[GKmojo] January Month File

 Important Dates and Days of January

 January 9: NRI Day.
 January 12: National Youth Day.
 January 15: Army day.
 January 25: National Voters day.
 January 26: India's Republic Day, International Customs Day.
 January 30: Martyrs' Day; World Leprosy Eradication Day.

 Abbreviations in News
NARI: National Repository of Information for Women
iCreate: International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Technology

 Books in News
Imperfect - Sanjay Manjrekar
Citizen Delhi: My Life My Times - Sheila Dikshit

 Awards and Honours

ICC Awards 2017

 Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Men's Cricketer of the Year - Virat
Kohli (India)
 Men's Test Cricketer of the Year - Steve Smith (Australia)
 Men's ODI Cricketer of the Year - Virat Kohli (India)
 Men's Emerging Cricketer of the Year - Hasan Ali (Pakistan)
 Men's Associate Cricketer of the Year - Rashid Khan (Afghanistan)
 Men's T20I Performance of the Year - Yuzvendra Chahal (6-25 v
England) (India)

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63nd Filmfare Awards
 Best Actor (Male): Irrfan Khan for Hindi Medium
 Best Actor (Female): Vidya Balan for Tumhari Sulu
 Best Film: Hindi Medium
 Best Director: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari for Bareilly ki Barfi
 Filmfare Critics Award for Best Film: Newton
 Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor (Male): Rajkummar Rao for
Trapped
 Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor (Female): Zaira Wasim for
Secret Superstar

Golden Globe Awards 2018

 Best Motion Picture - Drama: Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
 Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy: Lady Bird
 Best Actress in Motion Picture - Drama: Frances McDormand (Three
Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri)
 Best Actor in Motion Picture - Drama: Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour)
 Best Director - Motion Picture: Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water)
 Best Motion Picture - Animated: Coco

Padma Awards 2017

Padma Vibhushan
 Art-Music : 1. Shri Illaiyaraja, 2. Shri Ghulam Mustafa Khan
 Literature and Education : Shri Prameswaran Parameswaran

Padma Bhushan
 Sports - Billiards/Snooker : Shri Pankaj Advani
 Sports - Cricket : Shri Mahedra Singh Dhoni
 Public Affairs: Shri Alexander Kadakin (Russia)
 Others - Spiritualism : Shri Philipose Mar Chrysostom
 Others - Archaeology : Shri Ramachandran Nagaswamy
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  Art - Painting: Shri Laxman Pai
 Literature and Education : Shri Ved Prakash Nanda
 Art - Music: Shri Arvind Parikh
 Art - Music: Ms. Sharda Sinha

 Bollywood playback singer Asha Bhosle will be given the 'Yash Chopra
Memorial Award'. She will be the fifth winner of the award.

 The 60th Grammy Awards

Album Of The Year: Bruno Mars
Song of the Year: Bruno Mars', That's What I Like

 The member of NITI Aayog who has been awarded the prestigious
IhsanDoğramacı Family Health Foundation Prize by the World Health
Organisation (WHO) (He is the first Indian to receive this global honour):
Dr. Vinod Paul

 Appointments

1. Government appoints Vijay Gokhale as new Foreign Secretary

2. Om Prakash Rawat Appointed New Chief Election
Commissioner
Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat was appointed as the
next chief election commissioner (CEC) of India. Mr Rawat is the
22nd CEC of India. He succeeded Achal Kumar Joti.
1st Chief Election Commissioner of Independent India-
Sukumar Sen.
3. Anandiben Patel Named New Madhya Pradesh Governor
Former Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel has been named as
the new governor of Madhya Pradesh.
4. Usha Ananthasubramanian, MD and CEO, Allahabad Bank has
been elected the first woman chairman of Indian Banks’
Association (IBA).
5. S Somanath takes charge as Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre's
Director.
It is ISRO's lead centre for launch vehicle.

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 6. Dr Sivan K Appointed New ISRO Chairman
Noted rocket scientist Sivan K was appointed as the 9th chairman
of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He has replaced
A.S. Kiran Kumar.

 Sports

 Vidarbha cricket team won 2017 Ranji Trophy tournament.

It is Vidarbha’s first Ranji Trophy title. In the final match held at Holkar
stadium in Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Vidarbha thumped 9-wicket win
over Delhi.
The Ranji Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in
India between teams representing regional and state cricket associations.
The competition currently consists of 28 teams, with 21 of the 29 states in
India and Delhi having at least one representation.

 India Defeats Pakistan to Win Blind Cricket World Cup 2018

 Australian Open 2018

Men's Singles: Roger Federer (Switzerland)
Women's Singles: Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark)
It was 20th grand slams of Federer.

