Daily Current Affairs : 6th-10th July 2014

1. 6th BRICS Summit to be held in Fortaleza, Brazil from 15-17 July 2014. The 6th BRICS summit will be the sixth annual diplomatic meeting of the BRICS, a grouping of major emerging economies that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It will be hosted by Brazil, as the first host country of the current five-year summit cycle, the host city will be Fortaleza.
2. A panel headed by former Economic Advisor to Prime Minister, C Rangarajan sets poverty line at Rupees 32 per day in rural areas and Rupees 47 in Urban areas. The panel has dismissed the Tendulkar Committee report on estimating poverty, which had suggested persons spending below 33 Rupees per-day mark in Urban areas to be considered poor.
3. Governor of Gujarat, Kamla Beniwal was transferred and appointed as Governor of Mizoram for the remainder of her term.
4. Vakkom Purushothaman, the Mizoram Governor, transferred and appointed as Governor of Nagaland for the remainder of his term. Vakkom will continue to hold the additional charge of the office of the Governor of Tripura.
5. DY Patil, the Governor of Bihar assumed the additional charge of West Bengal as the acting Governor. Patil took over the charge of the office from MK Narayanan who resigned from the post on 30 June 2014, which was accepted by the President on 4 July 2014. Narayanan became the 24th Governor of West Bengal on 24 January 2010.
6. M S Mehta was appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Reliance Infrastructure on 7 July 2014. He took charge as CEO for a period of five years. He replaced Lalit Jalan, who held the post of CEO of Reliance Infrastructure for more than seven years.
7. National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the development of Small Farm Producers. The MoU seeks to bring the two institutions in close coordination for implementing schemes for promotion of Producer Organisations (POs).
8. United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, William Hague, will arrive in India on a two-day visit for the first time after the formation of the NDA government in the country. The visit will focus on key areas, including ways to enhance investment, defence and security ties between the two countries.
9. Petro Kvitova crushes Bouchard to win Wimbledon title. Petra Kvitova stormed to her second Wimbledon title in the shortest women’s final since 1983 as the Czech sixth seed crushed Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard 6-3, 6-0 on Saturday.
10. Novak Djokovic  defeated Roger Federer to win his second Men’s Wimbledon title and seventh career Grand Slam. The match went into the decider set and Djokovic shattered Federer’s dream of a record eighth grass court title, with score card reading 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 5-7, 6-4.
11. Novak Djokovic becomes world number one after Wimbledon victory. Serbian Djokovic has moved above Rafael Nadal of Spain to top the rankings by 460 points. Defeated finalist Roger Federer has skipped compatriot Stan Wawrinka to claim third.
12. Serena Williams of the United States has retained top spot in the latest world rankings released by the WTA Monday, while Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova moved up to fourth. Kvitova of the Czech Republic has gained two places from sixth but still trails Li Na (China) and Simona Halep (Romania) behind Williams, who is top with an advantage of 2,550 points.
13. Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) XI won the match played to celebrate 200 years of Lord’s Cricket Ground. Sachin Tendulkar-led MCC XI beat Shane Warne-led Rest of the World XI in Lord’s in London, UK.

