GK-CA Fact Bytes

Contents
Personalities ........................................................................................................................................... 2
Appointments – Indian ....................................................................................................................... 2
Key Positions Held – India .................................................................................................................. 5
Appointments – International ............................................................................................................ 6
Key Positions held – International ...................................................................................................... 7
People in news.................................................................................................................................... 9
Deaths............................................................................................................................................... 11
Sports.................................................................................................................................................... 12
Rio Summer Olympics 2016.............................................................................................................. 12
Para Olympics 2016 .......................................................................................................................... 13
South Asian Federation Games 2016 ............................................................................................... 14
Individual Sports ............................................................................................................................... 14
Awards .................................................................................................................................................. 19
Honours ................................................................................................................................................ 28
Science & Technology........................................................................................................................... 31
Government Schemes .......................................................................................................................... 36
Government News................................................................................................................................ 40
Movies & Theatre ................................................................................................................................. 46
Book Releases & Authors ..................................................................................................................... 46
India’s Global Rankings ......................................................................................................................... 47
International News ............................................................................................................................... 49
Business News ...................................................................................................................................... 53
Important Days ..................................................................................................................................... 58

1
Current Affairs
Personalities

Appointments – Indian
(a) Union Cabinet portfolio
HRD Minister
Sports Minister
Law Minister
Information & Broadcasting
Personality
Prakash Javadekar (Replaced Smriti Irani)
Vijay Goel (Replaced Sarbananda Sonowal)
Ravi Shankar Prasad
M Venkaiah Naidu

(b) Chief Ministers Personality

Jammu & Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti (The first woman Chief
Minister of the state) post Mr Mufti Mohammad
Sayeed’s demise
Gujarat Vijay Rupani (BJP) replaced Anandiben Patel
Arunachal Pradesh Pema Khandu (Replaced Nabam Tuki after
Supreme court re-instated Congress government
in the state)
Chief Minister Pema Khandu and 32 other
legislators of the People’s Party of Arunachal
(PPA) switched to BJP (Jan 2017)
Congress government falls in Chief minister Pema Khandu along with two-
Arunachal Pradesh (Mass thirds of party MLAs crossed over to the regional
Exodus of Congress MLAs) People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA)
Assam Sarbananda Sonowal (BJP) - Post assembly
elections
Tamil Nadu Edappadi K Palaniswami (Replaced O
Paneerselvam, who had taken over as CM post
Jayalalithaa’s demise)
West Bengal Mamata Banerjee (TMC), re-elected as CM -
(Post assembly elections)
Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan (CPI-M) - Post assembly
elections
Nagaland Shurhozelie Liezietsu (Post resignation of T.R.
Zeliang)

2
 (c) Governor/ Lt Governor
Governor – Pondicherry
Chief Minister – Pondicherry
Andaman Nicobar islands
Manipur
Arunachal Pradesh
Delhi
(d) Government
Bodies/Defence
RBI Governor
RBI Deputy Governor
RBI Deputy Governor
Principal Adviser for social
sector in NITI Aayog
Finance Secretary
Chairman (Part time), UIDAI
CEO, UIDAI
MD, SBI
Chairman, Central Board of
Direct Taxes (CBDT)
Central Administrative
Tribunal
Chief of Army Staff
Chief of the Air Staff
Chief of the Naval Staff
Chief, RAW
Chief, Intelligence Bureau
Director, CBI
Personality
Kiran Bedi
V Narayanasamy
Jagdish Mukhi
Najma Heptulla
Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa (Removed from position
due to refusal to step down)
Anil Baijal (Former bureaucrat) succeeded Najeeb
Jung
Personality
Urjit Patel (Replaced Raghuram Rajan)
NS Vishwanathan (Replaced H R Khan who
retired in July 2016)
Viral Acharya has served under Former RBI
Governor Mr. Raghuram Rajan
Ratan Watal
Ashok Lavasa (Replaced Ratan Watal)
J Satyanarayana (Succeeded Nandan Nilekani)
Ajay Bhushan Pandey (New position)
Dinesh Kumar Khara
Sushil Chandra (Replaced Rani Singh Nair, who
retired on 31 Oct 2016)
Justice Permod Kohli
Lt Gen Bipin Rawat (Replaces Dalbir Singh)
Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa (Replaces Mr Arul
Saha)
Admiral Sunil Lanba (Following Admiral Robin
Dhowan post retirement)
Anil Dhasmana (Following incumbent Rajinder
Khanna’s retirement)
Rajiv Jain (Following incumbent Dineshwar
Sharma’s retirement)
Alok Kumar Verma
3
CMD, Konkan Railway Sanjay Gupta, the youngest CMD of KRCL
Corporation Limited (KRCL)
Chairman, LIC of India V K Sharma (MD & Acting Chairman at present)

(e) Others Personality

Director, FTII Bhupendra Kainthola
Chairman, Press Trust of Riyadh Mathew
India

(f) Sports Personality

Coach of Indian cricket team Anil Kumble
BCCI President – Vinod Rai (Replaced Anurag Thakur)
CEO – Rahul Johri (New position)
IPL governing council (2016) Chairman – Rajeev Shukla

(g) Industry
Position Person
President, Microsoft India Anant Maheshwari
Head, Nokia India Sanjay Malik
MD, Facebook India Umang Bedi
Partner & CEO, KPMG India Sameer Chadha
MD, Mondelez India Deepak Iyer
COO , ITC Limited Sanjiv Puri
Chairman, Max Financial Naina Lal Kidwai
Services
India Country Manager & Anupam Pahuja
MD, PayPal
CEO, AirAsia India Amar Abrol (Replaced Mittu Chandilya)
Senior VP, Housing.com Dilip Tuli (Former KPMG Director)
Chairman, Tata Sons N Chandrasekaran (Replaced Cyrus Mistry)
CEO & MD, TCS Rajesh Gopinathan (Replaced N Chandrasekaran)
Chairman, Tata Steel OP Bhatt (Replaced Cyrus Mistry)
Chairman, Tata Global Harish Bhat (Replaced Cyrus Mistry)
Beverages

4
Key Positions Held – India
Government & Industry Forums
NITI Aayog
th
14 Finance Commission
SEBI
CII
FICCI
NASSCOM
ASSOCHAM
Chief Economic advisor to the govt Arvind Subramanian
Revenue Secretary
Economic Affairs Secretary
th
Chairman of 7 pay commission
National Human Rights
Commission of India
Chief Election Commissioner
Chief Information Commissioner
National Security advisor to the
PM
CEO – Amitabh Kant
Chairman - Arvind Panagariya
Y V Reddy
Ajay Tyagi (Replaced Upendra Sinha)
Dr. Naushad Forbes
Pankaj Patel (Replaced Harshavardhan
Neotia)
President – R. Chandrasekhar
Chairman – C P Gurnani
Sunil Kanoria
Hasmukh Adhia
Shaktikanta Das
Justice A K Mathur
Justice H.L. Dattu
Nasim Zaidi
Radha Krishna Mathur
Ajit Doval

Key Banks & Financial Institutions

SBI Chairman – Arundhati Bhattacharya
ICICI Bank MD & CEO - Chanda Kochhar
HDFC Bank Aditya Puri
Yes Bank Rana Kapoor
Standard Chartered Zarin Daruwala
Exim Bank Yaduvendra Mathur

Science Related Bodies

TIFR (1945) Sandip Trivedi
BARC (1954) Director - K N Vyas
Atomic Energy Commission of Chairman – Sekhar Basu
India
ISRO (1969) A S Kirankumar
DRDO (1958) Director General - S Christopher

5
National Green Tribunal (2010) Justice Swatanter Kumar

Appointments – International
Person Position
Theresa May Replaced David Cameron as the British Prime Minister,
post Britain’s EU exit
Pushpa Kamal Dahal Replaced K P Oli as the Prime Minister of Nepal
(“Prachand”)
Tsai Ing-wen First female president of Taiwan
Rodrigo Duterte Won 2016 presidential election of Philippines
Paul Romer World Bank's new chief economist
Kristalina Georgieva CEO of IBRD & IDA - Lending arms of the World Bank
(Replaces Mulyani Indrawati, current MD & COO)
Shashank Manohar First independent Chairman of the ICC
Sunil Bharti Mittal 1. Head of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC),
based in Paris, France
2. First Indian to be elected as the Chairman of global
telecom industry board GSMA. He will oversee the
strategic direction of the organisation, which
represents nearly 800 global mobile operators &
300+ companies in the broader mobile ecosystem
Ken Miyauchi President & COO of SoftBank Group (Replaced Nikesh
Arora)
Borje Ekholm President & CEO of Ericsson (Replaced Hans Vestberg
who was ousted earlier)
Navtej Sarna Indian ambassador to the US
Donald Trump New President Elect of the US. The Republican
candidate won a fiercely fought electoral competition
against the nearest rival Hillary Clinton
Mariano Rajoy Re-elected at Spanish Prime Minister
Paolo Gentiloni Italian Prime Minister (Replaces Matteo Renzi)
Bill English New Zealand Prime Minister (Replaced John Key)
Meng Hongwei First Chinese appointed as the Interpol head. He is
currently the deputy public security minister of China
France’s Jean-Pierre Appointed as the UN peacekeeping chief (Replaced
Lacroix Herve Ladsous, who served for six years)

Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo Appointed as the only Indian-American executive in US

chairman President's Strategic and Policy Forum

6
Key Positions held – International
Organization HQ Headed by 2016 convention
United Nations New York Secretary General – Multiple conventions
(Since 1945) Antonio Guterres
UN Framework COP 22- 22nd session
Convention on of Conference of the
Climate Change Parties, Marrakech
(UNFCCC) Climate Change
Conference, Morocco
(Nov 2016)
UN General New York President - Peter 71st session, New York
Assembly Thomson (Sep 2016)
International Netherlands Ronny Abraham ___
Court of Justice
(Since 1945)
World Bank (Since Washington President - Jim Yong World Bank Group
1945) D.C Kim (Reappointed Youth Summit,
for five yr term till Washington DC (Nov
2021) 2016)
IMF (Since 1945) Washington MD - Christine Annual Meetings,
D.C Lagarde Washington (Oct
2016)
UNESCO (Since Paris, France Director-General - World Humanitarian
1945) Irina Bokova Summit, Istanbul (May
2016) – Organized by
German Ethics
Council, WHO &
UNESCO
UNCTAD (Since Geneva, Secretary General - 14th Summit, Kenya
1964) Switzerland Mukhisa Kituyi (July 2016)
World Economic Geneva, Executive Chairman Davos, Switzerland
Forum (Since Switzerland - Klaus Schwab (January 2017)
1971)
Commonwealth of London, UK Secretary General - __
Nations (Since Patricia Scotland
1949)
World Intellectual Geneva, Director-General - __
Property Switzerland Francis Gurry

7
Organization
(Since 1967)
New Development Shanghai, K V Kamath 8th BRICS Heads of
Bank China State Summit, Goa
(October 2016)
BRICS (Since 2009) Shanghai, ___ Youth summit,
China Guwahati (July 2016)
First ever BRICS
Employment Working
Group meeting,
Hyderabad (July 2016)
BIMSTEC (Since Dhaka, Secretary General - Goa (October 2016)
1997) Bangladesh Sumith Nakandala
(Sri Lanka)
WHO (Since 1948) Geneva, Director General - 11th Global Summit of
Switzerland Margaret Chan National
Ethics/Bioethics
Committees, Berlin
(March 2016)
ASEAN Summit Jakarta, Secretary General - 28th & 29th Summits,
(Since 1967) Indonesia Le Luong Minh Laos (Sept 2016)
11th East Asia summit
& 14th ASEAN-India
summits happened
during same window
UNICEF (Since New York Exec Director - UNICEF Student
1946) Anthony (Tony) Summit, Washington
Lake DC (April 2016)
OPEC (Since 1960) Vienna, Secretary General -
Austria Mohammed Sanusi
Barkindo (Nigeria)
NATO (Since 1949) Brussels Secretary General - 27th Summit, Poland (
Jens Stoltenberg July 2016)
SAARC (Since Kathmandu Secretary General - 19th Summit to be held
1985) Arjun Bahadur in Pakistan was
Thapa indefinitely postponed
NAM (Since 1961) Jakarta Secretary General - 17th NAM summit.
Nicolás Maduro Venezuela, Sep 2016
G7/G8 ---- 42nd Summit, Japan
(May 2016)

8
G20 Mexico Xi Jinping China (Sept 2016)
SCO (Since 2001) Shanghai Secretary General – Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Cooperation Rashid Olimov
Organization
International London, UK Secretary General - India maritime summit
Maritime Ki Tack Lim (South – Mumbai
Organization Korea)
(Since 1948)
International Geneva, Director General – ---
Labour Switzerland Guy Ryder (UK)
Organization
(Since 1919)
Asia-Pacific Singapore Executive Director - Peru (Nov 2016).
Economic Alan Bollard Summit theme -
Cooperation “Quality Growth and
(APEC) Forum Human Development”
(Since 1989)

