October Current Affair’s

October Current Affair's
• Cotopaxi is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains, located
in the Latacunga canton of Cotopaxi Province, Ecuador, in South
America. It is the second highest summit in Ecuador, reaching a height
of 5,897 m (19,347 ft).

• India will chair the G20 forum in 2018 and New Delhi could host the
prestigious annual G20 summit. China is chairing the G20 this time,
following which Germany will in 2017 and then the Chair will pass on
to India for 2018. One of the G20 countries is selected to hold the
Chair in rotation, also known as 'G20 presidency'.

• ARSAT2 is a second communication satellite launched by Argentina on
1 October 2015. The country's previous telecommunications satellite,
ARSAT1, was sent up nearly a year ago, when Argentina became the first
Latin American country to develop and launch a telecommunications
satellite into orbit.

• Super typhoon Dujuan has caused heavy losses in China's coastal
provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian. Dujuan, the 21st typhoon of the
year, made landfall in Fujian on Tuesday morning. It killed two people
and injured 324 in Taiwan previously. In Fujian, Dujuan affected over
a million people, with 430,200 evacuated. Four-hundred houses were
destroyed and about 31,000 hectares of crops were damaged across seven
cities and 51 counties in the province.

• Australian author Michael Robotham has won the year's best crime
writer after he received the prestigious UK Crime Writer's Association
Gold Dagger award. Robotham's novel, titled 'Life or Death', beat
other shortlisted authors that included The Silkworm by JK Rowling,
and sci-fi writer Stephen King's Mr Mercedes. 'Life or Death' tells
the story of a Texan prisoner who escapes jail a day before he is due
to be released.

• Australia is ranked number one in the recently launched ICC women's
team ranking following its success in the ICC Women's World Cup 2013
in India and the ICC Women's World Twenty20 2014 in Bangladesh.
England is 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).

• Sikkim's capital Gangtok will host the Fourth International Tourism
Mart (ITM) from October 14 to 16. International buyers and media
delegates from 27 countries are participating in this year's ITM. In a
bid to showcase the largely untapped tourism potential of the
north-eastern region, the union tourism ministry has been organising
the ITM in association with the different states of the region on a
rotation basis. The first, second and third ITMs were organised,
respectively, in Guwahati, Tawang and Shillong.

• Kartik Chandran, an Indian-American associate professor of earth and
environmental engineering at Columbia Engineering, has been named a
2015 MacArthur Fellow with a "genius grant" of $625,000. Chandran, an
IIT Roorkee graduate, has won the fellowship for his work in
"transforming wastewater from a pollutant requiring disposal to a
resource for useful products, such as commodity chemicals, energy
sources, and fertilisers."He joins a distinguished group of 24
talented people who have all demonstrated exceptional originality and
dedication to their creative pursuits, as well as a marked capacity
for self-direction.

• The noted violinist and music composer, Mr. Prabhakar Jog will be
awarded the 2015 Lata Mangeshkar Award for Lifetime Achievement for
his contributions in the field of music by the Maharashtra government.
The award carries a cash reward of Rs. 5 lakh, a citation, a trophy
and a shawl.

• The key points of Fourth Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Report of
Reserve Bank of India (RBI):- a) reduced the policy repo rate under
the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) by 50 basis points from 7.25 %
to 6.75% with immediate effect. B) kept the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR)
of scheduled banks unchanged at 4.0 % of Net Demand and Time Liability
(NDTL). C) continue to provide liquidity under overnight repos at 0.25
% of bank-wise NDTL at the LAF repo rate and liquidity under 14-day
term repos as well as longer term repos of up to 0.75 % of NDTL of the
banking system through auctions. D) continue with daily variable rate
repos and reverse repos to smooth liquidity.

• Famous magician Zenia Bhumgara was conferred with the Merlin Award
by International Magicians Associations. The Merlin is to magicians
what the Oscar is to films. The association selects a handful of
people worldwide each year to bestow this honour.

• Sircilla and Siddipet constituencies are in Telangana state. These
two constituencies are all set to achieve a rare honor of being the
first in the country to become 100 percent open defecation-free
constituencies. About 20 thousand personal toilets have been
constructed on war footing in these constituencies to achieve cent per
cent by Gandhi Jayanti, the annual day of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan on 2
October.

• Maharashtra government has decided to levy a surcharge of Rs 2 on
petrol and diesel while VAT on liquor, cigarettes and beverages have
also been raised by 5 per cent. The decision aims to raise more funds
for tackling drought in the state. The measures will be in force for
five months.

• Leelaben Chhabildas Gurjar from Gujarat has been awarded the iconic
mother award from President Pranab Mukherjee. Leelaben was chosen for
the award for successfully bringing-up her children despite great
odds. Leelaben had to face great odds to educate her six children,
including two daughters. She worked as 'safai karamchari' and in order
to supplement the meagre salary from the job she used to work as a
manual scavenger. She became mother at the age of 14. Later, five more
children were born to her. In spite of adversity, she sent all her
children to school and encouraged them to get education. Because of
the prevailing practise of untouchability, her children were not
allowed to sit along with others or to share the common facility of
drinking water. Undeterred by such discrimination, Leelaben continued
to give her unstinting support to her children and eventually
succeeded in securing higher education for all of them and they
achieved respectable positions in their careers and in society.

• Palestine president Mahmoud Abbas raised the flag of the state of
Palestine at United Nations for the first time. The Palestinians
campaigned for a General Assembly resolution that was overwhelmingly
approved on September 10 allowing the UN observer states to fly their
flag alongside those of the 193 UN member states.

• Brian Friel was an Irish dramatist, author and director of the Field
Day Theatre Company. He was considered to be one of the greatest
living English-language dramatists, hailed by the English-speaking
world as an "Irish Chekhov" and "the universally accented voice of
Ireland".Friel was best known for plays such as Philadelphia, Here I
Come! And Dancing at Lughnasa but wrote more than thirty plays in a
six-decade spanning career that saw him elected Saoi of Aosdána. His
plays were a regular feature on Broadway throughout this time.

• Vellamorer Rangarajan Vellamorer, CEO of Infosys China, has become
the first Indian to get the Magnolia Gold award in recognition of his
contributions to the development of IT industry in Shanghai. He was
earlier awarded Magnolia Silver award in 2011.

• Michael Phelps swim clinic was launched in Bengaluru. It was
launched in association with Gameday Arts as India became the first
international venture for the programme.

• 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. Tata, was honoured alongside Indian-origin professor Lord Kumar
Bhattacharyya, founder of the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), at
the University of Warwick in Coventry.

• Haryana government has started a scheme for adoption of wild animals
in zoos and deer parks for their conservation and protection. The
scheme was launched on the occasion of Wildlife Safety Week, which is
being observed from October 1 to 7. Under the scheme awareness would
be created among people for adoption of wild animals in zoos and deer
parks. Self Help Groups would be constituted for participation of
women in wildlife conservation.

