HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015 The year that was - The highs and lows of 2014 Year 2014 was full of events for India and the world, India saw a change in baton in Poilitical premises where the BJP or more or less Modi toppled a clueless UPA to become the Supreme in Indian Politics, Modi spurred the Indian economy right from the go with sea of changes in the functioning of the government and the motto Minimum Government Maximum Governance often reverberated in the speeches all over the world. Sporting festivities also stormed the world this year, There were some unfortunate incidents took place in different part of the world and the Indian Subcontinent was worst affected. So we are presenting you top news that rocked India (more in focus) and the World in Twenty Fourteen. The Highs of 2014 The Great Indian Election Spectecle. The Indian general election of 2014 was held to constitute the 16th Lok Sabha, electing members of parliament for all 543 parliamentary constituencies of India. Running in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014, it was the longest election in the countrys history. According to the Election Commission of India, 814.5 million people were eligible to vote, with an increase of 100 million voters since the last general election in 2009,making it the largest-ever election in the world. Around 23.1 million or 2.7% of the total eligible voters were aged 18–19 years. A total of 8,251 candidates contested for the 543 Lok Sabha seats. The average election turnout over all nine phases was around 66.38%, the highest ever in the history of Indian general elections. The National Democratic Alliance, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, won a sweeping victory, taking 336 seats. The BJP itself won 31.0% of all votes and 282 (51.9%) of all seats. It is the first time since the 1984 Indian general elections that a party has won enough seats to govern without the support of other parties. When Desi PM goes International Modi made his first foreign visit to Bhutan following an invitation by King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Tobgay. The visit was called by the media as a charm offensive that would also seek to check Bhutan-China relations that had recently been formalised. In July 2014, he visited Brazil for his first multilateral visit, the 6th BRICS summit was held at Fortaleza.In the Fortaleza summit the group have agreed to establish a financial institution named the New Development Bank as suggested by the India. Modi at Madison Square Modi arrived for a two-day visit to Nepal on 3 August.The talks with Nepal were focused on reviewing the 1950s Treaty of Peace and Friendship, India-funded hydroelectricity projects in Nepal and other infrastructure projects in Nepal. He visited Japan on a five-day official trip from 30 August to 3 September.His visit further strengthened the ties between the two countries, and resulted in several key agreements, including the elevating the already established strategic partnership to the Special Strategic Global Partnership. Modi delivered his maiden speech in the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly on 27 September 2014, where he called for reform and expansion of United Nations Security Council including Indias long standing demand of a permanent membership. He had also argued why UN should serve as G-All for global governance instead of several parallel sub-groupings like G7, G20 etc. Ridiculing Sharif on Kashmir related matter he stated that his govt is ready for bilateral talk to Pakistan provided Pakistan should cultivate suitable environment for talks by giving up terrorism policy against, he also asked world leaders and UN officials for observing Yoga Day, emphasizing the importance of incorporating Yoga in modern day life style. Bharat Ratna for Vajpayee, Madan Mohan Malaviya. The Presidents Office on Wednesday announced the Bharat Ratna award to Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (posthumously) and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The announcement was made on the eve of Mr. Vajpayees 90th birthday and the 153rd birth anniversary of Pandit Malviya. Earlier, Mr. Advani had written a letter to the UPA Government to award the Bharat Ratna to the former Prime Minister. Mr. Vajpayee will be the seventh Prime Minister to receive the award, while Pandit Malviya will be the 12th person to be honoured posthumously. A Bharat Ratna for Dr Madan Mohan Malaviya, the freedom icon and educationist popularly known as Mahamana, was one of the promises made by PM Modi during his the campaign for the national election. The Nobel Peace Prize 2014 - A celebration of Courage and Will The Nobel this year was given to two heroes of humanity, Both on the two sides of the LOC and on the either sides of age but having one thing in common the passion to make this earth a beautiful place to live, to help each other, to feel elation in others happiness, to stand for others, to stand with others, to bite the bullet and to move forward with sheer audacity. The Nobel Peace Prize 2014 was awarded jointly to Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education Kailash Satyarthi is an Indian childrens rights advocate and an activist against child labour. He founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement) in 1980 and has acted to protect the rights of more than 83,000 children from 144 countries.It is largely because of Satyarthis work and activism that the International Labour Organization adopted Convention No. 182 on the worst forms of child labour, which is now a principal guideline for governments around the world. Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist known for female education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. She is known mainly for human rights advocacy for education and for women in her native Swat Valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. She was shot at head by Taliban. India Achieved the near Impossible: Stepped on MARS The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is India’s history making first mission to the Red Planet and she arrived on Sept 24,2014. ISROs MOM is also the cheapest such mission till now. European, US and Russian probes have managed to orbit or land on the planet, but after several attempts. After a journey of over 10 months, India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) arrived at Mars on Wednesday, 24 September 2014 – following an insertion burn that was confirmed at 7:30 am India Standard Time (02:00 UTC; 20:00 EDT in the U.S. on Tuesday, 23 Sept.) – to continue what has so far been a successful technology demonstration mission to showcase India’s entry in the realm of interplanetary research. MOM’s goal is to study Mars’ surface features, morphology, mineralogy, and the Martian atmosphere with five indigenous scientific instruments. Among other goals it will sniff for methane. We have achieved the near impossible tweeted an elated PM Modi After successful launch PM Modi said, India has become the first country to enter Mars orbit on a maiden mission. History has been created today with India reaching Mars. ISRO has joined an elite group of just three countries to reach Mars, he said. It was built indigenously, in a pan-Indian effort, stretching from Bangalore to Bhubhaneshwar, and Faridabad to Rajkot. Our budget is even lesser than a Hollywood blockbuster. These will go down as landmarks in history, Modi added. In all, the mission has already demonstrated India’s ability to perform in deep space; even more so, with orbital insertion of MOM achieved, India became only the fourth nation/space program to reach Mars (behind the former Soviet Union, NASA, and the European Space Agency). FIFA 2014 : An Extravaganza Brazil staged the 20th FIFA World Cup final tournament in the summer of 2014, with 32 nations competing including 13 from Europe. This years biggest news stories saw desperation on Messi, Luis Suarez bite another player and Germanys World Cup win (and Brazils failure) take centre stage away from FIFA Mario Götze struck late in extra time to give Germany their fourth FIFA World Cup triumph after a tense final with Argentina in Rio de Janeiro. The event was filled with breath taking experience of extravaganza and blitzkreig.The Samba flavour was the essence of the tournament with the home favorites failed to capitalise on the home support and went down 7 goals to one in a one sided semi final affair against Germany. Brazil also failed to bag the third spot with a yet another crushing defeat with the hands of the Netherlands. Victorious Germans Argentina in the finals failed to capitalize on the oppurtunities and a determined German side wrote its name in the history with a late goal from Mario Goetze, Goetze came as substitute on the field in place on Miraslov Klose, who in this tournament became the highest scorer in the world cup history. Rejuvination year for Sports (minus Cricket) in India Year 2014 saw a revival of different sports in India apart from Cricket. With International leagues in the sports of Hockey,Football,Tennis and Kabbadi gave Indians a chance to internationalize their standards and also to brush shoulders with some of the giants in the game. ISL saw the home grown Jejes,Subrata Pauls,Nabis and rafiques to play against and along with some of the prolific international stars such as Elano,Hume,Nicolas Anelka and James Foster. Similarly in IPTL Indian Tennis stars got the company of coveted Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic to learn the art of the game. Indian cricketers, actors and industrialists came together to revive the sidelined sports in India. Indian Super League The Indian Super League, officially known as the Hero Indian Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional football league in India. The league is one of the top-tier football leagues in India, the other being the I-League. It features eight franchise teams from all around India. The league runs from October to December, with a finals series determining the champion. Atletico De Kolkata The Indian Super League was founded in 2013 in an effort to make football a top sport in India and to make Indian football a major player worldwide. The league operates along the lines of the Twenty20 cricket Indian Premier League, and Major League Soccer of the United States Unlike the majority of football leagues around the world, the ISL does not use the promotion and relegation system. Instead, it uses a franchise system in which eight teams were created to participate in the league. The inaugural season of the league started on Sunday October 12, 2014 and concluded on Saturday December 20, 2014. Atlético de Kolkata won the final by beating Kerala Blasters to win the inaugural title of the league. IPTL (International Premier Tennis League) The International Premier Tennis League (IPTL, officially the Coca-Cola International Premier Tennis League Presented by Qatar Airways pursuant to sponsorship agreements with The Coca-Cola Company and Qatar Airways) is a team tennis league founded in 2013, that launched in November 2014, with teams in four Asian cities: Dubai, Manila, New Delhi and Singapore. The Indian Aces IPTL team Pro Kabaddi League The 2014 Pro Kabaddi League was the first season of Pro Kabaddi League. The duration of the season was from 26 July 2014 to 31 August 2014. There were double round robin matches along with two semi finals, third place and final games. 56 games were to be played in first round and 4 in play off stage making total of 60 games. 8 teams took part in first edition. First game was played on July 26 between U Mumba and Jaipur Pink Panthers and the final was played on August 31 at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium, Mumbai. Group toppers Jaipur Pink Panthers beat U Mumba by 35-24 to win inaugural Pro Kabaddi League. The Lows of 2014 2014 Peshawar school massacre On 16 December 2014, 9 members of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) conducted a terrorist attack on the Army Public School in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. They entered the school and opened fire on school staff and children, killing 145 people, including 132 school children, ranging between eight and eighteen years of age. A rescue operation was launched by the Pakistan Armys Special Services Group (SSG) special forces, who killed all seven terrorists and rescued 960 people. Background In June 2014, a joint military offensive was conducted by the Pakistan Armed Forces against various groups in North Waziristan which has been the site of a wave of violence. The military offensive, Operation Zarb-e-Azb, was launched in the wake of the 8 June attack on Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, for which the TTP claimed responsibility. It is part of the ongoing war in North-West Pakistan in which more than 2,100 have been killed so far, and, according to the Army, almost 90% of North Waziristan has been