india gk august 2014

8/10/2019 india gk August 2014

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August 1-10

Hours after the World Trade Organization (WTO) failed to agree on a Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA)or global customs rules following Indian opposition, senior officials said India would push for a permanent

peace clause for subsidy on agriculture until a final solution was found. India has refused to agree on a

TFA because it wants the WTO to decide simultaneously on a higher limit on stockpiling of agriculture

produce to feed the poor. Due to a lack of agreement on the second issue, India has not consented to a

TFA at the WTO, where all issues are decided by consensus.

Senior IRS officer K V Chowdary has been appointed as the new Chairman of the Central Board of Direct

Taxes (CBDT), the top policy making body of the Income Tax department

Noted filmmaker Muzaffar Ali, who had directed the Bollywood classic Umrao Jaan, has been selected for

Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award for his outstanding contribution towards the promotion of

communal harmony, peace and goodwill.

Controversial writer Taslima Nasreen met Home Minister Rajnath Singh and said he has assured her of

one-year visa.

Israel ruled out dialogue with Hamas.

Modi became the first Indian PM to visit Nepal in 17 years and announced a $1 billion credit line for the

Himalayan nation.

Parupalli Kashyap brought the curtains down on Indias campaign in the 20th Commonwealth Games to a

thunderous applause, winning a historic gold in the mens singles badminton in Glasgow, as the country

earned a fifth-place finish with 64 medals, including 15 gold medals. Traditional powerhouse England led

the overall standings with 171 medals, followed by Australia (135), Canada (82) and hosts Scotland,

which ended the multi-sport extravaganza with 53 medals.

Changes made in UPSC exam, protests go on.

Egypt plans to build a new Suez Canal alongside the existing 145-year-old historic waterway in a four

billion dollar project aimed at expanding trade along the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia.

The Suez Canal earns Egypt about $5 billion a year in revenues, a vital source of hard currency for a

country that has suffered a slump in tourism and foreign investment since its 2011 uprising.

Raghuram Rajans RBI kept its key policy repo rate unchanged as widely expected, but warned about

inflationary risks should a shortfall in monsoon rains spark a surge in food prices. The RBI kept the repo

rate unchanged at 8.00 percent; the repo rate has been unchanged since January 2014, when the RBI

increased it by a quarter percentage point.

Hiroshima marked the 69th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing on 6 August 2014, as survivors of the

attack and others gathered at the citys Peace Memorial Park. On Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. bomber Enola

Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, ushering in the nuclear age. The bomb, nicknamed Little

Boy, left 140,000 people dead by the end of the year.

Moving ahead with reforms, the government approved allowing FDI in defence production and non-core

areas of the Railways. For defence production, the FDI cap will be 49 per cent, while in the Railways it will

be 100 per cent.


2/14

Kamla Beniwal, who had a running battle with Narendra Modi when he was Gujarat chief minister, was

sacked as governor of Mizoram.

Russia has suspended imports of meat, fish, fruit, vegetables and milk products from the United States,

the 28-nation European Union, Norway, Canada and Australia for a year. The move came in retaliation

for sanctions those countries imposed on Russia, which is accused of providing weaponry and other

support to pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. Russia has denied the allegations.

Overwhelmed West African nations called states of emergency as the death toll from a fast-spreading

Ebola epidemic neared 1,000.

Iran and the United States met in Geneva for bilateral talks.

The Supreme Court directed the SGPC and its rival, Haryana Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee, to

maintain the status quo on the running of all Sikh gurudwaras in Haryana till further orders, and ordered

the state government to ensure law and order

American military aircraft launched three waves of airstrikes against militants in northern Iraq, marking

the first direct U.S. military action in Iraq since 2011.

An Egyptian court dissolved the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political wing of the banned Muslim

Brotherhood, dealing a crippling blow in the campaign to crush Egypt's oldest Islamist movement.

The Centre and the Telangana government came at loggerheads over the Union home ministrys directive

to hand over the critical subject of law and order, among others, to the governor.

Seven new defence technologies for joint development were offered by US defence secretary Chuck Hagel

in meetings with his Indian counterparts.

August 11-20

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan swept to a landslide victory in Turkey's first direct presidential

election, extending his 12-year grip on power.

