2015

Career Anna GK 2015 February Fact Sheet

Career Anna

Indian Government and Politics

1.

Madhya Pradesh has been chosen for the 10th national award for excellent work in
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act-MGNREGA by the
Central Government.

2.

The Bihar government has announced that it will provide free education to all the
Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and girl students till Post Graduation
(PG) level in the state.

3.

The government has set up a high level panel, headed by former Home Secretary
Anil Baijal, to suggest a framework to assess CSR activities done by different
companies under the companies' law.

4.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the first meeting of NITI Aayog and asked
for ideas from economists to attract investments, create jobs and finance
infrastructure to achieve strong growth for India.

5.

The Ministry of External Affairs has published 19 frequently asked questions (FAQs)
in a press release to remove cloud over Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Act
(CLND) 2010. The government has made it clear though the FAQs that it is not
making changes to the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Act (CLND) 2010

6.

The Janata Dal United (JDU) of Bihar has replaced their leader Jitan Ram Manjhi with
Nitish Kumar which will clear the way for Nitish Kumar to be reelected as the Chief
Minister of Bihar.

7.

Goa has been ranked at 6th position in the list of top 10 nightlife cities in the world
by the list published by the 'National Geographic'. The list mentions Goa's beaches
and surrounding areas as the right place to enjoy night life.

8.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's name was included in the LIMCA book of
records recently for being the only woman of the country to represent the same Lok
Sabha constituency on the same party ticket for eight consecutive times.

9.

AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal took oath as the eighth Chief Minister of Delhi with the
promise to make Delhi as the first corruption-free state and act against communal
elements.

10. Senior NCP leader and former Maharashtra's Home Minister during the 26/11
terror attacks, R R Patil passed away at Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai .
11. The Roongta committee has submitted its recommendation on bringing reforms in
central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to Indian Government. The Central
Government will take a decision based on the recommendation.

12. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated American Engineering giant General
Electric's (GE) first manufacturing plant in India which will manufacture a range of
diversified products for sectors such as energy, aviation, oil & gas transportation.
13. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan scheme, nearly 7.1
lakh toilets have been built in individual household in January while total 31.83 lakh
toilets have been built between April 2014 and January 2015.
14. Bihar government has announced 35% reservation for women in non-gazetted
government jobs in group C and D grade. This decision was taken at state cabinet
meeting presided by Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.
15. The AAP government of New Delhi has slashed power tariff by 50% for
consumption up to 400 units per month and promised to provide free 20,000 litres
water to every household per month as promised before the assembly poll. With
this cut in power bill, 90% of Delhites will be benefited.
16. The Madhya Pradesh governor Ram Naresh Yadav resigned from his post after the
Central Government has asked him to step down after a FIR filed against him in a
recruitment scam.
17. BJP and PDP have finally announced to form their coalition government in Jammu
and Kashmir . BJP President Amit Shah met PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti in Delhi
and made the formal announcement.
18. 14th Finance Commission, headed by former RBI Governor Y.V. Reddy, submitted its
report to Central Government. The commission has recommended to increase
state's share in the centre's tax revenue to 42% from current 32%.
19. JDU leader Nitish Kumar took oath as a Bihar Chief Minister to become the Chief
Minister of the state for the fourth time.
20. Himachal Pradesh is set to become the India's first state to present a paperless
budget on 11th March.
21. Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi resigned just before the scheduled trust vote
at the Bihar assembly.
22. The formation of the BJP-PDP coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir may be
announced soon as both the parties are able to reach to common consensus in both
the controversial issues like Article 370 and Armed Forces Special Power Act.
23. The government has launched a single window e-Biz portal in order to bring
transparency and improve ease of doing business in India. Finance Minister Arun

Jaitley Launched the portal in New Delhi and said that this project will in fostering
the business environment in the country in a holistic manner.

