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Current Affairs October PDF Capsule 2015 by AffairsCloud PDF
Current Affairs October PDF Capsule 2015 by AffairsCloud PDF
Current Affairs October PDF Capsule 2015 by AffairsCloud PDF
PDF Capsule
Current Affairs PDF: October 2015
Table of Contents
Indian Affairs ..................................................................................................................................................... 3
International Affairs ......................................................................................................................................... 53
Banking & Finance .......................................................................................................................................... 74
Business ........................................................................................................................................................... 86
Acquisitions & Mergers ................................................................................................................................... 92
Awards ............................................................................................................................................................. 96
Appointments & Resigns ............................................................................................................................... 110
Science & Technology ................................................................................................................................... 124
Environment ................................................................................................................................................... 127
Sports ............................................................................................................................................................. 129
Obituary ......................................................................................................................................................... 142
Books & Authors ........................................................................................................................................... 145
Important Days............................................................................................................................................... 146
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Current Affairs PDF: October 2015
Indian Affairs
India committed 35% emission reduction by 2030
India has announced its INDC(Intended Nationally Determined Contributions) with reference to
the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) committing to reduce its emissions
intensity by 33-35% by 2030. With this India becomes the 147th country to submit and
publicizing its INDC to UNFCC among its 196 members.
(Union Environment Minister – Prakash Javadekar)
• Countries have outlines their post 2020 plans to cut down their emission which will be
reported and discussed during 2015 United Nations Climate Change
Conference that will going to be held in Paris, France from November 30 to
December It will be the21st annual session of the Conference.
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Welfare and UNICEF to reach out to every mother and child across the state for their healthier and
prosperous future.
TIME PERIOD – 12 Months & OUTLAY – Rs 1,474 crore
• The campaign is funded by both the centre and the state Government.
• Currently malnutrition among children in the state is 19.84%
• The right nutrition and care during this period can have a profound impact on a child’s
ability to grow, learn and rise out of poverty
Andhra Pradesh set to allot 2,720 acres to DRDO for missile testing project
• The Andhra Pradesh cabinet, which met here under the chairmanship of Chief Minister
Chandrababu Naidu, decided to allot 2,720 acres of land near Orvakallu in Kurnool
district for DRDO’s missile testing project.
• The cabinet also decided to allot 1,965 acres of land to build a naval base at
Rayavaram village in Visakhapatnam district.
Non – Binding Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between Adani Ports and
Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) to supervise the operations of
Kattupalli Port in Tamil Nadu.
According to MoU Adani will be responsible for EBIDTA (Earnings before Interest, Taxes,
Depreciation and Amortization)gains and losses arising from the port operation.
• Adani group $10 billion APSEZ operates ports in Mundra, Hazira, Tuna-Tekra (Kandla)
and Dahej in Gujarat, Dhamra in Odisha and specialised coal handling facilities in
Mormugao in Goa and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. It is setting up a container
terminal at Ennore in Tamil Nadu.
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September 30, 2015 with a production of 6.51 million tonnes (as per Cotton Association of
India) of fibre in the year 2014-15, while China was with a registered production of 6.48 million
tonnes.
• According to the forecast of US Department of Agriculture, India will maintain its top
position for the next cotton season also with an estimated production of 29 million
bales which contributes 27 % of the global cotton crop.
To promote Khadi in the young generation Gujarat Government has launched a special Khadi
Utsav in Ahmedabad on the 146thbirth anniversary of Gandhiji.
MAIN ATTRACTIONS
• State Government provided 25% discount on all khadi products manufactured in
Gujarat while 15% discount for the products manufactured in other states.
Anurag Bhushan, Consulate General of India in Dubai has launched SOS mobile app named “CGI
Dubai” on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi which is developed on the sidelines of PM
Modi Digital India Initiative.
AIM : To distressed workers mainly blue-collar labourers working in Dubai and Northern
Emirates.
On the first anniversary of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan Maharashtra Government appointed three
women as “Swachhata Doots” or “cleanliness ambassadors” from the state’s rural areas who
have showed commitment towards sanitation needs including building of toilets.
• Women named Chaitali Rathod, Sangeeta Awahade and Suvarna Lokhande were
appointed “Swachhata Doots” and appreciated by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
WORK DONE BY 3 AMBASSADORS
• Chaitali asked for a prefabricated toilet as a wedding gift from her parents over jewellery
and other items.
• Sangeeta sold her mangalsutra and other jewellery for constructing a toilet at her home
• Suvarna took a loan of Rs 50,000 from a SHG (Self Help Group) to build a toilet in her
house and then repaid the amount. She even laid the foundation of 7000 toilet blocks.
It is part of Maharashtra’s target of building 56 lakh toilets in next five years.
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WARNING – 12.5% food items contain illicit pesticides as per Govt report
In accordance with the report released by Union Ministry of Agriculture the remnants of illicit
pesticides were found in the food samples that were collected as the part of 2005
scheme“Monitoring of Pesticide Residues”. These samples had been analysed by 25 labs and
were collected during 2014-15.
(Agriculture Minister – Radha Mohan Singh)
• A total of 20,618 samples were collected across the country including organic outlets out of
which 5% were observed with hazardous pesticides and 2.6% of them
crossed maximum residue limit (MRL)
• The MRL is stipulated by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) under
PFA Rules, 1955. (PFA – Prevention of food adulteration rules)
TEST RESULTS
18.7% of samples are marked with the residual pesticides while 543 samples with contribution of
2.6% were noticed with residues above MRL.
• 7,077-metre Kun Mountain, the twin of Nun, located in the inhospitable Zanskar
range of Himalayas in Jammu and Kashmir has been conquered by G.R. Radhika who
works as Additional Superintendent of Police of Adilabad, Telangana. With this she
became first Indian woman to climb Kun Mountain.
• The record has been declared by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation.
• Kun is considered more difficult because of its vertical climb having numerous crevasses
and the walls.
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Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan Launched KISAN Project and Hailstorm App
Minister Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan launched KISAN Project of Department of Agriculture,
Cooperation & Farmer’s Welfare(FW), Ministry of Agriculture and FW .
• The vision of the project is the use of Space Technology and geoinformatics (GIS, GPS
and Smartphone) technology along with high resolution data from UAV/Drone based
imaging for improvement in yield estimation and better planning of Crop Cutting
Experiments (CCEs), needed for crop insurance programme.
Hailstorm App : An Android App,which will help in the real time data collection about hailstorm
occurrences along with photographs and geographical coordinates (longitude and latitude).
Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare: Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan
• KISAN – C(K)rop Insurance using Space technology And geoiNformatics
• MNCFC – Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre
• CCAFS – Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security
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EXISTING POLICY
• The MCI has also proposed an amendment to the Medical Council of India Act, 1956 so
that decision can be on the common test.
• In 2013 this MCI’s notification for common entrance test for all medical courses was
considered “invalid” by SC.
India’s Poverty Rate Lowest Among Nations with Poor Population: World Bank
A latest World Bank report has announced that India accounted for the largest number of poor
people in any country in 2012, but its poverty rate was lowest among countries having large
number of poor population.
• Based on the report, the number of people living in extreme poverty around the world is
likely to fall to under 10 per cent of the global population by this year.
• This reveals that the world is moving closer to its mission of ending poverty by 2030.
The poverty rate in low-income countries was on an average of 43% in 2012, while in
middle-income-countries, it was 19%. The lower-middle-income countries are home to
about half of the global poor as compared to a third for low-income countries.
• Four nations (China, India, Indonesia and Nigeria) with the largest populations were
once classified as low-income but now they have moved into lower-middle-income
category.
Uttarakhand Govt launched Mobile app named “Shubh Badrinath Yatra” which will enable all
the pilgrims to access all the important information during their travel between 44-km stretch
Joshimath and Badrinath.
• It was launched by Uttarakhand CM Shri Harish Rawat
• App was developed by the Chamoli district administration
• App is available at Google Play Store
The app is launched as a pilot project and it will further extended with the remaining Himalayan
shrines – Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri and other major tourist destinations in the state.
With a move to conserve endangered Eastern Hoolock Gibbon species a community and
school-based education programme was instigated in Arunachal’s Lower Dibang Valley district
in the state and at Sadiya sub-division under Assam’s Tinsukia district.
• The launch also celebrated the fifth day of the Wildlife Week from 2nd to 8th October, 2015.
Arunachal Pradesh Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) – Dr Shashi Kumar
A national conference on Anti Human Trafficking was inaugurated by the Union Home Minister,
Shri Rajnath Singh on 7th october 2015 in New Delhi.
Organised By : The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), State nodal officers for anti-human
trafficking, Officers of Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) from various districts, Other
stakeholder ministries/ departments, NGOs and Anti Human Trafficking Experts.
• “Operation Smile” : A campaign launched in January 2015 to rescue the missing children
and reunite them with their families.
During the conference the top performers of the “Operation Smile” was awarded
by the Union Home Minister.
• ‘Operation Muskaan’ : A campaign launched throughout the country in the month of July,
2015.19,000 missing children were rescued during Operation Smile and Operation
Muskaan.
A report on Delhi MLA’s salary package was submitted to Ram Niwas Goel(Delhi Assembly
Speaker) on 6th October 2015 by a three member committee.
The three Members of the Panel : PDT Achary (former Secretary General of the Lok Sabha), KV
Prasad and Balraj Malik.
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Yesso Naik (Minister of State for AYUSH (Independent Charge) and Health and Family Welfare)
in Noida, Uttar Pradesh for carrying out advanced research in homeopathy.
• The Indian Air Force (IAF) celebrated its 83rd anniversary on 8th October 2015 with a
large parade and air display at the Hindon air base, Ghaziabad.
• IAF was established on 8th October 1932.
• The event was attended by President Pranab Mukherjee, PM Narendra Modi, Army
Chief General Dalbir Singh, Naval Chief Admiral R.K. Dhowan and
the Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who became the first sportsperson to be a honourary
Group Captain in the Indian Air Force.
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women into the fighter aircraft stream. Two defence panels has recommended against this
induction.
• Currently air force has about 1500 women on its rolls of which 94 are pilots and 14
navigators.
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Current Affairs PDF: October 2015
Protocol for establishment of the India-Ecuador Joint Economic and Trade Committee
(JETCO) signed
The Protocol for the establishment of the India-Ecuador Joint Economic and Trade Committee
(JETCO) was signed by the Ambassador of Ecuador to India, H.E. Mr. Mentor Villagomez and
Ms. Rita Teotia, Commerce Secretary, Government of India on 9th October, 2015.
• Aim : Further improving, deepening and strengthening the existing trade relationship
between India and Ecuador.
• The first meeting of the JETCO is proposed to be held early next year in India.
• Tata Power launched LED tube light scheme in Mumbai for its residential consumer
under which it will provide five lights to each household at Rs 525 per piece against
market price of Rs 1,325.
• The consumer can register online for the scheme and the LED tube light fittings will be
home delivered.
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In lieu of providing aid to the distressed farmers Karnataka government announced waiver of
interest and penal interest on crop loans from cooperative banks for the current fiscal
2015-16 as the state has been facing drought from past 10 years and crop loss of 16000
crore.(Karnataka CM – Siddaramaiah)
• There will be hike in compensation from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh to families of farmers
who had committed suicide, even to landless labourers.
• For the farmers who had committed suicide there will also the increment in monthly
widow pension from Rs 500 to Rs 2,000and will bear expenses of children up to
post-graduation level.
The SAARC Sufi festival, a three-day carnival of Sufi dance, music and poetry was organised at
Diggi Palace, Jaipur from 10th to 12thOctober, 2015. This festival is based on the academic
research seminars and sufiyana shayari.
AIM– To spread the vision of a terror free world
During the 5th meeting of India-Maldives Joint Commission which held after 15 years in
Male, Maldives both nations marked cooperation in various fields including defence, security,
energy and health.
(Indian Foreign Minister – Sushma Swaraj) (Maldivian Foreign Minister – Dunya Maumoon)
• This meeting has special significance as it showed up in the year marked with 50th
anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between India and the Maldives.
India will host the next meeting of the India-Maldives Joint Commission in 2017.
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Union Health Ministry will launch “Mobile (m) Cessation”, a mobile based intervention for the
people who want to quit the habit of tobacco. Govt had already set a target of reducing tobacco
use by 20% by 2020 and 30% by 2025.
• As per Govt data 40% of all cancers, 90% of oral cancers and 30% of TB cases are due to
tobacco and 9-10 lakh people die every year due to tobacco habits
• Health Ministry also issued a notification to make mandatory for all tobacco products to
carry warnings that would cover 85% of the surface of the packets from April 1 next year
which is currently 40%.
There is jump up in Indirect Tax Revenue (Provisional) Collections with 32.6%. In September
2015 Rs. 61,284 crore is registered compared to Rs. 46,224 crore in September 2014.
OTHER COLLECTIONS:
Name 2015 collection 2014 collection Percentage (↑ or ↓)
• The high risk area(HRA) boundary in the Indian Ocean shifted away from the western
coastline of India.The HRA is shifted from 78 degrees East to the 65 degrees East
longitude off India’s western coastline.This new boundary will be effective from 1st
December 2015.
• This announcement is made by the European Union Chair of the Contact Group of
Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS)
100 food streets to be adopted during first phase of Surakshit Khadya Abhiyan
• The partners includes consumer organisation VOICE, and National Association of Street
Vendors of India ( NASVI)
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Objective : To improve the consumer awareness on food safety aspects like labels,storage
conditions and related hygienic practices.During the first phase of this campaign 100 food streets
will be adopted.
PM lays foundation stone for 4th container terminal of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid the foundation stone of fourth
terminal Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Mumbai on 11th October 2015.
• Project is being executed by : Bharat Mumbai Container Terminal, a subsidiary of Port of
Singapore.
• The Project will be done in two phases.And it requires an investment of Rs 4,719 crore
and Rs 3,196 crore, for the first and second phases respectively.And the project is
expected to be completed in 2017.
• Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust is in 31st position globally.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on 2nd October 2015 launched the Abas Scheme.
Aim : To provide affordable houses along with basic amenities to slum dwellers and economically
weaker section people living in urban areas.
Mizoram govt to abolish MAMCO
Mizoram govt has recommended to abolish the Mizoram Agriculture Marketing Corporation
(MAMCO) by the the recommendations of the Deloitte and Touche India Pvt Limited.
• The state cabinet has made decision to abolish three PSUs – the MAMCO, the Zoram
Electronics Development Corporation (ZENICS) and the Zoram Handloom and Handicraft
Corporation (ZOHANCO).
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Current Affairs PDF: October 2015
Ministry of Environment and forest has approved Perspective Plans (PP) and Annual Plan of
Operations (APOs) for Kerala, Mizoram, Manipur and Jharkhand as a part of Green India
Mission (GIM) during National Executive Council (NEC) chaired by Union Environment
Secretary Ashok Lavasa in New Delhi.
(Union Minister of State for Environment and Forest – Prakash Javadekar)
• OUTLAY – Rs. 90,202.68 lakh
• APOs – Rs. 11,195.32 lakh for 2015-16
GIM is initiated by National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) to protect restore and
enhance India’s diminishing forest cover and to take adequate measure to tackle with the issue of
climate change.
Union cabinet will soon launch the National Minimum Wage Act which is mandatory to be
implemented by all state governments.(Union Labour Minister – Narendra Singh Tomar)
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Current Affairs PDF: October 2015
Ahead of NaMo’s visit to UK Indian fraternity launched “Modi express bus” that will take the
travellers on a tour around iconic landmarks.
• The first stop of bus is at Ealing Road, Wembley also known as “Little India” followed
by Trafalgar Square to celebrate Diwali.
• 400 community organisations have registered as ‘welcome partners’ of an Olympics
style reception planned for Modi at Wembley Stadium on November 13, 2015.
• Buddha idol is currently retain with the national art gallery in Canberra, Australia
and is expecting that the genesis of it could be found in Mathura in Uttar Pradesh.
• The sculpture made of sandstone is an image which portrays unique art of Mathura
region.
• Peace Park reflects the similarities between two nations as the two freedom fighters late
King Abdullah I and Mahatma Gandhi struggled in a peaceful manner to gain
independence.Jordan attained its independence on May 25, 1946, a year before
India.
• Shri Pranab Mukherjee was presented with golden key of Amman commemorating his
historic visit and as a token of friendship.
• President also planted an olive tree in the Peace Park in Amman.
The ambitious scheme of Modi Govt “Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana” has now crossed the
mark of Rs 25000 crore with zero balance accounts have reduced to less than 40% and the
accounts that are having balances has exceed 60%.
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“Ketoprofen” non-steroid anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that is used for veterinary purposes
has got banned by Tamil Nadu Govt in Erode, Coimbatore and The Nilgiris, the areas having
endangered vulture population.
The country’s prestigious Missile Complex in Hyderabad will be renamed as Dr APJ Abdul
Kalam Missile Complex on 15th October 2015 by the Defence Minister Shri Manohar Parrikar at
Research Centre Imarat (RCI).
Shri Parrikar will also be inaugurating two advanced R&D facilities of RCI – Outdoor RCS Test
Facility “ORANGE” at Dundigal and Kautilya Advanced Research Centre at RCI, Hyderabad.
On 15th October 2015 IIM – Shillong announced that to honour the former president
A.P.J.abdul Kalam , they will launch a centre for policy research .
A 2,000 square feet auditorium with a seating capacity of 200 will be set up in the IIM Shillong in
Kalam’s name .A Seminar named ‘Science and Humanism for National Development‘ Based
on the Kalam’s contribution to science and his objective of social development was also organised
in IIM shillong on the 84th birth anniversary
To honour the people President APJ Abdul Kalam and also to inspire the future generations a
memorial will be built in his birthplace –Rameswaram .And Rameswaram will be developed as an
AMRUT city.This announcement was made by the PM Narendra Modi on the 84th birth
anniversary of APJ Abdul Kalam(15th October 2015)
• On 15th October 2015 PM Narendra Modi salutes the late President APJ Abdul
• Kalam on his 84th Birth Anniversary.
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• A statue of APJ Abdul Kalam was also unveiled by Narendra Modi and also a photo
exhibition of Kalam was inaugurated by the Modi in New Delhi during the function.
Delhi department of trade and taxes has introduced a new scheme named as “Bill Banvao,
Inaam Pao” which will encourage customers to buy goods and services from registered
dealers and take a receipt of bill/ cash memo/ retail invoice against their purchases.
MINIMUM PURCHASE – purchased goods should have min taxable value of Rs.100
PRIZE AMOUNT – 5 times the taxable value of product purchased and maximum cash prize
would be Rs.50, 000
In the tropical rain forest of Andaman islands Scientists at the Botanical Survey of India (BSI)
has discovered a new species of banana. It is located 16 km inside the Krishna Nalah forest in the
island
• The species is named as Musa indandamanensis and is very edible and sweet.
• There are 52 banana species in the world out of which 15 are found in India.
On 14th October 2015 India and Sweden agreed to collaborate for the promotion of public
transport ,municipal waste management and digitization in the urban sectors.
• Specific projects for promoting sustainable urban development in India will be identified by
both countries.
• This decision is made after the meeting between Swedish Minister of Housing, Urban
Development and Information Technology Mehmet Kaplan and Minister of Urban
Development M Venkaiah Naidu
Central Victim Compensation Fund (CVCF) is a new scheme initiated by Ministry of Home
Affairs to support the victims of rape, acid attacks, human trafficking and women killed or injured
in cross border firing.(Minister of Home Affairs – Rajnath Singh)
SCHEME OUTLAY – Rs. 200 crores
States and UTs are also requested to implement the scheme under the provisions of Section
357A.
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Uttar Pradesh Government launched mobile app mSehat for health workers
Aim : For health workers to record maternal and infant data in real-time and there by providing
best health care.
• Launched Date : 15th October 2015
• Launched in : Uttar Pradesh
• Launched By : Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav
• Developed by : Kellton Tech Solutions Limited
• Initial Launched Districts(5) – Sitapur, Kannauj, Faizabad, Mirzapur and Bareilly
Finmin Arun Jaitley is going to instigate two days Arab-India Economic Forum in Dubai on
Nov 16-17 to draw the attention of Arab investors and discuss opportunities and solutions to face
investor challenges.
• After China India is the UAE’s second largest trade partner with $59 billion per year.
India and Mozambique inked agreement for technical bilateral cooperation and investment
promotion in the area of new and renewable energy has been approved by the Union Cabinet.
• MoU was signed during the Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi to India in August and it
was inked between the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Mozambique’s Ministry
of Mineral Resources and Energy.(Minister of New and Renewable Energy – Piyush Goyal)
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Current Affairs PDF: October 2015
Memorandum has been signed between the India and Portugal on the Establishment of Nalanda
University. With this Portugal became the seventeenth country to sign this MoU and first
country from Europe and fourth outside the East Asia Summit.
• MoU was signed by Portuguese Ambassador Ana Martinho and Jitendra Nath
Misra,Ambassador of India to Portugal
Indian Navy signed a contract with Russia to extend the service life of the boats to 35 years.The
contract was signed between Indian Navy and Russian shipbuilder Zvezdochka .The first
submarine will be sent in June 2017 for the refitting work.
The Pact Amount : Rs 5,000 crore (This amount is used for four submarines.)
TRAI(Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) on 16th October 2015 made it compulsory that
telecom operators should give a compensation of one rupee for consumers on call drops.
Effective from – 1st january 2016
Compensation Limit : Three dropped calls in a day.
On 15th October 2015,the 4th ITM was inaugurated by Dr. Mahesh Sharma (Minister of
State for Tourism (Independent Charge), Culture (Independent Charge) and Civil Aviation) along
with Shri Pawan Chamling (Chief Minister of Sikkim) in Gangtok, Sikkim.
Organised by : Union Ministry of Tourism in association with the North Eastern States and the
state of West Bengal.
• Sikkim is soon to become the first 100% organic state in the country. The Prime
Minister will declare Sikkim as a full organic state on his visit to the state next year
in January 2016.
• The cleanliness and ‘no smoking drive’ of the Sikkim Government was praised by Dr
Mahesh Sharma and he also mentioned that the state has all the potential to become an
ideal tourist state.
On 15th October 2015 Dr. Harsh Vardhan along with Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu and Shri
Prakash Javadekar flagged off the special train named ‘Science Express Climate Action
Special’.
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On 14th October 2015 Union Cabinet gave permission for the RCE of Rs.2904.04 crores for
the Kaladan Multi Modal Transit Transport Project in Myanmar.Decision was taken by the
Union Cabinet meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi .RCE – Revised Cost Estimate
• To make the rail sector passenger friendly, Ministry of Railways is coming with their back to
back to apps and programmes which also serves as the part of Swachh Bharat and Digital
India.
• Now railway Ministry has launched a scheme dubbed as Alternate Train Accommodation
Scheme – VIKALP by which waitlisted passengers can access for confirmed berths in
alternative trains on the same route.
Agartala-Kolkata bus service via Dhaka
Bus service linking Kolkata and Agartala via Dhaka has been flagged off carrying 18 passengers
for Kolkata via Dhaka. This service is available six days a week (except Sundays)
• The buses are scheduled twice a week by each transporter and a fare ranging between
Rs.1,800 and Rs.2,000.
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• The distance between Kolkata and Agartala is about 1,650 km if one skirts Bangladesh
During Vegetarian Awareness Month (October) the former India batsman Vangipurapu Venkata
Sai (VVS) Laxman will act in a new for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
India.
• The ad has been shot by ace photographer YSN Murthy and Laxman’s hair and make-up
was done by Mask Raju.
Govt gives consent to the payment of performance related pay (PRP) for Coal India
executives and non-unionized supervisors to boost up the morale and equity of employees
working in loss-making CPSEs and CPMDIL.