Iraq's president named Haider al-Abadi as the country's new prime minister, an appointment that came

amid speculation that the embattled incumbent, Nouri al-Maliki, would cling to power even after his

country had dissolved into chaos and the United States made it clear that it would not support him as

leader anymore.

The World Health Organization gave a green light to the use of experimental drugs like ZMapp to combat

the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the Outstanding Parliamentary award to Congress veteran Karan

Singh, JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav and Union Minister Arun Jaitley.

A Pakistani court stopped Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tahreek

chief Dr Tahirul Qadri from holding protest march and sit-in in federal capital in an unconstitutional way.

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader M Thambidurai was unanimously elected as

the deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha.

Indian-origin academician Manjul Bhargava, a professor of mathematics at Princeton University, has been

awarded the 2014 Fields Medal known as the Nobel Prize of mathematics in recognition for his workin developing powerful new methods in the geometry of numbers.

Guinea declares emergency because of Ebola.


3/14

Frequent withdrawal of money from ATMs will become expensive from November, with the RBI imposing a

limit of 3 transactions per month from ATMs of other banks and 5 from the same bank in six metropolitan

cities.

Major Mukund Varadarajan, who killed two terrorists before succumbing to his injuries in J&K in April

2014, has been awarded the Ashoka Chakra, the nation's highest peacetime gallantry medal, in the

Independence Day honours' list.

Nouri al-Maliki finally bowed to pressure within Iraq and beyond and stepped down as prime minister of

Iraq, paving the way for a new coalition that world and regional powers hope can quash the Islamic State

group.

In first I-Day speech, Modi underlined need for a pact between government and citizen.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned INS Kolkata, India's largest indigenously built warship, at the

Naval Dockyard in Mumbai.

Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan launched a civil disobedience campaign and gave Prime Minister

Nawaz Sharif an ultimatum of two days to step down. Pakistan Awami Tehrik chief Tahirul Qadri also gave

a 48-hour ultimatum to the embattled Prime Minister to resign..

More than 3.5 lakh people in 14 districts of Assam were affected by floods, which forced the

administration to call the Army to rescue the marooned villagers in central Assams Nagaon district.

Taking a cue from the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) imposing a global travel ban and asset

freeze against six leaders in the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS) and its allied organisations for

recruiting or financing foreign fighters, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) promptly followed suit and

blacklisted ISIS.

A court in Manipur ordered the release of Irom Sharmila who has staged a 14-year hunger strike in

protest at human rights abuses in Manipur. Sharmila, known as the Iron Lady of Manipur for her

unwavering and non-violent protest, has refused food and water for almost 14 years to draw attention to

abuses allegedly committed by security forces.

BKS Iyengar, the legendary guru who sparked a global yoga craze and reintroduced it to generations of

Indians, died at the age of 95 in Pune.

August 21 onwards

Thailand's coup leader, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, was officially appointed the country's 29th prime

minister.

An Indonesian court upheld the victory of Joko Widodo at last month's presidential election, rejecting

claims of widespread cheating from his opponent and ending weeks of political uncertainty in the world's

third-biggest democracy.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and his counterpart in Nagaland, Mr T.R. Zeliang, agreed to work out a

joint mechanism to handle the situation arising from the issue of territory disputed between Assam and

Nagaland to avoid the recurrence of any clashes.

The embattled government led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was hit by resignations of the legislators

belonging to Imran Khans party. All PTI legislators quit en masse from the National Assembly.

Manipur activist Irom Sharmila was charged with attempted suicide and sent to 15-day judicial custody.


4/14

Maharashtra governor K Sankaranarayanan, who was transferred to Mizoram by the NDA government l,

tendered his resignation, refusing to take charge of his new assignment.

India steps up economic, military aid to Afghanistan.

The former Libyan parliament replaced in national elections in June 2014 reconvened to elect an Islamist-

backed deputy as prime minister, challenging the authority of the turbulent country's new legislature.

The entire French government resigned unexpectedly after bitter internal disagreements over economic

policy.

The Supreme Court pulled up the Centre on coal block allocations and declared all 218 allocations made

from 1993 to 2011 illegal and arbitrary.

India and Russia kicked off their maiden air exercise Avia Indra-2014 in Astrakhan near the Caspian Sea

to bolster cooperation between their air forces.

