Banking

30 January: The International Monetary Fund`s historic quota and governance reforms that for the first

time place four emerging market countries among its 10 largest members have become effective. In

addition to India, other nations included in IMF's top ten countries are China, Brazil and Russia.

30 January: The Bank of Japan has said that it will charge lenders that leave too much cash on idle

deposit with it, introducing a negative interest rate policy for the first time. The central bank said it is

imposing a 0.1 percent fee on some new commercial bank deposits with the BOJ, effectively a negative

interest rate. It hopes that it will encourage commercial banks to lend more, rather than keeping cash at

the BOJ, and stimulate investment and growth in the world’s third—largest economy.

29 January: Two Separate Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) were signed between Ministry of

Railways and Governments of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh for “Formation of Joint Venture Companies for

Development of Railway Infrastructure in these States.

29 January: Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed a $80-million loan agreement with the Centre to

help continue improving infrastructure in the two North-Eastern state capital cities of Agartala and

Aizawl.The loan is the third tranche of a $200-million financing facility under the North Eastern Region

Capital cities Development Investment Programme.

29 January: The Expenditure Management Commission headed by former Reserve Bank of India

Governor Bimal Jalan has, in its final report, suggested a slew of measures to streamline government

spending and plug the leakage of subsidies by expanding the scope of the direct benefit transfer

scheme.

28 January: The Government of India, the State of Rajasthan and the DISCOMs of Rajasthan signed

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) under the Scheme UDAY – 'Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana'.

Rajasthan is the third State to sign the MOU under UDAY, the other two States being Jharkhand and

Chhattisgarh

27 January: 16 memorandum of understanding (MoUs) were signed in Chandigarh at the India-France

Business Summit. Besides, three MoUs were signed under the 'Smart city' theme with the state

governments for the cities of Chandigarh, Nagpur and Pondicherry. Nine French companies signed MoUs

with Engineering Projects India (EPI) Ltd

25 January: Thirteen FDI proposals totaling Rs 6,500 crore got clearance from the foreign investment

promotion board (FIPB). Telecom tower firm Viom Networks' Rs 5,900 crore proposal was one of them

23 January: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed banks to sell India Gold Coins (IGC) with Ashok

Chakra manufactured by public sector MMTC Ltd.

23 January: RBI allowed pre-mature withdrawal in gold monetisation scheme. In an effort to make the

Gold Monetisation Scheme more customer-friendly, the RBI said depositors will be able to withdraw

medium-term (5-7 year) and long-term government deposits (12-15 years) pre-maturely after the

minimum lock-in period, though with a penalty.

22 January: India signed Financing Agreement with World Bank for US$ 250 million for Bihar Kosi Basin

Development Project.The Financing Agreement was signed by Mr. Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary,

Department of Economic Affairs on behalf of Government of India and Mr. Onno, Country Director in

India, on behalf of the World Bank.

22 January: The International Cricket Council (ICC) and MRF Tyres announced a four-year deal. Under

this the tyre maker will be the Global Partner of ICC for all world cricket events from 2016-20.

22 January: National Securities Clearing Corporation Limited (NSCCL), has got the highest corporate

credit rating of 'CCR AAA' from Crisil. 'CCR AAA' rating indicates the highest degree of strength with

regard to honouring debt obligations. NSCCL is a wholly owned subsidiary of NSE.

22 January: According to UNCTAD Foreign direct investment flows into India nearly doubled in 2015

while the US emerged as the top host country for FDI last year. Global FDI flows “unexpectedly”

increased significantly by 36 per cent, according to the annual report of the UNCTAD.

21 January: The International Monetary Fund cut its global economic growth forecast for 2016 to 3.4

percent while maintains India's outlook. It has been said that Indian economy will grow at 7.5 percent in

2016 and 2017 while Chinese economy will grow by 6.3 percent this year and at 6 percent next year.

21 January: India and the UK have agreed to strengthen their economic cooperation in infrastructure

and financial services as they vowed to address cross-border tax evasion and avoidance

20 January: World Bank has announced to extend $20 million for reconstructing Visakhapatnam's Indira

Gandhi Zoological Park in Andhra Pradesh.

19 January: India, one of the founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), has

been elected to the board of directors of the China-sponsored AIIB.

19 January: Technology giant IBM has bagged a 7-year deal worth USD 40 million (about Rs. 270.3 crore)

from BTI Payments, a white Label ATM (WLA) operator to transform its IT Infrastructure.

18 January: The Commercial tax department of Bihar has signed a Memorandum of Understanding

(MoU) with Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) for sharing of foreign exchange realization

data.

18 January: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased shareholding in its wholly-owned subsidiary,

the National Housing Bank (NHB), by contributing Rs.1,000 crore towards its paid-up capital.

18 January: Cochin Port Trust and CONCOR have entered into a MoU for the running of weekly

container train service from Irugur ICD, Coimbatore to ICTT Vallarpadam, Cochin Port

16 January: The Government of India signed a loan agreement with World Bank here for the Neeranchal

National Watershed Project. The project to be implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development over

a six-year period (2016-21).The Neeranchal project was approved with a total budget outlay of Rs.2142

crore with the Government share of Rs.1071 crore and the rest 50% by the World Bank

16 January: In a bid to provide operational freedom to banks, the Reserve Bank of India said they are

now free to offer all their products and services through the ATM. After this change ATMs will get

facilities like application of loans, making of drafts, railway ticketing, water and electricity bill payments

16 January: Madhya Pradesh signed four MOUs with Singapore. These would cover urban planning,

capacity building skill training and food processing

16 January: The World Economic Forum, WEF, says climate change and involuntary migration are the

two top concerns for global economies in 2016. Almost 750 economic experts have worked on this

year's Global Risks report. It analyses 29 separate global risks for both impact and likelihood over a ten

year period.

15 January: State Bank of India (SBI) and Export-Import Bank of Korea (K-Exim) concluded a $500-million

(about ₹3,300 crore) line of credit.

15 January: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has given Rs.44 crore for

the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (Kufos)

14 January: The Government signed a loan agreement with Japan International Cooperation Agency

(JICA) for pollution abatement of River Mula-Mutha in Pune under National River Conservation Plan

(NRCP). The Government of Japan has committed to provide a soft loan of 19.064 billion Yen (about Rs.

1000 crore) to Government of India for the project at an interest rate of 0.30% per annum.

12 January: India's biggest e-commerce company Flipkart said on Monday its chief executive and co-

founder Sachin Bansal will step down and be succeeded by its other co-founder, Binny Bansal.

12 January: The ICC and MoneyGram International, a leading global provider of money transfer services,

on Monday announced an eight-year deal which confirms MoneyGram as an event partner for ICC

events from 2016-2023.

11 January: Urjit Patel reappointed as RBI Deputy Governor, who headed a committee that paved the

way for the proposed monetary policy committee, as the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank for a

second three-year term.

11 January: Federal Bank has launched Funds Transfer through Missed Call system, which is simple,

convenient and a faster way to transfer funds round the clock, 24/7 free of cost.

10 January: Indian Parliament passed Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill, 2015 that permits the

filing of cases at the place where a cheque is presented for clearance and not the place of issue in cases

pertaining to cheque bouncing. The bill seeks to overturn a Supreme Court ruling which said cases have

to be initiated where the cheque-issuing bank branch is located.

9 January: The Union Cabinet approved the conversion of MUDRA Ltd, a non- banking financial company

(NBFC), into MUDRA Bank. This bank thus will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of SIDBI.

9 January: The Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan was felicitated with the Central Banker

of the Year Award (Global and Asia Pacific) for 2016. The award was given by the Financial Times Group's

monthly publication The Banker. The Central Banker of the Year 2016 Awards celebrates the officials

that have best managed to stimulate growth and stabilise their country's economy.

9 January: The Rajasthan Government signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Cairn

Enterprise Centre Society, supported by oil and gas exploration company Cairn India. The MoU aims at

providing clean drinking water in Barmer district.

8 January: The World Bank cut its global economic growth forecast for 2016 in its half-yearly Global

Economic Prospects report. According to the World Bank, global growth should accelerate to 2.9% in

2016 from 2.4% in 2015, but that still represents a downgrade from its June forecast for 3.3% growth.

World Bank also projected that the Indian economy will grow at 7.8% in 2016-17 and China's GDP

growth rate will be 6.7%.

8 January: The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the “Stand Up

India Scheme” to promote entrepreneurship among SC/ST and Women entrepreneurs. The Scheme is

intended to facilitate at least two such projects per bank branch, on an average one for each category of

entrepreneur. It provides for a refinance window through Small Industries Development Bank of India

(SIDBI) with an initial amount of Rs. 10,000 crore.

7 January: Mineral-rich but energy-deficient state of Jharkhand became the first state to sign a MoU

with the Union Government for the ambitious Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme. UDAY is

the financial turnaround and revival package for electricity distribution companies of India initiated by

the Union Govt. with the intent to find a permanent solution to the financial mess that the power

distribution is in.