cleared. Three Fold Fear - An year of Air Accidents There were triple air accidents that shook the world and left hundreds waiting for their loved ones with blurred and charred hopes. The three unfortunate incidents were - Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370/MAS370) was a scheduled international passenger flight that disappeared on Saturday, 8 March 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia, to Beijing Capital International Airport, China. Flight 370 last made voice contact with air traffic control at 01:19 MYT (17:19 UTC, 7 March) when it was over the South China Sea, less than an hour after takeoff, and the aircraft disappeared from air traffic controllers radar screens at 01:21 MYT (17:21 UTC). Malaysian military radar continued to track Flight 370 as it deviated from its planned flight path and crossed the Malay Peninsula; Flight 370 left the range of Malaysian military radar at 02:15 MYT while over the Andaman Sea, 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) northwest of Penang in northwestern Malaysia. Neither the crew nor the aircrafts communication systems relayed a distress signal, indications of bad weather, or technical problems before the aircraft vanished. The aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER, was carrying 12 Malaysian crew members and 227 passengers from 15 nations. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17/MAS17) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that crashed on 17 July 2014, having been shot down, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board. The Boeing 777-200ER airliner lost contact about 50 km (31 mi) from the Ukraine–Russia border and crashed near Torez in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, 40 km (25 mi) from the border, over territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists. The crash occurred during the Battle in Shakhtarsk Raion, part of the ongoing war in Donbass, in an area controlled by the Donbass Peoples Militia. The plane was shot down by pro-Russian separatists using a Buk surface-to-air missile fired from the territory which they controlled. The Russian government blamed the Ukrainian government. Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 (QZ8501/AWQ8501) was a scheduled international passenger flight, operated by AirAsia Group affiliate Indonesia AirAsia, from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. On 28 December 2014, the aircraft operating the route, an Airbus A320-216, crashed in bad weather with 155 passengers and 7 crew on board. Debris from the plane and human remains were found two days after the crash in the Karimata Strait. Recovery is in progress. Most passengers onboard were Indonesian. Mayhem FLOOD In the past year The beautiful valley state of Jammu and Kashmir and the north eastern state of Assam experienced havoc of nature when it struck with the heavy flood in the valley washing out the livelihood of many citizens of the state leaving the property stranded, Kids homeless and a huge risk of famine like situation. The flood situation in Jammu and Kashmir was declared a “national-level disaster” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Army alone evacuated 15,000 people from inundated areas across the State. The Centre also announced Rs. 2 lakh ex-gratia to the next of kin of those who died in the floods. Also, Rs. 50,000 would be given from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) to those grievously injured. Though official figure of the deaths is not available, by all accounts at least 160 people lost their lives so far. About 3.68 lakh people in 14 districts of Assam have been affected as the flood situation turned grim with the Brahmaputra and its tributaries — Desang, Dhansiri, Jiabharali, Beki and Puthimari — submerging vast areas in 791 villages. Floodwaters inundated about 70 per cent of the Kaziranga National Park, forcing animals to migrate to high grounds near the southern boundary across the National Highway 37. Environment and Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain introduced a time card system to keep a tab on speed of vehicles passing along the 54-km stretch of the national highway through Kaziranga to ensure the safety of straying animals. Dhemaji district was the worst hit with 256 villages under water, affecting 88,000 people. A large number of them took shelter on embankments and Public Works Department roads. In Nagaon, about one lakh people have been hit in 79 villages while in Lakhimpur district 45,000 people have been affected in 110 villages. The rise of ISIS The Islamic State’s rise may have seemed sudden, but the group – which grew out of Al Qaeda in Iraq – has been rebuilding for years. Even before U.S. forces left Iraq in 2011, ISIS was forging a professional military force, stirring up Sunni unrest, mounting nationwide bombing campaigns, and killing Iraqi officials. ISIS now controls territory the size of the UK, is making £600,000 a day from selling oil and ransoming hostages and has a fighting force of 10,000 militants, according to a leading expert. Islamic State, also known as ISIS, was an extremely dangerous organisation operating in a chaotic part of the world and saw itself as the new leader of the global jihadist movement. ISIS began in Syria during the rebellion against President Bashar Assad, but took huge swathes of northern Iraq earlier this year. It claimed the lives of around 17,000 people along the way of becoming pioneer of the Islamic religion in the world. ISIS made the international sensation by beheading the British,U.S. and Australian nationals in the outskirts of Syria and Iraq in a very brutal manner. The Year 2014 saw India making amends in the fiels of Social,Scientific,Sports and Political arena. With the introduction of Schemes like Swaccha Bharat Mission, Pradhan Mantri Jana Dhan Yojana,Make in India Mission and many others, Prime Minister Narendra Damodar Modi gave Indians a ray of hope and the assuarance that India will be in the headlines in the days to come. For his never tiring attitude and the zeal he has shown as the premier of the country Modi in Group Man of the year 2014 , We wish him a very good luck in bringing India forward and making us a force to reckon with. All the very Best to All the readers, Supporters, Critics and Competitors of this group We wish you a Very Successful New Year 2015.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 10:10:00 +0000
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