Business and Economy

24. Reliance Industries has teamed up with state run State Bank of India to apply for a
payments bank licence. RIL and SBI have put in a joint application to the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) to set up a payment bank that can offer services such as
remittances and deposits but not loans.
25. India's core sector growth dropped to 3-month low of 2.4% in December 2014
compared to 6.7% growth witnessed in the previous month of November.
26. India's manufacturing sector growth moderates in January as the HSBC compiled
Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for manufacturing sector dropped to 52.9 in
January
27. Global Credit Ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has been asked to pay around
USD 1.38 billion settlement to US regulators over allegations that S&P knowingly
inflated its ratings of risky mortgage bonds before the sub-prime crisis in 2008.
28. The Reserve Bank of India has increased the eligibility limit for foreign exchange
remittances under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) by 100% to USD
250,000 per person per year. The increase was done based on review of the external
sector outlook and as a further exercise in macro prudential management.
29. Indian own mobile phone company Micromax has overthrown Korean tech giant
Samsung to take the top spot in the Indian smart phone market, as per market
analyst firm Canalys.
30. Pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer Inc has announced that it would acquire Hospira Inc, a
leading provider of injectable drugs, infusion technologies and biosimilars, for
around USD 17 billion.
31. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has acquired 25% stake in Indian mobile
payments and ecommerce platform Paytm owner One97 Communications in order
make its entry in Indian market.
32. Central Government has announced that it would infuse Rs. 6,990 crore in nine
public sector banks including SBI, Bank of Baroda (BoB) and Punjab National Bank
(PNB) in order to improve their capital structure as per latest global risk norms.

33. India's foreign exchange (forex) reserves jumped by USD 5.845 billion to all time
high USD 327.883 billion in the week ended 30thJanuary, as per weekly report
published by the RBI. The jump was mainly due to increase in foreign currency
assets which was increased by USD 5.814 billion to USD 303.325 billion in the same
week.
34. Vodafone India has appointed Naveen Chopra as Chief Operating Officer, effective
from 1st April 2015. Currently he is Director of Vodafone Business Services (VBS).
35. Gauri Shankar, an Executive Director of Punjab National Bank, has been given
additional charge as Managing Director and CEO of PSU bank Punjab National Bank
with immediate effect.
36. The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCom),
watchdog of Indian IT Industry, has reduced growth projection for the Indian IT
industry marginally for the next financial year. It has cut its export estimate for
information technology and back-office services to 12-14% for the next fiscal year
2015-16 ending March 2016 as against 13-15% estimated for current fiscal year
2014-15.
37. Reliance Communications Ltd has partnered with social networking giant Facebook
to offer free data access to select popular websites for all its existing and new
customers.
38. Novi Digital Entertainment Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Star India, secured
certain media rights relating to the Indian Premier League (IPL) for
approximately Rs.302.2 crore over a three-season period, as per announcement
made by the BCCI. This media rights were provided for the years 2015, 2016 and
2017.
39. M Ravindran has been appointed as the Chairman of Indraprastha Gas Ltd.
40. India's largest private bank, ICICI bank has launched India's first digital
bank'Pockets' service to allow anyone to instantly make transactions on a mobile
phone with or without a bank account.
41. US Tech giant Apple Inc. became the first company in the world to reach a market
value of USD 700 billion as its share price touched record high value on US stock
exchanges.
42. The Board of Directors of Grasim Industries Limited has recently approved the
proposed merger of Aditya Birla Chemicals (India) Limited (ABCIL) with Grasim.
43. Japanese economy grew by an annualized rate of 2.2% in the fourth quarter
(September-December) of the previous year 2014. With this growth Japan was able
to come out of recession.

44. India-born Punit Renjen has been appointed as the next CEO of US-based accounting
giant Deloitte's global operations.
45. Indian IT services company Infosys has announced its acquisition of US based
leading provider of automation technology for large-scale software management,
Panaya Inc, for around USD 200 million.
46. Balasubramaniam Venkataramani has been appointed as the new Managing
Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Multi Commodity Exchange
(MCX) Limited.
47. India has been ranked 3rd position in the Hurun Global Rich List 2015 for the first
time after overtaking Russia which now struggles with economic growth due to US
sanctions and record low crude oil price.
48. Madhusudhan Prasad has been appointed as the Secretary, ministry of urban
development (MoUD). He replaced Shankar Agarwal. Earlier he was a Director and
Joint Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs and Additional Secretary in
the Union Ministry of Commerce.
49. Indian-American Ajaypal Singh Banga has been appointed as the Member of the
Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN), a key
administration position in the United States (US).
50. MO Garg has been appointed as the Director General of the Council of Scientific &
Industrial Research (CSIR).
51. Indians have been ranked at 16th place with total worth of USD 4.1 billion on the
new leaked HSBC list of Swiss bank account holders from over 200 countries. People
from Switzerland have been ranked at No 1 position in the same list with net worth
of USD 31.2 billion followed by UK, Venezuela, US and France in the top five.
52. India has been ranked at 136th place out of 180 countries across the worldwide in
terms of press freedom in 2015, as per the World Press Freedom Index (WPFI) 2015
published
53. Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel Limited has signed a partnership agreement with
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to provide health, education and youthfocused content to its customers in 17 African countries.
54. Kshatrapati Shivaji has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director of
Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).
55. The U.S. government has confirmed that it would allow holders of the H-4 visa, who
are spouses of high-skilled workers on the H-1B visa, to work in USA and it will
provide work authorization from 26th May onwards.