• As per the recommendations of the Committee of Secretaries Govt also approved the
of 2007 pay revision implemented by CIL w.e.f January 1, 2007 in the loss-making
subsidiaries of the company
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the two days 10th annual convention of the
Central
Information Commission in New Delhi which aimed at the importance of Right to
Information Act and importance of transparency in governance.
THEME: “RTI: Outlook for the future – Trust through Transparency”
Addition have been made to LPG and PDS schemes as SC authorizes the voluntary use of
Aadhaar cards in welfare schemes of MGNREGA, all pension schemes and provident fund
aimed at reaching to the door steps of the “poorest of the poor”.
• Decision has been taken by the 5 judge Constitution bench of Supreme Court which was
headed by Chief Justice of India HL Dattu, comprised of Justices M Y Eqbal, C Nagappan,
Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy.
India is going to chair the 4 days 3rd India-Africa summit from October 26 – October 30.
India is a major investor in Africa with current trade figures of around USD 75 billion dollar and
trade has shown a remarkable progress in recent years.
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Current Affairs PDF: October 2015
Union Minister of Civil Aviation Sh. P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju has initiated “International Civil
Helicopters Conclave – 2015” and exhibition on “Safety Management System, Multi
Mission Utility and Regional Air Connectivity” at DRDO Bhawan, New Delhi.
Occasion marked the 30th anniversary of Pawan Hans Limited (Helicopter Service Company).
Shri Raju also launched the corporate logo of Pawan Hans Limited and coffee table book.
• New civil aviation policy is also during the event which will reform helicopter sector
with light touch regulations
• For safety purpose of helicopter, GAGAN satellite assisted navigation
systems serving as a guard with efficient monitoring and tracking of helicopter
movement by providing one metre resolution even in unregulated air-space
• The proposed policy will simplify procedures and remove policy blocks
Encouraging the bilateral trade between India and Tajikistan Northern India Textile Research
Association (NITRA) under textiles ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding with
the Technological University of Tajikistan during the CII Taxon 2015 organised by industry
lobby Confederation of Indian Industry in New Delhi.
AIM OF MoU
• To promote textile enterprises in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan
• To allow India’s small and medium enterprises to explore new markets in Central Asia
Being a first state in submitting of detailed plan for providing 24X7 power for all now Rajasthan
has signed 13 pacts valued at Rs 50,527 crore with public sector undertakings in the
areas of mines, cement and power sector.
• These agreements will introduce new technologies in exploration, minimise wastage, waste
recycling and will create employment opportunities especially for weaker sections.
• MoUs were signed between PSBs – SAIL, NLC, RINL, Hindustan Copper and FCI
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Introduction of National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act and the 99th
Constitutional Amendment has been refused by the Apex Court which gives access of
decision making to politicians and civil society in the appointment of judges to the
highest courts.
• Both the laws passed by the Modi government amending the Constitution to create the
National Judicial Appointments Commission to handle all future appointment of judges
by replacing the old collegium system and to bring more transparency in recruitment
process.
• The 5 judge Bench constitution bench headed by Justice JS Khehar rejected the NJAC
Act and the Constitutional Amendment as “unconstitutional and void” with 4:1
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The 7th Asia Pacific Conference on Exercise and Sports Sciences (APCESS) was held
inIndia for the first time at Manav Rachna International University, Faridabad.
THEME – Interdisciplinary Applied Approach to Health and Performance Enhancement through
Sports Science
ORGANISER – Asian Council of Exercise and Sports Science (ACESS) & Manav Rachna
International University
The inauguration of the “Monumental National Flag” measuring 30×20 ft. at the rotary
junction connecting Shantipath, Niti Marg and Nyaya Marg was done by Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal. The 105-ft high monumental flagpole bearing the tricolour was installed at the
Chanakyapuri area.
After the launch of toll-free helpline number for women in distress now Tripura Police is back
with a new initiative which enables general public to register FIR (First Information Report)
through an SMS or through an e-mail.
• Complaint must include name and address of complainant, the nature of the offence and
the place of occurrence.
• Toll-free helpline number for women in distress to lodge their complaints – 1091
After the Maharashtra’s declaration of drought condition in 14,708 villages of state, the
Maharashtra Cricket Association will hand over Rs one crore to the state government to tackle
the drought situation in the region.
• Villages facing this calamity have paisewari (value of crops) is less than 50 per cent
• MCA has also decided to slash the ticket rates for the fifth and final ODI to be played in
the city.
Nirbhay, India’s sub-sonic cruise missile got failed in its flight test which was launched from
Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Odisha. Mission was aborted after 700 seconds as
flight crashed into the Bay of Bengal. It just covered 128 km of its 1000 km range
ABOUT NIRBHAY : It is developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
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Weight 1,000 kg
Length 6m
Diameter 0.52 m
• It supports ring laser gyroscope for high-accuracy navigation and radio altimeter for the
height determination
• It will be used by 3 arms of Indian Defence – Indian Navy, Indian Army and Indian Air
Force
SP Jain School of Management is the only school Of Indian origin is ranked as 95th on the list
by The Economist MBA rankings Financial Times and Forbes are the most important rankings
in the world.
The 11-year old business school was ranked among ‘Top 10 1-year international MBA’ in Forbes’
biennial rankings of the world’s top MBA programs last month. This year both Forbes and The
Economist have ranked the school among top institutions
• In this scheme each district will set up a house with a capacity of 30 women.There
they will get food,cloth ,medical treatment and care for those who are in distress.This
scheme will help them to gain their emotional strength and also provide them with legal aid
and guidance to enable them to take steps for their readjustment in family or society.
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• It also act as a support system which understands and meets various requirements of
women in distress by rehabilitating them economically and emotionally.This benefit is
available to women above 18 years of age.
Union Tribal Affairs Minister Shri Jual Oram has announced about the First National Tribal
Carnival that will be held from February 12 to 17, 2016 in New Delhi.
• Event will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi
AIM OF CARNIVAL – To promote various aspects of tribal culture at a wider path
As per the 7th Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index (MMGPI) report 2015 Indian
retirement system has been ranked last in the global pension index while Denmark has been
rated with the best retirement system
• India’s index value fell from 43.5 in 2014 to 40.3 in 2015 because of material
reduction in household savings rate.
• Australia, Germany, Japan, Singapore and the UK have increased their pension age to offset
the increase in life expectancies.
• Result is prepared by using 40 indicators, under the sub-indexes of adequacy,
sustainability and integrity.
• Report covers almost 60% of the global population and also provides suggestion for
improvement.
• It is published by the Australian Centre for Financial Studies (ACFS) in conjunction with
Mercer and is funded by the Victorian State Government.
Validity of environment clearance (EC) has been extended by the Government from 5 years to 7
years
PROCEDURE FOR EXTENSION
• Application should be filed with the regulatory authority during validity period.
• If the application filed within one month after the validity of EC then cases will be
referred to concerned EAC or SEAC*.
• If the application has been filed more than one month after the validity period of EC
but less than 3 months then based on the recommendations of the EAC or
SEAC the delay should be condoned with the approval of the Minister in charge of
Environment, Forest and Climate Change or Chairman.
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A pilot project of a station based e-catering service helping the passengers to order
• meals of their choice was launched by IRCTC(Indian Railway Catering and Tourism
Corporation) . This is only for stations and not on moving trains.
• The service will allow passengers to either order meals online or by calling toll free no or by
sending SMS with details of PNR and seat number and the meals will be delivered at their
berth.In the first phase of the project 45 stations are included in the list.
M-commerce Paytm has tied up with the Mumbai metro to offer online ticketing and
recharges on the “Paytm platform” which will be very useful for customers as it will their
frequent need of recharging a Metro Card.
• Facility is available across the Paytm app, website and mobile site.
Health ministry has allowed the transfer of blood from one blood bank to another for the better
utilize blood and blood components to save lives.
(Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare – Jagat Prakash Nadda)
The move has been taken on the recommendations of the National Blood Transfusion
Council.
• There will be no exchange of cash as exchange value is fixed at Rs 1600 per
litre of plasma and the blood banks with surplus plasma can exchange it for
consumables, equipments etc. or plasma derived products, as per their need.
• Fixing of exchange value will increase the availability of essential lifesaving medicines
and will reduce the country’s dependence on import of these products.
To enable training for the technology hither to unavailable in the country, a tunnel
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On 20th October 2015 Indian origin candidates won a record seat of 19 in Canada’s
general election.The Indian – Canadians more than doubled their representation in the Canadian
parliament from eight to 19 as Canadians voted out the Conservative Party by handing out a
landslide to the Liberal Party.
• The longest serving MP Deepak Obhrai won for the seventh time from Calgary Forest
Lawn.
• Darshan Kang of the Liberal Party who won the Calgary Skyview seat for his party for
the first time in 50 years .
• Most Indian-Canadian victories came in Canada’s biggest province of Ontario as
many seats in Brampton and Mississauga cities went to Indian-Canadian candidates.
The winners list of liberal party also includes Ruby Sahota in Brampton North,Sonia Sidhu in
Brampton South,,Gagan Sikand in Mississauga Streetsville, Raj Saini from Kitchener
Centre,Bardish Chagger from Waterloo, Yasmin Ratansi Don Valley East,Chandra Arya from
Napean ,Harjit Sajjan from British Columbia,Sukh Dhaliwal from Surrey-Newton,Jati Sidhu from
Mission-Matsqui-Fraser,Kamal Khera in Brampton West ,Raj Grewal in Brampton East
• In the newly demarcated constituency of Mississauga-Malton in the Toronto area, former
MP Navdeep Bains got elected .
• Bob Saroya of the Conservative Party won in Markham-Unionville
• The first Indian -Canadian to win a seat in the French speaking Quebec-Dorsal-Lachine-
LaSalle – is Anju Dhillon of the Liberal Party .
Food on Wheels is an initiative is taken by Gender Park to provide healthy, hygienic and delicious
food.
Aim – Food safety & women empowerment
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At night time these mobile units provide “Night Eatery Street’ (NES)” service will provide tasty
foods for late diners
• In 2013 Gender Park launched the “She-Taxi” project owned and operated by women,
for transporting women commuters exclusively.
• Gender Park is an autonomous institution promoted by the Department of Social Justice,
Government of Kerala State, India, to resolve the gender inequity in development.
• CEO – P.T. Mohammed Sunish
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav announced Rs 50 thousand monthly pensions to
Yash Bharti awardees of the state.
• Yash Bharti Award is the highest state-level awards conferred for excellence in
literature, fine arts, classical music, folk music and sports, medicine, journalism and
social service.
• The awards were instituted in 1994 by Mulayam Singh Yadav to honor achievers in
different fields.
Government has increased the import tax on wheat to 25% from 10%. The duty will remain
applicable until March 31, 2016
• The decision has been taken by keeping in view of the continued fall in international
prices of wheat and the anticipated adverse impact of increased imports.
• The increase in custom duty will presumably help protect Indian farmers against
cheaper imports.
• Central excise duty has been exempted on RBD Palm Stearin, Methanol and Sodium
Methoxide used in the manufacture of such biodiesel subject to actual user condition for
a period up to 31 March 2016.
Government of India has now made it mandatory for new business owner to have Aadhaar
Card, without which they can’t register their own business.
• Last month MSME has issued a new form called Udyog Aadhaar as a simplified process for
registering new businesses and currently more than 800 new businesses have been
registered on this platform.
As per some of the legal experts Government’s step to make Aadhaar Card mandatory for new
businesses is a direct violation of Supreme Court’s order regarding the same.
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The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has reconstituted the Central Press Accreditation
Committee (CPAC).
• The CPAC functions as a body to approve applications for accreditation from the media,
both Indian as well as foreign.
• The 22-member CPAC is chaired by Director General (M&C), Press Information Bureau,
Frank Noronha.The 22 member CPAC consists of 11 members from journalist associations
and 10 members from various media organisations.
The new members of the CPAC is given below.
Name Association/Union/Federation
Shri Pramod Kumar National Union of Journalists (India), International Federation of
Journalists
Shri Surendra Verma Association of Accredited News Cameraman (Regd.)
Shri L.C. Bhartiya All India Small & Medium Newspapers Federation
The term of the CPAC is for a period of two years from the date of its first meeting
On 21st October 2015 the Union Cabinet gives the approval for signing of an agreement between
India and Egypt on Maritime Transport.
The agreement is signed to strengthen the cooperation in the shipping area between the two
countries and also to provide sustained mutual assistance and advice on merchant shipping and
other maritime matters.
As a part of PM Modi’s vision “ART of Governance” Minister of State for Personnel, Public
Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh launched mobile application for Centralised Public
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Grievances Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) portal which enables general public
to register their governance-related grievances through mobile phones.
Aim – To provide citizens with a platform for redressal of their grievances
• “ART of Governance” – A for Accountability, R – Responsibility and T- Transparency,
forming the bedrock of the government.
• CPGRAMS was launched by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances
(DARPG) in 2007.
Union cabinet has given nod to the Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Bill, 2015 to enhance
the monthly bonus calculation ceiling to Rs 7,000 per month from existing Rs. 3,500
w.e.f. April 1, 2015. Last such amendment was carried out in 2007.
• The Payment of Bonus Act 1965 is applicable to every factory and other establishment in
which 20 or more persons are employed on any day during an accounting year.
As per the proposed provisions bill seeks
• To enhance the eligibility limit for payment of bonus from the salary or wage of an
employee from Rs. 10,000 per month to Rs. 21,000.
Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu announced Rs. 15 crore for the welfare of
families of policemen in the state. This is in addition to the Rs. 10 crore announced last year
by him for the welfare of kin of the security personnel.
• The state police have successfully curbed the activities of extremists, political factionists
and anti-social elements.
• On the occasion, rich tributes were paid to 443 police officials who lost their lives across
the country, including 14 who died in AP, while on duty in the last one year.
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IMPACT OF Ind-AS
Accounting standards would have impact on company’s profits, goodwill, market capitalisation and
net-worth.
• Banks and NBFCs are not required to follow the Ind-AS from 2016 as of now as RBI has not
given a green signal but the companies that have NBFC subsidiaries would have to follow
Ind-AS.
ADVANTAGES
Ind-AS could see more foreign investments as foreign investors would have global common
standards to compare Indian companies with the rest of the world.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Andhra Pradesh’s capital city
Amaravati at Uddandarayunipalem village in Guntur district on the occasion of Dussehra.
Event will be held on the banks of River Krishna.
(Andhra Pradesh CM – N Chandrababu Naidu)
Inauguration of New Integrated Terminal Building in Tirupati
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the “New Integrated Terminal Building
” aka“ Garuda Terminal” at the Tirupati International Airport that will enhance the
connectivity to the famous temple town in Andhra Pradesh.
(Union Minister for Civil Aviation – P Ashok Gajapathi Raju)
• The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has spent Rs. 191 crores to build the new
terminal.
Foundation stone lays for Mobile Manufacturing Hub in Tirupati
Prime Minister Modi also laid foundation stone of Shri Venkateswara Mobile and
Electronics Manufacturing Hub.
UD Ministry Clears First Batch of AMRUT Projects in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and
Rajasthan
The Ministry of Urban Development has approved the first batch of state level Action Plans under
Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).
AMRUT Aim :
Enabling water supply as per the norm and providing water supply and sewerage connections to
all urban households.
• On 21st October 2015 the inter-ministerial Apex Committee of AMRUT cleared plans
worth Rs.2,786.28 cr in this regard for 89 cities in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat
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India 2nd Most Optimistic In Biz Optimism Globally – International Business Report
A quarterly global survey of 2,580 business leaders called The Grant Thornton International
Business Report (IBR) reveals that India ranked second after Ireland in terms of the
business optimism.
• India Inc originated as the second most optimistic in the business optimism globally in a
survey showing that 86 per cent of Indian respondents are bullish about an increase in
revenue of their companies.
• The survey also mention that 86 percent Indian Business are optimistic about
increase in revenue compared to 83 per cent last quarter. Indian businesses are
positive about profitability with 69 per cent respondents expecting a rise in the profits.
Mortality Rate Among Indian Girls Below Age of Five Higher Than The Boys: UN Report
The recent UN report reveals that India is among the countries with the largest surplus of
men and a worrying under-five sex ratio with more girls dying before the age of five than boys.
Report Name – The World Women 2015.
In the Case Of India :
Sex-selective abortions have been technically illegal since 1996, the law had little effect so far on
the sex ratio at birth.
India has the lowest sex ratio in under-5 mortality, with a ratio of 93
• India is the only country with an under-5 mortality sex ratio under 100 (more girls
die than boys)
• Between 1995 and 2013, women’s participation in the labour force declined from 72 to
64% and from 35 to 27%, respectively in China and India.
On the sidelines of PM Modi’s vision “SMART and competent police”, Union Home Minister
Shri Rajnath Singh inaugurated the Indian Police Foundation (IPF) and Indian Police
Institute (IPI) in New Delhi.
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• The Police Foundation and Institute has been set up and registered as an All India Society
under the Societies Registration Act of 1860.
Aim: To commence a culture of research and evidence-based policing in India and to avoid
subjectivity, personal bias and errors in decision-making.
Rajasthan Govt has decided to introduce a new syllabus from class I to XII in government
schools from next academic session with a greater focus on lives of country’s
“Mahapurush”(great leaders) and history of the state.
(Rajasthan CM – Vasundhara Raje) (Rajasthan MOS for Education – Vasudev Devnanai)
• A high-level State Institute of Educational Research and Training (SIERT) is
reforming the syllabus for class I to VIII while for class IX to XII, committee has
been set up by Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education (RBSE).
Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has given its approval for signing
of a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) in Criminal Matters between India and the
Maldives.
Aim – It is to enhance effectiveness of both countries in investigation and prosecution of
crime through cooperation and mutual legal assistance in criminal matters.
The TripAdvisor cost comparison study named TripIndex Breakfast 2015 ranked Mumbai as the
11th among the best value destinations for an overnight stay with breakfast costing Rs 9,343.92.
• The report also includes that Accommodation without breakfast will cost Rs 8,932.44 in the
city.
• Buenos Aires (Argentina) is the best value destination in the world for Indians for an
overnight stay at a four-star hotel including breakfast at Rs 4,612.63, followed by
Moscow (Russia) at Rs 5,671.35
• New York City (US) emerged as the most expensive hotel destination with an average of
Rs 34,102.66 with breakfast.
• In the case of the cost of a hotel breakfast versus the cost of eating breakfast in a local
restaurant,the cheapest hotel breakfast can be found in Istanbul.
TripAdvisor India Country Manager – Nikhil Ganju
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The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) in Mumbai has partnered with Cinema Tourism
Summit (CTS) 2015 to attract film tourism by showcasing the destination to Bollywood film
producers.
• The production costs remain lower in Thailand as compared to most traditional as well
as upcoming film-location destinations.
• Bollywood movies that were shot in Thailand include – Houseful 2 which was shot in
Krabi, Student of the Year was shot in Samui, Bangkok & Krabi.
Odisha gets its First 100% solar-powered village-BARIPATHA
On 2nd October 2015 the tribal Village called Baripatha became the first village in the state to
be powered entirely by solar energy.
• This Rs 7-lakh project, co-funded by ECCO Electronics (a solar products
manufacturer) and Jakson Group (a diversified power solutions provider).
• They provide individual solar units with two lamps in each of the village’s 61 households,
along with a central one-kilowatt unit that powers eight street lamps, and an LED
television set and a TV set-top box for the community centre.
Government divides Maharashtra and Gujarat Naval Areas into two Separate
Headquarters
In order to enhance the operational and administrative organizational structure the erstwhile
Maharashtra and Gujarat Naval Area are divided to make two separate headquarters
under Flag Officer Maharashtra Area and Flag Officer Gujarat Naval Area.
• The division of the Naval Areas was marked by Rear Admiral Satish Namdeo
Ghormade, assuming of charge of Flag Officer Maharashtra Area. Rear Admiral
Murlidhar Sadashiv Pawar will officiate as Flag Officer Gujarat Naval Area.
In a bid to develop Hyper and High potential urban complexes, Haryana CM announced the
launch of new integrated licensing policy (NILP) 2015. The policy aims tomaintain proper
balance between the aspirations of farmers,property buyers, real estate developers and
the government.
• Cities in which Hyper and High potential urban complexes to be developed:Gurgaon-
Manesar, Faridabad-Ballabhgarh, Sohna, Sonepat-Kundli, Panipat and Panchkula-Kalka-
Pinjore.
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• Under this policy Haryana Govt introduces the concept of Transferable Development
Rights (TDR) for first time which allows farmers or landowners with small piece of land to
voluntarily monetise their land at current market price.
African nations will launch a new era of mutual partnership for 1st time
The third India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) is scheduled to be held at Indira Gandhi
Arena in New Delhi from 26-30 October 2015. The 5 days summit will be a meet of all African
nations will launch a new era of mutual partnership.
Points to be discussed during summit
• Key areas – human resource development, institution building, infrastructure, clean
energy, agriculture, health, education and skill development.
• To create conditions that will boost trade and investment flows between our countries.
• To work together to address the problems of climate change.
• To strengthen partnership on global platform and deepening of security cooperation.
Bilateral trade between India and Africa has grown by 8-9 times in the past few years. India has
given concessional credit of about $7.4 billion.
In accordance with report China, USA and India are the three leading international student
markets in London and the biggest contributors with contribution of £407million, £217million
and £130million respectively last year.
• As per the report by London & Partners (the Mayor of London’s official promotional
company) International students studying at London universities last year
provided a 3 billion pounds boost to the UK economy and helped support 37,000 jobs.
• Indian students spending – 30 million pounds; where Indians spent 43% at 56
million pounds on tuition fees, 56% at 74 million pounds on subsistence and less
than 1% on visiting friends and relatives.Whereas Chinese student numbers have moved
up by 49% since 2009-10.
International student market in London
In 2013-14, London had total of 106,000 international students out of which 13,460
Chinese students, 6,440 American students and 4,790 Indian students. Italy, Germany, France,
Hong Kong, Greece, Malaysia and Nigeria complete the top 10 countries of origin for international
students in London.
India’s first Paragliding World Cup has begun at Bir Billing near Baijnath town in Kangra district of
Himachal Pradesh. Snow leopard is the official mascot of this World Cup.
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• It is for the first time that Paragliding World Cup is being organised in a South Asian
country. Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju flagged off the event.
Union Govt has been eased the panel provision by raising the limit of undeclared or mis-
declared baggage that will attract arrest or prosecution to Rs 20 lakh. This step is taken
to avert harassment of overseas travellers.
• Presently, overseas travellers can pay a fine for any undeclared or mis-declared
baggage of a value up to Rs 5 lakh. Any such baggage beyond this limit attracts
prosecution or arrest. The government has now raised this limit to Rs 20 lakh.
• Monetary limits for arrests and prosecution have been raised for offenders under other
acts including Central Excise, Customs and Service Tax.
• There will be no limit for arrest and prosecution in the cases of smuggling of fake
Indian currency notes, arms, ammunitions and explosives and endangered
species.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu announced the country’s first-ever double decker
Shatabdi Express that would soon run between the tracks of Mumbai – Goa and will boost
tourism in Goa. The announcement was made during the event at Goa University in Panaji.
• The first double-decker air conditioned train was started in October 2011 between
Howrah and Dhanbad.
Income of trusts from yoga-related activities will now not be subject to service tax. Thus,
attendees of yoga camps or classes conducted by charitable trusts will not have to pay service
tax of 14 per cent. This could boost yoga promotion activities across the country.
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• The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has in a notification specifically
added yoga as one of the activities .
The finance ministry has imposed anti-dumping duties on imported Chinese parts used in
commercial vehicles for a period of five years.
• The duties were slapped on Chinese items imported into India at prices less than even cost
of production.
• Anti-dumping duty has also been levied on fully-drawn or fully-oriented yarn, spin-drawn
yarn, and flat yarn of polyester (non-textured) imported from China and Thailand.
