Current Affairs daily updates: 12 February 2014

1) Interim Rail Budget for 2014-15 presented, No fare hike, 72 new trains: Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge has presented interim railway budget for 2014-15 in Lok Sabha on 12 February 2014. 17 new premium trains, 38 express trains and 10 passenger trains have been announced. There is no increase in rail fare and freight fare. It also proposed elimination of all unmanned crossings. Mallikarjun Kharge is the second Railway Minister from Congress Party in the 10-year UPA regime to be presenting a Railway Budget, although interim after Lalu Prasad from RJD had presented vote-on-account (interim budget) in 2009 under UPA -I.

2) Karnataka won Irani Cup 2014: Karnataka defeated Rest of India by an innings and 222 runs at M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Wednesday to win their 5th Irani Trophy. Earlier, Karnataka had ended 15 years of drought by winning Ranji Trophy by beating Maharashtra last month. The platform for Karnataka’s innings victory, however, was set up by their batsmen. Stuart Binny (122), C M Gautam (122), Karun Nair (92) and Ganesh Satish (84) played impressive knocks to help Karnataka amass a mammoth 606 in their first innings in reply to ROI’s 201.

3) India ranked 140th in world press freedom index: India has been ranked 140th list of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index 2014, whereas China and Pakistan were placed at 175th and 158th position respectively. It has been published by the Organisation “Reporters Without Border” in its latest annual report. As per the report, India experienced an unprecedented wave of violence against journalists, with eight killed in 2013.

4) ATMs to soon give cash without bank account too: People without a bank account in India would soon be able to withdraw cash from an automated teller machine (ATM) with the use of mobile technology, Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan announced on Wednesday.  At present, only bank account holders can withdraw cash from an ATM.

5) Gurmit Singh is new Managing Director, Yahoo India: Yahoo on Wednesday announced the appointment of Gurmit Singh as Managing Director for Yahoo India.  As MD, Gurmit will oversee Yahoo’s business in India, responsible for its growth in the country, a company release said, adding that he will report to Yvonne Chang, VP & Head of India and South East Asia, Yahoo.  Most recently, Gurmit was the CEO of Forbes India at Network 18.

6) South Africa issued Nelson Mandela stamp: South Africa's postal service has issued a commemorative stamp with a portrait of Nelson Mandela on the 24th anniversary of his release from prison during white minority rule.

7) K Raghu elected Chartered Accountants Institute President: Chartered Accountants Institute has appointed K Raghu as its new President. Earlier, he was Vice-President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), and was elected the President of the second largest accountancy body in the world on 12th February. The Central Council of the CA Institute has also elected Manoj Fadnis as the Vice-President for 2014-15.

8) Yuvraj, Karthik big winners at IPL 7 auction: Flamboyant all-rounder Yuvraj Singh was the surprise recipient of a windfall at the IPL players' auction, fetching a record bid of Rs 14 crore from the Royal Challengers Bangalore while Dinesh Karthik also clinched a mind-boggling Rs 12.5 crore purse from Delhi Daredevils on Wednesday. Delhi Daredevils retained Kevin Pietersen for Rs 9 cr which is the highest amount attracted by any foreign cricketer. Major changes include, Delhi Daredevils bought Dinesh Karthik, Manoj Tiwary and Murali Vijay, Kings XI Punjab bought Virendra Sehwag, Mitchell Johnson and Cheteshwar Pujara. KKR bought Jacques Kallis, Piyush Chawla and Robin Uthappa.

9) India launches HIV salvage therapy: India on Wednesday launched third-line drug therapy for people living with HIV/AIDS and extended free anti-retroviral therapy (ART) to more of them by revising the eligibility norm. The third-line therapy, sometimes called salvage or rescue therapy, is prescribed for people who have limited drug options left — after the failure of at least two drug regimens and with evidence of HIV resistance to at least one drug in each line or the latter cause alone. The highly expensive therapy will be provided free.

10) Aadhaar not mandatory for MGNREGA wages:  Ministry of Rural Development on Tuesday directed the States not to deny workers job cards under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act for non-possession of either bank/post office account numbers or the Aadhaar card.