replaces the former Reserve Bank Governor C.
Rangarajan.

92. For the first time India and Russia have agreed on negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
between India & the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan & Russia.

93. India will extend Visa on arrival facility to Russian businessmen at 18 airports in the country.

94. The two-day conference on Asian elephants concluded in Guwahati with a resolve to establish a
regional think tank with nodal officers from Indian, Bhutan and Myanmar.

95. BJP legislator, Laxmikant Parsekar, was sworn in as the eleventh Chief Minister of Goa.

96. Chinese President Xi Jinping on announced $40- billion fund to build mega Silk Road projects crisscrossing Asia.

97. Lt. Gen. Rizwan Akhtar has taken over as the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

98. Gujarat has become the first State to make voting compulsory in local bodies.

99. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a new Aadhaar-based digital life certificate for pensioners
Jeevan Pramaan that will allow self-certification and benefit over a crore pensioners in the country.

100. The members of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) members have agreed to initiate the
formation of a free trade area in the Asia-Pacific a vision steered by China, which competes with the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) initiative of the United States.

101. Indias second mission to Mars could be launched between 2018 and 2020.

102. E. Sreedharan has been appointed as one man committee by the Ministry of Railways to suggest a
proper system and procedure to ensure proper accountability and transparency at the level of General
Manager and other functionaries for taking all commercial decisions.

103. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) cleared the long-pending proposal of HDFC Bank to
hike foreign holding in the bank to 74 per cent.

104. Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan was shortlisted for candidates for BRICS New
Development Bank president.

105. Mr. Modi said the PIO (Persons of Indian Origin) and OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) status would be
merged ahead of the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas to be held from January 7 in Ahmedabad.

106. Japans economy unexpectedly slid into recession as housing and business investment declined
following a sales tax hike, further clouding the outlook for the global economy.

107. Twelve years after it was constituted, the Nanavati Commission of Enquiry probing the 2002 postGodhra riots submitted its final report to Chief Minister Anandiben Patel.

108. Forty years of pioneering work culminating in the successful launch of Indias first Mars orbiter this
September has won the Indian Space Research Organisation the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace,
Disarmament and Development for 2014.

109. Indias Pacific Ocean outreach gained traction with the announcement of a slew of lines of credit
and development assistance totaling $ 80 million for Fiji and a visa-on-arrival for all the 14 island
countries in the region during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit.

110. SEBI revamped the Prohibition of Insider Trading regulations with more stringent measures,
aligning its norms with international practices.

111. INS Vikrant the countys first aircraft carrier has finally faded away into history. The Centre
said it was difficult to maintain the vessel. In March, the Indian Navy sold Vikrant to a Mumbai-based
ship breaking company for Rs. 63 crore.

112. The former Supreme Court judge Chandramauli Kumar Prasad has been selected to be the next
Chairman of the Press Council of India.

113. ING Vysya Bank decided to merge with Kotak Mahindra Bank, creating the fourth largest private
sector bank in the country.

114. Indias Mars mission Mangalyaan, developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has
been listed among the 25 best innovations of 2014 by the Time magazine. Nobody gets Mars right on
the first try. The U.S. didnt, Russia didnt, the Europeans didnt. But on September 24, India did, the
magazine said.

Current Affairs Power Capsule October 2014 (The Hindu Review)

1. First-time legislator from BJP Manohar Lal Khattar, 61, is the 21st Chief
Minister of Haryana.
2. Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) candidate Devendra Gangadharrao Fadnavis
sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He is the first BJP candidate
to become CM of Maharashtra.
3. Rajiv Mehrishi took charge as Union Finance Secretary. He succeeded
Arvind Mayaram.
4. Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar was elected Vice-President of Asia
Pacific Broadcasting Union in Macau.
5. Surya Prakash was appointed as the Chairman of Prasar Bharti Board for
a term of 3 years.
6. The former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh was designated as the head of
Future Earth Engagement Committee, a global research platform panel on
sustainable development.
7. Union Government appointed US-based economist Arvind Subramanian as
Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) in the Union Finance Ministry for three years.
8. Vice President of Zambia Guy Scott was appointed as acting President by
the Zambia government.
9. Khaled Bahah was appointed as Prime Minister of Yemen.
10. Aamir Khan was appointed as the Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF in
South Asia. Aamir Khan will focus on supporting child nutrition to end
stunting across the region.

11. Justice H L Dattu was sworn-in as the 42nd Chief Justice of India.
12. Kalpana Morparia was appointed as first woman director of Hindustan
Unilever Limited.
13. Union Ministry of Civil Aviation approved the appointment of Cramer Ball
as Chief Executive Officer of Jet Airways.
14. President Pranab Mukherjee authorised Vigilance Commissioner Rajiv to
act as chief of Central Vigilance Commission until the appointment of the
Central Vigilance Commissioner.
15. Continuing the effort to fight persisting inflation and inflationary
pressures, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan
maintained the policy rates at the current levels in 4th Monetary Policy. The
RBI also retained the growth projection for the current fiscal at 5.5 per cent.
Repo Rate 8% (Unchanged)
Rev. Repo 7% (Unchanged)
CRR 4% (Unchanged)
SLR 22% (Unchanged)
MSF 9% (Unchanged)
Bank Rate 9% (Unchanged)
16. Nobel Price 2014 Winners - The Nobel Prize for is granted by the
Swedish Academy.
(i) Chemistry - Eric Betzig, Stefan W Hell and William E. Moerner was
awarded for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy.
(ii) Physics - Three Japanese-born researchers Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi
Amano and Shuji Nakamura was awarded for inventing efficient blue LightEmitting Diodes (LED) lamps that worked as a bright and energy-saving
white light source.
(iii) Physiology or Medicine John OKeefe, May-Britt Moser and Edvard
I. Moser was awarded for their discoveries of cells that constitute a GPS in
the brain.
(iv) Economics - French economist Jean Tirole was awarded for his analysis
of market power and regulation.
(v) Literature - French author Patrick Modiano won the Nobel Prize for
literature.
(vi) Peace - Pakistani child education activist Malala Yousafzai and Indian
child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi was awarded the Nobel peace Prize for
year 2014.

17. Manjul Bhargava won the Fields Medal awards for the year2014. The
Fields Medal is also known as the Nobel Prize of Mathematics.
18. Kailash Satyarthi is an Indian children's rights activist born in Vidisha,
Madhya Pradesh. His organization Bachpan Bachao Andolan has been
active in the movement against child labour.
19. Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani school student, education activist who is
known for her activism for right to education for women.
20. Malala Yousafzai won the 2014 Worlds Children Prize after a global vote
involving millions of children.
21. Malala Yousafzai was conferred with the 2014 Liberty Medal at the
National Constitution Centre in Philadelphia.
22. Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege Mukengere won the prestigious
Sakharov human rights prize 2014.
23. Australian author Richard Flanagan won Man Booker Prize for his
wartime novel The Narrow
Road to the Deep North. This was the first year that the Man Booker prize
was open to all authors writing in English, regardless of nationality.
24. All India National Unity Council honoured poet diplomat Abhay K with
Asia-Pacific Excellence Award.
25. Noted lyricist Sameer was honoured with the National Kishore Kumar
Award for 2012-13.
26. The UK government announced the inaugural Dadabhai Naoroji Awards
to honour individuals who have worked to strengthen the UK-India
relationship over the years.
27. Dr. Raghuram Rajan, Governor of Reserve Bank of India was conferred
with Euro moneys Central Bank Governor of the Year Award 2014 in
Washington.
28. Indian-origin Singaporean poet and writer KTM Iqbal was named for the
2014 Cultural Medallion, the highest cultural award of Singapore.
29. An eminent Indian scientist Dr Sanjaya Rajaram received the World
Food Prize 2014 for his scientific research that led to a prodigious increase in
world wheat production.

30. Saiyid Hamid was conferred with Sir Ross Masood Lifetime Achievement
Award 2014 for Excellence in Leadership, Education, community & Public
Service.
31. The President of India Pranab Mukherjee presented the Lal Bahadur
Shastri National Award 2014 to Dr Apathukatha Sivathanu Pillai.
32. Former New York Mayor and philanthropist billionaire Michael Rubens
Bloomberg was granted an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in
Britain.
33. Anoop Jain won 2014 Waislitz Global Citizen Award.
34. Shah Rukh Khan received Global Diversity Award 2014 at the Britains
House of Commons.
35. Google CEO Larry Page appointed Sundar Pichai as new Product Chief of
Google.
36. Alan Eustace, a senior Google vice-president broke the world altitude
record for highest free-fall parachute jump from an altitude of 135908-feet.
Eustace broke the world altitude record of parachute jump set by Austrian
Felix Baumgartner.
37. Five year old Indian boy Harshit Saumitra became the youngest person
to reach the Everest Base Camp.
38. Sadiq, a 10-year old terminally ill boy became Hyderabad Police
Commissioner for a day.
39. J Jayalalithaa, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu was found guilty in the
disproportionate assets case by the Special Court in Bangalore. The Court
pronounced a jail term of 4 years and fined 100 crore rupees to her in 18year-old 66.65 crore rupees disproportionate assets case.
40. Warren M Anderson, the former Chairman of Union Carbide Corporation
who was blamed for the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy died.
41. South Africa's football captain and goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa died after
being shot.
42. Africas most populous nation Nigeria was declared officially Ebola free.
43. President Pranab Mukherjee became the first Indian head of state to
visit Norway and first president to cross the Arctic Circle.

44. ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan announced that the Indian space

agency will launch GSLV Mark- III within next 45 days.
45. India became the worlds fourth largest steel producer by delivering
62.41 Million Tonnes
(MT) output from January 2014 to September 2014. India was preceded by
China, Japan and the United States.
46. 4th International Counter-Piracy Conference was held in Dubai. Theme
of the Conference was Securing State Recovery: Sustaining Momentum at
Sea, Confronting Instability Land.
47. President Pranab Mukherjee released a commemorative postage stamp
on Sri Lankan Buddhist monk Anagarika Dharmapala.
48. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa flagged off Yal Devi Express
from Palai after 25 years. The train will be extended to Jaffna. The India
Railway Construction International has now completed the restoration of the
railway lines from Palai to Jaffna.
49. Tropical Storm Trudy struck Mexico.
50. Hudhud is a cyclone which struck Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
Hudhud name derives from the Hoopoe bird, a colorful bird found across
Afro-Eurasia suggested by Oman.
51. The Antares, an unmanned cargo rocket carrying supplies to the
International Space Station exploded just seconds after the launch.
52. The novel Half Girlfriend authored by Chetan Bhagat was released.
53. Biography of Allama Muhammad Iqbal titled Iqbal: The Life of a Poet,
Philosopher and Politician was released. The biography is written by Zafar
Anjum, the editor of book.
54. The book on Rajesh Khanna Dark Star: The Loneliness of Being Rajesh
Khanna was released. The book was written by Gautam Chintamani.
55. A book titled Final Test: Exit Sachin Tendulkar authored by writerjournalist Dilip DSouza was released on 15 October 2014. The book has
been published by Random House India and books forward has been written
by Harsha Bhogle.

56. The Vice President of India M Hamid Ansari released a book entitled
Untold Story of the Indian Public Sector authored by Dr UD Choubey, the
Director General of SCOPE (Standing Conference of Public Enterprises).
57. A book titled A Man and A Motorcycle, How Hamid Karzai Came to Power
written by Bette Dam was launched.
58. Actor Naseeruddin Shah released his autobiography And then One Day:
A Memoir.
59. Rashtriya Ekta Diwas was observed to commemorate the 139th birth
anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The decision to observe 31 October
as Rashtriya Ekta Diwas or National Integration Day was taken by the Union
Government.
60. Union Government constituted Vishwanathan committee to provide
Bankruptcy code for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
61. NR Madhava Menon committee submitted its report. The committee was
appointed by Supreme Court to frame guidelines to regulate expenditure and
contents of advertisements paid out of tax payers' money.
62. Finance minister Arun Jaitley blamed high income tax refunds for the
high fiscal deficit of the Centre that touched 83 per cent of the full year
target in just six months.
63. K V Chowdary was appointed by the Government as an Advisor to the
Special Investigation Team that is probing black money cases. The SIT is
headed by retired Supreme Court Judge M B Shah with Vice-Chairman
Justice (retd) Arijit Pasayat.
64. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said economic growth this fiscal could be in
the range of 5.5% to 5.9%.
65. Indian government has issued a set of austerity measures, including
bans on first class air travel and hosting conferences in five star hotels, and
a bar on reviving posts that have been vacant for more than a year, with the
stated objective of cutting down non-plan spend by up to 10 per cent.
66. Indian government relaxed rules for FDI in the construction sector by
reducing minimum built-up area as well as capital requirement and easing
the exit norms. Cabinet decided to reduce the minimum floor area to 20,000
sq mt from the earlier 50,000 sq mt. It also brought down the minimum
capital requirement to USD 5 million from USD 10 million.

67. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs raised the minimum support
price (MSP) of wheat, the most important winter crop, by just 3.6%, or Rs.
50, to Rs.1450 per quintal.
68. India ranked a dismal 142 among the 189 countries surveyed for the
latest (2015) World Banks Ease of Doing Business report, down two places
from its position last year. Singapore retained the top slot for the ninth year
in a row.
69. High leverage in the Indian corporate sector could prevent any
meaningful recovery in asset quality at lenders over the next 12-18 months,
Moody's Investors Service said, maintaining its "negative" outlook on the
country's banking sector.
70. The Centre placed list of around 627 names of Indians having accounts
in foreign banks before Supreme Court in the black money case. The court
left it on the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to carry out necessary
investigation. A bench led by Chief Justice H L Dattu asked the SIT to verify
the list given by the government and submit a status report by end of
November.
71. A US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) team would arrive next
month to carry out a fresh audit of India's aviation safety mechanism, which
was downgraded almost a year ago.
72. India has performed poorly in removing gender based disparities,
ranking 114 out of 142 countries in World Economic Forum's 2014 gender
gap index.
73. Telecom giant Softbank has pledged an investment of $10 billion (over
Rs 60,000 crore) in India's IT and communications space.
74. Narendra Modi led government named three Pradip Burman, formerly
of Dabur group, Goa based mining firm Timblo Pvt Ltd and its five directors
and Rajkot-based bullion trader Pankaj Chimanlal Lodhiya against whom
prosecution has been launched.
75. A significant oil discovery has been made near Ahmedabad in the
Cambay basin that may be the biggest on land find this year.
76. In a complete U-turn from its earlier stand, the Home Ministry has come
out in full support of the Aadhaar scheme saying it will facilitate "anytime,
anywhere, anyhow" authentication to its beneficiaries.

77. Clocking the slowest compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of about
6.9% in terms of gross state domestic product (GSDP), Uttar Pradesh is the
lowest among the traditional BIMARU states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh,
Rajasthan and UP) in this regard during the past nine years, that is, during
2004-05 and 2012-13, according to an Assocham study. Bihar has ranked
on top among the BIMARU states registering highest growth rate of 9.3% in
GSDP during the aforesaid nine year period followed by Madhya Pradesh
(8.8%) and Rajasthan (8.2%) even as Indias overall gross domestic product
(GDP) grew at 8% during 2004-05 and 2012-13, said a study titled
Analysis of BIMARU states, conducted by Assocham.
78. India has opted to buy Israel's Spike anti-tank guided missile. India will
buy at least 8,000 Spike missiles and more than 300 launchers in a deal
worth 32 billion rupees ($525 million).
79. The Narendra Modi led government is aiming to improve India's ranking
in ease of doing business index to 50th position in the next two years from
the current 134th.
80. Unfazed by China's objections to development of border areas,
Government announced setting up of 54 new border outposts and Rs 175
crore package for beefing up the infrastructure along the border in Arunachal
Pradesh.
81. The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to develop Allahabad as an
integrated industrial township, on the lines of Noida and Greater Noida.
82. Indian government has decided to create a fund starting with Rs 930 Cr
to help Indian industry acquire cutting-edge technology in the capital goods
sector and finance new production units of capital-intensive heavy
equipment.
83. The number of hungry people has declined in India with its score on the
Global Hunger Index improving to 55th position in 2014 due to progress
made in addressing underweight in children, says a report.
84. Prime Minister unveiled half a dozen schemes including a unified web
portal where employers can submit a single compliance report for 16 labour
laws, a new labour inspection scheme, Unique Account Number facility for
EPFO members, a new skill development and apprenticeship scheme and a
revamped Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana

85. Airports at Delhi and Mumbai would be developed as 'seamless hubs' by

the 27-member airline grouping Star Alliance and work on it may start next
year itself.
86. State-owned Air India will get around Rs 3,000 crore more in the later
part of this fiscal from the Government towards capital infusion.
87. Government proposes to implement the Goods and Services Tax (GST)
from April 1, 2016.
88. India is poised to become a USD two trillion economy this year, while its
GDP size would cross another milestone of USD three trillion after five years
in 2019, according to IMF's latest world economic outlook. India's ranking
would also improve to seventh largest economy in the world, while
measured on "current prices" basis in US dollar, in 2019 from its tenth
position currently.
89. The government deferred the country-wide rollout of the National Food
Security Act, 2013, by another six months, to the first week of April 2015,
because of states inability to create requisite infrastructure and identify
beneficiaries. Eleven states and Union Territories Punjab, Haryana,
Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh,
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi and Chandigarh have so far implemented
the Act, some fully and others partially.
90. The government is expediting the work to replace Wholesale Price Index
(WPI), used for capturing price movements to decide on policy measures,
with a more effective and comprehensive Producers Price Index (PPI) by the
next fiscal.
91. IMF chief Christine Lagarde warned that the global economy could be
sinking into a prolonged period of "mediocre" growth which could endanger
efforts to bring down unemployment worldwide.
92. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed the Unique Identification
Authority of India (UIDAI) to ensure universal coverage under Aadhaar by
June 2015. The current Aadhaar enrolment is about 68 crore.
93. Facebook plans to start testing its Internet carrying solar-powered
drones in 2015, with the ultimate aim of getting two-thirds of the global
population online.
94. Canada has decided to sign a contract with Antrix, the Indian Space
Research Organisation

(ISRO)s commercial arm, for the launch of its satellite. Canada announced
that Antrix would be given the contract for the July 2015 launch of its M3M
(Maritime Monitoring and Messaging Micro-Satellite) communications
satellite.
95. Ashraf Ghanis government will sign a long delayed deal to allow some
U.S. troops to stay in Afghanistan into next year.
96. In his maiden visit to India, after taking over as the CEO of Microsoft,
Satya Nadella, announced that the company would offer commercial cloud
services Azure and Office 365 in the country from local data centers.
97. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed Rs.2.83 crore
penalty on Super Cassettes Industries, known as T-Series, for unfair
business practices with regard to licensing of Bollywood music to private FM
radio stations.
98. The country will have state-of-the-art virology diagnostic laboratories
operational in 120 districts by 2015.
99. The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has upheld the Securities and
Exchange Board of Indias order against Angel Broking in case related to
violations of stock broker norms and fraudulent dealings in shares of Sterling
Green Woods.
100. Kerala would become the first State to have high-speed Internet
connecting all the panchayats in the State by March next year.
101. Queen Elizabeth II has honoured campaigning actress Angelina Jolie in
a Buckingham Palace ceremony.
102. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), launched by China,
with an authorized capital of $100 billion, is expected to be formally
established by the end of 2015. Beijing headquartered has 21 nation
members - Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Kazakhstan,
Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan,
Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
103. Lawmakers in France, the worlds most nuclear-dependent country,
voted to cut reliance on the energy source from more than 75 per cent to 50
per cent within a decade.
104. Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a blueprint for the Saansad
Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) on Jayaprakash Narayans birth anniversary.

