Daily Current Affairs Updates:14 March 2014

1) Sachin Tendulkar voted Cricketer of the Generation: One of the greatest batsmen of all time, the iconic Sachin Tendulkar was on Friday voted Cricketer of the Generation as he staved off stiff competition from spin legend Shane Warne and all-rounder par excellence Jacques Kallis at the ESPNcricinfo awards function. The award is meant to honour the most outstanding cricketer between the years 1993 and 2013, and the occasion also marked the 20th anniversary celebrations for the cricket website. Tendulkar has been the most successful batsman of his generation, having set innumerable records in both Tests and ODIs.

2) India Launched Operation "Search Light": Even as the 6th day came to an end there is no sign where the illfated Malaysian Airlines aircraft could have gone. Meanwhile, the Indian Navy has launched operation "Search Light" on a large scale. It is believed that that the aircraft turned towards the Andaman & Nicobar Islands after disappearing from the radar. On this basis, the search is being done in the Andaman sea. The search will be directed in an area of about 90,000 square kilometers. The Malaysian authorities too have started to believe this plane was hijacked and are working based on this theory. MH-370 went misssing from the radar on 7th March and search team from China, Malaysia, Vietnam are still not able to locate any wreckage of it.

3) Tomas Halik won Templeton Prize 2014: Tomas Halik, the Czech priest won the Templeton Prize for 2014. The award was announced by the John Templeton Foundation on 13 March 2014 and under the award he will receive 1.1 million Euro. Tomas Halik (65) is a person, whose work is aimed at seekers, the segment of those asking questions about religious and spiritual issues but unaffiliated with religion or atheism. Templeton Prize was established in 1972 by the late Sir John Templeton. The Prize is a monetary award of 1.1 million Euros and is the largest annual award in terms of cash in the world.

4) ONGC, OIL buy 10% govt stake in IOC: State-owned ONGC and Oil India Ltd (OIL) on Friday bought 10 percent government stake in Indian Oil Corp (IOC) for Rs 5,340 crore. The stake sale has doubled government's disinvestment proceeds for the current fiscal to Rs 10,434 crore. In off-market transactions, Oil and Natural Gas Corp and OIL bought 5 percent stake each at Rs 220 per share. ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Dinesk K Sarraf confirmed his company's buying 12.135 crore government shares in IOC at Rs 220 per share. OIL head S K Srivastava said his firm paid Rs 2,670 crore for the 5 percent shares in IOC.

5) GK Pillai resigned as Chairman of MCX-SX: GK Pillai resigned as Chairman of MCX-SX on 14 March 2014. Consequently, current Vice Chairman and former LIC Chairman, Thomas Mathew T was elected as new Chairman and Ashima Goyal was elected as Vice Chairperson by the Board members.  The exchange also announced that MCX and FTIL had been reclassified as Public Shareholder from Promoter Shareholder. Incidentally, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) began its probe on 13 March 2014 against the stock exchange’s founder Jignesh Shah and former Chairman of SEBI C.B. Bhave. The probe will also investigate the alleged irregularities in the sanctioning of MCX-SX along with the subsequent recognition renewals of exchange in 2009, 2010.

6) Sriramulu rejoined BJP: The former Minister and BSR Congress founder B. Sriramulu rejoined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday to pave the way for the party to nominate him as its candidate for the Lok Sabha elections from Bellary.

7) World’s first solar-powered toilet set for India launch: A revolutionary waterless toilet powered by the sun, developed to help some of the 2.5 billion people lacking safe and sustainable sanitation around the world, will be unveiled in India this month. Designed and built using a $777,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the self-contained, waterless toilet with its innovative technology converts human waste to biochar, a highly porous charcoal. It aims to provide an eco-friendly solution to help some of the 2.5 billion people around the world lacking safe sanitation.

8) Team India left for Bangladesh to play ICC World T20 Ch'ship: Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Indian cricket team left for Bangladesh on Friday to compete in the ICC World Twenty20 Championship scheduled from March 16. The former champions would open their campaign against Pakistan on the 21st March at Mirpur in a Super 10 game and then take on the West Indies on the 23rd March at the same venue.

9) Economy will grow at 5.5% in Q4: Rangarajan- Country’s economy is likely to grow at 5.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal on higher agriculture output and pick up in the manufacturing activities, Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) chairman C Rangarajan said on Friday.

10) SBI first to start up ePay facility: For the first time a state run bank State bank of India is starting up the facility of payment gateway. SBI is setting up its payment gateway – SBI ePay. SBI ePay basically is an online aggregator service. In order to facilitate its customers with easier access in making payments SBI has come up with this facility.

Know its use?- Through this facility merchants and customers will be able to make payments through online banking, mobile banking, and credit cards. SBIePay is also in the process rolling out an electronic bill presentment and payment platform (EBPP) and IVRS phone payment. This facility will also the merchants and with the facility to access all the business related information regarding all the transactions.