Download January 2014 Important Current Affairs pdf

We have published here important current events of the month January 2014. The current affairs consists of important national and international news, sports news, prize and award winners, news on science and technology. This will be very useful for upcoming IBPS, SSC, PSC, UPSC, LIC, NICL etc. recruitment exams.

Most Important Current Affairs of January 2014

National News

Chief Minister of Delhi, Mr. Arvind Kejriwal has launched anti-corruption helpline number to tackle corruption by string operations on those involved in corrupt practices, within twenty-four hours.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has relaxed gold loan by allowing Non-Banking Finance Companies to lend up to 75 percent of the Loan-To-Value ratio of gold jewellery, up from 60 percent.
RBI has released the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms and given an option to the foreign investors to exit their investment by selling their holdings of enquiry or debt.
RBI has announced to withdraw all pre-2005 currency notes from 1st April. 2014.
The Union Environment Ministry has rejected the Vedanta’s bauxite mining project in Niyamgiri Hills of Odisha, after the village councils of the tribal groups in the concerned region rejected the project.
RBI hikes the indicative policy rate or repo rate by 25 basis points to 8 percent to check inflation.
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh lays the foundation stone of Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojana at village Gorakhpur. The plant will have four unites each of 700 MWs and total cost is Rs. 23502 crore.
India’s first monorail has begun operating covering the stretch of 8.93 km in the 19.17 km Chembur-Wadala-Jacob Corridor in Mumbai.
Sahayog-Kaijin 2014, the joint exercise, has been conducted near Kochi between Indian and Japanese Coast Guards.
India has declared its 4000 km-range, nuke-capable Agni-IV missile ready for induction after it is successfully tested at Wheeler Island, Odisha.
Jain has become the 6th minority community after Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis, as Cabinet accords as minority status to them.
Legendary actress Suchitra Sen, popularly known as the Greata Garbo of Bengali Cinema, has passed away at the age of 82 in a hospital in Kolkata.
Five-day-long Jaipur Literature Festival which is known as the biggest annual literary event in Asia, has begun in the city.
Reliance Power’s 4000 MW ultra-mega power project (UMPP) at Tilaiya in Jharkhand has got the approval of Cabinet Committee on Investment.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye visited to New Delhi and signed nine pacts with India.
India has celebrated 65th Republic Day of the nation. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the chief guest at the parade.
As per the latest annual ranking by the consulting firm Tholons, Bengaluru is treated as the number-1 IT.IteS outsourcing location in the world. Total 6 cities of India are part of the 10 most attractive outsourcing destinations.
Civil Aviation Ministry has given nod to the world’s largest passenger airline Airbus A-380 to fly in India.
The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs has raised annual cap of LPG to 12 cylinders from 9.
Vijay Bahuguna quits as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhnd after he came under scanner because of massive flooding.
The Centre Government has revised Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate for Financial Year 2013-14 to 4.5 percent from the earlier projected 5 percent.
The Group of Ministers (GoM) has approved minor changes to Andhra Pradesh Recoganisation Bill which was rejected by the state Assembly.

International News

Ms. Sheikh Hasina has been sworn in for her second successive term as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
India is ranked well below Pakistan and China, 23rd out of 25 countries in the Nuclear Materials Security Index released by a US-based think tank.
Ariel Sharon, the ex-Prime Minister of Israel, who had been in coma for the last 8 years, has been passed away.
The UK Prime Minister David Cameron has ordered probe into UK’s role in Operating Bluestar in which on the orders of the then Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi, military had stormed Golden Temple to flush out militants.
Indian-born Satya Nadella has taken over as the new CEO of the tech-giant Microsoft.
Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala has been sworn as the Prime Minister of Nepal.
Hery Rajaonarimampianina has been appointed the new President of Madagascar.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned the import of products from Ranbaxy’s plant at Toansa unit in Punjab due to manufacturing violation.
Indian-origin author V.S. Naipaul and Pakistani campaigner Malala Yousafzai have been named among Britain’s 500 most influential people across different field.
US Federal Aviation Administration has graded India in category 2 on safety standards which is going to have an adverse effect on India’s flight operations to America while Pakistan has been graded in Category 1.

Sports Updates

22nd Winter Olympics has been started in Sochi, Russia. There are 98 events in 15 winter sport disciplines. It is the first Olympics in Russia since the breakup of USSR in 1991.
Cristiano Ronaldo has been awarded the 2013 FIFA Ballon d’Or in Zurich.
Abhijeet Gupta has been crowned the champion of the Parsvnath Grandmasters International Chess Tournament held in New Delhi.
Anju Bobby George has been upgraded to Gold status in the 2005 World Athletics Final after disqualification of Tatyana Kotova of Russia on doping charges.
Saina Nehwal won the Syed Modi India Grand Prix Gold Badminton Championship 2014.
Li Na of China won her first Australian Open women’s single title 2014.
Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland won the Australian Open men’s single title 2014 by beating Rafael Nadal of Spain.
Indian cricket captain M.S. Dhoni has become the first Indian wicket keeper and the fourth overall to cross 300-mark with the Ross Taylor’s catch in the ODI against New Zealand.
India regain its No. 1 ranking in ICC ODI after Australia lose their fourth ODI against England by 57 runs.
Kathy Cross of New Zealand has become the first woman to be inducted in ICC umpires’ panel.
India has been defeated in ODI series against New Zealand by 0-4.
Jishna Chinappa of India won her 8th WSA tour squash event.

Prize and Award Winners

Team India’s first ICC World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev has been conferred CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award by the ICC.
Off-spinner of Indian cricket team Ravichandran Ashwin has been bestowed with Polly Umrigar Award for being the best international cricketer last season.
A.J. Paulraj, an NRI won the 2014 Marconi Prize which is considered to be a tech ‘Nobel’ for revolutionising high-speed delivery of multimedia.
Cyrus Mistry won 50000 dollar DSC Prize of South Asian Literature for 2014 for his work ‘Chronicles of a Corpse Bearer’.
Leonardo Di Caprio won the Best Actor award in 71st annual Golden Globe awards 2014.
On the eve of 65th Republic Day, Union Cabinet announced 127 Padma Awards including Padma Vibhushan for 2, Padma Bhushan for 24 and Pdma Shri for 101 people. B.K.S. Iyengar and Dr. R.A. Mashelkar have been conferred with Padma Vibhushan Award.
Three Australians of Indian Origin, Dr. S. Nambiar, R.S. Gupta and Pratish C. Banerjee have been honoured on Australia Day on 26th January for their contribution to the Australian society.
Sachin Tendulkar and C.N.R. Rao have been conferred Bharat Ratna which were announced earlier, by Hon’ble President Pranab Mukherjee.
In the 56th Grammy Awards ceremony, Daft Punk won five prizes including Album of the Year.

Science and Technology

A new study discovered a massive glacier in Greenland which is believed to be the world’s fastest-flowing glacier.
It has been reported that UK scientists have developed the fastest ever real-world Internet Connection, using commercial grade fibre optic lines to clock up speeds of 104 terabits per second.
German Scientists have found that extracts of the South African geranium root may kill HIV-1 and prevent its invasion into human cells.
European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory discovered asteroid Ceres spewing unambiguous detection of water vapour around an object in the asteroid belt.

Download the PDF of January 2014 Current Affairs here.