Daily Current Affairs: 15 January 2014

1)  66th Army Day celebrated: The 66th Army Day was observed on 15 January 2014. The day is celebrated in recognition of the appointment of General K M Cariappa as the first Commander-in-Chief of independent India. He succeeded British Army General Roy Butcher on this day in 1948.

2) Coast Guard vessel Abhinav commissioned: Coast Guard ship 'Abhinav', the third in the series of 2st 0 FaPatrol vessels, designed and built by Cochin Shipyard Limited, was on Wednesday commissioned in Kochi.

3) Shashi Tharoor's Twitter account hacked, temporarily deactivated: The Twitter account of Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor was hacked on Wednesday evening forcing the minister to temporarily deactivate his official account till the matter is resolved. Several bizarre tweets emerged from Tharoor's official twitter handle which caught the attention of his followers. Interestingly, all the tweets from the hacked account were directed at Pakistani columnist Mehr Tarar.

4) India suffer 2-7 thrashing by Australia in Hero Hockey World League Final: India squandered a two-goal lead to suffer a 2-7 hammering at the hands of world champions Australia and crash out of the Hero Hockey World League Final on Wednesday.

5) Sony SIX bags FIFA telecast rights: Sports broadcaster Sony SIX, which has been aggressively grabbing international sporting rights across cricket and tennis, has now bagged the broadcast rights for India for FIFA World Cup in 2014 and 2018. While the 2014 edition will be held in Brazil, Russia will host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The deal also includes rights to broadcast FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 to be hosted by India.

6) State Bank of Travancore gets new MD: Jeevandas Narayan has taken over as Managing Director of State Bank of Travancore. Beginning his career as a probationary officer in State Bank of India, Narayan held several key assignments in the bank.

7) Dubai sets new world record in fireworks display: Dubai has set a new world record for the largest fireworks display by firing 479,651 shells in just six minutes on the New Year's Eve, breaking an earlier Guinness World Record achieved by Kuwait in 2012. Dubai city broke the Kuwait's record of display of 77,282 fireworks, smashing almost 80,000 shells per minute and 1,332 fireworks per second, The National newspaper reported.

8) Rajeev Kher appointed new Commerce Secretary: Senior IAS officer Rajeev Kher has been appointed Secretary in Department of Commerce. Kher, a 1980-batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, is presently Special Secretary, Department of Commerce under Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

9) World Bank projects India’s growth at over 6% in 2014-15: The World Bank has projected India’s economy will grow over 6 per cent in 2014-15 and 7.1 per cent by 2016-17 as global demand recovers and domestic investment increases.

10) Panel to study ATM fee hike: To make operations of automated teller machines (ATMs) viable, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Wednesday convened a committee of six banks to come up with suggestions around cost and charges for use of the ubiquitous machines.

11) Akhilesh Das Gupta set to be re-elected BAI president: Akhilesh Das Gupta is set to be re-elected president of the Badminton Association of India (BAI) as he remained the only candidate for the coveted post at the end of the filing of the nominations.

12) RBI to make Sinha an advisor for 3 months after retirement as deputy governor: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to appointed Anand Sinha, deputy governor, an advisor to the central bank for a period of three months after he retires on the coming Saturday.

13) Sourav Ganguly to be conferred Doctor of Letters by Bengal varsity: Former India captain Sourav Ganguly would be conferred with an honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) degree by the prestigious Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU), Shibpur, for his great contribution to Indian cricket.

14) Marathi poet Namdeo Dhasal passed away: Renowned Marathi poet and activist Namdeo Dhasal passed away in Mumbai on Wednesday after a prolonged illness. He was 64. Dhasal who was battling with colorectal cancer, died at the Bombay Hospital.