December 2014-January 2015-Current Affairs

1.    New Chief Election Commissioner of India: Hari Shankar Brahma.

2.     New ISRO chairman: Alur Selin Kiran Kumar. He is ISRO’s eighth chairman.

3.     Grabar-Kitarovic elected Croatia’s first woman president. Ms Grabar-Kitarovic is a politically conservative member of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which pushed the country towards independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991. 

4.    Portugal and Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo won the Ballon d’Or world footballer of the year award for the second year in a row. 

5.    The inaugural FIFA Player of the Year award went to German midfielder Lothar Matthaus. The first Ballon d’Or world footballer award went to Stanley Mathews. 

6.     Coach of 2014 FIFA world cup winning German team, Joachim Low won men’s coach of the year. 

7.    Wolfsburg and Germany midfielder Nadine Kessler was named women’s player of the year. Colombia’s James Rodriguez won goal of the year.

8     Madhu became the first transgender person to get elected as Mayor in India. Independent candidate Madhu, won the mayor election of the Raigarh Municipal Corporation (Chhattisgarh) by defeating BJP candidate Mahaveer Guruji by a margin of 4,537 votes.

9.    New Sri Lankan President: Maithripala Sirisena. 

10.   Arvind Panagariya appointed as vice chairman of Niti Aayog. BK Debroy and VK Saraswat as full time members. 

11.  Brazil President Dilma Rousseff (leftist Worker’s Party) got re-elected. She defeated Aecio Neves. She has been in power since 2003. 

12.      BJP candidate Pritam Munde won in Beed (Maharashtra) with 6.9 lakh majority – highest ever in the history of Lok Sabha polls. She has beaten the record of Anil Basu (West Bengal CPM leader). 

13.   2014 Man Booker Prize winner: Richard Flanagan (Australia) for “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” novel. 

14. Rajiv Mehrishi is the new Economic affairs secretary. Arvind Subramanian is the next Chief Economic Advisor.

15. Germany beat Pakistan to win the 2014 Champions Trophy hockey tournament in Bhubaneswar.

16.  Rohit Sharma scored highest runs in a One day international match. He scored 264 runs against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens and broke the record of Virender Sehwag (219). He is the only player to score two double centuries in one day cricket.

17. BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar was sworn in as the chief minister of Haryana by Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki. He is the 10th Chief Minister of Haryana. He represents Karnal Assembly constutuency.

18. June 21: International Yoga day.

19.  October 16: World Food Day. The World Food Day theme for 2014 is Family Farming: “Feeding the world, caring for the earth”. October 16 is the foundation day of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. FAO was established in 1945.

20.  5-year old Indian child, Harshit Saumitra became the youngest to reach the Everest Base camp. He broke the record of Aryan Balaji who reached at the age of 7.

21.Rashtriya Eekta Divas (National Unity Day) is celebrated on- October 31 – Birth anniversary of Sardar VallabhbhaI Patel.

22.October 21: Global Iodine Deficiency disorders prevention day. 

23. Dadabhai Naoroji awards given by UK – to those who strenghten relations between UK and India.

   24.  Arvind Panagariya took charge as vice chairman of Niti Aayog.

   25.     South African batsman AB de Villiers scored the fastest             century and half-century in International One Day cricket.