The scheme encourages Members of Parliament from both Houses to identify

and develop one village from their constituency as a model village by 2016,
and two more by 2019, covering over 2,500 villages of the 6 lakh villages
country-wide. Under SAGY, Lok Sabha MPs can select any village with a
population of 3,000- 5,000 in plains and 1,000-3,000 in hilly areas in their
constituencies besides their own village. MPs are expected to facilitate a
village development plan, motivate villagers to take up activities and use the
Rs.5-crore MPLAD fund.
105. The Department of Telecom has set a target date of March 31, 2015,
to implement the full mobile number portability.
106. India bans the import of animal-tested cosmetics.
107. A Supreme Court-appointed committee led by Chief Justice of India
(retired) R.M. Lodha on the catastrophic floods in Jammu and Kashmir
details the failures of the State government.
108. SEBI imposed a ban on realty major DLF and its top executives from
accessing the capital markets for three years, for suppressing information in
its initial public offering (IPO) prospectus and for sham transactions.
109. An inspector Shakti Devi with the Jammu and Kashmir Police has
bagged the International Female Police Peacekeeper Award 2014 instituted
by the U.N. for her exceptional achievements while serving with the U.N.
mission in Afghanistan.
110. The BBCs website was blocked in China, hours after a video of Hong
Kong police beating and kicking a pro-democracy protester began circulating
online.
111. PSLV-C26 lobbed the 1,425 kg Indian Regional Navigation Satellite
System (IRNSS-1C) satellite into its precise orbit. Mission was ISROs 27th
consecutively successful PSLV flight.
112. India first long-range sub-sonic cruise missile, Nirbhay (fearless), was
test-fired for a range of over 1,000 km from the Integrated Test Range
wheeler Island, Orissa.
113. The Reserve Bank of India has signed a pact with the Central Bank of
Kenya for exchange of information and supervisory cooperation.
114. India received the most number of votes in the Asia-Pacific group of
the U.N. Human Rights Council, winning a second consecutive two-year term

at the world body. 162 of 190 countries voted for India. Three other
countries including Indonesia, Bangladesh and Qatar were elected.
115. The Central Government ordered merger of the scam-hit firm NSEL
with its holding company Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL).
116. U.K. engineering group Penspen has been awarded a contract to carry
out a technical feasibility study for the proposed 1,820-km pipeline
Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan- India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline.
117. GSAT-16, the next national communications satellite, reached French
Guiana this week and is on its way to the space port near Kourou ahead of
an early December flight, European launch Service Company Arianespace
has said. The 3,150-kg satellite is scheduled to be flown on an Ariane-5
launcher numbered Flight VA221.
118. Vishal Bhardwajs Haider a modern-day adaptation of Hamlet won
the Peoples Choice Award in the Mondo Genre (world genre) at the ninth
edition of the Rome Film Festival.
119. P. Sainath (for his reporting in The Hindu), Al Jazeera English, USA
Today and Global Post were among the winners of the World Media Summit
(WMS) Global Awards for Excellence, 2014.

GK Power Capsule September 2014 Current Affairs (The Hindu Review)

1. Justice Handyala Lakshminarayanaswamy Dattu was sworn-in as the 42nd Chief
Justice of India on 28 September 2014. He succeeded Chief Justice RM Lodha.
2. AIADMK Treasurer O Panneerselvam was sworn-in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
He replaced the former AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa.
3. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai was sworn in as president of Afghanistan.
4. Lalitha Kumaramangalam was appointed as chairperson of National Commission for
Women.
5. Union Government declared 25 September as Antyodya Diwas. Antyodya diwas was
observed to mark the 98th birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay.
To Read More Sept Current Affairs : If above button is not working than click below on
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6. National Hindi Divas (Hindi Day) was observed on 14 September 2014.

7. The India-US Combined Military Training Exercise Yudh Abhyas 2014 concluded at
Ranikhet in Uttarakhand.
8. Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan left all key rates unchanged citing increased
risks to inflation and difficult external situation especially on the geopolitical front. The
RBI also retained the growth projection for the current fiscal at 5.5 per cent. The apex
bank sees FY16 growth at 6.3 per cent.
1. Bank Rate 9 % (Unchanged)
2. Cash Reserve Ratio 4 % (Unchanged)
3. SLR 22 % (Unchanged)
4. Repo Rate 8 % (Unchanged)
5. Reverse Repo Rate 7 % (Unchanged)
6. Marginal Standing Rate 9 % (Unchanged)
9. President Pranab Mukherjee authorized Vigilance Commissioner Rajiv to act as chief of
Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) until the appointment of the Central Vigilance
Commissioner.
10. The Bangladesh govt appointed Syed Muazzem Ali as the new Bangladesh High
Commissioner to India.
11. Suresh Prabhu was appointed as Prime Minister Narendra Modis Sherpa for the Group
of 20 annual Summit 2014. The G-20 annual summit will be held in Brisbane from 15
November to 16 November 2014. Sherpa is a senior official responsible for preparing
the agenda for leaders to consider during the summit.
12. India TV chairman and Editor-in-chief Rajat Sharma was appointed as the new
president of the News Broadcasting Association (NBA) for the year 2014-2015.
13. Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar was appointed as the new head of the Pakistans
spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
14. US President Barack Obama nominated Indian American Richard Rahul Verma as the
next US Ambassador to India.
15. Meghalaya Governor, Dr. Krishan Kant Paul was swornin as the Governor of Manipur.
.
16. Chinese President Xi Jinping appointed Le Yucheng as China's new Ambassador to
India.
17. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio was appointed as United Nations Messenger of Peace with a
special focus on climate change.

18. The International Economic Association appointed Kaushik Basu as president-elect of

the association beginning September 2014. However, he will continue to serve as
Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of World Bank.
19. Senior IAS officer Subhash Chandra Garg was appointed as the Executive Director
(ED) of World Bank.
20. Former Chief Justice of India, Palaniswamy Sathasivam was appointed as the new
Governor of Kerala.
21. Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden and Alan Rusbridger, editor of
The Guardian won Right Livelihood Award.
22. Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and Steve Waugh of Australia were selected as Bradman
Honouree 2014.
23. Hindi-language feature film Liar's Dice was selected for Indias official entry in the 2015
Oscars Awards for the Best Foreign Language Film category. The film is directed by
Geethu Mohandas. The 87th Oscar Awards event will take place in the US on 22
February 2015.
24. Govind Mishra, the renowned Hindi author was given the Saraswati Samman in New
Delhi. He was given the Samman for his novel Dhool Paudhon Par that was published
in 2008.
25. The World Health Organisation honoured Bangladesh and Timor-Leste with South East
Asia Regional Award for Excellence in Public Health.
26. Court, an Indian movie written and directed by Indian writer Chaitanya Tamhane won
the Lion of the Future Luigi De Laurenti is award for a Debut Feature at the 71st
Venice Film Festival.
27. South Africa denied visa to Dalai Lama for Nobel Summit. He was scheduled to attend
the 14th world summit of Nobel peace laureates in Cape Town in October 2014.
28. The President Pranab Mukherjee was on a visit to Vietnam from 14 to 17 September
2014.
29. Legendary US comedian and talk-show host Joan Rivers died.
30. Former Attorney General of India Goolam Essaji Vahanvati died of a heart attack in
Mumbai.
31. The Forbes India magazine released The 100 Richest Indian List 2014. As per the list,
the top 100 richest tycoons in India are all billionaires for the first time. According to the
Forbes India List, the Top 10 Richest people of India: 1.Mukesh Ambani; 2. Dilip

Shanghvi; 3. Azim Premji; 4. Pallonji Mistry; 5. Lakshmi Mittal; 6. Hinduja brothers; 7.

Shiv Nadar; 8. Godrej family; 9. Kumar Birla; 10. Sunil Mittal.
32. KPMG-FICCI study has ranked India among top three medical tourism destinations in
Asia. The other two countries within Asia that receive maximum medical tourists are
Thailand and Singapore.
33. The World Bank Group approved 105 million US dollars grant for Ebola Emergency
Response project to fight Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
34. SRPF (Special Rhino Protection Force) is to be setup to protect Rhinos from poaching
in Assam. It will be created in Assam with the help of Central funds.
35. UN Climate Change Summit 2014 was held at UN headquarters in New York on 23
September 2014 to put the planet on course towards reversing global warming. The
purpose of the 2014 Climate Summit was to raise political momentum for a meaningful
universal climate agreement in Paris in 2015.
36. The G-20 Labour and Employment Ministerial meet was held at Melbourne, Australia.
37. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott returned two stolen antique statues of Hindu
deities to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. One of the idols is a Nataraja, the
dancing Shiva that belongs to the Chola dynasty of 11th-12th century. The other
sculpture is of Ardhanariswara which represents Shiva in halffemale form. It belonged to
the 10th century.
38. The revived Nalanda University started its first session with 15 students in its makeshift
campus at the Buddhist pilgrim town of Rajgir, about 100 km from Patna.
39. Operation Megh Rahat a rescue operation undertaken by Indian Army during Jammu
and Kashmir floods Indian Army on 19 September 2014 completed rescue Operation
Megh Rahat in Jammu and Kashmir.
40. Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah released his autobiography And then One Day: A
Memoir.
41. 50 years of man in space was authoured by Garik Israelien, Brian May and David J
Eicher.
42. H Devaraj Committee reported that most of the deemed universities are not fit for being
a university. It said that out of 41 C category deemed universities only 10 universities
are found to be fit for being a university.
43. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley constituted H R Khan Panel to assess the amount
of unclaimed deposits in the PPF accounts and Post Office saving schemes.

44. Bombay High Court set up V V Daga Committee to conduct forensic audit of NSEL and
liquidate the assets of its defaulting borrowers in the over 5500 crore rupees payments
scam.
45. Sivaramakrishnan committee constituted by the Union Government to suggest the
place to build the capital city of Andhra Pradesh submitted its report.
46. Indian Air Force gifted a vintage Dakota aircraft from its museum to Bangladesh Air
Force.
47. Strategic Force Command of India successfully test-fired nuclear weapons capable
ballistic missile Agni-I with a range of 700 Km. The missile was launched from the
Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Wheeler Island, Balasore off the Odisha Coast.
48. India's largest naval offshore patrol vessel INS Sumitra was commissioned into Indian
Navy.
49. Indo-Nepal joint military exercise Surya KiranVII concluded on 31 August 2014 at
Pithoragarh.
50. The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy announced the organisation of the
first Renewable Energy Global Investors Meet & Expo (RE-INVEST). The meet is
scheduled to be held on 15 February 2015 in New Delhi.
51. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the country's biggest-ever cleanliness drive
that is expected to cost over Rs 62,000 crore, asserting that the "Swachh Bharat"
mission is "beyond politics" and inspired by patriotism. The Cabinet had last month
decided to merge the 'Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan', a campaign for rural sanitation with
Swachh Bharat Mission.
52. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed the Unique Identification Authority of India
(UIDAI) to ensure universal coverage under Aadhaar by June 2015. The current
Aadhaar enrolment is about 68 crore, which means over 50 crore people will have to be
brought under its ambit within the next eight months. Last month, the union cabinet set
a target of 100 crore enrolment under Aadhaar by the end of next year.
53. Targeting a five-fold jump in Indo-US trade to USD 500 billion, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi and US President Barack Obama pledged to deepen economic cooperation and
will set up a joint program to boost business investment.
54. US government welcomes India's offer for US industry to be the lead partner in
developing smart cities in Ajmer (Rajasthan), Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and
Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh).

55. US President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to
deepen USIndian cooperation on maritime security to ensure freedom of navigation in
what amounts to a response to China's naval muscle-flexing in Asia.
56. India and the US decided to set up an interagency contact group to address liability and
technical issues hindering installation of American-origin nuclear reactors in India.
57. India and the US agreed to extend their defence agreement for another 10 years which
is expected to give a big boost to cooperation in this key area between the two
countries.
58. The government announced setting up of four task forces to lay down the roadmap for
developing four new regulatory agencies Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA),
Financial Sector Appellate Tribunal (FSAT), Financial Data Management Centre
(FDMC) and Resolution Corporation (RC).
59. PM Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama issued an India and the US vision
statement "Chalein Saath Saath: Forward Together We Go" promising that their
"strategic partnership" would work to combat terror threats and prevent the spread of
weapons of mass destruction.
60. The next Parvasi diwas will be held in Ahmedabad in January 8-9 next year. The
Pravasi Diwas will coincide with the 100 years of coming back of Mahatma Gandhi next
year.
61. Standard & Poors improved its rating outlook for India to stable from negative even
as it retained the credit rating at BBB-. Among the other major rating firms, Moodys
maintainsBaa3 rating for India with stable outlook while Fitch rates the countrys
creditworthiness at BBB- with a stable outlook.
62. Standard and Poor's warned that it could downgrade rating of crisis ridden Syndicate
Bank if its asset quality deteriorates. It has raised the rating outlooks on 11 Indian banks
and financial institutions to stable from negative.
These include, Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Indian Bank, IDFC,
Kotak Mahindra Bank, Kotak Mahindra Prime, State Bank of India and Union Bank of
India.
63. Revising India's GDP upwards by 0.3 per cent to 6.3 per cent in 2015, Asian
Development Bank (ADB) has said the economy shows a new promise of turnaround
after the election brought a stable government in May.
64. In a bid to make the country a manufacturing hub, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
promised easy an effective governance to enable ease of doing business as he
launched the 'Make in India' campaign.

65. Mumbai has emerged as the least expensive city in the world to live and work in,
according to a latest real estate analysis. British capital London has overtaken Hong
Kong as the most expensive city to rent living and working space.
66. The Union government said the proposed Goods and Services Tax could become a
reality from April 1, 2016. The finance ministry is set to introduce the Constitution (115th
Amendment) Bill in the winter session.
67. India and China inked 12 pacts in a range of areas including railways and outer space
as Beijing pledged investments of USD 20 billion over five years in a bid to boost
economic ties and address India's concerns over trade deficit.
68. The Indian Railways will get assistance from its counterpart in China for semi-high
speed corridors, which allow trains to run at a speed of up to 200 km per hour.
69. PSU oil marketers not only wiped out their under-recovery on diesel in the fortnight
ended September 15 but also reported a marginal over-recovery of 35 paise a litre on
its sales. The development, mainly due to monthly price hikes since January 2013 and
also helped hugely by a relatively low global crude oil price.
70. Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority has set up a panel of experts,
headed by former Sebi chief GN Bajpai, to review investment norms for National
Pension System (NPS) schemes for the private sector.
71. Industrial and infrastructure project proposals will get security clearance within 12
weeks as the Home Ministry has streamlined the process by issuing a detailed guideline
in this regard.
72. To sort out the liability issue plaguing Indian nuclear reactors, the Centre has asked
General Insurance Company (GIC) to work on a model that could be applied to insure
such facilities in the country.
73. A new index Creative Productivity Index (CPI) ranks Japan as the most efficient among
Asian countries while Myanmar, Pakistan and Cambodia are least efficient. India is at
14th rank. The Asian Development Bank said it developed the index with the Economist
Intelligence Unit to give policymakers a tool to assess how best to foster innovation and
creativity in Asian economies.
75. With the target of providing houses for all by 2022, a new integrated National Housing
Mission will be launched soon by merging some of UPA's flagship schemes like
JNNURM and Rajiv Awas Yojana.
76. Boeing has delivered the fifth maritime patrol aircraft P-8I to India as part of a deal for
eight aircraft to support the Indian Navy's maritime patrol requirements.
77. Finance minister Arun Jaitley is not going to attend the G-20 finance ministers and
central bank chiefs meeting in Cairns, Australia, on September 20 and 21, as he is

recovering from a diabetes management surgery. Minister of state (finance and

commerce) Nirmala Sitharaman will attend the meeting instead.
78. The Expenditure Management Commission headed by Bimal Jalan will submit its
interim report by January, in time for its recommendations to be incorporated in the
FY16 Budget.
79. Rating agency Moody's said prospects have brightened with growth rate expected to
accelerate to 5.2 per cent in 2014 and 6.5 percent by end of 2015.
80. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has cleared sale of government's 11.36
per cent in NHPC. The government also gave a go- ahead to the much-awaited 10 per
cent stake sale in Coal India Ltd, which could fetch over Rs 23,000 crore to the
exchequer. Government also cleared 5 per cent disinvestment in oil major ONGC,
which may fetch the exchequer about Rs 18,000 crore.
81. Seven years after the then Australian Prime Minister John Howard decided to sell
uranium to India. India and Australia signed the civilian nuclear cooperation agreement.
82. RBI said guarantors, group firms and management can also be classified as willful
defaulters by lenders. If the guarantor refuses to comply with the demand made by the
banker despite having sufficient means to make payment of the dues, such guarantor
would also be treated as a wilful defaulter.
83. Indian government has decided to start negotiations for a free-trade agreement (FTA)
with Peru.
84. India has signed the free trade agreement (FTA) in services and investments with the
10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
85. Declaring the Jammu and Kashmir floods as "national level disaster", Prime Minister
Narendra Modi announced Rs 1,000 crore as special assistance for rehabilitation.
86. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu announced that the new capital
of the state would be located "around Vijayawada".
87. India will get $35 billion from Japan over the next five years for development projects,
including building of smart cities and next generation infrastructure.
88. Japan offered to provide financial, technical and operational support to India for
introduction of bullet trains. The two Prime Ministers look forward to the completion of
the Joint Feasibility Study on High Speed Railway system on
Ahmedabad Mumbai route.
89. Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with
Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to turn Varanasi into a smart city with help from Kyoto.

