1. Prologue to six part Article series
  2. Books and Authors
  3. Book /arts Prizes
  4. Films related
  5. Oscars 2014 (86th annual Academy Awards)
  6. National film award (61st)
  7. IIFA 2014
  8. Beauty Pageants

Prologue to six part Article series

Total six parts covering December 2013 to 8th June 2014- nearly six months that is the usual time span for current affairs most competitive exams below UPSC Civil service exam.

  1. [PIN-2014] Part 1/6: National- Official Posts, Committees, Stamps-2014, Defense, Telengana & more
  2. [PIN-2014] Part 2/6: International- Presidents, Prime ministers, Summits, bodies & Ukraine Crisis
  3. [PIN-2014] Part 3/6: Sports, Mascots, Athletes, Awards, FIFA-2014, Sochi-2014, Grand Slams, Hockey, Kabbadi, Cricket & more
  4. [PIN-2014] Part 4/6: Economic Regulators, Banking Sector CMDs, RBI monetary policy, RBI Committees, Business GK CEOs
  5. [PIN-2014] Part 5/6: Books, Authors, Movies awards & Beauty Pageants
  6. [PIN-2014] Part 6/6: Diaspora, Civilian awards & Dead in News, Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas, Padma 2014, Able Prize & more

Any updates, corrections please do post in the comments but with reference except wikipedia

Books and Authors

Khushwant Singh

  • Died. Indian renowned novelist and journalist, ex-IFS officer
  • He wrote about Indian Social-political conditions, Indo-Pak partition and Sikh-society.
  • Awarded Padma bhusan

Notable Books of Khuswant Singh

  1. Ghadar 1915: India’s first armed revolution
  2. Train to Pakistan
  3. Freethinker’s prayerbook
  4. Maharaja in Denim
  5. Good, bad and ridiculous (After this book, he has retired).

Anyways, moving on:

