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Appointments :
- Sushil Koirala is set to become Nepal’s next Prime Minister after being elected on 26 Jan as the Parliamentary Party leader of the Nepali Congress, which emerged as the single largest party in the Constituent Assembly elections.
- Hery Rajaonarimampianina : New president of Madagascar
- U.S. President Barack Obama has nominated Vice Admiral Michael Rogers, a Navy cyber-warfare specialist to be the next Director of the National Security Agency
Resignations/Retirements
Obituaries
Awards
- Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, the William Benton Distinguished Service Professor Emerita at the University of Chicago, and Lloyd I. Rudolph, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Chicago, will each receive the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award in India.Three Indian-Americans — Ashok Kumar Mago, Dr Siddharth Mukherjee and Dr. Vamsi Mootha — will receive the Padma Shri awards.
- Grammy Awards : Daft Punk, a French duo who hide their faces under robot-like helmets and have become elder statesmen of electronic dance music, won four prizes, including album of the year for Random Access Memories and record of the year for Get Lucky, their ubiquitous hit with Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers.
Sports
- Stanislas Wawrinka beat an injured Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in Australian Open final which will take the Swiss to third in the world.
International
- After decades of dictatorship and two years of arguments and compromises, Tunisians have a new constitution laying the foundations for a new democracy.An entire chapter of the document, some 28 articles, is dedicated to protecting citizens’ rights, including protection from torture, the right to due process, and freedom of worship. It guarantees equality between men and women before the law and the state commits itself to protecting women’s rights. Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki and outgoing Prime Minister Ali Larayedh signed the document
- Karzai’s government has presented evidence of dubious authenticity in an attempt to substantiate U.S. collateral damage in Afghanistan to avoid signing the bilateral security agreement (BSA) with the United States – an agreement that would grant a legal basis for U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan after 2014.
- Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich has offered the post of Prime Minister to one of the opposition leaders Arseny Yatsenyuk , in apparent effort to head off mounting violent protests against his rule. #ukraine Crisis
- India and Japan signed 8 pacts and was an effort for continuing efforts in the direction of security,political and defense ties.More
- The 13th edition of joint exercise by the Indian Coast Guard and its Japanese counterpart held approximately at 20 nautical miles off Kochi. The bilateral exercise titled ‘Sahayog-Kaijin 2014’ was successfully conducted by both the countries.
- Teenage activist Malala Yousafzai’s bestselling book I am Malala cannot be discuss in her native province as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government stopped the University of Peshawar from holding a programme on it.
- Italian marines case may impact ties with India : EU.Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission met Italian PM Enrico Letta regarding this.The two Italian marines — Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre — are facing trial for murder in India.
- Israel seeks to export cybertech : In the last few years, the number of Israeli cyberdefence companies has ballooned from a few dozen to more than 200, accounting for five to 10 per cent of the global cyber-security industry.International giants IBM and Lockheed Martin announced new cyberresearch projects in Israel, and Deutsche Telekom and EMC have also established research centres in the country.Seeking to learn from that Israeli prowess, Symantec, a leading computer security company, hosted a “hackathon” at the expo.
National
- Unemployment rate in India is showing an increasing trend since 2011 when it was 3.5 per cent. The same rose to 3.6 per cent in 2012 and climbed to 3.7 per cent last year.This year it may rise to 3.8% : ILO
- The Election Commission of India celebrated the 4th National Voters’ Day across the country on 25th Jan. The theme for the 4th NVD is ‘Ethical Voting’.25th January is also the foundation day of the Commission, which came into being on this day in 1950.
- Sarvodaya Karnataka, a political party floated by bringing together organisations of Dalits and farmers, has decided to either merge with or extend support to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Lok Sabha elections.
- Japan's PM Shinzo Abe was the chief guest on the occasion of 65th Republic Day.
- Expert committee to review the institutional framework for Prasar Bharti headed by Sam Pitroda has submitted its report to I & B ministry.Recommensation.
- All India Radio FM Gold launches 'India 360' focussing on India's relations with other countries.
- Nirbheek handguns for women in India.
- Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday announced that the ‘Padithara Khatri' scheme would be launched to ensure proper supply of foodgrains to ration cardholder launched at Gowribidnur town. .Fair price shops should be kept open from the first to the 10th of every month from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Polity
- Karnataka State government issued an order exempting Information Technology (IT) and a range of IT-enabled companies from the Industrial Employment Standing Orders Act, 1946, for a period of five years starting April 1.This move is in consonance with ‘Karnataka i4 Policy’, unveiled in October.The exemption, sought by companies and opposed by labour unions and women’s groups, has been given on the grounds that it is not applicable to knowledge-based industries.
Economics
- China has overtaken India to become the largest contributor of Foreign Direct Investment to Nepal over the first six months of the current fiscal year, underlining the rising Chinese economic presence — and strategic influence — in the country.More
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has yet again reiterated that the currency notes printed prior to 2005 will continue to be legal tender.Its decision to withdraw from circulation all notes printed prior to 2005, the RBI clarified that the objective of the move “is to remove these bank notes from the market because they have fewer security features compared to banknotes printed after 2005.’’
- World Bank Forecast : World economic growth will increase from 2.4 per cent last year to 3.2 per cent in 2014 and would remain at that level for the next two years.For India : Although for 2013, the estimated growth rate will be just 4.8 per cent, the coming years will see a rapid acceleration. By 2016, the Indian economy is expected to grow by 7.1 per cent, a full 2.3 percentage points over the current rate.
- The Reserve Bank of India sprang a big surprise by hiking the policy repo rate by 0.25 percentage points to 8 per cent.
- Urjit Patel committee’s report which has suggested that price stability should be the primary objective of monetary policy and towards that end CPI inflation should be brought below 8 per cent by January 2015 and below 6 per cent by the following year
- “Barring RNT (the 150 cc diesel concept bike), : Diesel concept bike from Hero MotoCorp.
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), increased the indicative
policy rate (repo) by 25 basis points to 8 per cent to tame inflation.
- The government has said that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) will attract uniform tax rate across categories.FPIs bring together all the three investment categories — foreign institutional investors (FIIs), their sub-accounts and qualified foreign investors (QFIs). It will be beneficial to QFI.
- Country’s fiscal deficit touched Rs 5,16,390 crore or 95.2 per cent of the annual target during April-December, the Controller General of Accounts said.The government had fixed the fiscal deficit target- the gap between expenditure and revenue - at Rs 5,42,499 crore or 4.8 per cent of the GDP in Budget 2013-14.
Env & Ecology
- The 2014 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), released here, has ranked 178 countries in total. Among them, India is placed at the 155th position, with an index score of 31.23 points. Its rank is also much lower than BRICS peers.Among the BRICS, South Africa was placed at the 72nd rank with an index score of 53.51, followed by Russia (73rd rank, 53.45 points), Brazil (77th rank, 52.97 points) and China (118th rank, 43 points).The overall list is topped by Switzerland followed by Luxembourg, Australia, Singapore, and Czech Republic.
Science & Tech
- The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-India) detected a “black” private information stealing virus in the Indian online banking transactions space named Dexter, black POS, memory dump and grabber”.
- A genetically-modified plant that produces seeds packed with fish oils is set to be grown in open fields in the U.K. within months, scientists announced . The oils could provide feed for farmed fish, the researchers hope, but they could ultimately be used as a health supplement in human foods such as margarine.
- Google Sells Motorola to Lenovo in China’s Biggest Technology Acquisition