90. The much-awaited minimum monthly pension of Rs.1,000 and a higher wage ceiling of
Rs.15,000 for social security schemes run by retirement fund manager Employees
Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will be implemented from September 1.
91. Ms. Mridula Sinha will be administered oath of office as the Governor of Goa.
92. Ch. Vidyasagar Rao was sworn in as Maharashtra Governor.
93. A four-member high-level committee has been set up under the former Cabinet
Secretary T.S.R. Subramanian to examine five laws administered by the Union Ministry
of Environment, Forests & Climate Change.
94. Iran unveiled a new surface-to-air Talash-3 (Effort-3, in Persian) missile and two radar
systems Arash-2 and Kayhan.
95. The Department of Personnel and Training has notified amendments giving autonomy
to the Lokpal search committee to shortlist and recommend names independently for
selection of Chairman and members of the anti-corruption body.
96. Mumbais Esplanade House, once the residence of Jamsetji Tata, founder of the Tata
Empire, and the Shri Sakhargad Nivasini Devi Temple Complex in Satara are among
the 14 projects from 10 countries that bagged the UNESCO Asia Pacific Heritage
Awards that were announced in Bangkok.
97. India and Bangladesh have reached a decision on ratification of the Land Boundary
Agreement (LBA) and ensure zero border killings.
98. China will set up two industrial parks in India, one each in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
99. Tata Consultancy Services has reappointed N Chandrasekaran as Chief Executive
Officer and Managing Director for a five year term.
100. Bihar is the fastest growing State while Tamil Nadu is the worst performer, the latest
data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has revealed. Bihars Gross State
Domestic Product (GSDP) grew 10.73 per cent during 2012-13. The second-best
performing State is Madhya Pradesh, which grew at 9.89 per cent. Delhi is third with a
growth rate of 9.33 per cent.
101. Kolkata-born British author Neel Mukherjees latest novel The Lives of Others has
been shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize 2014.
102. ICICI Bank launched Instant Money Transfer. In which customer can now transfer
money from their account to anyone in India with a mobile number.

103. Meghalaya Governor Krishan Kant Paul has been given additional charge of Manipur
and Mizoram.
104. The European Union (EU) decided to slap new economic sanctions on Russia over its
actions in Ukraine.
105. PayPal will start accepting bitcoin payments through its subsidiary, Braintree, the
company has announced.
106. Haryana and Maharashtra will hold elections on October 15, with counting of votes on
October 19, as per the schedule announced by the Election Commission.
107. China will be the focus country for the 45th International Film Festival of India (IFFI)
2014, scheduled to be held in Goa between November 20 and 30.
108. India and Vietnam signed seven agreements, including one for enhanced cooperation
in the oil sector. ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) and Vietnam Oil signed a Letter of Intent
(LoI) for jointly exploring two more blocks.
109. India has warmed to the idea of the BCIM (Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar) corridor
that could prove to be a game-changer in regional linkages among the four countries.
The BCIM corridor, long promoted by China, is intended to link Kunming to Kolkata,
Mandalay (Myanmar), Dhaka and Chittagong.
110. Chinese President Xi Jinping made a special announcement on opening a new route
for pilgrims to Kailash-Mansarovar in the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
111. The Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) and the China Development
Bank Corporation (CDB) signed various agreements with SBI, ICICI Bank and Axis
Bank.
112. Public sector banks (PSBs) in India will need to raise up to $37 billion over the next 45 years to meet Basel III compliance norms, credit rating agency Moodys said.
113. The government has set up a high-level committee headed by Bibek Debroy to
reconfigure the Railway Board as well as to suggest steps for resource mobilisation for
major projects.
114. Bamiyan has been selected to be the SAARC cultural capital for a year beginning April
2015. Dhaka will be the SAARC cultural capital in 2016-17. The year 2016-17 will also
be declared the SAARC Year of Cultural Heritage.
115. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan resigned from his post; a day after the Nationalist
Congress Party (NCP) withdrew support to his government and reduced it to a minority.

GK Power Capsule (The Hindu Review) August 2014

1. RBI has held policy rates at current levels. However RBIs move to cut SLR by 50 bps
to 22% could provide banks an additional liquidity of R44,000 crore. Current fiscal year
is expected to go up to 5.5 per cent from 4.7 per cent in last financial year.
i. Bank Rate 9 % (Unchanged)
ii. Cash Reserve Ratio 4 % (Unchanged)
iii. Statutory Liquidity Ratio 22 % (Decreased 0.5%)
iv. Repo Rate 8 % (Unchanged)
v. Reverse Repo Rate 7 % (Unchanged)
vi. Marginal Standing Rate 9 % (Unchanged)
2. Union Government appointed chairman of Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) RN Ravi
as Naga interlocutor. He was also appointment as Chief of the Joint Intelligence
Committee.
3. Turkey's ruling party named Finance Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as New Prime
Minister of Turkey.
4. Thailand coup leader, Army Chief Prayuth Chanocha was elected as The Prime
Minister of Thailand.
5. Prof. V. K. Thomas was appointed as Chairman of Public Accounts Committee.
6. Rajni Razdan became the new Chairperson of the UPSC. She replaced Prof. D P
Agrawal.
7. K V Chowdary appointed as new Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).
8. Arvind Gupta was appointed as Deputy National Security Adviser.
9. US actor and singer Harry Belafonte was named for honorary Jean Hersholt
Humanitarian Oscar Award.
10. Renowned agriculture Scientist M.S. Swaminathan was conferred with an honorary
degree of the Doctor of Science by the University of Agriculture in Faisalabad, Pakistan.
11. Muzaffar Ali, renowned filmmaker and poet, was presented the 22nd Rajiv Gandhi
National Sadbhavana award.
12. Delhi University professor Dr. Sunil Kumar received Global South Award given by
International Political Science Association (IPSA).
13. Bharatiya Mahila Bank Ltd bagged the Core Banking System Initiative Award for the
year 2014 at the Asian Banking and Finance - Retail Banking Awards 2014.

14. Shah Rukh Khan became the Ambassador of Turn Back Crime campaign of
Interpol.
15. Russia granted a three-year residence permit to Edward Snowden, the Former US
intelligence contractor turned whistleblower.
16. President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the Outstanding Parliamentarian Awards.
i. BJP leader Arun Jaitley received the award for the year 2010
ii. Congress Veteran Karan Singh received the award for the year 2011
iii. JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav received the award for the year for 2012
17. Nuri al-Maliki resigned as the Prime Minister of Iraq and accepted the candidacy of
Dr. Haider alAbadi, who was nominated by the President of Iraq Fouad Masoum to form
the new government.
18. Syrian Golan Heights was in news in the fifth week of August 2014 after forty-three
UN Peacekeepers from Fiji were held as hostage by an armed group of rebels.
19. Indian Army discovered a tunnel in the Pallanwalla sector along the Line of Control
in Jammu & Kashmir.
20. Bipan Chandra, famous historian, died.
21. Oscar-winning British filmmaker and actor Richard Attenborough died. Richard
Attenborough was renowned for his critically-acclaimed biopic on Mahatma Gandhi.
22. UR Ananthamurthy, an eminent Kannada writer died.
23. World-renowned yoga guru B. K.S Iyengar died.
24. Oscar-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams was found dead at his home.
25. Pran Kumar Sharma, the eminent cartoonist who created the comic book character
like Chacha Chaudhary and Sabu died.
26. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh launched a Plan Scheme of Mainstreaming
Civil Defence in Disaster Risk Reduction at a function at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
27. Survey of India the official mapping agency of the country alleged that Google
continued to pollute the internet with the map results of Indias classified areas even
after being warned against it.
28. The WHO called for a range of tough regulations that restricts the use of ecigarettes.

29. The WHO has declared Ebola as Global Health Emergency. The decision was taken
after a two day emergency session held in Geneva.
30. President of Sierra Leone Ernest Bai Koroma declared a public health emergency in
Sierra Leone to curb the deadly Ebola outbreak.
31. Former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai authored a book titled Not Just
an Accountant.
32. A book titled Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi: An Inside Job? authored by Faraz
Ahmad was released.
33. A book titled Gujarats success story in Water Management was released. This book
was written by BJPs National Convener of Water Management Cell, Sriram Vedire.
34. A book Strictly Personal, Manmohan and Gursharan written by Daman Singh was
published. The book is the untold story of Manmohan Singh, Indias thirteenth Prime
Minister, and his wife.
35. Sivaramakrishnan committee constituted by the Union Government to suggest the
place to build the capital city of Andhra Pradesh submitted its report.
36. Prime Minister Narendra Modi set up a Ramanujam committee to identify obsolete
laws.
37. The Union Government decided to appoint former RBI governor Bimal Jalan as the
head of the Expenditure Management Commission. He would be tasked to suggest
ways for managing public finances by reducing food, fertiliser and oil subsidies to
include fiscal deficit.
38. Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan appointed a committee under the
chairmanship of former home secretary RK Singh to review Parliament security.
39. The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development set up a four member
committee to review the present status of Universities Grants Commission. The
committee will be headed by former UGC chairman Hari Gautam.
40. Indian Air Force and Russian Federation Air Force started Indo-Russian Air Force
Exercise, Avia Indra-2014 at Astrakhan region, near the Caspian Sea in Russia.
41. Indias first indigenously-built stealth AntiSubmarine Warfare INS Kamorta was
commissioned in Indian Navy by Union Defence Minister Arun Jaitley.
42. SEBI imposed a penalty of Rs.13 crore on Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) for nondisclosure of a key earnings ratio.

43. SBI reported a 3.3 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs.3,349 crore for the first quarter
of 2014-15.
44. The Union Home Ministry has recommended the name of hockey wizard Major
Dhyan Chand for the highest civilian honour of Bharat Ratna.
45. Salman Rushdie has received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award.
46. BCCI has appointed former Test all-rounder Ravi Shastri Director of Cricket in the
Indian team for the five-match ODI series against England.
47. T. M. Bhasin, Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Bank, has been elected as
the Chairman of Indian Banks Association.
48. President Pranab Mukherjee appointed Kalyan Singh, Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala, Ch.
Vidyasagar Rao and Mridula Sinha Governors of Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra
and Goa, respectively.
49. The Jan Dhan Yojana provides for a free zero balance bank account with a debit
card, Rs 1 lakh accidental insurance policy and Rs 30,000 free medical insurance cover
for those who enroll before January 26 2015. Depending on the performance of the
accounts in the first six months, banks will later extend a Rs 5,000 overdraft facility,
thereby turning the debit card into a kind of credit card. The debit card is being issued
by RuPay of the National Payments Corporation of India. Accounts will opened with any
one document including electricity/telephone bill, marriage/birth certificate for address
proof and NREGA job card/ identity card of accredited institutions for identity proof.
Having an Aadhaar card/number is not mandatory. These accounts can be linked to
aadhaar numbers later.
50. Government plans to hike its stake in IFCI Ltd to 51 per cent by infusing Rs 60 crore
in the country's oldest financial institution. At present the stake is nearly 48 per cent.
51. GDP grew by 5.7 per cent in the first quarter of the fiscal, marking the fastest growth
since March 2012, according to data released by the CSO. The economy grew at 4.6
per cent in the fourth quarter of last fiscal.
52. Wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation dipped to a five-month low of 5.19 per
cent in July.
53. State-owned banks are likely to hit the capital markets in November in a bid to meet
Basel III capital adequacy norms, for which the requirement has been estimated at
Rs.2.40 lakh crore over a five-year period.
54. Syndicate Bank Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) S.K. Jain was arrested by
the CBI, along with his brother-in-law and four others, for allegedly receiving a bribe of
Rs. 50 lakh.

55. A Bill to further empower SEBI to check fraudulent investment schemes was
introduced in the Lok Sabha.
56. RBI issued draft guidelines for the implementation of Bharat Bill Payment System.
The RBI has invited comments from stakeholders by September 5. The objective of the
BBPS is to implement an integrated bill payment system across the country and offer
interoperable and accessible bill payment service to customers through a network of
agents, enabling multiple payment modes and providing instant confirmation of
payment.
57. Chaired by Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram G. Rajan the Sub-Committee of the
Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) reviewed the domestic macro
economy and potential risks facing the financial system.
58. SEBI approved the SEBI (Real Estate Investment Trusts) Regulations, 2014, and
SEBI (Infrastructure Investment Trusts) Regulations, 2014. The SEBI move will provide
a framework for registration and regulation for setting up and listing of Real Estate
Investment Trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) in
India. Once registered, the REIT will raise funds through an initial offer. Subsequent
raising of funds would be through follow-on offer, rights issue and qualified institutional
placement. The minimum subscription size for units of REIT will be Rs. 2 lakh.
59. On a Supreme Court directive, SEBI has issued a public notice asking those holding
bonds issued by two Sahara Group companies to apply for refund by September 30.
60. RBI asked the State governments to be vigilant against unauthorised deposit
mobilization activities in different parts of the country.
61. The Union Rural Development Ministry has suggested doubling the amount of
financial assistance offered to villagers to build homes saying the current allocation of
Rs 70,000 was "insufficient". A paper on National Gramin Awaas Mission (a
rechristened version of Indira Awas Yojana) prepared by the ministry on housing said
the amount should be Rs 1.5 lakh.
62. India has decided to acquire US Boeing's Chinook and Apache helicopters, an
Indian defence ministry official said, in a deal valued at $2.5 billion. The deal topped the
agenda during a visit by U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel in August.
63. The much-awaited minimum monthly pension of Rs 1,000 and a higher wage ceiling
of Rs 15,000 for social security schemes run by retirement fund manager EPFO will be
implemented from September 1.
64. Govt lifted the restriction of supply of only one subsidised cooking gas LPG cylinder
to a household in a month, saying consumers can avail their quota of 12 bottles at
anytime of the year.

65. India has banned Finmeccanica group of companies from bidding in contracts, a
defence ministry source said. In January, India cancelled a 560-million-euro ($751
million) order with Finmeccanicas unit Agusta Westland for 12 topend helicopters after
Italian prosecutors alleged the defence group had paid bribes to Indian officials to win
the contract.
66. Asian Development Bank said it will provide up to 7-9 billion loan to the country over
the next three years.
67. The government notified the hike in foreign investment limit in defence production to
49% from 26% approved by the cabinet recently. It said even beyond the new limit of
49%, foreign investment would be considered on case to case basis by the Cabinet
Committee on Security.
68. The government will spend Rs 20,000 crore to provide mobile connectivity in 55,000
villages, which are still untouched by wireless telephony, in the next five years.
69. Gujarat has grabbed a lion's share, 45 percent, of the country's total exports that
were made from Special Economic Zones or SEZs during the year 2013-14.
70. Government has started the process for setting up four new ultra mega power
projects in Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, which will together add 16,000 MW capacity to
the country's power generation. UMPP is a thermal power project of at least 4,000 MW
capacity, with an approximate investment of Rs 25,000 crore. So far, four UMPPs have
been awarded. Of this, Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh)
and Tilaiya (Jharkhand) have been bagged by Reliance Power. Tata Power is operating
the Mundra UMPP in Gujarat.
71. Government hiked the import duty on both raw and refined sugar to 25 per cent from
the existing 15 per cent.
72. Delhi has been ranked a dismal 111th out of 140 world cities in a latest global live
ability study, pointing to the lack of urban planning across India's polluted and chaotic
cities.
73. Gujarat followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka are the leading states attracting
significant investment in Indias hotels and tourism industry.
74. India ranked fifth amongst top ten wind power producers in the world by adding
1,700 MW capacity in 2013, a report said. "China was the leading wind power producer
by adding 16,100 MW capacity in 2013, followed by USA, Germany and Spain,"
Renewable 2014 Global Status Report said.
75. The Defence Ministry has decided against blacklisting British aircraft engine
manufacturer Rolls-Royce and allowed the armed forces to do business related to

essential requirements with the firm, which is facing a CBI investigation for allegedly
paying commissions and employing middlemen in contracts with HAL.
75. Tata-SIA Airlines Limited announced that the much-anticipated brand name of its
new airline will be Vistara or limitless in Sanskrit with aubergine and gold its colours.
76. Prime Minister Narendra Modi waived off Jammu and Kashmirs Rs. 60-crore liability
towards the Food Corporation of India and announced Central assistance of Rs. 8,000
crore for four major road projects.
77. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the setting up of a new institution to
replace the Planning Commission.
78. India and Singapore decided to scale up ties in key areas of investment and trade
which has witnessed a huge surge from USD 4.2 billion to about USD 19.4 billion in the
last one decade. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Singapore.
79. China inaugurated its second railway line in Tibet, built at a cost of USD 2.16 billion,
close to Indian border in Sikkim, enhancing mobility of its military in the remote and
strategic Himalayan region.
80. NASAs Mars rover, Opportunity, which landed on the Red Planet in 2004, is now
the record holder of the off-Earth roving distance after accruing 40 kilometres of driving,
the American space agency said.
81. After the World Trade Organisation (WTO) failed to agree on a Trade Facilitation
Agreement (TFA) or global customs rules following Indian opposition India has refused
to agree on a TFA because it wants the WTO to decide simultaneously on a higher limit
on stockpiling of agriculture produce to feed the poor.
82. Doordarshan programmes will soon be available across Asia, Europe, North Africa
and Australia, courtesy a memorandum of understanding signed by Prasar Bharati with
German public service broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
83. The two-day 18th BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) Ministerial
Meeting held in New Delhi.
84. Manjul Bhargava and Subhash Khot, mathematicians of Indian origin, are among
eight winners of the International Mathematical Union awards, announced in Seoul.

GK Power Capsule July 2014 (The Hindu Review)

1. New Governors Appointments
(i) Shri Kaptan Singh Solanki - Governor of Haryana.
(ii) Shri Keshari Nath Tripathi - Governor of West Bengal.

(iii) Shri Ram Naik - Governor of Uttar Pradesh

(iv) Shri Balramji Dass Tandon - Governor of Chhattisgarh
(v) Shri Om Prakash Kohli - Governor of Gujarat
(vi) Shri Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya - Governor of Nagaland.
2. Lt. General Dalbir Singh Suhag took over as Chief of Army Staff. He
succeeded General Bikram Singh to become the 28th Army Chief.
3. Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha took over as the Chairman
of the Chief of Staff Committee.
4. Amitabh Bachchan was appointed as the horticulture ambassador of
Maharashtra.
5. Subhash Sheoratan Mundra took charge as the fourth Deputy Governor of
the Reserve Bank of India for three years. He was appointed to fill the
vacancy created by the KC Chakrabarty. Before being appointed as Deputy
Governor of RBI, S S Mundra was the Chairman and Managing Director of
Bank of Baroda.

