UNION GOVERNMENT BANNED COSMETIC COMPANIES FROM TESTING ON ANIMALS

Union Government banned cosmetic companies from testing on animals. The notification prohibiting testing of cosmetics on animals was issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on 27 January 2014.

The rules prohibiting testing of cosmetics on animals will become effective within 45 days of it being made public. The ban implies that no cosmetic which has been tested on animals in the country will be allowed to be sold. With this India became the first country in South Asia to ban the testing of cosmetics and its ingredients on animals.

GOOGLE PURCHASED DEEPMIND TECHNOLOGIES OF UK

Google purchased the British start-up DeepMind Technologies – an artificial intelligence company – on 27 January 2014. The American tech giant Google confirmed the deal in its London office. This deal represents Google’s biggest ever single acquisition in Europe.

The acquisition of DeepMind would prove to be helpful for Google in further developing its most recent Hummingbird search update. The Hummingbird search update was created to make Google more human and searches which can now understand context like a human brain.

The artificial intelligence company DeepMind Technologies was founded by Demis Hassabis, neuroscientist and computer genius together with Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman in London.

NATIONAL VOTERS DAY - 25 JANUARY

The Election Commission of India celebrated the 4th National Voters Day across the country on 25 January 2014. The National Function to mark the 4th National Voters’ Day was held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

The theme for the 4th NVD is Ethical Voting.

 National Voters Day is started from 25 January 2011. 25th January is also the foundation day of the Commission, which came into being on this day in 1950. The Commission’s objective through NVD is to increase enrolment of voters, especially of the newly eligible ones, to make universal adult suffrage a complete reality.

The National Voters Day is also utilized to spread awareness among voters regarding effective participation in the electoral process.

LEWIS CLARKE YOUNGEST PERSON TO REACH SOUTH POLE

Lewis Clarke, 16 years old became the youngest person to trek to the South Pole on 18 January 2014.Clarke spent 48 days at temperature of -40 Celsius and winds of up to 193 km/h. Clarke from Bristol, UK aimed to enter the record books as the youngest person in the world to ski from the Antarctic coast to the Pole using 1100 kilometer Hercules Inlet route.

An 18 year old Sarah Mc Nair Landry from Canada previously held the same coast to pole route in 2005. The British Antarctic Survey said that the Antarctic is the highest and coldest continent and is nearly as big as Europe in size which is entirely buried by snow and ice.

CYRUS MISTRY WON THE DSC PRIZE 2014

Cyrus Mistry won the DSC prize 2014 for South Asian literature for his book Chronicles of a Corpse Bearer on 18 January 2014. Mistry was awarded with a cash price of 50000 dollars at Jaipur International Literature Festival 2014.

Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer derives a true story of the son of a Parsi priest, who falls in love with the daughter of a corpse bearer, a community segregated and shunned by society.

This category was instituted in 2010 with cash prize, which is not limited by geography or ethnicity. Short story is not eligible for the award. A book focusing on the culture, politics, history and the people of South Asia can be entered for the prize.

The prize, is given to the best work or translations of a work on or about the South Asian region. Last year the award was won by Jeet Thayil for his debut debut novel "Narcopolis".