Daily Current Affairs Review: 30 January 2015

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1) Nation observed death anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi:

--> Nation observes the death anniversary of the Father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi as Martyrs' Day on 30 January 2015.

-->The country also observed Martyrs' day to honour all those who gave their life for the country.

--> Silence observed and work and movement stopped for two minutes throughout the country at 11 am on Jan 30. The day marks the 67th death anniversary of the Father of the nation.

--> Mahatma Gandhi, considered as the pillar of India's freedom struggle movement, was assassinated on the 30 January 1948.

2) Krishna Chaudhary appointed new ITBP chief:

--> Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Krishna Chaudhary will take over as the new Director General (DG) of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

--> Chaudhary, who is currently the Director General of the Railway Protection Force, is a 1979-batch Bihar cadre officer. He has been appointed for two years.

--> He succeeds Subhas Goswami who retired on December 31, 2014. 

3) Commemorative Postage Stamp on Swachh Bharat released:

--> Department of Posts, Ministry of Communications & IT has come out with a set of Commemorative Postage Stamps on the theme Swachh Bharat.

--> The Union Minister of Communications &IT, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad released a set of Commemorative Postage stamps on Swachh Bharat on 30 January 2015.

--> The MOC&IT was hopeful that the stamp on Swachh Bharat will provide impetus and momentum to the Clean India campaign started by Hon'ble Prime Minister on 2nd October.

4) Union Govt. sold its 10% stake in Coal India Limited (CIL):

--> Union Govt. has sold its 10% stake in Coal India Limited (CIL) on 30 January 2015.

--> This stake sale was oversubscribed 1.05 times and fetched about Rs. 22,600 crore.

--> This was the biggest ever share sale by any private or public sector company in India. It exceeded the previous record of over Rs. 15,000 crore by CIL itself in 2010.

5) Jayanthi Natarajan quits Congress:

--> Former union minister Jayanthi Natrajan resigned from the Congress party on 30 January 2015, accusing it of not being democratic. She was Environment and Forest Minister in previous UPA government.

--> Natarajan held a press conference in Chennai and said that there is no internal democracy in the Congress party now.

--> A letter said to have been written by her to Congress President Sonia Gandhi last November, has been published by The Hindu newspaper.

--> She disclosed in her letter that Rahul Gandhi was involved in policy decisions at a micro-level during the UPA-II regime. Jayanthi Natarajan said that she has become a victim of a false and motivated media campaign against her by some Congress leaders.

6) Anti-Leprosy Day observed:

--> Anti Leprosy Day is being held on 30th January every year to raise leprosy awareness among people and to offer help to those affected by the disease.

--> President Pranab Mukherjee has extended his best wishes to the Indian Leprosy Association on the occasion of Anti Leprosy Day.

7) India knocked out of tri-series in Australia:

--> India were on 30 January 2015 knocked out of the tri-series cricket tournament after yet another spineless display as England recovered from a top-order collapse to record a three-wicket victory and secure a place in the final in Perth.

8) Railway Minister flagged off trains remotely through Telepresence Service:

--> Minister for Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, flagged off four Express trains from Bengaluru remotely through Telepresence Service of RailTel, a PSU of Railways.

--> All the four flag offs were done remotely from concourse area of Bangalore City Railway station itself.

--> Telepresence offers a more engaging video conference with cutting edge technology, so that the parties involved feel the immersive presence of participants at different locations.

9) RBI constituted high level panel on urban cooperative banks.

--> Reserve Bank on 30 January 2015 constituted a high-powered panel to re-examine and recommend appropriate set of businesses, size, conversion and licensing terms for the urban cooperative banking sector.

--> The committee under the chairmanship of RBI Deputy Governor R Gandhi has been set up on the recommendation made by the Standing Advisory Committee (SAC) on UCBs last year.

10) V K Saraswat joined as full-time member of NITI Aayog:

--> Former DRDO chief V K Saraswat on 30 January 2015 assumed charge as a full-time member of the NITI Aayog.

--> Government had announced the appointment of Saraswat and noted economist Bibek Debroy as full-time members of (National Institution for Transforming India) NITI Aayog earlier this month.

11) Robert Mugabe appointed African Union chairman:

--> Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has been appointed the new chairman of the 54-nation African Union.

--> Announcement was made during the African Union's two-day heads of state summit at the organisation's headquarters in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa.

12) Income Tax Department bagged National Award on E-Governance 2014-15:

--> The Income Tax Department has been awarded GOLD by the Government of India under category Cat-I-Excellence in Government Process Re-engineering for National Award on e-governance 2014-15.

--> The award has been conferred for TDS Reconciliation Analysis & Correction Enabling System (TRACES) project launched by the Department.