6 January: Reserve Bank of India has imposed a penalty of Rs. 1 crore on an SBI associate bank, State

Bank of Travancore, for violation of some of its instructions. The monetary penalty has been imposed for

violation of RBI's instructions including reporting of data to Central Repository of Information on Large

Credits (CRILC). RBI set up CRILC to collect, store, and disseminate data on all borrowers’ credit

exposures.

5 January: State-owned Punjab National Bank has launched host of digital banking solutions including

green PIN and enhancement of its mobile app. The bank launched mobile apps enabling the customer to

locate PNB ATM with PNB ATM Assist. The Android app facilitates the customer to use GPS and reach

the nearest PNB ATM. Green PIN facility was also launched under which customer can obtain duplicate

PIN for debit card instantly through SMS request.

4 January: Tata Group announced signing up an alliance with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China

Ltd (ICBC) to provide it with a host of banking services. Under the alliance, ICBC will provide the Tata

group with financing products, global cash management, consulting, international trade finance

business, investment banking, foreign exchange, derivatives trading, and other global financial services.

The services will be provided to Tata Group in locations including India, China, the United States and

Europe.

4 January: The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved signing and

ratification of Protocol between India and Japan for amending the Double Taxation Avoidance

Convention (DTAC) in order to facilitate tax-related exchange of information. DTAC was signed between

the two countries in 1989 for avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion through a

protocol.

2 January: The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the signing of

a Protocol amending the Convention between India and Slovenia for the Avoidance of Double Taxation

and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income.

2 January: The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the signing

and ratification of an Agreement for the exchange of information between India and Maldives with

respect to taxes. The Agreement will stimulate effective exchange of information between the two

countries which will help curb tax evasion and tax avoidance.

National

30 January: President Pranab Mukherjee's Second Memoir 'The Turbulent Years: 1980-1996' released By

Vice President Hamid Ansari.

30 January: Dr Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (I/C) for Culture and Tourism released a

Commemorative Coin of Rs 150 and a Circulation Coin of Rs 10 on Late Lala Lajpat Rai.

30 January: Railway Ministry introduces new checks on booking of e-ticket/i-ticket through IRCTC

website with a view to further prevent possible misuse. Under the new provisions a maximum of 6

tickets can be booked online by an individual user in a month on IRCTC website.

29 January: Social Justice and Empowerment, Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot launched an exclusive job

portal for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs). The PwDs can avail the different facilities such as self

employment loan, education loan, skill training, link to scholarships and information about jobs in a

single window platform through this National Job Portal.

29 January: The list of 20 smart cities out of the 98 shortlisted for the 'Smart Cities Mission' has been

released to receive funds. The next two years will see the inclusion of 40 and 38 cities, respectively.

Among them 24 are capital cities, another 24 are business and industrial centres, 18 are culture and

tourism influenced areas, five are port cities and three are education and health care hubs.

28 January: Madhya Pradesh government launched special weekly free clinics for women. Facilities like

free check up, treatment, tests and medicines will be available.

27 January: Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Petroleum and

Natural Gas in Mumbai launched online payment facility of cylinder at the time of booking.

25 January: The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) in line with Prime

Minister’s vision to make India the skill capital of the world, signed a Memorandum of Understanding

(MoU) with Department of Telecommunication (DoT) to develop and implement National Action Plan for

Skill Development in Telecom Sector.

25 January: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar hoisted the largest flag of the country atop the tallest

pole at Pahari Mandir in Ranchi. The flag is 66 feet in height, 99 feet in width and hoisted on a 293 feet-

tall pole.

25 January: The first test run of Rs.5,180 crore Kochi Metro rail project was flagged off by Kerala Chief

Minister Oommen Chandy in the presence of 'Metro Man' E. Sreedharan at the Muttom railway yard.

25 January: Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Minister of Railways, inaugurated the Wi-Fi service as a part

of an ambitious project towards Digital India initiative by Indian Railways with the help of RailTel

Corporation in collaboration with Google. After the inauguration of Wi-Fi service, Mumbai Central

station has gained the distinguished status of being the first ever station in India to have high – speed

internet facility.

23 January: Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the 'Mahamana Express' in his parliamentary

constituency Varanasi.

23 January: ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-owned explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp

(ONGC), has entered into an agreement with Republic of Equatorial Guinea for cooperation in upstream

hydrocarbon sector in the African nation.

21 January: Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr Harsh Vardhan,

inaugurated the first Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG) of the North East christened as Shillong

Geophysical Research Centre of the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG).

21 January: The Union Cabinet approved the ‘National Tariff Policy for Electricity’ aimed at tightening

regulations for setting power rates and promotion of clean energy. Cabinet also approved the

expenditure of Rs 5,050 crore Solar projects.

21 January: The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh inaugurated the International Conference on

“Cooperative Federalism: National Perspectives and International Experience” in New Delhi.

21 January: Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the autobiography of Essel Group Chairman Dr

Subhash Chandra.The autobiography titled 'The Z Factor: My Journey as the Wrong Man at the Right

Time' has been written along with Pranjal Sharma.

20 January: Reliance Infrastructure Ltd (RInfra) said that it has taken over the management and control

of Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Co Ltd (PDOC) with Anil Ambani as its Chairman. RInfra

takes over the management and control of PDOC and to hold 36.5 percent of the equity capital of

Pipavav Defence & Offshore Engineering Co Ltd.

20 January: The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the Sikkim Organic Festival 2016, and

addressed the Plenary Session of the National Conference on Sustainable Agriculture and Farmers

Welfare, at Gangtok in Sikkim.

20 January: The Ministry of Shipping has started ‘Project Green Ports’ which will help in making the

Major Ports across India cleaner and greener. ‘Project Green Ports’ will have two verticals - one is ‘Green

Ports Initiatives’ related to environmental issues and second is ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan’

19 January: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj inaugurated the India-Palestine Digital Learning and

Innovation Centre at the campus of the Al Quds University in Ramallah.

18 January: Dr. Mahesh Sharma, the Minister of State for Ministry of Tourism & Culture (Independent

Charge) and Ministry of Civil Aviation inaugurated an exhibition entitled “Shoonya Ghar” by a well

known contemporary artist Shri Sudarshan Shetty at National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) under

Ministry of Culture.

16 January: Minister of health and family welfare J P Nadda launched four mobile health services-

Kilkari, Mobile Academy, M-Cessation and TB Missed Call in New Delhi.

15 January: The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval

for India becoming a member country of the International Energy Agency - Ocean Energy Systems (IEA-

OES) by signing the Implementing Agreement (IA). The nodal agency for the membership would be Earth

System Science Organisation - National Institute of Ocean Technology (ESSO-NIOT) under the Ministry of

Earth Sciences.

15 January: Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated Mumbai Port Trust’s second liquid

chemical berth at Pir Pau, Mumbai. With commissioning of this berth, the cargo handling capacity of the

Port will increase by 2.5 MMT (Million Metric Tonnes) per annum

15 January: Sikkim has become India's first fully organic state by converting around 75,000 hectares of

agricultural land into sustainable cultivation.

14 January: Faced with two consecutive drought years, the Centre cleared a crop insurance scheme

under which farmers’ premium has been kept at a maximum of 2 per cent for foodgrains and oilseeds

and up to 5 per cent for horticulture/cotton crops.The much awaited scheme is known as— Pradhan

Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.

14 January: Kerala has become the first Indian state to achieve 100 percent primary education. The

Vice-President, Mohammad Hamid Ansari has officially declared the 100 per cent primary education

status achieved by Kerala.

14 January: The book titled Jawaharlal Nehru and The Indian Polity in Perspective was released by the

Vice President of India Hamid Ansari at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.

13 January: Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu inaugurated Implementation of E-

enabled Track Management System (TMS) & Mobile Application of TMS on Indian Railway and Track

Inventory Management System on Northern Railway.

13 January: The Nati folk dance of Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh was listed in the Guinness Book of

World Records as the largest folk dance in the world.Nati entered in the book as the largest folk dance in

terms of participants’ number. Total 9892 women participated in this folk dance in their traditional

colourful Kulluvi on 26 October 2015 during International Dussehra festival.

13 January: The Vice President of India, Shri M. Hamid Ansari inaugurated KR Narayanan National

Institute of Visual Sciences & Arts at Kottayam, Kerala.

13 January: Telangana became the first State in India to introduce compulsory gender education at the

graduate level.In this regard, the state introduced a bilingual textbook titled, Towards a World of

Equals.The book was introduced on a pilot basis in engineering colleges affiliated to the Jawaharlal

Nehru Technological University (JNTU-Hyderabad).

11 January: The Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG) has launched an Online Initiative to

engage the LPG Consumers and Citizens of India in providing efficient and citizen friendly services in LPG

distribution. Following two online discussion forums have been launched and are available on myGov.in

and mylpg.in for a) Citizen-Friendly Services; and b) Increasing LPG Coverage in the Country.

11 January: Railways to act tough against passengers declaring wrong age from February 1."Any

passenger found travelling in the train on the berths booked under Senior Citizen Quota by declaration

of wrong age should be treated as travelling without ticket and charged accordingly," the new rule said.

