CURRENT UPDATE : NATIONAL SPORTS AWARDS 2014

NATIONAL SPORTS AWARDS- 2014 

National Sports Awards have been presented by President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi in a ceremony on Friday. (29-08-2014)

The ceremony followed the long-standing traditions as awardees walked upto to receive their respective honours from the President amid resounding applause from the dignitaries present, including Vice President M Hamid Ansari and Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. 

A notable absentee from the ceremony today was cricketer R Ashwin. The off-spinner could not make it as he is currently on national duty in England in an ongoing ODI series. 

The others who were bestowed the honour were Akhilesh Varma (archery), Tintu Luka (athletics), H N Girisha (paralympics), V Diju (badminton), Geetu Ann Jose (basketball), Jai Bhagwan (boxing), Anirban Lahiri (golf), Mamta Pujari (kabaddi), Saji Thomas (rowing), Heena Sidhu (shooting), Anaka Alankamony (squash), Tom Joseph (volleyball), Renubala Chanu (weightlifting) and Sunil Rana (wrestling). 

Arjuna, Dronacharya and Dhyan Chand awardees received statuettes, citations and cash prize of Rs 5 lakh each. 

Recipients of Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar were given trophies. 

INDEPENDENCE DAY

CURRENT UPDATE : NOBEL PRIZE OF MATHEMATICS

2 INDIAN-ORIGIN ACADEMICIANS WIN MATHS GLOBAL PRIZES

Two Indian-origin academicians have won prestigious global prizes in the field of mathematics with one of them being awarded the Fields Medal known as the "Nobel Prize of mathematics".

Manjul Bhargava won the Fields Medal while Subhash Khot won the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize, awarded by the International MathematicalUnion (IMU), at the International Congress of Mathematicians 2014 held in Seoul.

Bhargava, a professor of mathematics at Princeton University, was among the four winners who have been awarded the Fields Medal, given out every four years.

Iranian-born mathematician and Stanford University professor Maryam Mirzakhani became the first woman to win the Fields Medal this year. 

Bhargava was awarded the Fields Medal for "developing powerful new methods in the geometry of numbers, which he applied to count rings of small rank and tobound the average rank of elliptic curves." 

According to the award citation, Bhargava's work is "based both on a deep understanding of the representations of arithmetic groups and a unique blend ofalgebraic and analytic expertise." Khot was awarded the Nevanlinna Prize for his "prescient definition of the 'Unique Games' problem, and leading the effort to understand its complexity and itspivotal role in the study of efficient approximation of optimisation problems."

His work has led to breakthroughs in algorithmic design and approximation hardness andto new exciting interactions between computational complexity, analysis and geometry.

Khot is a professor in the Computer Science Department at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. He has a PhD from Princeton. 

Born in 1974 in Canada, Bhargava grew up in the US and also spent much time in India.

He received his PhD in 2001 from Princeton University and became aprofessor there in 2003.

CURRENT UPDATE : OUTSTANDING PARLIAMENTARY AWARD FOR 2010,2011,2012

JAITLEY, KARAN SINGH, SHARAD YADAV AWARDED

President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday conferred the Outstanding Parliamentary award to Congress veteran Karan Singh, JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav and Union Minister Arun Jaitley

Presented by the Indian Parliamentary Group, the outstanding Parliament award for the year 2010, 2011, 2012 were given to Jaitley, Singh and Yadav respectively at the Balyogi Auditorium in Parliament Library. 

President said the award recognizes illustrious parliamentarians who have contributed significantly to the strengthen the country's democratic traditions and enrich the Parliamentary system. 

He said that it honours the finest parliamentarians who have upheld the dignity of the House and have set exemplary precedents in Parliamentary conduct. 

Mukherjee said that all three are worthy successors of the illustrious lineage of parliamentarians who have received the award in the past. 

"They have been steadfast in their commitment to our country and its people. All of them have made substantial contributions to our parliamentary life," he said. 

Complimenting the three award winners for their contribution to Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hoped that younger MPs would learn from the examples set by them. 

Vice President Hamid Ansari, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and a host of other MPs were present on the occasion. 

CURRENT UPDATE : LOK SABHA DEPUTY SPEAKER

THAMBIDURAI ELECTED UNOPPOSED AS LS DY SPEAKER

M Thambidurai, leader of AIADMK in Parliament, was unanimously elected as Lok Sabha's Deputy Speaker today, making him the first leader to occupy the post twice

67-year-old AIADMK leader was elected to the post after a motion, moved by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and seconded by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj supporting him, was carried by voice vote amid thumping of desks from all sides.

Thambidurai, who was Deputy Speaker from 1985 to 1989, was the only candidate to file nominations for the post before yesterday's deadline. 11 parties in the ruling and the opposition benches including BJP and Congress supported him.