• Kurti district court in Jharkhand became the first court in the
country to operate on solar energy. The court is equipped with 180KW
grid connected to a rooftop solar plant, out of which the court is
expected to be using around 64Mws and the rest will be diverted to
other government offices.

• The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team
representing the United States and an International Team representing
the rest of the world minus Europe. The Presidents Cup has been held
biennially since 1994.

• Lyudmila Mikhailovna Alexeyeva is Russian human right activist. She
was awarded The third Václav Havel Human Rights Prize which honours
outstanding civil society action in defence of human rights. Ludmilla
Alexeeva, now aged 88, is a veteran human rights defender in her
native Russia. In her youth, she gave up a promising academic career
to join the Soviet dissident movement, going on to become a founding
member of the Moscow Helsinki Group. Forced to emigrate to the US in
1977, she returned to Russia in 1989 to continue her work, becoming
President of the International Helsinki Foundation and later joining
the Russian President's Commission on Human Rights.

• The 13th World Spice Congress (WSC) will be held here from February
27 to 29, 2016. The theme of the biennial global event will be 'Target
2020: Clean, Safe and Sustainable Supply Chain'. The 13th WSC seeks to
hammer out a credible and actionable roadmap to further push the
growth of spices industry and address its challenges across the globe.
The event is being jointly organised by the Spices Board, The Cochin
Hill Produce Merchants' Association, and India Pepper and Spice Trade
Association (IPSTA).

• Uday Shankar, CEO of Star India was adjudged Best CEO of a Multi
National Company for 2015 at the Forbes India Leadership Awards. Other
prominent winners wereAdi Godrej, Chairman of the Godrej Group and R S
Sodhi, MD of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (Amul)
who received the 'Conscious Capitalist Company for the Year Award'
shared this year by Godrej Consumer Products Ltd and GCMMF; while R C
Bhargava of Maruti-Suzuki received a Lifetime Achievement Award.

• According to a National Institute of Solar Energy estimate, India
has solar potential of 750GW. Rajasthan has the maximum capacity of
142GW, followed by Jammu and Kashmir at 111GW.

• The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
(ICRISAT) is an international organization which conducts agricultural
research for rural development, headquartered in Patancheru,
Hyderabad, Telangana. ICRISAT performs crop improvement research,
using conventional as well as methods derived from biotechnology, on
the following crops (mandate crops): sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea,
pigeonpea and groundnut. Recently, ICRISAT has made finger millet its
mandate crop.

• CORPAT is a bilateral maritime exercise between India and Indonesia.
Both countries have been carrying out maritime exercise twice a year
since 2002. The CORPAT exercise between the two navies carries search
and rescue operations, institutes measures for vessels indulged in
unlawful activities as well as control pollution. The 26th edition of
the CORPAT will be held in the Andaman Sea on October 17-18.

• The scientists of the National Institute of Oceanography have
discovered new coral reef site in Arabian Sea, some 100-110 kms of the
coastal districts of Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg of Maharashtra. The
place is known as Angria Bank, named after famous Maratha Admiral
Kanhoji Angre, who is known to have fought a battle there. "The
peculiarity of Angria Bank corals is that it is in the middle of the
sea. Unlike other corals which are either coastal in nature like the
Gulf of Mannar or the Andaman and Nicobar corals which are island
corals, the Angria Bank is in the middle of the sea.

• China defeated Philippines to capture the 2015 FIBA Asia
Championship title. The triumph earns the Chinese national team direct
qualification into the basketball tournament at the 2016 Summer
Olympics in Brazil. Iran finished 3rd in the tournament.

• Pinto Portuguese cyclist Luis Leao Pinto crowned King of Himalaya in
the 11th Hero MTB Himalaya 2015. Pinto, who won the race in 2013 as
well, clocked 24 hours, 16 minutes and 29 seconds to complete the
eight-day, seven-stage race, which had a days break in between. German
Andi Seewald took just 19 more minutes to finish second while Spaniard
Pau Zamora finished third in 25:06:20 in Mens Solo and Overall.

• According to the annual report compiled by Interbrand, American tech
giant Apple topped the list with its brand value estimated at $170.3
billion, up 43 percent from a year earlier. Google Inc. Ranked second
at $120.3 billion, up 12 percent from the previous year. The top ten
brands in the list, after Apple and Google, were Coca Cola ($78
billion), Microsoft ($67 billion), IBM ($65 billion), Toyota ($49
billion), Samsung ($45 billion), General Electric ($42 billion),
McDonald's ($39 billion) and Amazon ($37 billion).

• Cumulonimbus, from the Latin cumulus ("heap") and nimbus
("rainstorm", "storm cloud"), is a dense towering vertical cloud
associated with thunderstorms and atmospheric instability, forming
from water vapour carried by powerful upward air currents.
Cumulonimbus can form alone, in clusters, or along cold front squall
lines. These clouds are capable of producing lightning and other
dangerous severe weather, such as tornadoes.

• As per the World Health Organisation standards the level of
particulate matter should not exceed 10 micrograms per cubic meter. As
per the WHO report New Delhi exhibits 153 microorganisms of PM 2.5 per
cubic meter.

• The Chang La seed bank is located at a height of 5360 metres above
sea level at a distance of 75 km from Leh. It is the world's highest
research and development facility and also only the second permafrost
seed bank in the world, after the International Seed Vault in Norway's
Svalbard. The plant germplasm storage facility was set up in 2010 by
the Defence Institute of High Altitude Research in Leh, under the
aegis of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
Today, it boasts of more than 5000 samples of about 200 plant species.

• Shashank Manohar was unanimously elected as the new president of the
BCCI. Manohar a lawyer by profession will be at the helm of the
affairs of cricket in India for the second time after being elected
unopposed for the first time in 2008.

• Venus Williams won women's single title at Wuhan Open in Central
China. This is her second title of the season. Williams clinched the
title after Garbine Muguruza retired in the second set.

• Inuit leader Sheila Watt-Cloutier is one of three winners of the
2015 Right Livelihood Awards for her work on climate change in the
Arctic. The awards, dubbed the 'alternative Nobels,' include a
$475,000 cash prize that Watt-Cloutier will share with the two other
recipients. The other two recipients of the prize are Kasha Jacqueline
Nabagesera of Uganda, who was recognized for her work on gay rights
and sexual minorities in Uganda, and Italian surgeon Gino Strada for
providing medical assistance to victims of war.

• The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) set up the
world's highest terrestrial centre at 17,600 feet above sea level at
Chang la near Pengong lake in Ladakh. The centre will serve as a
natural cold storage for preserving rare and endangered medical plants
for generations to come. The centre will act as an important utility
for research work in frontal areas of food and agriculture and
bio-medical sciences for well being of the soldiers deployed in high
altitude cold desert. Along with Life Sciences the centre, may provide
unique opportunity to other labs and establishments of DRDO for
testing and evaluation of electronics and communication devices, It
will serve as testing platform for various materials that can be used
for high altitude applications, batteries, fuel cells, UAV's micro
engines in extreme cold conditions 17,600 feet above mean sea level.

