❖ Latvia adopted the Euro currency on January 1, 2014 and became the 18th member of the Eurozone.
❖ Corey Anderson of New Zealand scored the fastest century in One Day International cricket history on January 1, 2014. He scored a hundred in just 36 deliveries against the West Indies. He beat the previous record of 100 off 37 balls set by Shahid Afridi of Pakistan in 1996.
❖ Sheikh Hasina was sworn in on January 12, 2014 for the third time as Bangladesh's Prime Minister. Her party is Awami League.
❖ India's first monorail service was started in Mumbai on February 2, 2014.
❖ Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and eminent scientist CNR Rao were conferred the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of India on February 4, 2014. The award was announced on November 16, 2013.
❖ Harish Rawat was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand on February 1, 2014.
❖ 'Chronicles of a Corpse Bearer' is a book written by Cyrus Mistry, which won the DSC Prize for
South Asian Literature at the Jaipur Literary Festival 2014. This award in 2013 was won by Jeet Thayil for his novel 'Narcopolis'.
❖ Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland beat Spain's Rafael Nadal to win the 2014 Australian Open men's singles tennis title. Li Na of China won the women's singles title by defeating Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.
❖ The prestigious Padma Awards for 2014 were announced which includes Padma Vibhushan for two individuals, Padma Bhushan for 24 and Padma Shri for 101 people. Out of 127 awardees 27 are women. Padma Vibhushan awardees are Raghunath Mashelkar (Science & Engineering) and yoga guru B.K.S. Iyengar.
❖ Shinzo Abe became the first Japanese Prime Minister to be the chief guest at India's 65th Republic Day celebrations on January 26, 2014.
❖ Janet Yellen is the first woman ever to head the United States central bank Federal Reserve.
❖ Sub-Inspector K. Prasad Babu was conferred the Ashok Chakra posthumously on the 65th Republic Day by the President Pranab Mukherjee. K. Prasad Babu was from Andhra Pradesh. He was given this award for an anti-Maoist operation near Andhra Pradesh- Chhattisgarh border. Ashok Chakra is India's highest peacetime gallantry award.
❖ Matteo Renzi became the youngest Italian Prime Minister in February 2014. He is 39 years old.
❖ Sushil Koirala assumed office as the Prime Minister of Nepal on February 11, 2014. He is also the President of the Nepali Congress Party.
❖ N.Ramachandran was elected the new President of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) in February 2014. He is also the World Squash Federation President.
❖ Satya Nadella, an Indian American, was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft on
February 4, 2014. He succeeded Steve Ballmer.
❖ Former Supreme Court judge Ashok Kumar Mathur has been appointed the Chairman of the
7th Pay Commission.
❖ Eminent Gandhian and environmentalist Chandi Prasad Bhatt was selected for the 2013 Gandhi Peace Prize. He is one of the pioneers of the Chipko movement. He was awarded the Ramon
Magsaysay Award in 1982.
❖ Famous Hindi writer Vishwanath Tripathi has been selected for the prestigious Vyas Samman for the year 2013 for his memoir 'Vyomkesh Darvesh'. Vyas Samman is a literary award given by
the K.K. Birla Foundation.
❖ Odia became the sixth language to get classical language status after Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu,
Kannada and Malayalam.
❖ The Expert Committee to Revise and Strengthen the Monetary Policy Framework, headed by RBI Deputy Governor Urjit Patel suggested the central bank to adopt the new consumer price index for anchoring the monetary policy.
❖ Facebook announced its acquisition of WhatsApp Inc. for $19 billion. WhatsApp was founded in 2009 by Brian Acton and John Koum. It is an instant messaging app for smartphones.
❖ The Winter Olympics were held in Sochi, Russia in February 2014. Russia topped the medals table with13 gold, 11 silver and 9 bronze. It won a total of 33 medals. India did not win any medal. Next Winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang in South Korea in 2018.
❖ Michelle Bachelet was sworn in as the President of Chile on March 11, 2014. She already served as the President once from 2006 to 2010.
❖ The third edition of the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) was held in The Hague, Netherlands in March 2014. The NSS aims to prevent nuclear terrorism by reducing the amount of dangerous
nuclear material in the world.
❖ Renowned Hindi author Govind Mishra was selected for the Saraswati Samman for the year 2013 for his book "Dhool Paudho Par". He is the second Hindi author to receive the honor after the late Harivansh Rai Bachchan in 1991.
❖ ESPN cricinfo presented the Cricketer of the Generation award to Sachin Tendulkar.
❖ The International Women of Courage Award 2014 was presented by the US first lady Michelle Obama to Laxmi, a Delhi acid attack survivor.
❖ Mortal remains of about 282 Indian soldiers of 1857 mutiny were exhumed from a well at Ajnala
in Amritsar district of Punjab in March 2014.
❖ The Reserve Bank of India had extended the deadline for Indian banks to meet capital requirements under the Basel III norms by a year to March 31, 2019.
❖ Mizoram defeated Railways to win the 68th Santosh Trophy Football championship in Siliguri in
March 2014. It is the maiden Santosh Trophy title for Mizoram.
❖ Viswanathan Anand won the World Candidates chess tournament title at Khanty Mansisyk, Russia.