6. The Comptroller & Auditor General of India, Shashi Kant Sharma assumed
office as Member of the United Nations Board of Auditors for a term of six
year.
7. The Supreme Court appointed R S Cheema as Special Public Prosecutor
for trial in coal blocks allocation scam.
8. Yellapragada Sudharshan Rao was appointed as Chairman of Indian
Council of Historical Research (ICHR).
9. B Ashok took charge as Chairman of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the
Indias largest oil firm.
10. Emma Watson, the British Actress was appointed as the Goodwill
Ambassador for UN Women.
11. Justice Arun Mishra, Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Rohington F
Nariman were appointed as Supreme Court judges.
12. M S Mehta was appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Reliance
Infrastructure.

13. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Nepal. She cochaired
the meeting of the IndoNepal Joint Commission. India and Nepal agreed to
review and adjust the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1950 to reflect the
current realities.
14. The World Bank President Jim Yong Kim arrived in New Delhi, India on
his threeday visit.
15. Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi visited Brazil to attend the 6th
BRICS Summit in Fortaleza, Brazil form 15 July to 16 July 2014. BRICS
group includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. One of the most
important decision taken was the creation of 100 billion dollar New
Development Bank with equal contribution from all the BRICS countries.
Besides, the Summit also saw the creation of 100 billion dollar Contingency
Reserve Arrangement (CRA) fund for the BRICS nation. The 7th Summit will
be held in 2015 in Russian city of Ufa.
16. Deputy National Security Adviser Nehchal Sandhu resigned.
17. The Prime Minister of Ukraine, Arseniy Yatsenyuk resigned from his post
from Verkhovna Rada (The Parliament of Ukraine) after his governing
coalition collapsed.
18. Madhukar Singh, an eminent Hindi litterateur died.
19. Sushilarani Patel, the renowned classical singer of India died.
20. Nadine Gordimer, the South African Nobel Prize winner author, died.
21. Eduard Shevardnadze, the former President of Georgia died.
22. Alfredo Di Stefano, the legend of Real Madrid Football Club, died.
23. Granville Austin, the eminent scholar of the Indian Constitution died.
24. Former Haitian president Leslie Francois Manigat died.
25. Nicolas Sarkozy, the former President of France was charged with
corruption and influence peddling.
26. Sujit Choudhry became the first IndianAmerican dean of the Berkeley
Law School, University of California.
27. The United States named a mountain in Antarctica as Mt. Sinha to
honour an eminent IndianAmerican scientist, Akhouri Sinha.

28. Business 20 (B20) Australia Summit was held in Sydney, Australia. At

the Summit, the business leaders of G20 countries issued a blueprint for
G20 leaders to boost economic and job growth and make global economy
more resilient to deal with future shocks.
29. 7th IndiaBrazilSouth Africa (IBSA) summit will be held in New Delhi,
India in 2015. Apart from this, it was also agreed to hold India Africa Forum
meet in New Delhi in December 2014.
30. President of Sierra Leone Ernest Bai Koroma declared a public health
emergency in Sierra Leone to curb the deadly Ebola outbreak. The outbreak
is now the largest recorded in world history, and has infected three African
capitals of Monrovia (Liberia), Freetown (Sierra Leone) and Conakry
(Guinea) with international airports.
31. The United Nation launched the 2014 revision of the World Urbanisation
Prospects report. The report said that at present, 54 percent of the world's
population lives in urban areas, which will have an additional 2.5 billion
people in urban areas by 2050. Tokyo was ranked at first position as
populous cities in 2014 with 38 million inhabitants. Delhi with 25 million
population was ranked at 2nd position. Shanghai with 23 million was placed
at 3rd position. Mexico City, Mumbai and Sao Paulo, each with around 21
million inhabitants in 2014 were ranked at 4th position.
32. India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2013 was released. The report said
that total forest and tree cover of the country is 87.92 million hectare, which
turns up to be 24.01 percent of the geographical area of India. States with
maximum increase in forest cover are West Bengal, Odisha, Kerala. States
with Largest forest cover are Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh. Mizoram
in terms of percentage 90.38 percent had highest forest cover.
33. Heavy downpour caused landslide in Malin Village of Ambegaon Taluka,
70 Kms from Pune killing 41 peoples.
34. The World on 29 July 2014 observed the International Tiger Day.
35. World Hepatitis Day was observed across the world on 28 July 2014.
36. World Population Day was observed across the world on 11 July 2014.
The theme of World Population Day 2014 was investing in Young People.

36. India on 1 July 2014 observed the National Doctors Day. The day is
observed to honour legendary physician, Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy whose birth
and death anniversary falls on the same day.
37. Indian Air Force received its sixth C17 Globemaster III aircraft.
38. India's first indigenous antisubmarine warship (ASW) Indian Naval Ship
(INS) Kamorta was handed over to the Indian Navy.
39. Indian Naval Ship (INS) Kuthar Warship was damaged in a mishap.
40. India successfully testfired an advanced version of the 290km range
BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from ChandipuronSea off Odisha coast.
41. Union government decided to appoint Suresh Prabhu Committee to
review the gas pricing formula. The Union Cabinet on 25 June 2014 had
deferred the implementation of the C Rangarajan Committee's pricing
formula till 30 September 2014 for conducting a comprehensive review of
the whole issue.
42. The Union Civil Aviation Ministry on 7 July 2014 constituted an
InterMinisterial Group (IMG) to examine the maximum potential of GPS
Aided Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) system. IMG will be headed by Ashok
Lavasa.
43. One Life is Not Enough: An Autobiography written by Kunwar Natwar
Singh was published on 1 August 2014.
44. The Lives of Others authored by Neel Mukherjee was shortlisted for Man
Booker Prize 2014. Neel Mukherjee is a Kolkataborn British Indian writer.
45. The Vijay Mallya Story written by K Giriprakash was published by
Penguin Books Limited in 2014.
46. A coffeetable book titled First Citizen: Pranab Mukherjee in Rashtrapati
Bhavan was released on 2 July 2014 at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan,
New Delhi. The books first copy was received by Pranab Mukherjee.
47. Muzaffar Ali, a noted filmmaker of India was selected for Rajiv Gandhi
National Sadbhavana Award.
48. The Indian Contingent won five medals in 45th International Physics
Olympiad held in Astana, Kazakhstan. India won 2 gold medals and 3 silver
medals in the Olympiad.

49. Environmentalist Chandi Prasad Bhatt was awarded with the prestigious
Gandhi Peace prize for 2013.
50. Shah Rukh Khan was conferred with top French civilian award Knight of
the Legion of Honor. Shahrukh Khan is the second Bollywood actor after
Amitabh Bachchan to be honoured with Knight of the Legion of Honour.
51. Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani education advocate won the 2014
Liberty Medal given by the National Constitution Centre in Philadelphia in
Pennsylvania.
52. The classical music reality show of Doordarshan Naad BhedThe Mystery
of Sound will be featured in Limca Book of Records. The reality show will be
featured under Television Chapter in Limca Book of Records for being the
first ever National level reality show on Classical Music.
53. The third edition of Ladakh International Film Festival (LIFF) was held in
Leh, Jammu and Kashmir.
54. The annual Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra (Chariot Festival) began on 29
June 2014 at Puri of Odisha.
55. Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi launched a web platform
MyGov.nic.in. The platform has been created to facilitate Citizen
Engagement in Good Governance.
56. The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development launched a Logo
Design Competition for the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Campaign.
57. First Aid Post was launched at Shastri Bhawan in New Delhi. The post
was launched to expand the network of health care to its beneficiaries.
58. China has invited India to participate in the Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank.
59. Indias Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C23 successfully put five foreign
satellites into orbit in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the
Indian Space Research Organisation, Sriharikota. ISRO launched the 714kg
French earth observation satellite SPOT7, the 14kg German AISAT, the two
15kg Canadian NLS7.1 (CANX4) and NLS7.2 (CANX5) and the 7kg
Singapore VELOX1. PM asked Indias space community to take up the
challenge of developing a Saarc satellite which can be dedicated to our
neighbourhood, as a gift from India.

60. China has for the first time formally agreed to allow Indian hydrological
experts to conduct study tours in Tibet to monitor the flows on the upper
reaches of the Brahmaputra, according to a new agreement signed during
the visit of VicePresident Hamid Ansari. The MoU on the Brahmaputra was
among three agreements signed as VicePresident Hamid Ansari held talks
with his counterpart Li Yuanchao. Both countries have also formalised a
framework for setting up Chinadedicated infrastructure parks in India and
for the firstever training exchange programme for officials of both countries,
between the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration
(LBSNAA), Mussoorie, and the China Executive Leadership Academy (CELAP)
in Shanghai.
61. Kaafiron ki Namaaz , a movie by debutant director Ram Ramesh Sharma
and producer Bhargav Saikai won four awards, including one for the best
feature film at the third Ladakh International Film Festival.
62. The Rajasthan government declared the camel as the State animal.
63. NDA government has appointed the former Cabinet Minister, Suresh
Prabhu, as the head of a highlevel panel on power revamp Advisory
Group for Integrated Development of Power, Coal and Renewable Energy.
64. The European Court of Human Rights upheld Frances controversial
burqa ban.
65. WalMart India launched its online platform for members of Best Price
Modern Wholesale stores in Hyderabad and Lucknow.
66. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the
inclusion of onion and potato under the purview of stock holding limits under
the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
67. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the third most followed world leader on
Twitter, next only to U.S. President Barack Obama and the Pope. Mr. Modi,
who overtook Indonesian President S.B. Yudhoyono.
68. The government reappointed Harun Rashid Khan as the Deputy
Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, for a further period of two years with
effect from July 4.
69. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan wrote to Chief Ministers of all
States (except Rajasthan) and Lt. Governors and Administrators of UTs to
consider levying a VAT of at least 50 per cent on all tobacco products.

70. Universal Sompo General Insurance Company has entered into a tie with
Dena Bank to offer loan secure insurance policy to the banks retail and SME
(small and medium enterprise) customers. Universal Sompo is a joint
venture between Allahabad Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Karnataka Bank,
Dabur Investments and Sompo Japan Insurance Inc.
71. The Supreme Court held that fatwas issued by Muslim shariat courts
(DarulQazas) do not have legal sanctity and cannot be enforced if they
infringed on the fundamental rights of an individual.
72. NASA has fitted a 17tonne telescope with an effective diameter of eight
feet on a modified Boeing 747 jetliner that the U.S. space agency is using as
a flying observatory to study stars.
73. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has notified that the
minimum broadband speed has been raised to 512 kilo bytes per second
(kbps) from the earlier 256 kbps.
74. The RBI Governor has conveyed his approval to the Andhra Pradesh
Governments request for rescheduling of crop loans.
75. Railways made it clear that it would continue with the fuel adjustment
component (FAC) to revise passenger fares every six months.
76. The muchawaited verdict on the dispute regarding the delimitation of
the maritime boundary between India and Bangladesh was delivered, with a
United Nations tribunal awarding Bangladesh 19,467 sq. km of the 25,602
sq. km sea area of the Bay of Bengal.
77. People can now book a coach or even a train on the Internet as part of
Railways efforts to expand the scope of online booking.
78. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tabled the Economic Survey 201314
in Parliament. It projects that the GDP growth this fiscal year will be in the
range of 5.4 to 5.9 per cent.
79. Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranarayan approved the ordinance
granting reservation to Maratha and Muslim communities in Maharashtra.
Marathas will get a 16 per cent quota and Muslims five per cent in
government jobs and educational institutions.
80. Senior Advocate
SolicitorGeneral.

Pinky

Anand

has

been

appointed

Additional

81. Germany expelled the U.S. intelligence station chief in Berlin over
alleged spying by Washington.
82. Indian engineers are toiling in the Himalayas to build the worlds tallest
railway bridge which is expected to be 35 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower
when completed by 2016. The arch shaped steel structure is being
constructed over the Chenab River to link sections of the spectacular
mountainous region of India's northern Jammu and Kashmir state. The
bridge is expected to be 359 metres high when completed surpassing the
worlds current tallest railway bridge over the Beipanjiang River in China's
Guizhou province, 275 metres high.
83. Air India formally became a member of Star Alliance, a conglomeration
of 26 overseas airlines.
84. The government has imposed an additional penalty of $579 million (Rs.
3,475 crore) on Reliance Industries for producing less than the targeted
natural gas from its KGD6 block in 201314.
85. Global AIDSrelated deaths and new HIV infections have fallen by over a
third in a decade, raising hopes of beating the killer disease by 2030, the
United Nations has said.
86. A World Trade Organisation (WTO) Dispute Panel has ruled that the
imposition of Countervailing Duty (CVD) by the United States Department of
Commerce (US DOC) on Indias exports of hotrolled carbon steel flat
products is inconsistent with the law on subsidies.
87. India and Russia have commenced naval manoeuvres in the Sea of
Japan.
88. A fivejudge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will take up for
consideration a petition seeking to allow a person suffering from chronic
terminal diseases and likely to go into a permanent vegetative state to
refuse treatment and pave the way for their death.
89. The government cleared 19 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals
worth Rs.2,326.72 crore. The proposals include those from Walt Disney
Company and Reckitt Benckiser India.
90. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his brief stopover in Frankfurt on
his way back from Brazil, called up German Chancellor Angela Merkel and
extended greetings on her 60th birthday, congratulated Germany for the
World Cup win and exchanged invitations for a bilateral summit next year.

91. RBI has set a minimum paidup capital of Rs.100 crore for those who
wish to set up payments and small banks. RBI has said that the promoters
will have to have an initial minimum capital of at least 40 per cent.
According to the draft guidelines, existing authorised nonbank prepaid
instrument issuers (PPIs), nonbanking finance companies (NBFCs),
corporate BCs (business correspondents), mobile telephone companies,
super market chains, companies, real sector cooperatives and public sector
entities are eligible for setting up a payments bank. The guidelines allow
even banks to take equity position in a payments bank as permitted under
the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. The activities of a payments bank will be
restricted to acceptance of demand deposits, and provision of payments and
remittances services. A payments bank, says the RBI, will further the cause
of financial inclusion by providing small savings accounts and payments and
remittance services to migrant labour workforce, lowincome households,
small businesses and other unorganised entities. The idea is to facilitate high
volume and low value transactions in a secure and technologydriven
environment. A payments bank cannot set up subsidiaries to undertake
nonbanking financial activities. The payments bank, however, has to comply
with the SLR (statutory liquidity ratio) and CRR (cash reserve ratio)
requirements. The Payments Bank shall be required to maintain a minimum
capital adequacy ratio of 15 per cent of its risk weighted assets (RWA) on a
continuous basis. The RBI has made it clear that a payments bank should
ensure widespread network of access points particularly to remote areas,
either through their own branch network or BCs or through network provided
by others.
92. Small bank eligibility Resident individuals/professionals with ten years
of experience in banking and finance, companies and societies are eligible to
set up small banks. Existing nonbanking finance companies, microfinance
institutions, and local area banks can also convert themselves into small
banks after complying with the requisite legal and regulatory requirements.
The area of operations of the small bank will be restricted to contiguous
districts in a homogenous cluster of States/Union Territories so that the bank
has the local feel and culture. However, if considered necessary, the bank
will be allowed to expand its area of operations beyond contiguous districts
in one or more States with reasonable geographical proximity. Its branch
expansion plan for the initial three years will need prior approval of RBI after
which, based on experience, the RBI may consider relaxing this condition,
the guidelines say. The small bank shall primarily undertake basic banking
activities of acceptance of deposits and lending to small farmers, small
businesses, micro and small industries and unorganised sector entities, say
the guidelines. A small bank also cannot set up subsidiaries to undertake
nonbanking financial services activities, and its promoters have to ringfence

their like activities. A small bank has to comply with the CRR and SLR
requirements. The Payments Bank shall be required to maintain a minimum
capital adequacy ratio of 15 per cent of its risk weighted assets (RWA) on a
continuous basis. And RBI has fixed an upper limit for loan/investment
exposure to an individual or group at 15 per cent of its capital funds. Also, a
small bank has to comply with the priority sector lending targets.
93. A bill to remove legal hurdles in the appointment of former TRAI chief
Nripendra Misra as Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister has now become
an Act with President Pranab Mukherjee giving his assent.
94. Railways has cleared decks for the upgradation of five stations through
commercial development. The five stations are Chandigarh, Anand Vihar,
Bijwasan (both at Delhi), Habibganj (Bhopal) and Shivaji Nagar (Pune). The
Railways had formed the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation
(IRSDC) to modernise and upgrade passenger amenities at stations by
raising finances through commercial development of Railway land and air
space at these stations.
95. Manilabased Asian Development Bank has upgraded Indias economic
growth forecast to 6.3 per cent in 201516 on hopes of speedy reform
process.
96. The Indian government is planning to open up a first ever Yoga resource
centre in China.
97. International pop star Shakira is officially the most popular person on
Facebook with over a 100 million likes, the most for any public figure.
98. The Defence Ministry has cleared projects worth Rs. 21,000 crore,
including replacement of 56 Avro transport planes, demonstrating the
governments intent to fasttrack military acquisitions with an eye on
promoting private sector investment in the Defence sector.
99. Close on the heels of the recently concluded $400billion mega gas
pipeline deal between Russia and China, Moscow wants to work on a pipeline
to India through the Himalayas that could become the biggestever
energy project in history, Russian Ambassador Alexander Kadakin told.
100. The recent decision of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee
(GEAC) to allow field trials of GM rice, mustard, cotton, chickpea and brinjal
has been met with strong opposition from farmers groups and
environmental activists.

101. The United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution

calling for international investigators to have unfettered access to the crash
site of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine.
102. The Civil Aviation Ministry has issued No Objection Certificates (NOCs)
to six entities whose applications to start airlines in India were pending for
long. These six Air One, Premier Air, Zexus Air (all national), Turbo
Megha, Air Carnival and Zav Airways (all regional) are in addition to the
TataSingapore Airlines.
103. India, the United States and Japan are embarking on joint naval
manoeuvres in the Pacific Ocean as part of the Malabar series of exercises.
104. The proposed IndiaPakistan pipeline, through which India plans to
supply natural gas to Pakistan, may be completed within a year. The
pipeline, being put in place by the Gas Authority of India Ltd. The pipeline
will start at Dahej in Gujarat, pass through Vijaipur in Madhya Pradesh,
Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, Bawana in Delhi before reaching Nangal in Punjab.
105. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved of new
powers for the SEBI to crack down on Ponzi schemes and illegal deposit
schemes such as chit funds.
106. The Union Human Resource Development Ministry has advised all
States and Union Territories (UTs), barring Jammu and Kashmir, to take
appropriate action for the inclusion of third gender children among socially
and educationally backward classes for admission in educational institutions
under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
107. According to the 2014 UNDP Human Development Report with an HDI
value of 0.586 out of a maximum possible 1, India is 135th out of 187
countries.
108. Kurdish politician Fuad Masum became the new President of Iraq after
forming a new government.
109. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) and the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) signed an agreement, enabling the RBI to access the Sri Lankan
government securities market, up to a maximum value of $500 million.
110. Despite Indias objections to the UN observer mission at the Line of
Control UNMOGIP, visiting UN peacekeeping chief Herv Ladsous made it
clear that the mission would remain in India until the UN Security Council
removes its mandate, established in 1948 after the first war over Kashmir.

