Current Affairs – February 2014

1) World’s oldest flamingo known as Greater died at the age of 83 at Adelaide Zoo of Australia. Greater was brought to the zoo in 1933 and lived long with the Chilean flamingo named Chilly, who is in his 60s. Chilly is the only remaining flamingo in Australia. It is known that the lifespan of the flamingos is of about 25 years in the wild but they can live for many decades in captivity.

2) The 28th Surajkund International crafts Mela began at Surajkund in Faridabad on 1 February 2014. The fortnight long festival of craft will continue till 15 February 2014.The Goa is the theme state for the 28th Surajkund International Crafts Mela 2014.

3) India’s first monorail service was inaugurated by the Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj chavan on 1 February 2014 in Mumbai.The First phase of Mumbai Monorail is comprised of 8.9 km long stretch. Mumbai Mono rail will display itself in three colours green, pink and sky blue. Monorail will have a smart card facility available like Delhi Metro.

4) Rajasthan on 1 February 2014 scrapped its approval for the foreign direct investment in multi-brand retailing. With this decision of scrapping the approval over FDI made Rajasthan the second state after Delhi to withdraw approval for FDI in multi-brand retail. These two decisions of Delhi and Rajasthan came just after the change of government.

5) Former Supreme Court Justice, Ashok Kumar Mathur was appointed as the Chairman of the 7th Pay Commission.

6) United Nation appointed India based Vivek Lall as special advisor on cyber security. Vivek Lall will be responsible for steering the policy framework of the UN in the area of broadband and associated cyber security issues and oversee implementation.  Currently, he is the president and CEO of Reliance New Ventures Limited.

7) Manoj Vaish took charge as the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd. (MCX). His appointment came following step down of Shreekant Javalgekar in October 2013 as the Managing Director and CEO of MCX following the 5600 crore rupees scam related to National Spot Exchange (NSEL). NSEL is a sister concern of MCX.

8)  The World Cancer Day 2014 was observed across the world on 4 February 2014 with its focus on Target 5 of the World Cancer Declaration: Reduce stigma and dispel myths about cancer, under the tagline Debunk the myths.
This day is observed to raise the collective voices for improving the general knowledge around cancer and dismiss the misconceptions about the disease.

9) Harish Rawat was appointed as the 8th Chief Minister of Uttarakhand on 1 February 2014. He succeeded Vijay Bahuguna.

10) Karnataka defeated Maharashtra by seven wickets to win the Ranji Trophy 2014 at Hyderabad.

11) Philip Seymour Hoffman, the Oscar-winning American actor died on 2 February 2014 at his flat in New York at the age of 46. As per the police of the country, the death happened due to overdose of drugs

12) Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honour was conferred on cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar (40) and eminent scientist Prof CNR Rao (79) by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee. The awards were given at the Durban Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi on 4 February 2014.
With this felicitation, Sachin became the first sportsperson to be conferred with the honour of Bharat Ratna. He is also the youngest person alive to be conferred with the award.

13) First Paperless public Library of the World BiblioTech was opened in the USA State of Texas on 4 February 2014. The traditional libraries have been replaced with high-tech gadgets that cater to both adults and children.

14) North Korea and South Korea agreed to resume reunion of war split families after a gap of more than three years.  The reunion will take place on 20-25 February 2014 at Mount Kumgang resort of North Korea. The reunion is perceived as a small step towards making harmonious relations between the two hostile neighbours.

15) Dennis amputee, Aabo in February 2014 became the first person to receive a bionic hand, which allows life-like sensation to be felt from the device’s artificial fingers. The Dennis amputee was able to feel what was available in his hands by the sensors, which has been connected to his nerves of his upper arm.
This work was done by the Italy surgeons, who connected the hand with the nerves in his upper arm. These relayed signals direct to his brain, which allows him to control the force of his grip.

16) Machli, Queen Mother of tiger dynasty was found in the Ranthambhore National Park on 5 February 2014. The tigress was missing from 9 January 2014 from zone 5 of the park. The 17-year-old Machli is the longest living wild-tigress in the world, besides being the most photographed big cat. The tigress was identified as T-16.

