1. Sarkaari Persons in News
  2. Committees in news
  3. Governors in News
  4. Defense Related
  5. Foreign Current Affairs in News
  6. Civilian Achievements
  7. Dead in News

Sarkaari Persons in News

Persons in News January 2015

Niti Ayog
  • National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog.
  • Chairman Narendra Modi
  • Vice Chairman: Free market  economist Arvind Panagariya
  • CEO: Ms.  Sindhushree Khullar (IAS)
  • Fulltime Members: Economist Bibek Debroy and former DRDO Chief V K Saraswat.
  • Better read the whole article here for structure and membership.
Air India CMD Rohit Nandan- 10% cost cutting plan launched.
DRDO
  • Chief Avinash Chander asked to step down, because Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar wants a person from ‘younger’ generation.
  • Defense Secretary RK Mathur is holding the charge of DRDO (30-Jan-2015)
BSNL Anupam Shrivastava became new CMD
EC
  • Hari Shankar Brahma replaced V S Sampath, became the 19th Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India. He is an Assamese IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh cadre.
  • His tenure will be quite short, because he’s to retire in April 2015.
UPSC
  • Former CBI director AP Singh resigned as member of UPSC.
  • His name was in controversy due to IT-probe against a meat exporter Moin Qureshi.
Naqvi
  • Union Minister of State for Parliamentary and Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi given 1 year jail term for violating prohibitory orders 2009 Lok Sabha election, although later given bail.
Sangeet Natak Akademi
  • Shekhar Sen is the new chairman. He is a singer-director.
  • Notable mono act musical plays “Tulsi”,” Kabeer”, “Vivekananda”, “Sanmanti”,”Saahab” and “Soordas”
Censor Board Pahlaj Nihalani became new chief after Leela Samson resigned after her decision against Dera Sachcha Sauda chief Gurmit Ram Rahim’s movie “Messanger of God” (MSG) was overturned by the appellate board.
Prasar Bharati Chairman Arkalgud Suryaprakash
ISRO A.S.Kiran Kumar replaced K.Radhakrishnan as the new ISRO Chief.
TCA Anant Chief statistician of India.
Railway board New chairman A.K. Mittal.
ICAI Institute of Chartered Accountants of India Chief K.Raghu will introduce new syllabus of CA exam from 2016.

 

Committees in news
E. Padmanabhan Fixing fares in Mumbai Metro.
Net Neutrality Department of Telecom setup AK Bhargava Committee for examine “Net Neutrality”. Report awaited. AK Bhargava is ex-member of Telecom commission. Net Neutrality means internet should be without any barrier, ISP shouldn’t give priority to one type of data over others.
Ex-CJI R.M. Lodha Supreme court appointed Justice Lodha Committee to cleanup the mess in BCCI- Board of Control for Cricket in India.
Governors in News
KK Paul Uttarakhand’s new governor.
NN Vohra Governor of J&K, recommended Presidential rule after resignation of caretaker CM Omar Abdullah.
West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath will hold charge of Meghalaya as well.
Punjab governor Kaptan Singh Solani became the new governor of Punjab

 

Defense Related
Agni-5
  • DRDO’s Agni-5 launched from Odisha’s wheeler island in a caniester mounted on a truck, it can carry 1.1 tonne nuke warhead for 5000kms.
  • Agni-5 is India’s first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)
Wing Commander Pooja Thakur 1st woman to lead the ceremonial tri-service guard of honour for U.S. President Barack Obama at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
26th January
  • President Barak Obama became the first American President to be the chief guest of Indian republic day parade. (2015)
  • For 2014, the chief guest was Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Ashok Chakra
  • It is India’s highest peacetime military medal.
  • 2015: given to Naik Neeraj Kumar Singh and Major Mukund Varadarajan of Rashtriya Rifle.
Shaurya Chakra Inspector Manjeet Singh of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), for defending Indian consulate in Afghanistan against terrorist attack.

 

Chief guests in January 2015
26th January Parade US President Obama
Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas Guyana President Donald Ramotar.

