Current Affairs January 2018

Are you preparing for competitive exams? These current affairs of Jnauary 2018 are to give a boost to your preparation for UPSC Civil Services, Bank PO, Railways, GATE, CAT, CDS, NDA, IBPS and other such exams.

Even if you are not preparing for any competitive exam this current affairs will add to your general knowledge. Here we have compiled all the important of January 2018. Read on to know…

Current Affairs January 2018 – Awards

First African-American to win Golden Globe – Sterling K Brown

• Actor Sterling K Brown won Golden Globe 2018 for best actor in a drama television series and created by becoming the first African-American to win this award.
• He begged the award for his role as Randall Pearson on NBC’s “This Is Us”.
• Complete list of Golden Globe 2018winners

Sr.No.	Award Category	Winner
1	Best director, motion picture	Guillermo del Toro, “The Shape of Water”.
2	Best motion picture, musical or comedy	Lady Bird.
3	Best motion picture, drama	Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
4	Best performance by an actress in a motion picture, drama	Frances McDormand.
5	Best performance by an actor in a motion picture, drama	Gary Oldman.
6	Best performance by an actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy	James Franco.
7	Best performance by an actress in a motion picture, musical or comedy	Saoirse Ronan.
8	Best motion picture, animated	Coco
9	Best motion picture, foreign language	In the Fade
10	Best performance by an actress in a television series, drama	Elisabeth Moss.
11	Best television series, drama	The Handmaid’s Tale, Hulu
12	Best performance by an actor in a television series, drama	Sterling K. Brown.

UNESCO Award to Tamil Nadu CM Edappady K Palaniswami

• Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappady K. Palaniswami has been bestowed with the UNESCO Award of Merit for the iconic Ranganathaswamy temple in Srirangam (Tiruchy).

Padma Bhushan Awards 2018

• The ‘Padma Bhushan’ is awarded by the Government of India for distinguished service of high order. Find below the list of 9 Padma Bhushan winners of 2018.

Sr.No.	Name of Awardee	Category
1	Shri Philipose Mar Chrysostom	Others-Spiritualism
2	Shri Pankaj Advani	Sports- Billiards/Snooker
3	Shri Ramachandran Nagaswamy	Others-Archaeology
4	Shri Alexander Kadakin (Foreigner/Posthumous)	Public Affairs
5	Shri Mahendra Singh Dhoni	Sports-Cricket
6	Shri Arvind Parikh	Art-Music
7	Shri Laxman Pai	Art-Painting
8	Shri Ved Prakash Nanda (OCI)	Literature and Education
9	Ms. Sharda Sinha	Art-Music

Padma Vibhushan Awards 2018

• The ‘Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded by the Government of India for exceptional and distinguished service. The list below includes 3 Padma Vibhushan winners of 2018.

Sr.No.	Winner	Category
1	Shri Ghulam Mustafa Khan	Art-Music
2	Shri Illaiyaraja	Art-Music
3	Shri Parameswaran Parameswaran	Literature and Education

Padma Shri Awards 2018

• The ‘Padma Shri’ is awarded by the Government of India for distinguished service in any field. The list below includes 8 of the total Padma Shri winners of 2018.

Sr.No.	Name	Category
1	Shri Somdev Devvarman	Sports-Tennis
2	Shri Romulus Whitaker	Others-Wildlife
3	Shri Prafulla Govinda Baruah	Literature and Education-Journalism
4	Ms. Vijayalakshmi Navaneethakrishnan	Art-Folk Music
5	Shri Kidambi Srikanth	Sports-Badminton
6	Shri Anwar Jalalpuri	Literature and Education
7	Ms. Saikhom Mirabai Chanu	Sports-Weightlifting
8	Shri Damodar Ganesh Bapat	Social Work

CBIP Special Recognition Award 2018 – Central Water Commission (CWC) 

• The Central Board of Irrigation and Power (CBIP) awarded the the Central Water Commission (CWC) with the CBIP Special Recognition Award 2018.
• CWC received the award for promoting the health and safety of large dams in India via the World Bank aided Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP).