• ICCI Bank has launched mVisa – a card-less and device-less solution
the payments company is betting on in the mobile space. ICICI Bank has
incorporated the mVisa application in its Pockets app that allows
payments to be made by scanning a static QR code and entering the
amount.

• The International Day of the Girl Child is celebrated on 11 October
every year. In 2011, the United Nations General Assembly declared
October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child, to recognize
girl's right and the unique challenges they face around the world.

• Uttar Pradesh forest department and WWF-India, with the financial
assistance of National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) flagged off the
Dolphin census under the My Ganga, My Dolphin campaign 2015 at Ganga
barrage in Kanpur. The campaign was launched to commemorate the sixth
anniversary of the declaration of Ganga River Dolphins as National
Aquatic Animal.

• Oli CPN-UML Chairman K P Sharma Oli was elected as the next Prime
Minister of Nepal. Oli defeated incumbent Sushil Koirala. Oli has
secured 338 votes, 39 more than the 299 that he needed to be elected
as the prime minister while Nepali congress president Koirala could
only secure 249 votes.

• Indian shuttler Ajay Jayaram clinched the men's single title at the
Dutch Open Grand Prix by defeating Estonia's Raul Must. The Mumbai
born shuttler defeated sixth seed and World No.48 Raul 21-12, 21-18 in
a 34 minute lop-sided math.

• Renowned Indian composer, singer and musician Allah-Rakha Rahman has
been named as a cultural ambassador for Seychelles in India. Rahman
received his appointment certificate from the country's vice-president
Danny Faure in a ceremony organised to celebrate the India Fest at the
International Conference Centre in Victoria.

• Iran has successfully test-fired the Emad a new generation
long-range ballistic missile. The Emad surface-to-surface missile,
designed and built by Iran. It is Iran's first long-range missile that
can be precision-guided until it reaches its target. The liquid
propelled rocket had a range of 1,700 kilometers and was accurate to
within 500 meters of the target.

• Djokovic Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-2 to clinch his
sixth China Open title. In the women's final Garbine Muguruza captured
her second career WTA tour title at China Open by defeating Timea
Bacsinszky.

• Manorama, also known as Aachi, was a famous Tamil actress, who had
appeared in more than 1,500 films, 1,000 stage performances and
several television series. She holds a Guinness World record for
acting in more than 1000 films. She was awarded the Padma Shri in
2002. She was also won the several other awards including Kalaimamani
award by the government of Tamil Nadu.

• Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won the Russian Formula One Grand
Prix. The win was Hamilton's ninth of the season, and the 42nd of his
career. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel finished second and Mexican Sergion
Perez finished third.

• Kerala government has launched Operation Vatsalya to trace, rescue
and reunite the little ones with their family. Operation Vatsalya is
expected to provide relief to parents who live in the painful memories
of their missing children.

• As per the International Monetary Fund (IMF) IMF's latest World
Economic Outlook (WEO) report, the Indian economy is expected to grow
at 7.5% in 2016-17 as against China's 6.3%.

• The 2016 Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Conference is to be held in
New Delhi from January 8-10, 2016. The purpose of this annual event is
to bring together Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Persons of Indian
Origin (PIOs) and help forge stronger links between them and India.
The PBD Conference 2016 is being planned with the objective of
developing a new paradigm for engagement with the diaspora over the
next decade.

• In order to help patients and pregnant women from inaccessible areas
reach their nearest hospital or motorable road, the healthcare
programme 'Amo Doli Programme' has been launched by the State
Government of Odisha in naxal-affected area Rayagada District. Under
this programme, a stretcher has been designed as a sling to carry
patients smoothly and with less effort. It will replace the
traditional method of shifting patients in remote areas by converting
a bed into a sling by tying rope to its both ends. Each sling costs
around Rs. 9000 and the programme is being funded under the Integrated
Action Plan (IAP) which is meant for Maoist-affected districts. The
benefits of this programme are as follows: a) It will help the
patients and pregnant women from inaccessible areas to reach their
nearest hospital or motorable road. B) After reaching the nearest
motorable point, the villagers can call ambulance by dialling 102 for
pregnant women or 108 for emergency services to shift a patient to the
nearest hospital. The slings will be kept either at village welfare
committees or with ASHA workers.

• The Central Government launched its flagship project C(K)rop
Insurance using Space technology And geoiNformatics (KISAN) to speed
up payment of crop insurance claims to farmers and provide accurate
assessment of crop damage. The project will use satellite and drone-
based imaging and other geospatial technology to get timely and
precise data on crop yields. The pilot study will be carried out in
one district each of Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and
Maharashtra during Kharif season of 2015 and two districts each of
these states during Rabi season of 2015-2016. The government also
launched an Android-based app for collection of data of hailstorm with
assistance from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to assess
large-scale damage to standing crops. The state agriculture officials
will use the facility to help the Central Government make quick
assessment of damage to crops.

• The UCO Bank registered the highest increase in gross Non-Performing
Assets (NPAs) in percentage terms against total loans in the 2014-2015
fiscal year. With this, UCO Bank became the worst performer among the
other Public Sector Banks (PSBs). As per the provisional Reserve Bank
of India (RBI) data taking into account domestic operations of banks,
gross NPA to gross advances ratio of Kolkata-based UCO Bank increased
to 8.05% at the end of March 2015 from 4.47%, an accretion of 3.58 on
an annual basis. The UCO Bank is followed by Indian Overseas Bank
(IOB) and Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) with their gross NPA rising to
8.30 % and 6.18 % respectively at the end of March 2015.

• The 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly awarded to Tomas Lindahl,
Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar for having mapped, at a molecular level,
how cells repair damaged DNA and safeguard the genetic information.
Tomas Lindahl is from the Francis Crick Institute, UK; Paul Modrich is
from Duke University School of Medicine, USA and Aziz Sancar belongs
to University of North Carolina School of Medicine, USA. Their work
provided fundamental knowledge of how a living cell functions and how
it is used for the development of new cancer treatments. The winners
will share the 8 million Swedish kronor (about $960,000) prize money.
Each winner will also get a diploma and a gold medal at the annual
award ceremony on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of prize
founder Alfred Nobel.

• For speaking "truth to power – forcefully, fearlessly, and
beautifully, the 2015 PEN Pinter Prize has been won by British poet
and journalist Mr. James Fenton. Beside this award, the Saudi blogger
and activist Mr. Raif Badawi won the 2015 International Writer of
Courage Award. Though, due to Mr. Badawi's imprisonment, his award was
accepted by Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia and campaigner for
Raif Badawi.

• The World Economic Outlook (WEO) October 2015 Update titled
'Adjusting to Lower Commodity Prices' has been released by
International Monetary Fund (IMF). The report projects global growth
for 2015 at 3.1 %, which is 0.3 % point lower than in 2014, and 0.2 %
point below the forecasts in the July 2015 World Economic Outlook
(WEO) Update. India's growth is expected to strengthen from 7.3 % 2015
and last year to 7.5 % in 2016.