USA: Current Affairs

  • California’s Attorney General Kamala Harris aims to compete for US senator seat from California. If she win, she’ll be the first ever U.S. Senator of Indian origin.
  • Powerful blizzard in Boston-New York.
  • Louisiana’s Republican Governor Bobby Jindal says his parents came to the U.S. from India four decades ago to become Americans and not Indian-Americans.
  • Congerss-woman Tulsi Gabbard voted against Kerry luger foreign aid law to Pakistan, because pak is a terrorist nation.
  • Secretary of state John Kerry visited Vibrant Gujarat summit and met Modi.
  • Keystone XL pipeline- to bring oil from Canada to the refineries in the gulf of Mexico.
  • Miami state legalized gay marriages.
  • World parliament of religions- will be held in Salt Lake City , Utah in 2015.
  • Proposed High speed rail project  (320 kmph). Travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco in less than three hours.
  • Designated TTP’s Mullah Fazlullah as global terrorist.
Bangladesh
  • Khalida Zia launched national bandh against PM Sheikh Haseena.
  • Justice SK Sinha became the first Hindu chief justice of Bangladesh.
Britain Singer Sarah Brightman will stay at International Space Station (ISS) for 10 days in October, under NASA’s “space-tour” program.
Dubai Burj Khlifa made Guinness record of largest LED lights on new year eve.
France
  • President Francois Hollande.
  • Terrorist attack on Chalie Hebdo magazine office at Paris, France
Greece
  • Leftist party “Syriza” won elections
  • New PM: Alexis Tsipras
Israel International criminal court (ICC) begins preliminary probe for Israel’s war crimes in Palestine territories.
Italy President Giorgio Napolitano resigned.  Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
Malaysia Government declared the people in fight MH370 as “dead”- so that insurance-compensation process can begin.
Mali Declared Ebola Free by WHO.
NZ Earthquake at City  of Christchurch.
Pakistan Cancelled its anti-polio campaign  for 2015, because of the terrorist activities.
Saudi Arabia
  • King Abdulla Abdulla dead. India declares 1 day of National mourning
  • His half-brother Salman will be the new king.
  • Capital of Saudi is Riyadh.
  • Royal family follows Wahabi Sunni Islam- therefore no large ceremonies held to mourn death of King Abdulla.
Seychelles Brandon Ah Kong, 15 months old boy became youngest person to receive Jaipur foot.
Sri Lanka
  • President Mahinda Rajapaksa defeated by Maithripala Sirisena, who was earlier health minister in his Government.
  • K.Sripavan became 1st Tamil Chief justice in 24 years.
  • Previously impeached lady Chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake restore.
Thailand Military regime has banned PM Yingluck Shinawatra and her family from politics for five years.
UN UN Secretary general Ban-Ki-Moon visited Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad, and appreciated Gujarat’s “solar panels on canals” program.
UNSC
  • Five new non-permanent members are Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Venezuela and Spain. Total strength of non-permanent members is 10.
  • Five veto powered permanent members are Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S.
Vetican
  • Pope Francis to celebrate 2015 with theme “No longer slaves but brothers and sisters.”
  • Reverend Libby Lane became the first woman bishop of Church of England.
Yemen
  • Houthi rebels (Shia) took over the capital Sana’a, President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi resigned
  • Our Government has asked Indians Yemen due to fragile security situation

Civilian Achievements

Bhakti Sharma
  • world record by swimming 1.4 miles in 52 minutes in the Antarctic Ocean.
  • She is world’s youngest and the first Asian girl to do so.
Mangalyan US National Space Society (NSS) gave 2015 Space Pioneer Award to ISRO’s Mars Orbiter team.
Miss Universe Columbia’s Paulina won this title.
Padma awards Given in a Separate article.
Pravasi Bharatiya Awards Separate article. click me
Rajanbhai Won “Governor of the year” award from British magazine “Central Banking”.
Dr.Atul Khare Ex-IFS officer and AIIMs Doctor. He Became UN under-Secretary-general for field support department.
Kailash Satyarthi This Nobel laureate gave his medal to Rashtrapati Bhawan Museum.

Dead in News

More important
Arafat Rahman Koko Bangladesh’s Opposition party BNP’s chief Khalida Zia’s son.
Beant Singh Ex-CM of Punjab, Murdered in 1995 by Khalistani terrorists. Their mastermind Jagtar Singh Tara arrested in Thailand and soon to be extradited to India.
He Zhenlian He was vice President of International Olympic Committee and instrument in organizing the Beijing Olympic 2008, hence called “Mr.Olympics” in China.
Jasodhara Bagchi Noted Feminist from Kolkata.
Kamalnayan Bajaj 100th birth anniversary. He was industrialist from Bajaj family, worked with Gandhi and Vinoba.
R.K. Laxman
  • Eminent Cartoonist, awarded Padma Vibhushan and the Magsaysay Award.
  • Autobiography: Tunnel of Time
  • Born in Mysore, died in Pune.
Rajkumar Manisana Ex-chairman of NHRC and ex-chief justice of Guwahati highcourt.
Subhash Ghisingh Gorkhaland movement leader, died.

 

Less important from Exam point of view
Adusumilli Janardhana Vara Prasad Nicknamed “Ahuthi”, this telegu actor died in January 2015.
Edward Brooke first African-American to be popularly elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts. (Republican party)
Hara Patnaik Odisha’s popular actor-director
Martin Anderson He was policy advisor of Ronald Reagan and Nixon. Wrote the book “Reagan – A Life in Letters”
Mike Marqusee Leftist columnist, London.
Robert Stone American novelist, author of “A Flag for Sunrise” and “Dog Soldiers”
Scientist Vasant Gowarikar Dr.Sarabhai’s protégé, published Fertilizer encyclopedia. Involved in various space research programs of ISRO, won Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan.
V.B. Rajendra Prasad Telugu film producer , father of popular actor Jagapathi Babu

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