People in news
Name Context
Irom Sharmila – Political Activist Ended 16 years of hunger strike against Armed
from Manipur Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 passed by
Indian Government, which gives excess powers
to the armed forces, which they supposedly
misuse against the innocent
Arjun Kumar Thapa, soldier of Became the first Indian to reach both Mount
Gorkha Regiment of Indian Everest peak and South pole
Army
Mario Sharapova, Russian tennis Was suspended for playing Tennis for two years
player by International Tennis Federation, since she
tested positive for meldonium, a performance
enhancer drug banned by World Anti-Doping
Agency (WADA)
Perumal Murugan, a Tamil The Madras high court dismissed all criminal
author cases filed against the author by caste groups in
protest against his controversial 2010 novel
‘Mathorubhagan
Navjot Sidhu Resigned from Rajya Sabha as a BJP MP, joined
National Congress party

9
Lionel Messi
First batch of female pilots
Umesh Sachdev
Neeraj Chopra, a Javelin
thrower
Saina Nehwal – Appointed as a
member of IOC Athletes’
Commission
Pawan Chamling, Sikkim CM
Former world number one sport This was due to the compulsory hijab rule for all
shooter Heena Sidhu pulls out
of Asian Air Gun shooting
championship in Iran
S P Tyagi arrested in Augusta
Westland chopper deal case
Supreme Court removes Anurag SC also issued a show cause notice to Thakur,
Thakur as BCCI President
Sasikala Natarajan unanimously Post J Jayalalithaa’s demise
elected as General Secretary of
the AIADMK
Sudip Bandopadhyay, TMC
leader arrested in the Rose
Valley chit fund scam case
Harmanpreet Kaur is the first
India Women's cricketer to be
Announced retirement after Argentina’s defeat
in Cola America finals, but reversed his decision
Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth & Mohana
Singh were inducted in Indian Air Force fighter
squadron (June)
Named by Time magazine in its 2016 list of “10
millennials who are changing the world” (June
2016)
Broke the world record in IAAF World under-20
athletics championship in Poland, got India’s
first ever gold in any World athletics
championship
The Athletes’ Commission is chaired by Angela
Ruggiero and it comprises nine vice presidents
and 10 other members
Won sustainable development award for
making Sikkim the first organic farming state in
the country
women athletes. She felt forcing athletes to
wear a hijab is against the spirit of a sport
It is the first time a Former Indian Air Force
chief has been arrested by CBI
under charges of perjury and contempt of
court, for allegedly lying under oath in his
attempt to block implementation of measures
proposed by the court-appointed Lodha
committee
CBI took Sudip in custody with allegations of
involvement in dubious funds scam & non-
cooperation with investigators. According to
CBI, Bandyopadhyay was arrested on the charge
of “criminal conspiracy”
Australian franchise ‘Sydney Thunder’ signed up
Harmanpreet for 2nd edition of the Australian
10
signed by an overseas T20
franchise
Yusuf Pathan set to become first
Indian to play in overseas
franchise T20 (Feb 2017)
CBI books its former chief AP
Singh along with Moin Qureshi
in a case registered to probe
alleged corruption
T20 league
Pathan signed deal with Kowloon Cantons for
the 2nd edition of the Hong Kong Twenty20
League after getting NOC from BCCI & Baroda
Cricket Association
Moin Akhtar Qureshi, who is also under probe
by the IT department and the Enforcement
Directorate, is accused of operating as a
middleman for several public servants including
AP Singh

Deaths
Names Details
Muhammad Ali (International Boxer) Earlier name – Cassius Clay
Mohammed Shahid (Hockey Player) Member of 1980 Olympic Gold Medal
winning Indian team, famous for dribbling
skills. Winner of Arjuna Award & Padma Shri
Hanif Mohammad (Pakistani First cricketer referred to as “Little Master”
Cricketer)
Arnold Palmer (American Golfer) Called ‘The King of Modern Golf’
Neil O'Brien – Known as “Father of Former Lok Sabha MP & three-time
Indian quizzing” nominated Anglo-Indian MLA in the West
Bengal assembly
Mahasweta Devi (Indian writer) Bengali fiction writer and social activist
Notable literary works - Hajar Churashir
Maa, Rudali, Murti and Aranyer Adhikar
Nida Fazli (Urdu/Hindi poet/lyricist) Padma Shri awardee (2013) for contribution
to literature
Satyanand Munjal (Hero Group) One of the co-founders
Pakistan Sufi singer Amjad Sabri Was shot dead in Karachi in a gun attack
Xerxes Desai (Titan) Founder, Titan Group of Industries
Shimon Peres (Ex-Israeli President) He had won Nobel Prize for forging a peace
deal between Israelis and Palestinians
S R Nathan (Ex-Singaporean He was the longest serving President from
President) 1999-2011
Junko Tabei (Japanese Mountaineer) First woman climber on Everest in 1992
Bhumibol Adulyadej (Thai monarch) The world's longest-serving head of state
M. Balamurali Krishna, Carnatic Padma Vibhushan awardee

11
vocalist
Prof. M.G.K. Menon, an acclaimed
physicist & policy maker
Fidel Castro (Cuba’s longest serving
former president & the leader of
Communist revolution)
J. Jayalalithaa, hugely popular
actress-turned-politician
Srinivasa Iyer ‘Cho’ Ramaswamy,
the editor, political satirist & actor
Om Puri, veteran bollywood & stage
actor
Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan, renowned
sitar player
Padma Vibhushan awardee, played various
roles in the past like ISRO chairman, TIFR
Director, Planning Commission member,
Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister &
CSIR Vice President, Rajya Sabha MP
Fidel Castro ruled Cuba as a one-party state
for almost 50 years
Was the youngest female chief minister of
Tamil Nadu & influenced regional politics for
several decades
Nominated Rajya Sabha member (1999-
2005), Founder & Editor of ‘Thuglak’, the
Tamil language weekly news magazine
An alumnus of FTII & National School of
Drama, he acted in multiple art &
commercial films like Bhavni Bhavai (1980),
Sadgati (1981), Ardh Satya (1982), Mirch
Masala (1986) and Dharavi (1992)
Recipient of national awards Padma Shri,
Padma Bhushan & Sangeet Natak Akademi
Award was the last survivor of the 'Sitar
Trinity' of India (Others being Pt. Ravi
Shankar & Pt. Vilayat Khan)

Sports
Rio Summer Olympics 2016
Superlatives
First time participants as independent countries - Kosovo & South Sudan
First time inclusion of a sport – Golf & Rugby Sevens
First South American city to host the Summer Olympics
First Indian female IOC member – Nita Ambani
Also characterised by:
Sustainable medals using recycled material
Safety concerns surrounding the Zika virus (Spread by Aedes mosquito)
Refugee Olympic Teams (From Syria, Kenya etc) &
Independent Olympic Athletes Kuwait)

IOC President – Thomas Bach

12
Theme - World Peace And Environment
Mascot – Vinicius - Represents Brazilian wildlife, combining aspects of cats,
monkeys, and birds

Medal standings
The USA - 121 medals (46 G, 37 S, 38 B)
Great Britain – 67 Medals (27 G, 23 S, 17 B)
China – 70 Medals (26 G, 18 S, 26 B)
Key performances Country Achievement
Michael Phelps (Swimming), United 25+ Olympics medals till date
highest number of individual States
Olympics medals
Usain Bolt (Sprint), the Jamaica Three sprinting gold medals in three
3*3 record holder consecutive Olympics (100m, 200m,
4*100m relay). Also a World record
holder in 100m & 200m
Elaine Thompson (Sprint), the Jamaica Completed 100m race in 10.71
fastest woman in the world seconds at Rio Olympics
Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez Spain They beat Romania’s Florin Mergea
(Tennis) and Horia Tecau
P V Sindhu (Badminton) India The lone Indian silver medallist
Sakshi Malik (Wrestling) India The lone Indian bronze medallist
Dipa Karmakar (Gymnastics) India First Indian female gymnast to
participate in Olympics & finished at
4th position in Women's Vault
Gymnastics
Lalita Babar, the first Indian India Finished 10th in 3,000m steeplechase
woman athlete in 32 years to
make it to a track final at the
Olympics
India has won total 28 medals at Olympics till date
· Field Hockey – 11
· Wrestling – 5
· Shooting – 4
· Athletics, Badminton, Boxing – 2 each
· Tennis, Weightlifting – 1 each
Para Olympics 2016
Mascot – Tom (Represents Brazilian wild life)

13
 Indian Medallists Achievement
Mariyappan Thangavelu Gold medal, Mens’ high jump
Devendra Jhajhariya Gold medal, Javelin (First gold in Athens, 2004)
Deepa Malik Silver medal, Shotput (First Indian woman
medallist)
Varun Singh Bhati Bronze, men’s high jump

South Asian Federation Games 2016

12th SAF Venue Guwahati & Shilong, India
Dates 5-16 Feb 2016
Mascot Tikhor, the baby Rhino
Medal standings India 188 G, 90 S, 30 B, Total Medals – 308
Sri Lanka 25G, 63 S, 98 B, Total Medals – 186
Pakistan – 12 G, 37 S, 57 B, Total Medals - 106
Individual Sports
Football/Futsal Location Highlights
UEFA European France Portugal beats France (1-0) in the finals in
Championship 2016 Extra time
Copa America The US (A Held for the first time outside Latin America
Centenario 2016 centenary
(Started in 1916) celebration) Chile beats Argentina in the finals &
defends the title (4-2 in a penalty shootout)

Became the fourth nation to win

consecutive titles
2016 Premier Futsal Goa & Mumbai 5s beat Kochi 5s in finals
season (July 2016) Chennai Best player - Chaguinha (Kochi)
Santosh Trophy To be held
Football
Championship (Mar
2017)

Boxing Location Winners

WBO Asia Pacific New Delhi Vijender Singh beat Australian Kerry Hope

14
Super Middleweight
championship (July)

Tennis Location Winners

Australian Open Melbourne Men’s Singles - Roger Federer beat
(Jan 2017) Rafael Nadal in a 5-set match (Won 18th
Grand Slam title)
Women’s Singles - Serena Williams beat
Venus Williams to win her record 23rd
Grand Slam, one short of Margaret
Court's long-standing record of 24
130th Wimbledon London Men’s Singles - Andy Murray (Beats
(June-July 2016) Milos Raonic)
Women’s Singles - Serena Williams
beats (Beats Angelique Kerber)
115th French Open Paris Men’s Singles - Novak Djokovic (Beats
(May-June 2016) Andy Murray)
Women’s Singles - Garbine Muguruza
(Beats Serena Williams)
Mixed Doubles - Leander Paes-Martina
Hingis (Beats Sania Mirza-Ivan Dodig)
136th US Open New York Men’s Singles - Stan Wawrinka
(August-Sep 2016) (Switzerland)
Women’s Singles - Angelique Kerber
(Germany)
ATP World Tour London Andy Murray beats Novak Djokovic to
2016 win his first ATP tour & ends 2016 as the
World Number one in ranking
Davis Cup 2016 International Described as ‘World cup of tennis’, the
(105th edition) Tennis tournament between national teams in
Federation (ITF) men's tennis was won by Argentina for
member the first time, after 4 runner-up finishes,
countries defeating Croatia in the final

Golf Location Winners

15
Ladies European Gurgaon Aditi Ashok became the first Indian female
Tour (Nov 2016) to win on European Tour title
Kids Golf World Malaysia Arjun Bhati defeated South Africa's Methu
Championship Denish during the three-level final match,
(Dec 2016) scoring 2 extra shots

Squash Location Winners

PSA Australian Melbourne Dipika Pallikal Karthik beat Mayar Hany
Open (August 2016) (Egypt)
26th National Mumbai Men’s singles - Saurav Ghosal
Squash Women’s singles - Dipika Pallikal Karthik
championship (July
2016)
Under-19 Asian Kuala Velavan Senthilkumar beat Mohammad Al
junior individual Lumpur Sarraj of Jordan
squash
championship

Shooting Location Winners

International New Delhi Pooja Ghatkar won a bronze medal in
Shooting Sport 10m air rifle event. China's Mengyao Shi
Federation (ISSF) won the gold medal
World Cup (Feb Ankur Mittal won silver medal in men’s
2017) double trap event
Jeetu Rai, Heena Sidhu won gold badge in
mixed team 10m rifle event

Badminton Location Winners

Australian Open Sydney Saina Nehwal beat China’s Sun Yu in finals
Super Series (June
2016)
Canada Open 2016 Calgary, Men’s singles - B Sai Praneeth
Canada Men’s doubles -Manu Attri and B Sumeeth
Reddy
China Open Super Fuzhou, P V Sindhu beats China’s Sun Yu in finals
Series Premier (Nov China
2016)
Malaysia Masters Penang Saina Nehwal beats Thai Pornpawee