11 January: Taking exception to the Supreme Court order of May 2014, where the top court banned the

use of bulls as performing animals, the central government has decided to allow Jallikattu, though with

safeguards.

8 January: In a bid to curb vehicular pollution in the country, the Union Govt. decided to implement

stricter emission norms of Bharat Stage (BS) VI and skip the BS-V norms altogether. BS VI will be

implemented from 1 April 2020. This decision was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting chaired by Road

Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.

8 January: Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the River

Information System (RIS) at a function in New Delhi. The first of its kind in India, the new system will

facilitate safe and accurate navigation on National Waterway – 1 on the Ganges River.

7 January: Tata Trusts and global food major Mars, Incorporated, signed an agreement to work for

advanced agriculture development in India. Its aim is to address malnutrition and improve food safety in

India.

7 January: As a major initiative towards fast track implementation of Namami Gange Programme the

first company of Ganga Task force Battalion was deployed at Garhmukteshwar, Hapur, Uttar Pradesh.

Union Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Uma Bharti said the

Jawans of the Ganga Task force will be deployed on the banks of the river Ganga to ensure that industry

and civilians do not pollute the river. The minister also launched Ganga Gram Yojana at Village Puth in

Hapur district of U.P. 1600 villages situated along the banks of river Ganga will be developed under this

scheme.

7 January: Two Indian cities, Delhi and Mumbai, made it to the top-30 list of the World’s most powerful,

productive and connected cities prepared by international real estate consultancy JLL (headquartered in

Illinois, United States). The list is topped by Japan's capital Tokyo, which along with New York, London

and Paris, make the top four ‘super cities’. India’s financial capital Mumbai has been ranked 22nd while

the national capital Delhi is placed at 24th place in this list.

6 January: The committee headed by former Chief Justice of India, R.M. Lodha, submitted its report on

the various aspects of reforms in the BCCI to the Supreme Court. Some important recommendations of

Lodha Committee are-- legalization of betting in the country for all except cricket players, officials and

administrators, separate governing bodies for the IPL and BCCI and no BCCI office-bearer can be

Minister or government servant, etc.

5 January: India's first urban yacht marina project, along with a residential area, will come up in Howrah

on the banks of the Hooghly river. The project will cost around Rs. 250 crore. There will be berthing

capability of upto 50 yachts. ‘Marina Grand’ is being constructed very close to the main city center of

Kolkata.

5 January: The foundation stone for the new helicopter unit of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was

laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Tumakuru (Karanataka), where the government is investing

over Rs. 5,000 crore for this new helicopter factory spread across 600 acres of land. This will be the first

factory in India to indigenously assemble helicopters through its own innovations and technology.

4 January: Bihar has emerged as the fastest growing state in terms of Gross State Domestic Product

(GSDP), clocking a growth rate of 17.06 per cent in FY 2014-15, while Maharashtra grew by 11.69 per

cent to become the biggest state with Rs. 16.87 trillion economy. Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh come in

the second place, but far behind Maharashtra, with a GSDP of Rs 9.67 trillion each, according to the

report by Brickwork Ratings.

International

29 January: India has overtaken Thailand as the world's largest rice exporter in 2015, shipping 10.23 million

tonnes.

28 January: India and Russia signed an agreement for cooperation on a coordinated grant competition for

conducting basic and exploratory scientific research.

28 January: India and Armenia signed a Protocol amending the India-Armenia Double Taxation Avoidance

Convention.The Protocol was signed by Shri Arun Kumar Jain, Chairman,CBDT, on behalf of Government of India

and by Mr Armen Martirosyan, the Ambassador of Armenia to India, on behalf of the Government of Armenia.

27 January: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will be the next President of Portugal. Law professor and TV pundit Marcelo

Rebelo has won the Portuguese presidency with 52 percent of the vote.

23 January: India was ranked 22nd on an inaugural list of the world's best countries, which was released on the

sidelines of WEF Annual Meeting. Germany is ranked first in this list.

22 January: Department of Space / Indian Space Research Organization (DOS/ISRO) and Kuwait Institute of

Scientific Research (KISR) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the exploration and

use of outer space for peaceful purposes.

22 January: Government of Mauritius has exclusively offered to India for transfer of biofarming technology and

also exchange of cooperation in the health sector.

21 January: Pakistan conducted a successful flight test of the indigenously developed nuclear capable cruise

missile Ra’ad with a range of 350 kms.

21 January: Eko, a mobile-based Financial technology company, announced the launch of Indo-Nepal remittance

services in partnership with Nepal's Prabhu Money Group.

21 January: According to the annual global CEO survey of PwC released at the WEF Annual Meeting, the top five

markets considered as most important for overall growth prospects by the respondents are USA, China, Germany,

the UK and India.

19 January: Opposition candidate of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Tsai Ing-wen has won a landslide victory

in Taiwan's presidential election, making her the island's first female president.

19 January: For the first time, China has launched an online system to check the “authenticity” of top Tibetan

Buddhist monks, amid growing incidents of fraud involving religious leaders. The first list of 870 verified Tibetan

monks, also known as ‘Living Buddhas’, was published on the official website of the State Administration for

Religious Affairs.

18 January: US President Barack Obama would present the prestigious National Medal of Science to an Indian-

American scientist for his outstanding contribution to science. Jain, an IIT-Kanpur alumnus, is professor of tumor

biology at Massachusetts General Hospital in the Harvard Medical School.

18 January: China will send a new lunar mission in 2018 to the dark side of the moon which is not yet explored by

humans. The Chang’e-4 probe will be the first mission in human history to embark on this expedition.

14 January: The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has given its ex-post facto

approval for the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Maldives in the field of Health.

13 January: China announced that it began testing the country’s first Tibet language search engine named 'Cloud

Tibet'.

12 January: Nepal was elected a member of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) executive board representing the

Group of Asia-Pacific States for 2016-18.

10 January: India will host the next multilateral meeting on Afghanistan, the 'Heart of Asia' conference, in the last

quarter of 2016. This year Heart of Asia conference is organised in Islamabad, Pakistan. The aim of this conference

is to coordinate the efforts of the countries in the region to support Afghanistan in achieving peace and stability.

10 January: India ranks fourth in black money outflows with a whopping USD 51 billion siphoned out of the

country per annum between 2004-2013, according to the annual report released by Global Financial Integrity (GFI),

a Washington-based research and advisory organisation. China tops the list with USD 139 billion average outflow

of illicit finances per annum, followed by Russia (USD 104 billion per annum) and Mexico (USD 52.8 billion per

annum).

10 January: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar visited the US Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii, in order

to deepen military ties between the two strategic partners. Hence, he became the first-ever Indian Defence

Minister to visit the key center.

9 January: India and France started their eight-day counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency joint exercise Shakti-

2016 in Rajasthan. This is the third edition in the series of bilateral exercises under this banner and is being held in

Mahajan Field Firing Ranges in Rajasthan's Bikaner. It is an important step for the armies to train together and gain

from each other's rich operational experience.

8 January: North Korea government claimed that it has successfully conducted a hydrogen bomb test. This

announcement raised the anxiety among leading countries. This is because a hydrogen bomb is generally more

powerful than a nuclear bomb. If this North Korean claim stands true, it will be a breach of the U.N.

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

7 January: Pakistan and Sri Lanka have signed eight MoUs during Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's visit to Sri

Lanka. Both the countries signed agreements on various sectors like defence, education, security, anti-terrorism,

trade and science and technology.

7 January: The government of Pakistan has declared its capital Islamabad as sister city of Minsk, the capital and

largest city of Belarus. New avenues of cooperation in diverse fields including municipal cooperation and youth

development cooperation will be opened between both the capitals.

6 January: The world's leading Novo Nordisk, headquartered in Denmark, which works towards the treatment of

diabetes announced Indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar as brand ambassador for the disease awareness campaign

'Changing Diabetes' initiated by it in India. In India 69.2 million people have diabetes and by 2035, it is estimated

that 123.5 million people will have diabetes.

4 January: Four European countries - Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland - announced a new $500 million

initiative that will find new ways to create incentives aimed at large scale cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in

developing countries to combat climate change. The World Bank Group worked with the countries to develop the

'Transformative Carbon Asset Facility' initiative.

Appointment

30 January: Country’s largest power generation company NTPC has appointed Gurdeep Singh as its

chairman and managing director. At present Gurdeep is the managing director of Gujarat State

Electricity Corporation Limited (GSEC).

30 January: J.S. Deepak has been appointed the secretary of the Department of Telecommunications.

Deepak is currently the secretary of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology.

29 January: The Supreme Court of India appointed Justice Sanjay Mishra as Lokayukta of Uttar Pradesh.

Justice Sanjay Mishra is the former judge of Allahabad High Court.

27 January: Alice Vaidyan has been appointed as the chairman and managing director of the General

Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re). She is the first woman to be appointed in such post not only in

the GIC Re, but the first in the Indian insurance sector. The GIC Re is the 14th largest reinsurer globally

and is the only reinsurance company in India.

