11 feb 2014 current affairs 1) Over 5,000 online activist groups, websites, companies and online platforms came together on 11 February 2014 for a day long protest in opposition to United States’ intelligence agency NSA’s (National Security Agency’s) mass spying regime. What is the name given to this protest initiative? – ‘The Day We Fight Back’ (The Day We Fight Back is a planned protest against NSA’s mass surveillance and a commemoration of late open-Internet activist Aaron Swartz, who was the co-founder of Reddit. Popular groups like Mozilla, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Reddit and Boing Boing gave their support to this initiative. Several interest groups in various cities across the world, including from India, pledged their support for the protest campaign) 2) The committee which investigated allegations of spot-fixing and betting in the Indian Premier League (IPL) submitted its report to the Supreme Court on 10 February 2014. Who headed this committee? – Justice Mukul Mudgal (Supreme Court on 8 April 8 2013 appointed Justice Mudgal to enquire into the allegation of spot-fixing in the IPL on a petition by Cricket Association of Bihar. The report mainly concluded that the allegations of betting and passing of information against BCCI Chairman N. Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan stand proved. The report also concluded that Meiyappan was the face of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and rejected Srinivasan’s contention that he was merely a cricket enthusiast. The apex court bench headed by Justice AK Patnaik, upon receiving the report, said that they will pass appropriate order after going through it) 3) Who was elected unopposed as the new Prime Minister of Nepal on 10 February 2014? – Sushil Koirala (Sushil Koirala is the President of Nepal Congress and he was declared elected by the Nepali Parliament after he got 405 votes in his support from a total of 553 votes. Earlier the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML signed a seven-point agreement on 9 February to reconcile their differences over power-sharing that was beginning to deepen the political impasse in the country. The two parties also announced the plan to prepare the draft of the new Constitution in six months and promulgate in a year) 4) According to an announcement made by the Union Government in the Parliament on 10 February 2014, which two new major ports are to be established by 2020? – Sagar in West Bengal and Dugarajapatnam in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh (As per the feasibility report prepared the date of completion of the Phase-I of the project at Dugarajapatnam is 2018 and for Sagar 2019-20. Currently, there are 12 major ports – Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Kolkata (with Haldia), Chennai, Visakhapatanam, Cochin, Paradip, New Mangalore, Marmagao, Ennore, Tuticorin and Kandla. These ports handle 75% of the total cargo traffic in the country) 5) A controversy arose over the appointment of an Additional Director in the CBI with reports suggesting that the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) overlooked the Central Vigilance Commission’s (CVC) recommendation. Who was considered for appointment by the ACC for this post due to which this controversy came to fore? – Archana Ramasundaram (Archana Ramasundaram is a 1980 batch Tamil Nadu cadre IPS officer. The appointment of Ms. Ramasundaram, earlier posted as chairperson of the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board, was cleared by the ACC. However, the CVC had, instead, recommended the name of Ranjit Pachnanda, a senior IPS officer of the 1983 batch, who is now posted in West Bengal) 6) MILAN 2014, the biennial exercise of Navies, concluded on 9 February 2014 at Port Blair (Andaman & Nicobar). The six day event started on 4 February 2014 was the biggest edition since its inception in 1995. How many countries took part in MILAN 2014? – Seventeen, including hosts India (These 17 countries were India, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Thailand. MILAN, with its emphasis on building friendship and understanding between personnel at the tactical level, also presented ample opportunities for the sailors to build personal bonds and friendships a food festival, cultural programmes and sports activities. It was the first time that MILAN included a jungle survival drill and a special sporting event in the form a triathlon which saw healthy participation. 15 naval ships of different countries took part in MILAN 2014)
Posted on: Tue, 11 Feb 2014 06:00:04 +0000