16
Grand Prix Gold Chochuwong, the top-seeded London
2017 Olympics bronze-medallist

Chess Location Winners

Commonwealth Sri Lanka Abhijeet Gupta
Chess
championship
(August 2016)
World Chess New York Magnus Carlsen completed the title hat-
Championship (Nov trick by beating challenger Sergey Karjakin
2016) in a tie breaker
2016 National New Delhi International Master Padmini Rout from
Women Premier Odisha reported winning hat-trick since
Chess 2014
Championship

Kabaddi
Pro Kabaddi League Multiple Patna Pirates beat Jaipur Pink panthers 37-
Season 4 (June locations 29
2016)
Asian Kabaddi Pakistan Pakistan beats India
championship (May
2016)
3rd Kabaddi world Gujarat India beats Iran to win third Kabaddi world
cup (October 2016) cup title
India’s first ever convertible stadium 'The
Arena' was set up by TransStadia for this
event

Hockey Location Winners

Men’s Hockey Champions London, Australia beat India after a penalty shoot-
Trophy (June 2016) UK out
Sultan Azlan Shah Cup Malaysia Australia beat India in the finals
(April 2016)
Asian Men's Hockey Malaysia India defeated Pakistan 3–2 in the final to
Champions Trophy (Oct win the trophy for the second time
2016)
Asian Women’s Hockey Singapore India beat China 2-1 in the finals

17
Champions Trophy (Nov
2016)
India wins Junior Hockey
World Cup 2016 (Dec
2016)
Lucknow India won Junior WC after 15 years with 2-
1 win over Belgium at Major Dhyan Chand
Stadium

Cricket Location Winner

ICC T20 World cup India The West Indies beat England by four
wickets to win the cup
ICC T20 Women’s India The West Indies beat Australia by eight
World cup wickets to post their first world cup win
IPL (Season 9) 2016 India Sunrisers, Hyderabad won against Royal
Challengers, Bangalore
England Vs Pakistan England England posted 444 runs, the highest ever
international ODI score by any team
Australia T20 record Sri Lanka Australia posted 263/3 against Sri Lanka

Formula One Winner

German, Brazilian, Lewis Hamilton
Abu Dhabi Grand
Prix
Singapore, Italian, Nico Rosberg
Chinese, Russian,
Australian, Belgian,
Bahrain Grand Prix

Upcoming events Location

th
29 South East Asian Games 2017 Kuala Lumpur
10th World Games 2017 Poland
18th Asian Games 2018 Indonesia
21st FIFA World cup 2018 Russia
46th Copa America 2019 Brazil
12th Cricket World Cup 2019 England & Wales
37th National Games 2019 Andhra Pradesh
Summer Olympics 2020 Tokyo
37th Men's Hockey Champions Trophy 2018 Netherlands
13th South Asian Federation Games 2018 Kathmandu

18
Awards
Movies/Music
International Personality Achievement
th
59 Grammy Awards Adele, the British star Won five awards, including
2017 Record, Album & Song of the
year
Sandeep Das, Indian "Sing Me Home", an album
table player having contribution
from Sandeep won the Best
World Music Album
89th Academy awards ‘La La Land’ Received 14 nominations & 6
(2017) awards, including –
Best Director – Damien
Chazelle
Best Actress – Emma Stone
‘Moonlight’ Received 6 nominations &
won 3 awards, including “Best
Movie” award
Casey Affleck Best Actor

69th Cannes’ Film British film ‘I, Daniel Won Palme d'Or (The highest
Festival (May 2016) Blake’ directed by Ken prize at the Cannes Film
Loach Festival)
Honorary Oscars at Jackie Chan One of four industry veterans
Governor’s awards, who received honorary Oscars
LA (Nov 2016) for their career achievements
47th International S P Balasubramanyam Centenary award for his
Film Festival of India, contributions to India cinema
Goa (Nov 2016) for over 50 years
Iranian film Golden Peacock Award
“Daughter” ,directed
by Reza Mirkarimi

Films in news Narration Achievement

The Jungle Book, American adventure film directed
American fantasy ad and co-produced by Jon Favreau
venture film Based on Rudyard
Kipling's eponymous collective
works
Third highest grossing
film of 2016 ($965
million) & the highest
grossing in India

19
Sultan (Hindi) Director - Ali Abbas Zafar Second highest
Producer - Aditya Chopra (Yash grossing Indian film of
Raj Films) 2016
Dangal (Hindi) Director – Nitesh Tiwari Highest grossing
Producers - Aamir Khan, Indian film of 2016
Kiran Rao, Siddharth Roy Kapur)
Visaranai (Tamil) It is based on M.Chandrakumar’s Indian entry into
novel ‘Lock Up’ Oscars 2017 (89th
Academy Awards) in
the Foreign Language
Film category

Beauty pageants Winner Achievement

Miss Universe Iris Mittenaere (Miss Crowned Miss Universe
(Philippines, Jan 2017) France) 2017
Miss World 2016 (US, Stephanie Del Valle Crowned Miss World 2016
Dec 2016) (Peurto Rico)

Miss India World Priyadarshini Chatterjee

(Mumbai, April 2016)
Mister World Rohit Khandelwal First Indian to win this title
(England, July 2016)

Indian Movies/Music Awardees Achievement

17th IIFA awards Ranveer Singh Best Actor (Bajirao Mastani)
(Madrid, Spain – June Deepika Padukone Best Actress
2016) Bajrangi Bhaijaan Best Film
BRICS Film Festival Thithi (Kannada Best Film. Thithi has been
(Delhi, Sept 2016) film) screened in over 12 prestigious
international and national film
festivals.
10th Asia Pacific Manoj Vajpeyee Best Performance by an Actor
Screen Awards
(Brisbane)
62nd Filmfare Popular category
(Mumbai, January Best Actor (Male) Amir Khan (Dangal)
2017)
Best Actor (Female) Alia Bhatt (Udta Punjab)
Best Film Dangal (Director – Nitesh Tiwari)

20
 Critics Awards
Best Film Neerja
Best Actor (Male) Shahid Kapoor (Udta Punjab)
Manoj Bajpayee (Aligarh)
Best Actor (Female) Sonam Kapoor (Neerja)
Lifetime Shatrunghna Sinha
Achievement
64th National Film To be Held
Awards (Mar 2017)
47th Dada Saheb Major Kumar Outstanding contribution to the
Phalke Award for growth and development of
2015 Indian Cinema
Lata Mangeshkar Uttam Singh Lifetime Achievement in Music
award 2016
Kalidas Samman Prof Raj Bisaria Achievement in theatre
(2015-16)

Sports Winner (s) Achievement

Arjuna Awards (Since Rajat Chauhan Archery
1961) Lalita Babar Athletics
Announced in August Sourav Kothari Billiards and Snooker
2016 Shiva Thapa Boxing
Ajinkya Rahane Cricket
Subrata Paul Football
Rani Hockey
Raghunath V.R Hockey
Gurpreet Singh Shooting
Apurvi Chandela Shooting
Soumyajit Ghosh Table Tennis
Vinesh Wrestling
Amit Kumar Wrestling
Sandeep Singh Mann Para-Athletics
Virender Singh Wrestling (Deaf)

Rajiv Gandhi Khel P V Sindhu, Sakshi Significant performance in

Ratna (Since 1991) Malik, Dipa Karmakar, Rio Olympics 2016
Jitu Rai

21
Dronacharya Award Bishweshwar Nandi (A),
(Since 1985) Raj Kumar Sharma (C),
Nagapuri Ramesh (A),
Sagar Mal Dhayal (B),
Pradeep Kumar (S),
Mahabir Singh (W)
Dhyan Chand Satti Geetha (Athletics),
Lifetime Sylvanus Dung Dung
Achievement (Hockey), Rajendra
Pralhad Shelke (Rowing)
Best player in Europe Cristiano Ronaldo
by UEFA for 2015/16
Player of the Year - Cristiano Ronaldo
World Soccer Awards
2016
Ballon d’Or award Cristiano Ronaldo
2016
Olympic order award N. Ramachandran, the
President of Indian
Olympic Association
(IOA)
IAAF World Athlete Jamaica’s Usain Bolt
of the Year award (Sprinter)
2016 (Mote Carlo,
Monaco) Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana
(Long distance runner)
BBC Sports Andy Murray (Won it
Personality of the for record third time)
Year 2016
Michael Phelps
(Lifetime Achievement
Award)
22
Significant mentoring effort
in Athletics, Boxing, Cricket,
Swimming and Wrestling
UEFA Champions League
winner with Real Madrid and
a European champion with
Portugal
A winner in 2008, 2013 and
2014, he has matched the
achievement of Lionel Messi
by claiming the award for a
record fourth time
Ronaldo is now one short of
his Barcelona rival Lionel
Messi’s record tally of five
Outstanding services to the
Olympic movement
3 Gold medals in Rio
Olympics, taking his Olympic
lifetime tally to 9 gold medals
10000m Olympic title with
world record timing
Won Olympic gold, second
Wimbledon title & became
tennis' world number one in
a remarkable 2016
Has won 28 Olympic medals
in swimming till date
 Ellie Robinson (BBC She claimed gold at the Rio
Young Sports Paralympics
Personality of the Year)
ICC Cricketer of the R Ashwin, Indian Crossed 250 wickets in the
Year’ & Test cricketer least matches (45) till date
Cricketer of the Year
(2015-16)
C K Naidu lifetime Padmakar Shivalkar Took 589 wickets in 124 first-
achievement award (Left hand spinner from class games (Including 42
2016 Mumbai) five-wicket hauls & 13 ten-
wicket match hauls)
Rajinder Goyal (Left 750 first class wickets
hand spinner from (Including 637 in Ranji
Haryana) Trophy, more than anyone
else in the tournament)
BCCI Lifetime Shanta Rangaswamy She led India in 12 Test
Achievement Award matches and in 16 ODIs
for Women 2016

General Awardees Achievement

rd
43 Tyler Prize for Sir Partha Dasgupta Recognition for developing
environmental economic theory & tools
achievement (Mar to measure the
2016) relationships between
human and environmental
wellbeing, poverty,
population, economic
growth and the state of
natural resources
2016 World Food 1. Maria Andrade (Cape Development and
prize – June 2016 Verde) implementation of bio
2. Robert Mwanga fortification, specifically
(Dubbed Nobel Prize (Uganda) work in breeding critical
for food and 3. Jan Low (The US) vitamins & micronutrients
agriculture) 4. Howarth Bouis (The into staple crops
US)
Ramon Magsaysay Bezwada Wilson, an One of the founders &
award Indian activist National Convenor of the
(Give to Asians Safai Karmachari Andolan
achieving excellence (For ‘Asserting the (SKA), an Indian human

23
in their respective inalienable right to a life
fields) – July 2016 of human dignity)
T M Krishna, Carnatic
music vocalist
Rajiv Gandhi National Shubha Mudgal
Sadbhavana Award
UNESCO World 1. Old Nalanda
Heritage sites University (Bihar)
2. Capitol Complex
(Chandigarh)
3. Khangchendzonga
National Park (Sikkim)
Inaugural Sir David Cox
International Prize in
Statistics
International Kehkashan Basu (Dubai)
Children’s Peace Prize
2016
IMO’s Exceptional Radhika Menon (First
Bravery Award at Sea woman to receive this
award)
rights organization that
has been campaigning for
the eradication of manual
scavenging
For “Social inclusiveness in
culture”
Contribution to Indian
classical music & harmony
brought through Art
Three monuments from
India have been added to
the World Heritage sites
(July 2016). Total 35 sites
as a result
Survival Analysis Model
Applied in Medicine,
Science, and Engineering
Offered by international
children’s rights
organisation ‘KidsRights’,
for her work to protect the
environment
She saved the lives of
seven fishermen from
sinking fishing boat in the
Bay of Bengal

Civilian Gallantry Awardees Achievement

Awards (Jan 2017)
Ashok Chakra Havildar Hangpan Dada, a soldier of Assam
Dada (Posthumous) regiment was killed May 26,
2016 after he first fought
three terrorists in close
combat in Naugam sector
Kirti Chakra Major Rohit Suri Led the team that undertook
surgical strike across the LoC
Lance Havildar Prem Magar, a 'Ghatak' commando
Bahadur Resmi of the unit, was part of the