Daily Current Affairs : 8th July 2014

1. Union Rail Budget 2014-15 was presented by the Union Railway Minister Sadanand Gowda on 8 July 2014. This is the first rail budget presented by any Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister and it is also Gowda’s first rail budget.
2. Union Rail Budget 2014-15: Highlights:
3. Railways to build FOB and escalators, toilets on all stations
4. Railways also proposes to set up Food Courts at major stations
5. RO drinking water facilities to be installed at stations
6. Separate housekeeping wing at 50 major stations
7. CCTV to monitor cleanliness activities
8. Mechanized laundry will be introduced
9. Dedicated freight corridor on Eastern and Western corridors
10. Tourist trains to be introduced to link all major places of tourist interests across the country
11. 4000 women constables to be recruited to ensure safety of women
12. 17000 Railway Protection Force (RPF) constables to provide safety to passengers
13. Setting up of Railway University for technical and non-technical study
14. Ultrasonic Broken Rail Detection System (UBRD) to detect problem in track
15. Proposal to start Bullet trains in Mumbai—Ahmedabad route
16. Diamond Quadrilateral project of high speed trains to connect all major metros
17. Efforts will be made to increase speed of trains to 160-200km/h on select sectors. The identified sectors are: Delhi-Agra; Delhi-Chandigarh; Delhi-Kanpur; Nagpur-Bilaspur; Mysore-Bengaluru-Chennai; Mumbai-Goa; Mumbai-Ahmedabad; Chennai-Hyderabad and Nagpur-Secunderabad.
18. E-ticketing system to be improved. Future e-ticketing to support 7200 tickets per minute & to allow 120000 simultaneous users
19. Wi-fi in A1 and A category stations and in select trains. Internet-based platform and unreserved tickets
20. Will develop 10 metro stations with state-of-the-art facilities• Outsourcing at 50 major stations; on board housekeeping to be extended to more trains; launching feedback service through IVRS on the quality
21. Hospital Management Information System to integrate all railway health units and hospitals
22. Special milk tanker trains to be introduced
23. Temperature-controlled storage for fruits and vegetable
24. setting up of Railway University for technical and non-technical subjects, tie-up with technical institutions
25. Paperless office of Indian railways in 5 years. Digital reservation charts at stations
26. Ready-to-eat meals to be introduced in phased manners
27. New trains in Rail Budget: 5 Jansadharan, 5 Premium, 6 AC, 27 express trains, 8 passenger, 5 DEMU & 2 MEMU services; 11 train extensions
28. Office-on-wheels: Internet and workstation facilities on select trains• Temperature-controlled storage for fruits and vegetable
29. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a 180 million dollars loan to help Nepal overcome its crippling power shortages and export surplus power to neighboring India. The loan will help Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) finance a substantial upgrade and expansion of transmission and distribution lines and sub-stations, allowing the transfer of up to 2,000 megawatts (MW) of power to main load centers in the Kathmandu Valley.
30. India successfully test-fired an advanced version of the 290-km range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from Chandipur-on-Sea off Odisha coast. It was test-fired from a mobile launcher from launch complex number three of the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Balasore.
31. About the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile: 
32. BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 300 kilogram and operates on ‘Fire and Forget Principle’, adopting varieties of flights on its way to the target
33. BrahMos is the first supersonic cruise missile known to be in service
34. BrahMos with a top speed of Mach 2.8 is about three times faster than the US subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile
35. Indian tennis legend Vijay Amritraj on Monday announced the launch of Champions Tennis League (CTL) in India with an aim of taking the sport to new levels of awareness and popularity in the country. The CTL will feature six city based teams, who will play 13 matches over a 10-day period from November 17 to 26.
36. Granville Austin, the eminent scholar of the Indian Constitution died in Washington DC. He died at the age of 87. He described Indian Constitution as first and foremost a social document that embodied the objectives of a social revolution.
37. Alfredo Di Stefano, the legend of Real Madrid Football Club, died on 7 July 2014 at the General Universatario Gregorio Maranon Hospital in Madrid. He was 88. He died after suffering a heart attack. Stefano was a football player, who played for three different nations at international level but never appeared at the world cup. He played for Argentina, Colombia and Spain.
38. Eduard Shevardnadze, the former President of Georgia died on 7 July 2014. He died after prolong illness at the age of 86.  He became the second President of Georgia in 1992 after disintegration of Georgia from the erstwhile Soviet Union. He had succeeded Zviad Gamsakhurdia. He was toppled in November 2003 after the Rose Revolution led by Mikheil Saakashvili.
39. Australia leads the latest ICC test rankings followed by South Africa, England with India in the fourth place. Men in Blue played test cricket after a long gap in Bangladesh last month and the tour of England will provide them yet another opportunity to improve their ranking.
40. Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza has achieved a career-best rank of number five in the world as the new WTA Doubles chart was released yesterday. Sania has entered the top-five for the first time in her career.

