Top 100- 2016 Current Affairs January 1) Radha Krishna Mathur takes oath as Chief Information Commissioner of India. Mathur’s selection as the eighth CIC — cleared by the high-level selection panel headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday and approved by President Pranab Mukherjee Thursday — is a departure from the convention of appointing the most senior Information Commissioner (IC) as the CIC. 2) Union Government launched Ganga Gram Yojana in Uttar Pradesh. The Union Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Uma Bharti launched Ganga Gram Yojana at Village Puth in Hapur district of Uttar Pradesh. Under the scheme, 1600 villages of UP situated along the banks of river Ganga will be developed. 3) Kunal Shah appointed as Chairman of Internet and Mobile Association of India. Mobile Internet body IAMAI on Tuesday appointed FreeCharge co-founder and CEO Kunal Shah as its Chairman. The move was necessitated following Nishant Rao's move to join Freshdesk as the global Chief Operating Officer from LinkedIn 4) Union Cabinet approved Stand Up India Scheme. The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday gave its nod for the Stand Up India scheme that is aimed at promoting entrepreneurship among women and scheduled castes and tribes. 5) Achyuta Samanta elected as General President of 105th Indian Science Congress. Dr Samanta, known as an educationist, has set KIIT University which has around 25,000 students and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) where around 25,000 indigenous students are being given free residential education from kindergarten to post graduation. 6) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed expired on January 7th 2016. On 24 December 2015, Sayeed was admitted to the AIIMS hospital in New Delhi. He suffered from neck pain and fever. His condition gradually deteriorated, and he was put on ventilator support. He died on 7 January 2016 due to multi-organ failure MockBank Learning Private Limited 7) Indigenously Built ASW Corvette INS Kadmatt commissioned in Visakhapatnam. INS Kadmatt, second ship of Project 28 (P28) class Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Corvettes, was commissioned into the Indian Navy by the Chief of Naval Staff at Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam on 07 Jan 16. 8) Amitabh Kant appointed as CEO of NITI Aayog. A 1980 batch Kerala cadre IAS officer, Mr.Kant was appointed as NITI Aayog CEO on Jan 7th by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi 9) Union Government allows traditional bull-taming sport Jallikattu only for the order to be stayed by the Supreme Court. The supreme court stayed the Centre's notification lifting ban on controversial bull taming sport Jallikattu during the festival of Pongal in Tamil Nadu 10) Indo-French military exercise Shakti-2016 started on Jan 8. Indian and French troops began their eight-day counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency joint exercise in Rajasthan. This year's edition is the third in a series of bilateral exercises executed under 'Shakti' banner. The French contingent comprising 56 personnel of 35th Infantry Regiment of 7th Armoured Brigade, which had taken part in the Afghan war, had arrived in Jodhpur to take part in 'Shakti 2016' 11) Raghuram Rajan conferred Central Banker of the Year Award. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan was named The Banker magazine's Global and Asia-Pacific Central Bank Governor of the Year 2015, for stabilising the Indian rupee, initiating key reforms to attract much needed foreign capital in the country and reining in a runaway price appreciation. 12) Union Cabinet approved Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana to boost the farming sector. The Union Cabinet approved the launch of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme) in which the premium rates to be paid by the farmers have been brought down substantially so as to enable more farmers avail insurance cover against crop loss on account of natural calamities. 13) Subhashini Vasanth honoured with Neerja Bhanot Award. Bangalore-based Subhashini Vasant was awarded the Neerja Bhanot award on Jan 13th. The award is given annually to an Indian woman who raises her voice against social injustice, and overcomes her problems with guts and grit while helping other women in social distress 14) DRDO successfully test-fired anti-tank missile Nag in Rajasthan. India successfully test-fired its indigenously developed Nag anti-tank guided MockBank Learning Private Limited missile on 12th January, which can hit a target upto seven km, from a helicopter at a firing range in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. 15) PM Narendra Modi launched Start-up India initiative. On January 16, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a 19-point action plan for start-up enterprises in India. He also announced a self-certification scheme related to nine labour and environment laws. He also said that there would be no inspection of the enterprises during the first three years of the launch. 