Subrahmanyam Jaishankar appointed as new Foreign Secretary

Dr. S. Jaishankar is at present India’s Ambassador to the United states. His name was cleared by Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He will be replacing incumbent Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh whose tenure was curtailed with immediate effect.

US tech giant Apple reports largest quarterly profit in history

Apple reported a net profit of $18bn (£11.8bn). It is the biggest quarterly profit ever made by any public company in World and broke the previous record of Exxon Mobil which had earlier topped by making $15.9 billion profit in 2012. Apple’s revenue had grown to $74.6 billion in 2014 from $57.6 billion in 2013 i.e. reporting 30% increase in profit. This was mainly due to record sales of iPhones by the company.

Chinese Yuan has recently become top five most-used currencies in the world

The yuan ranked fifth, accounting for a record 2.17 percent of global payments in December, up from 1.59 percent in October. The yuan was preceded by the Japanese yen with 2.69 percent, while the U.S. Dollar topped the chart with 44.6 percent, followed by the Euro and the British pound with 28.3 percent and 7.92 percent, respectively, according to Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), an international financial transactions agency.

Dubai overtakes Heathrow to become world’s busiest airport

Dubai International Airport handled 70.5 million international passengers during 2014 to emerge as the world’ busiest international airport. In the process it overtook London’s Heathrow Airport, which handled 68.09 million international passengers in the same year. Dubai has used its location at a geographical crossroads between Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle-east to establish itself as a base for inter-continental transfer flights, with Emirates already the world’s No. 1 carrier by international traffic.

Libby Lane, first female bishop of England consecrated

48-year old Libby Lane became the first ever female bishop in the last 500 years of the male dominated Church of England. She was consecrated in a ceremony held at York Minster cathedral in north England. The English Church had formally adopted legislation during November 2014 to allow women bishops, following decades of argument over women’s ordination.

Australian cricketer Sean Abbott wins Bradman award

Sean Abbott has been named Australia’s young cricketer of the year, two months after bowling the delivery which led to the death of Phillip Hughes.

Steve Smith was another winner at Australia’s annual cricket awards, receiving the Allan Border Medal and being named both Test and one day player of the year.