1283 goals Pele
Alice Munro, Canada
  • Dear Life
  • Lying under the apple tree
  • She won Nobel prize for literature
Ambedkar Annihilation of caste. (edited version out)
Amit Chaudhuri Calcutta: Two years in the city
Anita Nair Idris : Keeper of Light
Anupam Kher Best Thing About You is You
APJ Kalam My journey: transforming dreams into actions
Ashutosh Varshney Battle half won: India’s improbable democracy
Bill Watterson creator of the comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes”. resume work for charity.
C.Raja Mohan. Samudra Mantha: Sino-Indian rivalry in the Indo Pacific
Chetan Bhagat 5 point someone, one night @call centre, 3 mistakes of my life, 2 states -story of my marriage, revolution 2020, what young India wants.
Christopher Snedden Untold story of people of Azad Kashmir
Cyrus Mistry Chronicles of a corpse bearer. Won DSC prize.
Dan Brown Inferno (he wrote Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, Lost Symbol)
Dilip Kumar The Substance and the Shadow : autobiography, written by Udaya Tara Nayar.
Dorris Lessing Nobel literature winner, dead. From Britain.  Books: golden notebook, memoirs of survior, summer before dark.
Dr. APJ Kalam My journey : Transforming dreams into actions-
Dr.APJ Kalam My journey: Transforming dreams into action
Eleanor Zelliot Ambedkar’s World: The Making of Babasaheb and Dalit Movement
Eric Hobsbawn Fractured Times: Culture and society  in 20th Century
Eshwar prasad Dollar trap
Ex CEC SY Qureshi An undocumented wonder: the making of great Indian election:
Faisal Devji Impossible Indian: Gandhi and Temptation of violance
Former IPS Kiran Bedi Dare to Do! For the new Generation
Gabriel Marquez Columbian short story writer nobel winner. Died. “One hundred Years of Soltiude”
Gen. VK singh Courage and Conviction-
Harsh Mander Ash in the Belly- India’s unfinished battle against Hunger
Hassan surur India’s muslim spring
Hilary clinton Hard choices
Hilary Mantel she Won two man booker prizes. This time for book “Bring up the bodies”.
Hindol Sengupta 100 things to know and debate before you vote
Indignez Vous Book by Stephane Hessel. Had inspired Occupy wallstreet movement. Author is dead.
Isher Judge Ahluwalia transforming our cities
Jayant Kriplani New Market Tales
Jean dreze, Amrathya Sen An uncertain Glory: India and its contradictions.
Jerry Pinto Em and the Big hoom. Won Hindu Literary prize.
Jesuit Missionary Fr.Hanxlenden Grammatica Grandonica (Sanskrit grammar book written 300 years ago, and now restored)
Jhumpa Lahiri The Lowland, Shortlisted for Booker 2013 for fiction.
JK Rowling
  • Cuckoo’s Calling. she wrote this detective novel under pseudonym  “Robert Galbraith”.
  • Her previous novel Casual vacancy was a flop. But Harry potter series superhit.
  • Fantastic beasts and where to find them (Harry Potter companion books)
Joe D’ Cruz Ocean wringled world. Also known as “Aazhi Soozh Ulagu”. Narayan publication house declined to release it after Joe supported Modi. He won Sahita akadamy award.
Justice PN Bhagwati My tryst with justice
Khaleed Hosseini And the mountains Echoed
Kingshuk Nag The NaMo story
Kishwar Desai The Sea of innocence (About rape of Scarlet Jones in Goa)
Leela Goswami Common cause- colonial ethics
M.C. Marykom Unbreakable (lady boxer)
Madhav Godbole Good governance Never on India’s radar
Madhu Kishwar Modi Muslim and Media (she Defended Modi)
Mark Obama Culture: My Odyssey of Self-discovery. he’s President obama’s brother.
Maya Angelou civil rights activists, singer USA. Book: I know why the Caged bird sings. Died in June 2014
Megha Kumar Communalism and sexual violence in A’bad since 1969. Book publisher Orient blackswan postponed release fearing Wendy Doniger like case.
Milkha Singh The Race of my life-an autobiography
Mustaq Mohammad Inside Out (Autobiography of Paki cricketer)
Natwar Singh One life is not enough.Autobiography.
Natwar Singh Walking the lions: Tales from a diplomatic past
Nicolas griffin Ping pong Diplomacy
Nilanjan Roy The Wildlings
Nilanjana Roy Hundred names of darkness
F.Scott Fitzerland The Great Gatsby. (Bacchan worked in the english movie based on this novel)
Pamela Hicks Daughter of Empire
Paronjoy Guha Thakurta Gas wars- Crony Capitalism. Mukesh Ambani sent him legal notice.
PC Parekh Crusader or conspirator? Coalgate and other truths. He was the former Coal secretary.
Pope Benedict XVI Jesus of Nazaeth: the Infancy narratives
Prasun Joshi, Noted lyricist. Sunshine lense
Prof Anita Pfaff Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Germany (Anita is Bose’s daughter)
R. Gopalkrishnan Comma in a sentence
Rahu Rai Bangladesh: The Prize of freedom (noted photographer)
Raj Kundra How not to make money. (Shilpa Shetty’s husband and allegedly involved in IPL spot fixing 2013. he indeed seems to be an ‘expert’ on this book’s subject)
Ram Jethmalani Maverick Unchanged, Unrepentant
Ramchandra Guha
  1. Patriots and Partition
  2. Gandhi Before India
  3. India after Gandhi
Resul Pookutty Sounding Off. (he had won Oscar for soundtrack in Slumdog Millionaire)
Romila Thapar The past vs present: Foraging contemporary identities through history. She is a famous historian, who also wrote NCERTs.
Ronald Dworkin. Dead Law’s Empire
Ruchir Sharma. Won Tata lit. award for first book. Breakout Nations: In pursuit of the next economic miracle
Ruskin Bond A garland of memories
S Murari The Prabhakaran Saga
Sanjay Baru Ex-Media advisor of Mohan. Book name “The accidental prime minister”. He showed how Mohan was a rubber stamp of SoniaG.
Sanjeev sanyal Land of seven rivers
Sankarhan Thakur Single man: Nitish kumar of Bihar.Wrote similar book on lalu yadav as well.
Sarod Maestro Amjal Ali Khan My father, our fraternity
Shekhar Gupta (IndianExpress) anticipating india- best of national interest
Shobha De Sethji
Sir Don Bradman Art of cricket
Solomon Northup 12 years a slave (Oscar winner)
Suresh Menon Pataudi-Nawab of Cricket
Sushmita Bangerjee. Kabuliwala’s Bengali Wife. It details her escape from Taliban ruled Afghanistan in 1995. She was recently murdered by Talibans.
Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games- series of adventure novels. movie made. Thai protestors use its ‘salute’ to show disrespect to Military regime.
Tavleen Singh Durbar
Tom Clancy Died. US thrillers. Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games.
TSR Subramanium India at turning point, road to good governance
V Raghunathan The games Indians play why we are the way we are.
Vijya Seshadri Pulitzer prize 2014 for poetry for “3 sections”. Another book: “Long Meadow”. Writes in Washington post and Guardian.
Vikram Chandra Mirrored Mind: My life in letters and code
Vinod Mehta Sanjay story
WB CM Mamata Benerjee Earth Songs
Wendy doniger On Hindusim (controversial, Penguin publication)
Yann Martel. Life of Pi (Ang Lee made Oscar winning movie on this. Suraj Sharma played hero)
Yash Birla On a prayer. (biography)
Jaswant singh India at risk
Yuvaraj Singh The test of my life: from cricket to cancer and back
YV Reddy, Ex-RBI governor Economic Policies and India’s reform agenda

