30th January 2016 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• Italy's Ostana town recently witnessed the first birth of a baby in the past 28 years. 
• The newborn, named Pablo, is now the 85th inhabitant of the town.
• Note : Ostana was home to over 1,000 people in the early 1900s, however, its population declined drastically over the past century.

National Affairs

• Today (30th January) is National Martyrs' Day.
  
• This day is also known as Sarvodaya day / Shaheed Diwas.
• We observe this day to commemorate 68th death anniversary of Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.
• Note : On this day in 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated at a prayer meeting.
• The Cultural Ministry has today confirmed that Ahmedabad has been selected as this year's nomination from India for the UNESCO world heritage city tag. 
• Delhi and Mumbai were also in the tentative list, but were rejected later. 
• Important Note : Even though there are over 250 heritage cities in the world, India has no UNESCO-recognised world heritage city till date.

New Appointments

• Vice Admiral Girish Luthra, took charge as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Southern Naval Command (FOC-in-C, South) today.
• Note : He took over the charge from Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba, who will take charge as Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Naval Command.
• The Maharashtra government today announced the appointment of Dattatray Padsalgikar as the new Mumbai Police Commissioner. 
• He is going to replace Ahmed Javed.
• Important Note : He is the first Maharashtrian to be appointed as the police chief of Mumbai after eight years.
• Union Government has appointed Dr. Kamlesh Kumar Pandey as the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (CCPD) for a period of three years.

Awards & Honors

• Actor Tom Hanks has been named America's favourite movie star, in a new online survey, by market research firm 'The Harris Poll'. 
• Rounding up the top three spots were Johnny Depp followed by Denzel Washington.
• To commemorate the occasion of 150th birth anniversary of Lala Lajpat Rai, the Ministry of Culture released a commemorative coin of 150 rupees and a circulation coin of 10 rupees.
• The Commemorative Coin of 150 rupees is made of Quaternary alloy with diameter of 44 mm and weight of 35 grams.
• The Circulation coin of 10 rupees is made of bi-metallic material with diameter of 27 mm and weight of 7.71 grams.
• K. Purushotham Rao, eminent pharmacist and head of the Hyderabad Karnataka Education Society’s College of Pharmacy, has bagged the prestigious IAPST Pharmaceutical Professional of the Year Award for 2015.
• IAPST - Indian Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists and Technologists
• Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been chosen for the prestigious K Veeramani Social Justice Award. 
• He has been chosen for this award for his immense contribution for the cause of social justice especially for upliftment of weaker and marginalised sections of the society. 
• Indian Author and foreign affairs expert Nisid Hajari has won the prestigious 2016 William E. Colby Award for his book Midnight’s Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India’s Partition. 
• This book is based on partition history of India and Pakistan in 1947 and the violence that surrounded it.

Deaths

• General KV Krishna Rao, the 14th Chief of the Army Staff of Indian Army passed away today.
• Veteran journalist TN Gopakumar passed away today. 
• Popularly known as TNG, he was the editor-in-chief of Asianet news and has anchored and produced a show "Kannadi" on the channel for 22 years. 
• A recipient of Kerala Sahithya Academy award, Gopakumar worked with BBC and the Indian Express among others.

Business & Economy

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will reportedly announce the sixth Bi-monthly monetary policy review for the current financial year on 2nd February 2016. 
• Important Points to Note : 
• The RBI, in 2015, reduced key policy rates by 1.25 percentage points to 6.75%. 
• Meanwhile, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said that it expects the RBI to further cut the repo rate by 0.25 percentage points in the review.
• Flipkart has announced a monthly exchange programme 'Big Exchange Days' under which it will let users exchange and upgrade their devices on the first two days of every month. 
• Starting from February 1 this year, Flipkart will let users exchange their smartphones, tablets, laptops, televisions, refrigerators and washing machines. 
• The RBI has increased the Ways and Means Advances (WMAs) for all states to ₹32,225 crore per year compared to the earlier ₹15,360 allotted for the current and the next financial year. 
• Note : The Reserve Bank, through the WMA, provides financial accommodation to the states to meet any temporary mismatches in the cash flow of their payments and receipts.
• US-based 110-year-old firm Xerox today announced its plans to split into two independent companies– hardware business and services business. 
• India today agreed to supply 300 MW of electricity to energy-starved Nepal in the next one-and- a-half year as the two sides decided to expedite construction of cross-border transmission lines and boost bilateral cooperation including in power trade.
• Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's wholesale trading platform opened its first Indian physical trade facility in Jaipur today.
• Note : Alibaba also launched a dedicated Hindi portal to connect Indian small and medium businesses with global buyers. 

Sports

• ICC Under-19 World Cup
• India beat New Zealand by 120 runs and seal a quarterfinal berth.
• Player of the Match : Avesh Khan
• Australian Open 2016
• Angelique Kerber has won Australian Open‬ women's singles title and her first Grand Slam by beating Serena Williams.
• Indian men's number one badminton player, Kidambi Srikanth made it to the final of the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in Lucknow after beating Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand. 
• He will play China's Huang Yuxiang in the final clash tomorrow.
• Ayonika Paul became the 11th Indian shooter to clinch an Olympic quota as she qualified for the Women’s 10m Air Rifle event at Rio 2016. 
• She won silver medal at the Asian Shooting Olympic Qualifiers in New Delhi yesterday.
• Batsman Hamilton Masakadza has been appointed Zimbabwe's new cricket captain, replacing Elton Chigumbura who resigned on the recent tour of Bangladesh.
• The 32-year-old Masakadza is the most experienced player on the Zimbabwe team having played 29 Tests and 165 one-day internationals. 
• Legspinner Graeme Cremer is the new vice-captain.

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