www.leadthecompetition.in CURRENT AFFAIRS DIGEST OCTOBER TO DECEMBER 2014 Appointments The new Chief Minister of Maharashtra who was sworn in by the Governor Shri C Vidyasagar Rao at a ceremony held in Wankhede Staium in Mumbai – Shri Devendra Fadnavis The first woman President of Brazil who won a second term of presidency defeating her rival Aecio Neves – Dilma Rousseff The new Chief Minister of Haryana who was sworn in by the Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki at a ceremony in Panchkula – Manohar Lal Khattar US-based economist and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, who was appointed as the Chief Economic Advisor to the Govt of India (a post which was vacant since Dr. Raghuram Rajan became the Governor of RBI) – Arvind Subramanian The former two-term Norwegian Prime Minister who took over as the new Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) – Jens Stoltenberg The Governor of West Bengal who was sworn in as the new Governor of Bihar following the expiry of the term of former Governor D.Y. Patil – Keshari Nath Tripathi The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary who was appointed the new Secretary-General of the Lok Sabha with the rank and status of Cabinet Secretary with effect from December 01 – Anoop Mishra The former health minister of Goa who was sworn in as the 11th Chief Minister of Goa following the resignation of Shri Manohar Parrikar – Laxmikant Parsekar The new Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation who has taken over the charge from outgoing chief Dr. K Radhakrishnan – Shailesh Nayak The BJP MLA from Jamshedpur East constituency who took over as the new Chief Minister of Jharkhand – Raghubar Das The new Director General of Central Bureau of Investigation who was appointed following retirement of former chief Ranjit Sinha – Anil Sinha The new Prime Minister of Mauritius who was once again appointed after his party won the recent elections in country – Aneroodh Jugnauth The person chosen to be appointed the next United States ambassador to India filling the vacant post since the resignation of Nancy Powell in March 2014 (He is the first Indian-American chosen for the post) – Richard Rahul Verma Awards The Indian-born plant scientist who was awarded the USD 250,000 2014 World Food Prize at the 2014 Borlaug Dialogue, currently being held in Des Moines, United States, for his contribution in increasing global wheat production – Dr Sanjaya Rajaram The Indian police inspector from Jammu and Kashmir police currently deployed in the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), who was awarded the International Female Police Peacekeeper Award 2014 – Shakti Devi The Australian author who was awarded the Man Booker Prize 2014 for his book The Narrow Road to the Deep North – Richard Flangan Malayalam poet, social activist and recipient of Padma Shri (2006) and Saraswati Samman (2012) who was chosen for Mathrubhumi Literary Award (Mathrubhumi Sahitya Puraskaram) for 2014. (She has also been awarded the Kerala Gandhi Award by K.Kelappan Smaraka Samithi) – Sugatha Kumari Lahore based author who was chosen for the 2014 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize for his novel The Scatter Here Is Too Great – Bilal Tanweer The social entrepreneur and founder of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences in Odisha who was chosen for the Gusi Peace Prize for the year 2014 (The award was instituted by Gusi Peace Prize International, a Philippines- based awards body and named after World War II guerrilla leader Gemeniano Javier Gusi) – Achyut Samanta The organisation which was chosen for the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for the year 2014 – Indian Space Research Organisation The eminent jurist who was chosen for the 2014 K.R. Narayanan Award instituted by K.R. Narayanan Foundation – Justice VR Krishna Iyer The Hindi poet and author of works like “Abhi bilkul abhi” and “Yahan se dekho” who was conferred 2013 Jnanpith Award by the President Dr. Pranab Mukherji – Kedarnath Singh The civilian award with which the former Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh was honoured by Japan – Order of the Paulownia Flowers The renowned sarod maestro who was chosen for the Virasat award for 2015 instituted by Alva’s Education Foundation – Amjad Ali Khan The music director duo who were chosen for this year's Swaralaya Devarajan National Award for their contribution to the field of classical music – Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma and Hariprasad Chaurasia The public sector company which was conferred the PSE Excellence Award 2014 for R & D and Technology Development in the Maharatna & Navratna CPSEs Category by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) – BHEL The public sector company which was awarded the PSE Excellence Award 2014 for ‘Corporate Governance & Innovation in Business’ by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) at the 5th Summit on "India: Public Sector Agenda" organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce with the support of Department of Public Enterprises and Ministry of Heavy Industries – Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd Cricket The former