Sachin & Prof C N R Rao to get Bharat Ratna on February 4
1.President Pranab Mukherjee will confer cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and eminent scientist Prof C N R Rao with Bharat Ratna on February 4 at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
2.A formal ceremony, which is likely to be attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, will be held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The Little Master was given the honour hours after he played his 200th and last Test against the touring West Indies in November last year.
3.Tendulkar is the first sportsman and the youngest recipient of the the Bharat Ratna. Besides Tendulkar, Rao will also be presented with the award.
4.Tendulkar (40) and Rao (89), both of whom are recipients of Padma Vibhushan–the country’s second highest civilian honour, join the list of 41 eminent personalities to get the award given in recognition of exceptional service of the highest order.
5.Prof Rao is a well recognized international authority on solid state and materials chemistry. The 89-year-old has published over 1,400 research papers and 45 books. His contributions have been recognized by most major scientific academies around the world through conferment of memberships and fellowships, and has been honoured with several national and international awards.
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Disapprove of ATM charges: RBI Dty Governor
1.RBI Deputy Governor K C Chakrabarty has said that he disapproves the demand made by banks to charge their customers for using ATM services. Speaking to reporters in Mumbai yesterday, Mr. Chakrabarty said it is a little bit ridiculous that bank will charge customers for using an ATM. He said that instead banks must compare the charges of serving a customer at a branch as against at the ATM. He further informed that RBI does not decide on service charges, and it was up to the banks to decide their charges.
2.After a near-fatal attack on a Corporation Bank employee at an ATM in Bangalore last November, many states have made it mandatory to have round-the-clock security at ATMs, pushing up banks' costs. Banks' umbrella body IBA has requested RBI to cap the number of free transactions to five per month across any ATM network.
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RBI issues guidelines for early detection of bad loans
1.The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday laid out a road map to deal with a surge in bad loans in the Rs.82 trillion banking system.
2.The framework outlines a corrective action plan that will offer incentives for early identification of stressed assets by banks, timely revamp of accounts considered to be unviable, and prompt steps for recovery or sale of assets in the case of loans at the risk of turning bad.
3.RBI has been worried about the pile-up of bad loans in India’s banking system as slower economic growth, which slumped to 5% in the last fiscal year—the least in a decade—high borrowing costs and stalled projects make it difficult for corporate borrowers to repay debt.
4.About Rs.2 trillion in loans is now classified as bad loans and at least Rs.4 trillion is being restructured. Together, this constitutes about 10% of all bank loans. A report released on Thursday by India Ratings and Research Pvt. Ltd, an arm of global credit rating agency Fitch, said stressed assets, including bad loans and restructured loans, are likely to increase to 14% of total loans by March 2015.
5.In an October interview, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan said “the pain of (loan) restructuring has to be borne fairly (between the lender and the borrower)”. Rajan said banks needed to closely monitor these loans, and act—some assets could be recovered by rolling over debt, others by infusing new blood in the management, and still others by simply pumping in more money.
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India became third largest crude oil importer in the World
1.India overtook Japan to become the third largest crude oil importer in the World. As per the data released by Reuters on 30 January 2014, India imported 3.86 million barrels-per-day of crude oil in the year 2013.
2.India's crude oil imports were nearly 6 percent higher than Japan's customs-cleared imports of 3648372 barrels-per-day (211716710 kilolitres).
3.image Recently, China had overtaken USA to become the world’s largest importer of crude oil.
4.World’s Top Five Oil-Importing Countries
1.China: China imports 6.30 million barrels per day
2.U.S.A: USA imports 6.24 million barrels per day
3.India: India imports 3.86 million barrels per day
4.Japan: Japan imports 3.64 million barrels per day
5.Germany: Germany imports 2.67 million barrels per day
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Arun Gupta appointed as CMD of Shipping Corporation of India
1.The government Thursday appointed Arun Kumar Gupta as the chairman and managing director of Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), filling the post which has been vacant for over a year.
2.The SCI said that Arun Gupta, who was the director of offshore services at the city-headquartered shipping line before his elevation, assumed charge as its chairman and managing director from January 28.