Celebrations erupted across Gaza as a long-term ceasefire agreed by Israel and the Palestinians went into

effect, ending 50 days of the deadliest violence in a decade.

The generational shift in BJP was complete with its founders Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and Murli

Manohar Joshi being dropped from the BJP parliamentary board, the highest decision-making body headed

by BJP president Amit Shah.

Sheila Dikshit resigned as Kerala Governor becoming the eighth governor appointed by the UPA regime to

quit since the NDA government came to power in May this year.

The government launched the .bharat (dot bharat) domain name in devanagari script covering eight

languages including Hindi, Konkani and Marathi. With the launch, individuals of companies who are

interested in owning a website with domain name in Hindi language would be able to book the name in

Hindi script.

Tayyip Erdogan was sworn in as Turkey's president, cementing his position as its most powerful leader of

recent times, in a step opponents fear heralds more authoritarian rule and widening religious influence in

public life.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his government's mega scheme 'Jan Dhan Yojana', declaring that

it was aimed at eradicating financial untouchability by providing bank accounts to the poor. On the

inaugural day, a record 1.5 crore bank accounts were opened across the country, the largest such

exercise on a single day possibly anywhere in the world. Unveiling the scheme within 100 days of forming

the new government, Modi said, it will cover 7.5 crore people by January 26, 2015, who will be provided

zero-balance bank account with RuPay debit card, life insurance cover of Rs 30,000 in addition to

accidental insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh.

Vinod Kumar Duggal resigned as Manipur Governor becoming the ninth governor appointed by the UPA

regime to quit since the NDA Government came to power in May this year.


5/14

Alok Kumar Verma

Special Commissioner of Delhi Police (Administration) Alok Kumar Verma will be the new Director-General of TiharJail, South Asia's largest prison complex.

BKS Iyengar

The legendary Yoga guru who sparked a global yoga craze and reintroduced it to generations of Indians and set up

Iyengar Yoga studios in 78 countries across the world, is dead. He had written 14 books on the practice and

philosophy of his ancient discipline. His book, Light on Yoga, published in 1966, is considered the bible of yoga.

Corey Griffin

Corey Griffin, a philanthropist who was instrumental in making the ALS ice bucket challenge fund-raising drive goviral, has died after drowning in a diving accident off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts. The drive has so far

raised $22.9 million in aid of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Frank Noronha

The Narendra Modi government on August 8 decided to remove the principal director general of Press Information

Bureau (PIB), Neelam Kapoor, the official spokesperson of the government. Senior Indian Information Service

(IIS) officer Frank Noronha has been appointed the director-general of PIB.

Governors Appointed

Rajasthan: Kalyan Singh

Karnataka: Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala

Maharashtra: Chennamaneni Vidyasagar Rao

Goa: Mridula Singh

Governors Resigned:

Mizoram: Kamla Beniwal

Maharashtra: K. Sankaranarayanan

Kerala: Sheila Dixit

Manipur: V.K. Duggal

K.V. Chowdary

Senior IRS officer K.V. Chowdary has been appointed as the new Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes

(CBDT), the top policy making body of the Income Tax Department. Mr. Chowdary who took charge at his office in

North block in the Finance Ministry on August 1 will have a tenure of three months.

K.V. Thomas

Congress leader K.V. Thomas took over as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament on August

20. He will be the 94thPAC Chairman.


6/14

M Thambidurai

Mr. M Thambidurai, leader of AIADMK in the Parliament, was unanimously elected as Lok Sabha's Deputy Speaker,

making him the first leader to occupy the post twice. 67-year-old AIADMK leader was elected to the post after a

motion, moved by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and seconded by External Affairs Minister

Sushma Swaraj supporting him, was carried by voice vote amid thumping of desks from all sides. Mr

Thambidurai, who was Deputy Speaker from 1985 to 1989, was the only candidate to file nominations for the post

before yesterday's deadline. 11 parties in the ruling and the opposition benches including BJP and Congress

supported him. A five-term member, Mr. Thambidurai represents Karur constituency in Tamil Nadu and his party is

the second largest party in the opposition after Congress.

Murli Manohar Joshi

Senior BJP leader Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, who headed the key Public Accounts Committee in the last Lok

Sabha, has been appointed chairman of the Estimates Committee of Parliament. Dr Joshi took charge of this panel

on August 19 after it was set up on August 14. Another senior BJP leader, Shanta Kumar was named chairman ofthe Committee on Public Undertakings.