24
 Magar (Posthumous) team that thwarted an
infiltration bid & shot dead
four terrorists
Shaurya Chakra 10 awardees

Literature Awardees Piece of work

Scholastic Asian Book Aditi Krishnakumar 32,000-word manuscript
Award “Codex: The Lost Treasure of
the Indus”
Commonwealth short Prof. Parashar Kulkarni First Indian author to win this
story prize (Jun 2016) prize for ‘Cow & Company’
The Man Booker Han Kang (S. Korea) The Vegetarian, a novel
International (May) translated in English by
Deborah Smith
The Man Booker Prize Paul Beatty, the first ‘The Sellout’, a searing satire
(Oct 2016) American author to on race relations in
win this prize contemporary America
nd
52 Jnanpith Award Veteran Bengali poet Made a debut titled "Dinguli
2016 (Since 1962) Shankha Ghosh, Raatguli", followed it up with
considered as a works like "Adim lata-
leading authority on gulmomay", "Babarer
Rabindranath Tagore prarthana", "Nihito
Patalchhaya", "Murkha baro,
samajik nay", "Kabir
abhipray", "Mukh dheke jay
bigyapane" & "Ocampor
Rabindranath"
Vyas Samman (2015), Sunita Jain (Hindi Poetry creation ‘Kshama’
conferred in Aug 2016 scholar & writer)
Saraswati Samman Padma Sachdev (Poet Her autobiography titled
(2015) and novelist) ‘Chitt-Chete’ in Dogri
language
Fellows of Nature Meghna Pant For her short story “People of
(FON) South Asia the Sun”. Presented at 2nd
Short Story Award in Kumaon Literary Festival
Nature writing (October 2016)
Mathrubhumi Literary C Radhakrishnan Contribution to the field of
Award 2016 literature
Sahitya Akademi 24 writers won the Award winning literature

25
Awards 2016 literary honour includes eight books of
poetry, seven books of short
stories, five novels, two on
criticism, one of essays and
one play

Pulitzer Awards (Apr Awardees Achievement

2016)
Journalism
Public Service Associated Press
Breaking News Los Angeles Times staff
Reporting
National Reporting The Washington
Post staff
Letters, Drama, Music Awardees
Fiction “The
Sympathizer” by Viet
Thanh Nguyen
Drama “Hamilton” by Lin-
Manuel Miranda
History “Custer's Trials: A Life on
the Frontier of a New
America” by T.J. Stiles

Journalism Awardee Achievement

UNESCO/Guillermo Khadija Ismayilova An outstanding
Cano World Press (Azerbaijan) contribution to the
Freedom Prize 2016, promotion of press
Helsinki freedom anywhere in the
world
International Press Malini Subramaniam Honoured for her
Freedom Award 2016 reporting from naxal
(Since 1991, from infested Bastar area & for
Committee to Protect commitment to free press
Journalists, an NGO)

26
 Civilian Awards (Jan Awardees Field
2017)
Padma Shri 75 awardees Multiple fields
Padma Bhushan Vishwa Mohan Bhatt Art - Music
Devi Prasad Dwivedi Literature & Education
Tehemton Udwadia Medicine
Ratna Sundar Maharaj Others-Spiritualism
Swami Niranjana Nanda Others-Yoga
Saraswati
H.R.H. Princess Maha Chakri Literature & Education
Sirindhorn (Foreigner)
Cho iterature & Education –
Ramaswamy (Posthumous) Journalism
Padma Vibhushan Sharad Pawar Public Affairs
Murli Manohar Joshi Public Affairs
P.A. Sangma (posthumous) Public Affairs
Sunder Lal Patwah Public Affairs
(posthumous)
K.J.Yesudas Art - Music
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev Others - Spiritualism
Udipi Ramachandra Rao Science & Engineering
Bharat Ratna ----

Business Awards Awardees Achievement

Forbes India Vijay Shekhar Sharma Outstanding Start-up
Leadership Awards (Paytm)
(Nov 2016) Vinita Gupta & Nilesh Entrepreneur for the Year
Gupta (Lupin)
Yusuf K Hamied (Cipla) Lifetime Achievement
Award
Kenichi Ayukawa (Maruti Best CEO – Multinational
Suzuki India) Company
Sutirtha Bhattacharya Best CEO - Public Sector
(Coal India)
KBS Anand (Asian Paints) Best CEO - Private Sector

27
Nobel Prizes
Subject Winners
Physics 1. Michael Kosterlitz, 2. David J. Thouless, 3. Duncan M.
Haldane – Study of exotic matter
Chemistry 1. Jean-Pierre Sauvage, 2. Sir J. Fraser Stoddart, 3.
Bernard L. Feringa - Design & synthesis of molecular
machines
Physiology/Medicine Yoshinori Ohsumi (Japan) –Research on cellular process
called autophagy
Literature Bob Dylan (American), the first musician to win Nobel
prize in literature
Peace Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos - Resolute
efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long
civil war to an end
Economics 1. Bengt Holmström - Professor of Economics &
Management at MIT-Sloan School of Management, 2.
Oliver Hart (Harvard Univ) - Work on contract theory

Alternative Nobel Prize 2016

Subject Winners
The White Helmets The Syrian Civil Defence group provides first aid and
emergency assistance to the victims of Syrian civil war
Svetlana Russian human rights defender. Founder & Head of the
Gannushkina Civic Assistance Committee, that provides free legal
support, aid and education to migrants & refugees
Mozn Hassan Egyptian feminist & human rights defender, heads the
organization ‘Nazra for Feminist Studies’
Cumhuriyet Turkey’s oldest independent newspaper, for their
fearless investigative journalism and commitment to
freedom of expression in the face of adverse conditions
Honours
Personality Honour
Salman Khan, A R Rahman, Goodwill brand ambassadors at Rio Olympics
Sachin Tendulkar, Abhinav
Bindra
Abhinav Bindra Flag bearer at Rio Olympics opening ceremony
Diya Mirza Swachh Bharat Mission’s youth-based Swachh
Saathi (student internship) programme
Kamal Haasan Selected by France for its prestigious Chevalier de
L’Ordre Arts et Lettres

28
Kiran Majumdar-Shaw
(CMD of Biocon)
Mr. Narendra Modi
UR Rao, ISRO Ex-Chairman
Anne Hathway
Aishwaryaa R Dhanush
P V Sindhu
Kunwar Bai
Saina Nehwal
Rahul Dravid
Bindeshwar Pathak, the
Founder of Sulabh
International
Donald Trump – TIME
Magazine’s Person of the
Year 2016
Priyanka Chopra
Sushma Swaraj (External
Affairs minister)
Appointed Knight of the National Order of the
French Legion of Honour, the highest civilian
award of the French Government for outstanding
contribution in diverse fields
Amir Amanullah Khan Award, Afghanistan’s
highest civilian honour
Hall of Fame Award by international
Astronautical Federation for his outstanding
contribution to the progress of astronautics
UN Women’s Global Goodwill Ambassador
UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassador for India
Brand ambassador of CRPF
‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ mascot (105 yr old lady
sold her goats to build a toilet)
Appointed as a member of IOC Athletes’
Commission. The Athletes’ Commission is chaired
by Angela Ruggiero and it comprises nine vice
presidents and 10 other members
Brand ambassador for 2017 T20 Blind Cricket
World Cup
Brand Ambassador of Swachh Rail Mission
The President-elect of the US beat 10 other
finalists, including his Democratic rival, Hillary
Clinton
UNICEF’s Global Goodwill Ambassador
Appeared in ‘2016 Global Thinkers’ list by Foreign
Policy magazine for twitter diplomacy

Global Rankings
Forbes Ranking Person Role (Rank)
World’s most powerful Angela Merkel German Chancellor
women Hilary Clinton Presidential Candidate,
the US
Janet Yellen Chairman, Federal
Reserve
Melinda Gates Philanthropist
Marry Bara CEO, General Motors
Christine Lagarde MD, IMF

29
 Sheryl Sandberg Facebook COO
Susan Wojcicki CEO, YouTube
Meg Whitman CEO, HP
Ana Patricia Botín Chairman, Banco
Santander
Forbes’ List of world’s Arundhati Bhattacharya SBI MD (25)
100 most powerful Chanda Kochhar ICICI MD (40)
women – Indian names Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw Biocon Founder (77)
Shobhana Bhartia HT Media head (93)
Forbes’ “Asia 50 Power Nita Ambani Director, Reliance
Businesswomen 2016” Industries
list – Top 2 Arundhati Bhattacharya Chairman, SBI
Forbes’ list of 40 of the Uday Kotak (The only MD & Vice Chairman,
most powerful people Indian in the list) Kotak Mahindra Bank
in the financial world
Forbes India Richest Mukesh Ambani Reliance Industries
List 2016 Dilip Sanghvi Sun Pharma
Azim Premji Wipro
Hinduja Brothers The Hinduja Group
Pallaonji Mistry Shapoorji Pallonji Group
Forbes 2016 list of the Deepika Padukone is ---
World’s highest paid ranked No. 10 in the list
actresses
Forbes World’s Most Headed by Mr. Vladimir Mr Putin has exerted
Powerful People (2016) Putin, the Russian President Russian influence across
Rank 2- Mr. Donald Trump the globe
Rank 9- Mr. Narendra Modi

Companies/Entities
Fortune 500 list – Indian
companies (July 2016)
Forbes’ sixth annual
ranking of The World’s
Most Innovative
Companies
Indian Oil Corporation (161), Reliance Industries
(215), Tata Motors (226), SBI (232), Bharat
Petroleum (358), Hindustan Petroleum (367) and
Rajesh Exports (423)
Asian Paints is globally ranked 18th. It is the highest
ranked Indian firm

30
Forbes best countries for Ranks 1-5 Ranks 6-10
business (Dec 2016) Sweden Denmark
New Zealand Netherlands
Hong Kong Finland
Ireland Norway
UK Canada

TIME Magazine Rankings Person Role

TIME Magazine’s Person Donald Trump The US President
of the Year 2016
TIME Magazine’s 2016 list Name Category Position
of world's most influential Priyanka Chopra Artist Actress
people (April 2016)
Sunder Pichai Titans Google CEO

Binny & Sachin Bansal Titans Flipkart co-

founders
Raghuram Rajan Leader Ex-RBI
Governor
Sania Mirza Icons Tennis player

Campaign/Brand Ambassadors
Personality Brand/Campaign
Amitabh Bachchan UNICEF polio eradication campaign
Gujarat state tourism
Shah Rukh Khan West Bengal state tourism
Ajay Devgan and Kajol Andhra Pradesh state tourism
Vidya Balan National sanitation campaign
Deepika Padukone Vistara Airlines

Science & Technology

Transport
Gatimaan Express
Talgo, the Spanish make of
high speed train
Narration
India’s First Semi-High Speed Train was flagged
off between New Delhi and Agra
The train completed New Delhi-Mumbai Central
trial run in less than 12 hours