❖ Khushwant Singh, a renowned author, passed away on March 20, 2014. He authored books such as 'Train to Pakistan', 'With Malice towards One and All', 'The Sunset Club', 'Truth, Love and a Little Malice', etc.
❖ Eminent film lyricist Gulzar was chosen for the coveted Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2013. This award is the highest film award in India.
❖ The people of Crimea voted to become part of Russia in a referendum in March 2014. The leaders of Group of Eight (G8) countries suspended Russia from the group on the issue of annexation of Crimea by Russia. Crimea was separated from Ukraine.
❖ The third Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral, Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Summit was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar in March 2014. India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand are the seven members of this group. Sumith Nakandala of Sri Lanka is the Secretary General. The Secretariat of BIMSTEC is established in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
❖ Assam is the first State in India to observe Child Protection Day to secure the future of children
on March 4, 2014.
❖ The armies of Nepal and India held a joint military exercise named Surya Kiran VI in Nepal.
❖ Admiral Robin K. Dhowan assumed office as the Chief of Naval Staff on April 17, 2014. He succeeded Admiral D.K. Joshi.
❖ R. Gandhi has been appointed as a Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India. RBI has four deputy governors.
❖ The 2014 Goldman Environmental Prize was awarded to Ramesh Agrawal of Chhattisgarh.
❖ Koyal Rana won the Miss India 2014 crown.
❖ India - born poet Vijay Seshadri won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in the poetry category for his collection of poems "3 Sections".
❖ Ex-coal secretary P.C. Parakh released his book titled "Crusader or Conspirator? Coalgate and Other Truths".
❖ Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Colombian novelist, died on April 17, 2014. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. His major books include One Hundred Years of Solitude, Autumn of the Patriarch, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Love in the Time of Cholera.
❖ Renowned cinematographer V.- K. Murthy passed away. He won the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2008. He shot India's first cinemascope movie 'Kagaz ke Phool'.
❖ RBI gave approvals to IDFC Ltd and Bandhan Financial Services Private Limited to start new banks. IDFC is an infrastructure finance company based in Mumbai and Bandhan is a micro lender based in Kolkata.
❖ Sun Pharmaceuticals will buy Ranbaxy Laboratories.
❖ Sri Lanka won the World Twenty 20 title for the first time defeating India by six wickets in Mirpur, Bangladesh in April 2014.
❖ Australian women cricket team won the Women's World Twenty 20 Cup 2014 by defeating England in the final in Mirpur, Bangladesh. This is the third successive Women's World Twenty20 title for Australia.
❖ Narendra Damodardas Modi was sworn in as the 15th Prime Minister of India on May 26, 2014.
The swearing in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan was attended by the heads/ representatives of eight SAARC nations. Along with Modi 44 Ministers also took oath.
❖ The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) became the first party in 30 years to win a majority on its
own in the Lok Sabha. In the 16th Lok Sabha elections it won 282 seats. Indian National Congress won 44 seats.
❖ Anandiben Patel became the first woman Chief Minister of Gujarat in May 2014. Sikkim Democratic Front leader Pawan Chamling was sworn in as the CM of Sikkim for a record fifth consecutive term. Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik was sworn in as the CM of Odisha for the fourth consecutive term. Congress leader Nabam Tuki became the CM of Arunachal Pradesh for the second consecutive time.
❖ Jitan Ram Manjhi succeeded Nitish Kumar as the new CM of Bihar. TR Zeliang succeeded Neiphiu Rio as the CM of Nagaland.
❖ 13 - year-old Malavath Purna became the youngest female climber to scale the Mount Everest on May 25, 2014.
❖ Dalia Grybauskaite was re-elected as the President of Lithuania in May 2014. She is the first female President of Lithuania.
❖ Salvador Sanchez Ceren took office as the President of El Salvador on June 1, 2014. Luis Guillermo Solis became the President of Costa Rica on May 8, 2014. Juan Carlos Varela assumed office as the President of Panama on July 1, 2014.
❖ Peter Mutharika assumed office as the President of Malawi on May 31, 2014.
❖ Major General Kristin Lund of Norway is the first-ever woman to serve as the head of a UN peacekeeping operation.
❖ Nripendra Mishra was appointed as Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is
the former Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
❖ Former United States Secretary of the State Hillary Rodham Clinton launched her book 'Hard Choices'.
❖ 'RuPay', India's own card payment network, was launched by the President Pranab Mukherjee. It was developed by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI). The RuPay card is accepted at all ATMs.
❖ Justice B. S. Chauhan was appointed the Chairman of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.
❖ Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) has been included in the second schedule to the RBI Act, 1934.
Now BMB becomes eligible for loans from RBI on bank rate.
❖ RBI made it mandatory for banks to install talking ATMs with Braille keypads from July 2014
onwards. It is for the benefit of persons with disabilities.
❖ P.J. Nayak Committee appointed by the RBI recommended the reduction of government stake in public sector banks to less than 50 percent.
❖ Japan won the Thomas Cup men's badminton title for the first time. Japan defeated Malaysia in the final in New Delhi in May 2014. China won the Uber Cup women's badminton title for the
13th time by defeating Japan in the final in New Delhi. India won a bronze medal for the first time in Uber Cup.
❖ Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won the Indian Premier League- 7 title by defeating Kings XI Punjab at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on June 1, 2014. It is KKR's second IPL trophy.
<div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: