1. Books in News
  2. Cinema and Television
  3. Sports in News
  4. Places in News
    1. Disasters
    2. Karnataka
    3. Andhra Pradesh
    4. Telangana
    5. Other states/UT in News
  5. Business-GK
    1. Banking-Finance companies
    2. IT/Mobile related companies
    3. Travel and Transport
    4. Pharmaceutical

Books in News

More important for exam
Pranab Mukherjee
Rudrangshu Mukherjee Nehru & Bose ā€” Parallel Lives [icon type=”shopping-cart”]
Anita Nair Idris: Keeper of the Light [icon type=”shopping-cart”]
Eleanor Catton
YV Reddy Financial and Fiscal policies- Crisis and New realities. He is the Ex-RBI Governor.
S.Y. Quraishi Launched third edition of his book: An Undocumented Wonder: The Making of the Great Indian Election. He is the ex-Chief election commissioner.
J.K.Rowling Will release new stories on Harry Potter during Christmas festival season. But later retracted her promise saying she was “misquoted” just like Indian politicians.
Upamanyu Chatterjee Fairy tales at 50.
Virender Mehra ā€œWhy I Assassinated Gandhiā€ revised edition. Contains statements of Nathuram Godse.

Book Cover Idris Keeper of light

Less important for exam
Aatish Taseer The Way Things Were.
Ashish Vikram The House with the Green Roof
Fr. Abraham Mulamoottil.
  • E-rupee to Reinvent India.
  • This catholic priest recommends moving to virtual rupee currency and online transaction- it’ll stop all black money and corruption.
David Mitchell Bone Clocks
Deborah Baker The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism
Deepika Shetty The Red Helmet. It’s her first novel on 90s era women of India.
Dr. Umanath Nayak Fatal Margin. Fictional Book on cancer.
Francis Fukuyama Political Order and Political Decay
K.R. Meera Hangwoman
M.N. Krish Steradian trail
M.S. Nagarajan Views and Reviews;
Manuel Aaron
Vijay D.Pandit		 Indian Chess History (570AD to 2010AD)
NINA McCONIGLEY
  • Cowboys and East Indians
  • This Short story collection won the 2014 PEN Open Book Award.
Perumal Murugan
  • Tamil novel Madhorubhagan. English version One part woman.
  • Hindu outfits demanding its ban due to portrayal of women-devotees in bad light
Pt. Prabodh Kumar Mishra Vande Bharatam: collection of patriotic poems in Sanskrit.
R. Sreeram debut novel Kalyug. (Genre: political thriller)
Saad Bin Jung Matabele Dawn
Usha Rajagopalan Tracking Purnima (Crime Novel)
Vishwas Mudagal Losing my Religion. His first novel.
Wing Commander Nitin Sathe
  • A few good men and the angry sea.
  • Book about Indian ocean tsunami.

Cinema and Television

Matt Groening His cartoon series The Simpsons completed 25 years
PK
  • Protests against Amir Khan’s movie PK, for hurting Hindu sentiments.
  • Declared Tax Free in UP and Bihar.
  • Director: Raj Kumar Hiranā€™s other movies: Munnabhai MBBS, 3-Idiots.
Sangharsh Yatra Biopic film on life of BJP leader Gopinath Munde. Still under production.
The Interview
  • Sony’s Movie depicting assassination of N.Korean dictatorĀ  Kim Jong un.
  • Stars: James Franco, Seth Rogen.
  • North Korea (allegedly) hacked Sony’s database and threatened USA theatres not to release this movie.
  • In retaliation USA (allegedly) shut down North Korea’s internet.
Mrunalini Bhosale She directed “Kapus Kondyachi Goshta (The Unending Story)”, about plight of Vidarbha farmers. Incorporated in 87th Oscar’s “best picture list”. This list has 323 movies across world.

 

2014: Most searched words in online dictionaries
Vape Abbreviation for Vaporise- as in electronic cigarettes.
Photobomb to intrude into the background of a photograph without the subjectā€™s knowledge
Overshare to be unacceptably forthcoming with information about oneā€™s personal life, particularly on social media.

Sports in News

Cricket
Blind cricket
  • Indian blind cricket team defeated Pakistanis in 4th World cup at Cape Town, S.Africa. Captain Shekar Naik.
M.S.Dhoni
  • Retired from Test matches, after 3rd Test between India and Australia, at Melbourne.
  • He has won 27 out of 60 Test matches where he was the captain.
  • Dhoni’s test match career: total matches played: 90, total runs: 4876, catches: 256, stumpings 38. Highest Test score 224 against Australia at Chennai stadium (2013).
Stumpings
  • Highest: Dhoni- 134 in 460 innings (last one at Melbourne, 2014, December)
  • 2nd highest: Kumar Sangakkara: 133 stumpings in 485 innings.
Vijay Hazare trophy Karnataka defeated Punjab in this tournament.
ACIS helmets With airbags- to save batsmen from bouncers, prevent deaths like Philip Hughes.
Gurinder Singh Sandhu Indian origin bowler. May be included in Australian team for next World cup.

 

Non-Cricket
Shooting Abhinav Bindra wins 10m rifle gold at 58th National shooting championship
Viswanathan Anand Won London Classic chess for the first time.
Hockey After winning Champions Trophy semi-final against India, the Pakistani hockey players removed their t-shirts and made obscene gestures at crowd. International Hockey federation has suspended them after strong protests by Indian side.
Snooker China’s 14 years old Yan Bing became youngest champion at IBSF world tournament.
boxing International boxing association (AIBA) gave 1 year ban to L.Sarita Devi, for refusing to accept bronze medal in Asian games.

Places in News

Disasters
Dec,26 Indian Ocean Tsunami’s 10 years completed since 2004.
Typhoon Hagupit
  • Philippines
  • Last year, Typhoon Haiyan.
  • Philippines President Benigno Aquino III
Fukushima 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster. But wants to host some events for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Karnataka

  • State government launched ā€˜Karnataka MobileOneā€™ to provide all services through one app.
  • Will re-introduce Rs.1 revenue stamp.
  • Bengluru: National children’s science congress. Main focus: climate change.
  • Varthur, Bengluru: National Archery competition for tribal youth.
  • Government school children to get notebooks at concessional rates. Brand names “Lekhak” and “Vidhya”.
  • Bengaluru: pipe bomb blast kills a lady. Later Police introduced Drone-cameras to monitor new year celebrations.
  • State planning to introduce free wi-fi in all districts.
  • Siddalingaiah- first Dalit writer to become chairman of Kannada Sahitya Parishat.
  • Mangaluru: tulu festival organized.
  • Nagarhole tiger reserve installs camera traps to check on poaching
  • NTCA wants two new tiger reserves at Cauvery and MM Hills, But Karnataka Government says nope, because too much human population will be displaced.
  • Annual Hampi Utsav 2015 held at Bangluru

Andhra Pradesh

  • Land pooling exercise starts on right bank of Krishna river, at Thullur and Mangalagiri mandals. This land will be used for setting up new capital.
  • Red sanderwood smugglers will not be given ration cards, LPG or Government welfare schemes.
  • Jan.9-11: Flamingo festival at Pulicat Lake to boost tourism from January 9 to 11.
  • Jan 6-7: Star Turtle festival at Srikurmam to create awareness about protecting these turtles.
  • Ongole: Antique Hero idols from 12th and 13th century unearthed.
  • Amarawati given UNESCO world heritage city tag.
  • MV Subramanyam: won Central Sahitya Akademi Award for 2014
  • CM Chandrababu Naidu went to google hangout to interact with people. Promises e-file system in all DepartmentĀ  by 31st March.
  • Pati: prehistoric site found near Pazzur in Nalgonda.
  • Google launched Telugu fonts named after NT Ramarao.
  • Plans to develop Pulicat lake and Nelapattu sanctuary as eco-tourism hubs.
  • Nuzvid: some politicians suggesting this should be made capital of Andhra Pradesh.

Telangana

  • Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah of Kakatiya dynasty had emphasis on irrigation. Telangana Government has launched Mission Kakatiya to improve irrigation in the state.
  • Hyderabad HC bans cockfights during Sankranti under Prevention of Animal cruelty act 1960.
  • TSPSC public service commission: 1st chairman is Ghanta Chakrapani.
  • Tribal devotees flocking the Cave Temples of Jangubai
  • Deverakonda Fort in Nalgonda district.
  • Municipal Corporation of Karimnagar (MCK) to be come first in India to have ā€œzero hourā€ discussion in corporates meetings.
  • Hyderabad planning “Food security cards” (FSC) from 2015
Other states/UT in News
Assam
  • Sonitput and Kokrajhar districts- NDFB (Songbijit group) massacring tribals.
Bengal Bhorsagar deep sea port planned at Sundarban islands.
Chhattisgarh Sukma: CRPF lost 14 men in Maoist ambush
Delhi
  • AAP party launches “Selfi with Mufflerman (Kejriwal)” to raise funds for assembly election
  • Uber taxi app banned after driver with past criminal record, raped a passenger.
Gujarat
  • Ahmedabad: IMA NATCON 2014 conference by Indian Medical association
  • January 2015: Vibrant Gujarat summit and Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas at Gandhinagar
  • Dharmaj village near Vadodara has 1000 crore rupees in bank deposits because NRIs
Haryana Dead bird carrying H5N1 virus @Sukhna lake.
Himachal
  • Their “Jail-vaarta” project to facilitate prisoners meet relatives using video conferencing. This project won best e-governance award.
Kerala
  • Buon Nataleā€™ Christmas procession with over 18,000 people. Event recorded in Guinness book.
  • Government planning NRI-proxy voting in local body elections.
  • Bird flu contained and restrictions lifted.
  • Kochi: India-US energy conference held.
Madhya Pradesh
  • Vidisha Government school will be named after Nobel 2014 winner Kailash Satyarthi because he studied there.
Maharashtra
  • Vidhan Parishad (upper house) passed bill to give 16% reservation to Maratha.
  • Mumbai: 102nd Indian science congress from Jan3-7, 2015.
  • Pune: Gyan Sangam meet of PM, FM and PSB-Bank CMDs for bank-revival strategy.
Puducherry Rockpainting discovered at “Rattapparai” rock near Kilvalai.
Rajasthan
  • Ordinance issued to bar people below class8 education from contesting Panchayat elections.
TN
  • CRZ permission given for Marina coast’s beautification.
  • Musician Ilya Raja’s borther Gangai Amaran joins BJP.
  • 3rd Indian biodiversity congress @Chennai.
UP
  • State Government launched a new site upnri.com to boost NRI investment
  • Meerut: Hindu Mahasabha wants to construct a Godse temple here.
  • Agra: 350 muslims converted to Hinduism under “Ghar Vapsi” program, causing disruption in parliament.
  • DGP has banned low-waist, tight fitting pants like Devgun’s “Singham”
Uttarakhand
  • Governor Aziz Qureshi transferred to Mizoram
  • Feb5: Uttarakhand Spring Bird Festival at Pawalgarh reserve.