 Business and Economy

1. HDFC Bank Becomes 1st Indian Bank to Cross Rs5 trillion Market
Capitalisation.
Remember
A. HDFC Bank- India’s largest private bank by market capitalization.
B. HDFC Bank Chairman- Aditya Puri.
C. Reserve Bank of India labelled HDFC Bank as ‘domestic
systematically important bank’—in other words, 'too big to fail'.

2. Mauritius Largest Source of FDI in India- RBI

Mauritius was the largest source of foreign investment in India (21.8
per cent share at market value), followed by the US and the UK,
according to a census by the Reserve Bank of India.

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 3. Google has introduced a new app named "Bulletin"* that allows
anybody to submit stories for and about their communities.
Google CEO- Sundar Pichai,
Parent organization- Alphabet Inc,
Headquarters- The USA.

4. India has been ranked sixth in the list of wealthiest countries with the
total wealth of 8,230 billion US dollars.* The list was topped by the
United States of America, according to a report by New World
Wealth.
Top 3 countries: USA, China and Japan

5. India Ranks 81st On Global Talent Competitiveness Index

India has moved up on a global index of talent competitiveness to the
81st position in the report that was released in the first day the 48th
World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos,
Switzerland.
Switzerland has topped the list.

6. ONGC acquires 51.11% stake in HPCL.

7. Reliance Industries (RIL) becomes the 1st Indian company to cross

the Rs. 6 lakh crore mark in market capitalisation.

8. WEF Ranks India 30th on Global Manufacturing Index

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has ranked India at 30th position
on a global manufacturing index - below China’s 5th place but above
other BRICS peers, Brazil, Russia and South Africa.
Japan has been found to have the best structure of production.

9. IDFC Bank, Capital First to merge in Share Swap Deal

IDFC Bank and Capital First have approved a merger of Capital First
with IDFC Bank.

10.Gujarat Tops Logistics Performance Index Chart: Report

Gujarat has topped the logistics index chart, according to a Report
released by Union Minister for Commerce & Industry Suresh Prabhu
in New Delhi. The chart is an indicator of the efficiency of logistical
services necessary for promoting exports in particular and economic
growth in general.

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 11. Parliament passes NABARD (Amendment) Bill, 2017
The Bill seeks to amend National Bank for Agriculture and Rural
Development (NABARD) Act, 1981. The Act establishes NABARD
for providing and regulating facilities like credit for agricultural and
industrial development in the rural areas
The Bill allows Union Government to increase capital of NABARD
from Rs. 5000 crore to Rs 30,000 crore.
The Bill provides that Union Government alone must hold at least
51% capital share of NABARD. Further, it transfers share capital held
by RBI valued at Rs. 20 crore to Union Government.

12.Forex Reserves scale record high of $409.366 billion in December

2017; the surge was due to massive spike in foreign currency assets,
which is key component of the reserves.
The components of India’s FOREX Reserves include Foreign
currency assets (FCAs), Gold, Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and
RBI’s Reserve position with International Monetary Fund (IMF).
FCAs constitute largest component of Indian Forex Reserves

13. World Bank Report projects 7.3% growth for India in 2018
The 2018 Global Economics Prospect (GEP) released by the World
Bank has projected India’s growth rate to 7.3% in 2018 and 7.5 for the
next two years i.e. 2019 and 2020.
14. Indian economy to grow at 7.4% in 2018: IMF
India is projected to grow at 7.4% of its gross domestic product (GDP)
in 2018 as against China’s 6.8%
IMF projected India’s GDP growth rate at 7.4% in 2018 and 7.8% in
2019.

 National Affairs

1. GAIL commissions India’s second largest rooftop solar plant in

UP.
It is 5.76 MWp (Mega Watt peak) solar plant installed at GAIL’s
petrochemical complex at Pata in UP.
Largest rooftop solar plant in India
India’s largest rooftop solar plant was commissioned in December 2015
by Tata Power Solar in Amritsar, Punjab. It is 12 MWp solar rooftop
project, which produces more than 150 lakh units of power annually. It
offsets over 19,000 tonne of carbon emissions every year.

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 2. Arunachal Pradesh was officially declared Open Defecation Free
(ODF) state. It is second State from Northeast, after Sikkim and overall
fifth state after Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Haryana to be declared
ODF state.
Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM)
The SBM was launched in October 2014 to achieve universal sanitation
coverage and to put focus on sanitation. It aims to achieve Swachh Bharat
or make India clean by 2019, as a fitting tribute to the 150th Birth
Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

3. PM Modi Inaugurates Project Commencement of Rajasthan's first

Oil Refinery in Barmer.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the project
commencement of the Rajasthan Refinery at Pachpadra in Barmer
district.This is the first oil refinery in the state. The 43,000 crore rupee
project is a joint venture between HPCL and the Rajasthan government

4. India Test-Fires Nuclear-Capable ICBM Agni-V

India test-fired its nuclear-capable Agni-V inter-continental ballistic
missile (ICBM), which has a strike range of over 5,000km. It was test
fired successfully from Abdul Kalam island off the coast of the eastern
state of Odisha.