25 January: Noted environmentalist Ravi Chellam took charge as the Executive Director of Greenpeace

India, a Non-Government Organisation (NGO).Prior to joining Greenpeace, he has worked with the

Wildlife Institute of India and United Nations Development Programme.

23 January: Senior revenue service officer Atulesh Jindal was appointed Chairman of Central Board of

Direct Taxes (CBDT). He will succeed A K Jain.

23 January: Moldovan parliament appointed Pavel Filip as the Prime Minister. He would be the third

prime minister of Moldova in less than a year.

21 January: The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) announced that Amina J.

Mohammed, environment minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, will serve as WSSCC's new chair.

20 January: Guenter Butschek was appointed as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Tata

Motors Group.

16 January: The Gujarat Government appointed Jagruti Pandya as the Chairperson for Gujarat State

Commission for Protection of Child Rights. She has been appointed for a term of three years.

16 January: Guatemalan former TV comedian Jimmy Morales sworn in as the country's new president.

13 January: Additional Secretary in the Steel Ministry Bharathi S Sihag has been given the additional

charge of Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of state-rum iron ore miner NMDC, with effect from

January 1, 2016. Sihag holds the charge of Financial Adviser in the ministry.

11 January: Country's third largest software services firm Wipro has appointed Bhanumurthy BM as

President and COO. The company has also formed a new unit, Marketing, Innovations and Technology

(MIT), which will be headed by Wipro's Global Infrastructure Services (GIS) Head G K Prasanna.

11 January: Senior IAS officer Sailesh was today appointed as Registrar General and Census

Commissioner. Sailesh, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalayacadre, is presently Additional

Secretary in Home Ministry. He has been appointed in place of C Chandramouli, who completed his

tenure today.

10 January: Democratic Unity Roundtable won the National Assembly elections with a comfortable

majority in Venezuela. This overturned the nearly two decades of dominance of the ruling Socialists. The

opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable won 112 of the total 167 seats in Venezuelan National

Assembly, while President Nicolás Maduro’s ruling PSUV got just 55 seats.

9 January: Amitabh Kant, secretary in the department of industrial policy and promotion, has been

appointed as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the NITI Aayog. He will take over the job after his

retirement from service in February end. Kant has been appointed in place of former IAS officer

Sindhushree Khullar, who was appointed as the first CEO of the Niti Aayog.

9 January: Devender Kumar Sikri, Gujarat's former IAS officer, has been appointed as Chairman of fair-

trade regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI). He succeeds Ashok Chawla. Sikri will have a

tenure of about two and half years, i.e. till he attains the age of 65 years.

9 January: Pavan Kapoor has been appointed as India’s new ambassador to Israel. He is a 1990 batch

Indian Foreign Service officer. At present Pavan Kapoor is working as the high commissioner in East

Africa's Maputo.

9 January: Dr. Achyuta Samanta has been elected as the General President of the 105th Indian Science

Congress Association (ISCA) that is scheduled for 2017-18. Samanta is also currently serving as member

of Executive Council of Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA).

8 January: FreeCharge co-founder and CEO Kunal Shah was appointed as the Chairman of Internet and

Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), a non-profit industry organisation. Shah succeeds Nishant Rao.

7 January: Mary Barra has been appointed as Chairman of General Motors (GM), a US automobile

manufacturer, with immediate effect. Mary Barra Barra succeeds Theodore Solso. Earlier, Barra was

serving as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GM since January 2014.

7 January: Professional networking platform LinkedIn appointed Akshay Kothari as Country Manager for

India, with immediate effect. India has one of the largest userbase for LinkedIn, which has more than

400 million members globally. Kothari replaces Nishant Rao, who quit the company in October last year.

6 January: Filippo Grandi of Italy took over as Chief of the office of UN High Commissioner for Refugees

(UNHCR), succeeding António Guterres whose more than 10 years in office ended last week

6 January: India's third largest IT company Wipro has appointed former TCS executive and current Wipro

COO Abidali Neemuchwala as the new CEO and member of the board of the company. Current CEO of

Wipro T.K. Kurien has been appointed as the executive vice chairman of the company. Both these

appointments will be effective from 1st February 2016.

5 January: Former defence secretary R.K. Mathur sworn in as the eighth Chief Information

Commissioner (CIC) by President Pranab Mukherjee at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi. As

the CIC, Mathur will have tenure of about three years, till he attains the age of 65 years.

5 January: Atul Sobti assumed charge as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of state-owned power

equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL).

4 January: Senior Janata Dal (United) leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary was unanimously elected new

Speaker of the 16th Bihar Legislative Assembly.

4 January: Senior public health specialist Henk Bekedam has taken charge as the World Health

Organisation (WHO) representative to India. Henk Bekedam is a Dutch national and a medical doctor by

training.

2 January: Sweden's Bjorn Isberg was appointed as the Tournament Director of 4th edition of the Coal

India Hockey India League (HIL), the premier league for hockey in India. Coal India HIL is scheduled to be

held across six venues across the country from 10 January 2016 to 21 February 2016.

2 January: Jetha Bharwad, senior BJP MLA and Chairman of Panchmahal Dairy was unanimously elected

as the first Vice-Chairman of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) that sells its dairy

products under brand name Amul.

8 January: Hashim Amla has resigned as the captain of South African cricket test team after the Proteas

drew the second Test of the 4-match series against England at Cape Town. AB de Villiers will take over as

Captain for the remaining two Tests.

Award

30 January: Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra was awarded the Diploma of Honour and President's

Button by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) as an acknowledgment to his contribution

to the sport.

30 January: Devendra Fadnavis and Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Rajyavardhan

Rathore honored the veteran wildlife film maker Shri Naresh Bedi with the V Shantaram Life Time

Achievement Award at the 14th edition of Mumbai International Festival.

29 January: The Amnesty International Human Rights Award 2016 has gone to Indian activist Henri

Tiphagne. Human rights defender, Henri Tiphagne will be awarded the 8th Human Rights Award by

Amnesty International Germany.

29 January: A book "Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition" on the partition of India in

1947 and its fatal consequences by Nisid Hajari has won a $5,000 'William E. Colby Award 2016' in US.

28 January: Veteran actress Rekha was honored with the Yash Chopra Memorial Award. She was

honored with the Third Yash Chopra Memorial Award by the Governor of Maharashtra C Vidyasagar Rao

for her contribution to the film industry.

28 January: A Kerala dentist Sajeev Koshy settled in Melbourne was honored with the highest civilian

honour, the Order of Australia. Koshy was given the award for his service to dentistry in Victoria,

Australia.

28 January: India has regained No. 1 Test ranking. India returned the Test summit of the International

Cricket Council (ICC) rankings for the first time since August 2011. Australia is on the second spot.

27 January: The winners of the Padma awards for the year 2016 have been announced by the

government. This year 118 personalities are elected for the Padma Awards. Anupam Kher, Rajinikanth,

Sania Mirza, Priyanka Chopra are included in the Padma awards list.

27 January: Indian-origin imam Muhammad Shahid Raza has been conferred an honorary doctorate by

the University of Leicester in recognition of his work for his local community.

27 January: The Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling receive the PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service

Award. Ms. Rowling will receive her award May 16 at the group’s annual spring gala. Previous winners

include Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie and Tim Stoppard.

25 January: Star Sports Pro Kabaddi signed Telugu star Rana Daggubati as their brand ambassador for

the third season.

25 January: Indian- Origin Rahul Thakkar has bagged the Oscar Award in Technical category. Rahul has

been given award for his contribution in cinema through ‘groundbreaking design’. He shares the award

with Richard Chuang in the category of ‘groundbreaking design’.

23 January: World's biggest travel site TripAdvisor announced the winners of Travellers' choice awards

in which Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur has been declared world's best hotel. This is the first time

that any Indian hotel has reached the top spot.

22 January: Eminent Classical Dancer and Padma Bhushan awardee Mrinalini Sarabhai passed away at

Ahmedabad. She was 97.

22 January: Music maestro Ilaiyaraja was presented the prestigious ‘Nishagandhi Puraskaram’ by Kerala

government in recognition of his valuable contribution to Indian film music.

22 January: Uttar Pradesh won Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for the first time. Uttar Pradesh won title by

defeating two- time champions Baroda.

20 January: Actor Michael Keaton received one of France’s highest honours, becoming Officer of the

Order of Arts and Letters. The 64-year-old actor was presented with the medal by culture minister Fleur

Pellerin.

19 January: Indian author Anuradha Roy won the prestigious DSC Prize for South Asian Literature for her

novel Sleeping on Jupiter at the Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka.

19 January: Twenty five children, including three girls and 22 boys, have been selected for the National

Bravery Awards for 2015.The children will receive their awards from the Prime Minister on 24th January.

18 January: An independent Delhi-based writer Ankita Anand on 14 January 2016 won the European

Commission's prestigious Lorenzo Natali Media Prize for 2015 in Asia and the Pacific amateur category.

16 January: Indian fashion designer Suket Dhir was named the winner of the 2015-2016 International

Woolmark Prize. Delhi resident Suket Dhir has become the second Indian to win the award in past four

years.

