Daily Current Affairs: 01 February 2014

1) India's first Monorail takes off: After years of delays and overcoming many a operational hiccups, the country's first Monorail finally made its debut in Mumbai on Saturday with Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan inaugurating the service. The 8.9-kilometre long monorail service between Wadala and Chembur in the central-eastern suburbs of the metropolis will become operational after a delay of over two years. The commercial operations will begin from Sunday onwards. To begin with, the services will operate with four coaches having a combined carrying capacity of 2,300 passengers at every 15 minutes. The project has been executed by a consortium of engineering major Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T) and Malaysian firm Scomi Engineering and owned and operated by MMRDA.

2) Asia's first SBTF commissioned into Indian Navy at Goa:  India has joined the elite group of nations when the Shore Based Test Facility (SBTF) was commissioned into the Indian Navy at INS Hansa in Panaji, Goa, a naval official said. This is the third such facility in the world, after the United States and Ukraine. The SBTF, which was commissioned recently, is primarily used for flight testing of naval aircraft that operate from aircraft carriers.

3) Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) gets new MD: Dr. Manoj Vaish has taken charge as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of MCX. His appointment has been approved by FMC for three years. Prior to joining MCX, Vaish was the Managing Director & CEO of NSDL Database Management.

4) Kohli inches closer to top spot in ICC ODI rankings: Virat Kohli's individual brilliance during India's disastrous show in the lost ODI series against New Zealand has helped the young batsman inch closer to the top spot in the latest ICC rankings issued on Saturday. That performance fetched him 11 ratings points in the ICC list, taking his overall tally to 870, just two points behind number-one ranked AB de Villiers.

5) Harish Rawat to be new Chief Minister of Uttarakhand: Harish Rawat will be the new Chief Minster of Uttrarakhan. He has been elected leader of the state Congress Legislative Party at its meeting in Dehradun on Saturday.

6) Mother and child tracking centre inaugurated: A ‘Mother and Child Tracking Facilitation Centre’ was inaugurated by Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad in Delhi. This centre, set up with the support of GVK EMRI, tracks the health of pregnant women and newborn.

7) Takkar assumes charge as Dena Bank ED: Dena Bank has a new Executive Director in R.K. Takkar. Takkar assumed charge as the Executive Director on Saturday. Prior to this, he was General Manager at Oriental Bank of Commerce. He had joined Oriental Bank of Commerce in May 1979 as a Probationary Officer.

8) NBA: Silver takes over as commissioner- A new era began for the National Basketball Association (NBA) on Saturday when David Stern's 30-year run as commissioner ended with his deputy, Adam Silver, taking over the helm.