Hockey India lifts ban on midfielder Gurbaj Singh post High Court order
The ban had imposed on midfielder Gurbaj Singh(22yr) has lifted Hockey India(HI) with
immediate effect in the wake of Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order. The ban lifted in just
over excess of 2 months time. The ban was actually supposed to be lifted in May 2016.
Mountaineers Arjun Vajpai and Bhupesh Kumar from Noida and Bulandshahr, UP respectively
marked their names as the first person to climb a “six thousander” high unnamed peak in
Himachal’s Spiti Valley.
• After scaling an unexplored 6180m high peak, they dubbed it as “Mount Kalam” in honour
of Late “People’s President” Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.
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Haryana government has planned to commission 215 additional sub-stations of various capacities
in the next three years to strengthen the power transmission and distribution system in the
state.
• 418 existing sub-stations would be augmented and 3,171-km transmission and
distribution lines would be laid in the next three years
• Haryana government had launched the “Mhara Gaon – Jagmag Gaon” scheme on
July 1, 2015 for improving power supply in rural areas.
(Haryana CM – Manohar Lal Khattar), (Haryana Capital – Chandigarh)
Indian Railway has developed a vandal-proof warning system for unmanned level crossings which
is working satisfactorily for the last three months on Coimbatore-Metupallayam section. The
system has been developed with a Mumbai-based vendor and RDSO.
• The system consists of two sensor modules and a control module in which train
movements are detected and siren and blinker alerts are produced when the train is
within one km of the level crossing.
• Theft protection system – the system for sending SMS alerts about trains crossing to
pre-programmed mobile numbers.
• Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) has finalised the
specifications of the system and recommended to all zonal railways to initiate steps for
installation of the warning system in their respective areas as a step towards prevention
of accidents.
Indian study on treating diabetics with heart ailments gets global recognition
The trial, carried out by the Academics and Research department of Fortis Escorts Heart
Institute led by Professor Dr Upendra Kaul on 1,830 patients in 46 Indian hospitals which
demonstrates the superiority of Everolimus eluting stents over Paclitaxel eluting stents
• It will help improve outcomes in treatment of diabetic patients with coronary blocks.
• The study was presented at the “Trans catheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics” (TCT)
conference in San Francisco. It has also made it to the prestigious New England Journal of
Medicine.
• With over 40 million diabetics, India is known as diabetes capital of the world and the
findings of the research will come in handy in treating those who have developed heart
ailments.
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The President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee has promulgated two ordinances – one for
constitution of commercial courts and another to amend the Arbitration and Conciliation
Act 1996.
• One of the ordinances provides for the constitution of Commercial Courts, Commercial
Division and Commercial Appellate Division in the High Courts for adjudicating
commercial disputes of specified value and for matters connected there with or
incidental thereto.
• The other ordinance is for amending the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj inaugurated the India Africa Friendship Rose
garden in New Delhi ahead of the third India Africa Summit which begins on 26 Oct 2015.
• The 3 acre park dedicated to the friendship of India and Africa has been planted
with over 6,000 rose saplings of 65 varieties collected from all parts of the country.
The summit will address the key challenges faced by Africa, which includes food, health and
environmental security. India hopes to create conditions that stimulate trade and investment
flows between India and African countries.
Finmin has imposed “sin tax” for Alcohol and tobacco industries under the proposed GST
structure that seeks to bring in a uniform indirect tax regime across the country. The rate of tax
has not been specified yet.
What is sin tax?
It is an excise tax that is levied on products and services considered to be bad for health
or society such as alcohol, tobacco and gambling. Sin tax is a globally prevalent practice under
which sin industries like alcohol and tobacco attract higher rates of tax.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced to open a Sanskrit University for
Schedule Castes (SCs) in Mundri village which will be named after Sanskrit poet Maharishi
Valmiki.
• The announcements were made during an address at Bhagwan Valmiki Prakat Diwas
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Army will launch Department of Veterans Affairs (DOVA), a new directorate aimed to look at
the problems and welfare of ex-servicemen. The department would be launched on January 15,
2016
• Announcement was made at an event organised by J&K Ex-service League to observe
Martyrdom of First Maha Vir Chakra Awardee of Indian Army, Brigadier Rajinder Singh,
who is also called as “The Saviour of Kashmir”.
• Northern and Western Commands will jointly coordinate and ensure redressal of
grievances of the ex-servicemen.
Japan State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)Yosuke Takagi and Andhra Pradesh
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) on
development of new capital city of Andhra Pradesh and industry cooperation on October 22, 2015.
Memorandum of Co-operation
Few of the deals under Memorandum of Co-operation (MoC) between Andhra Pradesh
and Japan include:
• The promotion of investments by Japanese companies in the Andhra Pradesh
• Andhra Pradesh Investment Task Force (APITF) will be set up in Japan for accelerating
industrial development in Andhra Pradesh
AP-Japan Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
• It was signed between Andhra Pradesh Finance department and Japan Bank for
International Cooperation (JBIC).
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• To mark the Vigilance Awareness Week Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu flagging-off a
marathon in the city Mumbai on 25th October, 2015.
• It was organised by public sector lender, Union Bank of India.
Theme : “Vigithon: A run for corruption free India”
Aim :Educating the people about several instances of corruption and empowering them with the
means to fight the problem.
• To mark the landing of the army in Sringar in 1947 to evict Pakistani intruders from
Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian Army celebrated its 68th Infantry Day with traditional
solemnity and gaiety.
Government sets-up R.V. Easwar Committee to simplify the provisions of IT Act, 1961
Government of India has constituted a Committee with a view to simplify the provisions of the
Income Tax Act, 1961 headed by Justice R.V. Easwar, (Retd.), former Judge.The First Batch
containing as many recommendations as possible shall be submitted by 31st January, 2016.
Members of the Committee :
V.K. Bhasin, Vinod Jain, Shri Rajiv Memani, Ravi Gupta, Mukesh Patel, Ajay Bahl,Pradip P. Shah,
Arvind Modi and Dr. Vinay Kumar Singh.
Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Committee
• To study and identify the provisions/phrases in the Act which are leading to litigation
due to different interpretations.
• To study and identify the areas and provisions of the Act for simplification in the light
of the existing jurisprudence.
• To suggest alternatives and modifications to the existing provisions and areas so
identified to bring about predictability and certainty in tax laws without substantial
impact on the tax base and revenue collection.
The ministry of urban development has approved the action plans under the Heritage City
Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) for heritage sites by HRIDAY national
empowered committee head Madhusudhan Prasad
Total Outlay: Rs 431 crore.
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HRIDAY Scheme :
Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) scheme launched on 21st
January, 2015 with a focus on holistic development of heritage cities.
• Duration : 27 months
• Total outlay : Rs 500 Crores
• Cities : 12
Ministry of HUPA clears first affordable housing projects under Housing for all mission
Ministry of HUPA(Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation) clears first affordable housing projects
under Housing for All by 2022 Mission,Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana (PMAY) for Chattisgarh by
Central Sanctioning-cum-Monitoring Committee chaired byDr.Nandita Chatterjee.
• The Committee also approved release of first installment of Rs.76 cr to Chattisgarh
government.
Proposal : Government approved the proposals for building 26,034 houses in 11 cities and
towns in the state.
11 cities : Raipur(3104), Naya Raipur(7720), Bhilai industrial Estate(192), Rajnandagaon(272),
Nardaha(Raipur-192), Jorapalli(Raigarh-144), Bilaspur(Chilhati-272), Shriramnagar (kanker-134),
Machewa (Mahasamund-336), Balod(Sivni-140) and Sukma(164).
According to Thomson Reuters report, India moved up at top position as the biggest overall
consumer of gold in the first nine months of 2015 with total consumption of 642
tonnes while China was recorded with 579 tonnes of consumption.
• In accordance with the Jewellery consumption increased 5% year-on-year to an
estimated 193 tonnes in the third quarter of 2015, the highest quarterly consumption since
2011 and the highest third quarter demand since 2008
Border guarding force Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) will deploy women personnel for the
first time in combat duties at its high-altitude posts along the Indo-China border.
(ITBP Director General – Krishna Chaudhary)
Aim – women work shoulder-to-shoulder with men in this force
• The first deployment of this maiden women squad will be made in the Ladakh sector of
Jammu and Kashmir.
• Guarding the India-China border, majority of the ITBP personnel are deployed in the high
reaches of the Himalayas at more than 17,000 feet with temperatures below -40 degrees
Celsius.
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To facilitate travel throughout the Schengen Area and help issue long-term visas more easily,
France will introduce biometric visas to Indian nationals from November 2 keeping.
• On the sidelines of this the French Embassy in India will offer a large number of 3 or 5 year
circulation visas to frequent visitors of France.
• All visa applicants will now be asked to come in person at any listed VFS centre of their
choice to register their biometric data.
• Children under the age of 12 years are exempted from this procedure.
• The recorded biometric data will be stored for a period of 59 months (almost 5 years),
obviating the need for applicants to come in person again for renewing their visa.
The 8th National Seed Congress 2015 was organized at Hyderabad, Telangana from 27th to
29th October, 2015. There were seven technical sessions and a panel discussion was held to
promote Telangana as the seed bowl of the country.
Venue – Hyderabad International Convention Centre
Theme – Quality Seed for Farmers’ Prosperity
Aim – To address farmer’s access to quality seed of improved new varieties through an innovative
seed supply system
Objectives of 8th National Seed Congress
• To create a platform for all major players and stakeholders in Seed Sector to come
together and discuss critical issues impacting the seed supply.
Gandhiji & NaMo named in Top 10 WEF’s Most Admired Personality Globally
In accordance with the World Economic Forum (WEF) surveyof more than 1,000 millennial, with
the respondents spread across 285 cities in 125 countries, Father of the Nation is ranked 4thmost
admired leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi ranked 10th in the list.
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• The list has been topped by the late South African First President Nelson Mandela.
• All the survey respondents (youth) are members of the WEF’s Global Shapers
Community aged between 20 and 30 years.
According to a 20th annual evaluations produced by WHO, India recorded the largest number
of Tuberculosis cases in the world during 2014. 1.5 million People died in 2014 including 140,000
children from the disease which ranks alongside HIV as a leading killer globally.
Regions having high Tuberculosis cases
As per World Health Organisation’s Global Tuberculosis Report 2015, 9.6 million new TB cases
in 2014 and 58% were in the South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions.
• India and Nigeria accounted for about one-third of global TB deaths (both including and
excluding among HIV-positive people)
India 23%
Indonesia 10%
China 10%
WCD Ministry launches a new initiative to spread awareness about BBBP Scheme
The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development has launched a new initiative to spread
awareness about the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP-Save the girl child, Educate the girl
child) Scheme of the Ministry.
• The initiative has been launched in partnership with Celltick Mobile Media India Pvt.
Ltd. to generate awareness about BBBP Scheme to an estimated 100 million mobile users in
India.
Progressive Punjab Investors’ Summit garners Rs 1.13 lakh-crore proposals
Corporate magnates expressed business plans for Punjab committing Rs 1.13 lakh crore,
bifolding the sum they promised two years ago. S. Sukhbir Singh Badal(Deputy Chief Minister of
the state) expeditiously relieved inputs of food processing sector from taxes and promised power
atRs 4.99 per unit, cheapest in the country.
• Agreements signed in second edition of Progressive Punjab Investors’ Summit touched 374.
• Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, YC Deveshwar of ITC Ltd, Chanda Kochhar of ICICI
Bank, Rahul Bajaj of Bajaj group and Sunil Kant Munjal of Hero MotorCorp led the galaxy of
investors to take the additory worth to Rs 1.13 lakh crore.
MP Government announces 33% quota for women in Govt jobs
The Madhya Pradesh government has decided to provide 33 percent reservation to women in
government jobs.
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• Decision has been taken during a cabinet meeting presided over by Madhya Pradesh Chief
Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Tata Trusts and Harvard University South Asia Institute (SAI) articulated participation on
capacity building and knowledge creation for social and economic empowerment in India.
• The integral part of this project titled ‘Livelihood Creation in India through Social
Entrepreneurship and Skill Development’ is the opportunity for shooting up social
entrepreneurs and institutions in India to apply for social modernization allocations
worth Rs 50 lakh.
• The goal of the project will be achieved through research with over 150 institutions
across 15 states of India, five workshops with 100 participating NGOs, and 20
webinars involving Harvard faculty and subject experts from India.
As per World Bank report of Doing Business 2016, India ranked at 8th position globally which
is ahead of developed nations like US, Germany and Japan in Minority Investors Protection.
• Among BRICS countries India leads the chart while China ranked at 134th position
• Report measures the strength of minority shareholder protections against misuse of
corporate assets by directors for their personal gain as well as shareholder
rights, governance safeguards and corporate transparency requirements that reduce the risk
of abuse.
Countries topped in protecting minority investors
Rank Country
Singapore 1
New Zealand 1
Hong Kong 1
Malaysia 4
United 4
kingdom
Canada 6
Slovenia 7
India 8
• India shared its 8th position with Albania, Ireland, Israel, Mongolia and Korea.
• This report is a part of the latest “Doing Business 2016” report of the World Bank that covers
189 economies, where India’s was ranked at 130th position for ease of doing business.
National Tribal Advisory Council set up
Union Tribal Affairs Minister Shri Jual Oram will instigate National Tribal Advisory Council for
effecting monitoring and implementation of various tribal welfare schemes.
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• The council will be chaired by the Prime Minister and will meet once or twice in a
year.
• Ministry will infuse 50 % of the tribal welfare funds to the states in the first quarter
of the next financial year and by third quarter 80% of the funds should be released to
the states.
Civil Aviation Minister releases Revised Draft National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP 2015)
Minister of Civil Aviation Shri P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju released the Revised Draft National Civil
Aviation Policy (NCAP 2015) in New Delhi.
Aim of the Policy
• To provide a conducive environment and a level playing field to various aviation sub-
sectors, i.e Airlines, Airports, Cargo, Maintenance Repairs and Overhaul services,
General Aviation, Aerospace manufacturing, Skill Development, etc
• To create an eco-system to enable 30 crore domestic ticketing by 2022 and 50
crore by 2027. Similarly, international ticketing to increase to 20 crore by 2027.
Nation celebrates Sardar Patel Jayanti as Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, PM flags off ‘Run for
Unity’ at Rajpath
Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the nation in paying tributes to the first Deputy Prime Minister
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on his 140th birth anniversary, which is also celebrated
as ‘Rashtriya Ekta Diwas’ (National Unity Day).
• Modi offered floral tributes at the Sardar Patel statue on Parliament Street in New Delhi.
The Prime Minister also flagged off ‘Run for Unity’at Rajpath, on the occasion.
Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) in association with Radio Mirchi today launched the
India’s first airport radio, Mirchi T3.
Minister for Culture Priya Sethi announced 27 new heritage sites of Jammu, Kashmirand
Ladakh region have been identified for preservation and listing under J&K Heritage
Conservation and Preservation Act 2010.
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International Affairs
2018 G-20 Chair to be hold by Indias
The G-20 member’s nation finalized the decision in September that India will be chairing G20 in
2018 and New Delhi is the expected venue for annual G20 summit.
In 2015 the presidency is held by Turkey. Now Turkey will transfer the Chair to China for the
next year (2016) meet then China will pass it to Germany which will hold it in 2017.
• G-20 nations – Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India,
Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa,
Turkey, the United Kingdom, United States and European Union.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will finance India-Bangladesh electricity network with
$120 million loan as a part of inter-connection project South Asia Subregional Economic
Cooperation (SASEC) Program. The new transmission capacity between two inter connected
networks will be 1000MW.
• The project is expected to be completed by June 2018.
REASON FOR LOAN
To help Bangladesh to meet its goal of providing electricity to all by 2021 and support power
exchanges across South Asia.
• Amount is required to double the capacity of the inter-grid connectivity which links
the power grid of western Bangladesh at Berhamara with the power grid of eastern India
at Bharampur.
The United States Department of Treasury (DoT) included India in its list of 34 countries with
which it would share information under FATCA (foreign account tax compliance act) regulations to
curb black money and tax evasion issues. This list included 16 new countries.
(UN DoT Headquarters – Washington D.C.)
AIM
To cover automatic sharing of information on bank accounts and financial
instruments like mutual funds, insurance and equities with each other.
• Government revealed that they have got details of undisclosed foreign assets of
around Rs 3,770 crore from 638 declarations. It is expecting that Government
would charge up to 60% tax on these disclosed assets which come under the
government’s voluntary discloser one time window.
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On 7 th october 2015 the union cabinet approved the protocols amending tax agreements with
Israel and vietnam. A movement aimed to dealing with black money.
With Israel :
• Introduced Limitation of Benefit (LOB) in the double taxation avoidance
convention.(DTAC)
• It also provides exchange of information on tax matters, including bank information,
and information without domestic tax interest.
• LOB – This article is an anti-abuse provision aimed at preventing misuse of the
convention.
To meet the internationally accepted standards ,both countries agreed to update the Article 27
on the “Exchange of Information ” in India -Israel DTAC.
With Vietnam
• A protocol to amend the existing double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA)
• It guarantees the exchange of information on tax matters, including bank information
and information without domestic tax interest.
In a move to expand strategic and defence ties the two nations are conducting an inagural
maritime -exercise from 17-18 Oct 15 in the Andaman Sea along with the 26th edition of the
CORPAT (Coordinated Patrolling) which is scheduled from 03 Oct to 21 Oct 15.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has launched largest exercise “Trident
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Juncture”since 2002 with troops from 30 states, including non-NATO in Italy, Spain and
Portugal.
• 30 nations will participate in the drills which are taking place at sea, in the air and
across the territory of three European states.
AIM OF EXERCISE
Purpose of the exercise is to train and test the capabilities of NATO Response Force (NRF) and to
make extreme ready and technologically advanced multinational force made up of land, air,
maritime.
PARTICIPANTS OF MILITARY EXERCISE : 36,000 troops, more than 60 warships and 200
aircraft will participate in the drills which makes it the biggest after NATOs“Strong
Resolve” military exercise in 2002 when around 40,000 troops took part.
• Headquarter of NATO Allied Joint Force Command centre – Dutch city of Brunssum
• Canada, Norway, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands will also be a part of this
exercise.
The Indo-US will kick off the 9th round of Trade Policy Forum (Trade dialogue body)
meet October 28 in America where India is expected to put the Agro-products issue in front
which needs greater market access and removal of non-trade barriers.
• The TPF has five focused groups – Agriculture Investment, intellectual property rights,
Services, and Tariff and Non-Tariff Barriers.
PARTICIPANTS : Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and US Trade
Representative Michael Froman
OBJECTIVE :To promote investments, intellectual property rights (IPR), increasing cooperation in
services sector
On October 1st Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Mohanbhai Kundariya, held bilateral talks
in Vilnius with Lithuanian vice Minister for Agriculture Mr. Vilius Martuzevicius. Both countries
have agreed to collaborate in research and agricultural technology and also to intensify their
cooperation in the food processing sector and dairy processing.
• It was agreed that Lithuanian delegation would visit India to take forward the
conversations also A bilateral agreement on agricultural cooperation will be signed
during the visit.
• Indian delegation visited Kaunas Agricultural University where they were shown research
facilities available there. The delegation also met agricultural enterprises in Kaunas who
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showed willingness to work with Indian companies under ‘Make in India’ scheme
Islamic State fighter’s jihadists have destroyed the 2,000-year-old Arch of Triumph which was
also known as “Pearl of the Desert” in Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra as the violent group
continues its campaign to destroy the UNESCO World Heritage site.
• UNESCO outlines Palmyra as a heritage site of “outstanding universal value” and Arch
of Triumph is the oasis town of Palmyra situated at 210 kilometers (130 miles) northeast of
Damascus. It was a stopping point for caravans travelling on the Silk Road.
• The fanatic group has captured large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq committing
illegal activities including beheadings, rape and mass killings, and destroying archaeological
and cultural heritage.
Nepal turns to United Nations over “obstruction” of trade point with India
Nepal has asked help from UN over alleged barriers on a border trade point with India that has
resulted in acute shortage of essential goods due to undeclared blockade.(Deputy Prime Minister –
Prakash Man Singh)
• For the effective implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action for 2014-2024
Nepal is appealing for the unhindered access for landlocked developing countries
(LLDCs).
After the destruction done by typhoon Mujigae in the southern Guangdong province of China,
the country has launched its first typhoon detecting rocket from Hainan.
• The typhoon detecting missile is the joint efforts of the Shanghai Typhoon Institute of
China Meteorological Administration and China Aerospace Science & Industry
Corp with the support of Hainan Meteorological Service and took three years in
completion of the project.
Angela Merkel was in India for a three day visit from 4th October to 6th October, 2015 for
boosting up the bilateral relations with special focus on trade, security and defence.
5th October 2015
• Angela Merkel held talks with Modi during 3rd Inter-Governmental Consultations
(IGC) reaffirmed their commitment to pursue reforms of the UN and there were 18
MOUs inked between both countries to attract foreign investment in support of his “Make
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in India” drive to boost industrial investment and create skilled jobs. Here is the list of
deals
• Germany returned stolen 10th century Goddess statue to India
• Germany financed Green energy projects with 125 million euro
• Loan agreement signed by Joint secretary in Ministry of Finance – S Selvakumar
Member of KFW (Federal Republic of Germany) Board Management – Roland Sillar
• From the total loan amount 57 million euro loan would be funded to Himachal
Pradesh and 68 million euro to Andhra Pradesh.
6 October 2015
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited German automotive
Bosch with focus on innovation and skills development and after that they addressed the Indo-
German Summit in Bangalore.
ORGANISERS OF SUMMIT :Fraunhofer India and NASSCOM
• Theme – “Digitising Tomorrow Together – An Indo-German Summit”
• Agenda – To promote Industrie 4.0
During summit 5 MOUs inked to strengthen ties in sectors like telecommunication, solar and
defence.
• Agreement between Tata Power and Rohde & Schwarz to manufacture software
defined secure radio communications systems for military usage.
• Agreements between Siemens and the Gujarat International Finance Tec (GIFT) City
• Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises and Fraunhofer-
Gesellschaft to collaborate in the field of manufacturing
• Agreement between HMT Limited and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft regarding
development of new features in existing products, new product development, and
analysis of design for Improvement and new technology development.
After the 5 years of crucial talks 12 Pacific Rim countries have inked the major TPP agreement by
creating the world’s largest free trade area. It has been signed after 5 days of talks in Atlanta,
US and will now have to be approved by the lawmakers of each country.
• Deal aimed at to cuts trade tariffs and to set 21st century common standards in trade
and investment for 12 Pacific Rim countries.
• The deal covers about 40% of the world economy.
12 PACIFIC RIM COUNTRIES SIGNED TPP
(Pacific Rim – Those are situated around the edge or rim of Pacific Ocean)
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• Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has lately hogged limelight in India and abroad
as a rockstar politician with a huge fan base, is ranked 13th among the world’s top
50 people in the fifth edition of the ‘Bloomberg Markets Most Influential‘ list.
• This is an annual ranking of the most popular politicians, economists, bankers, tech-
executives, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and money managers.
• While US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen tops the Bloomberg list, Chinese
President Xi Jinping is on the second spot.
• Apple CEO Tim Cook is ranked third, while BlackRock co-founder Larry Fink is a
surprise entrant at number four, ahead of legendary investor Warren Buffet.
India’s name is marked in “Forbes 50 richest families in Asia” featuring 14 Indian families in
the list with 4 spots in top 10.