15 January: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was awarded with the Lee Kuan Yew

Exchange Fellowship in Singapore for providing dedicated leadership for development.Chouhan is the

fourth Indian to be awarded with the prestigious fellowship.

15 January: Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena has won the 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize for work

that “epitomises the revival of a more socially engaged architect”. Tom Pritzker, chairman and president

of the Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the prize, announced the award. Mr. Aravena, 48, is the first

Pritzker laureate from Chile, and the fourth from Latin America

15 January: State Bank of India has become the first public sector lender to launch wealth management

service, a space dominated by private and foreign players, to cater to fast-growing affluent segment of

the country. The bank also inaugurated a dedicated branch for start-ups which will provide advisory

services to the budding entrepreneurs.

15 January: David Beckham was presented with the Danny Kaye Humanitarian Leadership Award by

UNICEF.

14 January: Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan was given lifetime membership by Mohammedan

Sporting Club.Bachchan was felicitated during the 125th anniversary celebration of the club.

14 January: The Neerja Bhanot Pan Am Trust conferred the Neerja Bhanot award on Subhashini Vasanth

of Bengaluru in Chandigarh.The award will be presented by Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor.

13 January: Barcelona forward Lionel Messi has won the Ballon d'Or award for the world's best player

for the fifth time.The 28-year-old Argentine had 41.33% of the vote, with Real Madrid forward Cristiano

Ronaldo (27.76%) second and Barca's Neymar (7.86%) third.

13 January: The Employees ’Provident Fund Organisation has won the National Award on e-Governance

2015-16 for launching the Universal Account Number (UAN). The UAN facility enables workers to

transfer their provident fund deposits while switching jobs anywhere in India easily. The EPFO won the

gold award in the ‘innovative use of technology in e-governance’ category and the retirement body will

get a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh.

12 January: Leonardo DiCaprio won the Golden Globe award for best dramatic actor in The Revenant.

The Revenant earned Globes for best motion picture and best director for Alejandro Inarritu.

12 January: GMR Group Chairman G.M. Rao was honoured with the ‘Bulandh Bharath’ Award for his

exemplary contributions towards nation building.

11 January: Popular Bengali writer Mani Sankar Mukherji, better known as Sankar to his legions of

readers, will be awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the University of North Bengal at its 46th Convocation in

Siliguri on February 18.

11 January: American documentary on the life of Pakistani female activist and Nobel Peace Prize

laureate Malala Yousafzai, He named “Me Malala”, has been nominated at the 68th BAFTA Awards.

10 January: Professor U. Ramamurty of the Indian Institute of Science has bagged the 2015 Third World

Academy of Sciences (TWAS) prize, which carries a cash prize of $15,000, in the engineering category.

10 January: India's Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading global IT services and consultancy

company, bagged four awards in the European Software Testing Awards, 2015. The awards were

organised by TEST Magazine, the UK's leading software testing magazine. These four awards are: The

Best Agile Project award, The Best Mobile Project award, Testing Innovator of the Year award and The

Leading Vendor award.

8 January: Bollywood actress and former Miss World Priyanka Chopra has won the Favourite Actress in a

New TV series award at the People's Choice Awards 2016 held in Los Angeles, USA for her leading role in

American TV thriller series 'Quantico'.

7 January: Former Indian Wicket-Keeper Syed Kirmani was awarded with the 2015 Col. CK Nayudu

Lifetime Achievement Award. On the other hand, Test captain Virat Kohli bagged the Polly Umrigar

Trophy for Cricketer of the Year in the BCCI awards.

5 January: Russian President Vladimir Putin was named ‘Person of the Year’ for 2015 in Israel, according

to a poll conducted by the Jerusalem Post. In second place was German Chancellor Angela Merkel and

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took third place in the survey.

5 January: Veteran South Indian classical vocalist Sanjay Subrahmanyam was conferred with the 2015

Sangita Kalanidhi award. The prestigious award was conferred upon him by mathematician Manjul

Bhargava at 89th annual conference of the Madras Music Academy in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

4 January: Pulin Kumar, senior legal and compliance director of Adidas India group , has been conferred

with the Indian National Bar Association's ‘General Counsel of the year 2015 - Retail Award’. Kumar

received the award for his contribution to the legal field in and outside the country for more than 21

years.

2 January: Harpal Singh Kumar, an Indian-origin cancer research expert has received a Knighthood from

Queen Elizabeth II for his "influential" work on prevention and treatment of cancer. His name has been

published in the annual New Year's Honours list published in London.

Sport

30 January: Indian tennis star Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis won the Australian Open

women's doubles title. Sania and Hingis defeated Czech combination of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie

Hradecka in the final match.

30 January: India recorded their first ever bilateral series triumph on Australian soil, as they clinched the

Twenty20 rubber by taking an unassailable 2-0 lead with a comprehensive 27-

run victory in the second match.The Indians had earlier won a tri-series in 2007-08 and the Benson and

Hedges World Championship in 1985.

30 January: The Indian women’s cricket team scripted history by clinching its maiden Twenty20 series

win over three-time world champion Australia with a comprehensive 10-wicket triumph in the rain-

truncated second game, in Melbourne.

29 January: Australian vice-captain David Warner won the Allan Border Medal for the first time. Warner

also won the 'Test Player of the Year' award.

29 January: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) announced Ireland's South African coach Craig

Fulton and England and Britain's assistant coach Karen Brown as 2015's Coach of the Year in the men's

and women's categories respectively.

28 January: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) named the Netherlands pair of Robert Van Der

Horst and Lidewij Welten as the 2015 Players of the Year in the men's and women's categories

respectively.

27 January: India won the first T20 Asia cup cricket for Blind. In the final match played at Kochi, India

defeated Pakistan by 44 runs.

27 January: India's P V Sindhu clinched the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold title after defeating

Scotland's Kristy Gilmour in the final. This is her second Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold title, having

won it in 2013 as well.

27 January: Swimmer Ning Zetao and race walker Liu Hong won the Award for Best Male and Female

Athlete of the Year respectively at China's Central Television (CCTV) Sports Awards.

25 January: West Indies batting great Shivnarine Chanderpaul has announced his retirement from

international cricket, bringing an end to a stellar career of 22 years.

23 January: The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) signed sports management firm IOS Sports &

Entertainment as its marketing rights partner for the next two years.

23 January: Vaishnavi Reddy, U-15 badminton player has been appointed as the brand ambassador of

Life Insurance Company PNB Metlife India. Vaishnavi will also be the brand ambassador for PNB Metlife

junior badminton championships.

23 January: Australian tennis player Lleyton Hewitt announced his retirement from tennis. He had won

the US Open in 2011 and Wimbledon Open in 2002.

20 January: International Cricket Council (ICC) launches 'Cricket for Good & Team Swachh' campaign in

partnership with UNICEF and BCCI.

20 January: The International Cricket Council has announced Channel 2 Group as its global audio rights

partner. Under the agreement, Channel 2 Group will provide live audio commentary for all ICC events

from 2016 to 2023 through its FM and AM channels.

20 January: Sri Lankan all-rounder Thisara Perera had announced to retire from Tests with immediate

effect and will continue to play ODI and T20 matches for Sri Lanka.

19 January: India's Gopi T and Kheta Ram qualified for the Rio Olympics by finishing second and third,

respectively, among the Indian runners in the Mumbai Marathon.

19 January: Virat Kohli became the fastest to 7000 ODI runs during the third ODI against Australia at the

MCG. Kohli, in 161 innings.

19 January: Indian ODI skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was named captain of Rising Pune Supergiants,

owned by Sanjiv Goenka, for the upcoming season of IPL.

16 January: World No.1 tennis player Marat Safin of Russia has been inducted in the International

Tennis Hall of Fame.

13 January: World number one Jordan Spieth matched Tiger Woods by winning his seventh PGA Tour

event with a dominant victory at Hawaii's Tournament of Champions.He became only the second player

to finish a 72-hole event on the PGA Tour at 30-under par or lower, emulating South African Ernie Els

who won the 2003 Tournament of Champions.

13 January: United States World Cup-winning captain Carli Lloyd has won the FIFA women’s world

player of the year award for 2015. Lloyd dominated a worldwide vote and collected the award at FIFA’s

annual awards ceremony in Zurich.

12 January: Living up to his top billing, Stan Wawrinka annexed his third Chennai Open singles title in a

row, demolishing the challenge of Borna Coric in the final. Wawrinka successfully defended his men’s

singles title once again at the 20th edition of the $425,535 Chennai Open. It was his fourth Chennai

Open Title.

12 January: Sania Mirza continues to top the women’s double chart while her partner Martina Hingis of

Switzerland maintained her second spot in the latest tennis WTA rankings. Sania is atop the list with

11395 points while Hingis has 11355 points in her kitty.

10 January: Pune and Rajkot became the interim franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL) till 2017.

These teams will take place of the suspended teams of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals

(RR). Supreme Court suspended CSK and RR till 2017 following the 2013 IPL corruption scandal.