31
Ashok Leyland launches
‘Circuit’, India’s first all
electric bus
India’s first LNG-powered
bus launched in Kerala
Aerospace/Defence
BrahMos supersonic cruise
missile test fired (May)
INS Viraat set out for its last
journey (Mumbai – Kochi)
INS Karna established in
Vizag (July)
Varunastra inducted in Navy It is Indigenously-built heavyweight anti-
(June)
INS Arihant - Nuclear
submarine commissioned
into service (August)
INSAT 3DR, the weather
satellite launched using
GSLV-F05 rocket vehicle
(August)
“Mormugao” - a Guided
missile destroyer launched
(September)
India Signs $8.7 Billion Deal India agrees to buy 36 fighter jets. The twin-
with France’s Dassault
Aviation for Rafale Fighter
Jets (September)
India sources S-400 Triumf
air defence system from
Russia (October)
With a seating capacity for 31 passengers, it can
travel for 120 km on a single charge
The project has been a joint effort of Petronet
LNG Limited (PLL), IOC & Tata Motors. Post
pilot, the bus will be launched for commercial
application
Indian Air Force test fired it in Pokhran firing
range. Its made by India-Russia JV
Centaur-class aircraft carrier served the British
& Indian Navy for 58 years
Dedicated base for Indian Navy’s Special
Operation Forces – MARCOS (Marine
Commandos)
submarine torpedo by DRDO
With country's first indigenously-constructed
nuclear submarine, India has gained the title of
‘nuclear triad’ power, a country that has the
capability to launch nuclear weapons from land,
air and sea
It will provide meteorological services to using a
6-channel imager & a 19-channel sounder, as
well as search & rescue information and
message relay for terrestrial data collection
platforms
The second ship of the Project 15B
engine Rafale has the capability to deliver
nuclear weapons—will have advanced
electronically scanned array radar, midair
refuelling and electronic warfare equipment
A long range of highly successful anti-aircraft air
defence system, that uses long range and
medium range missiles & has been the biggest
threat to western aircrafts across the world
32
Barak-8 test fired off the
Odisha coast
MICA missile test fired by
IAF
Combat-capable Rustom-II
(TAPAS 2001) drone
completes maiden test flight
INS Chennai (D65)
commissioned (November)
India buys 145 units of
M777 Howitzer artillery
from the US (Nov 2016)
INS Kalvari will be
commissioned in 2017
INS Betwa, Brahmaputra-
class guided missile frigate
Agni-4, nuclear capable
missile test fired from
Odisha coast
Agni-5, nuclear capable
ballistic missile test fired
INS Khanderi, the second
Scorpene class submarine
launched (Mumbai)
ISRO launches record 104
satellites (Jan 2017)
Long range surface-to-air missile is jointly
developed by India and Israel
BVR (Beyond Visual Range) air-to-air missile was
fired from Mirage-2000 Upgrade combat
aircraft
Rustom–II is a Medium Altitude Long Endurance
(MALE) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)
India’s third guided missile destroyer, one of the
"largest-ever" home-designed warship
Produced by BAE systems, the towed guns are
meant for deployment by the Indian Army along
the 4,057 km Line of Actual Control (LoAC) with
China
The first of the Indian Navy's six Scorpene-
class submarines being built in India is
undergoing sea trials
The ship listed over by 90 degrees to its port
side while undocking from a graving
dock in Mumbai after repairs, killing 2 sailors
and injuring 15 others. The ship's main mast
was also damaged
The sleek missile having 4,000 km strike range is
a two stage missile. It is 20 meters long,
weighing 17 tonnes
The advanced missile has new technologies
incorporated in terms of navigation & guidance,
warhead and engine
The missile is capable of striking a target more
than 5,000 kilometres with nuclear warhead
carrying capacity of 1+ tonne
Features include superior stealth & ability to
launch a crippling attack on the enemy using
precision guided weapon. INS Kalvari was the
first one & will be commissioned soon
PSLV C-37 / Cartosat -2 Series rocket lifted off
from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
104 satellites include 3 Indian & other foreign
satellites. 88 of them are designed by ‘Planet’, a
US based Earth imaging company
33
Military Exercises
MALABAR Trilateral Naval India, Japan and US navies conduct 2016
Exercise MALABAR Exercise near South China Sea
(June)
India-Thailand military exercise The two week long exercise included
– Maitree (July 2016) combined training, familiarization with
weapons & equipment, analyzing groupings,
drills and tactics while operating in counter
terrorism environment
RIMPAC 2016: World’s largest It began in Pacific Ocean at Hawaii, US &
international maritime exercise will see participation of navies from 26
kicks off (30 June - 4 August) countries. This year it is the 25th edition of
biennial exercise in the series that began in
1971
India-Sri Lanka military Focus is to enhance inter-operability while
exercise - Mitra Shakti (Oct carrying out Counter Terrorism (CT) &
2016) Counter Insurgency (CI) operations under the
UN Mandate
India-Bangladesh military Focus is on Counter-Terrorism Operations in
exercise – Sampriti (Nov 2016) mountainous and jungle terrain under the UN
Mandate
India-China military exercise – Focus on “transnational terrorism” and
‘Hand-in Hand’ (Nov 2016) counter-terrorism operations in “semi-urban
scenarios
India-Nepal military exercise – Its emphasis will be on counter terrorism in
Surya Kiran (Nov 2016) mountainous terrain
India-Russia military exercise – The exercises serve to facilitate cooperation
Indra (Sep 2016) and foster the exchange of relevant
experience between the Indian and Russian
armed forces
India-UK maritime exercise – Conducted in two phases at Mumbai & Goa,
‘Konkan 16’ (Dec 2016) the exercise will familiarise navies of both
countries with each other’s planning
processes and further enhance synergy and
inter-operability
India-Maldives military The exercise aims to conduct military training
exercise – Ekuverin (Dec 2016) between armies of both countries with
emphasis on amphibious & counter
insurgency, counter terrorism operations

34
 Hi-Tech
Param-Ishan super computer
launched in IIT-Guwahati
India holds World Robot
Olympiad for the first time
(Nov 2016)
Country’s first Banking robot
‘Lakshmi’ (Nov 2016)
Google Maps ties up with ASI
for 360 degree virtual tour of
280-odd Indian monuments
Astronomy
20 Satellites launched in a
single flight (June 2016)
India tests first-ever
indigenous space shuttle RLV-
TD (May 16)
ISRO launches Pratham
satellite designed by IIT-B
students
Juno spacecraft enters
Jupiter’s orbit (July 2016)
Mars 2020 – Mars rover
mission
Details
It has computing speed of 250 teraFLOPS &
capacity of 300 tera bites (TB). The computer
is capable of performing 250 trillion
operations per second
Organized by National Council of Science
Museums (NCSM) in collaboration with the
India STEM Foundation (ISF), the Olympiad
aims to find innovative solutions using
robotics to reduce, manage & recycle waste
Launched by the City Union Bank (CUB), the
Artificial Intelligence powered robot will
be the first on-site bank helper
Some of the major monuments are Taj
Mahal, Victoria Memorial and the ruins of
Hampis. 30 among 280 are in West Bengal
Details
Launch vehicle – PSLV-C34 – Cartosat 2 series
– From Sriharikota
ISRO chairman Kiran Kumar explained that
the experimental RLV is an attempt by India
to bring down the cost of making
infrastructure for space
It will help in tsunami warnings & correcting
errors in GPS communication
Juno has been put into a polar orbit to study
Jupiter's composition, gravity field, magnetic
field, and polar magnetosphere
It is intended to investigate
an astrobiologically relevant ancient
environment on Mars, its surface geological
processes & history, assess past habitability,
possibility of past life & potential for
preservation of bio signatures within
accessible geological materials
35
The Biggest & the brightest
‘Supermoon’ observed
(November)
PSLV C-35 launch – Double
orbit satellite deployment
boosts ISRO’s
commercial prospects
India's GSAT-18
Communication Satellite
Launched (Oct 2016)
NASA’s MMS (Magnetospheric
Multiscale) mission sets
Guinness World Record
Government Schemes
Name
Stand Up India (Launched
in April 2016 in Noida)
Led By Department of
Financial Services
AMRUT (Atal Mission for
Rejuvenation and Urban
Transformation)
Led By Ministry of Urban
Development
The moon was closest to the Earth at 356,509
km on 15th November 2016. It happened
earlier in 1948 & will be observed next on 25
November 2034
The SCATSAT-1 was put in the 730-km
altitude Polar Sun Synchronous Orbit while
the others were deployed in the 670-km
altitude polar orbit. Double orbit deployment
capability reduces the cost of satellite
deployment as it will remove requirement of
two separate launches
European Ariane 5 VA-231 launch Vehicle
launched the GSAT-18 that carries 48
communication transponders in C-band,
upper extended C-band and Ku-band for
providing various services to the country
MMS, the unmanned space mission to study
the Earth’s magnetosphere has attained the
highest altitude fix of a GPS signal. The four
MMS satellites operating in a highly elliptical
orbit around Earth have set the record at
70,006 KM above the Earth’s surface
About it
· Promoting entrepreneurship among women,
SC, ST by enabling them secure easier loans
· Expected to benefit at least 2.5 lakh
borrowers within 36 months from launch
· Providing basic services, including water
supply, sewerage, urban transport & building
of amenities in cities to improve quality of life
In Budget 2016-17 -
· Rs 4090 Cr was allocated for AMRUT
· Rs 3,205 Cr was allocated for the
development of 100 smart cities across the
country by 2020
· 20 cities selected in 1st round, 13 in 2nd round
36
HRIDAY (Heritage City · With a duration of 27 months (completing in
Development and March 2017) and an outlay of INR 500 Crores,
Augmentation Yojana) the scheme is being implemented in 12 cities
· To preserve & revitalise soul of heritage cities
Led by Ministry of Urban to reflect their unique character by
Development encouraging aesthetically appealing,
accessible, informative & secured
environment
PMAY (Pradhan Mantri · Housing for all by 2022 in three phases.
Awas Yojana) Target groups women, SC, ST, Economically
Led by Ministry of Housing Weaker Sections (EWS)
and Urban Poverty · Interest subsidy of 6.5% on housing loans
Alleviation availed up to a tenure of 15 years will be
provided to EWS/LIG categories
· Central assistance at the rate of Rs.1.5 lakh
per house for EWS category will be provided
under the Affordable Housing in Partnership
PMUY (Pradhan Mantri · Launched in UP, May 2016
Ujjwala Yojana) · Replacing the unclean cooking fuels mostly
used in the rural India with the clean and
Led by Ministry of more efficient LPG (Tagline – ‘Swachh Indhan,
Petroleum & Natural Gas Behtar Jeevan’)
· Targets 5 Crore LPG connections to be
distributed to BPL households over 3 yrs
Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima · Replaces existing National Agricultural
Yojna (Crop insurance) Insurance Scheme (NAIS) and Modified NAIS
(MNIAS).
Led by Ministry of · Farmers will have to pay a uniform premium
Agriculture & Farmers of 2% for kharif crops, 1.5%for rabi crops, 5%
Welfare (MoA&FW) for annual commercial and horticultural crops
· The remaining share of the premium will
continue to be borne equally by the Centre &
respective state governments
PMKSY (Pradhan Mantri · National mission to improve farm
Krishi Sinchai Yojana) productivity and ensure better utilization of
the resources in the country
Led by Ministry of · ₹500 billion (US$7.4 billion) in a time span of
Agriculture & Farmers five years have been allocated to this scheme
Welfare
Sagarmala Project · Strategic initiative to modernize Indian Ports

37
 into megaports
Led by Ministry of Shipping · Integrating port development, the Industrial
clusters & hinterland and efficient evacuation
systems through road, rail, inland and coastal
waterways
Namami Gange - National · First phase launched across 10 cities under
Mission for Clean Ganga ‘Namami Gange’ project, which would take it
closer to achieving Clean Ganga objective
Led by Ministry of water
resources
Skill India · Train 40 crore Indians in different skills by
2022
Led by Ministry of Skill · It includes various initiatives like National Skill
Development and Development Mission, National Policy for Skill
Entrepreneurship Development and Entrepreneurship, 2015,
Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas
Yojana (PMKVY) and the Skill Loan scheme
PMKVY (Pradhan Mantri · Encourage aptitude towards employable skills
Kaushal Vikas Yojana) & to increase working efficiency of probable
and existing daily wage earners, by giving
Led by Ministry of Skill monetary awards & providing them quality
Development and training
Entrepreneurship · Average award amount per person has been
kept as ₹8,000 (US$120)
· In the initial year a target to distribute ₹15
billion (US$220 million) has been laid down
Deen Dayal Upadhyay · It aims to target youth, under the age group
Grameen Kaushalya Yojna of 15–35 years. Rs 1,500 cr corpus is aimed at
enhancing employability of rural youth
Led by Ministry of Rural · Under this programme, disbursements would
Development be made through a digital voucher directly
into the beneficiary’s bank account as part of
the government’s skill development initiative
PMGKY (Pradhan Mantri · Unaccounted income attracts almost 50%
Garib Kalyan Yojana) effective tax
· Person will be compelled to pay 25% of
declared amount into PMGKY & the deposit
will be blocked for four years
PMYY (Pradhan Mantri · Scheme will span over 5 years (2016-17 to
Yuva Yojana) for 2020-21) with a project cost of 500 crores

38
entrepreneurs · It will provide entrepreneurship education
and training to over 7 lakh students in 5 years
Led by Ministry of Skill through 3,050 institutes (Include higher
Development & learning schools, ITIs, schools and
Entrepreneurship (MSDE) entrepreneurship development centres)
UDAY (Ujwal Discom · Financial turnaround and revival package for
Assurance Yojna) electricity distribution companies (DISCOMs)
· It aims to improve operational efficiencies,
Led by Ministry of Power reduce cost of power & interest cost for
discoms & enforce financial discipline on
them through alignment with state finances
Biotech-KISAN (Krishi · Biotech-KISAN’s intent is to form a network
Innovation Science to farmers directly with scientists & experts
Application) & Cattle · Cattle Genomics intends to boost selective
Genomics breeding of the native livestock more
accurately to ensure high-yielding, disease-
Led by Ministry of Science resistant, resilient livestock
and Technology
SFURTI (Scheme of Fund · Government plans to set up 800 SFURTI
for Regeneration of clusters with an investment of Rs 850 crore
Traditional Industries) by March 2017 to boost khadi and village
industries
Led by Ministry of Micro, · The Scheme envisages need-based assistance
Small and Medium for replacement of production equipment,
Enterprises setting up of common facility centres (CFC),
product development, quality improvement,
improved marketing, training and capacity
building
Shala Asmita Yojana (SAY) · Launched ‘All School Monitoring Individual
Tracing Analysis’ (ASMITA), a student tracking
Led by HRD Ministry system programme
PRASAD (Pilgrimage · Religious destinations that have potential to
Rejuvenation and Spiritual be show-cased as world-class tourism
Augmentation Drive) products are identified and infrastructure is
developed. In the initial phase, 12 cities have
Led by Ministry of Tourism been identified
· Overall development of temple town, new
job creation, world-class infrastructure
facilities, promotion of local arts, cuisine and
handicrafts form part of the approved project