3.After graduating from Marine Engineering College, Gupta joined SCI as an engineer in 1976 and sailed onboard SCI's ships till 1988. A screengrab of the Shipping Corporation of India website. A screengrab of the Shipping Corporation of India website. He has been a trustee of Kandla Port and V O Chidambaranar Port Trust, Tuticorin. He is also the chairman of the Institute of Marine Engineers, Mumbai. Gupta has completed 37 years in the shipping sector, leading and managing challenging projects in various divisions of the SCI. Last week, the shipping secretary had told PTI that Gupta was shortlisted for the top job and an announcement would be made in a fortnight. The state-run SCI, which had reported a net loss of Rs 114.31 crore last fiscal, has been without a full time head since S Hajara retired in December 2012, that too after a one-year extension.
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China marked arrival of the Year of the Horse
1.China on 31 January 2014 marked the arrival of its Year of the Horse, which is celebrated across the world by Chinese people. This is the Chinese Lunar New Year is the only traditional day of holiday for the people of China. The Chinese Lunar New Year is also the largest annual mass migration on the earth as hundreds of millions of people of China head back to their home towns to spend the festival with their families.
2.A call for ethnic harmony among the people living in China was issued by Xi Jingping, the President of China on this day to mark the greetings to the people in his Lunar New Year. This day is marked by riotous displays of fireworks, which is thought by people that it scares off the evil spirits and brings good luck in return.
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Team India suffers worst defeat in New Zealand, loses 5th ODI by 87 runs
1.A listless Indian cricket team slumped to its worst ODI series defeat in New Zealand, going down 0-4, after the Black Caps hammered them by 87 runs in the inconsequential fifth and final one-dayer here
2.Going into the match trailing 0-3 in the five-match series, the famed India batting came a cropper once again, bundled out for 216 in 49.4 overs by New Zealand, while chasing 304 at Westpac stadium here.
3.Virat Kohli`s 82 was the only saving grace as the visitors failed to put up a fight against the Kiwi bowlers, led superbly by debutant Matt Henry (4/38). Earlier, Ross Taylor slammed his second successive hundred to power the hosts to an imposing 303 for five.
4.Besides the tie in the third ODI in Auckland, India had suffered defeats in Napier and Hamilton (twice) and today`s defeat continued their disastrous overseas performance as they had lost the ODI series against South Africa before coming here.
5.India had lost 2-5 to New Zealand in a seven-match ODI series in 2002-03. The last time the Indians failed to win even a single match in New Zealand was in 1975-76 and 1980-81, losing 0-2 in both the two-match series.
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Mahendra Singh Dhoni becomes fourth fastest to join 8000-run club
1.Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni added another feather to his illustrious cap as he reached 8,000 ODI runs in the fifth and final ODI against New Zealand in Wellington on Friday (Scorecard). With an unbeaten knock of 79 in the previous ODI at Auckland, Dhoni had reached 7,999 runs and needed just one more to achieve the landmark.
2.Bringing up the milestone in 214 innings, Dhoni joined an exclusive list of batsmen in the world. He is fourth place in the list of fastest to 8,000 ODI runs behind Sourav Ganguly (200 innings), Sachin Tendulkar (210 innings) and Brian Lara (211 innings). In the process, Dhoni has surpassed the likes of Saeed Anwar (218 innings), Desmond Haynes (219 innings), Ricky Ponting (220 innings) and Chris Gayle (221 innings) to name a few.
3.On a tour with very few positives for India so far, Dhoni has had a phenomenal run with the bat in this series, scoring three back-to-back fifties in the second, third and fourth ODIs. At the start of the series, Dhoni had spoken about improving his form with the bat in Tests. The two-match Test series starts in Auckland on February 6.
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Army’s Sikh Light Infantry wins best marching contingent award 
1.Army's Sikh Light Infantry has been awarded the best marching contingent among the three Services at the Republic Day parade this year while the CRPF contingent bagged the honours in the paramilitary and auxiliary forces category.
