Current Affairs Today – October 26 2016

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INDIAN AFFAIRS

Union HRD Minister Chaired 64^th meeting of Central Advisory Board of Education
i. The 64th Meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) was held under the Chairmanship of Union Human Resource Minister Shri Prakash Javadekar.It was held at New Delhi.
ii. Union Minister of Human Resource Development stressed that education is a national agenda which touches the lives of each and every individual.
iii. He also referred that in the past our country had a glorious contribution to the world both in terms of GDP and economic trade because of the world renowned educational institutions.
iv. Many aspects of different level of education were discussed including efforts to be made to improve educational levels of the students. Right to Education was discussed with specific reference to  untrained teachers and No Detention Policy.

Prime Minister inaugurates National Tribal Carnival 2016 in New Delhi
i. PM Narendra Modi inaugurated First National Tribal Carnival-2016 in New Delhi.
ii. The four day long carnival has been organised by Ministry of Tribal Affairs to promote a sense of inclusiveness amongst the tribals
iii. About 1600 tribal artists and around 8000 tribal delegates from States/UTs such as Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Telangana, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Sikkim, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Tamil Nadu are attending the carnival
iv. Besides, eminent tribal personalities who have excelled in various field i.e sports, art and culture, literature, academic, medicine etc. are also attending the carnival.

Centre forms panel to resolve telco penalty row
i. Telecom Ministry has formed a committee to look into the regulator TRAI’s recommendation of a Rs.3,050 crore penalty on top three telcos — Airtel, Vodafone and Idea.
ii. While the recommended fine for Airtel and Vodafone amounts to Rs.1,050 crore for 21 service areas (all, expect Jammu and Kashmir).
iii. For Idea, the penalty suggested for 19 service areas (all, except for Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Northeastern States) pegged at Rs 950 crore.

High Court banned sale of Whitener in Uttarakhand
i. The Uttarakhand High Court  ordered a complete ban on the sale of whitener in the state following the death of a teenager from sniffing an excess of it for a kick in the district.
ii. Taking on its own motion awareness of the death of the 14-year-old boy at Bhowali, about 10 km from Nainitaldue to sniffing excess whitener for a kick, the single bench of Justice Rajeev Sharma directed the state government to put a complete ban on its sale.
iii. The high court also ordered that items such as Iodex and Feviquick should not be sold to children below 18 years of age in view of prevalent abuse of these among teenagers.
iv. It also be ensured that no minor must get entry into hookah clubs. Justice Sharma had directed the Principal Secretary of State to constitute a special task force to fight against the nuisance of drug abuse.

Mizoram & JICA Inks Memorandum of Cooperation On Sustainable Agriculture and Irrigation Development
i. Mizoram government and Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) inked a Memorandum of Cooperation called ‘Record of Discussions‘ on ‘Capacity enhancement for sustainable Agriculture and Irrigation Development in Mizoram‘ on October 26, 2016.
ii. The agreement was signed by the state Chief Secretary Lalmalsawma on behalf of the Mizoram government and Chief Representative of JICA India Office, Takema Sakomoto.
iii. According to the agreement scientists have selected Bilkhawthlir, Serchhip, Aibawk and Champhai areas for the pilot project.
iv. Japanese scientists have conducted study on development and management of land and water resources for sustainable agriculture in Mizoram since 2013
Japan :
♦ Capital: Tokyo
♦ Currency: Japanese yen
♦ Prime minister: Shinzō Abe

India notifies revised double tax avoidance agreement with South Korea
India has notified the revised double tax avoidance agreement with South Korea on October 26, 2016. It will effect from April 1, 2017.
The revised DTAA was signed on May 18, 2015 and it was notified on September 12, 2016.
Revised DTAA benefits :
i. Aim: To avoid the burden of double taxation for taxpayers of two countries in order to promote and stimulate flow of investment, technology and services between India and Korea
ii. It will provide tax certainty to the residents of both countries.
iii. It provides for reduction in withholding tax rates to 10 per cent on royalties or fees for technical services from 15 per cent and to 10 per cent on interest income from 15 per cent.
iv. It inserts new Article for assistance in collection of taxes between tax authorities and new Limitation of Benefits Article.
South Korea :
♦ Capital: Seoul
♦ Currency: South Korean won
♦ President: Park Geun-hye
♦ Prime minister: Hwang Kyo-ahn

DPS student takes up Bagit challenge for a clean India
i. Akshat Prakash, student of Delhi Public School (DPS) has launched an initiative ‘Bagit challenge‘ to involve schools in the national mission towards cleanliness. Prakash from Indirapuram, Ghaziabad.
ii. Aim: To mobilise a chain of participating schools, all driven by a common objective of making our communities cleaner, healthier and safer.
iii. He endorsed the idea and extended school support by providing infrastructure including transport and equipment for cleaning. His classmate to take part in the cleanliness drive.

Government launches Biotech-KISAN scheme to empower farmers.
i. The Ministry of Science and Technology has started two new initiatives namely Biotech-KISAN and Cattle Genomics.
ii. Biotech- KISAN (Krishi Innovation Science Application Network) Empowering Small- and Women- Farmers with Science Implementation.
iii. Under the scheme, fellowship will be given to women farmers for training and education in the farm practice.
iv. Biotech-KISAN will connect farmers to best global practices, training workshop in India and other countries.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

World Bank Report: India ranks 130 in ease of doing business 2017
India is ranked 130 out of 190 countries in World Bank Group’s annual report on the ease of doing business, Doing Business 2017: Equal Opportunity for All.
♦ India has moved up only one rank on the World Bank’s ease of doing business ranking this year while in the 2016 edition, India had been downgraded to 131 from 130.
♦ India still last among BRICS countries in ease of doing business ranking.
Russia – 51
South Africa – 73
China – 84
Brazil – 116
India – 130

India ranks 87th on the WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report 2016
India has climbed 21 spots to rank 87th on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2016 while in 2015, it was ranked 108th. With this jump in ranking, India has now overtaken China which is ranked 99th out of 144 countries.
♦ Iceland tops the latest rankings followed by Finland, Norway and Sweden. The report measures gender gap as progress towards parity between men and women in four areas – educational attainment, health and survival, economic opportunity and political empowerment.
♦ The 2016 Report covers 144 countries. The report estimates that the global economic gender gap will now not close until the year 2186.

India falls short in female literacy compared to its neighbours: Study
i. India’s school education system was indicated as under-performing in terms of quality in female literacy in comparison with neighbouring countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
ii. The ratio of women who completed five years of primary schooling in India and were literate was 48 per cent, much less than 92 percent in Nepal, 74 per cent in Pakistan and 54 per cent in Bangladesh
iii. These were released by International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity (or Education Commission). It shows that India’s education system is under-performing
iv. Female literacy rates increased by one to 15 per cent after completing two years of schooling. Corresponding numbers for Pakistan and Nepal were three to 31 per cent and 11 to 47 per cent respectively.

Rajanath Singh 3 days visit to Bahrain
i. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has announced that India and Bahrain, both the countries, are vulnerable to the sufferings of terrorism during his bilateral meeting with Interior Minister of Bahrain Lt. General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa in capital Manama.
ii. On the first day of his visit, he met with the Indian community at Indian School Bahrain, Isa Town.
iii. Rajnath Singh stated that the terrorism should be dealt in a comprehensive manner. Segmented and partial approaches as adopted by some of the countries have been failed in countering terrorism.
iv. During the visit, he met King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, HRH Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and Interior Minister Lieutenant General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa and discussed with them various bilateral issues.

BUSINESS

India will be home to 10500 start-ups by 2020: NASSCOM
i. India has emerged as the third largest startup base and such ventures are poised to grow 2.2 times to reach 10,500 by 2020.
ii. According to “Indian Startup Ecosystem Maturing – 2016” report by Nasscom-ZINNOV, India is in the third position just behind US and UK.
iii. Nearly 1,400 new start-ups are expected by end of 2016, up by 8-10 per cent from last year.
iv. The report also finds that Bengaluru, NCR, and Mumbai continue to lead as the major start-up hubs in the country.

AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

AIR’s entry on dwindling tiger habitats wins ABU award
i. AIR Allahabad Programme Executive Abhinay Srivastava won the first prize in the ‘Community Service Announcement’ category ‘Diary of a Tiger‘ on dwindling forests and gradually decreasing habitats of tigers at the Asia-Pacific Broadcast Union (ABU) Prizes 2016 at Bali, Indonesia.
ii. The programme was broadcasted in Hindi (Ek Baagh ki Diary) and produced by AIR Allahabad Programme Executive Abhinay Srivastava.
Asia-Pacific Broadcast Union (ABU) Prize 2016 wonner list

About ABU :
♦ The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) is a non-profit, professional association of broadcasting organisations
♦ It was formed in 1964 and currently it has over 280 members in 57 countries and regions.

