GK & Current Affair Updates: November 9 - 2014

09 November 2014

National:

List of PM Narendra Modi's ministers

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expanded his team by appointing 21 new ministers, four of them in the Cabinet and three others as ministers of state with independent charge. PM Modi still has headroom for at least 13 more ministers as the maximum he can induct are 79 ministers.

CABINET MINISTERS:

1. Rajnath Singh: Home Affairs. 

2. Sushma Swaraj: External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs. 

3. Arun Jaitley: Finance, Corporate Affairs, Information & Broadcasting. 

4. M Venkaiah Naidu: Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Parliamentary Affairs. 

5. Nitin Jairam Gadkari: Road Transport and Highways, Shipping. 

6. Manohar Parrikar: Defence. 7. Suresh Prabhu: Railways. 

8. DV Sadananda Gowda: Law & Justice. 

9. Sushri Uma Bharati: Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. 

10. Najma A Heptulla: Minority Affairs. 

11. Ramvilas Paswan: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. 

12. Kalraj Mishra: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. 

13. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi: Women and Child Development. 

14. Ananthkumar: Chemicals and Fertilizers. 

15. Ravi Shankar Prasad: Communications and Information Technology. 

16. Jagat Prakash Nadda: Health & Family Welfare. 

17. Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati: Civil Aviation. 

18. Anant Geete: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises. 

19. Harsimrat Kaur Badal: Food Processing Industries. 

20. Narendra Singh Tomar: Mines, Steel. 

21. Chaudhary Birender Singh: Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation. 

22. Jual Oram: Tribal Affairs. 

23. Radha Mohan Singh: Agriculture. 

24. Thaawar Chand Gehlot: Social Justice and Empowerment. 

25. Smriti Zubin Irani: Human Resource Development. 

26. Harsh Vardhan: Science and Technology, Earth Sciences

MINISTERS OF STATE:

1. General VK Singh: Statistics and Programme Implementation (Independent Charge), External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs. 2 Inderjit Singh Rao: Planning (Independent Charge), Defence. 3 Santosh Kumar Gangwar: Textiles (Independent Charge). 4 Bandaru Dattatreya: Labour and Employment (Independent Charge). 5 Rajiv Pratap Rudy: Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge), Parliamentary Affairs. 6. Shripad Yesso Naik: AAYUSH (Independent Charge), Health & Family Welfare. 7 Dharmendra Pradhan: Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge). 8. Sarbananda Sonowal: Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge). 9. Prakash Javadekar: Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge). 10. Piyush Goyal: Power (Independent Charge), Coal (Independent Charge), New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge). 11. Jitendra Singh: Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge), Prime Minister's Office, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space. 12. Nirmala Sitharaman: Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge).13. Mahesh Sharma: Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge), Civil Aviation. 14. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi: Minority Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs. 15. Ram Kripal Yadav: Drinking Water & Sanitation.16 . Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary: Home Affairs. 17. Sanwar Lal Jat: Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation. 18. Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundariya: Agriculture. 19. Giriraj Singh: Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises. 20. Hansraj Gangaram Ahir: Chemicals & Fertilizers. 21. GM Siddeshwara: Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises. 22. Manoj Sinha: Railways. 23. Nihalchand: Panchayati Raj. 24. Upendra Kushwaha: Human Resource Development. 25. Radhakrishnan P: Road Transport & Highways, Shipping. 26. Kiren Rijiju: Home Affairs. 27. Krishan Pal: Social Justice & Empowerment. 28. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan: Agriculture. 29. Manuskhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava: Tribal Affairs. 30. Raosaheb Dadarao Danve: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. 31. Vishnu Deo Sai: Mines, Steel. 32. Sudarshan Bhagat: Rural Development. 33. Ram Shankar Katheria: Human Resource Development. 34. YS Chowdary: Science and Technology, Earth Science. 35. Jayant Sinha: Finance. 36. Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore: Information & Broadcasting. 37. Babul Supria (Babul Supriyo) Baral: Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation. 38. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti: Food Processing Industries. 39. Vijay Sampla: Social Justice & Empowerment.

Parsekar sworn in after revolt fizzles out in Goa

Three-time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator, Laxmikant Parsekar who was Health Minister in the Manohar Parrikar Government, was sworn in as the eleventh Chief Minister of Goa. Governor Mridula Sinha administered the oath of office.

The Hindu scribe wins PCI award

Jury constituted by the Press Council of India (PCI) has announced the names of the winners of its national awards for excellence in journalism. Rahi Gaikwad of The Hindu and Neha Bhatt of Outlook have been awarded certificate of creative excellence in the development reporting category. The award in the category goes to Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava of Down to Earth. In the category of rural journalism, the winners are Corenlius Minz of Khabar Mantra, Jharkhand, and R. Samban of Desabhimani , Malappuram. The two will jointly get the award, which carries a cash prize. The award in the photo journalism (single news picture) category goes to Neeraj Priyadarshi of the Indian Express. In Urdu journalism category, the award will be jointly shared by Wasimul Haque of the daily Akhbare-E-Mashriq , Delhi, and Muhammad Atif of Sahafat , Delhi.

International:

New ISI chief takes charge

Lt. Gen. Rizwan Akhtar, who once wrote a paper asking Pakistan to aggressively pursue rapprochement with India, has taken over as the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). He succeeds Lt. Gen. Zaheerul Islam, who retired. Lt. Gen. Akhtar has previously served as the director general of Pakistan Rangers in Sindh.

Business & Economy:

SBI's Arundhati Bhattacharya most powerful Indian woman in business

Arundhati Bhattacharya, the chairwoman of country's largest bank SBI, has been named as the most-powerful woman in business in India by Fortune Magazine. ICICI Bank's Chanda Kochhar and Shikha Sharma of Axis Bank follow Bhattacharya at the second and the third place respectively. In the Fortune India list of 50 most-powerful businesswomen, there are as many as eight new entrants. Interestingly, two first timers — Bhattacharya and Nishi Vasudeva, the chairwoman and managing director at HPCL (fourth place) — have made a cut into the top 10. Other new entrants are Shahnaz Husain, founder of Shahnaz Group of Companies; Zarin Daruwala, president wholesale banking ICICI Bank; Archana Hingorani, CEO and ED IL&FS Investment Managers; Ireena Vittal, management consultant independent director; Vani Kola, MD Kalaari Capital and Valerie Wagoner, MD Zipdial.

Sports:

India bags 13 medals

In a dominating show, India bagged 13 medals, including four golds out of a possible 18 in the rapid event on the opening day of the Asian Youth Chess Championships. The Tamil Nadu trio of R. Vaishali, M. Mahalakshmi and Srija Seshadri won the yellow metal for the host in under-14, under-16 and under-18 girls’ categories respectively, while Maharashtra youngster Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh secured the fourth gold in the under-16 open section. India also pocketed four silver and five bronze medals.

Salgaocar FC wins Durand Cup

Salgaocar FC scored a solitary-goal win over Pune FC to emerge Durand Cup champion for the third time in Goa. Salgaocar, which enjoyed better ball possession, scored the all-important goal in the 21st minute through Thangjam Saran Singh. Salgaocar won the title in 1999 and 2003. The winner was richer by Rs. 25 lakh while Pune FC got Rs. 15 lakh.