1. Army Day
observed today

i. India observed 67th Army Day today.

ii. The day is celebrated to commemorate the day, when
Lieutenant General (later Field Marshal) K M Cariappa on 15 January 1949 became
the first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army post Independence.

iii. He had succeeded General Sir Francis Butcher, the last
British Commander-in-Chief of India.

iv. On the occasion of Army Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the
armed forces and soldiers saying the nation is proud of their sacrifices, dedication
and determination.

2. RBI cuts
Repo Rate by 25 basis points

i. The Reserve Bank of India today cut the repo rate by 25 basis points from 8% to
7.75% with immediate effect ahead of its sixth bi-monthly policy review on
February 3, 2015.This is the first repo rate cut since May 2013.

ii.
One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.

iii. Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the LAF (Liquidity Adjustment
Facility) stands adjusted to 6.75 per cent, and the marginal standing facility
(MSF) rate and the Bank Rate to 8.75 per cent with immediate effect.

iv.
The move is expected to bring down the borrowing costs in the economy, which
the industry and the government believe is necessary to support the wobbly
economic recovery.

Note: On Dec 2, 2014, RBI, in its fifth
bi-monthly monetary policy statement, kept the key policy rates unchanged.

Current Rates are as follows:

1. Repo Rate – 7.75% (Changed)

2. Reverse Repo Rate – 6.75%
(Changed)

3. CRR (Cash Reserve ratio) – 4%
(Unchanged)

4. Bank Rate – 8.75% (Changed)

5. MSF (Marginal Standing Facility)
– 8.75% (Changed)

6. SLR (Statutory Liquidity Ratio) –
22% (Unchanged)

3. Prabhu Nath Dwivedi conferred with Sahitya
Akademi Award 2014

i. Well-known
Sanskrit scholar Prabhu Nath Dwivedi conferred with Sahitya Akademi Award 2014
for Sanskrit language.

ii. He
was awarded for his work Kanakalochanaha, a collection of 16 short-stories
based on various social issues.

Note: i. Sahitya Akademi Award is conferred every year on writers who have shown
outstanding works in one of the twenty-four major Indian languages.

ii. These
twenty-four major Indian languages are Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English,
Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri,
Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthan, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil,
Telugu, and Urdu.

4. World Bank cuts global economic forecast to
3%

i. World Bank
projected the global economy will grow 3% per cent this year, lowered the
earlier forecast of 3.4 per cent.

ii. The bank’s economists see oil prices, which have
lost more than half their value in the last six months, providing uneven
benefits to major oil importers.

5. Anupam
Shrivastava appointed CMD of BSNL

i. Appointments
Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved appointment of Anupam Shrivastava as
CMD (Chairman and Managing Director) of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
(BSNL).

ii. His
appointment was pending from long. The Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB)
had shortlisted Anupam Shrivastava for the post of CMD of BSNL in 2013.

Note:
His tenure as CMD was to begin from 1 May 2013 but the then Union
Telecommunication Minister Kapil Sibal held back the recommendation and granted
extension to R K Upadhyay till 30 June 2013.

6. World Bank assistance for building toilets in
Chhattisgarh

i. World Bank
will extend financial aid to build toilets in tribal-dominated villages of
Chhattisgarh under Centre’s flagship ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’

ii. World Bank
will give an aid of Rs. 240
crore in next five years to the Centre for constructing toilets in households
in the tribal areas and also for running proposed awareness campaigns.

7. UCO Bank won the MSME Banking Excellence
Awards award 2014

i. UCO Bank
has been awarded the “MSME Banking Excellence Awards- 2014” organised by CIMSME
(Chamber of Indian Micro Small & Medium Enterprises) on January 10.

ii. The Kolkata-based lender bagged
the award for the best bank for operational performance

iii. The bank Chairman, Arun Kaul,
received the award from the Union MSME Minister, Kalraj Mishra.

8. India Ratings expects GDP to grow at 6.5% in
2015-16

i. A leading rating agency India Ratings (Ind-Ra) has estimated the
industry to grow at 6.5 per cent in 2015-16 against the projected 3.6 per cent
in the current fiscal.

ii. This, in turn is expected
to boost the overall growth which could grow at 6.5 per cent in the next fiscal
from 5.6 per cent this year.

9. Synd Mahila Sakthi scheme for women entrepreneurs

i. Syndicate Bank has launched a special advance scheme Synd Mahila Sakthi which aims to provide
loans at low interest rates for empowering women
entrepreneurs.

ii. Women entrepreneurs, can
get loans of up to ₹5 crore at low interest rates under the Synd Mahila Sakthi scheme.

iii. The are no processing
charges, and the bank has so far sanctioned 17,500 loans to women entrepreneurs.

10. Brett Lee retires
from International Cricket

i. Former Australia fast bowler Brett Lee declares
retirement from all formats of cricket today at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

ii. On
13 July 2012, Lee announced his retirement from all forms of international
cricket but actively taking participation
in Twenty20 format, both in the Indian Premier League and the domestic
competition in Australia.

Note: During his
international career, Lee was recognized as one of the fastest bowlers in the
world of cricket

11.  Swimmer Bhakti Sharma sets world record in
Antarctic Ocean

i. India’s open water swimmer Bhakti Sharma has
set a world record by swimming 1.4 miles in 52 minutes in one degree temperature
in the Antarctic Ocean.

ii. She breaks the earlier record of British
open water swimmer Lewis Pugh and American swimmer Lynne Cox.

Note: The 24-year old is now the first Asian girl
and youngest in the world to have achieved this feat.