Current Affairs January 2018 – Defence

25^th Raising Day Celebrated by Army Air Defense Corps

• The Army Air Defense Corps celebrated its 25^th Raising Day on 10 January 2018.
• The Corps of Army Air Defense was raised on 10th January 1994.
• Every year January 10 is celebrated as the Raising Day of the Army Air Defense Corps.

Agni-5 Ballistic Missile’s 5th Successful Flight Test

• Agni-5, the long range surface-to-surface ballistic missile was successfully flight tested for its full range from Dr Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha.
• In 19 minutes the Agni-5 Ballistic Missile covered a distance of 4,900 km.

First military exercise of Armies of India and Vietnam

• Six-day long military exercise named ‘VINBAX’ between Armies of India and Vietnam was in Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. This was the first military exercise between the Indian and Vietnam.

Vijaya – The Second Coast Guard patrol vessel launched

• The second offshore coast guard patrol vessel (OPV) ‘Vijaya’ was launched at Indian Coast Gurad’s Greenfield Defense shipyard in Kattupalli near Chennai.
• Vijaya is an indigenous vessel built by the Larsen and Toubro Shipyard.
• The patrol vessel is equipped with state-of art radar, communication and navigational system.
• The vessel will be utilized by Coast Guard for day and night patrol and surveillance.
• The vessel is fitted a navigation and communication system, 30 mm automatic gun with Fire Control System (FCS) and 2 units of 12.7 mm gun with FCS and a navigation and communication system.

Current Affairs January 2018 – Sports

Veteran Indian golfer Shiv Kapur created history

• Golfer Shiv Kapur created history by winning 3rd Asian Tour title of 2017 against Prom Meesawat of Thailand.
• Shiv Kapur became the only golfer to win three Asian Tour tournaments in the year 2018.

“Freedom Series”

• The three-Test series hosted by South Africa, played between India and South Africa was named as “Freedom Series”.
• India is one of the key opponents of apartheid that’s the reason why both the nation felt “Freedom Series” is the best name for the series also as a recognition of shared history of both the nations and winning of freedom by then through non-violence.

Gold in National Women’s Boxing Championship – Sarjubala Devi 

• Sarjubala Devi represented Manipur and claimed the gold in 48 kg category in the National Women’s Boxing Championships held in Rohtak.
• Former world and Asian champion L Sarita Devi representing the All India Police begged a gold medal in the 60 kg category.
• The other gold winners included Meena Kumari of AIP in 54 kg category, Sonia Lather representing Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) in 57 kg category, and Rajesh Narwal from RSPB in 48 kg category.

Current Affairs Jan 2018 – Appointments

IIFCL Managing Director – Pankaj Jain 

• Central Government appointed Pankaj Jain, an 1990 IAS officer, as Managing Director of India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd.
• Prior to this appointment, Mr. Jain was working as Joint Secretary in the Department of Financial Services.
• He also served as a consultant to the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Asian Productivity Organization.

Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman Space Commission – Dr. Sivan K 

• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet appointed Dr. Sivan K as Secretary of the Department of Space, and Chairman of the Space Commission and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), for a three year term.
• K Sivan was Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, taking over A.S. Kiran Kumar.
• He joined ISRO in the year 1982 in the then novel PSLV project and has been working as the project director of the GSLV rocket.

Deputy National Security Adviser – Former RAW Cheif Rajinder Khanna

• Former RAW Cheif Rajinder Khanna has been appointed by Committee of the Cabinet as the deputy NSA on re-employment on contractual basis.
• The post was lying vacant since Arvind Gupta, a former Indian Foreign Services, retired after the end of his tenure.

Foreign secretary – Senior diplomat Vijay Keshav Gokhale

• 1981 IAS officer Vijay Keshav Gokhale was appointed as foreign secretary for a term of two-years replacing S. Jaishankar.
• Prior to this appointment, he served as economic relations secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs.