• Deepak Maheshwari, the retired HDFC Bank executive and former Federal Bank board member has taken charge as Chief credit officer (CCO) at Axis Bank.

• He had taken over as CCO to oversee corporate credit appraisal and disbursement at the Axis Bank.

• He was also granted an exemption to take over as CCO by the board of Axis Bank as he is now 64 which is above the bank's retirement age of 60.

• Asian Cup gold medallist Shakil Ahmed set a world record in Indoor Rowing by completing 1 lakh meters in above-40 years category in Kolkata on 14th January 2019.

• She achieved the milestone by completing 1 lakh meters of simulated distance in 10 hours. 

• She also has the record of completing 50,000 meters of simulated distance in 4 hours 13 minutes which is already in the Limca Record Book.

• Former chief statistician TCA Anant has been appointed as a member of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

• He was administered the oath of office by UPSC Chairman Arvind Saxena.

• A member of UPSC has a maximum of six-year tenure or till incumbent attains the age of 65 years.

• The commission has a strength of 10 members, besides a chairperson.

• Former Delhi Police Commissioner Bhim Sain Bassi, Prof. Pradeep Kumar Joshi, Air Marshal A S Bhonsle (retired), Sujata Mehta, Manoj Soni, Smita Nagaraj, Msathiyavathy and Bhushan Vyas are members of the UPSC.

• After Anant's appointment, the commission has one more vacancy.

• Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the 4th International Kite Festival and 2nd International Sweet Festival in Hyderabad, Telangana on 13th January.

• The theme of the International Kite Festival was for the empowerment of the girl child: "Educate girl child and she will save the world".

• In this Kite Festival, 42 professional kite flyers from aboard and 60 from India participated. Moreover, sweets from 20 countries and from 25 India states were displayed at the Sweet Festival.

• Makar Sankranthi is the festival of Sun God who is often regarded as the symbol divinity and wisdom.

• In south India, it is called 'Pongal', in Panjab and Haryana it is called 'Lohri', in Assm it is called 'Bihu' and in Bihar it is called 'Khichdi Festival'.

• Fields Medal-Winning Mathematician Michael Atiyah Passed away at the age of 89.

• He was a British mathematician who received the 1966 Fields Medal, also known as the 'Nobel for Mathematics'.

• He was also the President of the Royal Society from 1990-1995.

• He was best known for his co-development of a branch of mathematics called topological K-theory and the Atiyah-Singer index theorem.

• ICICI Bank appointed B Sriram and Rama Bijapurkar as independent directors.

• Both are appointed for 5 years, subject to the approval of shareholders, ICICI Bank stated in a regulatory filing on stock exchanges.

• B Sriram retired as the managing director of IDBI Bank in September in 2018, prior to IDBI Bank, he was SBI Managing Director

• B Sriram is former SBI managing Director and Rama Bijapurkar is a management consultant.