56. US Tech giant Apple Inc has been order by federal Jury in US District Court for the
Eastern District of Texas to pay USD 553 million fine for three patent infringements.
57. India's Foreign direct investment (FDI) jumped by more than 100% to USD 2.16
billion in December 2014 compared to USD 1.10 billion in the same month of
2013.During the April-December period of current fiscal year 2014-15, total FDI
increased by 27% to USD 21.04 billion
58. Takahiro Hachigo has been appointed as the President and Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) of Japanese auto giant Honda Motor Co. Limited.
59. Famous scientist Tapan Misra has been appointed the Chief of ISRO's Space
Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad Gujarat. He will succeed A S Kiran Kumar,
who was appointed as the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization
(ISRO) in Jan.
60. Founder and Managing Director of Sun Pharma, Dilip Shanghvi is now the richest
Indian due to his more than 63% holding in three group companies; Sun Pharma,
Sun Pharma Advanced Research and Ranbaxy Labs, is not worth of about USD 23.4
billion.
61. India's online marketplace Snapdeal.com has announced the acquisition of
Exclusively.com (formerly Exclusively.in) which is an online portal for premium
and luxury fashion.

Entertainment
62. Two Indians, Ricky Kej and Neela Vaswani have been awarded at the 57th Grammy
Awards held in Los Angeles end.
63. Marathi theatre artist and film actor Atmaram Govind Bhende passed away on
7th February.
64. Famous film producer and Dada Saheb Phalke award winner Daggubati Rama Naidu
passed away at Hyderabad. He was awarded with Dadasaheb Phalke award in 2009
and Padma Bhushan award in 2012 for his outstanding contribution towards Indian
film industry.

Sports
65. Novak Djokovic defeated Andy Murray by 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-0 in the final match
of Australian Open Men's single title to win his fifth Australian Open title.

66. Serena Williams defeated Russia's Maria Sharapova by 6-3, 7-6 (5) in the Australian
Open Women's singles title to win her 19th Grand Slam title.
67. India's Leander Paes and his partner Martina Hingis won the Australian Open Mixed
Doubles title after defeating third seeded France's Kristina Mladenovic and
Canadian Daniel Nester by 6-4, 6-3 in the final match.
68. Saloni Dalal has beocome the youngest player to win the bronze medal in the 200 m
breaststroke event in the 35th National Games 2015 being held in Kerala.
69. Indian Anirban Lahiri won his maiden European Tour title after defeating Austrian
Bernd Wiesberger in a in the final match of the Malaysian Open .
70. The Board of India Cements Ltd. (ICL) has cleared the proposal for transfer of IPL
franchise rights of Chennai Super Kings to its wholly owned subsidiary, Chennai
Super Kings Cricket Ltd.
71. Indian national football team's captain Sunil Chhetri was presented with All India
Football Federation's 2014 Player of the Year award in the men category. Striker of
Indian women football team Bala Devi win the same award in the women category
while Sandesh Jhingan received the Emerging Player of the Year 2014 award and
Santosh Kumar won the Best Referee 2014 award.
72. IPL-8 auction was held for the next IPL season. Yuvraj Singh attracted the
maximum price of Rs 16 crore from IPL team Delhi Daredevils followed by Dinesh
Karthik who attracted Rs 10.5 crore from Royal Challengers Bangalore in the
auction .
73. Former India Captain and famous Leg Spinner Anil Kumble has been chosen to be
inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame which has all times greatest cricketers.
74. Five-time world chess champion Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw with
Russia's Sergey Karjakin in the final round to win the Classical section of Zurich
Chess Classic in Zurich.
75. Rohan Bopanna and Daniel Nestor have won the ATP Tennis Championship doubles.
76. South African batsman AB de Villiers scored the fastest ever 150 in one-day
internationals while planning against West Indies in a group league match of ICC
cricket world cup on Friday.
77. Ranchi Rays won the Hero Hockey India League 2015 after defeating Jaypee Punjab
Warriors by 3-2 in the final at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, New Delhi.

78. West Indies opener Chris Gayle became the first batsman to score a double century
in a World Cup innings when he scored 215 runs while playing against Zimbabwe in
a Pool B group match.