• List is headed by the Lee family with revenues 22% of the South Korea’s GDP
Here is the list of top 10 richest family and Indians spots
Ranking Name Source of Founded Net Worth
1 Lee (Byung-Chull) family Samsung 1938 $26.6 Billion
2 Lee (Shau Kee) family Henderson 1973 $24.1 Billion
3 Ambani family Reliance Group 1966 $21.5 Billion
4 Chearavanont family Charoen Pokphand 1921 $19.9 Billion
5 Kwok family Sun Hung Kai & Co 1969 $19.5 Billion
6 Kwek / Quek family Hong Leong group 1941 $18.9 Billion
7 Premji family Wipro 1945 $17 Billion
8 Tsai (Wan-Tsai) family Cathay Financial 1962 $15.1 Billion
9 Hinduja family Hinduja Group 1914 $15.4 Billion
10 Mistry family Shapoorji 1865 $14.9 Billion
• This was the first ever ranking of Asia’s richest families in which 50 gens are taken from 10
Asian countries which are selected on the basis of following criteria
• Most of the richest families in the list are of Chinese ancestry but none is of mainland.
India signed an agreement on “transfer of sentenced persons” with Hong Kong Special
Administrative in New Delhi. Under the agreement, the two sides will exchange sentenced
prisoners in each other’s authority. India has prisoner exchange agreement with other countries
also but none with China.
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• Currently there are 93 Indians in Hong Kong jails and out of them 17 are sentence for
drug dealing while remaining prisoners have been jailed for minor offenses like immigration
law violation.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slits the global GDP growth forecast for the year from
3.3% to 3.1%
• India’s GDP forecast also slipped down from 7.5% to 7.3% which is lower than the
forecast of Govt at 7.6% and of RBI at 7.4%. Instead of this fall down India is growing
at double pace competing with the global economies.
• It is also expected that both advanced and developing economies will move up
the global economy with 3.6% by 2016.
• China launched the first phase of its much anticipated China International Payment
System (CIPS), a milestone in bolstering yuan’s global usage and furthering cross-
border clearing of its currency from the Chinese mainland instead of offshore centres
abroad.
• The CIPS provides capital settlement and clearing services for cross-border yuan
transactions for financial institutions domestically and abroad.
• China’s yuan became one of the world’s top five payment currencies in
November 2014, overtaking the Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar, according to
global transaction services organisation SWIFT.
• North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Defence Ministers agreed to set up two more
small headquarters, Force Integration Units, in Hungary and Slovakia to ensure
the fast deploying of NATO forces.
• NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced at a press conference following a
meeting of NATO Defence Ministers on October 8, 2015.
• The units are part of the readiness action plan, the biggest reinforcement of NATO’s
collective defence since the end of the Cold War.
• Six other NFIUs have been activated in September in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland and Romania.
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• The Group aims to pool resources for their fight against the impact of global warming and
is a counterpoint to the G20 group of leading industrialised and emerging economies.
• With the launch, the V20 Group Finance Ministers also held their inaugural meeting which
was chaired by Cesar Purisima, Finance Minister of the Philippines.
• They also called for acceleration towards a 50:50 balance in resources mobilized given
prevailing shortfalls for initiatives to adapt to climate change.
Communist Party of Nepal -Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) chairman Khadga Prasad
Sharma Oli elected as the new Prime Minister of Nepal with huge majority votes by defeating
Sushil Koirala. With this KP Sharma became the first PM under the newly adopted
constitution of Nepal.
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With an aim to stop human trafficking and to save the lives of migrants UN Security Council
adopted a resolution authorizing European Union (EU) and individual countries to cope with this
humanitarian crisis on the high seas of Libya.
• Resolution was supported by 14 members except Venezuela who remain abstained.
• The resolution was adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter which allows the use of
force and nations to inspect ships, sieze and dispose of vessels in case of any suspicious
activity regarding smuggling of migrants.
• This resolutions will be valid for one year.
EU countries had also launched second phase of Operation Sophia to monitor traffickers.
President Pranab Mukherjee was on 2 days visit to Jordan on the invitation of King Abdullah-II Ibn
Al Hussein.
• In 65 years Shri Pranab Mukherjee was the first Indian President to visit Jordan
after Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visit in 1988.
India, Jordon inked Six MoUs to enhance cooperation
MoU Signed Between
On Maritime Transport India and Kingdom of Jordan
Training programmes for Foreign Service Institute and Jordan Institute of
On IT and Electronics Ministry of Communications and Information
Cultural Exchange Programme Govt of India and Kingdom of Jordan
Standardization and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and the Jordan
Exchange of news through the Jordan News Agency(Petra) and Press Trust of
As a part of ongoing visit to West Asia, President Pranab Mukherjee visited Palestine from Oct 12
– Oct 13. With this visit he became the first Indian President to visit Palestine.
• During visit the President held meeting and interaction with Palestinian counterpart
Mahmoud Abbas and were having talks regarding political interaction, deeper economic
engagement and academic collaboration and wider cultural contacts.
• India offers economic and political support of $5 million to Palestine.
• For capacity building in the Palestinian territories both nations announced five projects of
$17.79 million. The projects include a
HONORARY DOCTORATE
Al-Quds University conferred Honorary Doctorate to Shri Pranab Mukherjee and also
named him as “a valiant knight of peace” during the ceremony held in Ramallah.
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Dutch probe confirms MH17 was shot down using BUK missile
The final report on the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 completed on Tuesday The Dutch
safety board informed that the Flight was shot down over eastern Ukraine by a Russian made
Buk Missile.
China activated its biggest hydropower station dubbed as Zam Hydropower Station located on
the Yarlung Zangbo River which is known as Brahmaputra in India. It is deemed to be the
world’s highest-altitude hydropower station and the largest of its kind.
• It will produce 5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year
• $1.5 billion Zam Hydropower Station is the largest in Tibet
• All 6 station’s units were incorporated into the power grid
Yarlung Zangbo or Brahmaputra is major river which flows through Tibet into India and then into
Bangladesh. It is also called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra River.
Parliament of Iran has given a nod to the Tehran’s nuclear agreement with 6 world powers that
will protect the Iran’s nuclear program and lifting of international economic sanctions.
• As per accord Iran is obliged to reduce its number of uranium-enrichment and will be
limited to a single facility using first-generation centrifuges for ten years.
• 6 world powers include – United States, United Kingdom, Russia, France, China
and German
• 161 lawmakers voted for implementing the nuclear deal, while 59 voted against it and
13 abstained.
• Bill is still to be reviewed by 12 members Guardian Council.
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Navies of India Japan and US are participated in exercise Malabar that was commenced on Oct
14 and will continue till October 19.
AIM – Advancement of multi-national maritime relationships and mutual security issues
TYPES OF TRAINING : Ashore Training and At- sea training
ABOUT MALABAR EXERCISE
Annual Malabar series was established in 1992 between India and US and since 2007 India has
hosted the exercise. Malabar 2009, 2011, and 2014 took place off the coast of Japan and included
the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces. This year also India invited Japan to be a part of
exercise.
Egypt ,Japan ,Senegal Ukraine,and Uruguay are elected as the non permanent members by
the UN General Assembly to serve on the security council.It’s a two year term from 1st January
2016 to December 31, 2017.
The non-permanent members that will remain on the Council until the end of 2016 :
Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain and Venezuela
Current Holders of the Seats in the Group:
African Group – Chad and Nigeria
Asia – Pacific Group – Jordan
Latin America and Caribbean States Group – Chile
Eastern European Group – Lithuania
European and Others Group – New Zealand and Spain
The five permanent Council members :
China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States(Veto power)
China has finally clinched its first overseas bullet train project entirely using Chinese technology.
State-owned companies of China and Indonesia inked an USD 5.5 billion deal to build the first
high-speed railway.
Construction will set to start in 2016 and the line to begin operating in 2019.
The Myanmar government has inked a peace accord with eight ethnic armed groups to end
the country’s long running conflicts.
• India was represented by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s special envoy for northeast R N Ravi also attended the ceremony.
• Other international representation was from China, Japan, Thailand, the United
Nations and the European Union.
To tackle with the issue of the bullying of the Asian-American students White house has
instigated its annual anti-bullying campaign in three South Asian languages – Hindu, Urdu and
Punjabi.
• As per the study one in five students is being bullied during the school year and it
occurs in every seven minutes. Anti-bullying campaign is also launched in Korean,
Vietnamese and Chinese on during National Bullying Prevention Month.
WHITE HOUSE PARTNERS IN CAMPAIGN :Sikh Coalition and Coalition of Asian Pacific in
Entertainment (CAPE)
CAMPAIN NAME – “Act To Change”
On the sidelines of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Ufa an agreement has been
signed between two nations to build 1,100-km gas pipeline from Lahore to Karachi.
President Barack Obama has confirmed plans to extend the US military presence in Afghanistan
after 2016 to help Afghan forces from growing Taliban threat.
• There are currently 9,800 US troops stationed in Afghanistan.
• The US forces will be stationed in four locations – Kabul, Bagram, Jalalabad and
Kandahar
The 2nd IAP meeting will be hosted by the the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of
India in partnership with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UN International
Strategy for Disaster Reduction, UN-ISDR).
Location & Date : New Delhi on Nov.17-19, 2015
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The main consultation forum for the regional platform AMCDRR in Asia – IAP
• The IAP launched in 2004 and finally expanded in 2007 to act as the support
mechanism for the Asia Regional Platform for DRR and has been meeting twice a year.
• The 1st Asian Ministerial Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) after
the introduction of the Sendai Framework will be hosted by the Government of India in
November 2016.
The AMCDRR meeting will be co-chaired by Shri Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs
of India as host of the next Asia Ministerial Conference on DRR in 2016 and United Nations Special
Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Ms Margareta Wahlstrom.
US State Department has released the International Religious Freedom Report 2014 which
outlines 200 countries and territories describing the status of religious freedom in every country.
It marks the detail of action that has committed inhuman activities, abuses, damage in the name
of religion and violates Govt policies.
• Report has been submitted in accordance with the International Religious Freedom Act
of 1998
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
• Improved status of largest population of Christians in Middle East and largest
religious minority in Egypt
• Release of Religious Prisoners in Turkmenistan
• Societal Response to anti-Semitism*, Islam phobia and forms of intolerance in various
countries
(*Discrimination against Jews as an ethnic, religious or racial group)
REPORT ON INDIA
Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, mandates a secular state, prohibits discrimination on
the basis of religion and practices of faith in a way that does not adversely affect public order,
morality, and health.
There are “anti-conversion” laws in six states – Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal
Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh
Three days BRICS University President Forum 2015 was held at Chinese capital
Beijingwhich was aimed to build an exchange platform among academia, political sphere and
business community, leading to in-depth research on major challenges confronted by the BRICS
countries.
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NATO launched the biggest military exercise in Italy.The opening ceremony was on
monday.And the exercise will begin on Wednesday 21st October 2015.This exercise is for
testing the alliance ability to to respond to new security threats.
Name of the Military Exercise – Trident Juncture
• It is the biggest military exercise conducted by them in 13 years.This exercise
mobilized around 36,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen from more than 30 countries.
• This exercise will demonstrate NATO’s capacity to deal with conventional military
engagements to more subtle hybrid warfare techniques and propaganda
• The operational center for the exercise will be the Sicilian city Trapani,Italy.The
exercise runs through early November, extending into Spain, Portugal and adjacent
waters.
Moody’s Investors Service released a report on the global green bonds market with an expectation
that green bond market will exceed $40bn.
Titled of Report – Third Quarter Issuance Lags, but COP21-Linked Increase Is Likely.
• As per report, in the third quarter (Q3) of 2015, the global green bond issuance reached
7.5 billion dollar, compared to bond issuance of 27.2 billion dollar in Q3 2014.
• India has set a target of 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022.
• India and China offering sizeable growth potential with an ambitious targets on building
out renewable energy capacity
During the US Secretary of State John Kerry visit to Spain, the two nations have signed an
agreement for the cleanup and removal of land contaminated with radioactivity from U.S.
hydrogen bombs.
• As per agreement, US will remove the soil contaminated by nuclear radiation at
Palomares.
• Under an earlier accord that ended in 2010, Washington paid (USD 350,000) a year for
tests for radioactive contamination and regular blood tests for more than 1,000
Palomares residents.
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On 19th October 2015 the WHO released a global status report on road safety
2015.This report is based on the informations from 180 countries. This is an important
milestone monitoring the worldwide progress made on preventing road traffic injuries. This report
is the official tool of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.
Highlights of the Report :The total number of road traffic death in worldwide is 1.25 million
per year.
Road traffic injuries remain the first cause of death among people aged 15-29 years.
• The highest traffic fatality rate is in low – income countries.(Africa is the highest).
• The road traffic deaths and injuries are estimated to cause economic losses of up to 5% of
GDP in low and middle -income countries.
On 12 October 2015 ,the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) released a report on Gender and Education for All (EFA) 2000-2015:
• Between 2000 and 2015, the number of girls for every 100 boys has risen from 92 to
97 in primary education and from 91 to 97 in secondary education
• The number of countries that have achieved gender parity in both primary and
secondary education from 2000 to 2015 has increased from 36 to 62
• Fewer than seven out of every ten young women in sub-Saharan Africa are expected to
have basic literacy skills by 2015
Russia and United States have signed a MoU to avoid mid-air incidents over Syrian skies
Russia and United States have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to avoid direct
clashes between both air forces in the skies over Syria. Its text has been kept secret.
• It also includes steps to be taken by pilots to avoid an inadvertent clash over Syria.
According to the latest US Nuclear Notebook report Pakistan may emerge as the 5th largest
nuclear power with an estimation of country’s stockpile to increase to 250 warheads in a
decade.
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Report was authored by nuclear expert Hans Kristensen and Robert Norris.
• Pakistan has a nuclear weapons stockpile of 110 to 130 warheads, an increase from an
estimated 90 to 110 warheads in 2011.
• Pakistan is developing a nuclear weapon for deployment on submarines.
• Pakistan is also developing two new cruise missiles, the ground-launched Babur (Hatf—
7) and the air-launched Ra’ad (Hatf—8).
During the Chinese President Xi Jinping visit to London, Britain signed a landmark nuclear
deal with China to build the UK’s first atomic power plant since the 1980s.
Agreement was announced by Britain PM Prime Minister David Cameron between EDF and
China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) to build a nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point,
Somerse.
• China’s General Nuclear Corporation (CGN) will take a one-third stake in the planned 18
billion-pound ($28 billion) Hinkley Point nuclear plant controlled by France’s EDF.
CGN to pay 6 billion pounds.
The thirteen museums in seven countries named as the recipients of Bank Of America grants
for the conservation of artworks ,ranging from an Edouard Manet painting to a colossal ancient
Chinese Buddha.
The 2015 Art Conservation Projects grants a total amount more than $ 1 million .
The Recipients of the award are :
• Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York
• The British Museum
• The OCA Museum in Sao Paulo Brazil
• The Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar
• San Ildefonso College in Mexico City
• Brooklyn Museum in New York
• Heard Museum in Phoenix
• Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina
• Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford
• Connecticut; Museum of Fine Arts in Boston
• Sakip Sabanci Museum in Istanbul
• The University Art Museum at Tokyo University of the Arts
• Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond
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The Ziyuan III, China’s first high-resolution stereo mapping satellite for civilian use has sent
back visual data covering 69.45 million square kilometres of the globe. Its mapping precision
is higher than the other nation’s satellites. It was launched in January 2012.
• The satellite has offered services to aid the country’s land supervision, land sales,
forest-resources survey, geological monitoring, water-resources management,
emergency response and navigation map.
• The Ziyuan III 02 satellite is planned to be launched in 2016 while another stereo
mapping satellite Gaofen-7 is expected to be launched in 2018.
Hurricane Patricia is the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere. The
maximum sustained winds reached an unprecedented 200 mph (320 kph). The eye of Hurricane
Patricia made landfall near Cuixmala in Jalisco state of southwest Mexico.
• Hurricane Patricia broke the record for lowest pressure in any hurricane on record. With
aminimum central pressure of 880 millibars (25.99 inches of mercury)
• Patricia broke the record of 882 millibars set by Wilma in the Atlantic Basin almost
exactly 10 years earlier.
Scientists detect Ethyl Alcohol and Simple Sugar from gas emitted by Comet Lovejoy
Team of scientists have discovered two complex organic molecules that are considered as
building blocks of life and will provide important clues to the hypothesis that a falling comet
collided with earth, leading to the origins of life founded in in Sierra Nevada in Spain.
• The molecules were Ethyl alcohol and a simple sugar known as glycolaldehyde on a
comet.
• These molecules were discovered on Comet Lovejoy from gas emitted by a comet by
scientists from NASA, They also had detected 21 different organic molecules in gas
released from the comet along with the ethyl alcohol and simple sugar.
China, Japan and South Korea will hold a summit in South Korea when Chinese Premier Li
Keqiang visits, for the first such meeting since they were discontinued in 2012 due to tension
dating back to World War Two.
• The summit would be on Nov. 1 in Seoul.
• Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will visit South Korea from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2.
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An Indian-origin structural engineer Roma Agrawal who helped build Europe’s tallest building,
the Shard in London, has been invited to Buckingham Palace by Queen Elizabeth II.
• Roma Agrawal 29, will join a group of other female engineers at a reception being
hosted by the 89-year-old monarch to encourage more women to take up the
profession.
• Only 6 per cent of registered UK engineers and technicians are women, the lowest
number in Europe; just 15 per cent of UK engineering students are female.
Four ways to reduce health risks from climate pollutants: WHO Report
The World Health Organisation and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-
Lived Climate Pollutants have produced a report outlining the urgent need to reduce emissions
of black carbon, ozone, methane and carbon dioxide, which all contribute to climate change.
Frequently described as short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), they not only produce a strong
global warming effect, they contribute significantly to the more than 7 million premature deaths
annually linked to air pollution.
The four key interventions, rated medium to high:
• Reducing vehicle emissions by implementing higher emissions and efficiency standards .
• Providing cleaner and more efficient stove and fuel alternatives
• Encouraging high and middle-income populations to increase their consumption of
nutritious plant-based foods
• Target 3.9 aims to “By 2030, substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses
from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination.”
• As per the ninth amendment of Criminal Law of China, students trying to copy in
examinations will face a jail term of up to seven years.
• This new law will be effective from 1st November 2015. The information was published
by China Radio International on 25 October 2015.
• The law will make cheating on major exams in China a crime punishable with a jail
sentence. Parents involved will also be seriously punished.
In Poland, conservative opposition Law and Justice party has won parliamentary elections. Exit
polls suggest it has enough seats to govern alone, with an anticipated 39 per cent of the vote.
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Its eurosceptic leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has claimed victory, and the outgoing Prime Minister,
Ewa Kopacz of the centrist Civic Platform party, has admitted defeat.
India and France sign an agreement on digital preservation and conservation of rare
written treasures
India and France signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on digital preservation and
conservation of rare written treasures by Smt Sreya Guha, Joint Secretary (Library) in
the Ministry of Culture and Mr. Bruno Racine, President of the National Library of France.
Aim : To conserve, develop and publicize written heritage, at the National Library in Kolkata
The Director General of National Library, Dr. Arun Kumar Chakraborty and the new Consul-
General of France in Kolkata, who were also present on the occasion, said that capacity and skill
building programmes under the agreement will give a boost to Make In India and Skill India
programmes.
BRICS Ministerial Meeting on Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) was held in
Moscow, Russia on 27-28 October, 2015 for Strengthening Mutual Cooperation.
• The Minister for Science, Technology and Earth Sciences, Harsh Vardhan was led an Indian
delegation.
Earlier each BRICS country was given leadership in thematic areas
Brazil Climate change
Russia Water resources and pollution
India Geospatial technologies
China New and renewable energy
South Africa Astronomy
The United States Senate passed a bill to improve cyber security by encouraging private
companies and the government to share information about hacking threats.
• Despite of privacy and transparency concerns from companies like Apple and
Yelp,Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) passed by a vote of 74-21.
Nepal has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China to import all kinds of
fuel in order to ease fuel crisis in the country.
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• It was signed by Nepal Oil Corp (NOC) and China National United Oil Corporation
(PetroChina) in Beijing to supply all kind of the petroleum products for Nepal needs.
• This is the first time that China is commercially supplying petroleum to Nepal and
already had agreed to donate 1.3 million litres of petrol.
• This oil trade deal with Nepal may end India’s monopoly over fuel supplies.
As per United Nations Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2015,Asia pacific region is the most
disaster-prone region of the world. It has been witnessed 1,625 disasters during the last 10
years which accounts 40% of the globe.
• The world body urged the region’s governments to invest more in adapting to climate change
and preparing for disasters as the risks the region faces are worsened by its rapid economic
growth and increasing population.
Highlights of UN Report
• Other disasters affecting the region include floods, tropical storms and droughts. The
report calls them as “silent killers”
• 90% of the world’s seismic activity originates in the “ring of fire” which is situated in
the basin of the Pacific Ocean.
Most Disaster Prone Countries in the World :Vanuatu, Philippines, Bangladesh, Mauritius and
Japan
Least Disaster Prone Countries in the World : Qatar, Malta, Barbados, Saudi Arabia, Grenada,
Iceland, Kiribati, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Sweden.
• India stands at the 100th position of the least disaster prone countries in the world with a
disaster risk rate of 7.17%.
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Pakistan broke down to bring back to the elite UN human rights body, picking up only just 105
votes in the 193-member General Assembly. Moreover, Its current term is set to expire on
December 31 and was probing redeem to the 47- member Human Rights council(United
Nations). India is also a member of the Council and its term will end in 2017.
• New members who will call up their 3-year term(from January 1,2016) are Belgium,
Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Georgia, Germany, Kenya, Panama,
Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Togo, Slovenia, Switzerland,
United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.
A non-governmental human rights group UN Watch(Geneva) taken in the setback of Pakistan,
tagged it as a “major surprise.”
BRICS nations ink Moscow Declaration for supporting Multilateral Science Projects
BRICS nations have agreed for co-investment of resources for supporting multilateral
Research and Development (R&D) Projects in mutually agreed areas signed by Union
Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan at third meeting of
the BRICS Ministers for Science, Technology and Innovation held in Moscow on October
28.
BRICS STI Minister agreed on the collaboration for
• Cooperation within large research infrastructures, including mega-science projects.
• Coordination of the existing large-scale national programme of the BRICS countries
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World largest population country China announced the end of its hugely controversial one-child
policy after more than 35 years announced by President Xi Jinping at the end of party’s four
day plenary session headed by in Beijing.
• New policy state that all couples would be allowed two children.
• Reason behind for this change :This change comes as China faces low fertility
rates and an aging trend in its population.
One the sidelines of RBI rate reduce the State Bank of India has also cut down its lending rate by
40 basis points to 9.3% but it will not relax the pockets of home loan customers as they have
to pay 0.7% above base rate i.e. nearly 10% for their loans.
• There is reduction in the home loan rate only by 20bp and with higher margins which
reflects that on home loans above Rs. 1 crore customers will have to pay the same rate
of interest.
• The new home loan is fixed at 55% while women borrowers it would be charged
at 9.50%.
As per RBI Kolkata headquartered UCO Bank named as the worst performer in public sector
banks with highest number of non-performing assets (NPAs) recorded against it with gross
advances ratio raised to 8.05% from 4.47% followed by Indian Overseas Bank and Bank of
Maharashtra
OTHER BAD PERFORMER PSBs DURING 2014-15
• Chennai headquartered Indian Overseas Bank(IOB) with 8.30% from 3.46%
• Pune headquartered Bank of Maharashtra(BoM) with 6.18% from 3.02%
• Mumbai headquartered Dena Bank increased to 5.29% from 3.33 per cent
• Mangalore headquartered Corporation Bank’srose from 3.42% to 4.80%
Increase in NPA affected the base of the banks and they are provided with Rs 25,000 capital
support by government in this fiscal.
The norms for the Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) of government debt was relaxed by the
RBI on 6th October 2015.
• In order to bring an additional 1.2 Lakh crore by March 2018 RBI declared higher
investment limits in rupee terms in govt securities.
• RBI also fix the FPI investment limits in rupee terms and increased the stages to reach 5%
of the outstanding stock by march 2018.
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For the current fiscal year ,In order to increase the limit for investment by FPIs in G-sec
in two tranches ie from 12th october 2015 and 1st january 2016.
There is an increase in the limit ,ie -From october 12 – from Rs.1.53 lakh crore to Rs.1.7
lakh crore and From January 1 – Rs 1.86 lakh crore.
• The operational guidelines relating to allocation and monitoring of limits is issued
by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
• Those Central Government securities in which aggregate investment by FPIs exceeds the
prescribed threshold of 20% will be put in a negative investment list.
According to the finance Ministry Report Reserve Bank of India (RBI) can act as the aggregator of
payments by using RBI’s core banking solution e-Kuber for the upcoming GST that is expected to
be rolled out in April 1, 2016.
• This will facilitate participation of larger number of banks in GST receipts which
will enhance convenience for the tax payers,single source of
information and simplifying accounting and reconciliation tasks.
• Report also suggested that internet banking, over the counter payment and NEFT and
RTGS should be extensively used to facilitate payments.
• The portal will be backed by integration with the respective IT systems of the Centre
and states.
Dena Bank ties up with bankbazaar.com
• In a first from a telco in India, Telenor will begin offering life insurance to its new and
existing customers, with covers starting from Rs 5,000 going up to Rs
50,000, while consumers don’t need to pay any premium.
• The plan allows Telenor’s existing 47.5 million customers to get enrolled in the scheme
by either calling up customer service or visiting one of ?the company’s 2100 stores in six
circles where it operates. New customers can get enrolled with little documentation, and
get a cover equivalent to 100 times the value of recharge done on their prepaid number.
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Mumbai headquartered bank with tagline “We Understand Your World” HDFC has initiated the
countrywide crusade to position itself as a premier digital bank by benefitting customers with
bank’s latest technological products and offerings.(HDFC MD – Aditya Puri)
• CAMPAIGN NAME – Har Zaroorat Poori Ho Chutki Mein, Bank Aapki Mutthi Mein
• CAMPAIGN THEME – Digital banking is enabling customer convenience as never
before
• TIME DURATION – 3 months
Yes Bank gets RBI nod for mutual fund, AMC and trustee company
• Yes Bank has got the permission of RBI to sponsor a mutual fund and also to set up
an asset management company (AMC) and a trustee company.
• Asset management companies and trustee companies will be wholly owned subsidiaries
of Yes Bank.
From 9th October to 11th October 2015 the Annual meeting of the World Bank Group and the
International Monetary Fund were held at Lima, Peru.
• The Annual Meetings, which generally take place in September/October.
• In this annual meeting Ministers of finance and central bank governors from the
institution’s 188 member countries will take part in the meeting.During the meeting the
topics like international economic and financial developments, the state of the global
economy, and policies to reduce poverty and promote inclusive economic growth were
• The last time the Annual Meetings were held in Latin America was in 1967 in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil.
RBI – Bank of Botswana MoU on info exchange
Central bank of India RBI has inked pact with Bank of Botswana agreed for Supervisory
Cooperation and Exchange of Supervisory Information.
• MoU was signed by Andrew M Motsomi (Director of Banking Supervision Dept. at Bank of
Botswana) and Parvathy V Sundaram (Chief GM-in-Charge, Banking Supervision Dept. of
RBI)
• In 1977 Bank of Botswana established as the government bank and central bank of the
nation
• Headquarters – Gaborone, BotswanaTill now RBI has signed 28 MoU, one Letter for
Supervisory Co-operation and one Statement of Co-operation.
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As a part of digital banking Mumbai headquartered Kotak Mahindra Bank has launched the
Kotak Bharat app in Kannada that requires no Internet connectivity and also enables
customers to manage their savings accounts, current accounts and credit cards.
With this KMB becomes the first Indian Bank to enable customers to do cashless transactions by
transfer up to Rs. 2,500 per day and at a time.
• Transactions will be initiated from customer’s registered mobile number and its easy to
choose and totally secure.
• After the transaction the customer will get the confirmation message.
Finance Ministry is coming up with its new digital platform dubbed as Income Tax Business
Application-Permanent Account Number (ITBA-PAN) which enables taxman to examine
the“PAN life cycle summary” of an individual or entity where a PAN number has been quoted
and in any part of the country.
Currently this software tool is under final testing and is expected to be activated by the end of
October, 2015.
• After the launch of this tool, tax dept. and its intermediary organisations—NSDL* and
UTIITSL* will be enable to allocate fresh PAN number and subsequently issue a new
card in 48 hours compared to present 15 days.
• Tool will also allow tax dept. to capture occurrences of an assessee like death,
liquidation, dissolution, de-merger, merger, acquisition, fake PAN or amalgamation of
PAN which can be helpful in tracking black money or tax evasion.
Mumbai headquarter SBI bank has received a nod from RBI for setting up of subsidiary that
will work on bank’s real estate assets. With the establishment of subsidiary bank can able to
purely focus on its core activities.
• KPMG would be the helping hand bank in setting up its subsidiary.
• Currently SBI is having about 44 mn square feet of owned assets and 50 mn square feet
of rented properties
• Real estate’s holding of bank is Rs 25000 crore
• Employees engaged in managing SBI’s real estate and engineering activity would move
to the subsidiary and use their expertise for the benefit of the parent.
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To support developmental and promotional activities RBI has merged the two funds to form a
single Financial Inclusion Fund. Contribution to FIF would be from the “interest differential” in
excess of 0.5% on RIDF*and STCRC* deposits.
As a part of “Look East Policy” RBI has opened a new sub-office in Imphal which will support
unbanked block of North-East to have banking presence. With RBI offices are expanded to 5
states in North-East.
This new segment will comprise of Financial Inclusion and Development
Department,Consumer Education and Protections Cell and Market Intelligence Unit.
• The sub-office was inaugurated by Manipur CM O Ibobi Singh and RBI Deputy
Governor Harun R Khan
• State government will focus on flood control under the Rural Infrastructure Development
Fund (RIDF)
• This initiative will improve banking facilities with the adoption of digital connectivity
Having 25% market share in the global mobile money market, Mahindra Comviva publicized its
gaining to the Indian market to provide the technological solutions and infrastructure to
the payments banks in India on sidelines of the RBI’s announcement to issue licenses to 11
payments banks.
• Mahindra Comviva has enhanced its leading mobile financial solution “mobiquity” to
meet the needs of the payments and small finance banks in India
• Company will focus on two core groups: the unbanked and millennial (aged 15-35
years)
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• Mahindra Comviva’s technological product has been deployed with Idea and is expected
to be adopted by Tech Mahindra as well when it rolls out its own payments bank
• Airtel Money in Africa already uses Mahindra Comviva’s systems
Mumbai headquartered Bank of Baroda launched Chillr Mobile app. With this BOB becomes
the first public sector bank to partner with Chillr.
(BOB tagline – India’s International Bank)
• Using the Chillr app, Bank of Baroda customers who are registered for Bank’s Mobile
banking facility can transfer money instantly to their phone book contacts without the
need for account details of the recipient, the bank said in a release.
• Chillr, a first-of-its kind application, is directly linked to the customer’s bank
account. Customer can send or receive money to or from any person in India.
After IndiGo now Wadia Group backed GoAir is planning an initial public offer (IPO) by the end
of March 31, 2016 which would help its proposed international operations.
(Company slogan – Fly Smart)
As per existing rules for an IPO the aviation company requires domestic carriers to be in operation
for atleast 5 years and have a fleet of a minimum of 20 aircraft to be eligible to fly on
international routes.These rules are under review as a part of new civil aviation policy.
• IndiGo’s Rs 3,268-crore IPO opens on October 27 and closes on October 29
• GoAir was founded in the year 2005 by Jehangir Wadia who is its current MD and
operates 22 destinations in India, with over 140 daily flights
• In 2008 GoAir bagged Best Domestic Airline for Excellence in Quality and
Efficient Service by Pacific Area Travel Writers Association
• Nation’s 5th largest airline also a recipient of Best Performing Airline by Airbus in
2011
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has inaugurated the IDFC Bank branch in New Delhi. The
event was also attended by Union Minister for Finance Shri Arun Jaitley and Union Minister
of State for Finance Shri Jayant Sinha.
Reserve Bank of India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Central Bank
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The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned a loan of Rs
134.64 crore to the Haryana government under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund for
2015-16.
• The funds have been sanctioned for “Rehabilitation of JLN feeder system” in three
districts of Jhajjar, Rewari and Mahendergarh.(Jawaharlal Nehru (JLN) Feeder system
was established in 1980)
Objective – Overall growth of southern districts of the state and a higher per capita income for
farmers
With this sanction, the cumulative RIDF assistance sanctioned by NABARD to Haryana has reached
Rs 5,038.40 crore.
Reserve Bank of India(RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan went with the majority view of external
members on the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) on the policy rate to announce the rate
cut.
• RBI, cut its benchmark policy rate- the repo rate by 50 bps to 6.75% to kick start
economic activity on September 29.
RBI: Banks are free to fix Interest Rates on Gold Deposit Scheme
The Reserve Bank of India issued guidelines for the Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS) that
allow banks to fix their own interest rates on gold deposits.
• The gold deposit scheme is aimed at mobilising part of an estimated 20,000 tonnes of idle
precious metal with households and institutions.
As Per guidelines
• Banks will be free to set interest rate on such deposit, and principal and interest of
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The Government has exempted the banking correspondents from service tax for account
opening, cash deposits, cash withdrawals, obtaining e-life certificates and Aadhaar seeding in
the rural area branches of banking companies under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
(PMJDY).
• PMJDY, a national mission on financial inclusion, was launched by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi last year, deposit in accounts opened under the government’s flagship
financial inclusion programme has exceeded Rs. 25,000 crore.
As per World Bank Report 11 new payments banks is expected to expand penetration of the
banking sector in vast rural areas of the country.
• The payments banks would have simplified Know-Your-Customer (KYC), Anti Money
Laundering (AML) and Countering Financing of Terrorism (CFT) norms.
• The payments banks are permitted to provide remittance services, including through
mobile telephones, and many of the approved entities are mobile operators.
Yes Bank inks partnership with Snapdeal and Blue Dart to facilitate faster seller
payments
Maharashtra headquartered Yes Bank has inked a partnership with Snapdeal and Blue Dart to
enhance the “Cash on Delivery” (COD) model by making strategic interventions in the financial
supply chains of these companies.
• The partnership is under Yes Transact (Yes Bank’s banking product suite) and will enable
Snapdeal to receive cash-on-delivery proceeds from Blue Dart in a faster and
streamlined manner.
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Kochi headquartered Federal Bank become first bank in India to launched Malayalam and
Hindi language versions for its mobile banking application FedMobile.Malayalam language
version was launched by renowned writer Madathil Thekkepaattu Vasudevan Nair Vasudevan Nair.
SEBI has ordered attachment of banks and demat accounts of 11 entities to recover dues worth
nearly Rs 22 lakh imposed on them for violation of norms.
The firms against which SEBI has passed orders – Hind Developers, Munak Galva Sheets,
Navin Chemicals Manufacturing and Trading Company, Cepham Pharmaceuticals, Cepham
Organics, Intercraft, Sanjay Agro Industries, Jai Mata Industries, Majestic Overseas, Anmol Drugs
and Pharmaceuticals and Ambuja Agro Industries.
• These entities were found guilty of violating various norms including not resolving
investor’s grievances.
• The pending dues include fines imposed on them along with interest, charges, expenses
and other costs.
Japan has offered to finance India’s first bullet train with an estimated cost of Rs. 90000
crores at an interest rate of less than 1%. The loan is likely to cover 80% of the project.
• The loan is on the condition that India buys 30% of equipment including the coaches and
locomotives from Japanese firms
• As per Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) report travel between 505-
kilometre corridors linking Mumbai and Ahmedabad would be reduced to 2 hours from
existing 7 hours.
• The bullet train is expected to have speeds between 300km/h and 350km/h.
• Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt has purchased a franchise in the UAE-based Masters
Champions League (MCL) for an undisclosed sum.
• The deal has been signed by the Dutt’s wife, Maanyata, who’s been looking after his
business interests in his absence.
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Hyderabad based Madhucon Projects has sold its Madhucon Agra- Jaipur Expressways Ltd
(MAJEL) to Singapore-based Cube Highways and Infrastructure for Rs 248 crore.
• Cube Highways will acquire 74% equity stake while the balance 26 % equity stakewill be
acquired after getting a nod from the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).
E-commerce platform Paytm has tied up with Pune Headquartered Bank of Maharashtra to
offer mobile wallet top up facility through bank ATMs.
• Bank of Maharashtra’s debit card users will now be able to make their mobile or utility
bills payment or pay for services such as cab fare and more by topping up their Paytm
mobile wallets through the bank’s 1800 ATM network.
Realty firm Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) will invest about Rs 150 crore
for the first phase of its upcoming affordable housing project at Virar in Mumbai.
• Project area – 550 acres
• Construction Cost – Rs 100-150 crore
• The company will launch the first phase of its affordable housing project “Planet HDIL” in
Virar this Diwali another two luxurious projects in Ghatkopar (East) by year-end.
Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi: Increase of Financial Assistance from Rs. 2 Lakhs to 5 Lakhs
Government has decided to enhance the financial powers delegated to designated Central
Government hospitals/institutes from Rs. 2 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh under Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi
(RAN) for providing financial assistance in cases where emergency surgery is to be conducted.
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For Whom : Who are suffering from major life threatening diseases related to heart, liver,
kidney and cancer cases, etc.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare : Harsh Vardhan
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) notified that the Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs)/
Registered Foreign Portfolios Investors (RFPIs) can now invest up to 74 percent of the paid
up capital ofDEN Networks Limited under the Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS).
DEN Networks Limited has passed resolutions at its Board of Directors level and a special
resolution by the shareholders, agreeing for enhancing the limit for the purchase of its equity
shares and convertible debentures by FIIs/RFPIs.
Private sector lender Yes Bank has started operations from its IFSC banking unit at the Gujarat
International Finance Tec City.
• It is the first bank to start operations in GIFT City by setting up an IBU (IFSC Banking
Unit).
• It will also allow the bank to raise foreign currency funding through MTNs and other
routes as appropriate.
Arun Jaitley launched two taxpayer eSahyog and PAN camps friendly measures with a view to
streamlining the taxation procedure.
e-Sahyog : e-Sahyog is aimed at reducing compliance cost, especially for small taxpayers. It
is to provide an online mechanism to resolve mismatches in I-T returns of taxpayers whose
returns have not been selected for scrutiny, without visiting the I-T Office.
PAN camps : PAN camps are aimed at expanding the coverage of number of
people through Permanent Account Number (PAN). While 23 crore PAN card have been issued,
only 5 crore people file income tax returns.
• The expansion of Number of PAN card holders would help the government implement the
budget proposal of mandatory quoting of PAN for cash transaction of Rs 1 lakh.
India’s EXIM bank announced that it will set up in Africa a development firm KPDC(Kukuza
Project Development Company), in collaboration with others, to expedite the infrastructure project
from the concept stage to the commissioning stage in the African continent.
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• Exim Bank’s proposal comes on the occasion of third India- Africa Summit(held in New
Delhi, India). The company will be in service from first quarter of 2016. Other investors in
the company are the IL&FS Group, the African Development Bank and the State Bank of
India.
Reserve bank of India has allowed Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to subscribe the National
Pension System (NPS) as an investment option under FEMA, 1999. Decision in this regard has
been taken in consultation with the GOI.
• NRIs will get access to NPS which is governed and administered by the Pension Fund
Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).
• Minimum annual subscription – It will be Rs 6,000 under NPS while allocation to equities is
capped at 50% of investment.
• Subscription maturity – NPS investments mature when the investor turns 60.
If the amount is < Rs 2 lakh, the entire sum can be withdrawn.
If amount is > Rs 2 lakh the subscriber must put at least 40% of the corpus into an
annuity to get a monthly pension.
RBI allows Indian corporate to issue offshore rupee-denominated bonds outside India
RBI has allowed companies to issue rupee-denominated bonds abroad that will address both
pricing and currency risks.
• The move follows robust demand for rupee-denominated bonds issued by the International
Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Asian Development Bank(ADB).
• The matter of taxation of income from such bonds under the Income-tax Act, 1961 has
been considered by the government and will attract withholding tax of 5%.
• Legislative amendment in this regard will be proposed through the Finance Bill, 2016.
Business
Infosys overtook HDFC Bank as 3rd most valued company in m-cap
• India’s major IT CompanyInfosys became the third most valued Indian firm in
terms of market valuation by overhauling the private sector lender HDFC Bank
while TCS remained topper in chart with valuation of Rs 5,17,045.42 crore.
• Infosys market valuation is market with Rs 2,69,489.03 crore which is led by Rs 432.68
crore as compared to HDFC Bank’s m-cap of Rs 2,69,056.35 crore.
TCS is followed by RIL, Infosys, HDFC Bank, ITC, Sun Pharma, CIL, ONGC, HDFC and SBI
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To serve the rising demand of Govt sector and financial services Tech giant IBM is going to
instigate its cloud data centre in Chennai with an estimating outlay of $1.2 billion. It will be the
IBM’s 42nd data centre globally but first in India.
• “Works Premium” and “cloud certification programme” – These are the two
initiatives launches by IBM to improve the skills of developers and to enable them with
tools so to match pace in global market.
• To grow the cloud market IBM has joined hands with National Association of
Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) to launch Techstartup.in a digital hub
wherein the entire Indian startup ecosystem can interact with each other.
India signs Rs 105 cr deal for 194 micro-light planes with Slovenian firm Pipistrel
On 12th October 2015 a contract was signed between India and Slovenian firm for 194 micro
light aircraft to be used by Indian Air Force,the Navy and the NCC.
Tata housing is again back with its new idea of selling house by joining hands with Facebook
which allow buyers to do registration through Facebook.
• After getting registered they will receive their unique invite code which will allow them to
login on October 26 to book limited homes on first come first basis.
Project codename: Goa Paradise
German company Siemen’s share mounted to Rs.1, 388.50 on BSE after inking Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) with Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) and Gujarat
International Finance Tec-City Company (GIFTCL) to develop Smart Mobility Solutions Tec-
City GIFT in Gujarat.
• Siemens will work on city-level Mobility solutions, design state-of-the-art by study and
development.
• Designed as a hub for global finance services industry GIFT is a 50:50 JV of Gujarat
Urban Development Company and leading infrastructure development company, IL&FS.
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Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) of Malaysia has proposed to invest USD
30 billion in urban development and housing projects in India. National Buildings
Construction Corporation (NBCC) of the Ministry of Urban Development will be partwith these
projects.
PARTS OF PROJECT
• Redevelopment of New Delhi Railway Station adjoining area as a mini-smart
citywith an outlay of USD 24 billion
• CIDB also proposed to take up a Green City Project at Garhmukhteshwar in Uttar
Pradesh involving housing and Ganga cleaning projects with an infusion of USD 4
billion
CIDB is a government agency which has implemented various construction projects overseas with
an investment of USD 24 billion since its inception in 1995.
Insurance major Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance has inked agreement with Thrissur (Kerala)
headquartered Dhanlaxmi Bank in long-term bancassurance.
• Under this agreement Bank will sell life insurance products of Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance
by acting as a Corporate Agent for 9 years and all the life insurance products will be
made available to customers of Dhanlaxmi Bank.
• Since 2009 Dhanlaxmi Bank is partner of Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance and under this
partnership they had done a business of Rs. 400 crore.
India’s Aditya Birla Group has announced its partnership with Dubai-based private equity
firm Abraaj Group who will jointly infuse in renewable energy manifesto by building and
operating new solar power plants in India on sidelines of solar energy target to 100 Gigawatt
by 2022.
• Aditya Birla Group will invest through Aditya Birla Nuvo (ABNL) with 51%
stake and Abraaj will also invest through its affiliate with 49% stake.
• These Solar power plants that will provide clean and cost-effective electricity to national
grids.
Reliance Capital announces Rs 150 crore ESOP scheme
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Scheme with value of Rs.150 crore has been announced by the Anil Ambani led Reliance
Capital to 250 employees across its various units to encourage employees for their contribution
in growth and profitability of the Company.
• Under the Scheme the eligible employees will get options on RCL listed stock and/or
phantom shares of its businesses.
• Scheme will be applicable to employees of Reliance Capital, Reliance Capital Asset
Management, Reliance Commercial Finance, Reliance Life Insurance, Reliance Securities
and Reliance General Insurance. The options vest over a period of 5 years, with
customary lock-in period.
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) has signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) with the India Pulses and Grains Association to handle pulses import
across its ports in the country.
• The pact is aimed to help develop a dedicated and efficient supply chain for
pulsesby using strategically located Adani Port’s facilities to all key consumption centres
in the country.
• Despite the government’s steps to boost supply and check prices Price of pulses shot up
to Rs 200 per kg.
PTC India ties up with Solar Energy Corp for solar power trade
• PTC India inked a pact with SECI for sale and purchase of power generated from
3,000-mw solar projects for a full 25 years from commercial operation date of each of
the project/facility to state utilities
• SECI – Solar Energy Corporation of India
• PTC India CMD – Deepak Amitabh
Australia clears way for Adani Group’s $7 billion coal and rail project
• On 15th October 2015 an environmental permit for the construction of coal mines of
Adani Enterprises was reissued by the Australian government.Australian
Environment Minister Greg Hunt’s decision opens the way for Adani to proceed the
project in the undeveloped Galilee Basin .The project is about $ 7 Billion.This project will
give billions of dollars as export revenue for Australia.
Healthcare services Apollo Hospitals instigated its homecare realm with the launch of services in
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Hyderabad, New Delhi and Chennai which aims at to reduce the average stay of patients in
hospitals and reduce the outlay for health insurance companies.
• Apollo Homecare will expand its operations to all tier-I cities by the end of this year and
spread to 13 tier-II cities by 2016.
On 21st October 2015 External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Russia’s Deputy Prime
Minister Dmitry Rogozin, chairing the 21st India-Russia Inter-Governmental Consultations
recognized the ways to enhance the mutual direct investment to $15 billion by 2025.
• India and Russia also discussed the ways to improve their economics ties and triple their
bilateral trade to $30 billion in the next decade.
• The areas includes Agriculture,Pharmaceutical and Infrastructure. Russia is an
important partner for India in peaceful uses of nuclear energy.India mentioned their
commitment to work towards having 12 Russian nuclear plants .
India-France clinched Rs 30,000 crore offset deal on 36 Rafale fighter aircraft. Both nations
have firmed up an understanding on the offsets segment under which the French have agreed to
invest 50% of the deal’s worth.
• French aircraft manufacturer Dassault had reached out to Indian companies in the
defence and security industry for possible Make in India partnerships.
• This will make it one of India’s biggest-ever offsets deals.
On the sidelines of MoU Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) will transfer a Cheque of Rs 2,000
crore to Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC), the first tranche of its financial
assistance for investment in capacity augmentation projects.
• Railways had signed a MoU with LIC in March 2015 for financial assistance of Rs 1.5 lakh
crore over the next five years for implementing railway projects.
ISB and Deakin University ink three year MoU for collaboration
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• Through Deakin India Research Initiative (DIRI), Deakin provides a full tuition fee waiver of
around Rs 42 lakh.
Essar Project’s joint venture with Italy’s Saipem won a biggest third-party order of $1.57
billion order from Kuwait National Petroleum Company for setting up a part of theAl-Zour
Refinery Project.
• The project at Al Zour is Kuwait’s biggest development project with a crude processing
capacity of 615,000 barrels per day (bpd).
• The project is expected to be completed by 2019.
• Now Essar Project’s order book has reached $2.8 billion with projects being executed
in 9 countries.
