Daily Current Affairs: 22 January 2014

1) Veteran Telugu Actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao Passed away: Telugu cinema icon Akkineni Nageswara Rao died in Hyderabad early on Wednesday. He was 89. Popularly known as ANR, he is survived by three daughters and two sons, including popular actor Nagarjuna. He was born on Sep 20, 1924, in Venkata Raghavapuram in Krishna district of coastal Andhra. The Dadasaheb Phalke award winner acted in about 255 films.

2) Japanese PM to be chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be the chief guest at this year’s Republic Day celebrations. Japanese Prime Minister will be paying a three-day official visit to India beginning on January 25 at the invitation of his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh. During his visit, Abe will meet Manmohan Singh for the annual summit between India and Japan.

3) ‘Right of Citizens Bill to be passed in next Parliament session’: Right of Citizens for Time-Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill will be passed in the upcoming Parliament session, Union Minister V Narayanasamy said.

4) Delay in deciding mercy plea ground for commutation of death penalty: SC- In a landmark verdict that can come as a relief to many death row convicts, the Supreme Court on 21 Jan 2014 held that death sentence of a condemned prisoner can be commuted to life imprisonment on the ground of delay on the part of the government in deciding the mercy plea.

5) New Zealand beat India by 15 runs via D/L method in 2nd ODI & lost No.1 ranking: India lost their No.1 ranking they held since the 2011 World Cup triumph as they went down by 15 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis Method against New Zealand in the rain-affected second ODI at the Seddon Park in Hamilton. Set a rain-revised daunting target of 297 in 42 overs, India riding on some stellar show by Virat Kohli (78) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (56) came tantalisingly close and reached 277/9 in 41.3 overs as rain interrupted again for the third time. Later, the victory margin was revised to 15 runs in favour of New Zealand.

6) Govt launched LPG portability across India:  Government on 22 Jan 2014 launched a portability scheme for cooking gas customers across the country. This would be available for customers with any of the distributors – Indane, HP Gas or Bharat Gas. “With this, an LPG consumer in these markets can now switch to the distributor of his or her choice within a cluster of LPG distributors in the vicinity under the LPG connection portability scheme. This measure will bring great relief to those LPG consumers who are unhappy with the services of their current distributor or want to move to an LPG distributor closer to their home,” said a Government statement.

7) Currency notes issued before 2005 to be withdrawn: Currency notes issued before 2005 should be completely withdrawn from circulation after March 31, the Reserve Bank of India advised banks on Wednesday. “From April 1, 2014, the public will be required to approach banks for exchanging these notes. Banks will provide exchange facility for these notes until further communication,” the RBI said in a notification. It further stated that the public can easily identify the notes to be withdrawn as the notes issued before 2005 do not have on them the year of printing on the reverse side. The central bank also clarified that the notes issued before 2005 will continue to be legal tender. This would mean that banks are required to exchange the notes for their customers as well as for non-customers.

8) T. Nanda Kumar to be appointed NDDB Chairman:  T. Nanda Kumar will be the new Chairman of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), replacing Amrita Patel who has been holding the post since 1998. Nanda Kumar, currently Member of the National Disaster Management Authority, is slated to take over from March 1.

9) Karnataka launches mobile app for citizen services: Karnataka Government has launched ‘Sakala’ mobile application. Sakala Services Act-2011 or ‘Sakala’ ensures that the citizens are entitled to get certain standard of services within a specified time. Speaking after the launch, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramiah said that Karnataka is committed in introducing citizen-friendly administrative reforms.

10) National meet on e-governance in Kochi on January 30, 31: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will inaugurate the two-day 17th national conference on e-governance in Kochi on January 30. It will explore emerging opportunities and address new challenges in e-governance being mainstreamed at the Centre and in States.

11) IMF ups India’s current growth estimate to 4.4%: International Monetary Fund (IMF) has bumped up India's growth forecast for the current fiscal by more than half a percentage point thanks to a normal monsoon and improved exports.  In an update of its flagship World Economic Outlook (SEO), the IMF said on Tuesday that India will grow 4.4 per cent in 2013-14 in terms of market prices against the 3.8 per cent estimated initially, citing a better second half.

12) Google acquired cybersecurity firm Impermium for 9 million dollar: Google acquired Bengaluru based Impermium for 9 million dollar on 20 January 2014. The acquisition will help Google improve its abuse monitoring efforts and make internet a safer place. Bengaluru based Impermium is a three year old startup. The startup focused on building security products for websites.

13) Kapurthala (Punjab) gets world's second and nation's first 'Climate Change Theatre'. The theatre, second such after one in Canada, is meant to educate people on climate change.

14) Indian Energy Exchange appoints S N Goel as CEO & MD: Financial Technologies promoted Indian Energy Exchange has appointed former Power Trading Corporation executive S.N. Goel as its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director.