International News and Global Awards

79. Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed Kanagasabapathy Sripavan
as the new Chief Justice of the island country. With this, he has become Sri Lanka's
44th chief justice.
80. Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has been appointed as Chairman of African
Union (AU). With this appointment, he will be the 13th Chairman of African Union
and will succeed Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
81. China has overtaken the United States as the top destination for foreign direct
investment as per the total FDI received for the year of 2014.
82. Indian economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has been awarded the inaugural
Charleston-EFG John Maynard Keynes Prize in recognition of his contribution to
society, as per the announcement made.
83. Ashton Carter has been confirmed as the next American defence secretary by the
Senate . He, a former deputy defense secretary, will replace Chuck Hagel to become
the 25th US Secretary of Defence.
84. Indian-origin scientist Gurpreet Singh, assistant professor of mechanical and
nuclear engineering at Kansas State University, was awarded with the USD 500,000
National Science Foundation CAREER award
85. India and Sri Lanka have signed a civil nuclear deal during presence of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena.
86. Two women scientists, Tessy Thomas and Geeta Varadan, have been chosen for the
Dr.Y. Nayudamma Memorial Award 2014. Both have been chosen for their
significant contributions in the fields of missile technology and remote sensing.
87. Chairman and Managing Director of State Bank of India, Arundhati Bhattacharya has
been named in the Forbes list of 50 'power businesswomen' published by the global
business magazine.
88. Birdman movie won the best picture award at the 87th Annual Academy Awards or
the Oscar night. Alejandro G Inarritu won the best director award for the same
movie.

89. Former President of Maldives Mohamed Nasheed has been arrested under antiterrorism laws after a court said that he might flee the country to avoid hearings on
terrorism charges.
90. Indian-origin scientist Professor Srikanth Jagabathula has been awarded with the
Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) by the National Science
Foundation (NSF) of the United States (US).
91. Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic sworn in as the first Woman President of Croatia after
winning the election held in January this year.

Miscellaneous
92. World Cancer day was observed (4th February) across the world in order to raise
awareness about the prevention, detection, and treatment of the deadly disease. The
theme for this year 2015 is "Not beyond us"

93. Justice Madan Mohan Das has been appointed to probe the multi-crore chit fund
scam in Odisha. He succeeds Justice Radha Krushna Patra who passed away on
28th January this year.

94. Famous Marathi author Bhalachandra Nemade has been selected for the prestigious
Jnanpith award for the year 2014.

95. Kolkata has become the first Wi-Fi-enabled metro city in India after Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee launched this 4th Generation (4G) free Wi-fi service in the city .

96. Yash Bharti Samman 2015 was awarded to famous journalist and writer Vinod
Mehta by Uttar Pradesh government.

97. World Radio Day is observed (13th February) across the world to celebrate radio as
a medium for communication, entertainment and information for remote
communities and its role in communicating and empowering people. Theme of
World Radio day 2015 is 'Youth and Radio'
98. India has successfully test-fired its 290-km range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile
from Indian Navy destroyer INS Kolkata . INS Kolkata, which was commissioned by
the Indian Navy in August 2014, has the capability of firing the highest number of
BrahMos missiles.

99. The Aero India expo 2015, 10th edition of the five-day international edition of the
aerospace and aviation exhibition, started at the Air Force Station at Yelahanka in
Bangalore .
100.
Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport has been chosen as the best
airport among the world's most performing airports in the 25-40 million passengers
per annum category by the Airport Council International(ACI). Apart from Delhi,
Mumbai airport was also placed in the top five list.
101.
India successfully test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear capable
Prithvi-II surface-to-surface missile as part of a user trial by the army from a test
range at Chandipur in Odisha.
102.
International Mother Language Day was observed (21st February) across the
world. The year 2015 is the 15th anniversary of International Mother Language Day
and this year's theme is 'Inclusive Education through and with Language - Language
Matters'.
103.
The Indian Army and India's largest bank State Bank of India (SBI) have
signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Defence Salary Package on
23rd February.
104.
Dr Rajendra Kumar Pachauri stepped down as Chairperson of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Pachauri said that he was unable to
provide strong leadership to the organization in a letter to UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon.
105.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India amended the mobile number
portability (MNP) regulations to allow users to change their service provider in any
part of the country while retaining the number.
106.
Clemson University has honoured former Tata group Mr. Ratan Tata with the
Doctorate of Automotive Engineering at the South Carolina Automotive Summit held
in Washington recently.
107.
National Science Day i.e. Rashtriya Vigyan Diwas was celebrated
(28thFebruary) across the nation. The theme for year 2015 is 'Science for Nation
Building' with the purpose of raising public appreciation on scientific issues for the
development of nation.
108.
Chief Justice of Odisha High Court, Amitava Roy sworn in as a judge of
Supreme Court of India. He was appointed by the President of India