Company Rank
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) 14
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) 17
Coal India 38
National Thermal Power Corporation Limited 56
(NTPC)
Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd 59
Indian Oil Corp 66
Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) 120
Power Grid Corp of India 129
Cairn India Ltd 139
Essar Oil 146
Electric Power Development Co. Ltd. 164
Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. 219
National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC 221
Ltd)
Oil India Ltd 222
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India ranks 130 in World Bank’s 2016 rankings of Ease of Doing Business
According to a World Bank report India ranks 130 out of 189 countries in the ease of doing
business, moving up 12 places from last year. India was ranked 142 in the ranking for 2015.
World Bank Rank – 2016
Rank Country
1 Singapore
2 New Zealand
3 Denmark
4 South Korea
5 Hong Kong
6 United Kingdom
7 United States
8 Sweden
9 Norway
10 Finland
• China is ranked 84 and Pakistan is at 138th, Bhutan ranked 71st, Nepal ranked
99th,Sri Lanka ranked 10th, Maldives ranked 128th, Bangladesh ranked 174th.
Headquartered at Redmond, Washington, US Microsoft acquired Irish video game engine and 3D
physics provider Havok(based in Dublin) from American chip-maker Intel for improving the
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Indian mutual fund industry is boosted up when the world’s largest life insurers company Nippon
Life has increased its stake in Reliance Capital Asset Management (RCAM) to 49% from
35%.
• Osaka, Japan headquartered Nippon life is investing Rs.1196 crore for additional 14%
stake.
• This investment raised the total valuation of RCAM at approximately Rs. 5,600 crore
($920 million).
• This is the largest foreign investment in the mutual fund industry in India.
As a part of e-commerce drive Aditya Birla Group has launched abof.com an online fashion
portal for apparel, footwear and accessories for men and women from about 55 brands.
Reliance Capital Asset Management (RCAM) is going to acquire mutual fund business of
• As on 30 September GSAM India has total assets under management (AUMs) of Rs.7, 132
Google will take a minority stake in Beijing-based artificial intelligence firm Mobvoi as part of a
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• Mobvoi works on artificial intelligence (AI) voice-controlled software, like that used
in Google’s Android products for mobile search, and also develops hardware like smart
watches.
• The Google-led Series C fundraising values Mobvoi at $300 million (roughly Rs. 1,950
crores), with the startup maintaining a controlling stake.
• Mobvoi previously partnered with Google to provide Chinese-language voice
search for the latter’s Android Wear smartwatch operating system.
Owner of USA TODAY, Gannett Co has announced to acquire Newspaper Company Journal
Media Group for about $280 million by which Media Company will get control of publications in
more than 100 local markets of US.
• Currently Journal Media Group owns 17 small- and medium-sized newspapers in
nine US states and 18 weekly publications.
• This deal will promptly move up earning of Gannett by 10 cents to 15 cents per share in
the first full year and 20 cents to 25 cents in the second year and will grew with $450
million revnues.
PC maker Dell is going to acquire cloud data storage EMC Corporation for about $67 billion in
cash-and-stock deal. It is the biggest deal in tech industry.
• As per the terms and conditions in agreement EMC shareholders will receive $24.05
per share in cash from Dell.
• Currently Dell is a stagnant player in the PC market but this deal will not only diversify its
present market but also enables it to match pace with cloud-based data services, the
fastest growing market.
Sweden-based drug firm Recipharm has acquired a majority stake of 74% in Nitin Life
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HCL Technologies acquired CRM services firm PowerObjects for 299 crore rupees
The IBM announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire most of the assets
of the Weather Co, including its Weather.com website, a large number of weather data
collection points, consumer and business applications and a staff of more than 900 people.
IBM would not say how much it was paying for the business, but an earlier report in The Wall
Street Journal put the deal at over $2 billion.
• The Weather Channel, a cable television outlet, was not part of the deal, but it would
licence weather forecast data from IBM.
Storage hardware maker Western Digital (WDC) is buying flash memory giant SanDisk (SNDK)
for $19 billion.
• SanDisk stockholders will get $85.10 in cash and 0.0176 shares of WDC for each share
of SNDK.
• Western Digital and SanDisk’s complementary product lines, including hard disk drives,
solid-state drives, cloud datacenter storage solutions and flash storage solutions, will
provide the foundation for a broader set of products and technologies from consumer to
datacenter.
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Awards
Vayoshreshtha Samman 2015
President Pranab Mukherjee presented the National Awards for Senior Citizens“Vayoshreshtha
Samman 2015” at Plenary Hall, Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on the occasion of International Day
for older persons on 1st October 2015. He honoured 11 people in seven categories for their
contribution in helping the elderly people.
WINNER LIST
Category Name
Award for Iconic mother Leelaben Chhabildas Gurjar (91)
Award for centenarian Uday Singh Mann (104)
Life Time Achievement Award Yashwant Narayan Kadam and Manohar Vishwanath
Creative Art Award Jitendra Udhampuri
Creative Art Award Rabindranath Das Shastri (78)
Award In sports & adventure Bahadur Singh
Best District Panchayat Panchayats of Dindori(Madhya Pradesh)
Best Institutions Gram Vikas Parsihad(Assam) Pravara Rural
• Government will unveil national policy for senior citizens by next year for the welfare of
elderly people across the country with the participation of the public.
• The new policy for the elderly will replace the existing policy which was formed in 1999.
Forbes India Leadership lifetime achievement award 2015 is conferred to Maruti Suzuki
Chairman RC Bhargava. The award appreciates his long term exemplary contribution to the
Indian business community and his leadership qualities.
He was also honoured with “Order of the Rising Sun Gold and Silver Star” by the Emperor of
Japan
“Zubaan” movie director Mozez Singh has been honoured with Rising Director Asia Star
award at the ongoing 20th Busan International Film Festival for his debut film as director.
Zubaan was the second Indian movie as an opening film at the film festival after the Bengali
movie “The Wrestlers”
• With this achievement Mozez became the first Bollywood director to win the
trophy.
• Zubaan is a musical drama which stars Masaan Movie Actor Vicky Kaushal and Sarah-
Jane Dias.
• It is produced by Sikhya Entertainment & Metamozez Entertainment and Co-produced
by Guneet Monga (who also produced The Lunchbox).
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CEO of Infosys China Rangarajan Vellamore (48) became the first Indian to confer
with highest honour for foreigners – Magnolia Gold award of Shanghai Municipal Government
for his contributions towards the development of China’s financial hub located in IT industry in
Shanghai.
• The award was presented by Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong to Mr. Vellamore at a special
function.
• In 2011 Rangarajan was honoured with Magnolia Silver award.
• Leading Indian industrialist Ratan Tata has been felicitated by the city of Coventry with
its highest award in recognition of his contributions to the West Midlands region of
central England.
• The Tata Group Chairman Emeritus took oath as an Honorary Freeman of the City of
Coventry, an award only 13 people have been conferred with since 1914.
• Five district Gram Panchayats have been selected for the “Gandhi Grama” award. The
award was presented by Mr. Siddaramaiah at a function organised by the Rural
Development and Panchayat Raj Department at the banquet hall of Vidhana Soudha on
October 2.
• The selected panchayats are; Kanamadi of Vijayapura taluk, Chimmalagi of
Basavanabagewadi, Rudagi of Muddebihal, Baradol of Indiand Gabasavalagi of
Sindgi taluk of the district of Karnataka.
• Teen magician Zenia Bhumgara, daughter of Magician Mhelly Bhumgara and sister
of Magician Pearl honoured with the prestigious Merlin award by the International
Magicians Association (IMA) in Mumbai
• The best female teenage magician of India award is presented by Toni Hassini chief
executive officer of the IMA.
• Human rights and global crisis activists have been named winners of the 2015 Right
Livelihood Awards.
• These winners are also called” alternative Nobels.”
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• This year’s award will be shared by Canada’s Sheila Watt-Cloutier, cited for promoting
Inuit livelihoods and culture; Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera from Uganda, for her
struggle for gay rights and sexual minorities; and Italian surgeon Gino Strada, for
providing medical assistance to victims of war.
The fifth edition of Forbes India Leadership Awards (FILA), 2015 opened the doors for
recognizing the efforts of business leaders and their contribution in raising the Indian economy up
to another level. The awards were presented at an event in Grand Hyatt hotel, Mumbai.
• The award acknowledged their valuable contribution to the Indian business
community and exemplary transformations done by them over the years.
• FILA was launched in 2009.
• The awards were judged by the powerful jury of India corporate sector.
HERE ARE THE WINNERS
Category Name
Best CEO – Public Sector Arundhati Bhattacharya
Best CEO – Private Sector (St t B k f I di
CP Gurnani(Tech )
Mahindra Ltd)
• Tiruchirappalli also known as Tiruchi or Trichy of Tamil Nadu has been honoured
• for their innovative project of solid waste management with the effective use of
monitoring technology, radio frequency identification system (RFID).
• The award was presented by Gurgaon-based group “Skoch” dealing with socio –
economic issues
• The city corporation in collaboration with a private firm introduced the RFID attached
dumpsters in 17 wards of the city corporation which were monitored with the help of
software “Chitragupta”
On 5th October 2015 Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine has announced the winners.The
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recipients of the award are William C Campbell and Satoshi Omura.Other half of the award is
given to Youyou TU
• Work of William C Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura
Discovery : A novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites.
Newly discovered drug :Avermectin
• Work of Youyou TU
Discovery : A novel therapy for malaria.
Newly discovered drug : Artemisinin
Nobel Prize Chemistry 2015 : Cell’s Tool Box for Repairing DNA
The winners of the Nobel Prize 2015 in chemistry are Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz
Sancar.The Nobel prize was awarded “for mechanistic studies of DNA repair”
Prize amount: 8 million Swedish krona, to be shared equally between the winners.
Their research mapped and explained how the cell repairs its DNA in order to avoid errors
occurring in genetic information.
Mr. Lindahl demonstrated that DNA decays at a rate that ought to have made the
development of life on Earth impossible.
Mr. Modrich demonstrated how the cell corrects errors that occur when DNA is replicated
during cell division.
Mr. Sancar mapped nucleotide excision repair, the mechanism that cells use to repair UV
damage to DNA.
Kajita and McDonald Won Nobel Physics Prize for Work on Neutrinos
Takaaki Kajita of Japan and Arthur McDonald of Canada won the Nobel Prize in physics for
their work on neutrinos.Neutrinos are the second most abundant subatomic particles in the
universe, after photons, which carry light.
Discovery : Neutrino oscillations which shows that neutrinos have mass.
Prize Money : 8 million Swedish kronor ($953,500) cash award
The Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich has won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Literature.Her
polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time made her to win the
award.
• She was the first journalist to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• First writer from Belarus to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Books of Svetlana Alexievich includes :
War’s Unwomanly Face, The Last witnesses, Zinky Boys and Voice from Chernobyl
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Winner of 2015 Nobel Prize for Peace : Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet
Award for : Its contribution to the Tunisia’s transition to democracy in the wake of the Jasmine
Revolution 2011.
Nobel peace Prize Amount : $972,000( Presented on December 10 in Oslo)
Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet was formed in 2013
Prime Minister Narendra Modi nominated the India Today Group for the Swachh Bharat
Abhiyan. India Today Group launched the Safaigiri Summit and Awards 2015.
Winner List is given below:
Award Winner
Garbage Guru Award Colonel (Retired) Suresh Rege
Toilet Titan Award Siddeek Ahmed, Chairman Eeram Solutions
Safaigiri Tech Icon Award Dr. R Vasudevan, Dean Thiagarajar Engineering College
Safaigiri Water Warrior Award Anoop Ratnaker Rao, CEO , Naandi Community Water
Safaigiri Community Mobiliser PB Salim
Safaigiri Cleanest Park Award Rock Garden, Chandigarh (Vijay Dev, Adviser to Chandigarh
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• A Saudi blogger who has been jailed and flogged for insulting Muslim clerics was
awarded a major free-speech prize on 6 Oct.
• Raif Badawi shares the PEN Pinter Prize with British poet James Fenton.
• Badawi is serving a 10-year sentence after being convicted of insulting Islam and
breaking Saudi Arabia’s technology laws with his liberal blog.
Among 27 leaders four Indian-origin professionals in Canada have been selected for a fellowship
for a Toronto-based firm CivicAction that hires civic leaders to tackle socio-economic and
environmental issues.
PROFILE OF SELECTED INDIAN CANDIDATES
• Anita Abraham, Ritesh Kotak, Mrinalini Menon and Pam Sethi
Raif Badawi who was sentenced with 1000 lashes in 2014 with 10 years of prison and fined more
than $250,000 has honoured as the co-winner of PEN Printer Prize. He shared prize with British
poet and literary critic James Fenton (former Oxford University professor).
• Badawi also named as the 2015 International Writer of Courage Award.
• Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales accepted the award on the behalf of Badawi.
• Badawi was arrested in 2012 on the charge of setting up a blog called the Saudi
Arabian Free Liberals Forum which advocated free speech and insults Islam. In 2013
he was sentenced for 7 years and 600 lashes then in 2014 he was again resentenced.
Indian firm Nualgi won Popular Choice Award at Climate CoLab of MIT
Popular Choice Award at Climate CoLab of MIT cambridge was won by an Indian company named
Nualgi in the field of nanotechnology.
Proposal made by Nualgi to win the Award :
• To reduce power and fuel consumption for sewage treatment and reuse of water built
around their nano-scale product called Nualgi
• Nualgi invented by T. Sampath Kumar of Bangalore. Nualgi is used to grow diatom
algae in all types and volumes of water, from aquariums to oceans.
Academy and Oscar Award-winning music composer 48 years old AR Rahman will be bestowed
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with the 5th Hridaynath Mangeshkar Award in Mumbai on October 26, the birth anniversary
of Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar, the late younger brother of legendary playback singers Lata
Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle.The award will presented by veteran by Subhash Ghai
Kerala Govt has honoured filmmaker I V Sasi (Irruppam Veedu Sasidaran) with its J C Daniel
award for his contributions Malayalam Cinema.
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has acquired ISO 9001:2008 certificate from the CMD of
Indian Register Quality Systems (IRQS) for monitoring, planning, development and
maintenance of highway Infrastructure and road transport throughout the country. With this
certification Ministry of Road Transport and Highways becomes the first largest ministry
to achieve this distinction.
• The ISO certificate will be applicable to all wings of the Road Transport and
Highways ministry at headquarter in New Delhi.
• This achievement is backed by decentralised power structure and transparent decision
making process.
Tamil Nadu government has bestowed Dr Shanthi Ranganathan with “Avvaiyaar Award
2015”for recognising her 33 years of contribution in rehabilitating persons addicted to
alcohol and helping their families.
• The award was presented by TN CM J Jayalalithaa and was consisted of cash reward of
Rs one lakh, 8 gm gold medal and a certificate.
Vishnudas Bhave Award Winner – Noted marathi Actor.The award will be given on 5th
November 2015 on the eve of Marathi Rangbhumi Din
Honoured for : His outstanding contribution to Marathi theatre
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An 18-year-old Indian boy named Ramkumar Raman in the UAE has been recognised by
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA),as the youngest affiliate ever
registered with them.He is originally from Chennai India.Generally ACCA candidates will start
their journey at the age of 18.
Finance Minister of the year ,Asia award winner – Arun Jaitley (Finance Minister)
Award given by : London based publication Emerging Markets.
Emerging Markets is part of Euromoney Institutional Investor plc, one of the largest providers of
financial information worldwide.
• RBI governor Raghuram Rajan recognised as the Central Bank Governor of the
Year award for Asia 2014 by the Emerging Markets.
• The magazine also chosen Arun Jaitley as Finance Minister of the Year, Asia’ in 2010.
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(KIWEFF)elephant specialist Parbati Barua has been honoured with lifetime achievement
award for her stupendous contribution in wildlife conservation.
• The “Forest Man of India” Jadav Payeng who created a complete forest in a small
island on the river Brahmaputra was honoured with “Desham Save the Tiger Award”
• Industrialist and wildlife filmmaker Navin M Raheja and “Green Oscar” winner Ashwika
Kapur also appreciated for their contribution towards wildlife conservation.
Bharti Airtel wins Asia top treasury team award for 2015
• The Bharti Airtel has been awarded as the winner of the top treasury team(Asia)
awards at the Adam Smith Asia Awards 2015.
• Overall winner of the Adam Smith Asia Award 2015 in the first class relationship
management category – Bharti Airtel’s Treasury Division.
Golden Peacock Global Award for Sustainability (GPGAS) 2015 awarded to steel major Tata
Steel by the Institute of Directors, India.
• The award was received by Bimlendra Jha (Executive Chairman, Longs Steel UK
Limited and Executive Director, Group Strategy and European Supply Chain, Tata Steel
Europe)
• Awardee has been chosen by the expert jury of Golden Peacock Awards, under the
chairmanship of Justice M N Venkatachaliah, former Chief Justice, Supreme Court of
India
India has overtaken Israel and become the third largest startup after the U.S. and the
U.K.India has registered a growth of 40% over last year.
• India has also emerged as the yougest startup nation in the world.In India 72% of founders
are less than 35 years old.
• Bengaluru ranked 15th globally, remains the hot destination for entrepreneurs to launch
their business
Being a leader in league goal scoring charts of season 2014-15, the 30 years old Cristiano
Ronaldo was awarded the European Golden Boot in Madrid.
Breaking the 47 years history record by winning it 4th time Ronaldo earlier bagged this
achievement in 2007-08 with Manchester United, 2010-11 and 2013-14 with Real Madrid.
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Harvard University’s distinguished Humanitarian of the Year Award has been conferred to
Indian Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi. He has been bestowed with this award for
championing the cause of child reform and ending all forms of violence against children.
King Khan of bollywood Shah Rukh Khan (49) has been bestowed with an honorary degree from
the University Of Edinburgh, Scotland for his contribution to film and his philanthropic work.
• Degree of Doctor Honoris Causa was presented by University Chancellor HRH The
Princess Royal.
According to the survey conducted by Railway and Transport Strategic (RTSC) Delhi Metro Rail
Corporation (DMRC) has been ranked first in“information during travel” and holds second
position in “train cleanliness and comfort”.
• It was conducted on the basis international standards EN 13816 (a European survey
system used widely to assess the performance of the public transportation systems in
Europe) by RTSC which manages the ‘NOVA’ and ‘CoMET’ benchmarking groups of Metro
networks.
Asian Cricket Awards has bestowed its Lifetime Achievement award to London based NRI
journalist Mihir Bose, in a ceremony at Lord’s Ground in London for his contribution to cricket
journalism.
• Bose is a writer and broadcaster and was born in Kolkata
• Acclaimed books such as The Spirit of the Game and A History of Indian
Cricket were written by him.
Mumbai headquartered Bank of Baroda has bestowed poet, lyricist and advertising
guru Prasoon Joshi with Maharaja Sayajirao Bhasha Samman for his outstanding
contribution in promoting Hindi.
• The award is presented in the memory of Bank of Baroda’s founder Maharaja
Sayajirao Gaekwad-III which is presented with a Cheque of Rs. 1.01 lac and
amemento as token of the award
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University of Connecticut awarded the 42nd U.S. President Bill Clinton with Thomas J. Dodd
Prize in International Justice and Human Rights.
• Award consists of $75,000, a diploma and a commemorative bronze bust of Thomas J.
Dodd.
• He has shared the prize with Tostan who is Senegal-based human rights group that
promotes literacy and community engagement in mostly rural areas of Africa
India’s “An Old Dog’s Diary” wins award at London Film Festival
• 2015 London Film Festival (LFF) Best short film Award – An Old Dog’s Diary (Indian
Short F ilm)directed by Shai Heredia and Shumona Goel.
• This short film is all about a portrait of Indian avant-garde painter Francis Newton Souza,
revealing the cultural conditions for his work and its eventual institutionalisation.
Model-actress Urvashi Rautela (21) from Uttarakhand has been crowned with Yamaha Fascino
Miss Diva 2015. Now she will represent India at the Miss Universe 2015 pageant.
Show Host – Cyrus Sahukar
• Natasha Assadi from Bangalore was crowned 1st runner up while Naveli Deshmukh from
Aurangabad was declared 2nd runners-up.
• Urvashi was crowned the winner of the Miss Universe India title in 2012 but was replaced
because she didn’t meet the age requirement.
Noted criminologist K Chockalingam has been conferred with the Paul H Appleby
Award for his distinguished services to public administration and his service in IIPA
institute.
• The award by IIPA is a tribute to Paul Apple by, a noted author of works in the field of
public administration and helped in developing the vision of the institute in the early years
of its founding.
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G P Hinduja and his brother S P Hinduja (London based NRI Businessmen) judged as the
second most influential Asians in Britain in the GG2 Power 101 list compiled by the Asian
Media and Marketing Group (AMG).
• UK Business Secretary Sajid Javid is in the first position.He is described as the determined
youngman as he maintained his top position in the list .
• The third position is held by the Britians Indian -origin Minister Priti Patel followed by the
steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal
• Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai is also included in the list at the 10th
position.And also she is the youngest entry in the list.
Kerala’s Thekkady has been named as the “world’s top emerging destination” in the
inaugural Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) CEO Challenge 2015 in Bangkok.
• Thekkady has been conferred with Top Destination Award in the category of Second and
Third Tier Cities.
• Whereas the province of Albay, Philippines has been awarded the Top Destination Award in
the category of Regions/States/Provinces.
South Korea’s Seong-Jin Cho (21) has won the prestigious 17th international Frederic Chopin
piano competition in the Polish capital, Warsaw. He was followed by Charles Richard-Hamelin of
Canada and the third prize winner was Kate Liu of the United States.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe awarded 2015 Confucius Peace Prize by China
2015 Confucius Peace Prize by China Award Winner – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe
Awarded for : His inspirational leadership and service to pan-Africanism and African
independence.And also for his efforts to overcome difficulties of all kinds and his commitments for
constructing his nation’s political and economic order.
• This award is dubbed as China’s Nobel peace prize.
• President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi
Fellowships and Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards for the year 2014 at a function held
at Rashtrapati Bhavan to recognize the achievements of performing artists as well as
teachers and scholars in the field of performing.
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The first ever National Indian Arts Awards has been established by the UK’s Indian arts
development trustMilapfest to recognise the dedication of arts professionals working in the
field of Indian arts and to celebrate the hard work and passion of young artists.
• The award ceremony was held at The Nehru Centre, London.The awards were presented
by Indian High Commissioner to the UK Ranjan Mathai.
• Award supporters – Arts Council England
Here are the names of winners:
• Winner of Lifetime Achievement Award : Dr M N Nandakumara (Executive Director of
the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, London)
• Winner of Sangeet Acharya Ratna Award (Teacher of the Year- Music) :Sivasakthi
Sivanesan (Resident Carnatic Music Teacher)
• Winner of Nritya Acharya Ratna (Teacher of the Dance) :Pushkala Gopal
• Winner of Yuva Ratna Award – Young Musician of the Year :Yarlinie
Thanabalasingham
• Winner of Yuva Ratna Award – Young Dancer of the Year : Parbati Chaudhury
• Tarang Musician of the year :Jasdeep Singh Degun
• Samyo Musician of the Year :Sanjuran Keerthikumar
An Indian national Easwari Shellaiah (47) working in Singapore as maid has been awarded by
Asian Women’s Welfare Association (AWWA) for her dedicated service to bed-ridden
employer.
• Easwari helped her employer Madam Kalaiselvi (53), who suffered a stroke in 2011,
cheering her up, carrying her from bed to wheelchair helping her to the toilet and taking
her thrice a week to AWWA Readycare Centre.
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Angry Indian Goddesses bagged People’s Choice Award at Rome Film Festival
Director Pan Nalin’s film “Angry Indian Goddesses” bagged BNL People’s Choice Award at
the 10th Rome Film Festival.
Anita Adalja who is a social worker then merged her career with farming is among 12
individuals who will be recognised as White House Champions of Change for sustainable
and climate-smart agriculture at an event in the US.
