Current Affairs Jaanuary 2013

• The person who on 25 January 2013 became Czech Republic’s first directly elected President as per the Czech Republic Presidential election results-Milos Zeman

• The Bollywood superstar who topped the inaugural Forbes India Celebrity 100 list-Shahrukh Khan

• The renowned playback singer, who on 26 January 2013 refused to accept the prestigious Padma Bhushan-Sreeramamurthy Janaki

• The ballistic missile successfully test fired by India with a strike range of around 700 kilometres, from an underwater platform in Bay of Bengal-K15

• The Kannada author who was shortlisted among other ten authors for prestigious International Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2013-UR Ananthamurthy

• The major of Rashtriya Rifles who was selected for Kirti Chakra for his extraordinary bravery efforts in counter- terrorist operations in J&K-Major Abup J Manjali

• The mastermind of 26/11 terror attack who was sentenced to 35 years of imprisonment by the U.S. Federal District Court Judge Harry Leinenweber-David Coleman Headley

• The Islamic school of India which on 23 January 2013 demanded that the controversial writers should be banned from 6th edition of Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF)- Darul Uloom Deoband

• The two Scientists awarded with the prestigious Aryabhatta Award instituted by the Astronautical Society of India (ASI)- Dr. A.E. Muthunayagam and Dr. V.K. Saraswat

• The Chennai-born Scientist of Indian Origin and President of Micronutrient Initiative, Canada who was awarded with Canada’s Highest Civilian Award – the Order of Canada-Venkatesh Mannar

• The former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor who constituted the 14th Finance Commission under Union Government in January 2013-Yaga Venugopal Reddy

• The place at which the foundation stone of the state-of-the-art National Data Centre of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was laid-Manesar, Gurgaon in Haryana

• The first fast patrol vessel (FPV), launched by Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) on 8 January 2013 which was built for the Indian Coast Guard – Aadesh

• The Special Bench of Justices of A.K. Patnaik and Gyan Sudha Misra to hear cases of crime against women was constituted by-Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir

• Keeping under consideration the sharp increase in the cost of materials, the Union Cabinet in January 2013 approved the Ministry of Rural Development’s proposal to increase the unit cost under-Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY)

• The person elected by Shiv Sena as the President of the Party on 23 January 2013 at Sena Headquarters at Dadar, Central Mumbai- Uddhav Thackeray

• The BJP President who on 22 January 2013 resigned from his post as after his resignation, Rajnath Singh was elected as the party chief-Nitin Gadkari

• The Female sports personalities and the Olympic Bronze Medalists who on 22 Jan. 2013 nominated by Election Commission of India as National Icons-Mary Kom and Saina Nehwal

• The largest shore patrol vessel which was commissioned in the eastern coast for maritime surveillance around Andaman and Nicobar Islands- NS Saryu

• Former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh who merged his Jan Kranti Party with Bhartiya Janta Party, during the Atal Shankhnaad Rally of BJP at Lucknow- Kalyan Singh

• The third oldest elephant of the world, which celebrated its 66th birthday at the Inokashira Park Zoo of Japan- Hanako

• The congress MP who on 19 January 2013 declared the new vice-president of Indian National Congress after the decision made by the Congress Working Committee-Rahul Gandhi

• The actor and the actress who bagged the best actor and actress award in the 58th Idea Filmfare Awards given away on 20 January 2013-Ranbir Kapoor and Vidya Balan

• The Dutch Coach who in the month of January was appointed as the High Performance Director for Indian Hockey Team- Roelant Oltmans

• The Indian researcher who was selected to be felicitated with the Young Investigator Scholarship Award for his work on Alzheimer's drug- Mahaveer Golechha

• The Union Minister for Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs, who was elected as a leader of Indian delegation for World Economic Forum 2013- Kamal Nath

• Indian-origin women who became the first woman and the 9th Speaker of the Singapore Parliament on 14 January 2013 by replacing Michael Palmer-Halimah Yacob

• The place at where ITU summoned the World Conference on International Telecommunications held from 3-14 Dec 2012- Dubai

• The former all-rounder of India from Surat who died on 13 January 2013 in Mumbai at the age of 76 years- Rusi Framroze Surti

• The place at which Indian and Pakistani armies held Brigade Commander-level flag meeting- Chakan-Da-Bagh in Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir

•Urjit Patel is appointed as a Deputy Governer of the Reserve Bank of India.

•The first phase of Direct Cash Transfer scheme is launched by the Union Government in 20 districts.

•World famous violinist M S Gopalakrishnan passed away at the age of 82.

•S Ramakrishnan joined Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre(VSSC) as the new Director.

•Cricketer Jacques Kallis becomes the 4th test cricketer to reach the 13,000 runs.

•M-Education service is launched by Bharti Airtel to provide facilities of English learning, exam preparation and career counselling on mobile phones.

•An exhibition of around 250 paintings was inaugurated by West Bengal Chief Minister Ms.Mamata Banerjee held at Kolkata Town Hall.

•Masaki Asano is the new Deputy Managing Director of India Yamaha Motor

•Teenage Pakistani activist Malala Yousufzai’s father Ziauddin is being appointed as Pakistan’s education attache in Birmigham

•Kerala State Government announced a scheme to distribute free iron tablets to school students to prevent Anemia

•Indian-American Srikanth Srinivasan is among the 33 federal judges re-nominated by the US President Barack Obama for the US Court of Appeals.

•Chief Justice of India, Altamas Kabir inaugurated the first of the five fast-track courts in Delhi.