Malaika Vaz wins Wildscreen National Geographic award
i. Malaika Vaz has won the 2016 Wildscreen National Geographic Roar Talent Bursary Award for her short-film “Waghoba” at Wildscreen festival which was held at Bristol, UK . She became the first Indian to bagged this award.
ii. Short film Waghoba depicts real life story of a newly protected forest in Maharashtra and it was critically acclaimed at the Festival in Bristol, United Kingdom.
iii. Malaika name entered into the Limca Book of Records as the youngest Indian to go to North and South poles.

Paul Beatty Becomes First American To Win Man Booker Prize For “The Sellout”
i. Paul Beatty has become the first US author to win the Man Booker Prize with his racial satire “The Sellout”.
ii. His novel tells the story of a young black man who tries to reinstate slavery and racial segregation in a suburb of Los Angeles.
iii. This is the third year that the £50,000 prize has been open to writers of any nationality.
iv. The shortlist included two British, two US, one Canadian and one British-Canadian writer.
The Man Booker 2016 shortlist:
♦ Paul Beatty (US) – The Sellout
♦ Deborah Levy (UK) – Hot Milk
♦ Graeme Macrae Burnet (UK) – His Bloody Project
♦ Ottessa Moshfegh (US) – Eileen
♦ David Szalay (Canada-UK) – All That Man Is
♦ Madeleine Thien (Canada) – Do Not Say We Have Nothing

PVC Pipes maker Finolex entered Limca Book of Records
i. Finolex Industries Ltd, one of the famous suppliers of PVC pipes & fittings for the agriculture and non-agricultural sectors in India, has been bestowed with the national record certificate by The Limca Book of Records for conducting the largest number of plumbers meets organised simultaneously across 26 states and 58 cities.
ii. The activity was carried out on the occasion of World Plumbing Day was recognized and appreciated by senior plumbers across the country, appreciating the initiative and the company’s dedication in creating a well-trained eco system for new plumbers.
iii. The meeting focused on the importance of skilled plumbers in the country. More than 3,000 plumbers participated in this activity.
iv. Mr. Nitin Kulkarni, is the President- Sales & Marketing, Finolex Industries Ltd.The contribution of the construction industry in the country’s GDP is significant, and plumbers are one of the important pillars of this industry.

APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNS

Flipkart CFO Sanjay Baweja quits
i. Flipkart Chief Financial Officer Sanjay Baweja has resigned from the company.
ii. Mr. Baweja plans to leave by the end of December.
iii. Kalyan Krishnamurthy, head of category management at Flipkart and MD at Tiger Global Management (Flipkart’s largest shareholder), may serve as interim CFO.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Researchers discover millipede with 141 legs at Sequoia National Park in California
i. A new species of millipede found lurking in the unexplored dark marble caves of Sequoia National Park in California
ii. This new species of millipede has been named Illacme tobini.
iii. It is the evolutionary cousin of the leggiest animal on the planet, Illacme plenipes.
iv. Illacme tobini has 414 legs, four penises and bizarre-mouth parts – the function is unknown.
v. Its body is covered in long, long silk-secreting hairs and there are pores in its mouth that secrete an unknown chemical as a defense mechanism.

Uranus may have two undiscovered moons: study
i. Researchers from University of Idaho unveiled that the Uranus might have two tiny, previously undiscovered moons orbiting near two of the planet’s rings.
ii. A new study led by University of Idaho researchers found that there could be two tiny, previously undiscovered moonlets orbiting near two of the planet’s rings.
iii. Rob Chancia, a doctoral student at University of Idaho in the US, marked key patterns in the rings while examining decades-old images of Uranus’ icy rings taken by Voyager 2 . Uranian moons are very difficult to observe because of their dark surfaces.
iv. The researchers then found a pattern in Uranus’ rings that was similar to structures in Saturn’s rings called moonlet wakes.They estimate that the hypothesized moonlets in Uranus’ rings are 2 to 9 miles (4 to 14 kilometer) in diameter, smaller than any of Uranus’ known moons.

OBITUARY

Brazil World Cup hero Carlos Alberto passed away
i. Brazilian football giant Carlos Alberto has died aged 72 following a heart attack.
ii. Alberto had scored one of the greatest goals in FIFA World Cup history while captaining Brazil to glory in the 1970 final against Italy in Mexico.
iii. Alberto coached clubs including Flamengo and Corinthians after calling time on his playing days and also coached in international football, most recently with Azerbaijan.

Freedom Fighter Chandrakant Kenkre passed away
i. Freedom fighter Chandrakant Kenkre has passed away in Shirodi in Goa. He was 87.
ii. Kenkre was known for fighting for rights of freedom fighters after liberation of Goa from Portuguese rule in 1961
iii. He fought for the rights of freedom fighters and their families across Goa.
iv. He was the former president of Goa Freedom Fighters Association.