GK and Current Affairs Updates

The free speech organization PEN American Center says it is giving its 2016 PEN/Allen award to author J.K. Rowling. The award is named after Ernest Hemingway and funded by the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, which has been administered by the Hemingway Society since 1987, and PEN New England. Mary Hemingway, a member of PEN, founded the award in 1976 both to honor the memory of her husband and to recognize distinguished first books of fiction.The prize honors "a critically acclaimed author whose work embodies its mission to oppose repression in any form and to champion the best of humanity." In particular, the award recognizes Rowling's two charitable foundations — Volant, which works to alleviate poverty and social deprivation, especially among women and children, and Lumos, which helps institutionalized children return to family life. Past winners include Salman Rushdie, Toni Morrison and Margaret Atwood. 

PEN is also honoring Hachette Book Group CEO Michael Pietsch. Pietsch joined with several other publishers last year in an informal pledge to combat censorship of translated books in China. Hachette imprint Little, Brown also published the posthumous manifesto Open Letter: On Blasphemy, Islamophobia, and the True Enemies of Free Expression by Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier, who died in the terrorist attack on the French satirical magazine last year.

On the occasion of Australia Day, Sanjeev Koshy, a dentist hailing from Kerala, was honored with the highest Civilian award, the Order of Australia for his service to dentistry in Victoria, Australia. Koshy is currently the head of the endodontics at the Royal Melbourne Dental Hospital, which is the teaching hospital for the University of Melbourne.

The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, to recognise Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or meritorious service.

India’s top pistol shooter Heena Sidhu has secured an Olympic quota for the country with a start to finish victory in the women’s 1 m air pistol event on day one of the Asian Olympic Qualifiers for Shooting.A current world record holder and former world number one, Heena shot 199.4 in the eight-women finals to finish ahead of Chinese Taipei’s Tien Chia Chen (198.1) and Gim Yun Mi (177.9) of Korea at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range.

The government recently launched a job portal, exclusively for the disabled, www.Disabilityjobs.Gov.In. Through the National Job Portal, PwDs will be able to avail the different facilities such as self employment loan, education loan, skill training, link to scholarships and information about jobs in a single window platform. The skill  training will be provided by a network of 200 clusters of 'Training Partners' with  financial assistance from government. A time-bound action plan has been prepared for this  purpose, the government will also pursue private sector for providing them job after the  training. The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities in the Ministry of  Social Justice and Empowerment had entrusted National Handicapped Finance and Development  Corporation (NHFDC) to develop the national-level job portal. 

Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, has invested an undisclosed amount in Teabox, a speciality tea start-up.Teabox sources premium teas directly from plantations in Darjeeling, Assam, Nilgiris and Nepal. It sells these products online and then ships them to customers all over the world. The company will use the funds to expand its operations globally.

India and Armenia have signed a Protocol to amend the existing Double Taxation Avoidance Convention (DTAC) to curb instances of tax evasion.The Protocol amends the Article on Exchange of Information for tax in the bilateral DTAC signed between India and Armenia and has been in existence since September 2004. It has been amended to bring it in line with the updated provisions in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Model.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan has joined a task force of the World Economic Forum (WEF) to study the future of global financial system, whose members  include bankers and policymakers from across the world. The Geneva-based non-profit group  WEF, which held its 46^th Annual Meeting in Davos,

India, on 26^th January, celebrated its 67th Independence Day. The annual Republic Day Parade at Rajpath, was marked for a few reasons. The celebrations were held at Rajpath, New Delhi, in the auspicious presence of The French President, Monsieur Francois  Hollande, being the 5th President of the country to be invited as the honored guest for  the occasion, along with The President and the Prime Minister. For the first time in the  history of the country, a foreign contingent, the 35th Infantry of the French Army,  paraded alongside the Indian troops on this occasion. Also, in 2016, he Protocol  Department of the Government of Maharashtra held its first parade on the lines of the  Delhi Republic Day parade along the entire stretch of Marine Drive in Mumbai. Republic Day is celebrated, every year, in commemoration of the commencement of the  sovereign constitution of the country, in 1950, replacing the Government of India Act  1935. The celebrations take place every year, commencing from the gates of the  Rashtrapati Bhavan (the President's residence), Raisina Hill on Rajpath past the India Gate and this event is the main attraction of India's Republic Day Celebrations lasting 3 days. The parade showcases India's Defence Capability, Cultural and Social Heritage.

The West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul has announced his retirement from international cricket. The 41-year-old from Guyana, who made his debut against England in 1994, amassed more than 20,000 runs in the three forms of the game. His final game was against England in Barbados in May last year and he was dropped for the following Test series against Australia, with the West Indies Cricket Board wanting to give younger players a chance. 

Johanna Konta, Australia born Briton, booked her place in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, after defeating Chinese qualifier Zhang Shuai. Konta, who lost in the first round of qualifying here 12 months ago, will be the first British woman to play in the last four here since Sue Barker in 1977. That was also the last year that Britain had two representatives in the singles semi-finals of a Grand Slam tournament. The last British woman to win the Australian Open was Virginia Wade in 1972, while the last British woman to play in any Grand Slam semi-final was Jo Durie at the 1983 US Open.