The Daily Brief – 20th January, 2017

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• Tamil Nadu has prepared itself for a shut-down as trade unions, traders, hoteliers and others in the service sector announced a dawn-to-dusk bandh in support of the bull taming sport, Jallikattu.
• The Centre appointed Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma as the new Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation. The announcement was made following a decision at a meeting of a high-power panel comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar and Mr Kharge.
• Allowing a consortium of 15 banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) to initiate proceedings for recovering dues from Kingfisher Airlines Ltd (KAL), the Bengaluru Bench of the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) held that dues of Rs. 6,203.35 crore should be paid “jointly and severally” by KAL and its guarantors United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd and liquor baron Vijay Mallya, and Kingfisher Finvest (India) Ltd.
• The indigenously developed fighter jet Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas will make its maiden appearance in the flypast on Rajpath in the Republic Day parade this year. Two Tejas aircraft were inducted into the 45 squadron ‘Flying Daggers’ of the Indian Air Force (IAF) on July 1, 2016.
• Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbharda Singh announced that Dharamsala would be the second capital of the hill State with a population of about 70 lakhs.
• The U.S. capital, Washington D.C., is under a security blanket ahead of the 58th presidential inauguration on Friday when Republican Donald Trump will take oath as the 45th President of the country. The oath taking ceremony will take place at the West Front of the Capitol building, on a temporarily built platform that overlooks the Washington Monument.
• The British Foreign Secretary has sought Indian assistance in resolving current tensions between the U.K., the U.S. and Mauritius over the future of the U.S. military base Diego Garcia, and the Indian Ocean Chagos Archipelago, amid a warning from Mauritius last year that it would push to take the matter to the International Court of Justice. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson raised the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their meeting in New Delhi.

• Novak Djokovic suffered the biggest defeat of his career when he crashed out of the Australian Open to an inspired 117th-ranked Uzbek Denis Istomin. Djokovic had only been defeated once by a player outside the top 100 in the past seven years, when he went down to 145-ranked Juan Martin del Potro at the Rio Olympics.
• All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Praful Patel was appointed member of FIFA’s Finance Committee, from 2017 to 2021. The FIFA Finance Committee monitors the financial management and advises the FIFA Executive Committee on financial matters and asset management.