NAK Browne

The Modi government has approved the appointment of former air force chief NAK Browne as India's ambassador

to Norway. The post in Norway fell vacant with former incumbent R K Tyagi retiring on July 31.

Pran Kumar Sharma alias Pran

Pran Kumar Sharma, creator of iconic comic book characters like Chacha Chaudhary and Sabu, died at 75. He was

bestowed with numerous awards including a mention in the Limca Book of Records in 1995 as well as the LifetimeAchievement Award 2001 from the Indian Institute of Cartoonists.

Prayuth Chan-ocha

Thailand's coup leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha was appointed prime minister by a legislature he hand-picked,

giving the army chief a veneer of legitimacy even while the military presses on with efforts to silence its critics.

The army seized power on May 22 in a bloodless coup following six months of sometimes deadly street protests

that contributed to the ousting of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose populist government was opposed by

the Bangkok royalist establishment. Although Prayuth's appointment paves the way for an interim government to

be set up in the coming weeks, power will remain firmly in the junta's hands.

R.N Ravi

The Narendra Modi government appointed Northeast expert and former special director of the Intelligence Bureau

(IB) RN Ravi, a retired 1976 batch Kerala cadre IPS officer, as chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee and

Centres interlocutor for talks with Naga groups, including the National Socialistic Council of Nagalim (NSCN-IM).

Ravi succeeds Ajit Lal, who demitted charge of chairman JIC and additional charge of Naga interlocutor on July 31.

The job of chairman JIC, which functions under the National Security Council Secretariat, is to collate intelligence

reports from IB, RA&W and other defence intelligence agencies and prepare net assessments for the government.

Rajni Razdan

Rajni Razdan has been appointed Union Public Service Commission chairman. She took the oath of office on

August 16 replacing Professor D.P. Agarwal. Ms. Razdan, a 64-year-old former Indian Administrative Service

officer from the Haryana cadre, has been a UPSC member since April 19, 2010.


7/14

Rakesh Kumar

The Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry suspended Rakesh Kumar, Chief Executive Officer of the Central

Board of Film Certification (CBFC), on August 19, a day after the CBI arrested him in a bribery case.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won an outright victory in the first round of presidential elections,

promising to be a powerful head of state amid fears his country is creeping towards one-man rule .Erdogan won

51.8 per cent of the vote, way ahead of his main opposition rival Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu on 38.6 per cent,

according to official results based on a 99 per cent vote count. The result marked a personal triumph for Erdogan,

60, who has served as premier since 2003 and could potentially now be president for two mandates until 2024.He

has promised to be a powerful president with a beefed-up mandate, in contrast to the ceremonial role played by

his recent predecessors. The polls are the first time Turkey a member of NATO and longtime hopeful to join the

EU has directly elected its president, who was previously chosen by parliament, and Erdogan hoped for a

massive show of popular support.

Richard Lord Attenborough

Richard Attenborough, the British actor and Oscar-winning film director, died at the age of 90. Lord Attenborough,

born in Cambridge in 1923, championed the British film industry through its triumphs and trials for more than 60

years. He served as an actor, director and producer. His most famous films included Jurassic Park, Miracle on 34th

Street, Brighton Rock and The Great Escape. He made his directorial debut with the 1969 musical Oh! What a

Lovely War, followed by the Oscar-winning epic Gandhi in 1982.

Robin Williams

The Academy Award-winning actor who imbued his performances with wild inventiveness and a kind of manic

energy, and in a screen career spanning four decades, earned Oscar nomination for his roles in Good Morning

Vietnam, Dead Poets Society and The Fisher King but won the Oscar in 1998 for Good Will Hunting, died on August

11 in California. His death is being treated as a case of suspected suicide and an investigation is underway.

SC Judges

Justices Abhay Manohar Sapre, R. Bhanumati, Prafulla Chandra Pant and Uday Umesh Lalit on August 13 assumed

charge as Supreme Court judges, taking the apex court's strength to 30, including Chief Justice R.M. Lodha. The

sanctioned strength of judges in the apex court is 31, including the CJI.

