By Siddharth Dey

General Knowledge Faculty, CLATapult

Current Affairs – MAY 2014

• Mukul Rohatgi – succeeds Ghoolam E. Vahanavati as the Attorney General of India.
• Ranjit Kumar – appointed as the Solicitor General of India; the Solicitor General serves as the Deputy to the Attorney General.
• European Economic Union – economic union between Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus.
• Maya Angelou – American, author of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, passed away.
• Thomas Cup – Japan wins the Thomas Cup after defeating Malaysia; Thomas Cup is the World Men’s Team Championships in Badminton, played every two years.
• Uber Cup – China wins the Uber Cup after defeating Japan; Uber Cup is the World Women’s Team Championships in Badminton, played every two years.
• Malavath Purna – from India, becomes the youngest person to scale Mt. Everest.
• Jacob Zuma – wins second term as the President of South Africa.
• Rajiv Mathur – takes over as the new Chief Information Commissioner from Sushma Singh.
• Jitan Ram Manjhi – takes over as the Chief Minister of Bihar, following the resignation of Nitesh Kumar.
• Nabam Tuki – sworn in as the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh for his second successive term.
• J. Nayak Committee – constituted to review the Governance of Boards of Banks in India.
• Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag –takes over as the Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) of the Indian Army from Gen. Bikram Singh.
• Jalikattu – bull taming sport played in Tamil Nadu, has been banned by the Supreme Court.
• Yingluck Shinawatra – Prime Minister of Thailand, who has been asked to step down by the constitutional court after being found guilty of abuse of power.
• Ratan Tata – awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire, one of Britain’s highest civilian honours.
• Anandiben Patel – takes office as the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
• R. Zeliang – succeeds Neiphiu Rao as the Chief Minister of Nagaland.
• Astra Missile – the first indigenously developed air-to-air missile was test fired over the Arabian sea, off Goa. It’s range is over 60 km.
• Freedom of the Press Index 2014 – India ranks 78^th; Sweden 1
• World’s Highest Tunnel for High-speed Train – opens up in China, at an altitude of 3,600m.
• Air India joins Star Alliance – Air India becomes the first Indian airline to be a part of a global carrier like Star Alliance.
• “My Years with Rajiv and Sonia” – book written by R.D. Pradhan.
• WHO declared the recent outbreak of Polio as a “World Health Emergency”.
• Boko Haram, an Islamist Militant Group, Abducts 200 School Girls in Nigeria.
• Mark Selby wins the World Snooker Championships, 2014.
• Ununseptium – A new element, Ununseptium, or Element 117, with an atomic number of 117, is set to be introduced into the periodic table; the element is artificially created.
• Gary Becker – Winner of the Noble Prize for Economics in 1992, passed away.
• Archana Ramsundaram –the first woman to be the Additional Director of CBI.
• Janardan Reddy – former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, passed away.
• Rupay – India’s first indigenous card (payment) system has been launched; is the seventh worldwide.
• New Frontiers Award, 2014 – India was awarded the New Frontiers Award by the Arabian Travel Market.
• India to become world’s 3rd largest oil consumer by 2025.
• Kristin Lund – first woman to be appointed as Force Commander of the UN Peacekeeping Force.
• Ehud Olmert – former Prime Minister of Israel; sentenced to 6 years in prison on corruption charges.
• E-fan – world’s first electric plane completes its first flight in Bordeaux, France.
• Ronnie O’Sullivan – named as World Snooker’s Player of the Year.
• B. Pandya – appointed as the Chairman of the Central Water Commission.
• A coal mine pit collapsed in Turkey and killed almost 300 people.
• Sir Jack Brabham – three-time Formula 1 World Champion, passed away.
• Naveen Patnaik – sworn in as the Chief Minister of Odisha.
• Pawan Chamling – sworn in as the Chief Minister of Sikkim.
• 16^th Lok Sabha Elections – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerges with a majority of 282 seats, out of 543; Narendra Modi to be elected as the 15^th Prime Minister of India.
• Real Madrid – defeats Atletico Madrid 4-1 to win the UEFA Champions League, their 10^th
• SIMBEX 2014 – naval exercise between India and Singapore taking place in Andaman Sea.
• Donald Levine – creator of the world’s first action figure, G.I. Joe, passed away.
• Ajit Doval – appointed as the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister.
• Vishwanath Tripathi – receives the Vyas Samman 2013.
• Sriram J. Hathwar & Ansun Sujoe – Indian-Americans, jointly win the Scripps National Spell Bee.
• Sultan Azlan Shah – “father of Malaysian hockey”, passed away.
• Polo – India’s only specimen of gorilla, passed away.
• “Anticipating India: the Best of National Interest” – book authored by Shekhar Gupta.
• INS Vikramaditya – the Indian Navy deploys the INS Vikramaditya, India’s second currently-operational aircraft carrier; it has been built out of the decommissioned Soviet aircraft carrier, Admiral Gorshikov.
• Swiss Minimum Wage Initiative – Swiss voters reject the Minimum Wage Initiative in their country, which would have introduced the highest minimum wage in the world.
• Justice B.S. Chauhan – appointed as the Chairman of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT).
• Russi Mody – former Chairman of Tata Steel (or TISCO), known as “Steel Man”, passed away.
• RBI to launch Plastic Currency notes by 2015.
• Hiroshi Naka – appointed as the Vice-President of the World Bank.
• Justice M.B. Shah Committee – Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to investigate black money.
• Prayut Chan-o-cha – military general, takes over as the Prime Minister of Thailand.
• Singapore – becomes the largest source of FDI to India; replaces Mauritius.
• Mullaperiyar Dam Issue – the Supreme Court allowed the raising of the height of the dam to 142 feet, quashing the law passed by the Kerala Assembly. The dispute, on the dam across Periyar River, arose between Tamil Nadu & Kerala, with the former seeking to raise the height of the dam.
• Admiral Robin Dhowan – takes over as the Chief of the Indian Navy; replaces Adm. D.K. Joshi.
• Coal Mine Explosion – a coal mine explosion in Turkey kills over 300 and injures over 400, giving way to nationwide protests.