Daily Current Affairs : 9th July 2014

1. Indian economy is likely to grow in the range of 5.4 to 5.9 per cent in 2014-15 overcoming the sub-5 per cent GDP growth of past two years, even as poor monsoon and disturbed external environment remain a cause for concern, says the Economic Survey.
2. ECONOMIC SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS 2013-14:
3. GDP growth seen at 5.4-5.9 pc in 2014/15
4. Growth rate of 7-8 pc can occur after 2015/16
5. CAD to be contained at 2.1 pc of GDP in 2014-15
6. Wholesale inflation expected to moderate by end-2014
7. Need DTC as clean modern replacement for existing I-T laws
8. RBI intervention in forex market behind accumulation of reserves “generally”
9. Rupee has stabilised, reflecting an overall sense of confidence in forex and capital markets
10. Capital controls under FEMA do not support rapidly globalising economy.
11. BJP leader Amit Shah and close aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the party’s new President. He replaces the incumbent Rajnath Singh who became Home Minister after the party’s victory in the Lok Sabha polls.
12. Emma Watson, the British Actress was appointed as the Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women. With this appointment, the accomplished actress and humanitarian Watson will work for empowerment of young women and also as an advocate for UN Women’s campaign in promoting gender equality.  
13. Justice Arun Mishra, Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Rohington F Nariman were appointed as Supreme Court judges on 7 July 2014. The three judges were administered the oath of office by Chief Justice of India, R M Lodha. Justice Mishra and Justice Goel were the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court and the Orissa High Court, respectively. Justice Nariman was a senior advocate at the Supreme Court and has been elevated from the advocates bar.
14. Germany handed hosts Brazil their biggest ever defeat, 7-1 to seal a shot at the Football World Cup for the fourth time. In the second semi-final, Argentina will clash with the Netherlands at Sao Paulo late tonight.

Daily Current Affairs : 10th July 2014

1. India’s economy is 10th biggest in terms of GDP according to World Bank. After growing at an average annual rate of just over 6 per cent from 1980 to 2010, India’s economy is now the 10th biggest in the world in terms of gross domestic product, according to the World Bank.
2. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said the government will retain the fiscal deficit target for 2014-15 at 4.1 per cent of GDP and reduce it further to 3 per cent by 2016-17. Presenting his maiden Budget, the Minister said the prevailing economic situation presents a great challenge and there was a need to introduce fiscal prudence that will lead to fiscal consolidation and discipline.
3. Tax exemption limit raised to Rs 2.5 lakh. The proposal, according to an estimate, is likely to be benefit about 2 crore tax payers. Similarly, he raised tax exemption limit from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh in the case of senior citizens. Thus, tax on income from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh is retained at 10 per cent, up to Rs 10 lakh at 20 per cent and above 10 lakh at 30 per cent. 
4. Government on Thursday allocated Rs 2.29 lakh crore for the Defence Ministry in the Budget, marking an increase of around 12.5 per cent from the last fiscal as it raised the FDI limit in the defence sector up to 49 per cent from 26 per cent now.
5. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Yojana to create awareness on women’s issues. For the safety and welfare of women, Rs 100 crores have been provided for Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Yojana to generate awareness on the issues. An outlay of fifty crore rupees has been made for pilot testing of a scheme on safety for women on public road transport.
6. To clean up the Ganga, Rs 2037 crores has been provided for the Ganga conservation mission – Namami Ganga in the General Budget. Another Rs 100 crores has been provided for Ghat development and beautification at Kedarnath, Haridwar, Kanpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Patna and Delhi.
7. Govt allocates Rs 500 crore for its ‘Digital India’ initiative to set up broadband network in villages and promote local manufacturing of hardware and Indian software products. Under the Digital India initiative, National Rural Internet and Technology Mission, the government will focus on setting up broadband in villages, promote local manufacturing of hardware and Indian software products, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said while presenting the Budget for 2014-15.
8. India and United Kingdom decided to launch negotiations for civil nuclear cooperation. The decision was taken during the visit of UK foreign secretary of state William Hague to India.  He visited India on 7- 8 July 2014. The Union External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj and UK foreign secretary of state William Hague had discussions on variety of issues related to bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest. At present, the Bilateral trade between the UK and India stands at 15 billion US dollars. 
9. Typhoon Neoguri slammed into Japan’s southern main island early today after lashing the Okinawa island chain, with three people killed as powerful winds and torrential rains battered the country. The typhoon’s winds slowed somewhat overnight, with the storm packing gusts of up to 126 kilometres (78 miles) per hour as it moved east at 25 kilometres per hour.
10. Argentina defeated the Netherlands 4-2 on penalties on Wednesday to set up a third World Cup final against Germany.
11. FIFA suspended Nigeria from all international football competitions with immediate effect. Nigeria was suspended on account of government interference in running Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).