10 January: Ajinkya Rahane has become India’s highest-ranked Test batsman in the latest ICC Test Player

Rankings who has stormed up 14 places to claim a career-high 12th position. In doing so, Rahane has

leapfrogged Virat Kohli (up by two places to 14th).

8 January: Indian shooter Apurvi Chandela has set a new world record on way to clinching the gold

medal in the women's 10 metre air rifle event at the Swedish Cup Grand Prix shooting tournament.

Chandela shot 211.2 which surpassed the feat of Chinese Olympic gold medallist Yi Siling, who held the

record with 211.

6 January: Mumbai teenager Pranav Dhanawade scripted history by becoming the first batsman ever to

notch up a four-figure score, smashing an unbeaten knock of 1009 in an inter-school tournament. The

15-year-old, playing for K.C. Gandhi Higher Secondary School, reached the gigantic score in just 323

deliveries in the game against Arya Gurukul in the Bhandari Cup inter-school tournament organised by

the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA). Dhanawade smashed a whopping 129 fours and 59 sixes.

6 January: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) won the prestigious 26th Lal Bahadur Shastri Hockey

tournament. To win the title, the ONGC defeated Indian Railways in the final match held at the Shivaji

Stadium in New Delhi.

6 January: New Zealand sealed the one-day series against Sri Lanka with Martin Guptill`s century

spearheading a 36-run victory in the fifth and final one-day international cricket match played at Mount

Maunganui, New Zealand. Matt Henry's five-wicket bag helped ensure the hosts took a 3-1 series win to

go. New Zealand scored 294 runs for 5 wickets and bowled out Sri Lanka on 258 runs.

5 January: India won the 2015 South Asian Football Federation Cup (SAFF Cup) by defeating defending

champions Afghanistan by 2-1 in the finals. With this title win, India has now won the SAFF Cup 7 times.

5 January: The second edition of Premier Badminton League (PBL) kicked-off in Mumbai. 6 teams are

participating in this edition of PBL, which is the biggest professional Badminton event in India. The main

objective of PBL is to bring top Indian players along with International players on the same platform.

4 January: India’s Thakur Anoop Singh won Mr World Bodybuilding title-2015 in the 7th WBPF World

Bodybuilding and Physique Championships held in Bangkok, Thailand. He won gold medal in the fitness

physique category. Overall, India won 11 medals in the championships that saw participation from 47

nations.

2 January: Rising India wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Ritu Phogat won gold medals in Men's 65kg and

Women's 48kg Freestyle categories respectively on the first day of the 60th Senior National Wrestling

Championship in New Delhi.

2 January: Two days after he was named in the Bengal squad, former captain and veteran all-rounder

Laxmi Ratan Shukla announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.

Eulogy

28 January: Famous American Actor Abe Vigoda passed away in New Jersey. He was 94.

27 January: Popular Malayalam film actress Kalpana passed away. She had bagged the National Award

for the Best Supporting Actress for her performance in “Thanichalla Njan”.

25 January: Eminent tabla player Pandit Shankar Ghosh passed away. He was 80 years old.

20 January: The world's oldest man has died at the age of 112 in the Japanese city of Nagoya. Yasutaro

Koide, who was born on 13 March 1903, was officially named the oldest man by Guinness World

Records in August 2015.

19 January: Veteran BJP leader and former Sikkim governor V. Rama Rao died in Hyderabad after

prolonged illness.He was 80.

14 January: Lt Gen JFR Jacob (retd), who negotiated the surrender of Pakistani troops in Dhaka following

the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, passed away. Post retirement, he also served as the Governor of

Goa and Punjab.

12 January: Noted Hindi writer and journalist Ravindra Kalia passed away at a private hospital. He was

78. Kalia had been suffering from liver cirrhosis.

12 January: Maria Teresa de Filippis, best known as Formula 1's first ever female driver, passed away at

the age of 89.The Italian started in three Grands Prix in 1958 with her only finish coming at her debut at

Spa in Belgium where she was the last classified finisher in 10th.

12 January: Singer David Bowie has died at the age of 69 from cancer.Bowie's hits include Let's Dance,

Space Oddity, Starman, Modern Love, Heroes, Under Pressure, Rebel, Rebel and Life on Mars

8 January: Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mufti Mohammad Sayeed passed away. He was 79.

Sayeed, a two-time chief minister, started his second tenure on March 1st, 2015 in alliance with the BJP,

after having led the State government between 2002-05 previously. He had also served as Home

Minister of India.

7 January: Former Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia passed away in Mumbai. He was 68. He was Chief

Justice of India from 2010 to 2012

6 January: Matthew Hobden, the English county cricket club's Sussex pace bowler, has died at the age of

22. He was born in Eastbourne. He made his first-class debut for Sussex in 2014 and had represented the

county across all three formats.

5 January: Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan (A.B. Bardhan), one of the pillars of the communist movement in

India, passed away in Delhi at the age of 91. He was associated with the Communist Party of India (CPI)

and was a widely respected politician. He headed the CPI for 16 years as its General Secretary.

4 January: Former US National Security Adviser Sandy Berger passed away. He was 70 years old. He

served as National Security Adviser during the tenure of former US President Bill Clinton

2 January: Former Chief of Indian Army and former diplomat General O.P. Malhotra passed away. He

was 93. General O.P. Malhotra was the 13th Chief of Army Staff from 1978 to 1981 and was Punjab

Governor and Administrator of Chandigarh from 1990 to 1991

Miscellaneous

30 January: India test fired its indigenously-developed surface-to-air Akash missile as part of a user trial

from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur. This missile has a strike range of 25 km.

28 January: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has been announced as the richest man in the world once

again with a net worth of $87.4 billion. The list is released by company Wealth-X. Gates is followed by

Amancio Ortega, a Spanish businessman and founding chairman of the Inditex fashion group and

Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet, came third in this list

28 January: Denmark remained at the top of Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index,

a closely watched global barometer, for the second consecutive year as the country perceived as least

corrupt. It scored 91 points out of a possible 100 while North Korea and Somalia remained at the bottom

with unchanged scores of 8. India has been ranked 76.

27 January: India will set up a satellite tracking and imaging centre in southern Vietnam that will give

Hanoi access to pictures from Indian earth observation satellites that cover the region, including China

and the South China Sea. The move, which could irritate Beijing, deepens ties between India and

Vietnam, who both have long-running territorial disputes with China.

22 January: The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and NASA has announced that 2015 was

by far the hottest year in 136 years of record keeping. The NOAA said 2015’s temperature was 58.62°F

(14.79°C), passing 2014 by a record margin of 0.29°F. That’s 1.62°F above the 20-century average.

22 January: India’s unemployment rate remained at 3.5 per cent in 2014 and 2015 but will decrease

slightly to 3.4 per cent in 2016 and 2017, according to the ILO findings. However, the number of people

seeking jobs will increase to 17.6 million people in 2017 from 17.5 million people in both 2015 and 2016.

21 January: Indian Space Research Oraganisation (ISRO) launched India's fifth navigation satellite IRNSS-

1E powered by PSLV - C31 rocket.

20 January: The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) released the World Tourism Barometer, which

reviewed trends in tourism at the regional and global level for 2015 and enumerated prospects for 2016.

As per the publication, international tourist arrivals grew by 4.4 percent in 2015 to reach a total of 1184

million in 2015. In numbers, around 50 million more travelers were recorded in 2015 compared to that

2014.

19 January: With India remaining polio-free for five years now, the government on Saturday said that it

plans to switch to bivalent oral polio vaccine (OPV) from its present trivalent version in “some months”

even as President Pranab Mukherjee launched the countrywide Pulse Polio programme for 2016 on the

eve of National Immunisation Day.

18 January: Union Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Dr. Harsh Vardhan inaugurated

the new user-friendly website of IMD and dedicated to the nation the System of Aerosol Monitoring And

Research (SAMAR) which is a network of 16 Aethalometers, 12 Sky radiometers and 12 Nephelometers.

18 January: The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region

(DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh

inaugurated the “Hall of Nuclear Power”.

18 January: China sent a Belarusian telecom satellite into intended orbit from southwest China's Xichang

Satellite Launch Center at Beijing. The satellite, carried by a Long March-3B rocket, is Belarus' first

communication satellite, and this was also the first time that China had launched a satellite for a

European country.The Belintersat-1 was built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. with a

designed life of 15 years.

16 January: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully test-fired Nag

anti-tank missile at the Mahajan Field Firing Range in Rajasthan.

16 January: Ships and aircraft of the Indian Coast Guard and the Japan Coast Guard came together to

train for the 15th edition of ‘Sahyog-Kaijin’ joint exercise in the Bay of Bengal off the Chennai coast.

16 January: The installed capacity of solar power in India crossed the milestone of 5,000 MW. The

cumulative installed capacity has reached to 5,130 MW with installed capacity of 1385 MW in current

FY. The state of Rajasthan stands 1st in the country with 1264 MW, followed by Gujarat (1024MW),

Madhya Pradesh (679 MW), Tamil Nadu (419 MW), Maharashtra (379 MW) and Andhra Pradesh (357

MW).