Simin Behbahani

Famed Iranian poet Simin Behbahani, who wrote of the joys of love, demanded equal rights for women and spoke

out about the challenges facing those living in her homeland, died at 87. Behbahani's work also focused on the

challenges facing Iran in the wake of its Islamic Revolution in 1979 and women's rights, her strong words earning

her the nickname of the "Lioness of Iran". Behbahani, who studied law at Tehran university in the 1950s, was

awarded the Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Women's Freedom in 2009 and was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize

in literature.

Theodore Van Kirk

Theodore (Dutch) Van Kirk, the navigator and last surviving crew member of the Enola Gay, the B-29

Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in the last days of World War II, died at 93.


8/14

U.R. Ananthamurthy

Jnanpith award winner U R Ananthamurthy, who strode the Kannada literary world like a colossus with his path

breaking works, died at 82. Ananthamurthy, rated as one of the best writers in the country won acclaims from

critics and fans alike. In his several decades of literary life, he has won the Padma Bhushan in 1998, Jnanpith

award in 1994 and the state Rajyothsava award in 1984. His nomination for the 2013 Man Booker International

Prize brought him to the attention of a Western audience.

V. Rajagopalan

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has cleared the appointment of Union Environment Secretary Dr V

Rajagopalan as Chairman of the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA). A 1978-batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh

cadre, Dr Rajagopalan belongs to Tamil Nadu and is due to retire on August 31. The NBA is based

in Chennai and its chairman's post is of the rank of secretary to the Government of India.

Wael al-Halqi

President Bashar al-Assad renamed Wael al-Halqi as war-torn Syria's prime minister and asked him to form a new

government. The appointment comes three weeks after Assad was inaugurated for a third seven-year term

following an election that Syria's exiled opposition and its Western backers denounced as a sham. Halqi first

became premier in June 2012, succeeding Riad Hijab who defected and accused Assad regime's of "war crimes and

genocide". He escaped an April 2013 assassination attempt in Damascus. Assad was sworn in for a new term on

July 16, warning Western and Arab governments of the backfire they face for their support of the armed revolt in

Syria.


9/14

American Literary Prize

The 21-year-old budding novelist and documentary film-maker Nikhil Chandwani has become the first Indianauthor and the youngest ever to win Conspiracy Novel of the Year award from the American Literary Forum

Society. Chandwani bagged the prestigious award for his book titled 'Coded Conspiracy'. He was also awarded for

his documentary film, Escape from Kenya.

Ashok Chakra

Major Mukund Varadarajan, who lost his life fighting terrorists in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir, has been

named for the Ashok Chakrathe nation's highest peace-time gallantry award, while Lt Cdr Manoranjan Kumar

and Lt Cdr Kapish Singh Muwal (both posthumously) and Wg Cdr Huvey Upadhyaya were honoured with Shaurya

Chakrafor their sacrifice and courage

Danish Literature Prize

Indian-born British author Salman Rushdie received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award, Denmarks

most important literature accolade. The 67-year-old author was handed the prize by Danish Crown Princess Mary

in the town of Odense amid tight security due to his status as a former assassination target in accordance with an

Iranian fatwa. According to the literature award's committee, Mr Rushdie received the award "due to the fact that

he is an incomparable author, who through a blend of global realism and fairytale fantasy depicts the significance

of journeys and cultural meetings for our time, and thus enriches world literature". The literature prize, which

includes 500,000 Danish kronor (67,000), is awarded every two years to commemorate Hans Christian Andersen,

the prolific 19th-century writer of plays, travelogues, novels and poems.

Emmy Awards

The 66th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards was a ceremony held to honor the best in U.S. prime time television

programming from June 1, 2013, until May 31, 2014, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The

ceremony was held on August 25, 2014, in Los Angeles.Breaking Badwas the major winner of the night, with

five wins, including its second Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series for the second part of its fifth

season. Modern Family won its fifth consecutive Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, tying

with Frasieras the show with the most wins in the category. The winners are:

Best Comedy:Modern Family

Best Drama:Breaking Bad

Best Variety Series:The Colbert Report

Best Reality Competition Series:The Amazing Race

Best Miniseries:Fargo

Best Television Movie:The Normal Heart

Lead Actor Comedy:Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory)

Lead Actress Comedy:Julia Louis Dreyfus (Veep)