111. The Reserve Bank of India imposed a monetary penalty on 12 banks

for violating central bank rules in the case of Deccan Chronicle Holdings. The
central bank has imposed a penalty of Rs.40 lakh on ICICI Bank and Rs.15
lakh each on Axis Bank and IDBI Bank.
112. The Central Bureau of Investigation has instituted a preliminary
enquiry (PE) against Google for purported violations committed while
organising Mapathon 2013, a nationwide competition during which
securitysensitive installations were allegedly mapped without prior
permission.
113. Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Power said it had signed an initial
agreement to acquire all the three hydroelectric power plants of Jaiprakash
Associates Ltd.
114. Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi has
announced that Nirbhaya Centres or OneStop Crisis Centres (OSCC) will be
set up in all districts. Each will have paramedical staff, ambulance service, a
retired police officer to help lodge the FIR, counsellors, lawyers, shortstay
shelter with food and clothing, and video conferencing facility.
115. NDA government has mooted a proposal to merge two financial
institutions aimed at women's empowerment. Set up in the final months of
UPA government, the Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) with an initial corpus of
Rs 1,000 crores, and the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK), which was
established way back in 1993 to provide microloans to women, may be
merged, the Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi
said.
116. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) relaxed the limit of loan that banks
can sanction against the pledging of gold ornaments and jewellery. On
December 30, banks had restricted the loans of up to Rs 1 lakh against
pledge of gold ornaments and jewellery.
117. The Reserve Bank has allowed raising foreign investment limit under
portfolio investment in private sector Kotak Mahindra Bank to 40 per cent.
118. Infrastructure bonds issued by banks will have a minimum maturity
period of seven years and will not be considered part of the their net
demand and time liabilities (NDTL), RBI said.
119. The government will retain a majority holding in the public sector
banks (PSBs), but will allow them to raise money by selling shares to small

investors. The PSBs need a capital infusion of R2.4 lakh crore by 2018 to
meet the BaselIII requirements.
120. ICICI Bank in association with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC)
launched cobranded card with host of benefits for metro riders. Unifare Card
combines the benefits of a debit/credit card along with a Delhi Metro Smart
Card and has the added facility of auto topup of fare balance.

GK Power Capsule June 2014 (The Hindu Review)

1. Reserve Bank of India, in its second bimonthly monetary policy statement reduced
the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) by 50 basis points to 22.5 per cent. This measure is
likely to infuse around Rs.40,000 crore into the banking system.
New Rates are:
(A) Repo Rate 8 % (Unchanged)
(B) Reverse Repo Rate 7 % (Unchanged)
(C) Cash Reserve Ratio 4 % (Unchanged)
(D) Statutory Liquidity Ratio 22.5 % (Decreased 0.5%)
(E) Bank Rate 9 % (Unchanged)
(F) Marginal Standing Rate 9 % (Unchanged)
2. Additional secretary A.K. Dubey was appointed as Chairman of Coal India Limited
with immediate effect.
3. Rajeev Topno was appointed as Private Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
4. United Nations General Assembly approved the name of Zeid Raad Zeid alHussein
to head the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) of the UN.
5.

Shaktikanta

Das

was

appointed

as

the

new

Revenue

Secretary.

6. Lt Gen Amit Sharma was appointed as the CommanderinChief of Strategic Forces

Command.
7. Indian scientist Rasik Ravindra was elected as a member of the UN Commission on
the Limits of Continental Shelf (UNCLCS).
8. Vishal Sikka was appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Infosys.
9. Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar was appointed as the Solicitor General of India.
10. PK Mishra was appointed as the additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister,
Narendra Modi.

11. State government of Madhya Pradesh appointed Madhuri Dixit as the brand
ambassador of maternal and child health campaign, Mamta Abhiyan.
12. Sanchez Ceren was swornin as the President of El Salvador.
13. Japanese national, Hiroshi Naka was appointed as the Vice President and Auditor
General of World Bank.
14. Mukul Rohatgi was appointed as the 14th AttorneyGeneral of India. He will succeed
Gulam Vahanvati.
15. Shekhar Dutt, the Governor of Chhattisgarh, BL Joshi, the Governor of Uttar
Pradesh tendered his resignation to Shri Pranab Mukherjee, the President of India.
16. Indianorigin judge V K Rajah was appointed as 8th AttorneyGeneral of Singapore.
17. Former TATA Group Chairman Ratan Tata received an honorary doctor of laws
degree from York University in Toronto, Canada.
18. Chung Hung Won was retained as Prime Minster of South Korea.
19. Indiaborn Pratishtha Khanna was honoured with Champions of Change by the
White House. She is one of 10 local Champions of Change honoured for their
exemplary leadership in their communities.
20. Indiaborn Mexican plant scientist, Sanjaya Rajaram will be honoured with the World
Food Prize for 2014.
21. Kathleen Stephens took charge as US interim Ambassador to India.
22. Union Transport Minister Nitin Jairam Gadkari was given additional charge of the
Ministries of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation.
After death of Gopinath Munde of BJP, who died in a road accident in Delhi.
23. Lieutenant General (retired) Abhijit Guha of Indian Army was appointed as member
of a UN Expert Panel on Technology and Innovation in UN peacekeeping.
24. Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi made his first foreign tour to Bhutan.
25. Wang Yi, the Foreign Minister of China was on a twoday long visit to India from 8
June to 9 June 2014.
26. Okavango Delta in Botswana became the 1000th site to be included in the
UNESCO World Heritage Site List.

27. Ancient Pyu Cities became the first site from Myanmar to be inscribed on the
UNESCOs World Heritage Site List. The Ancient Pyu Cities include three cities Halin,
Beikthano and Sri Ksetra.
28. Tikrit in Iraq was in news because it was captured by the Militants belonging to
Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) group. Tikrit is the home town of former
dictator Saddam Hussein.
29. Jinnah International Airport, Karchi was in news when Terrorist belonging to
TehreekeTaliban attacked it.
30. 24 engineering students of Vigyan Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology of
Hyderabad were drowned in Beas River in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh.
31. Threeday Uttarakhand Assembly session held at Gairsain in Chamoli from 9 June
to 11 June 2014. The assembly session of Uttarakhand was held for the first time
outside the capital city, Dehradun.
32. Union Water Resources Minister, Uma Bharti launched a nationwide tree plantation
drive and public awareness programme to save rivers.
33. Institute for Economics and Peace released Global Peace Index (GPI) 2014 in
London. The GPI 2014 measured peace for 162 countries on the basis of 22 indicators.
Among these countries, Indias rank is 143.
34. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released its annual
nuclear forces data. There are nine states namely the United States, Russia, the United
Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea around the globe
which possessed nuclear arsenals.
35. German Chancellor, Angela Merkel topped the Forbes annual list of Most Powerful
Women 2014 in the world. Five Indian women have also featured in Forbes 100 most
powerful women List. Chief of Pepsi co, Indra Nooyi (13), Chief Technology & Strategy
Officer of Cisco Padmasree Warrior (71), State Bank of India Chairperson Arundhati
Bhattacharya (36) ICICI Bank MD Chanda Kochhar (43) and Biocon founder Kiran
Mazumdar Shaw (92).
36. SAARC Monsoon Initiative Programme National Working Group meet was
organised in Bhopal, MP.
37. Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict was launched at ExCel London.
The fourday Summit was launched by Hollywood actress and UN Special Envoy
Angelina Jolie and UK Foreign Secretary William Hague.
38. 6th International Nuclear Energy Forum ATOMEXPO2014 was held from 9 to 11
June 2014 in Moscow.

39. 40th G7 summit 2014 was held in Brussels, Belgium.

40. UK firm East India Company issued an exclusive legal tender gold coins in honour
of Sachin Tendulkar.
41. Indian sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik won the People's Choice prize at the World
Cup of Sand Sculpting2014 held in the Atlantic City of the US. He won prize for his
work Save Tree, Save the Future.
42. France announced to honour Shahrukh Khan with Officer of the Legion of Honour
for contribution in Cinema.
43. Noted Hindi poet Kedarnath Singh was chosen for the 49th Jnanpith award for
2013. He is known for his work Abhi bilkul abhi and Yahan se dekho.
44. Salman Rushdie, Indiaborn Booker Prize winning author was named as the winner
of 2014 Pen Pinter Prize.
45. Indian origin physicist Tejinder Virdee was honoured knighthood Bachelor by Queen
Elizabeth II. He was awarded for his work on the Higgs Boson theory.
46. Lord Swraj Paull was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award by a
UKbased business association.
47. C Radhakrishnan, the eminent Malayalam scientistturnedwriter was selected for
the prestigious Moortidevi Award for 2013. He has been selected for his novel
Theekkadal Katanhu Thirumadhuram.
48. Kolkata Airport won the Airport Service Quality Award by Airport Council
International in the category of the best improved airport in Asia Pacific Region.
49. Somasundaram of Airports Authority of India was conferred with the prestigious
Bharat Ratna JRD Tata Award for 2013.
50. Mahindra Gp Chairman Anand G Mahindra became the first Indian to receive the
prestigious Harvard Medal.
51. Indian Army testfired surfacetoair Akash missile from an Integrated Test Range
(ITR) in Balasore, Odisha.
52. India successfully test fired the supersonic cruise missile BrahMos from indigenous
INS Kolkata off the coast of Karwar in Karnataka. It has a range of 290km.
53. The Indian Navy Submarine, INS Sindhurakshak that sank in the Mumbai Harbour
due to an accident killing 18 sailors was raised from the waters by a salvage firm.

54. The Indian Air Force and French Air Force commenced the bilateral exercise
Garuda V at Jodhpur Air Base.
55. Supersonic Akash air defence missiles successfully intercepted the target Lakshya
(pilotless target aircraft). The three Akash missiles were launched from the Integrated
Test Range (ITR), Balasore, off the coast of Odisha.
56. The two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, formed unity government.
57. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj held discussions with United States
Secretary of State John Kerry on the two countries shared commitment to boost trade
and economic ties to $500 billion.
58. Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) will take control of television channels CNNIBN,
IBN7, CNBCTV18, Lokmat, and an entire clutch of ETV channels with infusion of Rs
4000 crore into Network 18 Media and TV18 Broadcast.
59. Prime Minister Narendra Modi resigned from the Vadodara Lok Sabha constituency
in Gujarat after choosing to retain the Varanasi seat in Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, the
Samajwadi Party leader, Mulayam Singh Yadav, decided to retain Azamgarh and quit
from his traditional stronghold of Mainpuri.
60. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan vowed total war against terrorism following
last months mass abduction of schoolgirls by Boko Haram Islamists.
61. Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan have agreed to set up a fullfledged economic bloc
that should act as a bridge between Europe and Asia and a counterweight to Western
integration unions. When the Eurasian Economic Union comes into force on January 1,
2015, it will create a market of 170 million people, with a combined annual GDP of $2.7
trillion and a quarter of the world energy resources.
62. In a step to help public sector banks to recover bad loans, the Finance Ministry has
asked the Income Tax Dept to share details of defaulters wealth tax returns with public
sector banks if they ask for such information. The top 30 nonperforming assets (NPAs)
of stateowned banks account for 40.2 per cent of their gross bad loans.
63. United Bank of India (UBI) has served wilful defaulter notices to Vijay Mallya and
other directors of the Kingfisher Airlines (KFA).
64. Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said that Pradhan Mantri Gram
Sinchai Yojana would be introduced so that more agricultural land is irrigated.
65. After pushing vultures to the verge of extinction in the country, the veterinary
painkiller and anti-inflammatory drug, Diclofenac, is turning out to be a serious threat to
eagles as well.

66. Low cost carrier AirAsia has chosen to launch its maiden flight under Indian
operations on BangaloreGoa route on June 12 with an introductory allinclusive fare of
Rs.990 per ticket.
67. Signaling a break from the past, the Narendra Modi government announced the
abolition of all Groups of Ministers (GoMs) and Empowered Groups of Ministers
(EGoMs) for greater accountability and empowerment.
68. Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti will chair an apex council to supervise the
water projects on the Krishna and the Godavari. The panel will have the Chief Ministers
of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as its members.
69. South Korean pop phenomenon Psy galloped into the record books as his
Gangnam Style mega hit smashed through the twobillion mark on YouTube.
70. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are donating $120
million to public schools in the San Francisco Bay Area.
71. The Supreme Court stayed the execution of the death sentence of Yakub Abdul
Razak Memon, mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.
72. The Special Investigating Team on black money held its first meeting under the
chairmanship of Justice M.B. Shah, a former judge of the Supreme Court.
73. Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi said that rape crisis
centers would soon be set up to offer protection and care for victims.
74. The aviation industry is marking 100 years since the first scheduled commercial
flight took off, making a 23minute journey across Floridas Tampa Bay.
75. Russia has lifted its embargo on arms supplies to Pakistan and is holding talks on
supplying Islamabad with combat helicopters.
76. The United States proposed ordering cuts of up to 30 per cent in carbon emissions
from power plants in President Barack Obamas most ambitious action yet on climate
change.
77. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has been appointed on the Board of Governors of the
Philippinesbased Asian Development Bank.
78. R. K. Malhotra has been given additional charge as Chairman of Indian Oil
Corporation.

79. Startup carrier TataSIA Airlines, which is yet to get a flying permit, will acquire at
least 20 Airbus aircraft on lease from a Singaporebased firm to launch its operations in
India by this winter.
80. Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha has suggested to the Chief Justices of the High
Courts that courts function all 365 days a year.
81. Under13s will now be able to join Facebook, but with their parents nod.
82. German prosecutors have opened an investigation into the alleged monitoring of
Chancellor Angela Merkels cell phone by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).
Documents provided by NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden indicated in October that
the U.S. was monitoring Ms. Merkels cell phone conversations, as well as those of 35
other foreign leaders.
83. Iranian authorities refused to fuel the aircraft of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif during his visit to Tehran last month to make the staterun PIA clear its dues
amounting to just over $5000.
84. The Finance Ministry is considering a proposal to set up a National Asset
Management Company, which may act as a nodal agency, for taking over bad loans of
banks and help revive sick units.
85. Coal India Ltd has decided to alter its memorandum of association to get into the
business of producing fertilizers and chemicals using coal gas.
86. The European health regulator lifted the suspension imposed on export of drugs
produced at the Ranbaxys Toansa plant to the EU, stating medicines produced at the
site posed no risk to public health despite having a number of manufacturing
deficiencies.
87. Every recognised school, including private ones, is bound to the Right to Information
(RTI) Act, CIC has said.
88. Pakistan suspended Geo News, the countrys most popular television channel over
a row with the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency.
89. The first unit at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) reached its full
power generation capacity of 1,000 MWe. With this, the 21st nuclear power reactor in
the country has become the singlelargest power generating unit in the country.
90. India and China have set a target of $100 billion in bilateral trade a year by 2015.
91. The Election Commission has ordered summary revision of electoral rolls in
Haryana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, where Assembly elections are due in the next
few months.

92. Association of Mutual Funds in India has stated that the mutual fund industry's
assets under management have crossed Rs. 10 lakh croremark in May.
93. The Indian government will build a cultural centre in Jaffna.
94. Customers need to submit only one documentary proof of address either current
or permanent while opening a bank account or while undergoing periodic updation,
the Reserve Bank of India said. In case the address mentioned as per proof of
address undergoes a change, fresh proof of address may be submitted to the branch
within six months, the RBI said in a notification to banks.
95. Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan launched legendary actor Dilip Kumars
biography in Mumbai. The book, titled The Substance and The Shadow, is authored by
Uday Tara Nayar.
96. Information technology and communication devices maker Pantel Technologies Pvt.
Ltd. Has tied up with India Post to take its lowcost feature phone to rural areas at
Rs.1,099.
97. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) received another shot in the arm
in its ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission when its ground controllers successfully corrected
the spacecrafts trajectory. ISROs Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV25) put the
Mars Orbiter in its initial orbit on November 5, 2013.
98. The Centre asserted that the appointment of Lt.Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag as the next
Army Chief was final.
99. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has underlined her willingness to deepen her
countrys strategic and economic engagement with China, signing major agreements for
the construction of roads, railway lines and power plants on a threeday visit to the
Chinese capital.
100. The Reserve Bank of India has kicked off a pilot project that will allow a few mobile
payment providers to test cash withdrawal facilities for a small portion of their
semiclosed mobile wallet users. In it sender and beneficiarys wallet will be seeded with
Aadhaar number. When the money transfer happens, the receiver, who does not have a
bank account, can walk to a mRUPEE outlet and receive the cash after authenticating
his identity with the biometric [fingerprint scanning]. Tata Teleservices mobile wallet
paymentbased service mRUPEE is one of the eight participants in the RBI pilot.
101. Narmada Control Authority gave its nod to Gujarat for raising the height of the
Narmada dam to the full reservoir level of 138.72 metres from the present 121.92
metres.

102. Kerala Monorail Corporation Ltd. (KMCL), the Special Purpose Vehicle set up to
execute the Rs.5,581crore monorail project in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode.
103. The European Union (EU) will allow member countries to make their own decisions
on growing genetically modified (GM) food in a compromise deal that followed years of
fraught discussions.
104. The Maharashtra Legislature passed a Bill banning dance bars. The ban will be
extended from beer bars to three and five star hotels, which were spared earlier.
105. Suresh Reddy, the man India has chosen to send to Baghdad as its crisis
manager.
106. The Telangana Assembly passed a unanimous resolution urging Speaker S.
Madhusudhana Chary to take stringent action against TV9 news channel for running a
programme using abusive and derogatory language against the members of the
Assembly.
107. The Food Processing Ministry will prepare a National Food Map that will showcase
agriculture and livestock produce for suitable interventions in vulnerable areas. A Brand
India will be launched for exports in the food processing sector and Statespecific
brands will be developed for the domestic market.
108. Alexander Stubb is set to become Finlands new Prime Minister after winning a
vote to head the ruling conservative party.
109. In compliance with a Delhi High Court order on prima facie violation of the Foreign
Contribution (Regulation) Act by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, the
government has initiated steps to relook and reappraise the receipts of the political
parties and identify the contributions received from foreign sources.
110. Union Minister Ramvilas Paswan said only five States Chhattisgarh, Haryana,
Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Punjab had fully implemented the National Food Security
Act, 2013 and seven others had done so partially so far. He said as per the Act, all
States are required to identify the number of beneficiaries by July 4, but only 12 States
have done so thus far.
111. Former Formula One champion Michael Schumacher has emerged from a coma
that was medically induced following his devastating accident in December.
112. Tax Administration Reform Commission, headed by Parthasarathi Shome, has
suggested abolition of the post of Revenue Secretary, merger of the Central Board of
Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) and
broaden the use of Permanent Account Number (PAN).

