M Teresa Kho appointed as new ADB India country director
1.M Teresa Kho took over today as the new country director of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) succeeding Hun Kim who moved on to become deputy director general of ADB’s South Asia Department in Manila.
2.Kho, who was previously with ADB’s mission in Bangladesh, joined the organisation as an investment officer.
3.“India is one of the ADB’s most important clients. For ADB, it has been a privilege to partner with the Government of India and support the government’s development agenda. I look forward to working closely with the Government to take this partnership forward,” said Kho.
4.She has spent 12 years in US where she worked with several firms such as General Electric, Sun Microsystems, and Raychem.
5.Between 1986 and 31 December 2013, ADB approved 180 sovereign loans amounting to $29.3 billion on a cumulative basis for India. As of 31 December 2013, 78 loans amounting to around $10.7 billion were ongoing.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Facebook celebrates its 10th birthday
1.Facebook — with more than 1.2 billion users worldwide — is celebrating its 10th birthday amidst challenges of keeping its original base of young users with new innovative social networks coming to the fore.
2.The company was launched by Mark Zuckerberg on February 4, 2004, from Harvard University.
3.The site was conceived as a way to connect students, and let them build an online identity for themselves, ‘Computer World’ reported.
4.According to the company’s own recent figures, the social networking site has since expanded to cover a large swath of the world, with more than 1.2 billion people using its site on a monthly basis.
5.Zuckerberg, who turns 30 in May, reflected on the 10-year milestone at an industry conference in Silicon Valley last week.
6.He said he never envisioned Facebook, which made him one of the wealthiest people in the world, becoming so large or influential at the start.
7.“It didn’t even occur to me that it could be us,” Zuckerberg said.
8.Since then, Facebook’s site and its business, now a public company, have changed dramatically, the report said.
9.The company was slow to react to the important mobile market, however, last week it reported that more than half its ad revenue now comes from mobile devices, the report said.
10.Among the growing challenges is the soaring popularity of smartphone apps that let people share images, videos, thoughts or observations at any moment.
11.Social networking sites such as Pinterest, Twitter and SnapChat have sparked concerns that Facebook which set a social networking trend in motion may be losing its original teen base.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Petroleum Ministry slashes CNG and piped gas prices
1.After increasing the quota of subsidised LPG cylinders from nine to 12 per household, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry on Monday announced slashing of CNG prices by Rs. 15 per Kg (30 per cent) and piped natural gas (PNG) or cooking gas by Rs. 5 (20 per cent) per cubic metre across the country. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government had approached the Supreme Court last week to look into the CNG pricing structure.
2.Addressing a press conference, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Veerappa Moily announced that allocation of domestic gas to CNG and PNG suppliers in cities like Delhi and Ahmedabad, which until now were partially dependent on expensive imported LNG, would now be fully met through domestic gas. Among the other major beneficiary cities would be Noida, Ghaziabad, Surat, Indore, Hyderabad, Agra, Lucknow, Mathura, Barauch, Vadodra, Kanpur, Faridabad, Gurgaon and Meerut to name a few. "All city gas entities in the country will get natural gas at uniform price. Rates of CNG and piped gas will however vary from city to city depending on transportation charges and local sales tax or VAT," Mr. Moily said.
3.Interestingly, the price of CNG was hiked in Delhi by Rs. 4.50 last month to Rs. 50.10 per Kg after retailers such as Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL) were forced to buy a fifth of their requirements in form of expensive LNG from overseas. In fact, following the hike in CNG prices, the auto rickshaw drivers had called for a big showdown this week and the AAP government had approached the Supreme Court for review of the CNG prices.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Virat Kohli fourth in ICC Twenty20 rankings
1.Virat Kohli slipped a rung but was still the best-placed Indian batsman at fourth in the latest ICC Twenty20 rankings issued today.
2.He was followed by Suresh Raina at fifth and Yuvraj Singh at sixth. Both these batsmen gained a position to move up the list.
3.However, no Indian found a place in the top-10 of bowlers’ list, while Yuvraj was steady at third in the all-rounders’ chart.
4.Elsewhere, Australia opener Aaron Finch jumped five places to a career-best third position after the home side beat England by 84 runs in Sydney to sweep the series 3-0.
5.Finch notched up 92 runs in three matches to move up the batting table. He is now on 772 ratings points, 23 behind England’s Alex Hales who has dropped a place to hand the top spot back to New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Karnataka beat Maharashtra to win Ranji Trophy
1.Favourites Karnataka deservedly won their seventh Ranji Trophy title after beating a spirited Maharashtra side by seven wickets on the fifth and concluding day of the final match on Sunday.
2.Chasing a modest victory target of 157 in little over two sessions, Karnataka batsmen reached the destination with ease as they knocked off the runs in 40.5 overs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
India, Germany may sign €1 bn pact for greenfield projects
1.India and Germany could sign an agreement for €1 billion for greenfield projects during the visit of the German President.
2.Addressing a press conference, the German Ambasador says the agreement is being finalised. The President arrives here on February 4 for a state visit.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Philip Seymour Hoffman dead at 46: Hollywood laments Oscar-winning actor
1.Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in his New York apartment yesterday, a law enforcement official said. He was 46.
2.Hoffman has over 60 film credits to his name, including Magnolia, The Master, Boogie Nights, the Big Lebowski, Mission Impossible
3.He won the best actor Oscar for his 2005 portrayal of writer Truman Capote in the film Capote. He made his debut as a film director in 2010 with the New York-set Jack Goes Boating, in which he also starred.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meghalaya’s first Padma Shri awardee dies at 103
1.Meghalaya’s oldest voter and the first Padma Shri awardee from the State, Silverine Swer, passed away at the age of 103 at her residence in the city on Saturday after a brief illness, family sources said.
2.Kong Sil, as she was affectionately called, passed away around 10:40 a.m. at her “step phyrnai” home at Riatsamthiah, a few hundred metres above the Umkhrah River.
3.“She had not been eating well for the past two weeks. She became very weak and on Saturday morning, she passed away peacefully. Doctors declared her dead,” one of her relatives told PTI.
4.A veteran who saw four wars — the two World Wars, the Sino-Indian War and the Bangladesh Liberation War involving India — Kong Sil was born on November 12, 1910, a few years after the 1897 earthquake rocked Shillong.
5.She did her schooling from the Welsh Mission Girls School and then attended Scottish Church College in then Calcutta.
6.She completed her degree in 1932 before serving at different government and non-government organisations in various capacities, besides teaching in different schools in Arunachal Pradesh (the erstwhile North Eastern Frontier Agency).
Posts
Comment Policy : We invite you to comment on our posts, as long as they are respectful, to the point and approving. We do not perform pre-moderation of comments. However, in order to keep this site clean and useful, we reserve the right to remove any comment that is not in accordance with our Comment Policy.