Business-GK

Banking-Finance companies
Bank of America Its chief Brian Moynihan met Modi.
ICICI From 1st January the ATM charges increased (after the free limit of first 5 transactions)

  • Rs.20 for financial transaction
  • Rs.8.50 for non-financial transaction (e.g. statement slip)
Muthoot Finance Acquired Sri Lanka’s Asia Asset Finance PLC.
TRUFIXED HDFC’s fixed interest rate loan products, with period of 2 to 10 years. Then they’ll automatically switch back to its adjustable rate home loans.
KYC Rajanbhai imposed penalty on ICICI and BoB for violating KYC norms, and warned SBI, Axis and State bank of Patiyala.
IT/Mobile related companies
Aircel Was given highest penalty for customer-non-verification, among all mobile companies of India.
Airtel Customer will have to pay additional money for using VoIP services like skype, viber etc. although later cancelled this decision.
Flipkart Salem steel tied up with flipkart to sell utensils online.
Google Organized Great Online Shopping Festival (GSOF) in December.
Instagram Has more users than twitter.
Junglee.com Launched new category for used-car sales. Junglee is owned by Amazon.com
Snapdeal
  • Launched “Agristore” – an online store to help farmers buy seeds, fertiliser and irrigation tools.
  • Tied up with Indian post to sell products of Varanasi weavers.
Uber Radio taxi App Banned in Delhi after its driver raped a passenger.
Xiomi Ericsson made patent complaints against Xiomi, so its sale has been banned till 5th Feb in India.
Yu
  • Itā€™s the online brand of micromax- first 4G handset called Yureka at 8999/- using
    CyanogenMod – an open source variant of Android OS. Customer free to “root” its device without nulling the warranty.
  • Company founder: Rahul Sharma.
Travel and Transport
Automobile Deadline is over for excise duty relief given till 31st December on SUVs. Likely to reduce sales for 2015.
EcoDemonstrator 787 Boeing designed World’s first aeroplane using green diesel (85% jet fuel + 15% green diesel).
Book My Meal
  • Jet airways service to allow posh-passengers to choose meal before flight
  • Move seen as a counter to marketing strategy of Tata-Singapore Airlines’s “Vistara”
Spicejet
  • Stopped operations because of financial problems.
  • Aviation minister even asked the banks to give working capital loan to the company but banks reluctant given “Mallya” experience.
Vistara
  • Name of Tata-SIA airline. CEO is Phee Teik Yeoh. Will begin operations from January 2015.
Maruti Suzuki Highest ever sales in 2014.
Pharmaceutical
Habitrol Nicotine patch by Novartis. Dr. Reddy bought this brand.
Dr.Reddy’s
  • Got USFDA permission to sell Valganciclovir tablets, an anti-viral drug. It is generic version of Roche’s Valcyte.
Lupin anti-HIV drugs: Lamivudine tablets and Presista tables got USFDA approval.
Cadila New drug “Humira”. Its biosimilar version of anti-inflammatory drug adalimumab.

 

Others
RINL Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited. Steel ministry postponed its disinvestment because cheap ChineseĀ  steel import hurting local players.
Tata Coffee Sanjiv Sareen to become CEO.
Titan & Fastrack Tied up with Singapore’s Cloudcherry company for customer feedback analysis.
Ultratech Aditya Birlaā€™s Ultratech cement will purchase Madhya Pradesh units of JP Cement.
Reliance
  • Decided to relinquish KG-D3 block due to defense ministry restrictions.
  • Signed agreement with Mitsui shipping company to transport Liquefied ethane from USA to India.
El Gordo Spain’s official lottery game. Considered to be world’s largest (2.5 billion Euros)
Kei Perenaa This 24 year old Chinese lady became Youngest billionaire in world. She owns a reality estate company called “Logan property”.
wealth-X ranking
  • Biggest financial gainer of 2014: Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba e-commerce site
  • 2nd biggest gainer: Warren Buffet.

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