5. Indian Navy launched 'INS Karanj', the third of the six indigenous
Scorpene-class submarines.
The first Scorpene-class submarine was INS Kalvari.
The second Scorpene-class submarine was INS Khanderi.

6. The Country celebrates its 69th Republic Day on 26th January in Raj
path, New Delhi to be resplendently displaying the country's pride and
glory. Heads of ten ASEAN countries are chief guests at Republic Day.

7. Music composer A R Rahman became the brand ambassador of

Sikkim. The declaration was made by Sikkim CM Pawan Kumar
Chamling.

8. The National Youth Day has been celebrated every year on 12

January. This is the day when Swami Vivekananda, one of the
greatest social reformers, thinkers, and philosophers of India, was
born.

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 9. The first ever joint military exercise by India and Vietnam at Jabalpur
(M.P.) from 29 January to 03 February is named : VINBAX 2018

10. The State which has decided to provide 1% parallel reservation for
ophans in government jobs: Maharashtra

11. The online portal launched by Ministry of Women and Child

Development intended to serve as a one-point platform where women
can easily access details of over 350 central and state schemes is
named: NARI (National Repository of Information for Women)

12. Government completes 1st phase of BharatNet project

The Union Government has announced completion of first phase of
BharatNet project after successfully laying optical fibre cables (OFC)
in more than 1 lakh gram panchayats
BharatNet project
BharatNet project forms backbone for Digital India initiative. It aims
to bring high speed broadband to all 2.5 lakh gram panchayats (GPs)
through optical fibre. The project was approved by Union Cabinet in
2011 as National Optical Fibre Netwok

13. NCDEX launches India’s first agri-options trading in Guarseed

The National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX)
unveiled India’s first agricultural-commodity options in Guarseed
designed as hedge for farmers to safeguard against price risks

14. India was ranked at 62nd place among emerging economies on

Inclusive Development Index (IDI-2018) released by World Economic
Forum (WEF)
Norway was again remained world’s most inclusive advanced
economy.
Inclusive Development Index (IDI) measures progress of 103
economies on three individual pillars – growth and development;
inclusion; and and inter-generational equity.

15. India Ranked 177 in Environmental Performance Index (EPI)

Top 5 countries are Switzerland, France, Denmark, Malta and Sweden
To bottom countries are Nepal, India, Congo, Bangladesh, Burundi.

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 16. According to recent report published by World Steel Association
(WSA), India has overtaken US to become the world’s third largest
steel producer in 2017. India’s crude steel production has grown by
6.2% to 101.4 million tonnes (MT) in 2017 compared to 95.5 MT in
the previous year

 International affairs
1. Saudi Arabia, UAE introduce VAT for first time
Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) became first
countries of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to introduce Value
Added Tax (VAT) for the first time to increase their revenue away
from oil reserves.

2. Iceland Becomes 1st Country to Legalise Equal Pay

Iceland has become the first country in the world to legalise equal
pay between men and women. In Iceland now it will be illegal to
pay men more than women for the work.
3. Israel Withdraws from UNESCO*
Israel has filed notice to withdraw from the UNESCO alongside
the United States. Israel has blasted UNESCO in recent years over
the organisation's criticism of Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem
and its decision to grant full membership to Palestine in
2011.UNESCO HQ: Paris, France
4. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in India
India and Israel have agreed to enhance co-operation in the areas of
agriculture, science and technology and security.
5. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon has become the
richest man in the history, overtaking the wealth Bill Gates ever
had to his name, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The Index showed that Bezos' net worth had hit USD 105.1 billion.
6. The theme of 48th Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum
held in Davos, Switzerland from 23 to 26 January 2018: Creating
a Shared Future in a Fractured World

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  Obituaries

 World Champion Powerlifter Saksham Yadav Passes away

powerlifting world champion Saksham Yadav died of his injuries after
road accident near Delhi. He was injured in car accident.
Yadav had won a gold medal for the country in the 2017 Powerlifting
championship in Moscow, Russia.
 Famous Cartoonist Chandi Lahiri passed away after a brief period of
illness, marking the end of a chapter in Bengal's history of the cartoon.

All the best by GKmojo

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