CURRENT AFFAIRS October Week IV

Awards And Honours

Appointments

National Round-Up

• The governmentsigned an agreement for a $650 million loan from the World Bank towards the third tranche for construction of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) designed for faster movement of goods between northern and eastern parts of India.
• Indian Immunologicals Ltd (IIL)has unveiled a vaccine to fight against tapeworms in pigs. CYSVAX, the vaccine, is the world’s first such, the Hyderabad-headquartered wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board.
• Rajasthanis all set to launch next month its own brand olive oil, which it claims, will be the country’s first indigenously-produced brand. 
• The Delhi government formed a three-member committee which will submit a report on solid waste management by November 10.
• Road and inland water communicationin Assam is set to improve in the wake of the Centre deciding to invest nearly 1 lakh crore to improve connectivity.
• Indiais becoming more generous with larger number of people stepping up to support others in tough times, according the World Giving Index of global generosity.
• Finance MinisterArun Jaitley on launched the SMS alert service for Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) for salaried class and the CBDT will soon offer this facility on a monthly basis.
• The government announced the launch of two new programmes — Biotech-KISANand Cattle Genomics to form a network to farmers directly with the scientists and experts.
• World Bank’s ease of doing business index, Indiahas managed to move up by only a single rank in the latest Doing Business Report 2017 by the bank.
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Indiajoined hands with Intel to launch a Centre of Excellence (CoE) that would help demonstrate High Performance Computing (HPC) as a service for customers.
• India and Russiahave approved the proposal to double the range of the BrahMos, world’s first supersonic cruise missile at the 16th Russia-India intergovernmental commission on military cooperation meeting.
• The Union Government has reconstituted theInter State Council (ISC) and the Standing Committee of the ISC under Clause 2 of the Inter State Council order,1990.
• The Union Agricultural Ministry on 26 October 2016 constituted a High-Level Committee to monitor the bird flu situation and help state governments take steps to contain the disease. The Committee will be headed by Munialappa, Joint Commissioner in the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries (DADF).
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25 October 2016 inaugurated 2016 National Tribal Carnival at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi. The carnival aims at promoting a sense of inclusiveness amongst the tribals.
• All India Radio’s (AIR’s) entry Diary of a Tiger (एक बाघ कीडायरी) in October 2016 won the first prize in the Community Service Announcement category of the prestigious Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) awards for the year 2016.
• The World Bank Group on 25 October 2016 released the report titled Doing Business 2017: Equal Opportunity for All. India moved one rank up to the 130th position in the Report.
• Book titled The Sleepwalker’s Dream authored by Dhrubajyoti Borah released.
• The book titled The Adivasi Will Not Dance, penned by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, was in news in the second week of October 2016.

Snippets from the States

• Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that the state government has decided to observe 2017 as the “Garib Kalyan Varsh“, with a host of schemes to be rolled out next year for the poor.
• Kochi on 19 October 2016 became the first Indian city to be officially declared as one of the venues for hosting the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup. The tournament will be hosted in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium of the city.
• Ahmedabad-based specialty tea startup The Kettlery has raised seed funding from shooter and investor Abhinav Bindra’s fund Shooting Star Sports LLP and Franchise India Brands.
• Indian Railways is all set to begin construction work on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed corridor next year.
• Mumbia-based independent Insurance Process as a Service(IPAAS) platform, OCARE has launched the first ever dental insurance product in the country.
• The Jaipur Literature Festival to be held from January 19 to 23, 2017this will be the festival’s 10th edition.
• A unique automatic telling machine (ATM) it accepts money from users and dispenses gold coins in exchange. This one of its kind experiment has been initiated by online jewellery company Blue Stoneon the occasion of Diwali.
• Railways launched a new weekly superfast trainservices between Ballia and Anand Vihar in Uttar Pradesh for the view of the growing demand of the passengers from the region, ahead of Diwali.
• Andhra Pradesh and Telengana have jointly topped the 2016 all-India State/Union Territory-wise Ease of Doing Business rankings, while last-year’s topper Gujarat slipped to the third spot.
• The Uttarakhand High Court on 25 October 2016 ordered a complete ban on the sale of whitener in the state. The decision came following the death of a teenager (14-year-old) in Bhowali town of Nainital district after he sniffed an excess of whitener for a kick.
• Himachal Pradeshwas declared ‘Open Defecation Free’ (ODF), the country’s second state, after Sikkim to get this status ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ to have toilet for every individual household.
• Odisha governmenthas set up a fitment committee for implementation of 7th Pay Commission recommendations for its employees and pensioners.
• Global Youth Development Indexcompiled by the Commonwealth Secretariat India ranked 133rd in the index covering 183 nations.
• India’s first ‘Design Yatra‘, launched by the Institute of Indian Interior Designer (IIID) aim to spread awareness and take designs to the masses.
• The Goa cabinet has approved the signing of a MoU between the government of Goa and the government of Jharkhand for the implementation of ‘Ek Bharat – Shreshtha Bharat’, an initiative that will permit a cultural exchange and other exchange programs between Goa and Jharkhand.
• Odisha Government is all set to unveil a new tourism policysoon with a focus on developing infrastructure and promoting hotel industry by providing incentives.
• The finance ministry released first instalment of special assistance of Rs 1,093.34 crore for repair and permanent restoration of damaged public buildings in Jammu and Kashmir in pursuance of the announcement made by the Prime Minister last November.

