4th February 2015 Current Affairs Updates

1) LC Goyal appointed as new home secretary:

--> The government on 4 February 2015 appointed L.C. Goyal as the new home secretary in place of Anil Goswami who resigned.

--> Anil Goswami was given the marching orders after he admitted that he had called up CBI officers to dissuade them from summoning former Union minister Matang Sinh in the Saradha scam.

--> Goyal, a 1979 batch IAS officer belonging to the Kerala cadre, was secretary, rural development ministry.

2) World Cancer Day observed:

--> 4th February in every year was observed as World Cancer Day.

--> This day is dedicated to spread awareness about one of the deadliest diseases in the world, Cancer.

--> This Day was founded by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) to support the goals of the World Cancer Declaration, written in 2008.

--> The theme for the day this year was 'Not Beyond Us'.

3) Sri Lanka celebrated its 67th Independence Day:

--> President Maithripala Sirisena promised to bridge the ethnic divide that still exists following the end of the country’s civil war five years ago.

--> He also called for a process of national reconciliation between the Sinhalese in the south and the Tamils in the north and east of the country.

4) India ranked second last in Intellectual Property Index:

--> India has improved its rank marginally on the intellectual property (IP) index released by the US Chamber of Commerce on 4 February 2015.

--> The US body has moved India to the second last place from rock bottom in its ranking order last year.

--> This year, Thailand has been ranked at the last place while US retains the top spot.

5) Infosys appointed CRISIL MD Roopa Kudva as independent board member:

--> IT major Infosys has appointed Roopa Kudva, the managing director of ratings company CRISIL as an independent board member, the company informed the stock exchange. 

6) Micromax is now India's No.1 smartphone maker, overtakes Samsung:

--> Budget smartphone maker Micromax overtook South Korea's Samsung Electronics to become the leading supplier in India's booming smartphone market for the first time in the fourth quarter, research firm Canalys said.

--> In a report issued on February 3, Canalys said Micromax, based near New Delhi, accounted for 22 per cent of smartphone sales in India in the October-December quarter, ahead of Samsung's 20 per cent.

7) Bank of Maharashtra launched MahaMobile app:

--> Bank of Maharashtra has launched its new mobile banking app - MahaMobile.

--> This app will enable the bank's customers to view all their deposit and loan accounts, do fund transfers, bill payments and raise a variety of service requests on their mobile