Thursday, January 29, 2015

Daily Current Affairs Updates: 22 January 2015



1) BSE Sensex hits record high, crossed 29000 mark:  The BSE Sensex scaled the historical 29,000 peak for the first time on 22 January. Barring oil & gas, infrastructure and consumer durables, all other BSE sectoral indices ended in the green. Among them, healthcare index gained the most by 1.69 per cent, followed by capital goods 1.12 per cent and auto 0.72 per cent. On the other hand, consumer durables index was down 0.96 per cent, oil & gas 0.77 per cent and infrastructure 0.27 per cent.

2) Jhumpa Lahiri's 'The Lowland' won 2015 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature: The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2015 was awarded to Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival on Thursday evening. The prize shortlist included Kamila Shamsie's A God for Every Stone (Bloomsbury), Romesh Gunesekera's Noontide Toll (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin), Bilal Tanweer's The Scatter Here is Too Great (Vintage Books/Random House) and Shamsur Rahman Faruqi's The Mirror of Beauty (Penguin Books). DSC Prize for South Asian Literature is awarded annually to writers of any ethnicity or nationality writing about South Asia such as culture, politics, history, or people. It was instituted in 2011. 

3) PM Modi launched 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign: Exhorting people not to regress to 18th century mindset PM Narendra Modi made an emotional pitch to end discrimination against the girl child on 22 January 2015. Modi launched twin programmes of "Beti bachao, beti padhao"(Save the Daughter, Teach the Daughter)  and "Sukanya Samriddhi account" in a bid to encourage birth and education of girls and tackle the abysmally low child sex ratio of 918 girls for 1000 boys. PM launched the two schemes from Panipat in Haryana that has among the lowest child sex ratio in the country (837 girls to 1000 boys). He also launched Sukanya Samridhi Yojna (girl child prosperity scheme), under which girl children below 10 years will have accounts with more interest and income tax benefits.

4) Vodafone named Sunil Sood as India CEO: UK's telecom giant Vodafone on 22 January 2015 appointed the first Indian CEO, Sunil Sood, for its India operations to replace Martin Pieters who has been its chief executive since 2009. Pieters, the longest serving chief executive officer of a telecom firm in the country, will step down from April 1 and will be succeeded by Sood, presently COO of the company.

5) Supreme Court barred N Srinivasan from contesting BCCI elections: The Supreme Court on 22 January 2015 barred former BCCI chief N Srinivasan from contesting BCCI elections citing a conflict of interest. While the apex court gave him a clean chit on charges of covering up a betting scandal that has plagued the Indian Premier League (IPL), it asked him to choose between the BCCI President's post and owing the Chennai Super Kings team in the IPL. The court has directed the BCCI to conduct elections within 6 weeks of the order.

6) High Level Committee for Restructuring of FCI submitted report to PM: The High Level Committee for Restructuring of Food Corporation of India, on 22 January 2015 submitted its report to the Prime Minister. The Committee was chaired by Shri Shanta Kumar. The Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan, was present on the occasion. The Committee was required to examine the present day administrative, functional and financial structure of FCI and modus operandi of its various operations, and suggest a model for restructuring FCI to improve its operational efficiency and financial management, and suggest measures for overall improvement in management of foodgrains by FCI.

7) Prof Kaptan Singh Solanki sworn-in as 34th Governor of Punjab: Haryana governor Prof Kaptan Singh Solani was on 22 January 2015 took over the additional charge of Governor of Punjab. Solanki was given the additional charge after the tenure of Shivraj V Patil as Punjab governor come to an end.


8) PM Narendra Modi, Barack Obama to jointly address nation over radio broadcast 'Mann ki Baat': The monthly 'Mann ki Baat' radio broadcast of Prime Minister Narendra Modi this time will be special as he will be joined by US President Barack Obama. The programme will be aired on January 27, the Prime Minister revealed himself on 22 January 2015 through a series of tweets and asked for questions from the public.

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