• A social worker by training, Adalja has previously farmed at One Woman Farm in
Gibsonia, Pa, and was the farm manager for Common Good City Farm in Washington.
• The Champions have helped implement agricultural practices that promote soil health
and energy efficiency, improve water quality, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Social activist and founder of ‘Sulabh International’ Bindeshwar Pathak was selected for a top
US humanitarian award for his contribution to sanitation and enhancing the quality of life for
millions of manual scavengers.
• The New York Global Leaders Dialogue Humanitarian Award will be presented to Pathak
on April 12, 2016 in New York.
Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) were selected as
the best hospitals by the British Medical Journal(BMJ) for having the best medicine experts in
South Asia.
Other hospitals chosen for the BMJ award 2015 :
• Kochi’s Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences.
• Pune based Chest Research Foundation and and Postgraduate Institute of Medical
Education and Research ( PGIMER) of Chandigarh.
Mr. Oliver Blume (47) appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Volkswagen’s
Porsche. The decision has been taken by the Porsche supervisory board.
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Rajiv Lall taken over as the MD & CEO of IDFC Bank after the Board of IDFC Ltd accepted his
resignation as Executive Chairman of the company with effect from September 30, 2015
• On 1st October 2015 IDFC started its operations as full bloom bank with 23 branches out
of which 15 are opened in 3 districts of Madhya Pradesh.
• IDFC headquarters – Mumbai
On the other hand Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has certified this newly born bank with
its BBB – long-term and A-3 – short-term credit ratings which represent company’s sound
capitalisation and earnings, strong management, and satisfactory business stability.
• State-run transmission utility Power Grid today said its Director (Projects) I S Jha has
taken over the additional charge of Chairman & Managing Director of the company.
• PowerGrid’s Director (Projects) I S Jha has taken over additional charge of Chairman &
Managing Director of the company with effect from 1.10.2015.
Chairman of the food regulator FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) Ashish
Bahuguna has been given an additional charge of its CEO as a successor of Yudhvir Singh
Malik who shifted to Niti Aayog as its Additional Secretary. Bhauguna will continue as CEO till
the new appointment.
Former Unilever executive Sriram Venkataraman has designated as the ecommerce giant
Flipkart’s Chief Financial officer (CFO) for its commerce platform along with Pramod Jain of
Indus Towers Limited as Vice President and Head of Taxation.
Ajay Sharma designated as UK’s ambassador to Qatar
Indian-origin diplomat Ajay Sharma is appointed as the new British Ambassador to Qatar who
will succeed Nicholas Hopton who transferred to another post. He will practice his new charge
in November.
Mahindra Intertrade Ltd (MIL) leadership team Sumit Issar has been appointed as the
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new Managing Director of MIL and Mahindra Steel Service Centre Limited (MSSCL) as a
succeedor of Harsh Kumar who was bow out last month.
Chirping Twitter designated the Jack Dorsey as its permanent chief executive after a 3 months
search. As a CEO with twitter will be his second stint as he was the co-founder of Twitter and
was named as its CEO in the start. Now also the BOD is convinced with quality of Dorsey that he
can pull out the company from financial losses
47 years old iGate CEO Ashok Vemuri has resigned the US-based company in months after it
was acquired by French IT major Capgemini. Now finance chief of iGate Sujit Sircar designated
as interim CEO.
Flag Officer Submarines Rear Admiral SV Bhokare designated as the Eastern Fleet Commander.
He will succeed Rear Admiral AB Singh who will now assume duties at HQ Strategic Forces
Command.
• Eastern Fleet consists of 30 warships including Destroyers, Stealth Frigates,
Amphibious Ships, Anti-Submarine Warfare Corvette, Missile Corvettes, Offshore Patrol
Vessels, Missile Boats and Tankers.
Man Mohan Bhanot Senior Deputy Secretary in the finance division of External Affairs Ministry
has been designated as the India’s next ambassador to the Syrian Arab Republic.
• He will succeed S.R. Meena, the current Charge d’ Affaires of the Indian embassy in
Damascus, Syria
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has designated South Korean Hoesung Lee
as its fourth chairman during the 42nd session of IPCC summit in Dubrovnik, Croatia. He was
elected by 78 votes. Earlier also he was involved with IPCC like in the Second Assessment Report
of 1992 he Co-Chair Working Group III.
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• He will succeed Indian Rajendra Pachauri who resigned in February facing allegations
of sexual harassment.
48 years old Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman full name Allah-Rakha Rahman has been
named the Cultural Ambassador for Seychelles for giving contribution in the enhancement of
Seychelles’ Art and Development.
• Rahman has won two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA
Award and a Golden Globe besides the national recognition.
• In 2014 He was also awarded an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of
Music.
“Diesel Dupe” German Car Company Volkswagen has appointed Chief Financial Officer
(CFO) Hans Dieter Poetsch as a chairman of Board of Directors. He will replace Ferdinand
Piech who resigned in April.
• Frank Witter will succeed his CFO position who was a former CEO of the Volkswagen
Financial Services unit.
30 years old Bollywood Actor Sidharth Malhotra was designated as Tourism New Zealand’s
ambassador for India and with this recognition he became the New Zealand’s first Indian
ambassador from India.
1982 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre Girish Shankar has appointed as the Secretary of the
Department of Official Language under Home Ministry.
• Currently Mr. Shankar is serving as Additional Secretary in the Tourism Ministry.
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According to an order issued by the Finance Ministry, Capital market regulator SEBI has appointed
corporate affairs secretary Tapan Ray to its board. He will succeed Anjuly Chib Duggal.
The 8 member board of SEBI also includes nominees from Finance Ministry and RBI.
As per Department of Personnel and Training Acclaimed scientist Shekhar Basu designated
as atomic Energy Secretary and Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission till September
19, 2016. He will succeed RK Sinha.
• From 2012 Mr. Basu is serving Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and chief executive
of the Nuclear Recycle Board (NRB)
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Infosys head of Global HR – Krish Shankar(Head of human resources at Philips India Ltd)
On 12th October 2015 Rear Admiral Ravneet Singh assumed command of the ‘Sword Arm’ of the
Indian Navy as the Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet (FOCWF) at sea on board INS Viraat.
On 12th October 2015 Alkesh Sharma (IAS Officer)was appointed as the CEO and MD of DMICDC.
• DMICDC – Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation
• Developing new industrial cities as smart cities by combining next generation
technologies across the infrastructure sectors is the aim of Delhi Mumbai Industrial
Corridor.
PS Jayakumar has been designated as managing director (MD) and CEO of Bank of Baroda
(BoB) headquartered at Mumbai.He is taking up his new assignment when the bank is struggling
with worst situation of an alleged fraud and black money transactions worth over Rs 6,000 crore.
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Udai Kumar is designated as the interim Chief Executive and Managing Director of
Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India Ltd. as a succeedor of Saurabh Sarkar who resigned
from MSEI to look for better opportunities. Udai Kumar is the managing director of Metropolitan
Clearing Corporation of India Ltd (MCCIL) formerly known as MCX-SX Clearing Corporation Ltd
(MCX-SXCCL).
(MSEI Chairman – Thomas Mathew T)
On 12th October 2015 Jioji Konousi Konrote(the minister for employment, productivity and
industrial relations) elected as the President of Fiji.The elected President got 31 Votes.
Chirping Twitter appointed erstwhile Google executive Omid Kordestani as its executive
chairman. His appointed boosted up the social media company’s share with 1% to $29.36.
• Kordestani, who hold a master degree in business administration from Stanford
University
• In 1999 he joined Google as its 11th employee and after serving 10 years of service he
became senior adviser at Google
• Earlier Jack Dorsey was appointed as the Twitter’s CEO.
Kundhavi Kadiresan has been appointed as the Assistant Director-General of UN FAO and
Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific. She will succeed Hiroyuki Konuma who
bowed out this year.
Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) has been designated M K Surana as its new Chairman
and Managing Director who is currently serving Prize Petroleum Co Ltd as its CEO. He will succeed
Nishi Vasudeva.
• Surana has been selected by Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) through interview
round.
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Riva Ganguly Das appointed as the next ambassador of India to the Republic of Albania
and the Republic of Moldova
Currently serving on the post of Indian Ambassador to Romania Ms. Riva Ganguly Das has been
concurrently accredited as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Albania and the
Republic of Moldova, with residence in Bucharest (Romania).
Currently serving as the High Commissioner of lndia to the Republic of Kenya Ms. Suchitra
Durai has been accredited as the next Ambassador of lndia to the State of Eritrea. She will
take up her new position shortly.
All India Football Federation has designated former India Football Team captain and Padma
Shri awardee Bhaichung Bhutia as the advisor for “overall issues of the game and the
Federation”.India was ranked at 167th position in the FIFA rankings last month
Hyderabad located Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) has been
designated Dr Giriraj Ratan Chandak to the post of Director.
Mumbai headquartered Realty portal Housing.Com has designated Mani Rangarajan as its
Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) has been appointed Leo Puri of UTI AMC* as its
new Chairman. He will succeed Sundeep Sikka.
• A.Balasubramanian will continue on the position of Vice-Chairman as he did not met the
expectations (As per promotion hierarchy vice-chairman is promoted to chairman)
Chief Financial Officer of Porsche SE Hans Dieter Poetsch is designated as the chairman of the
VW supervisory board. He will succeed Martin Winterkorn from November 1, 2015.
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• Winterkorn resigned as CEO of German carmaker after the “Diesel Dupe” scandal
when the group admitted cheating in diesel emissions tests in the United States.
Maharashtra Govt designated Shreehari Aney as the Advocate General of the state. He will
succeed Sunil Manohar who resigned his position due to personal issues.After Sunil Manohar
resigned Additional Solicitor General of India Anil Singh was then given the additional charge of
AG.
Shri Gurjit Singh presently Ambassador of lndia to Indonesia, has been appointed as the next
Ambassador of lndia to the Federal Republic of Germany. He is expected to take up his
assignment shortly.
Newly established constitution of Nepal has elected Parliament unanimously elected UCPN-Maoist
lawmaker Onsari Gharti Magar (37) as the Speaker of the House.
Fertiliser firm MCFL appointed Arun Duggal as its Chairman. He will succeed Vijay Mallya
resigned the company last year.
• The company also said that N Suresh Krishnan will be the new Managing Director
effective January Its board of directors approved “Arun Duggal, Independent Director as
Chairman of the board of Directors during his tenure as Director,” the filing added.
• Duggal is also the Non-Executive Chairman and an Independent Director of ICRA. He is
also on the board ITC, Jubilant Energy, Netherlands (Chairman Audit Committee) and Dish
TV.
Senior IAS officer Shaktikanta Das (58) has been appointed by the Finance ministry as its
nominee on the market regulator’s board.
• Finance ministry is represented by joint secretary in-charge of capital markets on the
board and Shaktikanta Das is at present the secretary in the Department of Economic
Affairs.
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• Hasmukh Adhia, a 1981 batch IAS office taken over as the Revenue Secretary
Justin Trudeau became Canada’s 23rd Prime Minister after his Liberal Party won a majority of
Parliament’s 338 seats. He will succeed Stephen Harper, one of the longest serving western
leaders (2006-2015).
• He has served as the Liberal Party’s critic for Youth and Multiculturalism, Citizenship and
Immigration, and Post-Secondary Education, Youth and Amateur Sport.
Shri S. K. Ashok Warrier, presently in the Ministry, has been appointed as the next Ambassador
of India to the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is expected to take up his assignment shortly.
Veteran sports administrator Vijay Kumar Malhotra has been designated as the head of the All
India Council of Sports.
Erstwhile Delhi High Court judge Justice Reva Khetrapal (63) has been designated as the 4th
Lokayukta or anti-graft ombudsman of the state which was remained vacant since
Tyre manufacturing Madras Rubber Factory Limited (MRF) appointed South African batsman
Abraham Benjamin de Villiers (31) as its brand ambassador. He will endorse the company’s
products and services for 3 years through advertising campaigns and promotional programmes.
Titan’s Managing Director Bhaskar Bhat has been appointed as the Additional Director in the
board of Tata Chemicals.Tata Chemicals also appointed John Mulhall as its Chief Financial
Officer.
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Jasper Infotech, which owns and operates online marketplace Snapdeal.com is set to hire
the current chief financial officer of mobile network operator Aircel Anup Vikal as its new
finance head. He will succeed Aakash Moondhra.
E-commerce firm Flipkart has designated Samardeep Subandh as its chief marketing
officer where he will be responsible for gaining deeper customer insights, raising the level of
customer centricity and driving high level of creativity and quality in all communication.
Cloud based customer support software firm Freshdesk has appointed LinkedIn India’s Managing
Director Nishant Rao, as its Chief Operating Officer. He will take up his position in November
2015.
Delhi based, the 5 member body, National Commission for Women (NCW) has been
appointed Former Water Resources Secretary Alok Rawat as its first male member by filling its
4th seat.
Padma Shri awardee Dr. Sekhar Basu appointed as the Chairman, Atomic Energy
Commission and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy in Mumbai. He will succeed Dr. Ratan
Kumar Sinha.
The finance ministry is going to nominate Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das to the
board of Reserve Bank of India which shows an ease in the relationship of RBI and Finmin.
Few months back when Additional Secretary Ajay Tyagi was appointed to the board in place of
then Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi has raised eyebrows in the relationship between two
bodies.
Drug major Lupin has appointed Fabrice Egros as President, Asia Pacific and Japan. He will
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be based in Tokyo and will be responsible for Lupin’s growth and development across Japan,
Australia, the Philippines, South East Asia and ASEAN region.
U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Brett McGurk as his new envoy to the coalition
fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.
Jimmy Morales, a television comedian with no political experience and no real policy platform,
won with 67 % during Presidential elections of Guatemala.He has defeated Sandra Torres, 59,
who won less than 33% of votes.
Mumbai-headquartered Drug major Lupin has designated Martin Mercer as President of its Latin
American business. He will be responsible for company’s Latin American business including the
overall strategy for its generics and specialty business in Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and
Argentina.
BlackBerry day appointed Narendra Nayak as the Managing Director of its India operations
Narendra Nayak replaces Sunil Lalvani, who had quit the organisation in June.He will also be
responsible for BlackBerry’s growing ecosystem of indirect channels in India that includes Value-
Added Reseller (VAR), systems integrator and reseller partners.
Ms Bidhya Devi Bhandari, who is serving as the vice-chair of the ruling Communist Party of
Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), defeated Kul Bahadur Gurung of the Nepali Congress by securing
327 to 214 votes. With this she become the first female President of Nepal.The results were
announced by Nepal Parliament Speaker Onsari Gharti.
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State Bank of India has designated P K Gupta as MD for period of four years(March 2020) in
place of Corporate Banking head P Pradeep Kumar. He was of DMD(Deputy Managing Director)
rank, is currently Managing Director of the bank’s investment banking arm SBI Caps.
• The other three serving MDs at SBI are B Sriram(national banking group), V G Kannan(
associates and subsidiaries) and Rajnish Kumar(compliance and risk).
Capgemini’s Aruna Jayanthi gets global role, Srinivas Kandula is India head
The new appointments is being put in place following the completion of Capgemini’s $4-billion
acquisition of Igate.
• Aruna Jayanthi has been elevated as the global BPO head of the 11-billion euro
French IT company.
• Former Igate HR head Srinivas Kandula has replaced Jayanthi as Capgemini India
CEO. Ashwin Yardi, head of Apps One for Capgemini, has been appointed the COO of
the Indian operations.
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John Pombe Magufuli, won the election to become Tanzania’s next president and defeated
his rival ex-Prime Minister Edward Lowassa. Never the insider of governingChama Cha Mapinduzi
(CCM) party cadre, amazed his arbiters. He became known as “The Bulldozer” for pushing a
programme to build roads.
SpiceJet’s Chief Operating Officer Sanjiv Kapoor put down his papers before the expiry of his
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employment contract. His original tenure was to run until November 2016. His resignation comes
ten months after original promoter Ajay Singh took over the ownership of airline.
On 12th October 2015 World’s first miniature satellite OCSD CubeSat spacecraft was launched
aboard an Atlas V rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base In California.
• A group of six mini satellites are there in OCSD spacecraft which helps in the areas of
research,technology demonstration and educational programmes.
Australia launches its communications satellite named “Sky Muster (NBN-Co 1A)”on Ariane
5ECA rocket from Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana which is aimed to provide
high speed internet facilities to Australian Nation. It is operated by National Broadband
Network (NBN) which will cover the isolated areas also.NICKNAMED – “great hope” which
signals to Australia’s broadband network
“Perjeta” and “Kadcyla” are the two drugs launched by the swiss pharma company Roche in
India that has improved the quality of life of patients suffering from metastatic HER2-positive
breast cancer.
• Company aims to help women in India live as long as possible
An international team of scientists have created the world’s largest catalogue of genomic
differences among humans that will give suggestion to query why some people are open to
various diseases.
• Difference in people’s genomes is called variants which are of two types. Some are
beneficial while the others lead to diseases like cognitive disabilities, vulnerable to cancer,
obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other disorders.
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The world’s highest terrestrial centre labelled as “Extreme Altitude Research Centre” has been
inaugurated by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief S
Christopher at its habitat in Chang La near Pengong Lake in Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir.
• It has been established by Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR) in Leh,
which is one the 52 laboratories of DRDO
• It is instituted at 17,600 feet above sea level and is 75 Km away from leh town.
Indian Navy introduced its first indigenously-designed and built torpedo and recovery vesselINS
Astradharani. It was commissioned by Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command Vice
Admiral Satish Soni in Visakhapatnam.
• It is a succeedor of INS Astravahini with technological advancements like power
generation, distribution, navigation and communication systems.
• INS Astravahini was decommissioned in July, 2015.
• China launched four satellites on 7th Oct for commercial remote-sensing services, an
important step in the development of remote-sensing space technology.
• The “Jilin-1” satellites, launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in
China’s Gansu province, include one optical remote-sensing satellite, two satellites for
video imaging and another for imaging technique testing
• In a major finding, the first colour images of Pluto’s atmospheric hazes beamed by
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft show that the icy-dwarf planet has blue skies
similar to Earth and frozen water on its surface.
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An app launched by the Google India for the easiest public transport of New Delhi.This
app will help users to get directions for transportation, easily even when the connection is slow
and data is difficult to access.
• Its the first time google is targeting a specific city.It is currently available with Android
only.And it is called as Delhi Public Transport Offline app.
• The first Indian space observatory spotted the Crab Nebula using the Cadmium Zinc
Telluride Imager (CZTI) instrument.
• The Crab Nebula – The brightest hard X-ray (highest energy X-ray) source in the sky
• ASTROSAT also spotted and viewed Cygnus X-1, a black hole source, for two days.
A mobile app will be launched by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in
December.By using this app people can make complaints against rash driving ,overspeed and
other similar acts.NHAI is also working with bulding up a complete information of data bank of all
the high ways called as Road Asset Management System (RAMS)
In accordance with the 3rd Quarter 2015(at the end of September) report of web analytics and
statistics firm StatCounter Alibaba’s browser UC is influencing the Indian market with 51%
share.In case of PCs Google’s Chrome is in lead with 67.85% with continuous growth meanwhile
Firefox and Internet Explorer (IE) are facing move down.
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• This is a mobile based application which gives information to people about all Indian
customs rules including those related to import of pets and goods.
• Developer of the App – Nihit Mohan Johari
On 11th october 2015 a new generation of surface to surface ballistic missile called
Emad(Pillar)was test fired by Iran.This is the Iran’s first long range precision guided missile.
Emad is a technological achievement for Iran – able to be controlled until the moment of impact
and to hit targets
Environment
200 New Species Discovered in Himalayas
As per the report by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) 200 new species discovered in the Eastern
Himalayas which includes 133 plants, 26 species of fish, 10 new amphibians, one reptile, one
bird and one mammal.
KEY DISCOVERIES
• Snub-nosed monkey that sneezes when it rains
• Vibrant blue dwarf “walking” snakehead fish which can breathe atmospheric air and
survive on land for up to four days
• Striking blue-eyed frog
• Lance-headed pit viper snake with an ornate yellow, red and orange pattern
• Fresh-water “dracula” fish with fangs
• Three new types of bananas.
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• The reserve would be set up in the Hooghly River between Malda and Sundarbans as per
provisions of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
Northern Philippines smashed by Typhoon Koppu which have affected the lives of more than
16,000 people.
• The eye of Koppu pounded remote coastal town of Casiguran by
covering 215km northeast of Manila with a storm speed of 210 km/h
• Philippines is hit by this stormy calamity each year with an average of 20 storms
• In 2013 Typhoon Haiyan destroyed entire towns in the central islands leaving more than
7,350 people dead or missing.
• A massive earthquake of 7.5 magnitude on the Richter scale, with the epicentre in the
Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan, rocked the northern Indian subcontinent on
26th Oct, 2015.
• Tremors from this earthquake were felt in northern India and Tajikistan.
China launches Tianhui-1C mapping satellite of Tianhui-1
China launched its third mapping satellite of the Tianhui-1 series into orbit from
the Jiuquan launching base located in the country’s northwestern Gansu province.
A newly-installed tsunami early warning system siren was successfully tested after the 11 years
Test Location : Mumbai by Captain KLV Prabhakaran for the Regional Meteorological Command.
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• This system was installed at the Meteorology Office of Western Naval Command by Indian
National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), an autonomous organisation
under the Ministry of Earth & Sciences (MoES), Government of India.
Russia is planning to launch its first manned lunar mission by 2029, Vladimir Solntsev, head
of Roscomsos(The Russian Federal Space Agency) Energia consortium, announced. It would
build a spacecraft, specifically for lunar missions.
China’s first lunar rover Yutu sets record for longest stay on Moon
As per Chinese lunar probe scientist, China’s first lunar rover, Yutu, has been operating on the
moon for almost two years, setting a record for the longest stay by a rover and it has been
working on the Moon for almost two years.
• Yutu was disposed and docked on the moon by China’s Chang’e-3 lunar probe in 2013,
staying longer than the Soviet Union’s 1970 moon rover Lunokhod 1, which spent 11 months
on the moon.
Facebook has partnered state owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to create 100 Wi-Fi
hotspots in rural India to drive digital penetration in the country.Facebook is investing Rs 5 crore
per annum for buying bandwidth from BSNL.
Sports
8th Asian Air Gun Championship – An Overview
The National Rifle Association of India has organised 8th Asian Air Gun Championship in New
Delhi from 25th September to 1 October 2015.
VENUE : Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range, New Delhi
WINNER COUNTRIES
1. India won a medal tally of 17 medals, including 6 gold and bagged the top position in the
continental event
2. India is followed by Iran at the second place with 12 medals including six gold and five
silver medals,
3. Taipei at third place with one gold and two silver
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WINNER CANDIDATES
10m AIR PISTOL WOMEN FINAL RESULTS 10m AIR PISTOL MEN FINAL
Name Country Medal Name Coun Medal
Heena Sidhu India Gold Sepehr Boroujeni Iran Gold
Shweta Singh India Silver Gurpreet Singh India Silver
Seon A Kim Korea Bronze Jitu Rai India Bronze
10m AIR RIFLE WOMEN FINAL RESULTS 10m AIR RIFLE MEN FINAL
Name Country Medal Name Country Medal
Jasmine Wei Xian Ser Singapore Gold Abhinav India Gold
Elaheh Ahmadi Iran Silver Yuriy Kazakhstan Silver
Ayonika Paul India Bronze Jaechul Korea Bronze
Some changes have been done in the in the October edition of the FIFA World Ranking by
taking in account of the result of 149 international matches
• While Argentina remained as a top star the World Cup champion Germany has also
regained its position to second place in the FIFA rankings.
• Belgium is ranked at third position followed by Portugal and Colombia.