39
Swadesh Darshan · Theme based tourism circuits (e.g. Religion,
culture, ethnicity, niche etc) are identified for
Led by Ministry of Tourism infrastructure development across the
country
Mission Raftaar · Diesel trains replaced with high-speed
electric trains. Shatabdi & Rajdhani will ride
Led by Ministry of Railways over two engines (“Push-pull’ technique)

“Surge pricing” in Rajdhani, · Differential pricing on the lines of airlines in

Shatabdi, Duranto key trains
Railways - 92 paise · Pilot with ICICI Lombard General Insurance,
premium on 10 Lac Royal Sundaram General Insurance & Shriram
optional insurance through General Insurance
IRCTC booking
Tri-Netra – Terrain imaging · The system will be installed on locomotives
device for diesel drivers to for enhancing the vision of Locomotive Pilots
reduce train accidents in inclement weather

Government News
Entity
India Post Payments Bank
(IPPB) under Department of
Posts
Five associate state banks
merge into SBI
Fund of Funds for Start-ups
(FFS)
100% FDI into aviation,
defence & ecommerce sectors
e-NAM (National Agriculture
Market) pilot launched
Government partially
abolished 5/20 rule under Civil
Aviation Policy
Action
Union cabinet has approved it with 100%
Government of India equity. Rollout will be
complete by Sept 2017
The merger will create a global-sized bank with
assets worth over Rs 37 lakh crore
The corpus is in line with ‘Startup India Action
Plan’ would be built up over 14th & 15th Finance
Commission cycles, subject to scheme progress
& fund availability
Foreign airlines can only invest up to 49% in
Indian carriers
The Prime Minister launched the e-trading
platform pilot & said that the initiative will
usher in transparency & benefit the farmers
Domestic carriers will no longer have to
operate for five years before they can fly
abroad, must still deploy 20 aircraft or 20
percent of total capacity in India, whichever is
higher

40
IGI Airport is the only carbon
neutral Airport in Asia Pacific
e-Tourist Visa extended to 161 Total 9.2 Lac foreign tourists used the facility
countries (Dec 2016)
India’s first “island district”
announced by Assam Govt
India’s first Green Rail Corridor Manamadurai – Rameswaram stretch of
launched in Tamil Nadu
Setu Bharatam
Kudankulam nuclear Power
Plant – Tamil Nadu
World’s largest solar power
plant commissioned at
Kamuthi, Tamil Nadu
Rajasthan - Sewage and waste First state in the country to approve such policy
water policy
Lakshadweep – “24*7 Power
for All”
Best States - Comprehensive
Development of Tourism
2016 BRICS convention on
tourism – Madhya Pradesh
Best Indian Destination for
Wildlife
It was recognized during Airport Carbon
Accreditation certificate presentation
ceremony in Montreal, Canada. Also, Terminal
3 achieved the first ever “Platinum” rating from
Indian Green Building Council (IGBC)
during Jan-Nov 2016, which is 170% increase
over same period in 2015
Majuli, a 400 square kilometres island in the
Brahmaputra River is recognized by Guiness
Book as the largest river island in the world
Southern Railway (150 coaches with bio toilets)
The programme aims to make all National
Highways free of railway level crossings by
2019. 208 Railway Over Bridges (ROB)/Railway
Under Bridges (RUB) will be built at the level
crossings at a cost of Rs. 20,800 crore as part of
the programme
Russian President Vladimir Putin and CM J
Jayalalithaa jointly dedicated the first unit of
Power Plant to the nation (August)
With an installed capacity of 648MW, the plant
was set up on an area of 5,000 acres by Adani
Group at a total cost of Rs 4,550 crore. Its
connected to the grid through a sub-station
First Union Territory to sign such a document
Madhya Pradesh followed by Gujarat and
Karnataka (National Tourism Awards 2016)
The convention began at UNESCO World
heritage site Khajuraho to promote intra-
regional tourism
Madhya Pradesh Tourism received award from
“Lonely Planet” Group
41
“Mission Bhagiratha” – Mr Narendra modi launched it in Medak district
Telangana – Safe Drinking of Telangana (August)
water
Odisha launches 100 “Adarsh Students of these model schools would get free
Vidyalayas” in 14 backward education and all facilities like mid-day meal,
districts uniform and textbooks free of cost like other
state government-run schools.
Odisha – First state to offer The move seeks to give the community same
Social welfare benefits to benefits as those living below poverty line to
transgender community improve socio-economic status
ADB gives $631 million boost Focus on increasing women’s participation in
to Chennai-Vizag industrial the industrial workforce, skill training for
corridor 25,000 male & female workers, entrepreneurs,
and students along with an investor promotion
plan is expected to boost businesses along the
corridor
TMC accorded National party Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress is 7th
status by Election Commission national party after Congress, BJP, BSP, CPI,
CPM, NCP
th
5 International Buddhist With a view to showcase and project the
conclave at Varanasi & Sarnath Buddhist heritage and pilgrim sites, the ministry
(2-6 October) of tourism organises International Buddhist
Conclave
Indosan 2016 (India Sanitation This will bring together all stakeholders working
Conference, Delhi) – An annual in sanitation government, NGOs, academicians,
event under Swachh Bharat researchers, partner agencies, corporate on
mission (September 2016) one platform for a shared vision to make India
Open Defecation Free (ODF) India by 2019 by
Ministry of drinking water and construction of individual, cluster & community
sanitation toilets
Sindhudurg & Mandi – The As per Gramin Swachh Survekshan
cleanest districts in the country
Telangana inks MoU with ISRO This is to improve services of educational
to promote education channel 'Mana TV'. 6,000 schools in the state
will launch digital classes from October 2016
Haryana wins best horticulture It was awarded by the Indian Council of Food
state award and Agriculture (ICFA) for concerted efforts
made by the state to increase the income of
the farmers in horticulture

42
UDAN (‘Ude Desh ka Aam
Nagrik’) – Regional
Connectivity Scheme (RCS) for
Aviation – (From 1 Jan 2017)
Four tier GST structure (5% to
28%) announced by Govt (Nov)
Govt demonetized Rs 500 &
1000 notes (Nov)
Committee constituted to
recalibrate all bank ATMs
Government slaps safeguard
duty on certain steel imports
Madhya Pradesh Police killed 8
SIMI under trials after jailbreak
in an encounter (November)
NDTV India ordered to go off
air for a day. Govt later put this
on hold (November)
CRPF deploys women
commandos for anti-Naxal
Viability Gap Funding for route operators to
charge Rs 2500 for one hour flights (For 50%
seats on new routes to smaller cities)
Govt commitment to spend Rs. 4,000 crore
($598 million) to reopen 50 disused airports
within four years
Maharashtra became the first state to sign up
More than 50% of the items in the Consumer
Price Index basket would be exempted under
GST and the remainder placed in the lowest
bracket
e.g. Most white goods – 28%, soaps/oil – 18%,
processed food – 12%, edible oils/spices – 5%
In order to curb black money, Indian
government replaced older notes of Rs 500 &
1000 with new ones. Also introduced Rs 2000
note, featuring Mangalyaan & Swachh Bharat
Abhiyan
Headed by S.S.Mundra, one of the RBI Deputy
Governors, the committee will ensure that all
bank ATMs dispense new denomination notes
To protect domestic manufacturers from cheap
in-bound shipments, India had previously
slapped anti-dumping duty on certain cold-
rolled flat steel products from four nations,
including China & South Korea
The accused were facing trial on several
charges, including murder of ATS constables,
sedition, jail break and bank robberies
NDTV took the government to Supreme Court.
The ban was widely condemned by journalists
& editors with all press councils drawing
parallels to the Emergency of 1970s when basic
constitutional rights including the freedom of
the press were blatantly violated
135 women commandos have been posted in
Jharkhand. CRPF is the world’s largest
43
operations, for the first time paramilitary force with 228 battalions and over
three lakh personnel
Himachal Pradesh becomes 2nd After Sikkim in 2012, HP is 2nd state and Kerala
Open Defecation Free (ODF) followed as 3rd state
state after Sikkim
Akodara (Gujarat) - India’s first Adopted by ICICI foundation, all transactions in
digital village the village are carried out through digital
modes like net-banking, SMS or debit cards
th
5 International Tourism Mart The objective is to highlight the tourism
- Manipur(Nov 2016) potential of the North East region. It brings
together the tourism business fraternity and
entrepreneurs from the eight North Eastern
States and West Bengal
Uttar Pradesh CM inaugurates The six-lane Greenfield expressway has a total
India’s longest expressway length of 302-km. It has a design speed of up to
(Agra-Lucknow) 120 kmph
Punjab has to share water with Sutlej Yamuna Canal or SYL canal, proposed for
Haryana – SC verdict (Nov water-sharing between Punjab and Haryana,
2016) has to be completed
Chandrababu Naidu to head 13-member committee of chief ministers will
the CM panel to boost digital recommend on how to boost digital payment
systems systems to promote transparency, financial
inclusion & prepare a roadmap in this regard
Ministry of Union Agriculture & Launched under the scheme National Mission
Farmers Welfare launches “e- on Bovine Productivity, the portal will be used
pashuhaat” portal to connect breeders and farmers regarding
availability of bovine germplasm
Maharashtra becomes first Fly ash will be used to make bricks, blocks, tiles,
state to adopt Fly Ash wall panels, cement & other construction
Utilisation Policy materials. It will save soil excavation, protect
environment by generating wealth from waste
AP tops list of Indian states in AP is followed by Rajasthan, Karnataka,
World Bank’s report Maharashtra. The index based evaluation is
on ‘India’s State Level Energy enabled to benchmark readiness of Indian
Efficiency Implementation states for energy efficiency implementation &
Readiness’ to reveal critical deficits/barriers for the same
India’s first cherry blossom The event will showcase the beauty of the
festival was held in Meghalaya flowers and the State’s cultural traditions
Vardah cyclone destructs The cyclonic storm hit Chennai at 140 kmph &
several districts of Tamil Nadu claimed a few lives

44
Government launches Union Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY)
‘DigiShala’ TV channel to launched it as part of the ‘Digidhan’ campaign
promote digital payments to spread awareness about digital transactions
Maharashtra becomes first State government is converting 42 state-of-the-
state to launch cyber police art cybercrime labs into cyber police stations
stations in all districts simultaneously. These cyber police stations will
also be set up at police commissionerate and
Range IG offices
Google India, Ministry of The campaign will reach out with training
Consumer Affairs tie up for materials to over 1,200 consumer organisations
‘Digitally Safe Consumer’ & consumer affairs department of every
campaign state/UT
NCPI launched Adhaar based The app is rebranded version of UPI (Unified
based mobile payment Payment Interface) & USSD (Unstructured
application BHIM (Bharat Supplementary Service Data) for simpler digital
Interface for Money) payments
Paytm gets RBI approval to Paytm also announced the integration of
launch payments bank the UPI as a payments channel to recharge its
wallet balance. This means that you could
theoretically recharge your Paytm Wallet with
the BHIM app
Centre constituted Insolvency IBBI activity would be to regulate functioning of
& Bankruptcy Board of India insolvency professionals, insolvency
(IBBI) professional agencies & information utilities
under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016
PM inaugurated first India INX (BSE subsidiary) is one of the world’s
international exchange at GIFT most advanced technology platforms with a
city, Gandhinagar (Jan 17) turn-around-time of 4 micro seconds which will
operate for 22 hours a day, allowing
international investors and NRIs to trade from
anywhere across the globe
Japanese funding agency JICA Estimated to cost about Rs 97,636 crore, 81%
signs pact for Mumbai- funding for the project will come as a loan from
Ahmadabad bullet train project Japan as per tripartite agreement with Railway
Ministry & National High Speed Rail
Corporation
IMF has revised India’s growth Previous estimate of 7.6% was lowered due to
rate for FY 2016–17 to 6.6% the temporary negative consumption shock of
demonetisation

45
Ministry of Power unveiled Under LED based Street Lighting National
world’s largest street light Programme (SLNP), 2 lakh street lights will be
programme in South Delhi replaced with LED lights & result in cumulative
annual energy savings of 2.65 crore kWh with
daily reduction of 22,000 tonnes of greenhouse
gases
Government makes Aadhaar Workers in rural areas enrolled under
mandatory for MGNREGA work MGNREGA need to furnish proof of possession
of Aadhaar card or undergo enrolment process
till March 31, 2017
Gurgaon could be the first city Haryana will set up pilot corridor for the
to get ‘caterpillar train’ caterpillar train, a new concept for urban mass-
transit solution. An Indian Railway officer won a
global award at the MIT in the US in early 2016
for this idea
Foreign Investment Promotion This was done during 2017 budget to ease the
Board is abolished (Feb 2017) FDI inflow