Current Affairs  JUNE 2014

•  Angela Merkel – Most Powerful Woman of 2014, according to Forbes magazine; is the Chancellor of Germany.
• Chandrashekar Rao – becomes the first Chief Minister of Telangana, the 29^th state of India; is the President of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), and led the movement for the formation of the state of Telangana.
• Chandrababu Naidu – sworn in as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh; belongs to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
• Anand Mahindra – becomes the first Indian to receive the Harvard Medal; is the CMD of the Mahindra Group.
• Srinivasan – appointed as the Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC); replaces Alan Isaac.
• Saina Nehwal – wins Australian Super Series Open (badminton).
• “Nympheas” – Claude Monet’s (French painter) painting of water lilies; sells for a record sum of close to £30 million in London.
• Rani Ki Vav – 11^th century step well in Gujarat which has been included in UNESCO’s List of World Heritage Sites.
• World Food Prize 2014 – was awarded to Indian-born scientist Sanjaya Rajaram.
• Men’s Hockey World Cup 2014 – Australia defeated The Netherlands to clinch the title.
• Women’s Hockey World Cup 2014 – won by The Netherlands, who defeated Australia in the finals.
• Reuven Rivlin – succeeds Shimon Peres as the President of Israel.
• Alexander Shuglin – well-known chemist who popularized various mind-altering drugs such as Ecstasy, passes away.
• French Open 2014 –
  Men’s – Rafael Nadal (defeated Novak Djokovic)
  Women’s – Maria Sharapova (def. Simona Halep)
• Sumitra Mahajan – Speaker of the 16^th Lok Sabha.
• Gopinath Munde – Lok Sabha MP and Minister of Rural Development, passes away.
• Garuda V – fifth Indo-French bilateral air exercise.
• Kolkata Knight Riders – winners of Indian Premier League 2014 (def. Kings XI Punjab).
• Prince Felipe – to succeed his father, King Juan Carlos I, as the King of Spain.
• Lithuania – becomes 19^th country to adopt the Euro as its currency.
• Bashar al-Assad – wins third term as the President of Syria.
• Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein – replaces Navi Pillai as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
• Abdel Fateh el-Sisi – sworn in as the President of Egypt.
• Petro Poroshenko – elected as the President of Ukraine.
• 40^TH G-7 Summit– held at Brussels, Belgium. This meeting exluded Russia (making it G-7 from G-8) over Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty in Crimea.
• Karachi Airport Terror Attack – Terrorists from Tehreek-e-Taliban attack Jinnah International Airport in Karachi.
• “The Substance and The Shadow” – Biography of Dilip Kumar.
• Mohammad Ashraful – former Bangladesh captain, banned from playing international cricket for eight years on charges of match fixing.
• Jnanpith Award 2013 – was awarded to Hindi writer Kedarnath Singh; 1^st award was received by G. Shankara Kurup in 1965.
• FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship – was won by Magnus Carlsen; becomes first man to hold the Triple Crown (Blitz, Rapid, & Classic) of Chess.
• “Blood Feud: The Clintons v. The Obamas” – book authored by Edward Klien.
• Jean-Claude Juncker – was named as the next President of the European Commission; to replace Jose Manuel Barosso.
• Project Android One – Google launches Project Android One to build cheap smartphones.
• Sudarsan Pattnaik – Indian sand artist who won the World Cup of Sand Sculpting 2014.
• India’s Global Textile Export – India was ranked 2^nd in Global Textile Export, behind China, in a report by UN Comtrade.
• Kudankulam Nuclear Plant – India’s first nuclear power plant to produce 1,000 MW of electricity.
• Kahamba Kutesa– elected as the President of the 69^th session of United Nations’ General Assembly.
• Global peace Index 2014 – India ranks 143^rd. Iceland 1^st.
• 1^st Kerosene Free City – Delhi becomes India’s first kerosene-free city.
• Anti-Slavery Bill – the United Kingdom Parliament tabled the first modern anti-slavery bill, providing for imprisonment for anyone involved in the trade of human beings.
• India signs Washington Accord – India became a permanent signatory to the Washington Accord; the Accord is an agreement between prominent nations to promote mobility and quality assurance of engineers across the countries.
• World Book Capital – 2014: Port Harcourt, Nigeria; 2015: Incheon, South Korea; 2016: Wroclaw, Poland.