• The Russian chess player, Mr. Sergey Karjakin won the 2015 FIDE
World Chess Cup held at Baku, Azerbaijan. The Chess World Cup is the
highly regarded tournaments in chess after the World Championship and
the Candidates Tournament.

• The INS Astradharani has been commissioned into Indian Navy at
Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. It is Indian Navy's first totally
indigenously-designed and built Torpedo launch and recovery vessel
(TRV). It is advanced replacement for INS Astravahini which was
decommissioned from India Navy in July, 2015. This 50-metre
twin-hulled warship is also the first to be built at a private yard
with armament fixtures.

• The South Korean economist, Dr. Hoesung Lee (69) has been elected as
the new chairperson of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) of United Nations. He succeeded India's Rajendra Pachauri, who
served as IPCC chair for 13 years and resigned in February 2015 amid a
sexual harassment scandal. Prof Lee, an expert on climate economics
and sustainable development, is a professor at the Graduate School of
Energy and Environment of Korea University in Republic of Korea. He is
also part of the president advisory board on climate change of Asian
Development Bank (ADB). He is the fourth person to lead the IPCC in
its 27-year history.

• China launched the first phase of its much anticipated China
International Payment System (CIPS) that provides capital settlement
and clearing services for cross-border Yuan transactions for financial
institutions domestically and abroad. It will enhance efficiency and
increase global use of the Chinese currency.

• The 2015 Quality of Death Index (QDI) ranked United Kingdom (UK) as
the best place to die in the world, where as India ranked 67 among 80
countries it has selected. The UK topped the list followed by
Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Belgium and Taiwan. The report from
the London-based Economic Intelligence Unit, titled 'The quality of
death: Ranking end-of-life care across the world' is meant to measure
how well do governments across the world work to improve life for
their citizens so that they "die well", insisting, economic growth
alone cannot improve health facilities for the aged. The QDI,
commissioned by the Lien Foundation, a Singaporean philanthropic
organisation, is based on qualitative and quantitative indicators and
took interviews of over 120 palliative care experts from around the
world.

• For commercial remote-sensing services, China launched "Jilin-1"
satellites from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in China's Gansu
province, included one optical remote-sensing satellite, two
satellites for video imaging and another for imaging technique
testing. All four satellites were developed and produced by Chang
Guang Satellite Technology Co. Ltd. The company will also take charge
of commercial operations of the satellites to provide remote-sensing
data and relevant products, which may be used for the monitoring,
development and surveying of resources as well as mapping and disaster
prevention for domestic and overseas clients.

• An India-based bio-tech firm, Nualgi won the prestigious Climate
CoLab award given by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
Cambridge in Washington, DC. With this, Nualgi became the first Indian
company to win the 2015 MIT contest. This Indian technology firm
founded by T Sampath Kumar of Bangalore after 15 years of research and
development in the field of Nano biotechnology. The firm is used to
grow diatom algae in all types and volumes of water, from aquariums to
oceans. The Climate CoLab organises annual contest on various issues
relating to climate change, fuel consumption, energy consumption for
sewage treatment and water supply.

• Oscar-winning composer A R Rahman will be honoured with the
Hridaynath Mangeshkar Award. He will receive the award in Mumbai on 26
October. The first Hridaynath Award was presented to Lata Mangeshkar.
Asha Bhosle, Amitabh Bachchan and Sulochana Tai have also received
this award.

• Noted Malayalam writer and Sahitya Akademi awardee Subhash Chandran
has won this year's prestigious Vayalar Ramavarama Literary award. He
won the award for his novel 'Manushyanu OruAmukham'. The honour, named
after eminent poet and lyricist late Vayalar Ramavarama, carries a
cash prize of Rs one lakh, statuette and a citation, Vayalar Ramavaram
Memorial Trust members.

• The Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2015 has been awarded to Angus
Deaton of Princeton University, New Jersey, USA. Mr Deaton won the
prestigious award for his analysis of consumption, poverty and
welfare. The economics award officially known as the Bank of Sweden
Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel wasn't created by
Nobel, but by Sweden's central bank in 1968. Though it's handed out
along with the other prizes and the criteria for selecting winners are
the same, it's not a Nobel Prize in the same sense.

• Wilson's disease or hepatolenticular degeneration is an autosomal
recessive genetic disorder in which copper accumulates in tissues;
this manifests as neurological or psychiatric symptoms and liver
disease. It is treated with medication that reduces copper absorption
or removes the excess copper from the body, but occasionally a liver
transplant is required.

• Alexander Lukashenko has been re-elected as Belarus for a fifth
term. As per the Belarusian Central Election Commission, Mr Lukashenko
garnered 83.5% of total vote casted. His closest contender trailed
behind with less than 5%. Mr Lukashenko's vote share was an increase
from 79.7% vote share in 2010.

• Dr. Natesan Ramani commonly known as N. Ramani or N. Flute Ramani,
was an eminent Indian Carnatic flautist. Born in Tiruvarur in 1934,
the birthplace of Carnatic Trinity Thyagaraja, Muthusamy Dikshitar and
Shyama Shastry — Ramani had his early lessons from his maternal
grandfather Azhiyur Narayanasami Iyer. Ramani's mother Saradambal was
also well-versed in music and it was she who wanted to mould him like
T.R. Mahalingam alias Mali, who was a relative. Ramani was also the
winner of the Sangita Kalanidhi award of the Music Academy. Ramani is
also credited for introducing the long flute into Carnatic music.

• The renowned scientist, Dr. Sekhar Basu has been appointed as the
chairman of Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and Secretary of Department
of Atomic Energy (DAE). Currently, Mr. Basu is the director of Bhabha
Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and chief executive of the Nuclear
Recycle Board (NRB). He will replace Mr. RK Sinha who superannuates on
October 23 and he will have a tenure till September 19, 2016 i.e. Till
he attains the age of 64 years.

• The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet (NDQ) won prestigious 2015
Nobel Peace Prize for helping the country's transition to democracy.
It has been selected for its decisive contribution in building
pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the 2011 Jasmine
Revolution. The Quartet is credited with creating a national dialogue
between the country's Islamist and secular coalition parties amid
deepening political and economic crisis in 2013. It was established in
2013 as an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when
Tunisia was on the brink of civil war aftermath of revolution.

• India's first Dolphin reserve community reserve to protect the
endangered Gangetic river dolphins will come up in West Bengal. The
reserve will be set up in the Hooghly river. The methodology to
develop the community reserve is being chalked out by a separate
committee. The committee will take a decision based on inputs from all
stakeholders since it's a community reserve.

• The India-China Joint Military Training Exercise HAND-IN-HAND 2015
will be conducted at Kunming Military Academy of Yunnan province in
China from October 12 to 23, 2015. It will be the fifth joint military
exercise in the Hand-in-Hand series between armies of both countries
which had started in 2007.