Indian cricketer who alongwith former Australian cricketer Steve Waugh was inducted into the Bradman Hall of fame – Sachin Tendulkar The Indian cricketer who has become the fastest cricketer in the world to score 20 centuries in ODIs by doing it in 133 innings, breaking Sachin Tendulkar's earlier record (against West Indies at Dharamshala) – Virat Kohli The Indian cricket star who has figured at No. 5 position in Forbes list of Most Valuable Athlete Brands for the year 2014 – Mahender Singh Dhoni The Australian cricketer who died on 27 Nov following a head injury sustained while facing a short-pitched delivery from New South Wales paceman Sean Abbott – Phillip Hughes The team which won the Vijay Hazare Trophy defeating Punjab in the finals at Ahmedabad – Karnataka The former Indian cricket skipper who was chosen for the BCCI’s Col. C.K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award for 2013-14 – Dilip Vengsarkar The Indian cricketer who set a new record of scoring the highest individual score in One-day Internationals by making 264 runs against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens, Kolkata – Rohit Sharma The Indian cricket bowler who won the LG ICC People's Choice Award for the year 2014 – Bhuvaneshwar Kumar The Pakistani cricket player who has equalled West Indian cricketer Vivian Richards’ record for the fastest century by scoring it against Australia in 56 deliveries – Misbah-ul-Haq The Sri Lankan batsman who has become the fourth batsman in the history of one-day internationals to surpass the 13,000-run mark (the other three being Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting and S Jayasuriya) – Kumar Sangakkara The team captained by Manoj Tiwary which has won the Deodhar Trophy defeating defending champions West Zone in the finals – East Zone The Indian wicket-keeper who has set a new world record for most number of stumpings in international cricket after he effected his 134th dismissal surpassing Kumar Sangakkara's record of 133 dismissals(He has 38 stumpings in tests, 85 stumpings in ODIs and 11 in T20s) – MS Dhoni Other Sports The Indian billiards player who became the first player ever to win World Billiards title in both formats thrice by defeating England's Robert Hall in the IBSF World Billiards championship (timed format) – Pankaj Advani The Indian golf player who won the Macau Open overtaking Australian player Scott Hend – Anirban Lahiri The Zimbabwean tennis player pairing with whom Sania Mirza won the doubles title at the WTA Finals defeating Peng Shuai and Hsieh Su-Wei – Cara Black The boxing gold medal winner at the Asian Games 2014 who was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the India’s Incheon Asian Games campaign by contingent sponsors Samsung India – Mary Kom The tennis player who won the 20th Fennesta National Tennis championship men's singles title defeating Siddarth Rawat in the final – Vishnu Vardhan The tennis player who won the 20th Fennesta National Tennis championship women's singles title beating Kamran Kaur in the finals – Prerna Bhambri The Russian tennis player who won the China Open women's singles title defeating Czech player Petra Kvitova in the finals – Maria Sharapova Serbian tennis player who won the China Open men's singles title defeating Czech player Tomas Berdych in the finals – Novak Djokovic The Indian badminton player who won the $120,000 Macau Grand Prix Gold trophy defeating Kim Hyo Min of Korea in the women’s singles finals – P.V. Sindhu The Indian tennis player who was named United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the South Asian Region by UN Women – Sania Mirza The country which won the 2014 Davis Cup title for the first time defeating France in the finals at Lille, France – Switzerland The city in which Fide World Chess Championship Match 2014 between Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand was held with Carslen winning 3 games, drawing 7 games and losing 1 – Sochi, Russia The Indian badminton player who won the women's singles title of the USD 700,000 China Open Super Series defeating Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the finals – Saina Nehwal The Indian badminton player who won the men's singles title of the USD 700,000 China Open Super Series defeating two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan of China in the finals – K Shrikanth The country against which Indian hockey team has recently won a four-match test series 3-1 – Australia The Indian woman boxer who was handed a one-year ban by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) for refusing to accept her bronze medal at the Asian Games 2014 – L. Sarita Defence The four-day trilateral Coast Guard exercise among India, Maldives and Sri Lanka which was conducted off the Maldives coast was codenamed – Dosti-XII The pollution response exercise organised by the Indian Coast Guard off the coast of Kovalam in Kerala for fine- tuning the Standard Operating Procedure of various departments so that they could effectively prevent pollutions at sea from reaching the shore was code named – Pradushan - 01/14 The joint exercise conducted by Indian Coastguard and Andhra Pradesh police on coastal security at ground level in Krishna district of A.P.