113. The crisis at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Geneva has deepened
with the United States demanding that India and China be categorised as emerging
rather than as developing economies. India is resisting the move which, if it
materialises, will halve WTO caps applicable to Indias food subsidies. It will also require
India to grant market access to the U.S.
114. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has announced plans to invest Rs. 1.80 lakh crore
($30 billion) in three years in petrochemicals, refining, retail and broadband businesses
with an aim to be among the Fortune 50 companies by the time it completes 40 years of
corporate journey in 2017.
115. Online marketplace Flipkart has signed amemorandum of understanding with
Federation of Indian Micro and Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME) and National
Centre for Design and Product Development (NCDPD).
116. PM Narendra Modi has reconstituted six important Cabinet committees, including
the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), Appointments Committee of the Cabinet
(ACC) and Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs.
117. Reserve Bank of India permitted residents and nonresidents, except Pakistanis
and Bangladeshis, to carry up to Rs.25,000 in Indian currency notes while leaving the
country. Earlier, Indians travelling abroad were permitted to carry only up to Rs.10,000,
while foreigners were not allowed to carry Indian currency while leaving the country.
118. Glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau the source of rivers such as the Brahmaputra
have shrunk by as much as 15 per cent, retreating by 8,000 square kilometres since
1980, according to a new Chinese govt backed study.
119. India has decided to enhance transparency of its nuclear infrastructure by ratifying
an Additional Protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
120. Russia has signaled that its proposed giant gas pipeline to China could be
extended to India.
121. Committee headed by Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram said that foreign
investment of 10 per cent or more in a listed company will now be treated as foreign
direct investment. FDI subject to the condition that the FDI stake is raised to 10 per cent
or beyond within one year from the date of the first purchase. If the stake is not raised to
10 per cent or above, then the investment can be treated as portfolio investment. Panel
has suggested that foreign investment in an unlisted company may be treated as FDI.
122. RanikiVav, a 11th century stepwell in the Patan area of Gujarat, was approved for
inscription on the World Heritage list by UNESCO at the meeting of its World Heritage
Committee in Doha.

123. Hong Kong citizens cast their ballots in an unofficial referendum on democratic
reform. Hong Kongs leader is currently appointed by a 1,200strong proBeijing
committee. China has promised direct elections for the next chief executive in 2017, but
has ruled out allowing voters to choose which candidates can stand.
123. The first Budget of the Narendra Modi government will be presented on July 10.
Parliament will be convened on July 7 for a session that will last till August 14. The
Railway Budget will be presented on July 8, while the Economic Survey will be released
on July 9.
124. The Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh
was accorded in the Unesco World Heritage Site status.
125. The Government is keen on running Indias first highspeed train (HST) between
Ahmedabad and Mumbai. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants the train to be running
by the end of 2017.
126. Import duty on Sugar hiked from 15% to 40%, Ethanol (a byproduct of sugar
manufacturing) blending in petrol hiked from 5% to 10% as also the extension of export
incentives to September 2014.
127. Moving to a timedefined process, the Reserve Bank of India fixed schedules for
various regulatory approvals. It released Timelines for Regulatory Approvals and
Citizens Charter for delivery of services on the RBIs website. Deposit accounts
department should issue cheque book within 20 minutes and demand draft should be
issued in an hour, among others. Besides, refinance facility and disbursement of loans
should take place in the same day of application while clearing should be completed by
three days. An applicant for private bank licence should be given inprinciple approval
within 90 days.
128. Mobile Seva, a nationwide initiative conceptualised, funded and implemented by
the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), is among the 2nd
place of the 2014 UN Public Service Awards.
129. In a pioneering move, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel announced 33 per
cent reservation for women in the police force.
130. Government took two decisions a sixmonth extension to the excise duty cuts
announced by the UPA government in (Till December 31) February and approval to sign
an MoU with the Chinese for setting up an industrial park here, extend them for six
months till December 31.
131. Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the current rate of
$4.2 per million
British thermal units for domestic natural gas would continue till Septemberend.

132. CongressNCP government in Maharashtra cleared 16 % reservation for the

powerful Maratha community and 5 % reservation for Muslims. The State currently has
52 % reservation in government jobs and educational institutions. This decision will
raise the quota limit to 73 %. The Supreme Court had earlier capped quotas at 50 %.
133. India was named to an International Piracy Watch List by a U.S. government
panel that is looking to highlight countries that are doing little to address high rates of
digital piracy.
134. The Centre has given the goahead for setting a minimum export price of $450 per
tonne for potato to discourage exports and check the rising price of the tuber.
135. Kerala formally began a 218day countdown for the 35th National Games, which is
to be held across seven districts of the State from January 31 to February 14 next year.
135. Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Nirmala Sitharaman, has been
elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh.
136. BCCI presidentinexile N. Srinivasan was formally appointed the first Chairman of
the ICC.
137. The government has clarified that licences wont be required for manufacturing
items for the defence sector except those used in the battleground such as tanks and
warships.
138. Delhi University relented and announced that it would replace the controversial
fouryear undergraduate programme (FYUP) with the old threeyear undergraduate
programme that was in place till last year.
139. The RBI has said India and the US have agreed to implement a Foreign Accounts
Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and asked banks and financial institutions to register by
this yearend to report accounts and assets held by US citizens.
140. The government announced Rs 50 per quintal increase in the minimum support
price of paddy to Rs 1,360 to encourage farmers to cultivate rice.
141. To boost sagging sentiments in steel and mining sectors, the government began
the process of setting up singlewindow mechanism to fasttrack clearances for various
projects and create special mining zones to ensure raw material security for existing
and upcoming steel plants in the country.
142. Indian Railways increased passenger fares by a steep 14.2% across classes and
freight charges by 6.5%.
143. The NDA government has selected eight cities as potential electronics
manufacturing hub. These would be at Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, Vadodara and

Gandhinagar in Gujarat and four cities in Maharashtra: Nagpur, Nasik, Aurangabad and
Thane.
144. India has notified its decision to exempt Bhutan from any ban or quantitative
restriction on exports of five food items milk powder, wheat, edible oil, pulses and
nonbasmati rice.
145. Crisishit NSEL said investors who traded in series contracts in metals like gold
and silver have so far redeemed Rs 237 crore out of the total Rs 440 crore.
146. Small airports, a Diamond Quadrilateral of highspeed trains and 'Sagar Mala'
project to connect ports to the hinterland would be the focus areas of the new PM
Narendra Modi's government.

GK Power Capsule May 2014 (The Hindu Review)

1. Narendra Damodardas Modi was swornin as the 15th Prime Minister of India on 26
May 2014. Along with him, 45member Council of Ministers that includes 23 Ministers
with Cabinet rank, 10 Ministers of State with independent charges and 12 Ministers of
State also took oath of their offices. This is the first time that, 25% of the Cabinet post
has been allocated to women. Out of 23 Cabinet post, 6 has been allocated to women.
The representative from SAARC nations included
1. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan
2. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala of Nepal
3. Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam of Mauritius
4. Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay of Bhutan
5. President Abdulla Yameen of Maldives
6. President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan
7. President Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka
8. Speaker of the Bangladesh National Parliament, Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury
2. 16th Lok Sabha Election 2014 results were declared on 16 May 2014. The elections
were conducted in 543 constituencies across India. In the Elections 2014, the main
opposition party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the elections by securing 282 seats.
On the other hand, the incumbent party the Indian National Congress (INC) lost the
elections by securing only 44 seats. National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by BJP
was successful at securing 334 seats, whereas, UPA led by INC was successful at
securing only 60 seats. The BJP for the first time has won the elections with majority
since independence and it is the only the second time that a non-congress party has
succeeded at securing this feat.
3. Winning parties of the five states
1. Odisha Biju Janata Dal (BJD) - Chief Minister Mr. Naveen Patnaik
2. Arunachal Pradesh Congress - Chief Minister Mr. Nabam Tuki
3. Sikkim Ruling Democratic Front (SDF) - Chief Minister Mr. Pawan Chamling

4. Andhra Pradesh Telgu Desam Party (TDP) - Chief Minister Mr. N. Chandrababu
Naidu
5. Telangana Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS) - Chief Minister Mr. Kalvakuntla
Chandrashekar Rao

4. Former Intelligence Bureau Chief Ajit Doval was appointed as the National Security
Adviser.
5. Japanese national, Hiroshi Naka was appointed as the Vice President and Auditor
General of World Bank.
6. Mukul Rohatgi was appointed as the 14th AttorneyGeneral of India. He will succeed
Gulam Vahanvati.
7. Nripendra Misra was appointed as the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister.
8. Ahmed Maitiq was swornin as the new Prime Minister of Libiya.
9. Petro Poroshenko won the Ukrainian Presidential Election.
10. Rajiv Mathur took over as the new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC). Mathur
succeeded Sushma Singh.
11. Anandiben Patel was swornin as the first woman Chief Minister of Gujarat.
12. Narendra Kumar Verma was selected as Managing Director of ONGC Videsh Ltd
(OVL).
13. Jitan Ram Manjhi was swornin as the new Chief Minister of Bihar.
14. Justice BS Chauhan was appointed as the Chairman of the Cauvery Water Disputes
Tribunal (CWDT).
15. Major General Kristin Lund of Norway became the firstever woman to head a UN
Peacekeeping Force.
16. Shah Rukh Khan on 13 May 2014 became the first Indian to feature on the cover
page of the business magazine Forbes Middle East.
17. Sushma Swaraj became the first woman External Affairs Minister of India.
18. Prime Minister of Slovenia, Alenka Bratusek resigned.

19. UN Envoy on Syria Lakhdar Brahimi submitted his resignation to UN

SecretaryGeneral Ban Kimoon in New York. He was also the League of Arab States
Special Representative on the Syrian crisis.
20. US Senate confirmed the name of Indian American Indira Talwani as the federal
judge in Massachusetts.
21. Sunday Times SuperRich List released on 11 May 2014 ranked Londonbased
Hinduja Brothers as the richest in UK. The two brothers, Srichand and Gopichand
Hinduja topped the list having a fortune of 11.9 billion pounds.
22. IndianAmerican Manish Shah was confirmed as a federal judge in Illinois by US
senate.
23. UN secretary General Ban Kimoon awarded the prestigious Dag Hammarskjold
medal to the eight Indian soldiers, who lost their lives in peacekeeping operations in
2013.
24. Vishwanath Tripathi, eminent Hindi writer was awarded with the prestigious Vyas
Samman for the year 2013. He received the award for his work Vyomkesh Darvesh.
25. The project Mobile Seva under Department of Electronics and Information
Technology (DeitY) won second rank in the 2014 United Nations Public Service Award.
26. Former President APJ Abdul Kalam was awarded with honorary degree by
Edinburgh University in Scotland.
27. Pranab Mukherjee, the President of India conferred National Florence Nighangle
Awards 2014 on 35 nursing personnel from across the country for their meritorious
services.
28. Indian Aviation Academy was awarded with the International Arch of Europe Award
for quality and technology in Gold Category.
29. PM Narendra Modi created a new Ministry of Skill development and
Entrepreneurship. It was created recognizing the importance of skill development in
India.
30. The World Health Organisation declared outbreak of polio as a World Health
Emergency after detecting new cases of polio across borders from countries like Syria
and Pakistan. As per the WHO, the virus is considered endemic in only three countries:
Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.
31. Improving the Business Environment in India report was released by Department of
Industrial Policy and Promotion. Gujarat model of land acquisition was termed as the
best in the country. Karnataka integrated and comprehensive system for VAT.

Maharashtra Labour Management solution and setting up Maharashtra Industry,

Trade and Investment Facilitation Cell. Rajasthan and Punjab single window
clearance system.
32. Malavath Poorna, a 13years and 11month old girl of Andhra Pradesh became the
youngest woman to climb the Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world.
33. Indian Navy and Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) conducted annual bilateral
naval exercises named SIMBEX 2014 in Andaman Sea.
34. Film Winter Sleep was honoured with Palme dOr Award at the 67th Cannes Film
Festival held in Cannes from 16 May to 25 May 2014. The film has been directed by
Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. The Grand Prix Award The Wonders directed by
Italian director, Alice Rohrwacher. Best actress Award Maps to the Stars stared by
Julianne Moore. Best Actor Award Timothy Spall stared by the Mr Turner. Best director
Award Foxcatcher directed by Bennett Miller.
35. To pay tribute to the 100 years of Indian cinema, Brazil released two postage
stamps designed by an Indian graphic designer.
36. A documentary film, Silent Screams Indias Fight Against Rape directed by Pria
Somiah won three awards at the 2014 New York Festivals International TV and Film
Awards. The three awards includes Gold World Medal for 'Best Investigative Report',
Two Bronze Gold Medals each in the Current Affairs and Human Concerns sections
respectively.
37. Supersonic Akash air defence missiles successfully intercepted the targets Lakshya
(pilotless target aircraft). The three Akash missiles were launched from the Integrated
Test Range (ITR), Balasore, off the coast of Odisha.
38. Union Government appointed Lieutenant General Dalbir Singh Suhag as the 28th
Chief of Army Staff (COAS). He will assume the charge on 31 July 2014 the date on
which General Bikram Singh retires.
39. First indigenously developed airtoair missile Astra (Range 60 Km) successfully
test fired from Sukhoi30MKI fighter jet over the Arabian Sea off Goa. Astra is India's
first Beyond Visual Range (BVR) AirtoAir missile.
40. The Book entitled Anticipating India The Best of National Interest written by
Shekhar Gupta, the editorinchief of The Indian Express was released.
41. Arunendra Kumar, the Chairman of Railway Board released a book entitled India
Junction A Window to the Nation.

42. A book My Years with Rajiv and Sonia written by R.D.Pradhan released.
R.D.Pradhan has penned his work experiences with Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi in
his book0.
43. A book entitled A Stamp is Born authored by C. R. Pakrashi was released by Vice
President of India, M Hamid Ansari.
44. Arctic Summer written by Novelist Damon Galgut was released.
45. The candidate was written by Indian Journalist Anirudh Bhattacharya.
46. Turkish investigative journalist Ahmet Sik won 2014 UNESCO Guillermo Cano
World Press Freedom Prize.
47. Dhubri constituency in Assam registered a highest voter turnout of 88.22 percent
whereas Srinagar registered a lowest voter turnout of 25.86 percent.
48. The Union Home Ministry extended the ban imposed on the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in India for five more years.
49. The Supreme Court held that Candidates fighting elections can be disqualified if
they fail to disclose information about assets and liabilities of even their spouse and
dependent children.
50. President of India gave his assent to the Whistleblowers Protection Bill 2011. The
Bill carries provisions for setting up regular mechanism to encourage persons to
disclose information on corruption or willful misuse of power by public servants, which
includes Ministers. The Bill also demands adequate protection to persons who reports
corruption.
51. The Constitution Bench of Supreme Court of India upheld the Constitutional validity
of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. The apex court said that the Act is not applied to
unaided minority institutions.
52. The Election Queue Management System, a first of its kind initiative was introduced
in Burdwan district, West Bengal during Lok Sabha election. The Election queue
management system helped voters to find out the level of crowd in the polling booths in
Burdwan district.
53. The Supreme Court ruled that statement of rape victims should be directly recorded
by a judicial magistrate within 24 hours instead of police officials.
54. Indian environment activist Ramesh Agrawal has won the prestigious Goldman
Environmental Prize, also known as the Green Nobel.

55. The University Grants Commission wants to hold a fresh inspection of 41 deemed
universities which were sought to be derecognised on the basis of the Tandon
Committee report.
56. President Barack Obama said he had no desire to contain or counter China despite
clinching a defence pact with the Philippines which will inject U.S. forces close to the
volatile South China Sea.
57. The 28member European Union has temporarily banned the import of Alphonso
mangoes and four vegetables from India from May 1.
58. The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) allowed three
top mobile operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular to continue
with their 3G intracircle roaming (ICR) pact and provide roaming services to their
customers. It quashed cumulative penalty worth Rs.1,200 crore imposed on the three
operators by the Department of Telecommunications for violating licence agreement.
59. The Obama administration has retained India on the Priority Watch List of nations
in the U.S. Trade
Representatives Special 301annual report on global intellectual property rights (IPR)
regimes, on the basis that there were growing concerns with respect to the
environment for IPR protection and enforcement in India.
60. The sultan of oilrich Brunei announced that tough Islamic criminal punishments
would be introduced.
61. A newspaperinitiated investigation, that claims to prove the use of chlorine and
ammonia bombs on civilian targets by the government of President Bashar alAssad
regime of Syria, has led to the formation of a factfinding team of weapons inspectors by
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
62. The International Monetary Fund said that Russia was already in recession and
slashed its growth forecast for 2014 citing the effect of the Ukraine crisis on investment.
63. ExportImport Bank of India (Exim Bank) plans to set up a project development
company (PDC) in Africa, with the participation of State Bank of India (SBI), IL&FS and
African Development Bank.
64. Manoj Vaish, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Multi Commodity
Exchange (MCX), has resigned.
65. India has accused Switzerland of providing protection to taxpayers found to have
evaded Indian taxes and seriously undermining Indias efforts at tackling offshore tax
evasion and stashing away unaccounted income abroad.