15 January: NHAI has signed Memorandum of Understanding with National Remote Sensing Centre

(NRSC) under Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and North East Centre for Technology

Application and Research (NECTAR) for use of spatial technology for monitoring and managing National

Highways

15 January: India's diaspora population is the largest in the world with 16 million people from India

living outside their country in 2015, according to a latest UN survey on international migrant trends.

15 January: NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter has broken the record to become humanity’s most distant

solar-powered emissary, when the spacecraft reached about 793 million kilometres from the Sun. The

previous record-holder was the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft, whose orbit peaked out at

the 792-million-kilometre mark in October 2012, during its approach to comet 67P/Churyumov-

Gerasimenko. Juno will arrive at Jupiter on July 4 this year.

14 January: The prestigious Yale School of Management will name its deanship in honour of PepsiCo’s

India-born CEO Indra Nooyi as she gifted an undisclosed amount to her alma mater, becoming the

school’s biggest alumni donor and the first woman to endow a deanship at a top B-School.

14 January: NASA’s revamped planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has discovered more than 100

confirmed planets orbiting other stars. Kepler, which recently got crippled by a mechanical malfunction,

discovered the alien planets during its second-chance K2 mission.

11 January: Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully conducted test firing

of new tank ammunition Pene¬¬tration-Cum Blast (PCB) and Thermobaric (TB) Ammunition, specially

designed for Arjun Tank at Chandipur, Odisha on 6th Jan 2016.

10 January: USS Zumwalt headed out to sea for the first time. USS Zumwalt is the name of the newest

and the largest destroyer ship ever made for the U.S. Navy. It is 183 meter tall and

weighs almost 15,000 tons. USS Zumwalt is named after former US naval officer Elmo Russell Zumwalt,

Jr. The huge ship is a guided missile destroyer having incredible stealth capabilities.

6 January: Rajasthan Atomic Power Project (RAPP), which has been built by Sterlite Grid, became the

first in the country to become eligible for the Power Ministry’s incentive programme under which power

transmission projects achieving early completion will be incentivized. The project has been completed

within 12 months from the start of construction. It was awarded to the company in 2013.

4 January: Four persons of Indian origin are featured in 'Foreign Policy' magazine's list of 100 Leading

Global Thinkers who have generated ideas that could promise humankind a better future. These four

thinkers are Nina Tandon, Rajan Anandan, Ayesha Khanna and Zainab Ghadiyali.

2 January: Book ‘Kargil: Turning the Tide‘ authored by Lieutenant General Mohinder Puri was launched.

It narrates first-hand narrative of the operations of 8 Mountain Division, which was tasked to evict the

infiltrators from the Drass-Mushkoh Sector during Operation Vijay of 1999.

Recurring Term

(1) SMART CITIES

On 28 January 2016 which 20 cities were chosen for Smart City mission from a list of 98 cities submitted

by Ahmedabad, Belgaum, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Davangere, the New Delhi area,

Guwahati, Indore, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Kakinada, Kochi, Ludhiana, Pune, Solapur, Surat, Udaipur and

Visakhapatnam

The list of 20 smart cities out of the 98 shortlisted for the ‘Smart Cities Mission’ was released on 28

January 2016. These 20 cities will be the first to receive funds, thus kick-starting the process of

developing them into ‘smart cities’.

The next two years will see the inclusion of 40 and 38 cities, respectively.

These 20 cities were picked from a list of 98 cities submitted by states during a competition last year

(2015). All states were asked to give their choices, which were judged on service levels, infrastructure

and track record.

None of the cities are from the big states Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. On the other hand,

some states have two or more nominees – Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu,

Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

A ‘smart city’ is an urban region that is highly advanced in terms of overall infrastructure, sustainable

real estate, communications and market viability.

(2) Lodha Committee

The three-member Supreme Court-appointed committee on reforms in the BCCI and the Indian cricket

administration submitted its much anticipated report in the Supreme Court Registry on 4 January 2016.

The committee recommended legalization of betting while it did not found enough evidence against

former IPL COO Sunder Raman. Justice RM Lodha (former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) headed

this committee.

Former Chief Justice of India, R.M. Lodha, submitted his report on the various aspects of reforms in the

BCCI to the Supreme Court registry on 4 January 2016. This culminated the committee’s exhaustive

investigations into how the game is run in the country and what could be done to ensure that

transparency and accountability is the rule and not the exception in the administration of cricket in

India.

Important Recommendations of Lodha Committee

legalization of betting in the country

Grant of Limited autonomy for IPL Governing Council

Separate governing bodies for the IPL and BCCI

Only one person per post. No proxy voting of individuals allowed

No BCCI office-bearer can be Minister or government servant

A steering committee headed by former Home Secretary G K Pillai with Mohinder Amarnath,

Diana Eduljee

The constitution and establishment of a players association

The report will now be considered by the bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur at a later stage.

(3) MUDRA Bank

The Union Cabinet on 6 January 2016 approved the conversion of MUDRA Ltd, a non- banking financial

company (NBFC), into MUDRA Bank. This bank thus will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of SIDBI.

The MUDRA bank (or MUDRA Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) Bank) will undertake

re-finance operations and provide support services with focus on portal management; data analysis etc.

apart from any other activity entrusted or advised by Government of India.

The Union Cabinet also gave its approval for setting up of a Credit Guarantee Fund for loans disbursed

under the Pradhan Mantri Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Yojana. The National

Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd (NCGTC Ltd), a wholly-owned company of Government of India,

constituted under the Companies Act to manage and operate various credit guarantee funds, shall be

the Trustee of the Fund.

MUDRA Bank and a Credit Guarantee Fund was proposed to be set up with a refinance corpus of Rs.

20,000 crore and a corpus of Rs. 3,000 crore respectively in the Budget 2015-16.

(4) ‘Designed in India’ initiative for Defence Sector:

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar during January 2016 gave go ahead to major changes in how India

buys its defence equipment. One major change in policy pertains to the emphasis on ‘Designed in India’

initiative. There are the two most important features of this initiative – (i)Indigenously made defence

equipment must have at least 40% Indian components and (ii) if the design is not Indian, 60% of its

components must be Indian.

Under the new policy changes, ‘Designed in India’ will be emphasised, as this will not only help the

country retain Intellectual Property Rights, but also build an “eco- system” for manufacturing defence

equipment.

Some important features of ‘Designed in India’ initiative for Defence Sector:

Under the new rules, indigenously made defence equipment must have at least 40% Indian

components. If the design is not Indian, 60% of its components must be Indian.

The entire focus, including that of looking for strategic partners to manufacture critical equipment like

fighter jets encourages business and enterprise in India

Small and medium scale industries will be given from Rs. 3 crore to 10 crore in funding for design and

development and contract within 24 months

To encourage research and development in the private sector, the department of defence production

will bear 90% of design and development cost of major systems.

(5) Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY)

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) is the name given to the new crop insurance scheme that was

approved by the Union Govt. on 13 January 2016 that seeks to include successful aspects of the existing

ones while effectively addressing their deficiencies.

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) is the name of the revamped crop insurance scheme that was

announced by the Union Govt. on the eve of harvest festivals across the country on 13 January. It will

replace the National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS) and Modified National Agriculture Insurance

Scheme (MNAIS).

PMFBY seeks to substantially reduce the premium paid by farmers-1.5% on Rabi crops, 2% on

Kharif crops and 5% on commercial/horticultural crops, and reduce delays and leakages in

payment of compensation through direct transfers into the bank accounts of farmers. This is

expected to drive up enrolment under the scheme.

Under the previous crop insurance scheme, risks were only partially covered. The existing

premium rates vary between 2.5% and 3.5% for Kharif crops and 1.5% for Rabi crops-but the

coverage was capped, meaning farmers could, at best, recover a fraction of their losses. Also,

the premium for commercial and horticulture crops was calculated on actuarial basis, meaning

premiums could be as high as 25% depending on the risk factor involved.

The Centre and States will equally share the estimated expenditure of Rs. 8,000 crore as

premium for PMFBY. Currently, the Centre pays about Rs. 3,000 crore as premium.

(6) ‘The Z Factor’,

The book titled ‘The Z Factor’, which was released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 20 January

2016, is the autobiography of Subhash Chandra (Founder of Zee Group).

‘The Z Factor: My Journey as the Wrong Man at the Right Time’ is the name of the autobiography of

Subhash Chandra, the founder of the multi-million Zee Group. This autobiography has been written

along with Pranjal Sharma and is published by HarperCollins India. It was released by Prime Minister

Narendra Modi on 20 January.

The book was officially launched at the ‘ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival’ on 21 January.

Subhash Chandra’s Zee TV, India’s first private satellite Hindi channel launched in 1992, changed the

rules of the game and tickled the fancy of a public starved of entertainment.

Today Zee is a household TV media brand, running entertainment, news and sports channels. The other

businesses include DNA (newspaper), Siti Cable (MSO), Dish TV (DTH), entertainment parks (EsselWorld

and Water Kingdom), online gaming (Playwin) and infrastructure development.