A five-term member, Thambidurai represents Karur constituency in Tamil Nadu and his party is the second largest party in the opposition after Congress.

While there were 12 other similar motions moved by leaders of Congress, Trinamool Congress, BJD, Shiv Sena, TDP, TRS, AIADMK, LJP and NCP, they became infructuous after the one moved by Rajnath Singh and Swaraj, "that Dr M Thambidurai, a member of this House, be chosen as the Deputy Speaker of this House", was adopted.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi described Thambidurai as a "multi-faceted personality" and thanked all parties, especially those in the Opposition, to have made his unanimous election possible.

Modi said Thambidurai was not only an academician, but an activist and an agriculturist also and his rich parliamentary experience would guide the House on the correct path.

Leader of the Congress Mallikarjun Kharge, whose party has still not been given the post of the Leader of the Opposition, said Thambidurai was "large-hearted" and would help the Opposition to put forth its point of view.

He said he was not blaming Speaker Sumitra Mahajan of partiality but wanted to emphasise that "we have to get along for five long years."

"Abhi manzil bahut door hai. Dil mile ya na mile, kamsey kam haath milake chalna hai (the destination is far off. Even if our hearts do not meet, we have to move forward at least by holding hands)," Kharge said.

AIADMK with 37 MPs is the third largest party in Lok Sabha after BJP and Congress, which have 279 and 44 members respectively.

CURRENT AFFAIRS & GK QUIZ- 163

CURRENT AFFAIRS & GK  QUIZ 

1. India is the largest exporter of shrimps to which among the following countries?

[A]Japan                                              

[B]USA          

[C]Indonesia                                       

[D]China

2. Which among the following is / are two biodiversity hot spots in India?

[A]Eastern Himalaya and Western Ghats

[B]Western Himalaya and Eastern Ghats

[C]Eastern Himalaya and Eastern Ghats

[D]Western Himalaya and Western Ghats

3. “Paco de Lucia” who passed away recently, was a famous Guitarist belongs to which country?

[A]Portugal                             

[B]Germany

[C]Spain                                  

[D]Brazil

4. The union government recently launched Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) to suggest radical changes

in the government social sector initiatives. T he IEO is an independent office chaired by___?

[A]Prime Minister

[B]Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission

[C]Home Minister

[D]Finance Minister

5. Recently, India’s largest solar power plant has been launched in which of the following states?

[A]Rajasthan                           

[B]Gujarat

[C]Madhya Pradesh                

[D]Tamil Nadu

6. The UNAIDS has designated which of the following days as “Zero Discrimination Day”?

[A]February 27                       

[B]February 28

[C]March 1                              

[D]March 2

7. India’s first electric zero-emission bus has been introduced at __ ?

[A]Chennai                             

[B]Bangalore

[C]Delhi                                  

[D]Mumbai

8. Who among the following has won the National Billiards Championship 2014?

[A]Pankaj Advani                   

[B]Sourav Kothari

[C]Alok Kumar                      

[D]Sourav Goshal

9. India’s first post office savings bank ATM facility has been inaugurated in ____?

[A]Chennai                             

[B]Bangalore

[C]Kolkata        

[D]Hyderabad

10. The coal for the Mundra Thermal Power Station is imported primarily from which country?

[A]China                                 

[B]Japan

[C]Indonesia                          

[D]Russia

           ANSWER

1	B	6	C
2	A	7	B
3	C	8	B
4	B	9	A
5	C	10	C

CURRENT UPDATE : RBI- THIRD BI-MONTHLY MONETARY POLICY STATEMENT, 2014-15

THIRD BI-MONTHLY MONETARY POLICY STATEMENT

Monetary and Liquidity Measures

On the basis of an assessment of the current and evolving macroeconomic situation, it has been decided to:

Ä  Keep the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 8.0 per cent;

Ä  Keep the cash reserve ratio (CRR) of scheduled banks unchanged at 4.0 per cent of net demand and time liabilities (NDTL);

Ä  Reduce the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) of scheduled commercial banks by 50 basis points from 22.5 per cent to 22.0 per cent of their NDTL with effect from the fortnight beginning August 9, 2014

Ä  Continue to provide liquidity under overnight repos at 0.25 per cent of bank-wise NDTL and liquidity under 7-day and 14-day term repos of up to 0.75 per cent of NDTL of the banking system.

Ä  Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the LAF will remain unchanged at 7.0 per cent, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 9.0 per cent

CURRENT RATES
POLICY RATES	BANK RATE	9%
	REPO RATE	8%
	REVERSE REPO RATE	7%
	MARGINAL STANDING FACILITY RATE	9%
RESERVE RATIO	CRR	4%
	SLR	22%
LENDING RATE	BASE RATE	10% - 10.25%

The fourth bi-monthly monetary policy statement is scheduled on Tuesday, September 30, 2014.