Book /arts Prizes

Badri Narayan Kanshi Ram: leader of Dalits (Political biography)
Batman Completed 75 years. Creators Bob Kane, Bill Finger.
Bipin Chandra Famous Indian historian he has won “Itihas Ratna” award by Asiatic society Bihar.
Christopher moor Serpent of vanice (fiction)
Diagram price 2014 for oddest book How to poo on a date,
Man Booker prize 2013 Elenor Cotton, NZ. Book The luminiaries. Youngest to win.
Murti devi award By Bhartiya Gyan Pith Harprasad Das, Oddisa
Sahitya akadami awads 2013 list too long, cost: benefit too bad. one name important Javed Akhtar, got for poem book “Lava” in Urdu. other winners only if they belong to your state.
Saraswati Samman 2013 Sugatha Kumari, Malayalam Poetess
Sunil Gangopadhyay award Bengali poet Sankha Ghosh
Yale literature prize Pankaj mishra novel the romantics

Films related

Oscars 2014 (86th annual Academy Awards)

BEST PICTURE “12 Years a Slave” – based on book by Solomon Pirate.
DIRECTOR “Gravity” Alfonso Cuarón
ACTOR Matthew McConaughey in “Dallas Buyers Club”
ACTRESS Cate Blanchett in “Blue Jasmine”
SUPPORTING ACTRESS Lupita Nyong’o in “12 Years a Slave”
SUPPORTING ACTOR Jared Leto in “Dallas Buyers Club”
ANIMATED FILM “Frozen”
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM “The Great Beauty” Italy. India had sent Gyan Correa’s the Good road. but it didnot win.
overall highest award winner  “Gravity” (7 awards)

many other Oscar winners for various categories, I’m not including them here for bad cost : benefit ratio.

Other awards:

U.S. festival awards Silent Screams — India’s Fight Against Rape” directed by Priya Somiah and written by Manira A. Pinto
DadaSaheb Phalke 2013 Gulzar. He also won Oscar for Jai ho.
IFFI International film festival of India. Panaji, Goa in Nov 2013
BAFTA 2014 12 years a slave – best film
Gyan correa Gujarati movie director- The Good Road, Nominated at Oscar but did not win.

National film award (61st)

Best Feature Film / Golden Lotus Ship of Theseus by Anand Gandhi
Best Director Hansal Mehta for Shahid
Best Actor Raj Kumar Rao for Shahid; and Malayam actor Suraj for some film (name not important)
Best Hindi Film Jolly LLB

Many other categories for national film awards, again I’m ignoring for bad  cost:benefit.

IIFA 2014

  • International Indian film academy awards
  • Tampa Bay Florida
  • Best film: Bhag Milkha Bhag. Best director – same movie, Rakesh Mehra, Best actor- same movie Farhan Akhtar + many other awards for the same movie.

Beauty Pageants

Femina Miss India Koyal Rana
Miss World 2013 Megan Young from Phillipines. AT Bali Indonesia
Miss Universe 2013 Gabriela Isler from Venezuela at Russia.
Miss Asia Pacific 2013 Shrishti Rana of India, in South Korea
Miss India World wide 2014 Anugya Sharma (Surat). In July she’ll participate in Miss Worldwide, @Abu Dhabi.
Miss America Sep.2013. Nina Davuluri. Subjected to racial abuse on twitter.

For more current affairs, visit Mrunal.org/Current

Any updates, corrections please do post in the comments but with reference except wikipedia

Inputs from Mr. Chandradeo