Current Affairs JULY 2014

• South African cricketer Jacques Kallis announces retirement from all forms of cricket.
• China allows representatives from the Indian Armed Forces to take office in the Indian embassy, for the first time in its history.
• Suresh Prabhu to head the review committee for the Natural Gas Pricing Guidelines of 2014.
• Insurance – Cabinet Committee raised the FDI cap from 26% to 49% in Insurance.
• Malabar – bilateral naval exercise between India and USA.
• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) – became the first Indian technology services company to have a market capitalization of 5 lakh crore.
• Nadine Gordimer – South African anti-apartheid activist, author, and winner of Nobel Prize for Literature (1991) and Booker Prize (1974), passed away.
• INS Kamorta – India’s first indigenously-built anti-submarine warfare corvette was commissioned into the naval fleet.
• INS Kolkata – India’s largest indigenously-built guided-missile destroyer was commissioned into the naval fleet.
• Fortaleza, Brazil – venue for the 6^th annual BRICS summit. BRICS is an economic co-operation group formed in 2006 comprising of Brazil, Russia, India, and China with the first meeting taking place in 2009. South Africa joined in 2010. Next summit is scheduled to take place in Ufa, Russia.
• Zohra Sehgal – Indian film and theatre personality, passed away at the age of 102.
• Granville Austin – renowned American scholar on the Indian constitution, passed away.
• Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) – World’s first flying observatory, fitted by NASA on a Boeing 747.
• Wimbledon 2014 –
  Men’s Singles – Novak Djokovic (defeated Roger Federer)
  Women’s Singles – Petra Kvitova (defeated Eugenie Bouchard)
• India becomes the first country to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty. The treaty was signed at Marrakesh, Morocco, and will facilitate access to published works for persons who are visually impaired.
• Rajasthan adopts the Camel as its state animal, to keep a check on its dwindling numbers. And illegal trade.
• Guardian of the Skies – 3D video games launched by the Indian Air Force in order to attract the youth to pursue a career in the air force.
• Jitu Rai – Indian shooter who has been ranked as World No. 1 in the latest rankings for the “10-metre air pistol” category released by the ISSF (International Shooting Sports Federation).
• Akhouri Sinha – USA names a mountain in Antarctica as “Mt. Sinha” in honour of the Indian-American scientist.
• Emma Watson – appointed as UN Goodwill Ambassador
• Alfredo Di Stefano – Argentine-born footballer and Real Madrid C.F. legend passed away at the age of 88.
• FIFA World Cup 2014 – Germany defeated Argentina 1-0 in the final. Golden Boot went to James Rodriguez of Columbia and Golden Ball went to Lionel Messi of Argentina.
• Bashar al-Assad – re-elected as the President of Syria for third successive time.
• Sim Bhullar – became the first Indian-origin basketball player to play in the NBA. Plays for Sacramento Kings.
• Bolivia – legalizes child labour for children, starting from the age of 10.
• Brand Ambassador of Telangana – Sania Mirza.
• 7^th IBSA Summit – the 7^th India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) summit will be held in New Delhi in 2015. IBSA was formed to promote international co-operation between these countries.
• Malabar – trilateral naval exercise between India, Japan, and US.
• Vincenzo Nibali – Italian cyclist, won the 101^st edition of the Tour de France.
• Shah Rukh Khan – awarded the Legionne d’Honneur by France, their highest civilian award.
• Amit Shah – elected as the National President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), succeeding current Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
• Pakistan Prime Minister declares the ancestral home of actor Dilip Kumar as national heritage.
• Joko Widodo – incumbent President of Indonesia.
• Global Innovation Index – India ranks 76^th; Switzerland ranks 1^st.
• Chandi Prasad Bhatt – recipient of the Gandhi Peace Prize for 2013.
• Ufa, Russia – venue of the 7^th BRICS Summit, to be held in July 2015.
• Fuad Masum – elected as the President of Iraq.
• Theodore Van Kirk – last airman from the US bombing of Hiroshima, passed away.
• Gaia – satellite released by the European Space Agency; to operate 1.5 million kilometers away from the Earth, surveying celestial bodies in the Milky Way galaxy.
• Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 – Commercial airlines, crashed over Ukraine after it was shot down during the ongoing conflict, on its way to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam.

