Current Affairs Today – September 3 2015

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• Current Affairs September 2015
• Current Affairs September Quiz 2015

Indian Affairs 

• Section of the India-Myanmar-Thailand highway now operational
• FSSAI reduced Permitted Levels of Trans-Fat in Edible Oils
• Cabinet approved reimbursement to 4 PSUs for import of pulses
• SAARC conference on Disaster Mitigation begins in Delhi

Railway launches 3 IT initiatives developed by Centre For Railway Information Systems (CRIS)

• CRIS is the Railway ministry’s IT arm. The IT initiatives aim to improve passenger and customer services and move towards e-Governance, in line with the Digital India Programme.
• The initiative includes a paperless unreserved ticketing through mobile phones between Delhi and Palwal section, Coin-cum-Card operated ATVMs (Automatic Ticket Vending Machines) at New Delhi  railway station and a ‘Parichalaan’ mobile application for freight operations.
• The paperless unreserved ticketing facility is already in operation in Chennai and Mumbai and is going to be slowly made available in the suburban sections of the Eastern Railway, South Eastern Railway and South Central Railway.
• Mobile purchase of Platform tickets and Monthly Seasonal tickets will be enabled in the Mumbai and Chennai suburban networks.
• The Parichalaan app will help senior decision makers of the operations department to plan freight operations on a real-time basis.
• Talks for a MoU for using Geospatial Technology and Satellite technology for various operations of Railway are underway between CRIS and ISRO.

Government to infuse Rs. 8.5 lakh cr in Railways

• With a focus on infrastructure development in railways to boost growth, the Government will invest 8.5 lakh crores in railways, which has the potential to change the face of the sector.
• The announcement was made by Minister of State for Finance, Shri Jayant Sinha.
• Railway has suffered from a decade of chronic under-investment and capacity addition has been to the minimum. For instance, the Delhi – Kolkata route is operating at 150-160% over capacity.
• Focussed attention is needed for effective safety, maintenance, better signalling, rolling stock, increase in speed, better passenger services especially with respect to cleanliness and hygiene etc.
• Private participation is being sought for two locomotive factories that have been planned in Bihar, for investing in train sets and developing about 400 stations all over India.
• 17 states have already entered into Joint Venture agreements with the railways.

 Indian Wind Resource Atlas launched by MNRE

• The Indian Wind Atlas is an online GIS (Geographic Information Tool) for identification of the regional and local wind energy potential in India.
• It gives information about various parameters such as Wind Speed (m/s), Wind Power Density and Capacity Utilisation Factor (CUF)calculated for an average 2 MW Turbine that can operate at 100 m level.
• The Atlas will help policy makers at Centre and State Governments to deal with issues related to tariff fixation, transmission, grade frequency etc and providing better infrastructure for the investors.
• The information will be available free of cost.

The atlas has been prepared using very high resolution and joint frequency tables have been derived for the entire country at 500m resolution for enhanced accuracy by using the  dynamic meso-micro coupled WRF modelling technique.

Unmanned Level Crossings eliminated by Western-Central Railway

• Western Central Railway- HQ in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.
• Becomes the first to close all the unmanned railway crossings.
• About 118 unmanned level crossings were closed and some were converted into manned, while Limited Height Subways (LHs) were built for some.
• Unmanned level crossings have been a matter of concern as they are death traps.
• Elimination of level crossings was one of the recommendations of the High Level Safety Review Committee or the Kakodkar Committee on Railway safety, apart from other recommendations such as upgrading of signalling system and installation of protection warning system.
• The Railway Ministry is focussing on a ‘Zero Tolerance to train accidents’ policy.

International Affairs 

Canada Entered First Technical Recession in Six Years

Recession is a period of general economic decline; typically defined as a decline in GDP for two or more consecutive quarters.

• On 1^st September, 2015 Statistics of Canada reported that the economy’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has contracted by an annualized rate of 0.5% in Q2(Quarter-2 i.e. the period between April and June ) followed a by a contraction of 0.8% in Q1(first 3 months)
• That means the economy has faced two consecutive quarters of negative growth in GDP, which follows the definition of recession.
• The last time the country faced the technical recession was in 2009.
• It is going to be a tough time for Mr. Stephen Harper, PM of Canada as elections of Canada are scheduled to be held on Oct 19^th, 2015.

Russia rejects France’s proposal to limit the use of veto in the UNSC

• The veto power is available only to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, which are, France, US, China, Russia and Britain.
• France proposed aimed to pursue the other four powers to refrain from using their veto power when action against issues such as mass atrocity was required.
• But the Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin rejected the proposal on the basis that it was ‘populist’ and not workable.
• The issue came into focus in the face of the war in Syria which has continued over a year. Last year, a resolution asking the International Criminal Court to investigate crimes in Syria, was blocked as Russia and China had used their veto.
• In July, Russia had blocked two resolutions which would have declared the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia to be genocide and another on setting up a tribunal to try those responsible for the downing of Flight MH17 over Ukraine.
• The French proposal has been welcomed by 70 non-veto wielding member states at UN. France will hold a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to pursue the idea further.
• With the World celebrating the 70^th anniversary of UN this year, many nations have called for a rethink of the veto power which was accorded to the P5 when UN was founded.

