1. Grand slam 2015
a) Australian open –
men :- Djokovic (Serbia) defeated Andy Murray (UK)
women -: Serena Wiliams (USA) defeated Maria Sharapova (Russia)
mixed doubles :- Leander Paes & Martina Hingis (Switzeland) defeated Daniel Nestor (Canada) & Kristina Mladenovic (France)
b) French open – men -: Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) defeated Djokovic
women -: Serena Williams defeated Luci Safarova (Czech Rep.)
c) Wimbeldon open – men -: Djokovic defeated Roger Fedrer (Switzerland)
women -: Serena Williams defeated Garbine Muguruza (Spain)
d) US open – men -: Novak Djokovic defeated Fedrer
women - : Flavia Pennetta defeated Roberta Vinci (Italy)
2. cricket
a) ICC world cup -: 2019 – England ; 2023 – India
b) T20 world cup -: 2016 – India ; 2020 – Australia
c) test match world cup -: 2017 – England ; 2021 – India
3. FIFA -: 2014 – Brazil ; Germany defeated Argentina; Lionel Messi won the golden ball award for best player of FIFA world cup’14 ; James Rodriguez of Colombia won the coveted Golden boot award for scoring highest individual goals in this world cup. ; German goalkeeper manuel neuer got the golden glove honour. ; german striker Miroslav Klose became the all time record scorer with his 16th goal. Germany won world cup 5 times (1954,74,90,2014) ; 2018 – Russia ; 2022 -: Qatar
4. Commonwealth games -: Glasgow 2014 – India’s star shooter & silver medalist at London Olympics vijay kumar was the flag bearer of Indian team. England topped the medal table by clinching 174 (58 gold) medals following Australia, Canada & India came on 5th with 64 medals (15gold). ‘Clyde’ was the mascot. (India however won 101 medals (38 gold) in 2010); 2018 – Australia ; 2022 – SA
5. Olympics -: 2016 – Rio De Jenerio (Brazil) ; 2020 – Japan
Winter Olympics -: 2018 – South Korea ; 2022 – China
6. 17TH Asian games 2014 – held in Incheon (S Korea) with China 342 medals (151 gold) , S. Korea 234 medals (79 gold) , Japan 200 medals (46 gold) & India came at 7th with 57 medals (11 gold) ; 2018 – Indonesia
7. 35th National games 2015 concluded in Kerala; Ammu the great hornbill was the mascot.
Notes – Ranji trophy won by Karnataka (8 times winner) defeating TN ; East zone claims Deodhar trophy ; Central zone claims duleep trophy.
Books & Author –
1.The lowland, for the namesake – Jhumpa Lahiri
2. and then one day – Nasiruddin shah
3. The substance & the shadow (biography of Dilip kumar) – Uday Tora Nayar4
4. Good, bad, & the ridiculous, train to pakistan – Khuswant singh
5. An uncertain glory – Amartya Sen
6. Inheritance of loss – Kiran Desai
7. My unforgettable memories – Mamta Banerjee
8. The accidental PM – Dr. Sanjay Baru
9. Hard choices – Hilary Clinton
10. Playing it my way – Sachin Tendulkar
11. The silk worm – J K Rowling
12. turning point, wings of fire, ignited minds, the scientific India, the family & the Nation, spirit of India, the Luminous sparks – APJ Abdul Kalam
Defence Exercise
1.Malabar – naval oepratioin b/w India & US. Japan also invited to join 2015 exercise.