Current Affairs AUGUST 2014

• “One Life Is Not Enough: An Autobiography” – written by Natwar Singh.
• Nirmala Samant Prabhavalkar – became the Chairperson of the National Women’s Commission. Replaces Mamta Sharma.
• Commonwealth Games 2014 – India finished 5^th overall with 64 medals. England finishes 1^st with 174.
• Hari Gautam Committee – set up by the Union Government to review the present status of UGC.
• Pran – creator of ‘Chacha Chaudhary’, passes away.
• India equals world record of 6 ducks in a test match innings, against England.
• Vistara – joint venture airline by Tata-Singapore Airlines
• Robin Williams – Oscar-winning actor and comedian, passes away.
• Haider al-Abadi – appointed as the Prime Minister of Iraq. Replaces Nouri al-Maliki.
• V. Chowdhary – appointed as the Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes. Replaces R.K. Tewari.
• Rajni Razdan – appointed as the Chairman of UPSC.
• Himachal Pradesh, India – to host the first Para-gliding World Cup in 2015.
• Prayuth Chan-ocha – Thailand Army Chief, took over as the Prime Minister following a military coup. Replaces Yingluck Shinawatra.
• Maryam Mirzakhani – became the first woman to win the Fields Medal, also known as the Nobel Prize for Mathematics.
• V. Thomas – elected as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the Indian Parliament. The PAC comprises of 22 members: 15 from the Lok Sabha and 7 from the Rajya Sabha. The PAC scrutinizes the accounts of the government and the reports of the CAG of India after it is tabled in the Parliament.
• K.S. Iyengar – World-renowned yoga guru and Padma Vibhushan recipient, passes away.
• Max Verstappen – 17 year-old Dutch, to become the world’s youngest Formula 1 driver with his debut in the 2015 season.
• Richard Attenborough – acclaimed Hollywood director, known for his Oscar-winning film Gandhi, passes away.
• Avia Indra 2014 – 1^st Indi-Russia aerial (air force) exercise.
• French Government – President Francois Hollande dissolves the government, after row over economic policy.
• Ahmet Davutoglu – appointed as the Prime Minister of Turkey; replaces Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
• Recep Tayyip Erdogan – appointed as the President of Turkey;
• Bipan Chandra – noted historian, passes away.
• Rosetta – became the first spacecraft to be placed into the orbit of a comet (67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko).
• Strictly Personal, Manmohan & Gursharan – book authored by Daman Singh.
• Reshamlal Jangde – Member of India’s first Lok Sabha, passes away.
• Manjul Bhargava – Canadian-American of Indian origin bags the Fields Medal for 2014.
• Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana – scheme for financial inclusion, to provide universal access to banking facilities.
• INS Kolkata – indigenously-built destroyer ship, inducted into the Indian Navy.
• Singapore to help India in building 100 Smart Cities in India.
• Shah Rukh Khan becomes brand ambassador to Interpol’s “Turn Back Crime” campaign.
• IBM’s ‘Simon’ – world’s first-ever smartphone turned 20 years old.
• ZMapp – WHO sanctions the use of ZMapp, an experimental drug, to fight the Ebola disease.
• Michael Brown – unarmed black teenager shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, whose death sparked of protests and rioting.

Current Affairs SEPTEMBER 2014

• Himachal Pradesh High Court – bans animal sacrifice at any public place of religious worship.
• Zimbabwe – defeats Australia in an ODI match for the first time in 31 years.
• Carolina Marin – winner of the women’s World Badminton Championship.
• Chen Long – winner of the men’s World Badminton Championship.
• Nageswara Rao – became the first Indian actor to be honoured with a postage stamp by the US Post Service.
• Jaipur Pink Panthers – winner of inaugural Indian Badminton League.
• WEF Global Competitiveness List – India ranks 71^st. Singapore ranks 1^st.
• L. Dattu – appointed as the 42^nd Chief Justice of India; replaces R.M. Lodha.
• Joan Rivers – legendary American talk-show host, passes away.
• US Open 2014 winners –
• Men’s Singles – Marin Cilic (def. Kei Nishikori)
  Women’s Singles – Serena Williams (def. Caroline Wozniacki)
  Mixed Doubles – Sania Mirza & Bruno Soares
• Surya-Kiran VII – Indo-Nepal joint military exercise.
• Tony Abbott – Prime Minister of Australia visits India.
• Subhash Chandra Garg – appointed as Executive Director of the World Bank.
• Agni I – the Short Range Ballistic Missile (SRBM) with a 700 km range was test-fired from Wheeler Island, off the coast of Odisha.
• Suresh Kumar – became the first Indian to visit the stratosphere, the 2^nd layer of the earth’s atmosphere.
• Cardless Cash Withdrawal – ICICI Bank introduces new scheme where account holders can transfer money to anyone in India with a mobile phone number.
• FIBA Basketball World Cup 2014 winner – USA (def. Serbia).
• David Haines – British aid worker, was beheaded by ISIS
• And then One Day: A Memoir – autobiography by actor Naseeruddin Shah.
• Leonardo DiCaprio – appointed as UN Messenger of Peace.
• Kaushik Basu – appointed as the Chairman of the International Economic Association. He also serves as the Senior Vice-President & Chief Economist at the World Bank.
• Lalitha Kumarmangalam – appointed as the Chairperson of the National Commission for Women.
• John Key – re-elected as the Prime Minister of New Zealand.
• Scotland – the people of Scotland reject the referendum for independence; chooses to remain a part of the United Kingdom.
• Larry Ellison – co-founder of Oracle, steps down from the post of CEO.
• Ashraf Ghani – elected as the President of Afghanistan.
• World population to reach 11 billion by the year 2100, as per a UN study.
• Panneerselvam – appointed as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, following Jayalalithaa’s arrest.
• Asian Games 2014: Tennis – Sania Mirza & Saketh Myeni win Mixed Doubles Gold.
• Liar’s Dice – Hindi film, selected as India’s entry in the Academy Awards (Oscar’s).
• Operation Megh Rahat – relief operation by the Indian Army for the flood-affected areas of Jammu & Kashmir.
• Norman Gordon – former South African bowler and the oldest surviving Test cricketer passes away at 103.
• India & Australia enter into a civil nuclear cooperation
• Rajasthan Atomic Power Station – longest running atomic power station in India with 765 days completed; stands second to Canada’s Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, running for 894 days.
• India signs free trade agreement with ASEAN
• RBI sets upper age limit for MDs/CEOs of private banks at 70 years, raised from the current limit of 65 years.
• Achin & Sarthak Narula – became the first ever contestants to win the Rs. 7 crore prize money on ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’.
• Australian airline Qantas launches an airbus A380 non-stop flight from Dallas to Sydney, making it the world’s longest route.
• Indian film Court wins best debut award at Venice Film Festival.