2."In the Services category, Territorial Army (Sikh LI) has been adjudged the best marching contingent in the Republic Day Parade - 2014. In the category of Para-Military Forces and other auxiliary marching contingents, CRPF contingent has been adjudged the best contingent," a defence ministry release said.
3.Out of the 18 tableaux, including five from union ministries and departments, the West Bengal tableaux, which depicted the famous Purulia Chhau dance, has bagged the top award.
4."Tamil Nadu's tableaux on Pongal festival was adjudged the second best, while the third position has gone to the Assam tableaux based on the contribution of legendary folk singer, composer and writer Bhupen Hazarika to Assam's folk culture," the release said.
5.In the competitive category of performances by school children, the dance presented by Navy Children School, New Delhi has been adjudged the best while a consolation prize was awarded to Govt Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, Hastsal, New Delhi, for their beautiful portrayal of traditional folk dance of Chhattisgarh.
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Samsung beats Nokia to become India's most trusted brand of 2014
1.A survey conducted across 16 cities by Brand Trust Report throws forward startling facts about the 'trust quotient' that consumers place on various brands in India.
2.Samsung mobiles topped the list in the durables section beating market leaders such as Nokia and HTC followed closely by Sony and Tata. Tata is the only Indian brand to be placed in top 5 brands with the highest trust quotient index.
3.The survey which was carried out in major cities involved participants between the ages of 21-50 who were questioned on 61 critical points and a comparitive list was drawn.
4.Last year, the top three brands had been ranked second, third and fifth respectively, as per the Brand Trust Report 2014.
5."The survey was conducted with salaried participants in companies with a minimum of 50,000 crore turn-over. Criteria such as their active online purchases and durables owned were taken into consideration," said N. Chandramouli, CEO, TRA.
6.The Brand Trust Report has been conducted by Trust Research Advisory (TRA) annually, for the last four years to rank top 100 companies on the basis of active advertisement campaigns, consumer feedback and market penetration of brands.
7.Among the top 100 Most Trusted brands, 75 were net gainers while 25 took a fall. Mostly major brands have performed well jumping to top most positions while a couple of them slipped downwards.
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Obama to nominate Navy Vice Admiral Rogers as NSA chief
1.U.S. President Barack Obama will nominate a senior U.S. Navy officer as the Director of the National Security Agency (NSA), the federal body embroiled in a row over its spying programme.
2.Vice Admiral Michael Rogers, 53, would take over at a moment when the spy agency is under unprecedented pressure following leaks from ex-intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.
3.“I am pleased that President Obama has accepted my recommendation to nominate Vice Admiral Michael Rogers as Commander of U.S. Cyber Command. And, I am delighted to designate him also as Director of the National Security Agency,” U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said.
4.Noting that this is a critical time for the NSA, Mr. Hagel said Mr. Rogers would bring extraordinary and unique qualifications to this position as the agency continues its vital mission and implements President Obama’s reforms.
5.After the furore triggered by the Snowden media leaks, Mr. Obama has proposed reforms to rein in the NSA’s spying authority in some areas.
6.Mr. Rogers, a trained cryptologist, would take over from Gen Keith Alexander at the helm of the NSA, and also as head of the U.S. military cyber command.
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Jayawardene becomes sixth-highest scorer in Test cricket with double ton against Bangladesh
1.Veteran Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardene has become the sixth-highest run-scorer in the history of Test cricket with his unbeaten double-century on the third day of the first Test against Bangladesh in Dhaka.
2.Jayawardene's 203 and Kithuruwan Vithanage's maiden century (103) helped Sri Lanka declare their first innings at 6-730 on the third day, which was the highest score by any team against Bangladesh.
3.According to News.com.au, Jayawardene has gone ahead of Allan Border (11,174 runs) and West Indies star Shivnarine Chanderpaul (11,219) to move behind record-holder Sachin Tendulkar, Australia's Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid and Brian Lara on the all-time list.
4.The report mentioned that the former captain, who has 11,236 runs in 142 matches, equalled teammate Kumar Sangakkara's Sri Lankan record of 33 Test centuries, and his and Vithanage's heroics gave Sri Lanka a gigantic 498-run first-innings lead over the hosts.
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