Daily Current Affairs: 5 January 2014

1) GSLV-D5 launched successfully :  India’s reputation in rocket technology grew as its communication satellite, carried by the hard-to-perfect Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, took off successfully on Sunday. Tension began to mount four minutes after takeoff, when the country’s home-grown engine ignited. Cheers went up when the propeller ignited successfully and sustained its combustion. Seventeen minutes and eight seconds after takeoff, an emotional K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation, said from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, that the communication satellite GSAT-14 had broken free from the launch vehicle, and had successfully entered space. The 414-tonne GSLV-D5 carried 1,982-kg GSAT-14 communication satellite into the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit, a league in space where the satellite will move in tandem with the earth’s rotation.

2) R. Chandrashekhar takes over as Nasscom President: Former Telecom Secretary R. Chandrashekhar, under whom a Government IT department was set up for the first time, today took over as President of Nasscom — a body representing the $108-billion Indian IT-BPM industry. He succeeds Som Mittal, who served as the President of Nasscom from 2007-13. Chandrashekhar was the Chairman, Telecom Commission and Secretary of the Department of Telecom till March last year. Earlier, he had established the first Department of Information Technology in the country in Andhra Pradesh and was Secretary of the Department from June 1997 to December 1999.

3) Warangal to become first AP district to have 4G services:  Warangal will be the first district in Andhra Pradesh to be equipped with 4G network. “A network of 150 km of optical fibre cable has been laid in the district. Only a few kilometres needs to be added. We expect that to be completed in a few days,” Andhra Pradesh Information Technology Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah said.

4) Delhi minister Rakhi Birla’s car attacked, no injuries to her:  Delhi Minister Rakhi Birla’s car was attacked on Sunday evening by some unidentified persons in Mangolpuri area here but she escaped unharmed. The Women and Child Development minister, who is the youngest member of Arvind Kejriwal’s cabinet, had gone to a temple in northwest Delhi and was sitting in the front seat of her WagonR car when some people threw a heavy object at the vehicle damaging the windscreen.

5) AAP's national membership drive from Jan 10: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today ruled out contesting all 545 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, but will field candidates in the maximum number of seats and announced a nationwide fortnight campaign for enrolling new members from January 10.

6) Dense fog disrupts life in Rajasthan: Dense fog accompanied with biting cold wave conditions have disrupted normal life in Rajasthan affecting rail and road traffic.

7) China’s GDP growth in 2013 set to be weakest since 1999: China’s economy, the world’s second largest, may have grown around 7.6 per cent in 2013, its weakest growth since 1999, with latest economic figures indicating sluggish economic activities in the last quarter.

8) Govt to launch internet spy system ‘Netra’ soon:  Beware! Use of words like ‘attack’, ’bomb’, ‘blast’ or ‘kill’ in tweets, status updates, emails or blogs may bring you under surveillance of security agencies as the government will soon launch ‘Netra’, an internet spy system capable of detecting malafide messages. The Home Ministry is giving finishing touches to ‘Netra’, which will be deployed by all security agencies to capture any dubious voice traffic passing through software like Skype or Google Talk, besides write-ups in tweets, status updates, emails, instant messaging transcripts, internet calls, blogs and forums.

9) FedBook replaces traditional passbook: The entry of FedBook, the game-changing innovation of Federal Bank, has taken customer delight to new heights. What is FedBook. FedBook is the electronic version of a traditional bank pass book, a first-of- its-kind product ever launched by a bank for its customers. FedBook can be carried in one’s mobile or tablet. It helps customers view all transactions in their bank accounts. The application is user-friendly, secure and enables real-time access to transactions on a 24x7 basis, which liberates users from the restrictions of business-hours and bank holidays.

10) SyndMobile – offers many choices: In an effort to provide an additional delivery channel to customers, SyndicateBank introduced Mobile Banking services such as balance enquiry, mini statement of account, inter, intra-bank fund transfer, and cheque book request. Everyone can use SyndMobile using any type of phone — be it a basic phone or the latest smart phones. SyndicateBank is one of the first banks to enable mobile banking in the latest Windows 7.5/8 phones, and also one of the few banks which have enabled remittance by using bank account and IFSC code of the beneficiary in the USSD mode.