Current Affairs OCTOBER 2014

• Nobel Prize 2014 –
  Medicine – John O’Keefe, May-Britt Moser, & Edvard Moser
  Chemistry – Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell, & William Moerner
  Physics – Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, & Shuji Nakamura
  Economics – Jean Tirole
  Peace – Kailash Satyarthi & Malala Yousafzai
  Literature – Patrick Modiano
• Global Diversity Award 2014 – Shah Rukh Khan received the Global Diversity Award 2014 at the House of Commons.
• Olive Refinery – Rajasthan became the first state in India to start an Olive refinery.
• Orkut – Google dissolves Orkut after 10 years of operation.
• International Day of the Girl Child – the United Nations adopted a resolution to mark October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child, dedicated to the welfare of the girl child, globally.
• Asian Games 2014 – held in Incheon, South Korea. The mascot of the Games were three Harbour Seals: Barame, Chumuro, & Vichuon. India finished 8^th on the medals tally with 57 including 11 golds. China ranked 1^st with 342 medals. (Notable gold medalists for India were Jita Rai in 50 metre pistol; Saurav Ghoshal, Mahesh Mangaonkar, Harinder Pal Sandhu & Kush Kumar in men’s team squash; Yogeshwar Dutt in men’s wrestling; Mary Kom in women’s boxing; men’s hockey & kabaddi team).
• Arvind Subramaniam – appointed as the Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India.
• Man Booker Prize 2014 – awarded to Australian author Richard Flanagan for his novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
• Manohar Lal Kattar – appointed as the Chief Minister of Haryana.
• Oscar Pistorious – South African paralympic athlete, sentenced to 5-years in prison for the murder of her girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
• Sarita Devi – suspended by the AIBA for refusing to accept her medal in at the Asian Games held in Incheon.
• Dilma Roussef – re-elected as the President of Brazil.
• Ease of Doing Business Report – India was ranked 142^nd on World Bank’s annual Ease of Doing Business Report; Singapore ranked 1^st.
• Devendra Fadnavis – appointed as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
• Warren Anderson – former Chairman of Union Carbide responsible for the Bhopal gas leak incident, passes away at 92.
• Begum Akhtar centenary celebrations – the Union Government announced year long celebrations on the birth centenary of Ghazal singer Begum Akhtar.
• Jules Bianchi – French Formula 1 driver, who met with an accident during the Formula 1 Japanese GP.
• Minamata Convention – India became a signatory to the Minamata Convention on Mercury; the Convention deals with the prevention of adverse effects of mercury poisoning.
• World Food Prize 2014 – India-born food scientist Sanjaya Rajaram received the World Food Prize 2014.
• Alan Eustace – Senior Vice-President of Google , broke the world record for highest free-fall parachute jump.
• Senzo Meyiwa – South Africa’s football team goalkeeper, shot dead by armed intruders at his home.
• Don Bradman Hall of Fame – Sachin Tendulkar and Steve Waugh inducted into the Don Bradman Hall of Fame.
• Jonas Salk doodle – Google celebrates Jonas Salk’s, the inventor of the polio vaccine, birthday with a dedicated doodle on its homepage.
• Recognition of the State of Palestine – Sweden became the first country in the European Union to officially recognize the State of Palestine.
• Gender Gap Report 2014 – India ranks 114^th on WEF’s Gender Gap Report. Finland ranked 1^st (most gender-equal society).
• ‘Nirbhay’ missile – Nirbhay was test fired at Balasore, Odisha; it is the first indigenously designed & developed long range cruise missile with a range of over 1000 km.
• India & Mexico sign pacts to cooperate in the field of space technology.
• Dosti XII – four-day trilateral exercise Coast Guard exercise between India, Sri Lanka & Maldives.
• Virat Kohli – becomes fastest Indian to score 20 test centuries (133 innings), breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s standing record.
• Cyclone Hudhud – originated in the Bay of Bengal and hit land near Vishakhapatnam, AP.
• Jens Stoltenberg – appointed as the Secretary-General of the NATO; replaces Anders Fogh Ramussen.

