Current Affairs : 16th January 2014 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1.Arunachal Pradesh witnessed the first trial run of a rail engine on 15 January 2014. The first trial run was of 20-km from Harmutty in Lakhimpur district of Assam to the Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar. The State government would put a mechanism in place for checking the inner line permit (ILP) of the passengers. The ILP issued under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1973 is necessary even for an Indian citizen to enter Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland. 2.The Reserve Bank of India may keep the interest rates “steady” in its monetary policy review later this month and a rate cut is likely only in the next financial year, according to an SBI research report. With inflation easing, industry has clamoured for a reduction in interest rates. However, according to SBI, the central bank may keep the rates on hold at its quarterly monetary policy scheduled on January 28. 3.The much-delayed $12 billion Posco steel project in Odisha is set to be operational in the next few weeks and granting of mining concession to the South Korean firm was in an advanced stage of processing, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday. Dr. Singh made the announcement after holding extensive talks with President of South Korea Park Geun-hye in New Delhi. The Posco project, the biggest foreign direct investment (FDI) to India, was marred in controversies and issues like land acquisition and delay in clearances since its announcement in 2005. 4.The Indian Coast Guard Ship Abhinav was commissioned in Kochi on 15 January 2014 by the Director General of Coast Guard Vice Admiral Anurag G Thapiyal. Abhinav is the third in the series of twenty Fast Patrol Vessels (FPVs) and has been designed and built by Cochin Shipyard Limited. The ship has been named ICGS Abhinav (which literally means Modern). It will be based at Kochi under the administrative and operational control of the Commander, Coast Guard Region (West). The ship is commanded by Commandant (JG) Raman Kumar and has complement of 5 officers and 34 other ranks. 5.Adhip Chaudhuri, an international economist who taught at Georgetown University, died in Vienna, Virginia, earlier this week from lung cancer, his family announced. He was 63. He began teaching at GeorgetownUniversity in Washington, DC, in 1979. An exceptionally gifted teacher known for his ability to make difficult concepts understandable and relevant to his students’ lives, he was recognised as ‘teacher of the year’ three times. 6.Henrique de Castro, the chief operating officer of Yahoo, will leave the company on Thursday, Yahoo announced yesterday in a report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. He was responsible for managing Yahoo’s sales, operations, media and business development worldwide. Mayer recruited him in 2012 shortly after she left Google to take the helm at Yahoo. No reason was given for his the abrupt departure of de Castro. 7.Jet Airways CEO Gary Kenneth Toomey resigned with immediate effect just three months after taking over as the CEO of Jet Airways, the airline announced today. Ravishankar Gopalakrishnan, the Chief Financial Officer, will officiate as the acting CEO till the Board appoints a new CEO. Speculation was rife about Jet’s new partner Etihad wanting to get its own top-level person to run the airline. With Etihad investing in several global airlines, including Air Seychelles, Air Berlin and Virgin Australia. 8.Akhilesh Das Gupta is set to be re-elected as President of the Badminton Association of India as he remained the only candidate for the coveted post at the end of the filing of the nominations, held in Lucknow on Tuesday. General secretary Vijai Sinha would also be re-elected unopposed when the BAI’S annual general meeting takes place here on January 25 during the Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold Tournament. 9.Jimmy Walker of the US won the Sony Open golf tournament held in Hawaii on 12 January 2014. This was his second PGA Tour title. His first PGA Tour title came in October 2013 when he won the Frys Open, the first tournament of the new wraparound season. 10.World and European champion Spain remains No. 1 in an unchanged top 25 in the FIFA world rankings after a month in which only 18 international friendlies were played.Egypt made the biggest move, rising 10 places to No. 31 as older results dropped in value in the four-year cycle of matches used for the calculations. 11.India squandered a two-goal lead to suffer a 2-7 hammering at the hands of world champions Australia and crash out of the Hero Hockey World League Final in New Delhi on Wednesday. thegatecoach
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 00:55:19 +0000
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