• The Vulnerable Twenty (V20) finance ministers inaugural meeting held
at Lima, Peru. In it all the V20 members agreed to study the creation
of a sovereign V20 Climate Risk Pooling Mechanism to distribute
economic and financial risks, improve recovery after climate-induced
weather disasters and enhance the security of jobs, livelihoods,
businesses and investors. The V20 is a bloc consists of countries most
threatened by climate change including's members are Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Costa Rica, East Timor, Ethiopia, Ghana,
Kenya, Kiribati, Madagascar, the Maldives, Nepal, the Philippines,
Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Tanzania, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

• The 11th Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) of the Directors
General/Commissioners of Customs at Dona Paula concluded with the
signing of Goa Declaration. The purpose of the two-day conference was
to identify areas of concern for customs administrations and sharing
of best practices, sharing of intelligence to strengthen the
enforcement activities of the countries participating in the
conference and signing of declaration between India and Korea.

• The first-ever BRICS Ministerial meeting on Migration recently held
in Sochi, Russia. In it, the BRICS nations viz. Brazil, Russia, India,
China and South Africa have decided to allow free movement of "skilled
professionals" among member countries by setting up a liberalised visa
regime. Also, issued a Joint Declaration to ensure orderly and legal
migration amongst member nations and respect human rights.

• To boost sporting activities in Jammu & Kashmir, Rs. 200 crore has
been sanctioned by the Union Sports Ministry.

• The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has
sanctioned a loan of Rs. 2,112.34 crore under the Rural Infrastructure
Development Fund (RIDF) – XXI to the Government of Gujarat for two
irrigation projects.The funds will be utilised for improving the
irrigation potential of the reservoirs in the water scarce region of
Saurashtra.

• Valfajr is a smart torpedo system that was design and develop by
Iran. Torpedo has high speed and destructive explosive warheads
approximately 220 kg. Valfajr can destroy naval targets in different
weather and depth.

• Lars Rabien Sorenson, CEO of Danish pharmaceutical company Novo
Nordisk topped the list of Harvard Business Review's (HBR's)
'Best-Performing CEOs in the World'. Cisco Systems' John Chambers and
Inditex's Pablo Isla were ranked second and third, respectively.
Mastercard Chief Executive Ajaypal Banga is the only Indian among the
world's 100 top CEOs.

• The Valdes Peninsula is a peninsula on the Atlantic coast in the
Viedma Department in the north east of Chubut Province, Argentina. Is
a site of global significance for the conservation of marine mammals.
It is home to an important breeding population of the endangered
southern right whale as well as important breeding populations of
southern elephant seals and southern sea lions.

• Jioji Konrote, has been elected as President of Fiji. Konrote was
Fiji's minister for employment, productivity and industrial relation.
He was elected by a margin of 31-14, with the three National
Federation Party members abstaining from the vote.

• The Sendai Framework is a 15-year non-binding agreement which
recognizes that the State has the primary role to reduce disaster risk
but that responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders
including local government and the private sector. It aims for the
following outcome: The substantial reduction of disaster risk and
losses in lives, livelihoods and health and in the economic, physical,
social, cultural and environmental assets of persons, businesses,
communities and countries.

• J. C. Daniel Award is an annual award given by the Government of
Kerala. The Department of Cultural Affairs, Government of Kerala
instituted the award in honour of J. C. Daniel in 1992. The 2014 J C
Daniel award was given to celebrated filmmaker I V Sasi.

• Tamil Nadu state government has withdrawn Ketoprofen, a non-steroid
anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used extensively for veterinary
purposes to save the vulture population in the three western
districts. The Directorate of Animal Husbandry has decided to
discontinue the use of Ketoprofen in Erode, Coimbatore and The
Nilgiris, where the vulture population was in danger. Ketoprofen,
which came as an alternative to Diclofenac, causes the same effect on
the vulture population.

• The Sampur Coal Power Station is a large coal-fired power station
currently under construction in Sri Lanka. It is a joint venture
involving Sri Lanka and India. The MoU for the first 500 MW phase was
signed on the 2006 between the Government of Sri Lanka, Ceylon
Electricity Board and the National Thermal Power Corporation.

• Government has set up a committee to push innovative collaboration
joint ventures involving investment of over Rs 2,000 crore with a view
to create jobs, promote exports and increase the potential of revenue
to the exchequer.The Empowered Committee for Innovative Collaborations
will be headed by NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya and its
members would include Economic Affairs Secretary and Industry
Secretary.The committee's mandate would be to fast track innovation
joint ventures, involving joint venture of over Rs 2,000 crore.

• KIC 8462852 is an F-type main-sequence star located in the
constellation Cygnus approximately 454 parsecs (1,480 ly) from Earth.
In September 2015, several astronomers published a paper analyzing the
unusual light fluctuations of the star as measured by the kepler space
telescope, a probe that records changes in the brightness of distant
orbiting stars to detect exoplanets. The star's large irregular
changes in brightness is consistent with a large mass (or many small
masses together) orbiting the star in "tight formation".

• Cristiano Ronaldo received his record fourth Golden Boot award after
leading all scorers in Europe's domestic leagues last season. Ronaldo
scored 48 goals in 35 Spanish league games to claim his third Golden
Boot playing for Real Madrid.

• Japan for the first time joined the Malabar bilateral navy exercise.
The Malabar exercises initially began as a joint Indo-U.S. Naval drill
in 1992. Malabar 2015, held from October 14 to 19, will feature ten
warships. The U.S. Navy's fleet will include the nuclear-powered
aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, the Los Angeles-class
nuclear-powered attack submarine USS City of Corpus Christi, and the
new littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth, as well as a
Ticonderoga-class destroyer. The Indian Navy will dispatch a
Rajput-class destroyer, a Brahmaputra-class frigate, a Shivalik-class
frigate, a fleet support ship and a Sindhughosh-class diesel-electric
submarine. India and the United States will also each field one P-8
Maritime Surveillance aircraft. Japan will only participate with the
Akizuki-class destroyer Fuyuzuki, commissioned in March 2014. The
Fuyuzuki is specifically designed for anti-surface, and anti-submarine
warfare and is also capable of engaging airborne threats.

• Ravindra Jain was an acclaimed music personality who overcame
lifelong blindness and achieved greatness. As a music director Jain's
major films include Saudagar, Chor Machaye Shor, Chitchor, Geet Gaata
Chal, Fakira, Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se, and Heena. In 1985, he won the
Filmfare Award for Best Music Director for Ram Teri Ganga Maili. He
was felicitated with the Padma Shri in 2015.

• Private steel major Tata Steel has been awarded the 'Golden Peacock
Global Award for Sustainability' (GPGAS) for 2015 by the Institute of
Directors, India. The award was given at the Golden Peacock Awards
Night in London.

• The mobile-based application "Customs Traveler Guide-India" has been
launched to inform people about all Indian customs rules and
regulations including those related to import of pets and goods.
Currently, the application is available on Google store and it will be
soon made accessible on other operating systems.