Current Affairs NOVEMBER 2014

• Sadashiv Amrapurkar – veteran Bollywood actor, passed away.
• Rajiv Mehrishi – appointed as the Union Finance Secretary.
• Mahendra Singh Dhoni – named as the captain of the ICC ODI Team of the Year 2014.
• Angelo Mathhews – named as the captain of the ICC Test Team of the Year 2014.
• ‘Playing It My Way’ – autobiography of Sachin Tendulkar.
• Highest number of internet users in India were recorded to be in Mumbai.
• Fabiola Gianotti – appointed as the chief of CERN; first woman to be appointed to the post.
• Bhuvaneshwar Kumar – won the LG People’s Choice Award 2014.
• Mithra Shakti – India-Sri Lanka joint military exercise.
• European Golden Boot Award 2013-14 – awarded to Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez.
• Ankita Kapur – appointed as the Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).
• Forbes Most Powerful Person List – Vladimir Putin ranks as the most powerful person; Angela Merkel ranks as the most powerful woman, and 5^th Narendra Modi debuts at 15^th.
• Kedarnath Singh – Hindi poet, recipient of the Jnanpith Award 2013; G. Sankara Kurup was the first reciepient.
• Agni II test fire – nuclear-capable Agni II was test-fired from Wheeler Island; it’s range is over 2000km.
• Fall of Berlin Wall – 25^th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall was celebrated on the 9^th of November 2014.
• Manan Kumar Misra – re-elected as the Chairman of the Bar Council of India.
• Rohit Sharma – scored a world record 264 in an ODI against Sri Lanka; breaks previous world-record of 219 held by Virender Sehwag.
• Ravi Chopra – director of famous TV show, Mahabharata, passed away.
• Saina Nehwal & Kidambi Srikanth – win women’s & men’s singles of China Open Super Series Badminton, respectively.
• Question Hour in Rajya Sabha shifted from 11 a.m. to 12 noon.
• Dhanush – surface-to-surface nuclear-capable missile, naval variant of Prithvi II, test-fired off the coast of Odisha.
• Prithvi II – surface-to-surface nuclear-capable missile, test-fired in Odisha; has a range of 350 km.
• Global Slavery Index 2014 – India ranks 1^st when it comes to the total number of enslaved people in the country.
• Akash – surface-to-surface anti-aircraft missile, test-fired in Odisha; has a range of 25 km.
• Hand-in-Hand 2014 – India-China joint military exercise.
• ISRO – awarded the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament & Development.
• 12^th ASEAN-India Summit & 25^th ASEAN Summit – held at Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar.
• Vape – Oxford Dictionary Word of the Year 2014.
• 9^th G-20 Summit – held in Brisbane, Australia.
• Magnus Carlsen – wins FIDE World Chess Championship.
• Davis Cup – Switzerland defeats France in finals.
• Barak Obama – invited as Chief Guest to India’s Republic Day parade.
• Deepak Gupta – appointed as the Chairman of UPSC; replaced Rajni Razdan.
• Murli Deora – senior Congress leader & former minister and father of former MP Milind Deora, passed away.
• Dilip Vengsarkar – receives Colonel K. Nayadu Lifetime Achievement Award.
• Manoj Kumar – boxer, receives Arjuna Award.
• Philip Hughes – Australian cricketer, passed away after an on-field injury during a Domestic League match.
• Chandramauli Kumar – former Supreme Court judge, appointed as the Chairman of the Press Council of India; succeeds Markandey Katju.
• Anoop Mishra – appointed as the Secretary-General of Lok Sabha.
• PV Sindhu – wins the 2014 Macau Open Grand Prix (badminton).
• 18^th SAARC Summit held at Kathmandu, Nepal.
• Kerala became the first state to have bank accounts for all families, under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.
• Rosetta – spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency, whose space probe Philae became the first probe to land on a comet (Comet 67P).
• Sanskrit to replace German as third language in all Kendriya Vidyalaya school’s across India.
• Farhan Akhtar – named as the UN Women’s Googdwill Ambassador for South Asia.
• Nanavati Commission submits its final report on the 2002 Gujarat Riots. The commission is led by former SC judge G.T. Nanavati.
• Sitara Devi – Kathak legend, passed away.
• 1^st Commonwealth Science Conference – held in Bangalore.
• Yan Bingtao – became the youngest person to win the IBSF World Snooker Championship.
• Bridgmanite – most abundant mineral on/in Earth, found primarily in the Earth’s mantle.

Current Affairs DECEMBER 2014

• World AIDS Day observed on December 1.
• Lima, Peru – venue for UNFCCC’s 20^th Conference of Parties (COP).
  The UNFCCC is a treaty (signed in 1992 following the ‘Earth Summit’ at Rio de Janeiro in the same year) with an objective to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
• Deven Varma – veteran bollywood actor who had roles in films such as ‘Angoor’, passed away.
• Anil Sinha – replaces Ranjit Sinha as the new Chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation.
• GSAT-16 – communication satellite of ISRO launched by Ariane 5 Rocket (of the European Space Agency)
• Maldives – receives supply of fresh water from India to battle their water shortage
• World Human Rights Day observed on December 10.
• Indian Premier Tennis League – won by the Indian Aces.
• Mohammed Hafeez – Pakistani cricketer; suspended from bowling for illegal bowling action.
• Spectre – Title of the 24^th film in the James Bond series; to be released in late-2015.
• Decriminalization of Attempted Suicide – The union government has decided to decriminalize attempted suicide, which is a criminal offence under S. 309 of the IPC.
• Vivek Murthy – appointed as the S. Surgeon General.
• Khurram Khan – Emirati (UAE) cricketer, became the oldest person to score an ODI century.
• Super Victor – mascot for UEFA Euro 2016, scheduled to happen in France.
• Corruptions Perception Index 2014 – India ranks 85^th; Denmark ranks 1^st.
• Atal Behari Vajpayee’s birthday to be observed as National Good Governance Day.
• V.R. Krishna Iyer – former SC judge, passed away at 100 years of age.
• Indian Oil win Beighton Cup Hockey tournament.
• East Zone wins Deodhar Trophy 2014-2015 tournament.
• Bhaichung Bhutia – first Indian footballer to be awarded the AFC Hall of Fame Award.
• Rolene Strauss from South Africa was crowned Miss World 2014.
• Champions Trophy Hockey 2014 – Germany defeat Pakistan in the finals.
• Vinicius & Tom – mascots for the 2016 Olympics at Rio de Janeiro.
• Indian Oil Corporation tops the Fortune 500 Indian companies list
• Tashi & Nungshi Malik became the 1^st twins to scale the highest peaks of all seven continents.
• Jyotsna Suri – elected as the Chairman of FICCI; succeeds Siddharth Birla.
• Joe Cocker – celebrated British singer, passed away.
• Raghubar Das – appointed as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand; succeeds Hemant Soren.
• Air Asia flight from Surabaya to Singapore goes missing over the Java Sea.
• Delhi High Court orders Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi to stop importing & selling their products in India following a patent-infringement allegation.
• ‘Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain’ – movie released to mark the 30^th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy.
• Indian Blind Cricket Team wins the fourth edition of the Blind Cricket World Cup 2014; defeats Pakistan in the final.
• Time Person of the Year 2014 – collective honour given to Ebola volunteers who provided assistance around the world during the Ebola epidemic.
• Dineshwar Sharma ­– appointed as the Director of Intelligence Bureau (IB).
• Tehreek-e-Taliban, a extremist outfit, kills over 150 children in a Peshawar school.
• National Mathematics Day celebrated on 22^nd of December to commemorate the birthday of Srinivasa Ramanujan.
• Kabaddi World Cup 2014 – India wins both men’s and women’s competition.
• G.P. Mathur Committee – to re-investigate and look into the various grievances of the 1984 Sikh riots.
• GLSV Mark-III-X – India’s heaviest rocket, launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh; also carried the Crew module Atmospheric Reentry Experiment (CARE).