2. Yudh Abhyas – army exercise of India with US held in Ranikhet 2014 ; in US 2015
3. Varuna –joint navy exercise of India with France held in Goa.
4. Garuda Shakti III – joint exercise b/w India & Indonesia held at counter insurgency & jungle warfare school in varengte, Mizoram
5. Nomadic elephant – military exercise b/w India & Mongolia
6. SIMBEX - Joint naval exercise b/w India & Singapore
7. Slinex – naval exercise b/w India & Sri Lanka (at S. Lanka)
8. Maitree – India & Thailand to focus counter terrorist activity
9. Indra – India & Russia (at Rajasthan)
10. Surya Kiran – military exercise of India with Nepal
11. EKUVERIN 2015 is a military exercise between India & Maldieves.
12. Peace & friendship 2015 is the first joint military exercise b/w China & Malaysia
1.ISRO launches 4th navigation satellite IRNSS – 1D, GSLV MARK III successfully
2. India’s air to air missile astra test fired in Odisha.
3. 6 airports to be develop in Arunchal Pradesh.
4. Prithvi II test fired successfully.
5. IAF finally get indigenous ICA Tejas
6. India test fires Agni IV off Odisha coast
7. India successfully test fires Nirbhay cruise missile (fire & forget)
8. Indian Navy commission INS Sumitra.
Awards
a)noble prize
i) Peace – Malala Yousufzai, Kailash Satyarthi
ii) literature – Pattric Modiano (for ‘art of memory’) (pattric wrote – missing person, honeymoon, ring of roads, villa, a trade of malice.)
iii) Chemistry – Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell, William E.Moerner
iv) Physics – Isamu Akasaki, Shuji Nakamura, Hiroshi Amano (for inventing LED)
v) Medicine – May Britt mosere, Edward Moser, John Okeefe
vi) Economics – Jean Tirole
Rajiv Gandhi Khel award 2014 – Sania Mirza
Dadasaheb Phalke award 2013- Gulzar ; 2014 – Shashi Kapoor
DSC prize for south Asian literature 2015 – Indian American Pulitzer prize winning author Jhumpa Lahiri has won it for the book ‘The Lowland’.
Sahitya Akademi award 2014 for Sanskrit language – Prabhu nath dwivedi
Renowned writer & Jnanpith award winner Prathibha ray won kalinga ratna award by Sarla Sahitya sansad in Cuttack 2014.
SCHEMES
1.PM ‘sukanya Samridhi yojana’ – for girl child under beti bachao beti padao campaign. To open bank account of girls under age of 10 with 9.1% interest rate & tax rebate.
2. HRIDAY – to preserve & rejuvenate rich cultural heritage of the country under union ministry of urban development. Centre to fund entire expenditure. It will be dovetailed with PRASAD scheme of tourism ministry.
National Judicial Appointments Commission – CJI, two other senior judges of SC, union minister of law & justice, two eminent persons (from sc/st/obc/woman) to be nominated by a comm. Consisting of CJI, PM, Leader of opp. It gives NJAC a constitutional status for appointment of judges to SC & HC.
18TH SAARC summit held at Kathmandu 2014. Theme was ‘Deeper integration peace & prosperity’.
Next summit will held at Islamabad in Pakistan in 2016.
12th India – ASEAN (25th) summit in Nay Pyi Taw (Myanmar)
APEC summit held in Beijing 2014
27th ASEAN summit 2015 (Kuala Lumpur) –
East Asia Summit is a forum held annually by leaders of initially, 16 countries in the East Asian & South East Asian region. Membership expanded to 18 countries including USA & Russia in 2011. EAS meetings are held after annual ASEAN leaders meeetings. The first summit was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malayasia in 2005.
10th G 20 at Antalya in Turkey (2015)
They focused on terrorism. Next G -20 summit will be hosted by China in Hangzhou in 2016.
3rd India – Africa forum summit 2015 held in New Delhi. 41 leaders from African countries confirmed their presence.
1st summit held in 2008 (N. Delhi) ; 2nd at Addis Ababa, Ethopia in 2011. It helds in every 3 years.
Maharatna companies
1. ONGC 2. NTPC 3. SAIL
4. IOC 5. CIL 6. BHEL
7.GAIL
Navratna companies
1. BPCL 2. HPCL 3. MTNL 4. BEL 5.HAL
6.Power finance corporation
7.National mineral development corporation
8. Power grid corporation of India ltd.
9. Rural electrification corporation
10. National aluminium co.
11. Shipping corporation of India
12. Rashtriya Ispat nigam ltd.
13. Oil India ltd.
14. Neyveli lignite coporation ltd.
15. Engineers India ltd.
16. National building construction corporation ltd.
17. Container corporation of India ltd.
PIO – means a foreign citizen (except a national of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Iran, Bhutan, Sri Lanka & Nepal) whose one of the parents / grandparents great granparents was born & a permanent resident of India.
PIO holders do not require a visa to visit India for a period of 15 years from the date of issue of card.
OCI – A foreign national, who was eligible to become citizen of India on 26/1/1950 or was a citizen of India on or at anytime after 26/1/1950 is eligible for registration as OCI. (except Pakistan or Bangladesh).
GSAT – are India’s indigenoursly developed technologies of communications satellites, used for digital audio, data & video broadcasting.
INSAT - is a series of multipurpose geo stationary satellites launched by ISRO to satisfy telecommunications, broadcasting, meteorology, search & rescue operations.
General points –
1. 2022 Asian Games will be organized at China
2. Gaofen – 9 is china’s most advanced observation satellite
3. 55th national open athletics championship
4. Amogha – 1 is the 2nd generation anti tank guided missile, indigenously developed by Bharat Dyanamics limited.
5. DRDO’S lifetime achievement award for 2015 is V S Arunachalam
6. Arvind panagariya appointed as the Sherpa for G – 20 talks
7. South Asian annual disaster management exercise in 2015 in India
8. INS Trikand visited UK to participate in annual Indo UK Navy exercise Konkan
9. Government released commemorative postal stamp on BR Ambedkar
10. RBI will issue coins of 5 rupees golden jubilee year of Indo Pak war 1965.
11. Seychelles admitted as 161st member of WTO IN 2015
12. Government launched Swavlamban health insurance scheme for people with disabilities
13. India ranked 81st in global innovation index 2015
14. Mission Indradhanush targets to immunize all children against 7 vaccine preventable disease namely Diptheria Pertussis, tetanus, TB, Polio, Hepatitis B, Measles
15. Indian scientist successfully deployed Ind ARC, the country first multi sensor moored observatory in the north pole (designed by national centre for Antarctic & ocean research & national institute of ocean technology.
16.
AUGUST 2015
ECONOMY
NEWS (INDIA AND WORLD)
1. RBI decided to put into circulation 10 rupees coins
to commemorate the International Day of Yoga.
2. China‘s central bank devaluate its currency yuan by
3. The Employees‘ Provident Fund Organisation
(EPFO), for the first time since its inception in
1951, would invest in equities with a corpus of
Rs.5,000 crore initially through SBI Mutual Fund.
4.Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the Prime
Minister of Sri Lanka. He was administered the oath
of office by President Maithripala
Sirisena. Wickremesinghe had served the country
as its Prime Minister on three occasions.
5. Om Prakash Rawat was appointed as the Election
Commissioner of India.
6. Bangladesh novelist Zia Haider Rahman won the
James Tait Black award 2015 for his debut novel
In the Light of What We Know.
7. President of India, Pranab Mukherjee presented the
24th Saraswati Sammaan for the year 2014 to Dr.
M Veerappa Moily, Member of Parliament (Lok
Sabha) in New Delhi. He received the award for his
epic Sri Ramayana Mahanveshanam written in
Kannada.
8. Mathematician Doctor Amalendu Krishna won the
Ramanujan Prize for year 2015.
9. Helena Ndume of Namibia and Jorge Sampaio of
Portugal were awarded with the first
-ever Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize by the United Nations.
10. PM launched Deendayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana on 25 July 2015.
11. Tunisia designated as 16th major Non NATO ally (MNNA).
SEPTEMBER 2015
1. The Union Government decided to appoint Arvind
Panagariya, Vice President of NITI Aayog, as the
Sherpa for the 2015 G - 20 Summit. The Summit
will take place in Antalya, Turkey in November
2015.