• The Samvidhan Diwas (or Indian Constitution Day) will be observed on
November 26, it is the date on which Indian constitution adopted.

• Mr. Naishadh Parikh is the new chairman of Confederation of Indian
Textile Industries, the apex national chamber of Indian textile
industry

• An Indian cyclist, Ms. Deborah Herold (20) bagged one gold, three
silver and one bronze medal at the 2015 Taiwan Cup held at the Hsin
Chu Velodrome, Taiwan. With this achievement, she became the first
ever Indian cyclist to win in women's elite section. Ms. Herold is a
tribal girl from Andaman and Nicobar Islands who survived the 2004
Tsunami that devastated the islands. She was trained at the Sports
Authority of India (SAI) centre in Andaman and emerged as one of the
rising stars of Indian cycling.

• The 2015 Women's European Volleyball Championship has been won by
Russia by defeating Netherlands (3-0) in the final to capture their
19th title. The Championship was the 29th edition of the tournament
and hosted by Netherlands and Belgium from September 26 to October 4,
2015.

• Black rice is mainly grown and consumed in Manipur where it is
called Chakhao. Black rice is famous for its pleasant nutty flavour.
Black rice has medicinal value. Being rich in disease-fighting
antioxidants, it is anti-cancerous as well.

• Britain defeated defending champions India to won the Sultan Johor
Cup Hockey-2015.

• India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has been chosen as 'Finance
Minister of the Year, Asia' by London-based publication Emerging
Markets. The magazine said that Mr Jaitley too deserves 'some
recognition' for India's relative economic success over the last 18
months. Earlier the magazine had chosen Pranab Mukherjee as 'Finance
Minister of the Year, Asia' in 2010.

• Bank has introduced an award "Maharaja Sayajirao Bhasha Samman" in
the memory of its great founder Maharaja Sir Sayajirao Gaekwad – III,
who had played vital role in economic growth of the country and
propagating the use of Hindi. This award will be conferred upon such a
personality every year that has made significant contribution for
creating awareness and spreading Hindi among public at large. The
award, consist of cash amount of Rs. 1.01 lac and a citation/memento.
Prasoon Joshi has won this year's award.

• Walnut (Juglans sp.) is the most important temperate nut fruit of
the country. The major growing area is Jammu and Kashmir, Uttaranchal,
Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh, with Jammu and Kashmir
occupying the largest share in total area and production.

• Advantage India: From Challenge to Opportunity is one of the last
books written by late president APJ Kalam along with his aide Srijan
Pal Singh.

• China commissioned the world's high altitude hydropower station on
Brahmaputra river. The Zam Hydropower Station is considered the
world's highest-altitude hydropower station and the largest of its
kind in Tibet. The Zangmu dam, on which construction began in 2010,
raised attention in India as the first major hydropower project on the
middle reaches of the Brahmaputra, which has its source in Tibet,
where it is known as the Yarlung Tsangpo (or Zangbo in Chinese).

• Pakistan signed a major agreement with Russia to build a 1,100
kilometre gas pipeline from Lahore to Karachi. The 1,100 kilometre
pipeline with a capacity of 12.4 billion cubic metre per annum will
connect Karachi's liquefied natural gas terminals with those in
Lahore. Russia will invest 2 $ billion in the project, the first phase
of which is expected to conclude by December 2017.

• Onsari Gharti Magar has become the first woman parliament speaker of
Nepal after she was unanimously elected by the parliament. Gharti was
earlier served as Deputy Speaker in parliament.

• The Mission Abaas has been launched by the Odisha Government to
provide affordable houses to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), Low
Income Groups (LIG) and slum dwellers. The purpose of the scheme is to
fulfill the promise of protection and welfare of slum dwellers by
providing affordable housing along with basic amenities viz. Piped
water supply, electricity, concrete roads, drainage and community
centre.

• The Andes Mountains line the western edge of South America, from
Venezuela all the way along Chile to South America's southern tip
(about 9,000 km in all), making them the longest mountain range in the
world. Along that route, they cross through Ecuador, Peru, and
Bolivia. By width, they cross into Argentina, which borders with
Chile. The Andes are one of the tallest mountain ranges, too, trailing
only the Himalayas of Asia in height. Many summits (tops of the
mountains) reach higher than 20,000 feet.

• Bombay Stock Exchange on 14 October has become the world's fastest
stock exchange clocking a median trade speed of six micro seconds.

• As per the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2015 Global Competitiveness
Index, India ranked 55th position among 140 economies of the world.
The list is topped by Switzerland, followed by Singapore, the U.S.,
Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Hong Kong, Finland, Sweden and the
UK. Among the larger emerging markets, South Africa (49), China (28),
Indonesia (37) and Brazil (75).

• Mr. PS Jayakumar appointed as the Managing Director (MD) and Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) of state-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB). He has
taken the charge when the bank is under the scanner for an alleged
black money transactions worth over Rs. 6000 crore. Mr. Jayakumar will
serve till September 2018.

• To save critically endangered vulture population, the state
government of Tamil Nadu banned Ketoprofen drug in the three western
districts viz. Erode, Coimbatore and Nilgiris. This Non-Steroid
Anti-Inflammatory Drug (NSAID) is used extensively for veterinary
purposes and as an alternative to banned veterinary painkiller
Diclofenac. It is believed that Ketoprofen causes same effect on the
vulture population caused by Diclofenac.

• The Bangladesh Bank Governor, Dr. Atiur Rahman won the 'Central Bank
Governor of the Year 2015 for Asia' for his contribution to the
maintenance of macroeconomic stability. The award was given at the
annual meeting of the World Bank and IMF at Lima, Peru.

• The Nobel Laureate, Mr. Kailash Satyarthi became the first Indian to
won the 2015 Harvard Humanitarian award by the Harvard Foundation. He
is recognised for his continuing contribution to the cause of
children's rights and abolition of child slavery.The Harvard
Foundation has been rewarding individuals whose "works and deeds have
served to improve the quality of lives" with the humanitarian award
since 1984.

• Portugal became the first European country to sign the MoU on
establishment of Nalanda University at Rajgir, Bihar. With this,
Portugal became the 17th country overall and the fourth outside the
East Asia Summit to do so. The ancient Nalanda University was
established in 427 AD during the reign of Gupta king Sakraditya. The
revived university is located at Rajgir in Nalanda District in Bihar.

• The Aditya Birla Group launched Abof.com, a new online fashion
store. This portal " www.abof.com" will offer shoppers brands from
both the Aditya Birla Group and other companies. The new portal will
be targeted at the young and have a curated collection focusing on
quality and not give discounts.

• The first National Tribal Carnival will be held between February 12
to 17, 2016 in Delhi. The purpose of this carnival is to showcase and
promote various facets of tribal culture on a large scale. The events
at the carnival will include a mix of live musical and dance
performances, exhibitions, display of craft, a fashion show, panel
discussion, book fair, etc. A film festival of tribal films has been
planned alongside the carnival.This carnival will be inaugurated by
the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi.

