Current Affair One –Liner (January)

  • Union Government changes the name of 65­ year ­old Planning Commission as “NITI Aayog” or National Institution for Transforming India with some major changes in the structure.
  • Lithuania became the 19th country to adopt the euro as a currency on 1 January 2015.
  • PM Narendra Modi addresses 102nd Indian Science Congress 2015 at University of Mumbai.
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi nominated Columbia University economist Arvind Panagariya as vice­-chairman of the NITI Aayog.
  • The chief executive officer and co­founder of Google Larry Page named as the Businessperson of the Year for 2014 by Fortune magazine.
  • 9th January: Two-days annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas began in Gandhinagar, Gujrat.
  • Maithripala Sirisena takes oath as the new President of Sri Lanka.
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2015 in Gandhinagar in the presence of US Secretary of State John Kerry, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki­ moon and World Bank head Jim Yong Kim.
  • 12 January: India observed National Youth Day to mark the 152nd birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.
  • TATA Group airline Vistara starts domestic services in India.
  • The 19th National Youth Festival started in Guwahati, Assam.
  • Cristiano Ronaldo wins the FIFA Ballon d’Or award for 2014 for the third time.
  • 72nd Golden Globe Awards being held in Beverly Hills, California. Eddie Redmayne has won the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama and Julianne Moore has won the Golden Globe for best actress in a drama.
  • Alur Seelin Kiran Kumar appointed as the Chairman of ISRO.
  • Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah died early and his brother Salman became the new king.
  • The union government removed top missile scientist Avinash Chander as the chief of the Defence Research and Development Organisation or DRDO.
  • Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY) has made its way into the Guinness World Records for opening the highest number of bank accounts in the least time. Under the scheme, 11.5 crore new bank accounts have been under Jan Dhan Yojana in last five months.
  • First indigenously-built Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) handed over by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to the Indian Air Force.
  • 25th January is observed as National Voters’ Day in India.
  • 9 Padma Vibhushan, 20 Padma Bhushan and 75 Padma Shri Awardees given this year on the eve of Republic Day for exceptional and distinguished service. L K Advani, Amitabh Bachchan, Prakash Singh Badal, Dilip Kumar are amongst the list of Padma Vibhushan.
  • 23rd January: 118th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose has been observed across the country.
  • Filmmaker Pahlaj Nihalani has been appointed as the new Censor Board chairperson.
  • Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan has been named as the “Governor of the Year” by a London­based financial journal Central Banking.
  • South African batsman AB de Villiers scores a 31­ball hundred to break the world record for the fastest century in OneDay Internationals in a match against West Indies at the Wanderers, in Johannesburg. He also broke the fastest half century with 16 balls.
  • Paulina Vega of Colombia was crowned Miss Universe 2014.
  • Eminent Cartoonist RK Laxman dies at the age of 94 in Pune.
  • President Pranab Mukherjee presented Ashok Chakra to family members of Major Mukund Varadarajan and Naik Neeraj Kumar, who laid down their lives combating militants in Kashmir.
  • The 35th National Games starts in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
  • Serena Williams of USA beats Maria Sharapova to win sixth Australian Open Women title.
  • Shekhar Sen appointed as the Chairman of Sangeet Natak Akademi.
  • Eminent Sanskrit Scholar Prabhu Nath Dwivedi named as Sahitya Akademi Award 2014. He was Chosen for his work KANAKALOCHANAHA.
  • India’s open water swimmer Bhakti Sharma has set a world record by swimming 1.4 miles in 52 minutes in open degree temperature in Antarctic Ocean.
  • Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara breaks the world record for the most dismissals by a wicket-keeper in One day internationals with 474 dismissals.
  • Barack Obama is first American President to be Chief Guest of India’s Republic Day celebrations 2015.
  • India will host Twenty20 World Cup in 2016.
  • IFS officer S Jaishankar appointed as the new foreign secretary of India.
  • Jammu and Kashmir has been selected for National e-Governance award 2014-2015 for its best district-level initiative in the country.
  • 30 January: National Martyrs Day observed across the Nation in the memory of Mahatma Gandhi.
  • Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has been appointed the new chairman of the 54-nation African Union.