Current Affairs 5th January 2016

Important Points : 

• Name the new Chief Information Commissioner of India - Radha Krishna Mathur
• Who has been appointed as the CEO of Wipro - Abid Ali Neemuchwala
• 26th Lal Bahadur Shastri Hockey tournament won by - ONGC
• Which bus company has merged with Volvo India Pvt Ltd - Volvo Busses India
• Name the four elements which are added to complete Seventh row of Periodic Table - ununtrium, ununpentium, ununseptium & ununoctium
• Zozila Pass tunnel project bagged by - IRB Infra 
• After how many years India-Nepal Bus Service resumed - 27 years
• 2015 Costa Novel Prize for A God in Ruins won by - Kate Atkinson

Details : 

Name the new Chief Information Commissioner of India - Radha Krishna Mathur

Among the important National Current Affairs, On 4th January 2016, President Pranab Mukherjee administered the oath to Former Defence Secretary Radha Krishna Mathur as the eight Chief Information Commissioner (CIC).

Mathur has replaced Vijai Sharma.

About Radha Krishna Mathur

• He is a retired IAS officer of Tripura cadre.
• On 28th May 2013, he was made the Defence Secretary.

Who has been appointed as the CEO of Wipro - Abid Ali Neemuchwala

Among the important appointments, On 4th January 2016, current Chief Operating Officer (COO) Abid Ali Neemuchwala was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IT giant Wipro.

While, T K Kurien, the current CEO was promoted as the new executive vice-chairman. 

This is for the first time in the history of Wipro that the CEO has been promoted as the vice-chairman.

About Abid Ali Neemuchwala

• In April 2015, Neemuchwala joined Wipro as COO.
• Earlier, he had a tenure of over two decades with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

26th Lal Bahadur Shastri Hockey tournament won by - ONGC

Among the important Sports Current Affairs, On 3rd January 2016, the 26th Lal Bahadur Shastri Hockey tournament was won by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) after defeating Indian Railways in the final clash.

Tournament Awards

• Upcoming player of the tournament: Ajit Pandey (Railways)
• Player of the tournament: Simrandeep Singh (Railways)
• Outstanding performance in a match: Vivek Sharma (IOC)
• Top scorer: Diwakar Ram (ONGC)

Which bus company has merged with Volvo India Pvt Ltd - Volvo Busses India

On 5th January 2016, Volvo Group announced the collaboration of joint company Volvo India Pvt Ltd (VIPL) and bus manufacturing arm Volvo Buses India.

In India, Volvo Group has multiple business areas and brands such as Volvo Construction Equipment, UD Buses, Volvo Trucks, Volvo Buses, Eicher Trucks and Buses and Volvo Penta Engines.

In India, Volvo Bus business is led by VRV Sriprasad. 

Name the four elements which are added to complete Seventh row of Periodic Table - ununtrium, ununpentium, ununseptium & ununoctium

Among the important Science Current Affairs, On 30th December 2015, discovery and assignment of elements with atomic numbers 113, 115, 117 and 118 were announced by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).

All the four elements met the discovery of elements of the IUPAP/IUPAC Transfermium Working Group (TWG) 1991 Discovery Criteria.

Element 113

Scientists belonging to RIKEN research laboratory in Japan discovered this element. It is named temporarily as ununtrium and its symbol is Uut.

Elements 115 & 117

Scientists belonging to Russia and the USA in collaboration discovered these elements. Their working name are ununpentium (Uup) and ununseptium (Uus) with atomic number 115 &117 respectively.

Element 118

Scientists belonging to the Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California, USA has discovered this element. Its working name is ununoctium (Uuo) and has atomic number 118.

Zozila Pass tunnel project bagged by - IRB Infra 

Among the important National Current Affairs, On 4th January 2016, country's biggest road project by cost, Zojila Pass tunnel road project in Jammu and Kashmir with a cost of 10050 crore was bagged by IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd.  

After the completion of the project, it will be the longest in South Asia.

Highlights of the Project

• The tunnel has a total distance of 14.08 km providing all-weather connectivity between the Jammu and Kashmir regions with Leh Ladakh.
• It has a construction period of 7 years.
• Apart from this, IRB will also construct roads on NH-1 of about 10.8 km.

After how many years India-Nepal Bus Service resumed - 27 years

On 4th January 2016, after a gap of 27 years, India-Nepal Bus Service is resumed which was suspended 27 due to the Indo-Nepal Trade and Transit Treaty.

The service will be resumed between Anand Vihar ISBT in Delhi and Kanchanpur in Nepal.

The resume of service will benefit people living along the border areas.

2015 Costa Novel Prize for A God in Ruins won by - Kate Atkinson

Among the important International Current Affairs, On 4th January 2016, for the second time in three years, the novel-of-the-year prize at Britain's Costa Book Awards 2015 was won by British writer Kate Atkinson for A God in Ruins, a story of war and its aftermath.

Earlier, she had won prize for Behind the Scenes at the Museum in 1995 and Life After Life in 2013.

Some other award winners are as follows : 

Costa Biography Award - Andrea Wulf for The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander Von Humboldt, The Lost Hero of Science

Costa Children’s Book Award - Frances Hardinge for The Lie Tree

Costa Poetry Award - Don Paterson for 40 Sonnets

Costa First Novel Award - Andrew Michael Hurley for The Loney

Do You Know :

• Lauched in the year 1971, the Costa Book Awards is one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious and popular literary awards.
• It is awarded in five categories : Children's Book, Novel, Poetry, Biography and First Novel.