Current Affairs - 31st Jan 2014
Bailout programme for Cyprus
International creditors on 29 January 2014 started the third bailout review of Cyprus to gauge whether the country is living up to the terms of its financial rescue program. The start of country’s third bailout review comes after earlier assessments concluded that the country was on track, but warned that there was no room to slacken efforts.
The amount of bailout package approved by the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Cyprus during March 2013 was– 10 billion Euro or $13.6 billion .Cyprus’ banking sector is the hardest hit with this bail-out package.
The deal saw authorities seize large portions of uninsured savings in the two largest banks and impose capital controls while the second-largest lender was shut down.
Google sells Motorola to Lenovo
Google Inc. on 29 January 2014 announced selling Motorola’s smartphone business (Motorola Mobility) to Chinese company Lenovo for $2.9 billion. The price of the sale makes Google’s biggest acquisition of Motorola look like its most expensive mistake. Google acquired Motorola Mobility in 2012 at a price of – $12.4 billion .Motorola has lost nearly $2 billion since Google took over, while trimming its workforce from 20,000 to 3,800.
Google had previously recovered some of the money that it spent on Motorola by selling the company’s set-top operations last year to Arris Group Inc. for $2.35 billion. On the other hand Lenovo now appears determined to become a bigger player in smartphones as more people rely on them instead of laptop and desktop computers to go online.
India and Netherland signed deal
India signed a MoU with The Netherlands in the field of health and medicine to strengthen bilateral cooperations.
ICC Umpire’s panel
New Zealand's Kathy Cross became the first woman to be inducted in an ICC umpires' panel when she was named as an Associate and Affiliate International official following the annual review and selection process.
India’s first Monorail
India will run its first monorail in Mumbai from Wadala to Chembur covering a distance of 8.93km. The monorail will have 4 coaches and carry 560 passengers. With this, India will join countries like U.S., Japan, China, Australia, and Malaysia that run monorails.
Mahatma Gandhi’s grand daughter Ela Gandhi honored with prestigious South African Award ‘Amadelakupha’
Mahatma Gandhi’s grand daughter, Ms. Ela Gandhi honored with the Prestigious South African Award, ‘Amadelakupha’ by the South African Government. This award was also given to Sunny Singh and Mac Maharaj of Indian Decent.
The South African Government stated that Ms. Gandhi was selected for the award in recognition for her lifetime contribution to the freedom struggle in SouthAfrica.
Second Supermoon of 2014 will be visible on Jan 31, 2014
The second of the five supermoons of 2014 would be visible on Friday around 3.30 p.m. January 1, 2014 was the year’s first supermoon and January 31, 2014 will be the second. As per Space Foundation, an organisation working for popularizing astronomy, the second of the five supermoons of 2014 would be visible on Friday.
The other supermoons this year are forecasted to happen on July 12, August 10, and September 9, 2014. The one in August is supposed to be the closet to Earth.