Banking and Economy

• Central Vigilance Commission has now made it mandatory for the public sector banks to report to it all such matters involving funds over Rs one crore.
• The RBI’s All-India HPI recorded annual increase of 7.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2016-17 after moderation over four consecutive quarters from 17.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2014-15 to 3.3 per cent in Q4 of 2015-16.
• South Indian Bank on Monday said Salim Gangadharan will be its new non-executive/ part-time Chairman for three years with effect from November 2, 2016.
• India has allowed start-ups to raise up to $3 million each in a fiscal year via the external commercial borrowings (ECB) route, the country’s central bank.
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) India joined hands with Intel to launch a Centre of Excellence (CoE) that would help demonstrate High Performance Computing (HPC) as a service for customers.
• State-run trading firm MMTC has tied up with seven banks, including ICICI and HDFC Bank, to sell government minted ‘Indian Gold Coin’ in order to cash in on the Dhanteras buying rush.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 20 October 2016 notified the amended norms for foreign investment in startups. For this, the bank amended the Foreign Exchange Management (Transfer or Issue of Security by a Person Resident Outside India) Regulations, 2000.

International Round-Up

• Researchers at China’s NortheasternUniversity have proposed an algorithm to construct an energy grid that distributes power similar to data flow on the internet.
• World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2016 reports that India ranks 87 out of 144 countries in the gender inequality index.
• A landmark international agreement to create the world’s largest marine park in the Southern Ocean has been brokered in Australia.
• A UN General Assemblycommittee has adopted a resolution to launch negotiations next year on a new treaty outlawing nuclear weapons, even as India abstained saying it is not convinced the move can lead to a comprehensive instrument on nuclear disarmament.
• The first case of the mosquito-borne virusin the Southeast Asian country, state-owned Myanmar, a pregnant foreign woman in Myanmar’s largest city Yangon has been diagnosed with Zika.
• Russia, facing allegations of war crimes in relation to its policies in Syria, lost its seat on the UN Human Rights Council as the UN General Assembly voted to elect 14 members to the Geneva-based organ.
• Tiangong-2, the experimental space lab of China, on 23 October 2016 successfully launched a micro-satellite, Banxing-2 (the word means Companion Satellite). The micro-satellite is roughly the size of a desktop printer.

India and the World

• Taiwan has announced a simplified group visa policy to encourage tourist groups from Southeast Asian countries, including India and Indonesia, to visit the nation.
• The fourth edition of the India-Sri LankaJoint Military Exercise ‘MITRA SHAKTI 2016‘ is being conducted at Sinha Regimental Centre in Ambepussa, Sri Lanka from October 24 to November 6.
• BSE Institute Ltd has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with New Zealand’s University of Otago to offer programs at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
• India and Iran agreed that aim to strike a deal early next year on the Farzad-B gas fieldin the Persian Gulf, the Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry announced.
• India and Palestine signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for setting up of Palestine-India Techo Park in Ramallah on 31 October, 2016.
• Diwali was commemorated for the first time at the United Nations, with the world body’s imposing headquarters here lit up especially on the occasion of the Indian festival of lights.
• India and New Zealand on 26 October 2016 signed three agreements in the areas of double taxation avoidance, food security and sports.
• India and South Korea on 26 October 2016 signed a revised Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income.

Science and Technology

• Indian Coast Guard Ships (ICGS) ‘Aryaman’ and ‘Atulya’,the 18th and 19th in the series of 20 Fast Patrol Vessels (FPVs), designed and built by Cochin Shipyard Limited, were commissioned.

Mergers and acquisitions

• IBMhas acquired home-grown Sanovi Technologies to bolster its cloud offerings for an undisclosed sum. Bangalore based Sanovi provides hybrid cloud recovery, cloud migration and business continuity software for enterprise data centers and cloud infrastructure.

Sports Point

Obituary

Important Days