• The Union Ministry of Home Affairs set up a Central Victim
Compensation Fund (CVCF) with an initial amount of Rs. 200 crore. The
purpose of this scheme is to support the victims of various attacks
viz. Rape, acid attacks, human trafficking and women killed or injured
in the cross border firing. The key objectives of the scheme are: to
support and supplement the existing victim compensation schemes
notified by state governments and Union Territory administrations, to
reduce disparity in quantum of compensation amount notified by
different states and Uts for victims of similar crimes. The fund will
encourage states and Uts to effectively implement the Victim
Compensation Scheme (VCS) notified by them under the provisions of
Section 357A of CrPC and continue financial support to victims of
various crimes especially sexual offences viz. Rape, acid attacks,
crime against children, human trafficking, etc.

• Select USA is a programme under which the Department of Commerce
seeks to highlight the many advantages the US offers as a location for
business and investment.

• Saketh Myneni won the singles title at the 2015 Vietnam Open by
defeating Australia's Jordan Thompson. The victory marks Myneni's
second singles title at the Challenger level, having also won the
Indore Open.

• Richard Heck won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2010. He won the
award along with Japanese Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki for
inventing new ways to bind carbon atoms that were used in research to
fight cancer and produce thin computer screens.

• Sweden is set to become the first ever cashless country in the
world. As per the study by the KTH Royal Institute of Technology,
today five of six major banks in Sweden are already refusing to
operate cash. As a result, and considering the latest Authority
guidelines, Bitcoins has the potential to become a commonly used
currency in Sweden.

• According to the Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR),
Ireland has been ranked no.1 in terms of the business optimism. India
Inc has emerged as the second most optimistic in terms of the business
optimism. As per the survey, 86 per cent Indian businesses are
optimistic about an increase in revenue compared to 83 per cent last
quarter.

• Indian short film An Old Dog's Dairy directed by Shai Heredia and
Shuman Goel has won the best short film at the 2015 London Film
Festival. The film was earlier showcased in the Wavelengths category
at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.

• Syed Zahoor Qasim was a renowned scientist and leader of India's
first expedition to Antarctica. Apart from his Antarctica mission in
1981-81, he also successfully organised and guided the next seven
expeditions. Qasim won many awards including Padma Shiri, Padma
Bhushan, Lifetime Achievement Award, Indian Science Congress and first
National Ocean Science and Technology award.

• China's Xuerui Li has won the prestigious 2015 Denmark Open
Badminton title. Li defeated India's P V Sindhu in the final to clinch
the title. It was Li's second title of Denmark Open and earlier she
had won it in 2014. In the men's single category, China's Chen Long
has won the title.

• The world's first online hotel reference tool dedicated to Muslim
travellers has been launched in Abu Dhabi. Salam Standards provides
Muslims travellers with a one-of-a-kind reference tool, enabling them
to choose Muslim-friendly accommodation that adheres to their Islamic
principles.

• South African batsman AB de Villiers was appointed as brand
ambassador of tyre manufacturing giants MRF limited. As per company
norms, this association is for a period of three years and de Villiers
will endorse the company's products and services through advertising
campaigns and other such promotional programmes during the term of
agreement.

• Goyal India's Priyanka Khurana Goyal has been crowned as Mrs.Earth
2015. Priyanka had won the Mrs.India, Queen of Substance 2015 title in
February.

• Oxybenzone, a common UV-filtering compound found in sunscreen
killing coral reefs around the world. The chemical not only kills the
coral, it causes DNA damage in adults and deforms the DNA in coral in
the larval stage, making it unlikely they can develop properly.
Oxybenzone also caused coral bleaching, which is prime cause of coral
mortality worldwide.

• Kikkeri Shamanna Lakshminarayana or K.S.L Swamy was a noted kannada
film maker. Swamy had directed as many as 37 films. Tugudeepa (1966)
was his debut film. Savira Mettilu (2006), which he co-directed was
his last film. His other films include Gandhi Nagara, Bhagya Jyothi,
Malaya Marutha. His film Jamboo Savari won the National Award for the
best film in 1989.

• Dreaming Big: My Journey to Connect India is autobiography of noted
technocrat Sam Pitroda. Pitroda is credited as the father of the
nation's telecom revolution.

• The 19th International Children's Film Festival of India (ICFFI),
also known as Golden Elephant, will be hosted by Telangana in
Hyderabad from November 14. The theme of this year's ICFFI is Digital
India.

• The IT major Infosys acquired the US-based oil and gas consulting
firm Noah Consulting for $70 million (approximately Rs 453.5 crore) in
an all-cash deal. This acquisition combines Noah's deep industry
knowledge, information strategy planning, data governance and
architecture capabilities with Infosys' ability to provide technology
and outsourcing services on a global scale to oil and gas clients.

• To ensure economic and social security to women in distress, the
Haryana Government approved Swadhar Greh scheme. The purpose of this
scheme is to create a supportive institutional framework catering to
their primary needs in difficult situations. The scheme will work upon
providing basic amenities viz. Shelter, food, clothing and health
along with economic and social security to women in distress. The
excerpts of this scheme are: a) It will enable them to regain their
emotional strength. B) It will provide the women with legal aid and
guidance to enable them to take steps for their readjustment in family
or society. C) It will be set up in every district with capacity to
accommodate 30 women. D) Women above 18 years of age can take benefit
of the component.

• The Indian tennis player, Mr. Saketh Myneni won the Vietnam Open
tennis trophy in the men's singles category by defeating Australian
tennis player Jordan Thompson by 7-5 6-3.

• China has successfully launched the APSTAR-9 communications
satellite on a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch
Centre in Sichuan province. The satellite is expected to deliver
telecommunications and broadcasting services to customers across the
Asia-Pacific region.

• India's largest ever cluster redevelopment project spearheaded by
Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust at a cost of Rs. 4,000 crore is to be
implemented in Mumbai's Bhendi Bazar area. 20,000 people in 3,200
homes and 1,250 businesses will be benefitted. It has been backed by
Modi government, and has been chosen as a pilot for the government's
inner city rejuvenation plan.

• The Indian Police Foundation (IPF) and Indian Police Institute (IPI)
has been inaugurated by Union Home Minister Mr. Rajnath Singh in New
Delhi. The institute is registered under the Societies Registration
Act, 1860 as an All India Society. The Society has two divisions viz.
IPF (a think tank) and IPI (a professional institute for research,
knowledge management and training).The agencies will bring together
the police professionals, academia and other stake holders and provide
a platform to research, ideate, discuss and seek the answers. The
purpose of these agencies is to embark a culture of research and
evidence-based policing in India and to avoid subjectivity, personal
biases and errors in decision-making.

• The first edition of World Indigenous Games 2015 are a multi-sport
event that took place from October 23 to November 1, 2015 in Palmas,
Brazil. Approx, two thousand athletes from many indigenous ethnic
groups and 30 countries are taking part in the first World Indigenous
Games. The Games are governed by the Inter Tribal Council, a Brazilian
indigenous peoples NGO that has staged Brazil's national Indigenous
Games since 1996.