Lead Actor Drama:Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)

Lead Actress Drama:Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife)


10/14

Best Directing, Comedy:Gail Mancuso (Modern Family)

Best Directing, Drama:Cary Joji Fukunaga (Breaking Bad)

Best Directing, Miniseries/Movie:Colin Bucksey (Fargo)

Gallantry, Service Medals

The country's largest paramilitary force CRPF, deployed in Jammu and Kashmir, northeast and naxal hotbeds, has

bagged the highest gallantry medals on the eve of Independence Day. A maximum of 71 gallantry medals

including one President's Police Medal for Gallantry (PPMG) have been received by CRPF followed by Maharashtra

(23) and Odisha (19), in this category. A total of 919 central and state forces police personnel were on August 14

awarded gallantry and distinguished service medals on the eve of Independence Day. While PPMG has been

awarded to 15 personnel, Police Medal for Gallantry (PMG) has been given to 163 police personnel, President's

police medal for distinguished service to 82 personnel and police medal for meritorious service has been accorded

to 659 personnel. Apart from these, thirty seven personnel have been awarded, the President's correctional

service medal for distinguished service, correctional service medal and President's correctional service medal for

gallantry to one police official.

Honorary Award

The University of Agriculture in Faisalabad (Pakistan) has conferred an honorary degree of the Doctor of Science

on renowned agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan for his "contribution to farm research and allied areas of

plant-breeding, genetics, biodiversity and ecological studies."

Magsaysay Awards

The prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Awards for year 2014 were announced on 31 July 2014 and it included six

winners.Following is the list of these six winners.

Saur Marlina Manurung (Indonesia)

She was cited for her ennobling passion to protect and improve the lives of Indonesias forest people

through jungle schools put up by her organization. An anthropologist by profession, she put up a Jungle

School program for children of Indonesias Orang Rimba, or forest people.

Randy Halasan (The Philippines)

He was chosen for the award for serving the indigenous Matigsalug tribe. He put in huge efforts in

teaching the children of the Matigsalug tribe in one of the remotest mountain villages in Mindanao.

Hu Shuli (China)

He is a Chinese investigative journalist whose work has led to the ouster of corrupt officials. He is the

founder and former editor of Caijing a business magazine famed for its groundbreaking investigative

reporting that has had a profound impact on China.

Omara Khan Masoudi (Afghanistan)

Masoudi was awarded for his courage in protecting Afghan cultural heritage. At great risk to his life, the

deputy director of the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul led his colleagues in moving some of the

museums most precious objects to safety during the Talibans assault on his countrys cultural treasures

in the 1990s.


11/14

The Citizen Foundation (Pakistan)

The Citizen Foundation, a non-profit organisation (NGO) in Pakistan founded by six business leaders, was

recognized for building 1,000 schools over hundreds of cities and towns in the country with the worlds

second highest number of children who are out of school.

Wang Canfa (China)

Wang Canfa founded the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims, which has offered free legal

services to thousands of people and provided environmental law training to lawyers and others.

Ramon Magsaysay Awards were established in 1957 and are named after popular Philippine President Ramon

Magsaysay who died in a 1957 plane crash. These awards are often known as the Nobel Prize of Asia. An

important feature of these annual prizes is that they are awarded only to personalities from Asia. Magsaysay

Awards were first awarded in 1958.

Maths Nobel Prize

Mathematicians of Indian- and Iranian-origin are among the four winners of the 2014 Fields Medal, widely

considered the Nobel Prize for maths that has been broadly dominated by white males since it was instituted in

1936.

The award going to Princeton University's Manjul Bhargava, a Canadian-American maths wizard was no surprise;

although he is the first person of Indian origin. Bhargava was awarded the 2012 Infosys Prize in mathematics for

his "extraordinarily original work in algebraic number theory, which has revolutionized the way in which number

fields and elliptic curves are counted." That came on top of almost every other top prize in maths, from the

SASTRA Ramanujan Prize in 2005 to the American mathematical Society's Cole Prize in 2008.

The sensational co-winner is Maryam Mirzakhani, a female Iranian mathematician who teaches at Stanford

University. It is the first time a female mathematician has won the Fields medal; all 52 previous winners have

been men in a field traditionally dominated by the male of the species.