Banking & Finance

• RBI to issue Rs 5 coin on golden jubilee of 1965 Indo-Pak war
• ICICI Lombard in bancassurance tie-up with Catholic Syrian Bank (CSB)

Appointments 

• S A V Satya Murty is the new Director of IGCAR

Husain Bazmi to become the global CTO of ABB in 2016

• The Swiss-engineering major, ABB has elevated Bazmi Husain, the MD of ABB India, as the global CTO (Chief Technology Officer).
• The first Indian to head the position in the company, Bazmi, a power and automation expert has been with the company for 30 years.
• Husain will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of ABB’s global R&D Prior to him, Ravi Uppal had occupied a top position at ABB group level as the president of global markets.

Science & Technology 

HIV prevention drug PrEP showed positive results

• PrEP is short for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis. It is a prevention option for people who are at high risk of getting HIV.
• A study was conducted at the Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Centerfor 32-months showed that, the sexually active homosexual men, who are taking the PrEP,the HIV-prevention treatment program by using the drug Truvada(a drug with the combination of emtricitabine and tenofovir), resulted in ‘No New HIV infections’.

Environment

Over 3 Trillion Trees currently grow on Earth, Finds Study

•  The study was inspired by a request by Plant for the Planet, a global youth initiative that leads the United Nations Environment Programme’s ‘Billion Tree Campaign’.
• Yale University of US says there are about 3.04 trillion trees on the earth which means an estimation of 422 trees for every person.That is about 8 times higher than the previously thought.
• Now, on the downside of the study that humans are cutting about 15 billion trees every year.
• The highest tree densities were noticed in the sub-Arctic regions of Russia, Scandinavia and North America.
• But the largest forested areas are in the tropics, which are home to about 43 % of the total global trees.

Sports 

Logo for 2020 Tokyo Olympics scrapped after plagiarism allegations

• The Games organising committee received a complaint from a Belgian artist that his design was stolen. He went to court to stop Tokyo 2020 from using the image.
• The designer Kenjiro Sano admitted copying online material for a precious project.
• The Belgian artist Olivier Debie had created a black and white design highlighting the letter ‘T’ for Theatre de Leige and a similar design also appears in the Olympics logo. The design finalised by Sano had a red spot like that seen in the Japanese flag.

India gains a place to 155th in FIFA rankings

Coca-cola FIFA (Federation of International Football Associations) released the rankings of world national teams. Ranking is based on the results in all official matches including friendly matches from the last 4 years. This Ranking is vital for determining the seeding qualifications of World Cup and World Cup – group stage.

• Indian football team secured 155^th rank in the recent FIFA rankings.
• While previously the team held 156th rank under the guidance of Coach, Mr. Stephen Constantine.
• India is next going to face Iran in a WC qualifier On September 8^th, in Bangalore.
• The World cup finalist, Argentina secured the top position.
• Belgium continued to be stood at the second place.
• Germany and Colombia secured 3^rd and 4^th ranks respectively.
• While 5-times world Brazil holds the 5^th

Obituary

Binny Yanga, Social Worker from Arunachal Pradesh, passes away at 57

• Known for her work for the weaker sections, she was conferred the Padma Shree in 2012 in recognition of her selfless service and had also received theDurgabai Deshmukh Award in 2000.
• Born on July 7, 1958, Yanga did her education at Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan.

Legacy

She was in the first batch of the women cadre of the Arunachal Police in 1987. During her work, she was moved by the plight of the women she came across and decided to open a shelter for such victims.

In 1979, she initiated an Adult Education and Nursery Centre in Naharlagun and also a home for girls and victims of child marriage, forced marriages and the destitute. The organisation finally grew and was registered as the Oju Welfare Association in 1988. The association caters to orphans and destitute.

She formed the All-Subansiri District Girls Welfare Association to fight against social evils such as child marriage, forced marriage, dowry among others.

To cater to the needs of the rural artisans and create a channel for marketing their products, she founded a Cooperative Society by the name Himgiri Multi-purpose Cooperative Society.

She was a member of the Arunachal Pradesh State Commission for Women and Country Women Association of India.

Books & Authors

The Duels of the Himalayan Eagle authored by Air Marshal Bharat Kumar released

The Indian Air Force (IAF) commissioned book, The Duels of the Himalayan Eagle: The first Indo-Pak Air War was released by Vice President Mohd. Hamid Ansari at the inauguration of the Tri-Services Seminar to commemorate the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the India-Pakistan War of 1965 in New Delhi.

In the book, the author has tried to club official records, squadron diaries and veteran accounts of the war, who was a young fighter pilot during the 1965-war.