Current Affairs JANUARY 2015

• NITI Aayog – National Institution for Transforming India Aayog, to replace the 65 year old Planning Commission; the Prime Minister will be the head of this body.
• Arvind Panagariya – economist, appointed as the Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog.
• K. Mittal – succeeds Arunendra Kumar as the Chairman of the Railway Board.
• Larry Page – named by Fortune magazine as the Business Person of the Year 2014.
• Charlie Hebdo – French satirical magazine, whose headquarters in Paris were attacked by masked gumen, killing the chief editor and cartoonists amongst others; earlier, the magazine had published cartoons on Prophet Mohammed.
• 102^nd Indian Science Congress held in Mumbai.
• Maithripela Sirisena – elected as the President of Sri Lanka.
• Cristiano Ronaldo – wins 2014 FIFA Ballon d’ Or; this was his third win.
• Stanislas Wawrinka – wins Chennai Open Tennis 2015.
• Baba Ramdev was appointed as the Brand Ambassador of the Haryana government.
• Leela Samson – resigns from the post of Chairperson of Central Board of Film Certification (Censor Board).
• Hari Shankar Brahma – appointed as the Chief Election Commissioner; succeeds S. Sampath.
• Hyderabad to host the World Congress on Information Technology
• Sania Mirza & Bethanie Mattek-Sands win the women’s doubles of the Sydney International.
• AB de Villiers – scores fastest ODI century off 31 balls, against the West Indies; surpasses Corey Anderson’s 36-ball record.
• Pahlaj Nihalani – appointed as the Chairperson of Censor Board; succeeds Leela Samson.
• K. Laxman – legendary cartoonist & creator of the ‘Common Man’ cartoon character, passed away.
• Paulina Vega, from Columbia, was crowned Miss Universe 2014.
• Yingluck Shinawatra – Thailand’s Prime Minister, was impeached by the Parliament following her failure to stop corrupt practice’s of her government.
• King Abdullah bin Abdullziz – King of Saudi Arabia, passed away; to be succeeded by Prince Salman.
• India to host ICC T20 World Cup 2016.
• Alexis Tsipras – appointed as the Prime Minister of Greece.
• Wing Commander Puja Thakur – first lady officer to lead the Inter-Service Guard of Honour on Republic Day.
• Krishna Chaudhary – appointed as the Director-General of the ITBP.
• Subhash Ghishing – President of Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), passed away.
• Agni V – Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) fired off Wheeler Island; has a range of 5000km.
• Kumar Sangakkara – Sri Lankan cricketer, surpasses Adam Gilchrist’s world record for most number of dismissals in ODIs by a fielder.
• Colonel M.N. Rai – Commanding Officer of 42 Rashtriya Rifles & a recipient of the Yudh Seva Medal n Republic Day, was killed in an encounter with militants in J&K.
• Saina Nehwal & Parupalli Kashyap win the women’s & men’s titles respectively, in the Syed Modi International India Masters badminton tournament.
• Nomadic Elephant – Indo-Mongolia joint military training exercise.
• DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2015 – was won by Jhumpa Lahiri for her novel The Lowland.
• ICICI Bank – became the first bank in Asia, and second in the world, to allow account holders to transfer funds via Twitter.
• Bhakti Sharma – cover 1.4 miles in 52 minutes in the Antarctic Ocean; youngest in the world and first Asian girl to achieve this.
• S. Kiran Kumar – appointed as the Chairman of ISRO.
• S.K. Sinha – appointed as the Chief Justice of Bangladesh; first Hindu to hold the post.
• Roger Federer – becomes the 3^rd person in history to win 1000 tennis match titles; Jimmy Connors & Ivan Lendl are the other two.
• Ranil Wickremesinghe – appointed as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.
• Lithuania – becomes 19^th member of the Eurozone: EU countries using the Euro as its official currency.
• President’s Rule declared in Jammu & Kashmir following an electoral deadlock where no single party or coalition was able to gather the required majority.
• Anirban Lahiri voted 2014 Players’ Player of the Year in the Asian Tour.
• Idukki district of Kerala is the first in the country to have complete rural broadband coverage.
• Punjab government halts the screening of Messenger of God citing reports of nationwide tensions pertaining to its release.

