GK and Current Affairs Updates

Azim Premji, 70, chairman of Wipro, is the most generous Indian of the year for the third time in a row with donations worth Rs. 27,514 crore to the education sector, says Hurun India Philanthropy List 2015. The top five contributors on the list belonged to the information technology industry. Mr. Premji is followed by Nandan Nilekani and wife, Rohini Nilekani, with donations of Rs. 2,404 crore, while Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy stood third with donations of Rs. 1,322 crore.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has launched an online initiative to seek suggestions from LPG consumers across the country, which will help in providing efficient and friendly service. Two online discussion forums - Citizen-Friendly Services and Increasing LPG Coverage in the Country - have been launched and are available on myGov.in and mylpg.in.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic defeated his rival Rafael Nadal by 6-1, 6-2 to win the Qatar Open title.He captured his sixth consecutive ATP World Tour title and 60th overall at the tour level. He became just the 10^th player in the Open Era to reach the 60-title milestone.

Martin Guptill hit the fastest half-century by a New Zealand batsman, only for Colin Munro to better it moments later as the hosts needed just 10 over’s to rout Sri Lanka by nine wickets in their T20 match on Sunday, winning both matches of the series.Munro's half century, which included seven sixes, was the second-fastest in all T20 internationals, behind only a 12-ball 50 by India's Yuvraj Singh.

Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra has bagged the favourite actress in new TV series honour at the 2016 People Choice Awards for her performance of an FBI recruit on American show Quantico. Priyanka becomes the first Indian actor to register a win at the People Choice Awards.She beat popular Hollywood an TV actresses like Emma Roberts, Jamie Lee Curtis, Lea Michele and Marcia Gay Harden to bag the award.

A prodigal World junior badminton Championship silver medal has seen Indian shuttler Siril Varma climb to number one in the recently released BWF rankings.Last year in November, Varma entered the 128 shuttler World Championship main round unseeded. He would go onto win six matches, including victories over seeded opponents such as Anders Antosen from Denmark and Thailand’s Adulrach Namkul. The 15-year old narrowly missed out on the world title, losing 21-17, 10-21, 7-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Chia Hung Lu in the final.

The NDA government's flagship crop insurance scheme - the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Beema Yojna - which is aimed to be a major policy outreach towards farmers -- got the green signal from the Union cabinet today.The most crucial element of the scheme is that it will bring down the rate of premium to be paid by farmers to a maximum of 2% of the sum insured. The rest will be paid by the state and the central government.Currently, farmers have to pay a premium ranging from 4 to 15 per cent to insure crops.

Senior IAS officer Amitabh Kant has been given additional charge as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog. Union Government had replaced erstwhile six decade old Planning Commission with a new institution named National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) on 1 January 2015. This new institution aims to serve as Think Tank of the Government. Noted Economist Arvind Panagariya was appointed Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog. Economist Bibek Debroy and former DRDO chief V K Saraswat were appointed as full-time members.

Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis started the New Year on a brilliant note by clinching the women’s doubles title of the $1 million Brisbane International at the Queensland Tennis Centre. This is the Indo-Swiss pair’s 26th win in a row and the first title of 2016. Also, this is the 29-year-old Sania’s second victory here after partnering American Bethanie Mattek-Sands all the way to the title in 2013 while Martina was the defending champion, having sealed the crown with German Sabine Lisicki last year. 

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on 6 January 2016 successfully test fired the new Penetration Cum Blast (PCB) and Thermobaric (TB) Ammunition tank at Chandipur, Odisha.  This was specially designed for Arjun Main Battle Tank (MBT). A state-of-the-art weapon and ammunition system was developed by the DRDO for the Arjun Main Battle Tank (MBT) by adopting novel design concepts and latest technological advancement at par with the industrially advanced countries.The system is capable of destroying modern heavy targets up to a range of 5000 metres.