The two other winners this year are Artur Avila from Brazil and Martin Hairer from Austria. Avila is also the first

Brazilian and Latin American to win the medal.

One to four Fields Medals are awarded once every four years to mathematicians under the age of 40 years at the

International Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), which meets every four years. Although the

prize money ($15,000) is chump change (approximately 1/100th) compared to the Nobel Prize, the award, long

dominated by Americans, Russians, French, and Britons (38 medals between them), is the highest recognition in

the world of mathematics. Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields instituted it at a time mathematicians feltshort-changed that they had no Nobel recognition.

Microsoft Championship

A 16-year-old boy from Delhi has been named the Microsoft Power Point 2010 World Champion after he beat

4,00,000 competitors worldwide and 123 finalists to win the title. The event, organised by Certiport (a Pearson

VUE Business enterprise, is a leading test delivery solution provider for the global workforce and academic

markets) announced Arjit Kansal, a student of Maharaja Agrasen Public School, Pitampura, as the winner in the

technology skills competition. Pongsatorn Dhanabordeephat of Thailand won the second place, while Phuc Duy

Tran from Vietnam bagged the third spot. The championship held at Disneyland in USA was into its 13th year and

attracted candidates from 130 countries who competed to demonstrate their mastery over Microsoft Office

products.


12/14

Outstanding Parliamentarian Award

President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday presented the outstanding parliamentarian awards to Finance

Minister Arun Jaitley, Congress leader Karan Singh and JD-U president Sharad Yadav for 2010, 2011 and 2012,

respectively. The Outstanding Parliamentarian Award is an award given by the Indian Parliamentary Group to an

outstanding sitting Member of the Indian Parliament for overall contribution in Indian Parliament. It was instituted

in 1992 by Shivraj Patil who was then the Speaker of Lok Sabha from 1991-96.

Peter Mackler Award

Asma Shirazi, Pakistan's first female war correspondent and host of popular TV talk shows, was named 2014

Winner of Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism.

Shirazi reported on conflicts that include the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, Taliban violence on the Pakistan-

Afghanistan border in 2009 and General Pervez Musharraf's 2007 state of emergency. She also hosted two popular

television talk shows, including one on parliamentary affairs that Musharraf banned when he clamped down on

independent news coverage.

Rajiv Gandhi Excellence Award

The Rajiv Gandhi Excellence Award was conferred on journalist Manoj Sharma for his distinguished work in the

field of literature, journalism and writing on the occasion of the birth anniversary of the late Prime Minister.

Sadbhavana Award

Prominent filmmaker Muzaffar Ali, who directed the Bollywood film Umrao Jaan, was on August 1 selected for the

Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award for his outstanding contribution towards promoting communal harmony,

peace and goodwill. The award carries a citation and cash award of Rs. 5 lakh.

Sahitya Akademi Yuva Awards 2014

The Sahitya Akademi announced its annual Yuva Puraskar for writings in 21 languages. Thirteen books of poetry,

three of novel, four of short stories and one of essays have won the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar 2014. Those

who won the Yuva Puraskar for their collection of poetry include Abhimanyu Mahato (Bengali), Shanti Basumatary

(Bodo), Anil Chavda (Gujarati), Kumar Anupam (Hindi), Kavya Kadame (Kannada), Praveen Kashyap (Maithili),

Wangthoi Khuman (Manipuri), Tika Bhai (Nepali), Narendra Kumar Bhoi (Odia), Gagan Deep Sharma (Punjabi),

Raju Ram Bijaymiyan Raj (Rajasthan), Anpa Mandi (Santhali), and Ilefat Amjadi (Urdu). Appireddy Hariharn Reddy

(Telugu) was awarded for his essays. Those who have won the awards for their collection of short stories include

Manika Devee (Assamese), Naresh Chandra Naik (Konkani), and Indu Menon (Malayalam). Kaushik Barua

(English) and Paramba Abilash (Tamil) were awarded for their novel.


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S M Swathi has assumed charge as the Executive Director of Bharatiya Mahila Bank Ltd.Prior to taking

over as ED of the Bank, she was the General Manager of Corporation Bank.