Movies & Theatre

Name Narration
Harry Potter and the Cursed Two-part West End stage play written by
Child released on 31 July 2016 Jack Thorne based on an original new story
by Thorne J.K. Rowling and John Tiffany

Book Releases & Authors

Author Book
Chetan Bhagat One Indian Girl (Fiction)
Margaret Alva Courage & Commitment (Autobiography)
Sania Mirza “Ace Against Odds’ is released (Autobiography)
Chris Gayle “Six Machine: I Don't Like Cricket ... I Love It”
released (Autobiography)
Maya Kalyanpur The Bangle Seller
Ashwin Sanghi The Sialkot Saga
Vinay Sitapati Half - Lion: How P.V Narasimha Rao
Transformed India
Surendra Kumar Modi’s Midas Touch in Foreign Policy

Shashi Tharoor An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India

Ruskin Bond Death Under the Deodars

46
Sebastian Mallaby (2016 FT ‘The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of
business book award winner) Alan Greenspan’ – A biography
Arundhati Roy (Ex-Booker prize The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (Release
winner) due in June 2017)
Valmik Thapar Living with tigers
Sunita Narain State of India’s Environment 2017
Jerry Pinto A Book of Light: When a Loved One Has a
Different Mind

India’s Global Rankings

Rating/Index Released by India’s Latest Ranking
The Yearbook 2016 UN Industrial 6 in 2016 (9 in 2015)
(World’s 10 largest Development
manufacturing Organization
countries)
Global Innovation WIPO, Cornell 66 (81 in 2015)
Index 2016 University and INSEAD Rank 1 – Switzerland
Ease of Doing World Bank 130 (131 in 2016)
Business ranking Rank 1- New Zealand
2017
Global Gender Gap World Economic Forum 87 (108 in 2015)
Index 2016 Rank 1 - Iceland
World Economic Centre for Civil Society, 112 out of 159 countries
Freedom Index 2016 a public policy think Rank 1 - Hong Kong
tank along with
Canada’s Fraser
Institute
Travel And Tourism World Economic Forum 52 in 2015 (65 in 2013) (Is a
Competitiveness biennial report)
Index 2015
Global World Economic Forum 39 (55 in 2015-16)
Competitiveness Rank 1 – Switzerland
Index 2016-17
Human Capital Index World Economic Forum 105/130 countries (100/124
2016 in 2015)
Global Talent INSEAD Business 92 (89 in 2016)
Competitiveness School, Adecco Group & Rank 1 – Switzerland
Index 2017 Human Capital
Leadership Institute of
Singapore

47
Corruption Transparency 76 (76 in 2015)
Perception Index International Rank 1 – Denmark
2016
Human Development United Nations 130 (135 in 2014)
Index 2015 Development Rank 1 – Norway
Programme
World Investment United Nations CTAD India ranks 10th in FDI inflows
Report 2016
World Risk Report United Nations 77 (78 in 2015)
2016 University Institute for
Environment and
Human Security (UNU-
EHS)
World Press Reporters Without 133 (136 in 2015)
Freedom Index 2016 Borders (NGO) Rank 1 – Finland
Global Peace Index Institute for Economics 141 (143 in 2015)
2016 and Piece (IEP) Rank 1 – Iceland
Global Hunger Index International Food 97/118 countries (80/104 in
2016 Policy Research 2015)
Institute (IFPRI)
Rank 1 – Argentina
Climate Change Germanwatch, an 20 (58 countries accounting
Performance Index independent German for 90% of global CO2
2017 NGO and Climate emission)
Action Network, Europe
ICT Development UN International 138 (135 in 2015)
Index (IDI) 2016 Telecommunication Rank 1- South Korea
Union
Global Youth Commonwealth 133
Development Index Secretariat Rank 1- Germany
2016
Global Terrorism Institute for Economics 7 (India experienced 7% of all
Index (GTI 2016) – & Peace, a Sydney- terrorist attacks around the
Countries Most Hit based think-tank world)
by Terror
World Power World Economic Forum Hindi ranked 10th (Top 5 -
Language Index 2016 English, Mandarin, French,
(PLI) Spanish, Arabic)

48
2017 Inclusive World Economic Forum 60 out of 79 developing
Growth & nations
Development Index

Global e-Waste Assocham-KPMG joint India is fifth largest e-waste

production ranking study producer (100 crore+ mobile
phones in circulation, 25 per
cent end up in e-waste per
annum)

International News
Event
th
13 edition of India-EU Summit
(March 2016)
Hiroshima nuclear declaration
Earthquake in Ecuador
Chabahar port development
Brexit
Scientists unveiled HoloFlex,
world’s first holographic flexible
smart phone
China makes world’s fastest super
computer - ’Sunway-TaihuLight’
Narration
Held in Brussels. The leaders endorsed
"EU-India Agenda for Action-2020” setting
out a concrete road-map for the EU-India
Strategic Partnership for the next five
years
G-7 foreign ministers signed a declaration
towards making a world without nuclear
weapons (April)
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake stroked off
the Pacific coast, in Manta, Ecuador
(April)
India & Iran will develop strategic
Chabahar port with up to $500 million
investment (May)
The UK announced an exit from the
European Union (July)
The device is capable of rendering 3D
images with motion parallax &
stereoscopy to multiple simultaneous
users without head tracking or glasses
Developed by the National Research
Centre of Parallel Computer Engineering
and Technology (NRCPC), it is built
entirely using processors designed &
made in China. It can make 93 quadrillion
calculations per second

49
India ratified Paris climate deal (2
October 2016)
Paris agreement on climate change 55 parties to the convention accounting
enters into force (Nov 2016)
World’s first electric road in
Sweden
World’s first self driving taxi in Select members can hail a free ride
Singapore
China - The world’s largest bullet China's high-speed railway has completed
train network
China - The world’s longest and
highest glass bridge to visitors
China open the world’s tallest
bridge (Distance from ground)
China launched first Quantum
communication satellite
India is the world’s fourth-largest carbon
emitter accounting for 4.1% of total
global emission, is 62nd nation to ratify
the agreement
At a bilateral summit in Hangzhou.
Together, they are responsible for 40% of
the world's carbon emissions
for at least 55% of total GHG (greenhouse
gas) emissions have ratified it
This feature permits the trucks to operate
as electric vehicles when on the
electrified road and as regular hybrid
vehicles at other times
through their smartphones in taxis
operated by nuTonomy, an autonomous
vehicle software startup
over 20000 kms of track network in the
country, post opening of opening of
railway linking between Zhengzhou in
China’s central Henan Province with
Xuzhou in eastern Jiangsu Province
(September)
Spanning two cliffs in the Zhangjiajie
Grand Canyon area, it will stretch 430
meters (1,410 feet) long and 6 meters (20
feet) wide. It stands 300 metre above a
canyon in the Tianmenshan National
Forest Park
The Beipanjiang Bridge soars 565 metres
(1,854 feet) above a river & connects the
two mountainous provinces of Yunnan
and Guizhou
The nation's Quantum Experiments at
Space Scale (QUESS) spacecraft is is
designed to establish 'hack-proof'
quantum communications
50
China rolled out 5G telecom 5G networks can theoretically transmit
equipment trials across 100 citiesdata 20 times faster than current 4G
speed, with less than one tenth of the
latency
China builds the world’s largest Its nicknamed ‘Tianyan’ or Five-hundred-
radio telescope metre Aperture Spherical radio Telescope
(FAST)
World’s longest railway tunnel 57km long Gotthard Base Tunnel (GTB)
opened in Switzerland was opened in June 2016
World’s first mangrove museum in Mangrove forests can sequester up to five
Sri Lanka times more carbon than any other kind of
forest & provide essential nursery habitat
for many fish species that Sri Lankan
fishermen depend on
nd
Sri Lanka becomes 2 malaria free WHO certified Sri Lanka, Maldives being
SEA country the first one
India joins MTCR India joined Missile Technology Control
Regime, though it failed to join National
Security Group (July)
Afgan India Friendship Dam - Hydroelectric and irrigation dam project
Salma Dam located in Afganistan, was opened in June
2016 at Herat by Mr Narendra Modi &
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani (June)
Hague Tribunal verdict over South China’s claim to economic rights across
China Sea large swathes of the South China Sea was
rejected
Failed coup in Turkey President Erdogan declared a three-
month state of emergency following a
botched coup attempt (July)
North Korea conducted nuclear This was second test for the year 2016
tests (September)
Russia and Pakistan – Joint military Named Druzhba-2016 (Friendship-2016)
exercise was held in Pakistan
Ten costliest cities in the world in 1. Singapore (Most expensive)
the descending order 2. Zurich
3. Hong Kong
(Worldwide Cost of Living Report 4. Geneva
2016, Economic Intelligence Unit) 5. Paris
6. London