66. The Defence Research Development Organisation finally has its own flying platform,
a light aircraft, for testing a new set of airborne radars. The just acquired Nabhratna
(or jewel in the sky), a custombuilt Dornier228 aircraft, will speed up the development
cycle of special radars that the DRDO is working on, DirectorGeneral Avinash Chander
said.
67. At least 250 people were missing after a landslip buried villages in northern
Afghanistan. Badakhshan is a remote province in northeast Afghanistan bordering
Tajikistan, China and Pakistan.
68. Saudi citizens can now petition 90yearold King Abdullah directly and lodge
complaints through an Internet site set up at the initiative of the monarch himself.
69. Indias first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, which was headed for the scrap yard, got
another breather from the Supreme Court as it blocked the vessels journey to ignominy.
The ship was due at the scrap yard on May 17 after it was sold for Rs.60 crore through
an eauction to the Mumbaibased IB Commercials Pvt Ltd.
70. The Supreme Court held that imposition of the mother tongue as the medium of
instruction in primary classes in governmentrecognised, aided or unaided private
schools was unconstitutional.
71. Weeks after India signed the agreement for building units 3 and 4 of the
Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, New Delhi, at a meeting in Colombo, sought to allay
fears in Sri Lanka over the safety of the project.
72. Minors above 10 can now open and operate savings bank accounts independently.
Another decision was to allow minors of any age to open savings, fixed or recurring
deposit accounts through natural or legally appointed guardians.
73. The government has introduced a draft notification that bans India from importing
animaltested cosmetics.
74. The Obama administration said that it had signed a 20year lease on its military
base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.
75. The Reserve Bank of India told banks that they were not permitted to levy penal
charges for non-maintenance of minimum balances in any inoperative account.
76. Bharti Enterprises Founder and Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal will cochair the
threeday World Economic Forum on Africa being held in Abuja (Nigeria) from May 7.
77. Supreme Court banned jallikattu (bull fighting) and bullock cart racing in Tamil
Nadu. The court also banned bullock cart racing in Maharashtra.

78. Indias first voter Shyam Saran Negi cast his vote at a polling booth at his native
place in Himachal Pradesh. Mr. Shyam Saran Negi became the first voter of the country
when elections were held for the first time in the country on October 25, 1951 in
Kinnaur.
79. DRDO successfully flighttested an underwater missile called K4 with a range of
about 3,000 km. The launch took place from a pontoon submerged more than 30
metres deep in the sea off the Visakhapatnam coast.
80. Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Robin Kumar Dhowan announced that the newly
inducted aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya, is now operationally deployed and its integral
MiG29K fighters have been integrated with the carrier.
81. RBI said that banks would not be permitted to charge foreclosure charges or
prepayment penalties on all floating rate term loans (home loans and auto loans)
sanctioned to individual borrowers, with immediate effect.
82. You can now watch the Earth live as viewed from space. Nasa is livestreaming
views of Earth from space captured by four commercial high definition video cameras
that were installed on the exterior of the International Space Station last month.
83. A ceasefire between South Sudans government and rebels came into effect
following a deal to end a brutal fivemonth war that has pushed the country to the brink
of genocide and famine.
84. Iran and Pakistan agreed to go ahead with the gas pipeline project which was
discussed in a meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Iranian President
Hassan Rouhani in Tehran.
85. The worlds first airplane completely powered by electricity has successfully taken to
the skies for its maiden flight, and could bring down air travel cost by more than a third,
its developer Airbus said. The small experimental aircraft called EFan took off from an
airport near Bordeaux in southwestern France.
86. Tata Housing announced its foray into Sri Lanka with an investment of over $400
million (about Rs.2,400 crore) to develop a township project at Colombo.
87. A week after the World Health Organisation report dubbed Delhi as the most
polluted city in the world, LieutenantGovernor Najeeb Jung constituted a highpowered
committee to look into pollution levels in the city.
88. Transgenders appeared closer to getting reservation in employment and education
in the public sector with the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC)
recommending their inclusion in the Central list of the OBCs.

89. The government should cut its holding in public sector banks to under 50 per cent, a
RBI panel report said. The panel, headed by ex Chairman of Axis Bank, P. J. Nayak,
said governance at the 26 public sector banks suffered due to several externally
imposed constraints like dual regulation by the RBI and the Finance Ministry, and
external vigilance by agencies such as the CVC and CAG, among others.
90. The Competition Commission of India has ordered a fresh probe against Google for
alleged abuse of its dominant position in the online search advertising space.
91. China said it would slap provisional antidumping measures on singlemode optical
fibres imported from India, alleging that Indian companies were dumping them in the
Chinese market.
92. United States Secretary of State John Kerry described Chinas moves to deploy an
oil rig in waters disputed by Vietnam as provocative, prompting an angry rebuttal from
Beijing. The Chinese government accused the U.S. of making erroneous remarks that
had emboldened some countries provocations. In recent days, Chinese and
Vietnamese vessels have been in a tense standoff, sparked by Chinas deployment of
an oil rig in the waters of the South China Sea off the Paracel Islands, which are
claimed by Beijing.
93. Micro finance institution (MFI) Bandhan Financial Services Ltd. has appointed
Deloitte to prepare its roadmap for launching banking services.
94. African leaders at a summit in Paris have agreed on a regional plan of action to
combat Boko Haram, the Islamist group that has abducted more than 200 girls and
threatened to sell them into slavery. In a rare show of unity, the leaders of Nigeria,
Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin pledged cooperation including joint border patrols
and sharing intelligence to find the girls, snatched from Nigeria more than a month ago.
95. Washington charged five Chinese military hackers with cyberespionage, alleging
that between 2006 and 2014 they broke into the computer networks of six U.S.
corporations and made away with a significant trove of intellectual property and trade
secrets relating to the nuclear power, metals and solar products industries.
96. China set up a 10 billion Yuan ($1.6 billion) fund to take forward its ambitious
maritime silk road plan to build ports and boost maritime connectivity with Southeast
Asian and Indian Ocean littoral countries.
97. India continues to rank lowest in the World Banks ranking on the ease of Doing
Business for 2014. India is now ranked at 134 against 131 in 2013. It is now placed
lower than Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa.
98. The Reserve Bank of India allowed star trading houses and premier trading houses
to import gold under the 20:80 scheme. Under this scheme Importers can buy gold
provided a fifth of the imported quantum is exported as finished products like jewellery.

99. President Pranab Mukherjee has rejected the mercy petition of Yakub Abdul Razak
Memon, brother of fugitive Tiger Memon, whose death sentence was upheld by the
Supreme Court in the 1993 case of Mumbai serial blasts.
100. Shah Rukh Khan is the lone Indian celebrity to have made it to the topten
wealthiest actors. He has an estimated fortune of $600 million. He is second on the list
put out by WealthX. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld tops the list with a net worth of $820
million.
101. China and Russia signed a landmark gas deal ending more than decadelong
negotiations, with the agreement for the annual supply of 38 billion cubic metres of
natural gas.
102. An Egyptian court sentenced deposed president Hosni Mubarak to three years in
prison on corruption charges.
103. Reserve Bank of India, for the benefit of persons with disabilities, has made it
mandatory for banks to install talking ATMs with Braille keypads from July 1, 2014, as
talking ATMs with Braille keypads.
104. The Thailand Army chief seized power in military coup. General Prayut
ChanOCha made the announcement in a televised address to the nation, saying the
powerful armed forces had to act to restore stability in the nation.
105. Flipkart announced that it has acquired rival and leading fashion etailer
Myntra.com.
106. The board of BSE, the largest stakeholder in the United Stock Exchange (USE),
has decided to merge the struggling currency bourse with itself, a move that will boost
its own stressed currency trading business that is dominated by rival NSE.
108. Heavilyarmed terrorists attacked the Indian consulate in Herat and were repulsed
by the IndoTibetan Border Police guards stationed at the diplomatic outpost in western
Afghanistan.
109. Iran has for the first time in six years addressed concerns about the socalled
possible military dimensions of its nuclear programme, a new IAEA report showed.
110. IDBI Bank signed an agreement with the Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry (FICCI) under which it will offer loans to micro, small and
medium enterprises (MSME) at one percentage point lower interest than the market
rates and also charge low processing fee.
111. In a goodwill gesture ahead of visits by the Pakistan Prime Minister and Sri Lankan
President to Delhi for the swearingin of Narendra Modi, Islamabad and Colombo have
ordered the release of up to 161 Indian fishermen in custody. While Pakistan Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered the release of 151 Indian fishermen and 57 boats, Sri

Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa ordered the release of five Indian fishermen in
custody in Colombo.
112. Anticorruption activist Anna Hazare is planning to launch a nonpolitical social
movement called Asli Azadi Abhiyan (true freedom movement) in Mumbai on August 9,
coinciding with the anniversary of the Quit India movement. He plans to lead a march
from Kashmir to Kanyakumari later this year.
113. Next Summit: BrazilRussiaIndiaChinaSouth Africa BRICS summit in Brasilia, in
July. The United Nations General Assembly in New York in September, Association of
South East Asian Nations summit in Nay Pyi Taw in October.
114. The Union government announced the setting up of a highlevel Special
Investigation Team to help unearth black money stashed away abroad, at the first
meeting of the Cabinet, presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. SIT would be
headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice M. B. Shah and another retired
Supreme Court judge Justice Arijit Pasayat would be its vicechairman.
115. U.S. forces will complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of 2016.
116. AirAsia India announced that its maiden flight on June 12 will take off from
Bangalore to Goa at an introductory fare of Rs 990 (all taxes inclusive).
117. The fiscal deficit in 201314 stood at 4.5% of GDP, lower than 4.6% projected in
the revised estimate, mainly on account of curbs on government expenditure.
118. Highlighting the priorities of his ministry, Union Minister for Urban Development,
Housing and Poverty Alleviation Venkaiah Naidu said he wants to motivate private
sector to go for housing for their staff as part of their social responsibility because
"housing for all by 2022 is the motto of this government."
119. Singapore has replaced Mauritius as the top source of foreign direct investment
into India, accounting for about 25 per cent of FDI inflows in 201314.
120. The Indian economy will grow 5 per cent in 2014 and record a slightly higher
expansion of 5.5 per cent next year on stronger consumption and investment, a UN
report said.
121. The monsoon may arrive in the country at the southern Kerala coast around June
5, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
122. India will overtake Japan to become the world's third largest oil consumer behind
the US and China by 2025, US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.

123. With improvement in macroeconomic indicators and steady implementation of

policy reforms, the Indian economy is likely to cross the $5trillion mark by 2025, a
Morgan Stanley report said.

Current Affairs Power Capsule for SBI PO 2014 Exam

1. Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan kept the repo rate unchanged in
BiMonthly Monetary Policy on 1st April since retail inflation still remains 'sticky', but
introduced steps to increase liquidity and contain volatility in the money market.
i. Bank Rate 9 %
ii. Cash Reserve Ratio 4 %
iii. Statutory Liquidity Ratio 23 %
iv. Repo Rate 8 %
v. Reverse Repo Rate 7 %
vi. Marginal Standing Rate 9 %
2. The 86th Annual Academy Oscar Awards 2014
The best picture award was won by 12 Years A Slave of Steve McQueen.
Best Actor Matthew McConaughey (Film-Dallas Buyers Club),
Best Actress - Cate Blanchett (Film - Blue Jasmine),
Best Director - Alfonso Cuaron (Film Gravity).
3. The 61st National Film Awards for 2013 was announced in New Delhi on 16 April
2014 by the Directorate of Film Festivals.
i. Ship of Theseus directed by Anand Gandhi was selected as the Best feature film.
ii. Best Actor Raj Kumar for Shahid in hindi and Suraj Venjaramoodu for
Perariyathavar in Malyalam
iii. Best Actress Geetanjali Thapa for Liars Dance in Hindi
iv. Best Direction Hansal Mehta for film Shahid
4. The 15th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards 2014 was held in Tampa
Bay, US from 23 April to 26 April 2014.
i. Best Picture Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
ii. Best Direction Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
iii. Performance in a Leading Role (Male) Farhan Akhtar Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
iv. Performance in a Leading Role (Female) Deepika Padukone Chennai Express
v. Music Direction Mithoon, Ankit Tiwari, Jeet Ganguly Aashiqui 2
vi. Outstanding Contribution To International Cinema John Travolta
vii. Lifetime Achievement Shatrughan Sinha

Recommended Books for SBI PO Exam

5. Justice Rajendra Mal Lodha was appointed as 41st Chief Justice of India. He will
succeed Justice P.Sathasivam.
6. Justice G Rohini was appointed as the Next Chief Justice of Delhi High Court.
7. Ratan Tata was appointed as a member of the Board of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA).
The post is a rare distinction for an Indian in the Chinese governmentbacked influential
body.
8. R Gandhi was appointed as the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India for a
period of three years. He replaced Anand Sinha.
9. Indiaborn poet Vijay Seshadri has won 2014 Pulitzer Prize in the poetry category for
his collection of poems 3 Sections.
10. Ratan Tata received the Knight Grand Cross award by UK Government.
11. Union Government announced that legendary poet and film lyricist Gulzar was
selected for the 45th Dadasaheb Phalke Award 2013.
12. Koyal Rana won the 51st edition of the Femina Miss India 2014 crown.
13. Election Commission confirmed Amir Khan as its national icon for the Lok Sabha
elections 2014. The other four national icons were A P J Abdul Kalam, M S Dhoni,
Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom.
14. India successfully test fired indigenously developed surfacetoair Akash missile
from at Chandipur Wheelers island Odisha.
15. Admiral Robin K Dhowan took over as the 22nd Chief of Indian Navy. He is a
successor of Admiral DK Joshi, who resigned taking moral responsibility of the accident
on INS Sindhuratna in Mumbai.
16. India and Nepal started a joint military exercise named ExSurya Kiran Drills VI at
Saljhandi in Rupandehi district of Nepal.
17. India is now the world's third largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity,
ahead of Japan and behind the US and China. This was revealed by the 2011 round of
the World Bank's International Comparison Program (ICP) released.
18. After launching accounts on Facebook and Youtube, SBI took one more step by
launching a twitter account.
19. IDFC Ltd and Bandhan Financial Services Pvt Ltd won banking licences, with the
Raghuram Rajan's RBI approving permits for only two of the 25 applicants.

20. Reserve Bank asked banks not to levy penal charges on customers who don't
maintain a minimum balance in basic savings bank accounts.
21. Ajay S. Shriram has been elected President of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
for 201415. He succeeds S. Gopalakrishnan.
22. The RBIappointed Urjit Patel panel, in its report, has set CPI target of 8 per cent by
2015 and 6 per cent by 2016.
23. India marched towards establishing its own navigation system when its Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLVC24) put into precise orbit the countrys second
navigation satellite, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS1B).
IRNSS1B will form part of a constellation of the seven navigation satellites. It was the
25th success in a row for the PSLV, after it majestically lifted off from the first launch
pad at Sriharikota.
24. State Bank of India has hit the overseas bond market with a dual tranche
benchmark issue of 5 year and 10year maturity to raise up to $1 billion.
25. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) imposed a fine of Rs.1.77
crore on Reliance Life Insurance for violation of various norms.
26. Supreme Court recognised the transgender community as a third gender along with
male and female.
27. State Bank of India launched three digital banking facilities at the customers door
step using TAB banking; one for customers opening Savings Bank accounts and
another for Housing Loan applicants. The third is eKYC (Know your Customer).
28. Reserve Bank of India has suggested that banks introduce two stage
authentications to ensure security of transactions. The banks have been mandated to
issue EMV (card with chip and pin) to certain category of customers and for the others,
banks have been given option to either issue EMV cards or adopt Aadhaar biometric
authentication as additional factor of authentication.
29. Siddharth, a Hindi film by Indian Canadian director Richie Mehta, was the winner at
the Beijing film festival.
30. The small Pacific nation of the Marshall Islands is taking on the United States and
the worlds eight other nuclear armed nations. The island group that was used for
dozens of U.S. nuclear tests after World War II was filing a suit against each of the nine
countries in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands.
31. Sunil Gavaskar was appointed as the interim president of the Board of Control for
Cricket in India (BCCI) by the Supreme Court. Sunil Gavaskar replaced the present
BCCI chief N Srinivasan.

32. The much publicised Inflation Indexed Bonds (IIBs) failed to attract investor interest,
either retail or institutional, in the last financial year. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is
now planning to launch again this product in a restructured form.
33. Rajiv Takru was appointed as the Revenue Secretary. He will succeed Sumit Bose.
34. Japanese architect Shigeru Ban won the Pritzker Architecture Prize 2014.
35. Govind Mishra, the renowned Hindi author will receive Sarawasti Samman for the
year 2013 for his book Dhool Paudho Par published in 2008.
36. The new Corporate Responsibility Regulations notified recently was not applicable
to the State Bank of India, but it would comply voluntarily as SBI was created under SBI
Act.
37. Khushwant Singh, the renowned author and journalist died. Famous book Train to
Pakistan.
38. A multi-pronged National campaign on Dengue, U & Me Against Dengue, was
launched to eradicate dengue across six Indian cities with public private partnership.
39. President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation
Bill, 2014 that would pave way for the creation of the State of Telangana, and approved
the Cabinets recommendation to impose Central rule in the State.
40. Two fund houses of SBI and Axis have filed papers with the Securities and
Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to start mutual fund schemes linked to inflation-indexed
bonds.
41. Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) will celebrate International Women's Day by
organising financial literacy camps for women. All the 12 branches of the bank will
organise financial literacy camps on March 8.
42. A high-power committee under the Financial Stability and Development Council
(FSDC) has been set up to find ways for the banking sector to comply with Basel-III
capital norms. The decision was taken at a sub-committee meeting of FSDC chaired by
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan.
43. Rakesh Sethi took over as Chairman and Managing Director of Allahabad Bank.
44. Crimea declared independence from Ukraine and applied to rejoin Russia. Nearly
97 percent of voters said yes to revert to Russia.
45. Bank of India launched IMT (Instant Money Transfer), which allows cardless cash
withdrawal at its IMT-enabled ATMs, a first-of-its-kind initiative by any public sector
bank. The sender initiates IMT by providing receivers mobile number, four digits sender

code and the IMT amount. Monthly withdrawal limit prescribed for IMT transaction is
Rs.25,000 for receiver, and per transaction limit of Rs.10,000. IMT, once issued, is valid
for 14 days.
46. After having launched its first ATM a year ago, Tata Communications Payment
Solutions Limited (TCPSL) which is the first non-banking firm to launch its ATM network
or white label ATMs said it plans to roll out 15,000 ATMs across India by June 2016.
47. The Reserve Bank of India extended the transitional period for banks to complete
the full implementation of Basel-III capital regulations up to March 31, 2019, instead of
March 31, 2018.
48. Government has set up a Tax Administration Reform Commission comprising
officials from public and private sector agencies. Parthasarathi Shome is the chairman
this Commission.
49. Country's largest lender the State Bank of India (SBI) will sell bad loans amounting
to Rs 3,000 crore in the last quarter of the ongoing fiscal to the Asset Reconstruction
Companies.
50. RBI has decided to withdraw the pre-2005 currency notes from circulation and
asked the holders of such currency to exchange them by January 1, 2015.
51. Harish Rawat was appointed as the 8th Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. He succeeded Vijay
Bahuguna.
52. Manoj Vaish took charge as the MD and CEO of Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd.
53. Former Supreme Court Justice, Ashok Kumar Mathur was appointed as the Chairman of the
7th Pay Commission. Its recommendation would be implemented from 1 January 2016.
54. M Teresa kho was appointed as Asian Development Banks new Country Director for India.
55. Satya Nadella was appointed as CEO of Microsoft. Satya Nadella will succeed Steve
Ballmer as the third CEO of the Microsoft firm. Bill Gates is the founder and first CEO of
Microsoft. Nadella is the first Indian to head the Microsoft in its 38-year history.
56. Jatinder Bir Singh was appointed CMD of Punjab and Sind Bank.
57. R.K.Tiwari was appointed as the new chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes.
58. Arunima Sinha received Amazing Indian Award. She was awarded for scaling Mount
Everest despite being physically challenged.
59. Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honour was conferred on cricket maestro Sachin
Tendulkar and eminent scientist Prof CNR Rao by the President of India. Sachin became the
first youngest and sportsperson to be conferred with the honour of Bharat Ratna. Prof CNR Rao
(Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao) is the third scientist who has been conferred with the
award. He received the honour after CV Raman and APJ Abdul Kalam, the former President of
India. Rao is recognized international authority on solid state and materials chemistry.