Driven substantially by the higher education sector, real estate deals and mining income, Indias black

economy could now be nearly three-quarters the size of its reported Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Since there were no reliable estimates of black money generated in India and held within and outside

the country, the UPA government commissioned the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP)

to estimate the black money in India and held overseas by Indians.The Special Investigation Team on

black money, constituted by the Narendra Modi government on May 27 in compliance with a Supreme

Court directive, is studying the report.Though the report was submitted to the Finance Ministry in

December 2013, the UPAs Finance Minister P. Chidambaram did not place it in Parliament. Nor has his

successor Arun Jaitley done so.The capitation fees collected by private colleges, on management quota

seats in professional courses, last year was around Rs 5,953 crore, the report estimates.

A forensic audit has been ordered by the Finance Ministry on Dena Bank and Oriental Bank of

Commerce (OBC) following reports of misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs.436 crore from fixed

deposits received from customers.

T.M. Bhasin, Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Bank, has been elected as the Chairman of

Indian Banks' Association (IBA),which is a representative body of CMDs and CEOs of public sector,

private sector and foreign banks. IBA plays an advisory role, and presents views of banking industry to

various Union Ministries for policy formulation as also to RBI for regulatory matters.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority has devised a three-year version of themandatory third-party liability cover and it has encouraged companies to come up with policies that cover

the vehicle.

Tobacco-to-FMCG conglomerate ITC has replaced Tata group's IT giant TCS as the country's most

admired company on a Fortune magazine list, which has got as many as 19 new entrants including

Cognizant, Birla group firmIdea Cellular and discom BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd.

In the latest list for the year 2014, ITC is followed by engineering and infrastructure major Larsen and

Toubro (L&T), another FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever, carmaker Maruti Suzuki and public sector bank SBI

among the top five most admired companies in India.

The government has decided to start building the modern transport system (metro) in cities with

population of over 10 lakh replacing the current norm of 20 lakh-population.

India has touched the top spot in consumer confidence among the 60 countries measured in Nielsen's

Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentionsin the second quarter (April-June)

of 2014. The Nielsen consumer confidence index measures perceptions of job prospects, personal

finances and immediate spending intentions. Consumer confidence levels above and below a baseline of

100 indicate degrees of optimism and pessimism, respectively. Confidence was highest in the Asia-Pacific

region, which held steady from the first quarter with a score of 106, whereas North America (103) and

Europe (77) reported consumer confidence increases of three and two points, respectively, from the first

quarter.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on August 21 tightened the norms for giving loans against shares by

non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).NBFCs lending against collateral of shares have been told


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to maintain a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of 50 per cent. They can accept only specified Group 1 securities

as collateral for loans of value more than Rs. 5 lakh.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)on August 14 said that the number of mandated free transactions for

savings bank account holders at other bank ATM's has been reduced from five to three per month. This

will apply for transactions done at ATM's located in six metro centres, namely Mumbai, New Delhi,

Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

The Central Government has appointed S.S. Mundra as Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of Indiafor a

three-year term.

The government has cancelled its approvals to 27 special economic zones (SEZ),including Emaar MGF

Land Ltd and SAIL Salem SEZ, while giving more time to 18 others to execute their projects.

Former Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, the new owner of the Los Angeles Clippers

basketball team, has left the software companys board in order to spend more time on his new project.

Ballmer recently bought the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion.

India's automobile giant Tata Motors has launched its low budget Nano car in Bangladesh, two years

after it announced capture the market in the neighbouring country. Tata Motors introduced the 624cc

Nano as a low-cost car in India in 2008 to attract the middle-class people. The Nano was scheduled to be

launched in Bangladesh three years ago but the pricing issue delayed it.

Tata SIA Airlines Limited(TSAL) announced (11-Aug-2014) that the brand name of its new airline will

beVistara.Vistara is expected to start operations in Oct-2014.The name Vistara is derived from the

Sanskrit word Vistaar, which means limitless expanse, and draws inspiration from the brands domain --

the limitless sky. The logo is derived from a yantra, a perfect mathematical form that reflects the

unbounded universe. The logo features an eight-pointed star.

Government has started the process for setting up four new ultra mega power projects in Bihar,

Jharkhand and Odisha, which will together add 16,000 MW capacity to the country's power generation.

UMPP is a thermal power project of at least 4,000 MW capacity, with an approximate investment of Rs

25,000 crore.

india gk august 2014

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