(7) Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)

IRNSS-1E is the name of the fifth satellite of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)

series that was successfully launched by ISRO from Sriharikota on 20 January 2016.

IRNSS-1E was launched successfully by PSLV-C31 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC),

Sriharikota (AP) in the morning of 20 January 2016.

This satellite was the 5th satellite to be launched under the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System

(IRNSS) series that seeks to establish a regional navigation satellite system on the lines of the Global

Positioning System (GPS) of the United States.

IRNSS, an independent regional navigation satellite system, is designed to provide accurate position

information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1,500 km from its boundary.

The four earlier satellites launched under the IRNSS series were IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C and 1D, which were

launched by PSLV-C22, PSLV-C24, PSLV-C26 and PSLV-C27 in July 2013, April 2014, October 2014 and

March 2015 respectively.

Successful establishment of IRNSS will reduce India’s dependency on the United States’ Global

Positioning System (GPS) and other networks.

(8) ‘Athulyam’

During January 2016 the state of Kerala was officially declared the 1st state in the country to achieve

100% primary education. A huge role in this achievement was made by Kerala literacy mission’s primary

education equivalency drive.

Athulyam is the name of the special education equivalency drive of Kerala State Literacy Mission (KSLM)

that was launched in October 2014.

As per the scheme, the literacy mission identified people who had not completed their primary

education. They were given five months of training, enabling them to attend the fourth equivalency

examination.

Accordingly, the literacy mission enrolled two lakh people into ‘Athulyam’, and gave them a fourth

equivalency programme, in a year.

Important Days

1st January World Day of Peace

6th January World Day For War Orphans

8th January African National Congress Foundation Day

9th January Pravasi Bharatiya Divas

10th January World Hindi Day (Vishwa Hindi Diwas), World Laughter Day

11th January Death anniversary of Lal Bahadur Shastri

12th January National Youth Day (Birth Day of Swami Vivekanand)

15th January Indian Army Day

23rd January Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's birth anniversary

24th January National Girl Child Day

25th January International Customs Duty Day, India Tourism Day, Indian Voter Day

26th January International Customs Day, Indian Republic day

28th January Lala Lajpat Rai Jayanti, Data Protection Day

30th January National Cleanliness Day, Martyrs’ Day (Mahatma Gandhi's Martyrdom Day) - India

31st January World Leprosy Eradication Day

ABBREVIATION

NDRF- National Disaster Response Force

CPC- Central Pay Commission

CBFC- Central Board of Film Certification

KYC- Know Your Customer

PMFBY- Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna

IRNSS- Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System

NBFCs- Non-Banking Finance Companies

UCB- Urban Cooperative Banks

HZL- Hindustan Zinc Ltd

TTP- Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan

Ind AS- Indian Accounting Standards

NOAA- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

AIFs- Alternative Investment Funds

STT- Securities Transaction Tax

DR- Dearness Relief

OECD- Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

CBDT- Central Board of Direct Taxes

IAEA- International Atomic Energy Agency

NSC- National Science Centre

AIIB- Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

PBL- Premier Badminton League

OECD- Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

Special Feature

(1) South Asian Football Federation Cup (SAFF Cup)

India won the 2015 South Asian Football Federation Cup (SAFF Cup) by defeating defending champions

Afghanistan by 2-1 in the finals on 3 January 2016. With this title win, India has now won the SAFF Cup

Seven times. The 2015 SAFF Cup title was India’s seventh title of this biennial football title. India has

won the title in 1993, 1997, 1999, 2005, 2009, 2011 and now 2015.

India defeated defending champions Afghanistan by 2-1 in the finals played on 3 January. Afghanistan

went into the lead after Zubayr Amiri scored in the 71st minute. But inform Indian striker Jeje Lalpekhlua

equalized in the very next minute. The game went into extra time and Indian captain Sunil Chhetri gave

India the winning goal by scoring through a free-kick in the 10th minute of extra time. With this win

India also took a sweet revenge of their 2013 final loss to Afghanistan.

2015 SAFF Cup was the 11th edition of the biennial SAFF Championship and was held at Trivandrum

International Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala). The 2017 SAFF Cup will be hosted by Bangladesh.

(2) Padma Award

Union Government announced the name of the 112 awardees of the Padma Awards on 25 January 2016

on the eve of the 67th Republic Day celebrations. Ten personalities were chosen for the Padma

Vibhushan, which is the second highest civilian award in India.

This year 112 persons have been chosen for these prestigious awards, which comprise of the Padma

Vibhushan, the Padma Bhushan and Padma Sri. 10 persons have been conferred with the Padma

Vibhushan, 19 with the Padma Bhushan and 83 with the Padma Sri.

10 personalities who were chosen for the Padma Vibhushan are – Shri Shri Ravi Shankar (spiritual

leader), Jagmohan (former bureaucrat and politician), Dr. V. Shanta (famous oncologist), Avinash Dixit

(economist and author), Ramoji Rao (media entrepreneur), Rajinikant (actor), Dhirubhai Ambani

(Industrialist, posthumous), V.K. Aatre (former DRDO chief), Girija Devi (classical vocalist) and Yamini

Krishnamurthy (Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi exponent).

(3) 67th Republic Day on 26 January 2016

The country celebrated the 67th Republic Day on 26 January 2016 with the main function being held at

capital New Delhi’s imposing Rajpath. A slice of country’s military might and culture was displayed at

this annual parade.

French President Francois Hollande was the Chief Guest of the 67th Republic Day held on 26 January.

India’s military prowess and diverse cultural heritage were on display at this parade.

To mark the presence of French President, a 76-member French Army contingent led by a French

military band comprising 48 musicians, marched at the Rajpath and presented a ceremonial salute to

the President of India. The contingent is the 35th infantry regiment, has been active since 1604.

Prior to the commencement of the parade, Prime Minister Modi lead the nation in paying tributes to

martyrs at Amar Jawan Jyoti, the monument that symbolizes the martyred soldiers.

Winners of the different competitive presentations in the Republic Day Parade 2016.

Among the Services category, Assam Regiment was adjudged the best marching contingent. In the

category of Para-Military Forces and other auxiliary marching contingents, Border Security Force (BSF)

contingent was been adjudged the best contingent.

In the tableau category, first position went to West Bengal tableau, which depicted the famous Baul folk

singers rendering the songs based on Bhakti and Sufi movement. While Tripura’s tableau on beautiful

Unakoti sculptures, seen in a Shiva pilgrimage site was adjudged the second best, third position went in

favour of Assam tableau showcasing the popular Rongali Bihu festival.

(4) 14th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas

The first limited edition of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) was observed on 9 January 2016. Last year, the

government had decided to hold larger version of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) after every two years

and that limited version of the event will be organised in the intervening year. 13th edition of PBD was

held in Gandhinagar (Gujarat) last year.

It was also the first time that the event was organised by the External Affairs Ministry (MEA) in the wake

of government’s decision to merge Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) with it.

PBD 2016 was addressed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her address was webcast by

almost all Indian missions and posts abroad. This was followed by video-conferencing with select Indian

Missions.

9 January was chosen as the day for PBD as it was on this day in 1915 that Mahatma Gandhi, the

“greatest Pravasi”, returned to India from South Africa and led India’s freedom struggle. The event has

been held annually since 2003.

(5) WTA Sydney International

India’s Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis on 14 January 2016 broke a 22-year-old world

record by winning their 29th women’s doubles match in a row. This feat was achieved en route to their

entry into the women’s doubles final of the WTA Sydney International, in Sydney.

The World No. 1 pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis broke the 22-year old record of Natasha Zvereva

and Gigi Fernandez after winning against Romanian Raluca Olaru and Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova

by 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 in a closely-fought semifinal on 14 January.

Natasha Zvereva and Gigi Fernandez had made this record in 1994 when they continued their winning

spree for 28 matches.

The Indo-Swiss pair has continued their good show from 2015 when they won 9 titles which included the

Wimbledon, US Open and the year-ending WTA finals.

(6) “Start-Up Mission”

Union Government kick-started its ambitious “Start-Up Mission” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi

announcing a host of measures for start-ups at the inaugural session of the Start-Up India programme

held at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on 16 January 2016. In a huge onus to the start-ups, 3 years of tax

exemption was announced.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced tax exemption of 3 year for start-ups, which was a much-

sought after demand from the start-up fraternity. Start-ups set up after 1 April 2016, shall be exempted

from income-tax for a period of three years.

Other major announcements under “Start-Up Mission”:

Establishment of a Start-up India Hub that would be a set-up and a friend, mentor and guide for

start-ups through their entire journey

Fast track mechanisms of start-up patent applications

A credit guarantee mechanism through National Credit Guarantee Trust Company (NCGTC) and

SIDBI to be rolled out with a budgetary corpus of Rs. 500 crore per year for the next four years

Introduction of compliance regime based on self-certification for start-ups

Faster exits for start-ups (Start-ups, who have simple debt structures, can be allowed to wind up

within a period of 90 days after filing an application)

Facility of starting a start-up in a day through mobile app

Norms of public procurement for start-ups to be relaxed

Establishment of 35 new incubators in institutions for start-ups