51

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff
ousted from office
World’s first ‘three-parent’ baby
born in Mexico
Maldives leaves commonwealth
(October)
Interbrand releases World's Best
Global Brands Report 2016
20 nations sign framework
agreement for International Solar
Alliance at COP 22, Morocco
France – First country to ban
plastic cups & plates
Coradia iLint - World’s first zero
emission hydrogen train operated
in Germany
Antartica’s Ross Sea declared as
world’s largest Marine Protected
Area
6th Heart of Asia -— Istanbul
Process (HoA-IP) Conference,
7. New York
8. Copenhagen
9. Seoul
10.Los Angeles
Brazil’s Senate voted to remove the
President from office, finding her guilty of
indulging into budget manipulations
The baby is born to a Jordanian couple,
using a controversial technique
The country claimed it was "unfairly and
unjustly" treated by the global body that
was due to consider sanctions, including
suspension against the nation after its
"lack of progress" on a raft of democratic
reforms
Top 10 brands - Apple, Google, Coca-Cola,
Microsoft, Toyota, IBM, Samsung,
Amazon, Mercedes-Benz, GE
The agreement will become operational
after at least 15 countries have ratified it
A new French law will require all
disposable tableware to be made from
50% biologically-sourced materials that
can be composted at home by January
2020. That number will rise to 60% by
January 2025
The train only emits excess steam into the
atmosphere, and provides an alternative
to the country’s 4,000 diesel cars
currently in circulation in Germany
It was declared after landmark
international agreement among 24
countries and the EU in Commission for
the Conservation of Antarctic Marine
Living Resources (CCAMLR) meeting in
Hobart, Australia
Attended by 14 partner countries & 30+
supporting countries and international
52
Amritsar (Dec 2016)
Magnitude 7.7 earthquake hits
Chilean coast (Dec 2016)
South Korean President, Park
Geun-hye impeached by the
Parliament
Rio de Janeiro gets UNESCO world
heritage status
Israel suspends co-operation with
UNESCO over Jerusalem vote
India overtakes Britain to become
the world’s 6th largest economy
Scientists discover mesentery, a
new human organ in digestive
system. Takes count of human
organs to 79
Business News
Mergers, Acquisitions, Investments
Entity
Microsoft acquired LinkedIn
Henkel bought Sun Products
Snapdeal acquired Insightful
Labs
Tech Mahindra bought Target
Group
Nirma bought Lafarge India’s
assets for Rs 9300 crore
organisations. Principal goal of the HoA-
IP, launched in November 2011 in Turkey,
is to galvanise regional cooperation for
peace, security and development in
Afghanistan
No deaths were reported and damage
was minor
He was ousted on the account of
corruption and cronyism scandal
UNESCO highlighted "extraordinary
fusion" of man-made and natural beauty
in certifying Rio, nicknamed “the
Marvellous City”
This is in response to UNESCO resolution
erasing Jewish connection to Jerusalem’s
holy sites, which will supposedly boost
terrorism & deny history
In GDP terms, the US, China, Japan,
Germany & France are ahead of India
Mesentery connects intestine to the
abdomen. The organ was previously
thought to consist of fragmented and
disparate structures
Action
Acquired LinkedIn Corp for $26.2 billion
Henkel bought laundry-detergents maker
Sun Products Corp. for $3.6 billion
Insightful Labs operates data analytics
provider
Tech M will strengthen presence in the
banking and financial services space
The additional capacity will help Nirma
benefit from an expected surge in
infrastructure construction as India aims to
boost spending on the key sector
53
Myntra acquired Jabong
Titan, Tata Group’s watch and
jewellery retailing firm
Tata Communications sold data Tatas sold a majority stake in this business to
center business
Verizon buys Yahoo’s internet
biz
Apple invests in Didi Chuxing
Uber sold to Didi Chuxing
Pfizer buys Medivation
German giant Bayer buys
Monsanto for $66Bn
Marriott International bought
Starwood Hotels and Resorts
Reliance Communication &
Aircel merge wireless business
(September)
IDFC acquires Grama Vidiyal
microfinance
Zee Entertainment sells Ten
Sports to Sony Pictures for Rs
2,600 crore
Nissan Seals $2.3 Billion
Mitsubishi Motors Stake
Acquisition
Dish TV & Videocon D2H merge Dish TV will own 55% stake & Videocon will
operations to form subscriber
base to 27.6 million
Reliance Capital sales 49% of FM Both transactions are valued at Rs 1900 Cr.
radio (92.7 Big FM) & 100%
television business to Zee Media etc) will merge into Zee entertainment
Myntra, a Flipkart Group company acquired
Jabong from Global Fashion Group (GFG) for
$70 million in cash
Bought a majority stake in India’s largest
jewellery e-tailer Caratlane.com
Singapore Technologies Telemedia
Announces a $4.83 billion cash deal to buy
Yahoo's core internet properties
Invests $1 billion in Chinese ride-hailing firm
Didi Chuxing
Sold China Operations to local rival Didi
Chuxing in $35bn deal
Medivation, a biotech company that makes
an important cancer drug was bought for $14
billion
This will create the world's biggest seeds and
pesticides company
The deal worth $13 billion has made Marriott
the world’s largest hotel company
The biggest consolidation deal in India's
telecom sector will to create a combined
entity with assets worth Rs. 65,000 crore
It is the first time an Indian bank has
acquired a microfinance institution & the
deal (Estimated at Rs 300 crore) will lead to a
20-fold surge in IDFC Bank's customer base
to more than a million
The deal will raise SPN's sports profile & put
it on equal footing with 21st Century Fox-
owned Star India
Nissan came to the rescue after Mitsubishi
Motors’ admissions to improperly measuring
fuel economy and manipulating test data
have remaining 45% in the combined entity,
named ‘Dish TV Videocon Limited’
Reliance’s TV channels (Big Magic, Big Ganga
54
AT&T buys Time Warner for
$85.4 Billion
ZEE buys UAE's oldest radio
station ‘Hum 106.2 FM’
French auto maker Peugeot
buys Ambassador Car brand for
$12 million
New Launches/Initiatives
Entity
DCB Bank starts first ADHAAR based
ATM
Axis Bank launches India’s first
certified green bond at London
Stock Exchange
India’s first Centre of Excellence on
Internet of Things (July)
Reliance Jio launches 4G (Aug)
Unified Payment Interface (UPI) is
operational
WhatsApp launches video calling
facility
The combined business would pair the
carrier’s millions of wireless and pay-
television subscribers with Time Warner’s
deep media line-up, that includes networks
such as CNN, TNT, the prized HBO channel
and Warner Bros. film and TV studio
Hum is the UAE’s first Hindi & Urdu film and
music radio station
Hindustan Motors, India’s oldest car maker,
owned by C K Birla group had stopped
production of the Ambassador in 2014 citing
debt & lack of demand for the vehicle. The
car was muscled out over the years by the
entry of more modern vehicles, particularly
SUVs increasingly favoured by senior
bureaucrats & politicians
Action
A customer can transact using his
biometric details instead of PIN
The bond, certified by the Climate Bonds
Standards Board, raised USD 500 million
It is the first green bond for Axis Bank
within USD 5 billion Medium Term Note
(MTN) programme
NASSCOM launched in it Bangalore
Announces free voice calls, no roaming
charges & Rs 50 per GB, Rs 149 a month
for light data users
Launched by National Payments
Corporation of India (NPCI), UPI will be
initially available only on Android mobile
operating system. It will be going live
with 21 banks in the first phase
WhatsApp is lately catching up with a
number of rivals, including Facebook’s
own Messenger app, for example, as well
55
 as Skype, Apple’s FaceTime, Viber, LINE
and Google’s recently launched Duo
Airtel launches first payments bank It is offering the highest ever savings
pilot in Rajasthan bank interest rate of 7.25%. Kotak Bank
has 20% stake in Airtel Payments Bank
Microsoft launches India’s first Centre will foster deeper cyber security
Cyber security Engagement collaborations with public & private
Centre at Delhi sector organisations. It will help to build
a trusted & secure computing
environment, a critical enabler for India’s
digital transformation
ICICI Bank launched mobile app The app offers improved payment
‘Easypay’ to facilitate cashless convenience using
payments mobile phone through UPI, any
credit/debit card & Internet banking and
‘Pockets’, digital wallet of ICICI Bank
Google launched two new initiatives Intent is to train & help SMBs to
My Business and Digital Unlocked capitalise on the digitisation wave faster
for SMBs · My Business – Free websites & web
tools
· Digital Unlocked - Digital skills to
enable SMBs to get online and
connect to customers
Punjab government launches India’s Bus named “Harike Cruise” was imported
first amphibious bus from Swedish automobile company
Scania
Tata Motors launches pick-up With a competitive price starting at Rs.6
vehicle ‘Tata Xenon Yodha’, with lakhs, the model delivers high power and
Akshay Kumar as brand ambassador torque, for varied business requirements,
for ease of day-to-day operations. It is
available in single & double cab options
The first Digi Dhan mela held in This was the first such fair since
Gurugram demonetisation for educating masses on
how to use mobile phones or AADHAAR
for making payments online

Tie-ups
Entity Action
Apple, Cisco Collaborate on Plans will facilitate integration of Cisco's
Technology Integration Spark business collaboration service with

56
 iPhones to offer enterprise customers a
better calling experience over Internet
Google will provide Wi-Fi access Mumbai Central was the first Wi-Fi enabled
to 400 railway stations station in India under ‘Project Nilgiri’
Nasscom & Facebook Flagship programme ‘Product Design
collaborate to support 500 Initiative’ aims to build awareness around
product Startups in India product design, training on design tools,
design lab, awards, design sprints and
mentorship
Government partially abolished Domestic carriers will no longer have to
5/20 rule under Civil Aviation operate for five years before they can fly
Policy abroad, must still deploy 20 aircraft or 20
percent of total capacity in India, whichever
is higher
Mahindra joins EP100 campaign The world’s largest manufacturer of tractors
to double energy productivity has committed to doubling energy
productivity by 2030
State Bank ties up with IIT Powai MoU will enable in mentoring start-ups in
financial sector. SBI now has a Rs 200 crore
fund the same
Ola, Yatra join hands for cab Through this integration, users will be able to
booking interface integration book a ride directly through Yatra.com’s app
without having the Ola application installed
on their devices
BSNL & Microsoft India sign The MoU will help meet demand for IT &
MoU to offer telecom & IT cloud services, as well as audio and video
solutions needs of the BSNL's enterprise customers
including government organizations
Oracle India, SBI join hands for ‘D-Change’ programme will support
digital skills initiative education & learning, women’s
empowerment and rural skills development
in the country through an initiative called
“Digital Kushalta ki Aur.”
Reliance Defence signs warship The deal for undertaking service,
repair pact with US Navy maintenance & repair of Seventh Fleet of US
Navy at the Pipavav Shipyard in Gujarat may
generate Rs 15,000 crore over 3-5 yrs

57
Entities in News
Entity
Hyundai Motor to recall 7,657
units of Eon for inspection
Competition appellate tribunal
(Compat) penalised Ford,
Nissan, Toyota for unfair trade
practices in spare parts
Action
Eon customers of respective period will be
notified in a phased manner for inspection
of the clutch cable fouling with battery cable
and replace the battery cable if found
damaged at no cost to customer
Automakers have been penalised 2% of
turnover in the spare parts market. Compat
has given directions to create a level playing
field in after sales service

Important Days
Global Days
Description Date About it
World Cancer Day 4 February 2017 Theme – “We can. I can,” to
explore how everyone – together and
individually – can do their part to reduce
global burden of cancer
World Wildlife Day 3 March 2017 Theme - "Listen to the young
voices ". A sub-theme -"The future of
elephants is in our hands”
International Women’s 8 March 2017 Theme - “Be Bold for Change”
Day
PI Day 14 March 3,1,4 are significant digits of PI, i.e.
3.14), so 14/03, i.e. 14 March
World Water Day 22 March The day focuses attention on the
importance of fresh water & advocates
for the sustainable management of
fresh water resources
2017 Theme – ‘Wastewater’
World Health Day 7 April 2017 Theme –”Depression: Let’s Talk’
World Earth Day 22 April 2017 Theme - “Environmental and
Climate Literacy”
English Language 23 April Birth anniversary of William
Day/World Book Day Shakespeare

2017 Theme - "Towards Sustainable

Futures through Multilingual Education”
World Malaria Day 25 April 2016 Theme - "End Malaria For Good"

58
World Intellectual 26 April 2017 Theme – “Innovation - Improving
Property Day Lives”
World Press Freedom 3 May 2017 Theme – "Critical Minds for Critical
Day Times: Media’s role in advancing
peaceful, just and inclusive societies"
World Information 17 May Marks foundation of International
Society Day Telecommunication Union on 17 May
1865
No Tobacco Day 31 May 2017 Theme – "Tobacco – a threat to
development"
World Environment Day 5 June 2017 Theme – “Connecting People to
Nature – in the city & on the land, from
the poles to the equator”
World Oceans Day 8 June 2016 Theme – "Healthy Oceans, Healthy
Planet"
World Day Against Child 12 June 2016 Theme – “End child labour in
Labour supply chains - It's everyone's business."
International Yoga 21 June 21 June - The longest day of the year in
Day/World Hydrography the Northern Hemisphere
Day
2016 Theme: “Connect the Youth”
World Population Day 11 July World's population reached almost five
billion people on 11 July 1987

2016 Theme – “Investing in teenage

girls”
World Youth Skills Day 15 July 2016 Theme - “Skills Development to
Improve Youth Employment”
International Youth Day 12 August 2016 Theme - “The Road to 2030:
Eradicating Poverty and Achieving
Sustainable Consumption and
Production”
World Humanitarian Day 19 August 2016 Theme - “One Humanity”
International Literacy 8 September 2016 Theme (50th Anniversary year) -
Day “Reading the Past, Writing the Future”
International Day of 21 September 2016 Theme - "The Sustainable
Peace Development Goals: Building Blocks for
Peace"
World Tourism Day 27 September 2016 Theme - "Tourism for All -
promoting universal accessibility"

59
World Teachers Day 5 October 2016 Theme - “Valuing Teachers,
Improving their Status”
World Sight Day 13 October 2016 Theme – “Stronger Together”
World Student Day 15 October
World Statistics Day 20 October 2016 Theme – “Better Data, Better
Lives”
United Nations Day 24 October UN Formation Day
Universal Children’s Day 21 November 2016 Theme – “Stop Violence Against
Children”
World AIDS Day 1 December 2016 Theme - "Hands up for HIV
prevention"
World Computer 2 December
Literacy Day
Human Rights Day 10 December

Indian Days
Day Date About it
Pravasi Bharatiya 9 January 14th PBD was celebrated in Bangalore
Divas (PBD) (7-9 Jan 2017). Portugal PM Antonio
Costa was chief guest
(Theme : “Redefining Engagement with
the Indian Diaspora”)
Republic Day 26 January Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan,
the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi will be
chief guest at Republic Day 2017
celebrations
National Science Day 28 February Marks discovery of Raman Effect.
2016 theme was “Scientific Issues for
Development of the Nation”
National Maritime 5 April On this day in 1919, navigation history
Day (India) was created when SS Loyalty, the first
ship of The Scindia Steam Navigation
Company Ltd., journeyed to the UK
National Civil 21 April All officers of Central and State
Services Day Governments are honoured for
excellence in public administration by
the Prime Minister. The 'Prime Minister
Award for Excellence in Public
Administration' is presented

60
National Statistics 29 June Birth anniversary of Prof. Prasanta
Day Chandra Mahalanobis, an Indian
scientist and applied statistician

2016 Theme – “Agriculture and

Farmers' Welfare”
National Doctors Day 1 July Birth anniversary of Dr Bidhan Chandra
(India) Roy, the legendary physician
National Handloom 7 August Smriti Irani, Union Textile Minister
Day presented National Handloom Awards
in Varanasi on 2nd National Handloom
Day (2016)
National Sports Day 29 August Birth anniversary of Dhyan Chand, the
Olympic Gold medallist hockey player
by organizing friendly hockey matches
in New Delhi
National Hindi Diwas 14 September On this day in 1949, the Constituent
Assembly of India had adopted Hindi
written in Devanagari script as
the official language of the Republic of
India
Engineer’s Day 15 September Birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna
(India) Visvesvaraya. He is known as India's
greatest engineer of all times
National Education 11 November Birth anniversary of Maulana Abul
Day Kalam Azad, the first education
minister of independent India
National Constitution 26 November Birth anniversary of Dr.Verghese
Day, National Milk Kurien, Father of the White Revolution
Day

61