60. Rishang Keishing the oldest Parliamentarian of India decided to retire. He is 94. He joined
politics as the member of the first Lok Sabha in 1952 after being elected from Socialist Party. He
had served the nation for seven decades. He joined Congress in 1962.
61. Hamid Ansari, the Vice President of India released a commemorative postage stamp in the
honour of Maulana Hasrat Mohani who was a freedom fighter and an eminent poet.
62. The Parliament of Nepal elected Sushil Koirala as next Prime Minister of Nepal.
63. Union Cabinet approved the setting up of an Equal Opportunities Commission. The proposal
for EOC was made by the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs on the recommendations of the
Justice Sachar Committee on Social, Economic and Educational Status of Muslim Community in
India.
64. Government increased the workdays under MNREGA from 100 to 150 for tribals from 1
April. Those tribals who have received land rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 will be
eligible for additional 50 days of wage employment.
65. Finance Minister P Chidambaram retained the 10 per cent surcharge on those earning over
Rs 1 crore annually. The government also decided to continue a 5 per cent surcharge on
domestic companies with total annual income of more than Rs 1 crore but less than Rs 10
crore. Those with income exceeding Rs 10 crore will pay a surcharge of 10 per cent.
66. As part of a major reform travellers arriving in India from up to 180 countries can avail of the
visa on arrival facility in the near future.
67. RBI has issued Certificate of Authorisation to Tata Communications Payment Solutions Ltd.,
Prizm Payment Services Pvt. Ltd., Muthoot Finance Ltd., and Vakrangee Ltd. for setting up and
operating white label ATMs. Of these, three have already launched their services.
68. Penguin India has agreed to withdraw American Indologist Wendy Donigers book The
Hindus: An Alternative History from the Indian market following an out-of-court settlement with
Delhi-based complainants, who had moved the court alleging distortion aimed at denigrating
Hindu traditions.
69. SEBI Chairman U. K. Sinha has got a two-year extension till 2016 to continue.
70. Lakshmi Swaminthan, who hails from Chennai, has been elected as the President of the
Administrative Tribunal of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
71. President Pranab Mukherjee has given his nod for the nomination of P.P. Rao, senior
advocate, as jurist member of the selection committee of the Lokpal, the anti-corruption
ombudsman, despite objections from Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma
Swaraj.
72. Securities and Exchange Board of India will hike the minimum net worth requirement for
asset management companies (AMCs) from Rs.10 crore to Rs.50 crore.
73. Centre has informed the Supreme Court that Kachatheevu could not be retrieved from Sri
Lanka as demanded by DMK party president, M. Karunanidhi.
74. The Union Ministry of Tourism has declared Sikkim the best State in the implementation of
rural tourism projects.

75. The Union Cabinet approved Odia as a classical language. Now Odia has become the sixth
language in the country to get classical language status after Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada
and Malayalam.
76. Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with New
India Assurance Company to deliver three unique innovative health insurance policies for
women account holders of the bank. The policies BMB-Sakhee, BMB-Nirbhaya and BMBParivar Suraksha provide customised health insurance package for women.
77. The Uttar Pradesh Government approved the proposal for establishing a tiger reserve in
Pilibhit.
78. The Union Government appointed IPS Aruna Bahuguna as chief of Sardar Vallabhbhai
Patel National Police Academy, Hyderbad. She is the first woman on this post.
79. Anand Kumar, a mathematician and founder of Super30 classes was conferred with the
2014 Ramanujan Mathematics Award.
80. At the 59th Idea Filmfare Awards, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag grabbed seven awards. Best Actor
award was given to Farhaan Akhtar for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. Deepika Padukone was Best
Actress for Ramleela. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag won Best Film award, and its director Omprakash
Mehra won Best Director award.
81. The Pravasi Bhartiya Divas was organised in New Delhi from 7 to 9 January 2014. The
theme for the year was Engaging Diaspora: Connecting across Generations.
82. Expert Committee constituted by Information and Broadcasting Ministry to review the
institutional framework of Prasar Bharti has submitted its report. The committee was headed by
Sam Pitroda.
83. A panel of Reserve Bank of India led by Nachiket Mor has suggested to set-up specialized
banks to cater to the low income households. These banks will ensure that every citizen have a
bank account by 2016. It has limited the maximum balance for an individual customer to 50000
rupees.
84. Dhruva-3 was inaugurated by Avinash Chander, DG DRDO in Hyderabad. Dhruva-3 an
indigenous High Performance Computing System was designed to solve critical Defence
Research and Development applications by DRDO.
85. Tejas, Indias Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) set a new record on 27 December 2013 of flying
500 sorties in 2013. This is the highest sorties achieved in a calendar year so far.
86. Gorakhpur railway stations platform number one of Uttar Pradesh has entered into the
Limca Book of Records as longest rail platform in the world with the length of 1355.40 meters.
87. WHO reported that Pakistan is the only polio-endemic country in the world. Pakistan had 83
polio cases in 2013.
88. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the chief guest of 65th Republic Day parade at
Rajpath in Delhi.
89. Army Chief General Bikram Singh took over as the chairman of the Chiefs of Staff
Committee (CoSC). He succeeds IAF chief N.A.K. Browne.

90. The Reserve Bank of India extended the time for issuance of inflation-indexed bonds to
March 31, 2014, from the earlier date of December 31, 2013. The RBI in consultation with
government earlier this month launched Inflation Indexed National Saving Securities-Cumulative
(IINSS-C), which was open for subscription between December 23 and 31. On review, now it
has been decided to extend the issuance of Inflation Indexed National Saving SecuritiesCumulative till March 31, 2014. The issuance can be closed earlier than March 31, 2014, with a
prior notice, the RBI said in a release.
91. Latvia officially adopted the euro on 1st January 2014 and became 18th member of
eurozone.
92. An inter-State committee of Secretaries chaired by Union Food Secretary Sudhir Kumar has
recommended that the Central government may share with the States 50 per cent of the cost of
distribution of the foodgrains meant for the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) under
the recently passed National Food Security Act (NFSA).
93. Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D5), powered by an indigenous cryogenic
engine, effortlessly put the 1,982-kg GSAT-14 communication satellite into a perfect orbit after
17 minutes of flight. The cryogenic engine is built by ISRO.
94. The Reserve Bank of India allowed Non-Banking Finance Companies to lend up to 75 per
cent of the Loan-To-Value ratio of gold jewellery, up from 60 per cent, with immediate effect.
95. On 13th January, it completes three years without reporting any case of polio. It is only the
second time in the history that a disease is being eliminated in India through immunisation after
small pox in May 1980.
96. Union Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Girija Vyas launched the Housing
Start Up Index (HSUI) logo, web site and monitoring tool called Integrated Urban Poverty
Monitoring System for the Rajiv Awas Yojana. The HSUI is a joint initiative of the Ministrys
National Building Organisation and RBI. The HSUI is an index that tracks the number of houses
being constructed every year across the country.
97. The Reserve Bank of India will pump Rs.10,000 crore into the market by buying government
securities to ease the liquidity situation.
98. The Union Cabinet granted minority status to the 50 lakh strong Jain community, enabling it
to avail itself of benefits in government schemes and programmes. This would make them the
sixth community to attain minority status after Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis.
99. Uttarakhand became the first State to adopt the provisions of the Lokpal Act with the Vidhan
Sabha passing the Uttarakhand Lokayukta Bill-2014.
100. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that it would establish a fund to be called Depositor
Education and Awareness Fund, which would comprise unclaimed funds of depositors. The
Fund will be created by taking over inoperative deposit accounts which have not been claimed
or operated for ten years.
101. Asias biggest botanical garden will come up in Naya Raipur with the Chhattisgarh
government initiating work on the ecotourism project.

102. World famous yoga guru, B.K.S. Iyengar, and former chief of the Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR) R.A. Mashelkar have been awarded the Padma Vibhushan, Indias
second highest civilian honour.
103. China has overtaken India to become the largest contributor of Foreign Direct Investment
to Nepal over the first six months of the current fiscal year, underlining the rising Chinese
economic presence and strategic influence in the country.
104. K. Prasad Babu, a Greyhounds Inspector who laid down his life combating Maoists in the
Andhra Pradesh-Chhattisgarh border region last April was awarded the highest peace time
gallantry award, Ashok Chakra, on the occasion of Republic Day.
105. Countrys first Monorail finally made its debut with Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj
Chavan inaugurating the service in Mumbai. The commercial operations of the 8.9-km first
phase started.
106. The term of the 14th Finance Commission led by former RBI Governor YV Reddy is likely
to be extended by at least three months to enable it to submit its report by the end of this year.
107. Oriental Bank of Commerce became first bank which introduced the e-KYC (electronic
Know Your Customer) facility, which instantly verifies a customer's identity and address proof
after the Aadhaar number is keyed in to the system. Last month, private sector HDFC Bank also
launched eKYC facility.
108. India Post has drawn a massive plan to install as many as 3,000 ATMs and 1.35 lakh
micro-ATMs at the ubiquitous post offices across the country for savings account holders by
September 2015.
109. Cyber security sleuths have detected a "black" private information stealing virus in the
Indian online banking transactions space and have alerted consumers who swipe debit or credit
cards at shopping counters to make payments.

86th Academy Awards (OSCAR AWARDS 2014)

The 86th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the actors, technical
achievements, and films of 2013 and took place on March 2, 2014, at the
Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

The ceremony was scheduled one week later than usual to avoid conflict
with the broadcast of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. During the
ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present

Academy Awards of Merit (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24

categories.
Comedian Ellen DeGeneres hosted the show for the
DeGeneres previously hosted the 79th ceremony in 2007.

second

time.

Most awards - Gravity(7)

Most nominations - American Hustle and Gravity (10)
WINNERS:

Best Picture - 12 Years a Slave

Best Actor in a Leading Role - Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Actress in a Leading Role - Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)

Best Animated Feature - Frozen (Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Peter Del Vecho)

Best Cinematography - Gravity (Emmanuel Lubezki)

Best Costume Design - The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin)

Best Directing - Gravity (Alfonso Cuarn)

Best Documentary Feature - 20 Feet from Stardom

Best Documentary Short - The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life

(Malcolm Clarke, Nicholas Reed)

Best Film Editing - Gravity (Alfonso Cuarn, Mark Sanger)

Best Foreign Language Film - The Great Beauty (Italy)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling - Dallas Buyers Club (Adruitha Lee, Robin
Mathews)

Best Original Score - Gravity (Steven Price)

Best Original Song - Let It Go - Frozen

Best Production Design - The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin, Beverley

Dunn)

Best Animated Short Film - Mr. Hublot (Laurent Witz, Alexandre Espigares)

Best Live Action Short Film - Helium (Anders Walter, Kim Magnusson)

Best Sound Editing - Gravity (Glenn Freemantle)

Best Sound Mixing - Gravity (Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead,
Chris Munro)

Best Visual Effects - Gravity (Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, Neil
Corbould)

Best Adapted Screenplay - 12 Years a Slave (John Ridley)

Best Original Screenplay - Her (Spike Jonze)

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India

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Name of Sites
Ajanta Caves (Maharashtra)
Ellora Caves (Maharashtra)
Agra Fort (UP)
Taj Mahal (UP)
Sun Temple, Konark (Orissa)
Mahabalipuram Temples (TN)
Kaziranga National Park (Asom)
Manas Wildlife Sanctuary (Asom)
Keoladeo National Park (Rajasthan)
Churches in Goa
Khajuraho Temples (MP)
Monuments of Hampi (Karnataka)
Fatehpur Sikri (UP)
Pattadakal Temples (Karnataka)
Elephanta Caves (Maharashtra)
Sunderban National Park (WB)
Nanda Devi (Uttrakhand)
Sanchi Stupa (MP)
Humayun Tomb (Delhi)
Qutub Minar Complex (Delhi)
Mountain Railway (Darjeeling)
Mahabodhi Temple (Bihar)
Bhimbetaka Caves (MP)

Year of Inclusion
1983
1983
1983
1983
1984
1984
1985
1985
1985
1986
1986
1986
1986
1987
1987
1987
1988
1989
1993
1993
1999
2002
2003

Champaner Pavagadh Park (Gujrat)

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Mumbai)
Valley of Flowers (UttraKhand)
Red Fort / Lal Quila (Delhi)
Jantar Mantar, Jaipur (Rajasthan)
Western Ghats
Hill Forts of Rajasthan
Rani Ki Vav (Gujarat)
Great Himalayan National Park Himachal

2004
2004
2005
2007
2010
2012
2013
2014
2014

Pradesh

Super city

In line with the principles of sustainable development advocated in the Medellin

Declaration, Gravity 2.0 Research Foundation recommended that a capital city region be
considered rather than a single urban agglomeration for the location of a new capital for
the State of Andhra Pradesh post bifurcation.
In a representation submitted to the Expert Committee on identification of location of
new capital for the State of Andhra Pradesh , the Gravity 2.0 Research Foundation,
suggested that the new capital be located in the Visakhapatnam-RajahmundryVijayawada Super City ensuring inclusive growth.
They also suggested that coastal shipping be promoted and the National Waterway 4 be
extended to Visakhapatnam.

INS Vikrants another lifeline

Through the Save Vikrant Committee, Mr. Paigankar and other activists last month
moved the apex court in a bid to save the vessel which saw action in the 1971 IndiaPakistan war.
The imposing vessel, commissioned in the Indian Navy in 1961, was decommissioned in
1997 and has been kept anchored at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai.
During the hearing of Mr. Paigankars public interest litigation in January, the Central
government informed the Bombay High Court that the 15,000-tonne ship had completed
its operational life.
The 70-year-old vessel, purchased as HMS Hercules from Britain in 1957 and
rechristened as INS Vikrant, helped enforce a naval blockade of East Pakistan now
Bangladesh during the 1971 war.

Saradha chit fund scam

In a setback for the West Bengal government, the Supreme court has handed over
investigation into Saradha chit fund scam to the CBI.
The SC also asked the Enforcement Directorate to join CBI in finding the money trail.
The ED is already conducting a probe into the scam.

The apex court said it wanted the chit fund scam in these states to be probed by an
independent agency like CBI because of involvement of politicians and influential
persons in the cases.
Saradha Group chairman SudiptaSen was arrested from Sonmarg in Kashmir on April
23,2013 along with two close associates.

Landslide win for BJP

Although final results are not expected until later, the scale of the predicted victory is
such that the ruling Congress party has admitted defeat.
BJP leader NarendraModi tweeted: "India has won. Good times ahead."
This is the most resounding victory for a political party in India for 30 years.
But many Indians still have profound concerns over MrModi because of claims he did
little to stop the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat, in which at least 1,000 people died,
most of them Muslims - allegations he has always denied and over which he was never
charged.
The election result will be a crushing blow to the Congress party, which is led by the
Nehru-Gandhi family and has dominated Indian politics since independence.
It reflects voter anger with Congress, which has been mired in serious corruption
scandals andwhose leadership has been considered ineffective in recent years, according
to analysts.

60 lakh NOTA votes

Over 60 lakh None Of The Above (NOTA) votes were cast in the 16th LokSabha
elections, the first time that this option was given, according to the Election Commission
data. This accounts for 1.1 per cent of all the votes cast. The disproportionately high use
of NOTA in reserved constituencies continues, a trend first identified by The Hindu after
the 2013 Assembly elections.

15th LokSabha dissolved

The formal process for constitution of the new LokSabha commenced with the full
Election Commission handing over the list of members of the 16th LokSabha to President
Pranab Mukherjee. The President also dissolved the 15th LokSabha.
The full Commission comprising Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath and
Election Commissioners H.S. Brahma and NasimZaidi approved the Section 73
notification under the Representation of the People Act, 1951, notifying the names of the
members elected.

New PM appointed

NarendraModi who steered the BJP-led NDA to a stunning victory will be sworn in as
Prime Minister on May 26 at RashtrapatiBhavan.

Mr. Modi was appointed as the Prime Minister by the President and was asked to advise
the names of others to be appointed Members of the Council of Ministers.
Later, a RashtrapatiBhawancommunique said as MrModi has been elected leader of the
BJP Parliamentary Party and BJP has majority support in the House of the People, the
President appointed him the Prime Minister of India and requested him to advise the
names of members of the council of ministers.

Gujarat's First Woman Chief Minister

Anandiben Patel will be sworn in as Gujarat's first woman chief minister in a ceremony
attended by her predecessor NarendraModi who will be the country's next prime minister.
After MrModi resigned as chief minister, a position he had held for 13 years, his party's
legislators elected Ms Patel to be their leader. MrModi's close aide Amit Shah, who does
not share the warmest vibes with Ms Patel, was among those who endorsed her name for
the chief minister's post.

P-8I maritime patrol aircraft

Boeing has delivered the fourth P-8I maritime patrol aircraft to India, which the aviation
company described as a milestone.
In all India has placed orders for eight P-8I maritime aircraft.
The latest state-of-the-art maritime patrol aircraft departed from Boeing Field in Seattle
and arrived May 21 at Naval Air Station Rajali.
Based on the companys Next-Generation 737 commercial airplane, the P-8I is the
Indian Navy variant of the P-8A Poseidon that Boeing has developed for the US Navy.