16) Lionel Messi wins Ballon d'Or award 2015. Argentina and Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi was named world player of the year 2015 at a FIFA gala in Zurich and claimed the Ballon d'Or trophy for the fifth time overall. Messi reclaimed the award after watching his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo walk off with the prize for the previous two years. 17) Sikkim has been declared as the first organic farming state of India. Sikkim has become India’s first fully organic state by implementing organic practices on around 75,000 hectares of agricultural land. 18) PSLV-C31 successfully launched IRNSS-1E satellite. ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C31, successfully launched the 1425 kg IRNSS-1E, the fifth satellite in the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. This is the thirty second consecutively successful mission of PSLV and the eleventh in its 'XL' configuration. 19) International Solar Alliance headquartered in India with United Nations as Strategic Partner. India’s prime minister has launched an international solar alliance of over 120 countries with the French president, François Hollande, at the Paris COP21 climate summit. 20) Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes Amendment Act, 2015 came into force. To make laws tougher to tackle atrocities against the most vulnerable sections of the population, the Centre on Monday announced that The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015, would come into force with effect from January 26, 2016. 21) Ashok Chakra awarded posthumously to Lance Naik Mohan Nath Goswami. Lance Naik Mohan Nath Goswami from the Army’s elite Para Special Forces has been awarded the Ashok Chakra, the country’s highest peacetime gallantry MockBank Learning Private Limited award, posthumously for his role in saving two colleagues during an encounter with militants in Kashmir last year. 22) Novak Djokovic won the 2016 Australian Open Men's Singles Title. World No1 Novak Djokovic held onto his Australian Open title by winning a re- run of the 2015 final against Andy Murray in three-straight sets. 23) Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis won 2016 Australian Open women's doubles tennis title. Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis beat seventh seeded Czech combination of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka to win Australian Open women's doubles title on Friday 24) IPS officer Aparna Kumar became India's first civil servant to scale Mount Vinson Massif. UP cadre IPS Officer Aparna Kumar has become the country's first civil servant to scale Mount Vinson Massif, the highest peak in the Antarctica. She achieved the feat on January 17 25) Terrorists attack IAF Airbase at Pathankot. On 2 January 2016, a heavily armed group attacked the Pathankot Air Force Station, part of the Western Air Command of the Indian Air Force. Four attackers and two security forces personnel were killed in the initial battle, with an additional security force member dying from injuries hours later February: 26) Project Sunrise to improve HIV interventions among PWID in North- Eastern states launched. Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare J P Nadda launched Project Sunrise on for prevention of AIDS especially among people injecting drugs in the 8 North-Eastern states. The AIDS prevention special project aims to diagnose 90 per cent of such drug addicts with HIV and put them under treatment by 2020 27) Sarangi maestro Pandit Ram Narayan selected for Bhimsen Joshi Award. Sarangi maestro Pandit Ram Narayan has been chosen for the prestigious Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi classical music award for 2015-2016, Maharashtra's Cultural Affairs Minister Vinod Tawde announced here on Wednesday. 28) Sapna Devi won gold in women Wushu Taulu competition at the 12th South Asian Games. Sapna Devi on 7 February 2016 clinched gold for India in the women Wushu Taulu (Changquan) Competition of the 12th South Asian Games held at the Rising Sun Sports Complex, Assam Rifles, Laitkor in Shillong. MockBank Learning Private Limited 29) Film on conservation efforts by Nagaland villagers won Golden Beaver Award. ‘Nagaland is changing, But...’ a film on conservation efforts by villagers, on 13 February 2016 won the Golden Beaver Best Film Award in the institutional category at the 6th National Science Film Festival and Competition in Mumbai. 30) In Historic First, Einstein's Gravitational Waves Detected. A team of scientists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) announced they had detected—and recorded evidence of—gravitational waves resulting from the collision of two black holes some 1.3 billion years ago. 31) International Fleet Review 2016 concluded in Visakhapatnam. India’s Eastern Naval Command hosted the navies of approximately 52 countries for five days last week for the International Fleet Review. More than 100 naval vessels participated in the review, which involves a ceremonial inspection to showcase naval readiness among other activities.