2. PV Chandran was elected as President of the
Indian Newspaper Society for the year 2015
3. Professor Ramesh Chand appointed as a full
- time member of NITI (National Institution for
Transforming India) Aayog. He is also a member
of a task force on agriculture development under Niti Aayog which is formulating strategies to give
a boost to the agriculture sector.
4. Novak Djokovic, the world‟s top ranked tennis
player appointed as the Goodwill Ambassador of
the United Nations Children‟s Fund.
5. Eminent Hindi writer Dr Kamal Kishore Goenka
was conferred with 24th Vyaas Samman for the
year 2014. He was awarded for his work
'Premchand ki Kahaniyon ka Kaal
Kramanusaar Adhyayan'.
6. Short story writer and novelist Jhumpa Lahiri was
awarded with the 2014 National Humanities
Medal by the White House, United States.
7. President Pranab Mukherjee conferred Gandhi
Peace Prize for the year 2014 on Indian Space
Research Organization.
8. India won the UNESCO prize Award of Excellence
2015 for the conserving the Sree Vadakkunnathan
Temple of Kerala.
9. The Waterman of India Rajendra Singh was
conferred with the 2015 Stockholm Water Prize.
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
10. Kolkata Port was adjudged as the „Major Port of
the Year‟ amongst 12 major ports in the country
for the year 2014.
11. National Sports Day was celebrated on the 29 August 2015 across the country. On this occasion, President Pranab Mukherjee conferred National Sports and Adventure Awards in New Delhi. Sania Mirza (Tennis) was conferred with Rajiv Gandhi
Khel Ratna. (2nd tennis player after Leander Paes).The prestigious award was won by shooter Ronjan Sodhi in 2014. Naval Singh
(athletics – para - sports), Anoop singh (wrestling), Harbans Singh (athletics-lifetime), Swatantar Raj Singh (Boxing-life time) and Nihar Ameen (Swimming -lifetime) were the winners of
Dronacharaya Awards. Seventeen people were conferred with Arjuna Awards including Sandeep Kumar (archery), Rohit Sharma (cricket), Jitu Rai (Shooting) and Babita Kumari (wrestling). Romeo
James (hockey), Shiv Prakash Mishra (tennis) and TPP Nair (volleyboll) were conferred with Dhyan Chand Awards.
12. Acharya Dev Vrat was sworn
- in as the Governor of the Himachal Pradesh.
13. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Ireland on
23 September 2015. He is the first Prime Minister
of India to visit Ireland in 59 years. During his
visit, Modi held discussions with Prime Minister
Enda Kenny of Ireland.
14. Swami Dayanand Saraswati, died in his ashram in
Rishikesh.
15. (COP - 21) of the UNFCC to be held in Paris in
December 2015. UNFCC stands for United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC).
OCTOBER 2015
1.Two mountaineers Arjun Vajpai and Bhupesh
Kumar in third week of October 2015 created
history by becoming first people to climb 6180
meter high unnamed peak in Himachal’s Spiti
Valley. The duo named the peak as Mout Kalam, in
honour of former President of India, Dr. Abdul
Kalam.
2. Nobel Peace Prize winner of 2014 Kailash
Satyarthi was conferred with the 2015
Humanitarian of the Year Award. The award is
given annually by the Harvard Foundation for
Intercultural and Race Relations of the Harvard
University.
3. Jamaican writer Marlon James won the 2015 Man
Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel A Brief
History of Seven Killings.
4. Micro economist born in Edinburgh Angus Deaton
won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics. He was
awarded for his analysis of consumption, poverty,
and welfare.
5. Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet won the Nobel
Peace Prize 2015. It was awarded for its decisive
contribution to the building of a pluralistic
democracy in Tunisia in the wake of Jasmine
revolution of 2011.