• Austria is also bagged its first ever higher ranking at No. 11
• The biggest move up is of Liberia which laddered 65 places and reached at No. 95.
India is going to be the host of combined shotgun/rifle/pistol World Cup in 2017 and if event
will get successful then NRAI (National Rifle Association of India) will get eligible for bidding to
host the 2018 combined World Championship which is having a 70 quota places for 2020 Olympic
Games.
In the 2015 Commonwealth Youth, Junior & Senior weightlifting championships Punam Yadav
(63kg) won the gold medals for India in the woman categories of both senior and junior
Weightlifting G Lalitha won the silver medal in 63kg Youth Girls section.
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The Indian women’s cricket team stands fourth in the latest ICC team rankings with the
new innovative multi-format system brought into place.
• Australia are ranked number one following its success in the ICC Women’s World Cup
2013 in India.
• England are ranked second in the 10-team table, 10 points behind Australia, followed
by New Zealand (109), India (105), West Indies (99), South Africa (92), Pakistan (81),
Sri Lanka (74), Bangladesh (57) and Ireland (26).
Sarita Devi completes ban
Boxer Sarita Devi, who completed her one-year ban on Wednesday, is looking forward to
resuming her international career.
• On the commemoration of Mahatama Gandhi’s 146th birth anniversary, the BCCI (Board
of Control for Cricket in India) launched a 20 grams gold-plated sterling silver toss
coin with the images of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela for the India-South Africa
cricket series.
• The coin is launched by the BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur along with the Indian
captains MS Dhoni and South African captain Faf du Plessis at the start of the first
T20I match at Dharamshala
Sania-Hingis pair clinched Wuhan open title
Ace iconic partnership of Indian star Sania Mirza and Swiss Martina Hingis grasped
theirseventh title by bagging the Wuhan Open women’s doubles trophy by defeating the pair
of Romanian team of Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu 6-2, 6-3 in the title clash
in Wuhan, China.
34 year old Portuguese Lawyer turned rider Luis Leao Pinto have won the 11th Hero MTB
Himalayan Edition 2015, a 600 km long 7- stage race, for the second time with a timing of
27:29:22. The race was ended at Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. Earlier he was crowned with this title
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in 2013. He was followed by Andi Seewald of Germany at second and Pau Zamora of Spain
at third position.
35 years old American Venus Williams took the crown at the Wuhan Open which is her biggest
win since 2010 when Garbine Muguruza bows out in the second set. With this she won
the 47th title of her career.
China defeated Philippines by 78-67 thereby becoming the winner of 2015 FIBA Asian
Basketball
Championship at Changsha, Hunan, China. This tournament was the 28th continental basketball
championship in Asia.(FIBA – International Basketball Federation)
• With this China qualified for the basketball tournament on the 2016 Summer
Olympics in Rio, Brazil.
David Ferrer from Spain defeated his opponent fellow Feliciano Lopez by 7-5 7-5 in the final of
the Malaysian Open at Kuala Lumpur and bagged with a prize money of $US 170, 600.
• With this he clinched the 25th title of his career and fourth of this year by winning
Qatar, Rio and Mexico and Malaysian triumph
• Ferrer was playing the 50th ATP World Tour-level final of his career.
• In the final of men’s doubles Treat Huey from the Philippines and Henri Kontinen from
Finland won the tournament.
25 years old Russia’s Sergey Karjakin has won the chess World Cup by defeating his
opponent Peter Svidler by 6-4 in the final.
• With this both Karjakin and Svidler qualified for the Candidates tournament for the next
world championship that to be held next March. India’s Viswanathan Anand and the two
Americans Fabiana Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura are also qualified for world
championship.
Arjuna Award Winning Boxer Jai Bhagwan suspended for taking bribe
Jai Bhagwan, Olympian and Arjuna award-winning boxer and serving as an inspector
with Haryana Police has been suspended from his job for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs. 1
lakh from a businessman Mukesh Goyal of Adampur Mandi in Hisar district.
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Indian football team slumped to their fourth straight defeat losing 1-2 to Turkmenistan in the
2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers on October 8, 2015.
• India thus remained at the bottom of the Group D points table and now have virtually no
chance to even qualify for the Asian Cup by finishing third
The third and final T20 international between India and South Africa was abandoned without a
ball being bowled because of a wet outfield on October 9, 2015.
FIFA suspended President Sepp Blatter, VP Michel Platini and Secretary General Jerome
Valcke
The new manger of Liverpool Football Club is Jurgen Klopp.He replaces Brendan Rodgers
who was sacked after Liverpool’s draw with rivals Evert
20 years old Dheeraj Rangi Lightweight (60 kg) boxer bagged silver medal in the World
Military Games held at Mungyeong, South Korea. He was defeated by Algeria’s Yahia Abdelli
but became the only Indian boxer to be at second place in the games.
• In these games India won 4 medals in boxing out of which 3 are bronze and were
bagged by Mohammed Husamuddin,Devanshu Jaiswal and Narendra Berwal.
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Melbourne, Australia is going to be the host for the 2016 World Cup and the 2019 Presidents
Cup golf tournaments.
The Iconic women’s double pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis has clinched their 8th title
of the season by defeating Chinese pair of Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan in the China
Open final in Beijing.
The new tennis champion N Sriram Balaji bagged a wild card for the 2016 Delhi Open after
defeating Vishnu Vardhan with 7-5, 6-3 in the final of the Fenesta National Tennis
Championship in New Delhi.
With the super performance of 28 years old Shuttler Ajay jayaram India clinched two
international titles in Dutch Open Grand Prix in Almere, Netherlands.
• Ajay Jayaram defeated Estonia’s Raul Must men’s singles final by 21-12, 21-18 and
bagged the second title of his career.
• In Under-17 – Krishna and Satwik defeated Hau Leong and Fong Hau Sim of
Malaysia by 21-16, 21-15.
• While in Men’s doubles B. Sumeeth Reddy & Manu Attri were defeated by Andrew Ellis &
Peter Mills by 22-20, 19-21, 21-14.
On 11th October 2015 Punjab National Bank won the Beighton cup of Hockey by
defeating Indian Oil Corporation
• The best player award given to PNB goalkeeper Jasbir Singh and the Fairplay Trophy
was handed to Army XI.
2015 Russian Grand Prix title of Formula One was won by Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of
Britain.
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Men’s singles Novak Djokovic (Serbia) Rafael Nadal (Spain) 6–2, 6–2
Men’s Doubles Vasek Pospisil (Canada) Daniel Nestor (Canada) and 3–6 , 6–3
And Jack Sock (US) Edouard Roger-Vasselin(France)
Shweta Rathore became the first Indian female bodybuilder to win a silver medal in the
Women’s Fitness Physique category during 49th Asian Bodybuilding and Physique Championship
2015 held in Uzbekistan.
On 15th October 2015 Indian fast bowler Zaheer Khan announced the retirement from
International Cricket.Because his body ruined with injuries he couldn’t handle the rigours of the
game ,he bid adieu to the International Cricket.
Commonwealth Youth, Junior and Senior Weightlifting Championships were held at Pune,
Maharashtra from October 11-15. Indian team sparked its name by winning 5 categories out
of 6.
TOP POSITION CATEGORY : Senior men, senior women, junior men, junior women and youth
girl’s categories
RUNNER UP CATEGORY :Youth boy’s category where trophy was bagged by Sri Lankan team
WINNER LIST
NAME CATEGORY
S Sathish Kumar Senior men (77 Kg)
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21st edition of Fenesta Open National Tennis championship in New Delhi from 5th –
17thOctober has shown the triumphant of Nitin K Sinha and Sabhyata Nihalani.
UNDER – 16 TITLES
In U-16 Boys Nitin K Sinha defeated Parikshit Somani by 6-3 6-0
In U-16 Girls Sabhyata Nihalani defeated Akansha Bhan by 7-5 7-5
UNDER – 14 TITLES
U-14 Boys Mann Maulik Shah defeated Shashikant Rajput by 6—1 6—2
U-14 Girls Sanya Singh defeated Salsa Ahir by 6—3 6—1
ABOUT FENESTA OPEN NATIONAL TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP
Since 1998 DCM Shriram Ltd. (under All India Tennis Association) organises the NATIONAL
HARDCOURT TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP
17th Edition of Himalayan Motorsport Raid de Himalaya titled bagged by experienced driver
Raj Singh Rathore (co-driver Amber Udasi) by defeating Tsering Lakhpa (co-driver Venu
Ramesh Kumar) followed by nine-time winner Suresh Rana (Parminder Thakur).
There were 167 participants who travelled 1,920 km over six days.
Novak Djokovic claimed his ninth title of the year with a 6-2 6-4 victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
in the Shanghai Masters final on October 18 2015.
The 36th Senior National (Men and Women) Archery Championships-2015 was held at
Kailash Parkash Stadium, Saket Meerut, Uttar Pradesh from 13th to 18th October, 2015.
Inaugurated by : Defence minister Manohar Parrikar
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Winner List
Compound – Men (Ranking Round) Women (Ranking Round)
Mixed Team
Position Name
1 Rajasthan (Swati Dudhwal, Sarvesh Pareek)
2 Maharashtra (Jayalakshmi Sarikonda,
3 Delhi (Divya Adlakha, Abhishek Verma)
In Women’s Singles Li Xuerui of China (also winner of 2014) has prevailed over Indian Shuttler
P V Sindhu by 19-21, 12-21 Denmark Open Title of Badminton 2015 venued at Odense
Sports Park, Denmark
• Men singles was won by China’s Chen Long for the third time( earlier in 2013 & 2014)
by defeating Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto
Great Britain wins a victory over India during 5th Sultan of Johor Cup (SOJ Cup) by 3-4
which was venued at Taman Daya Hockey Stadium, Johor Bahru, Malaysia. It was Great
Britain’s first title under this championship.
11-day event National Cadet Corps National Games 2015 was concluded in Garrison Parade
Ground, New Delhi. Raksha Mantri Overall Champions trophy went to Punjab, Haryana, Himachal
Pradesh and Chandigarh NCC Directorates.
EVENTS – Football, Hockey, Athletics, Kabbadi, Kho-Kho, Volleyball and Shooting
Vietnam Open Tennis Trophy is clinched by Indian tennis player Saketh Myneni by
defeatingAustralia’s Jordan Thompson by 7-5, 6-3 score.This win help him to enter into top-
150 during the new rankings from his current 168th rank.
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Indian Cricketer Virender sehwag announced his retirement from all forms of international
cricket and from the Indian Premier League on 20 th October 2015 in twitter.
Kuwait Football Association (KFA) has been suspended by the FIFA because of government
interference in the running of its Football Association. In 2007 and 2008 also, KFA was
banned for government interference.
• The suspension will be lifted only when the KFA and its members (the clubs) are able to
carry out their activities and obligations independently.
Yuki Bhambri (23) has entered in the top-100 of ATP rankings by achieving a career-best rank
of 99. He is the first Indian player since 2010 to achieve this feat and third Indian in last 20
years.
In his last three ATP Challenger tournaments Yuki has won the Shanghai Challenger, was a
runner-up in Taiwan and semifinalist at the Tashkent event.
• Rohan Bopanna is country’s highest ranked player in doubles at number 15, followed
by Leander Paes (36) and Purav Raja (96).
• In the WTA doubles rankings, Sania Mirza continues to be world number one player.
Professional golfer Anirban Lahiri (28) has won the Hilton Asian Tour Golfer of the Month
award. He is ranked 39th in the world.
• Lahiri was voted as the winner based on his stellar performance from June to September
with subsequent awards based on monthly achievements.
In the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) ranking Saina Nehwal dropped to 2ndspot
in women’s singles with 81782 points, 1630 points behind Carolina Marin of Spain. While Two-
time World Championship bronze medallist PV Sindhu is consistent with 13th rank.
• Men’s singles also shows the drop down in the rankings chart. Kidambi Srikanth
ranked at 6th position and Parupalli Kashyap ranked at 10th position from No.8 but
Ajay Jayaram climbed a place to be ranked World No.25.
• In men’s doubles, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy rose to No.19.
• Women’s doubles Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa slipped No.13.
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Indian Chess player and Arjuna Award winner Abhijeet Gupta has clinched the 19th
Hoogeveen Chess Tournament 2015 by defeating Neelotpal Das in the ninth and final round in
Hoogeveen, Netherlands.
• In 2008 he won the World Junior Chess Championship at Gaziantep, Turkey which carries
with it the FIDE Grandmaster title.
The South Asian Games will be held in Guwahati and Shillong from February 6 to 16 in 2016.
Participants: 8 countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri
Lanka and India.
Sports events: There will be 25 disciplines consists of – archery, athletics, badminton,
basketball, boxing, cycling, football, handball, hockey, judo, kabaddi, kho kho, shooting, squash,
swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu.
• 17 events are scheduled to be held in Guwahati and 8 in Meghalaya’s capital city
Shillong.
Virat Kohli became the fourth player to register hundred against all the Test countries in ODIs,
joining Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Herschelle Gibbs and Hashim Amla.
• Kohli has posted 16 tons as No. 3 batsman and seven as No.4. Only two batsmen have
registered more centuries at No.3 in ODIs — Ponting (29) and Kumar Sangakkara (18).
The Yachting Association of India (YAI) Senior National Championship – 2015 was organised by
the Indian Naval Watermanship Training Centre from 19 Oct 2015 to 24 Oct 2015 in
Mumbai.
• Chief Guest – Admiral RK Dhowan, Chief of Naval Staff and President YAI
Winners:
Nethra Kumanan from Tamil Nadu – Gold medal in Laser Radial Class of boat
Upamanyu Dutta – Gold medal in Laser (Standard)
Nethra Kumanan – Gold medal in Laser (Radial)
Pair of P Muttu and Narender Rajput – Gold medal in 470 Class
Samal Pradhan and Rahul Rai – Gold medal in Hobie 16 catamaran
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Mercedes AMG team car driver Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton of Britain has clinched the title of
US Grand Prix F1 for the fourth time. Earlier he had won it in 2007, 2012 and 2014.
• With this winning he scored his 43rd F1 victory and also won2015 World Driver’s
Championship (WDC) for third time with total 327 points. Earlier he won it in 2008 and 2014.
South Africa on 25 October 2015 won the five-match One Day International (ODI) series
against India 3-2. This was South Africa’s first ever bilateral ODI series win on Indian soil.
• Player of the series – AB de Villiers (South Africa)
Abhishek Verma & Deepika Kumari creates history by winning silver medal in Archery
World Cup Final
India won two silver medals in Archery World Cup Final in Mexico City.
• Abhishek Verma - Silver
• Deepika Kumari - Silver
Indian team led by Patna’s Aman Raj, current leader of the IGU men amateur, finished 9th on
the final day of the 27th Asia-Pacific Amateur Golf Team Championship – Nomura Cup.
Venue : Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
IGU rank – Samarth Dwivedi, Rahul Ravi and Harimohan Singh, IGU ranked 3rd, 5th and 7th
respectively.
• Japanese team won the Nomura Cup title for the first time since 1989 defeated Chinese
Taipei at the Yas Links Golf Club.
Denmark’s Emily Kristine Pedersen notched her maiden Ladies European Tour title in a
dramatic fashion at 9th Edition Of Hero Womens Indian Open Golf Championship.
Amateur Aditi Ashok came up with a five-over 77 on the final day but finished as the best-
Indianat tied 13th.
• Pedersen received the glittering Hero Women’s Indian Open trophy from Pawan
Munjal,Chairman, Managing Director and CEO of Hero MotoCorp and she also bagged a
USD 60,000 cheque.
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The International Cricket Council (ICC) on 26 October 2015 launched the official ICC men’s Team
Rankings from Test, One Day International (ODI) and T20I cricket.
• South Africa with 125 rating was placed at the top position in the Test ranking list, while
Australia topped the ODI list with 127 ratings. Sri Lanka with 126 points topped the list
of T20I rankings.
ICC ODI Rankings : Australia ranked first and India and South Africa ranked second and third
ICC T20I Rankings:Sri Lanka ranked first and Pakistan and Australia ranked second and third
ICC Women’s Ranking :Australia Women ranked first and England Women and New Zealand
Women ranked second and third respectively.
• Hashim Amla breaks Virat Kohli’s record, becomes fastest to reach 6000 ODI runs
Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the ad-hoc committee governing the sport in the country
have formed a coordination committee to conduct domestic events which will pick probables for
next year’s Asian Olympic Qualifiers.
Hockey India signed three years partnership with Sports Authority of India
To develop India as a World Class Hockey Nation, endowing SAI(Sports Authority of India) to
regain its position as the country’s top sport, would mark the dawning of new age for Indian
Hockey.
• Three-year MoU upholds Hockey as a medium for the development and promotion of
values in the youth of the nation also stating that SAI is eager to promote hockey as a
mechanism for youth development and excellence in sports.
Amit Kumar won silver in men’s club throw F51 event of IPC Athletics World
Championships
Indian para-athlete Amit Kumar Saroha bagged a silver in mens club throw F51 event in the
IPC Athletics World Championships on Oct 29, 2015 and Qualified for Rio Paralympic Games.
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India’s star swimmer Sajan Kumar set a new national record in men’s 1500m freestyle
competition, clocking a time of 15:41:01 at the 69th senior national aquatic championship in
Rajkot.
• National records were broken for the third day in a row. On the opening day, Mana
Patelhad set a new national record in 100m backstroke while, yesterday, Karnataka’s
Malvika set a national record in 1500m freestyle.
Pune ATP Challenger Yuki Bhambri win to clinch his second title of the season with a 6-2 7-6(4)
defeated second seed Evgeny Donskoy in the final of the USD 50,000 KPIT-MSLTA Challenger.
• He ranked 105, as he lost only two points on his serve to quickly wrap up the first set.
Swiss pilot Michael Kuffer finished second in the final Task and emerged as the overall
champion of AAI Paragliding World Cup.The women’s overall crown was claimed by Japan’s Yuki
Sato.
Obituary
British Director John Guillermin passes away
Veteran British director, writer and producer and the director of super hit movie King
Kong (1976) and The Towering Inferno John Guillerminhas died at the age of 89.
• Famous Egyptian novelist and journalist Gamal al-Ghitani has died in Cairo, aged 70
on 18th October 2015.
• As a journalist he reported from the frontlines during the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1973.For
his writings he awarded France’s Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1987
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• On 19 th October 2015 Telugu comedian Kallu Chidambaram died at the age of 70.
• The performance in the Telugu film Kallu made him to earn the first Nandi Award
Actress Pat Woodell has has died after she lost her longtime battle with cancer at the age of
71.His best remembered for her role as Bobbie Jo Bradley in 1960s series “Petticoat
Junction”.
Prominent Indian marine biologist and Padma Shri awardee Syed Zahoor Qasim (88) died on
• The noted comedian has acted in over 300 films, including some films of other regional
languages. He was popular for his roles in films like “Muthyala Muggu”, “Lambadolla
Ram Das” and “Mayadari Malligadu”.
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Mumbai born Britain’s Curry King Lord Gulam Noon passes away
Indian-origin peers and “curry king” of the UK Lord Gulam Noon passed away at the age of
79 due to liver cancer.
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Ben S. Bernanke’s book The Courage to Act – A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath
released
The Courage to Act – A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath – a book authored by Ben S.
Bernanke was released in different cities of United States in the first week of October, 2015.
Kasuri launch the book ‘Neither a Hawk nor a Dove: An Insider’s Account of Pakistan’s
Foreign Policy’
The author of the book “Neither a Hawk nor a Dove: An Insider’s Account of Pakistan’s
Foreign Policy “ is Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri.
The book Dreaming Big: My Journey to Connect India was launched by Reliance Industries
chairman Mukesh Ambani. It is the auto biography of Sam Pitroda written with the help of David
Chanoff, an American author.
• The book describes the journey of father of Indian telecom revolution – Satyanarayan
Gangaram Pitroda.
Important Days
Oct 1 2015
Remember Day: International Day of Older Persons
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Organization: UN
Purpose: To aware the people around the world about issues which affects our senior citizens and
to appreciate their contributions which makes to society.
Theme: Sustainability and Age Inclusiveness in the Urban Environment
Oct 2 2015
Remember Day: International Day of Non-Violence is observed
Organization: UNESCO
Purpose: 146th Birth anniversary of “Father of Nation” Mahatma Gandhi.
Oct 5 2015
Remember Day: World Habitat Day
Organization: UN
Purpose: To raise awareness about the need for well-designed and managed public spaces and
streets.
Oct 8 2015
Remember Day: World sight day
Organization: WHO
Purpose: To banish causes of avoidable blindness and visual impairment
Theme: Eyes care for all
Oct 9 2015
Remember Day: World Post day
Purpose: Aims increase the awareness of people about the postal
Theme: Tell us about the world you want to grow up in
Oct 10 2015
Remember Day: World Day against the Death Penalty
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Oct 11 2015
Remember Day: International Day of the Girl Child
Organization: UN
Purpose: To recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world
Theme: The Power of the Adolescent Girl: Vision for 2030
Nov 6 2015
Remember Day: Constitution Day
Organization: India
Purpose: For creating awareness on people about the the immense contributions of the chief
architect of Indian Constitution
Oct 12 2015
Remember Day: World Arthritis Day
Organization: UN
Purpose: To raise awareness of the condition and make sure that sufferers and caregivers know
all the support and help that is available to them.
Theme: It’s in your hands, take action.
Oct 13 2015
Remember Day: International Day for Disaster Reduction
Organization: UN
Purpose: To raise awareness(UN) among people and communities about the importance of DRR
Theme: Knowledge for Life
Oct 14 2015
Remember Day: World Standards Day
Purpose: To raise awareness about standardization among regulators, industry and consumers
Theme: Standards, the World’s Common Language
Oct 15 2015
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Current Affairs PDF: October 2015
Oct 17 2015
Remember Day: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
Organization: UN
Purpose: To recognize the effort and struggle of people living in poverty.
Theme: Building a sustainable future: Coming together to end poverty and discrimination”
Oct 20 2015
Remember Day: World Statistics Day
Organization: UN
Purpose: To emphasizes the critical role of high-quality official statistical information in analysis
and informed policy decision-making in support of sustainable development
Theme: Better Data, Better Live
Oct 21 2015
Remember Day: Global Iodine Deficiency Disorders Prevention Day
Organization: UNICEF
Purpose: To highlight the consequences of iodine deficiency and to raise awareness about
adequate use of iodine
Theme: Keep Iodine Intake at a Healthy Level to Ensure Good Mental Development.
Oct 22 2015
Remember Day: Car-Free Day
Organization: Delhi
Purpose: To encourage the city residents to use public transport and reduce pollution and traffic
congestion
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Oct 24 2015
Remember Day: United Nations Day
Organization: UN
Purpose: To recognize the achievements of the United Nations Organization.
Theme: Strong UN Better World
Oct 24 2015
Remember Day: World Development Information Day
Organization: UN
Purpose: To draw the attention of world public opinion to development problems and the need to
strengthen international cooperation to solve them.
Oct 28 2015
Remember Day: International Animation Day
Organization: UNESCO
Purpose: To commemorates the first public performance of Emile Reynaud’s Theatre Optiqueat
the Grevin Museum
Oct 27 2015
Remember Day: World Day for Audiovisual Heritage
Organization: UNESCO
Purpose:To raising public awareness of the need for preservation.
Theme: Archives at Risk: Protecting the World’s Identities
Oct 31 2015
Remember Day: World Cities Day
Organization: UN
Purpose: To greatly promote the international community’s interest in global urbanisation, push
forward cooperation among countries in meeting.
Theme: To promotes togetherness and harmony, making our cities and neighbourhoods inclusive
and livable .
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Reasoning Questions
Quantitative Aptitude Questions
English Questions
Computer Questions
General Aptitude
Reasoning
Letter Writing
Math Tricks
Computer Awareness
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