17) John Thompson was appointed as the Chairman of Microsoft  by the Board of Directors at a meeting held in Washington, US. He succeeded Bill Gates.

18) Microsoft Founder Bill gates assumed the role of Founder & Technology Advisor to the CEO of Microsoft . With this he stepped down from the post of Chairman of Microsoft.

19) National Green Tribunal (NGT)  issued a ban on the process of burning of tyres at public places like roads and areas surrounded by residential buildings. The order was passed following the actions of burning tyres during the religious and political possessions by groups as it cause health hazard.

20) Kumar Sangakkara, the cricketer of Sri Lankan national team  became the second person in the history of Cricket to score a triple century and a century in the same test match. By performing the rare record, he joined Graham Gooch, the former skipper of England team.

21) Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) on 7 February 2014 announced that it has stopped the production of the iconic car brand Maruti 800 that had been carrier for millions of middle class Indian families.

22) The Scottish Parliament approved the Same Sex Marriage Bill . The Scotland became the 17th country to give the green signal to same sex marriages which was an important step for equal rights.

23) The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee was conferred Award of Honour  in New Delhi. The award was presented by Ron Burton, President of Rotary International at Rashtrapati Bhavan. He was awarded for the leadership he has provided and the India’s victory over Polio. Recently India completed three years without reporting any case of polio

24) R.K.Tiwari was appointed as the new chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

25)  Sikkim became the first State in India to achieve 100 percent sanitation coverage under the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan Scheme. Sikkim achieved 100 per cent sanitation in rural and urban households, schools, sanitary complexes and Aanganwadi centres.

26) N Ramachandran was elected President of Indian Olympic Association (IOA). He will remain in the office till 2016.

27) The South Central Railway (SCR) launched Hyderabad Live Train Enquiry System (HYLITES). It is the first of its kind in India developed by South Central Railway on out-sourcing basis.

28) Yulia Lipnitskaya became the youngest Russian athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics. Yulia, 15-years-old won this medal in Winter Olympics 2014 at Sochi, Russia on 9 February 2014 in free skating in the team figure skating competition.

29) The Parliament of Nepal elected Sushil Koirala as next Prime Minister of Nepal.

30) Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg became the youngest and the most generous philanthropist of America in 2013. He had given almost 1 billion dollar of his fortune to the charity. The charity was made to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

31) World Radio Day was celebrated across the globe on 13 February 2014. This is the third Radio Day being observed by the UNESCO to celebrate radio as a medium. The theme for World Radio Day 2014 is Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Radio. 

32) Assam became the first state to legally ban the consumption of all forms of smokeless tobacco including pan masala containing tobacco and nicotine within the State.

33) Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi resigned. He resigned following his government failure to muster the support over whether the Jan Lokpal Bill should be presented before the House or not.

34) President of India on 17 February 2014 imposed President’s Rule in Delhi after accepting the resignation of Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi.

35) The Telengana bill dividing Andhra Pradesh was passed in the Lok Sabha on 18 February 2014. The Lok Sabha passed the Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Bill 2014 that aims to create the 29th State of  India. So, Telangana is the 29th state of India.

36) Social media giant Facebook Inc acquired WhatsApp for 19 billion dollars in a cash and stock deal on 19 February 2014. Whatsapp is a mobile messaging company.

37) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister (CM), Kiran Kumar Reddy resigned from the post on 19 February 2014. He also quitted from the membership of the State Assembly and the Congress Party as a protest to the decision to bifurcate the Andhra Pradesh State.

38) Chandi Prasad Bhatt, the noted Gandhian environmentalist and social activist won the Gandhi Peace Prize for the year 2013.

39) Whistleblower Protection Bill was passed by Union Legislature on 21 February 2014. The bill aims to provide a regular mechanism to encourage persons to disclose information on corruption or willful misuse of power by public servants and ministers.
The Whistleblower Bill will provide an adequate protection to persons reporting corruption or wilful misuse of discretion which causes demonstrable loss to the government or commission of a criminal offence by a public servant.

40) Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) launched E-Wallet Scheme. The scheme was launched to make payment process fast and to reduce transaction failures due to bank payment related problems.

LIKE our facebook page to receive regular updates about IBPS Recruitment.

Leave a comment if you have any doubts/queries/questions.