Current Affairs FEBRUARY 2015

• Australian Open 2015 winners –
  Men’s Singles – Novak Djokovic
  Women’s Singles – Serena Williams
  Mixed Doubles – Leander Paes & Martina Hingis
• Sergio Mattarella – elected as the President of Italy.
• Arvind Kejriwal – appointed as the Chief Minister of Delhi.
• Virat Kohli became the first cricketer to score a century against Pakistan in a World Cup match.
• Michael Ferrero – owner of global brands such as Nutella & Ferrero Rocher, passed away.
• Chris Gayle – became the first cricketer to score a double-century in a World Cup match.
• Martin Guptill – highest ever individual score in a World Cup match: 237, not out.
• Surya Kiran VIII – Indo-Nepal joint military exercise.
• Nititsh Kumar – re-elected as Chief Minister of Bihar, after Jitan Ram Manjhi resigned.
• Anirban Lahiri – won the Indian Open Golf.
• Academy Awards 2015 –
  Best Film – Birdman
  Best Director – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Birdman
  Best Actor – Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything
  Best Actress – Julianne Moore for Still Alice
• Mufti Mohammed Sayeed – sworn in as the Chief Minister of J&K.
• Martin Crowe – former New Zealand cricketer, inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.
• Leonard Nemoy – Acclaimed US actor, famous for playing the role of Spock in the cult original Star Trek series, passed away.
• Rana Bhagwandas – first Hindu to serve as the Chief Justice of Pakistan, passed away.
• Ashton Carter – succeeds Chuck Hagel as the US Secretary of Defense.
• World Press Freedom Index – India ranks 136^th; Finland ranks 1^st.
• Apple Inc. – first US company to cross the $700 billion-mark in market capitalization.
• United Kingdom – first country in the world to legalize three-person in-vitro fertilization, which combines genetic material from three individuals.
• French artist Paul Gauguin’s painting ‘When Will You Ever Marry?’ sells for $300 million, making it the most-expensive artwork ever sold.
• Lydia Ko – New Zealander golfer, became the youngest world number one in golf history by reaching the top of the women’s ranking at 17 years of age; Tiger Woods held the previous record at 21 years.

Current Affairs March 2015

• Jagmohan Dalmiya – elected as the President of the BBCI.
• Carolina Marin – wins All England Open Badminton Championships 2015 women’s title; defeats Saina Nehwal in the finals.
• Chen Long – wins All England Open Badminton Championships 2015 men’s title.
• Rotavac – India’s first indigenously developed rotavirus vaccine.
• Kumar Sangakkara – became the first batsman to score four consecutive ODI centuries in the World Cup.
• Ranji Trophy 2014-15 – won by Karnataka (defeated Tamil Nadu).
• Kidambi Srikanth – won the Swiss Open Grand Prix 2015 (badminton).
• Astra – indigenously developed air-to-air missile, test-fired from a Sukhoi-30 aircraft; has a range of upto 110 km.
• Venkataraman Ramakrishnan – Indian-born American scientist and Nobel Laureate; elected as the President of the Royal Society.
• Mahendra Singh Dhoni – became the first Indian captain to register 100 wins in ODIs.
• Martin Guptill – scores highest individual score in World Cup of 237*, against West Indies in the Quarter Finals.
• Katherine Viner – appointed as the Editor-in-Chief of the The Guardian
• India became the 3^rd largest steel producer overtaking the US.
• Shashi Kapoor – selected for the Dadasaheb Phalke Award 2014.
• Lee Kuan Yew – founding father of modern Singapore, passed away.
• Maharashtra government makes sale of gutka to be a non-bailable offence.
• Kangana Ranaut – won Best Actress award for ‘Queen’, at the National Film Awards; Vijay won Best Actor award.
• The Supreme Court struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, calling it unconstitutional.
• Cherukuli Shivani – two-year old girl from Andhra Pradesh, became the youngest in India to score 200 points over 7.5 metres in archery.
• PRAGATI – grievance redressal platform launched by PM Narendra Modi.
• Delhi government launches India’s first e-ration card service.
• Rajasthan became the first state to pass a bill on eligibility for contesting Panchayat polls.
• Gandhi Peace Prize 2014 – awarded to ISRO.
• Saina Nehwal became the first Indian woman to rank world no. 1 in badminton.
• Australia wins Cricket World Cup for 5^th time, defeating Australia in the finals held at Melbourne, Australia.
• Saina Nehwal – won India Open Super Series Badminton 2015.
• Madan Mohan Malviya and Atal Behari Vajpayee conferred with the Bharat Ratna; 47 Bharat Ratnas have been given out thus far.
• A Germanwings Airbus A320 crashed into the French Alps killing all 150 passengers on board; suspected to have been purposefully crashed by one of the pilots.
• Madhiv Gadgil – chosen for the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.
• Vanuatu – island-nation in the Pacific Ocean, affected by the Cyclone Pam.
• Sam Simon – co-creator of the show The Simpsons, passed away.