• The President of Zimbabve, Mr. Robert Gabriel Mugabe (91) won the
2015 Confucius Peace Prize by China for working tirelessly to build
the political and economic stability of his country, bringing peace to
the people of Zimbabwe, strongly supporting pan-Africanism and African
independence and making unparalleled contributions for the renaissance
of African civilisation. The Prize is a Chinese alternative to the
Nobel Peace Prize established in 2010 by the Association of Chinese
Indigenous Arts. The award is bestowed for promotion of world peace
from the 21st-century interpretation of Confucianism i.e. Universal
harmony in the world.

• The former Cabinet Secretary, Mr. Alok Rawat has been appointed as
the first male member of the National Commission for Women (NCW). In
the 5 -member body of NCW, he is the fourth member, the other members
are Lalitha Kumaramangalam (Chairperson), Sushma Sahu and Rekha
Sharma. Mr. Rawat is a 1977 batch Sikkim cadre IAS officer, who served
as Director/Joint Secretary in Ministry of Defence and Ministry of
Road Transport and Highways, Secretary (UPSC), Secretary (Coordination
and Public Grievances) in the Cabinet Secretariat and Secretary in
Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.

• To mobilise gold held by households and institutions of the country,
the 2015 Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS) will replace the existing Gold
Deposit Scheme (GDS),1999 and Gold Metal Loan (GML) Scheme,1998. The
deposits outstanding under the GDS will be allowed to run till
maturity unless the depositors prematurely withdraw them. As per the
directions of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), all Scheduled Commercial
Banks (excluding Regional Rural Banks) will implement GMS 2015.The
excerpts of GMS 2015 are as follows: a) Resident Indians viz.
Individuals, HUFs (Hindu undivided Families), trusts including mutual
funds/exchange traded funds registered under Sebi (mutual fund)
regulations and companies can make deposits. B) Minimum deposit at any
one time shall be raw gold viz. Bars, coins, jewellery excluding
stones and other metals, equivalent to 30 grams of gold of 995
fineness. C) No maximum limit. D) Tenure: Banks will accept gold
deposits under the Short Term (1-3 years) Bank Deposit (STBD), Medium
(5-7 years) and Long (12-15 years) Term Government Deposit Schemes. E)
Principal and Interest of the deposit will be denominated in gold and
banks are free to fix the interest rates.

• The Shri Venkateswara Mobile and Electronics Manufacturing Hub,
India's first dedicated mobile handset and electronics manufacturing
facility, will be set up in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. In this hub,
Foxconn, world's largest contract manufacturer of electronics, already
has started its operations for manufacturing brands viz. Xiomi and
Gionee. The other important mobile brands viz. Micromax, UTL
(Karbonn), Lava and Celkon will also start their manufacturing
operations in this hub. The honorable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi
has laid the foundation stone of this manufacturing unit.

• As per the 2015 Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS), all Scheduled
Commercial Banks excluding Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) will be
eligible to implement the scheme. The 2015 GMS will replace the
existing Gold Deposit Scheme (GDS),1999 and Gold Metal Loan (GML)
Scheme,1998. The deposits outstanding under the GDS will be allowed to
run till maturity unless the depositors prematurely withdraw them. The
excerpts of GMS 2015 are as follows: a) Resident Indians viz.
Individuals, HUFs (Hindu undivided Families), trusts including mutual
funds/exchange traded funds registered under Sebi (mutual fund)
regulations and companies can make deposits. B) Minimum deposit at any
one time shall be raw gold viz. Bars, coins, jewellery excluding
stones and other metals, equivalent to 30 grams of gold of 995
fineness. C) No maximum limit. D) Tenure: Banks will accept gold
deposits under the Short Term (1-3 years) Bank Deposit (STBD), Medium
(5-7 years) and Long (12-15 years) Term Government Deposit Schemes. E)
Principal and Interest of the deposit will be denominated in gold and
banks are free to fix the interest rates.

• The Tunnel Technology Institute will be established by Konkan
Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) at Goa's Margao town. The institute
will be named as 'George Fernandes Institute of Tunnel Technology',
after former Railway Minister George Fernandes (the driving force
behind the Konkan Railway). The purpose of this upcoming institute
will be to serve as a depository of knowledge, experience and data for
tunnels and underground structures, to provide training of tunnel
technology and consultancy services for tunnels and underground
construction.

• The Bank of Baroda (BoB) became the first Public Sector Bank (PSU)
and second bank after HDFC Bank to join the Chillr payment platform,
that enables peer-to-peer payment through a mobile application. Only
those whose banks are integrated with Chillr can use the application
for remitting funds. Though, customers of any bank can receive funds
using Chillr. The Chillr app is developed by Kerala based start up
named Mobme Wireless. This was formed into a separate firm by Sony
Joy, founder and CEO Chillr.

• The Former Delhi High Court judge, Ms. Reva Khetrapal (63) has been
designated as the 4th Lokayukta (or anti-graft ombudsman) of Delhi.
The post was lying vacant since 2013 after retired Justice Manmohan
Sarin had relinquished office after completing 5-year term. The
Lokayukta is an anti-corruption ombudsman organization in the Indian
states.

• The Maharashtra government has initiated the "Van Dhan Jan Dhan"
scheme for Ayurvedic medicines. It has started selling Ayurvedic
medicines and herbal products derived from its forest produce. Under
the scheme, the first-of-its-kind shop has recently started in Nagpur
by the state government. The products that will be available at 'Van
Dhan Jan Dhan' shops are Teak seed powder, Alovera powder, Bhui awala
churna, Amla powder, Nutgrass powder, Touch me Not powder, Tulsi
powder, Adulsa powder, Jamun Powder, Jalbrahmi powder, Herbal washing
powder, Bija glass (for diabetes), Mahua oil and Mahua jam, Adivasi
Achar, Kumari Assav and handicrafts from forest woods, etc.

• The Public service broadcaster, Doordarshan has emerged as the
most-watched Hindi channel in terms of time spent per viewer ahead of
top General Entertainment Channels (GEC). It was announced after the
Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) released the All India
viewership data, which includes rural India for the very first time.

• The Sin tax is an excise tax levied on products and services viz.
alcohol, tobacco and gambling considered bad for health or society.
These additional taxes are also seen as efforts to discourage people
from use of such products or services. This kind of tax is often used
by government to attract higher their tax revenues as people generally
refrain from opposition to such levies as they are indirect in nature
and affect only their end users. Sin Tax was in news as it has been
included under the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) law that will
be effective from April 1, 2016. GST is being seen as one of the
biggest tax reforms in the country.

• The Mercedes driver, Mr. Lewis Hamilton won the 2015 Formula 1
United States Grand Prix title. It was the third title for Hamilton at
the Circuit of the Americas in Elroy, Texas of the USA where
championship is being held annually. With this, he became only the
second British driver after Sir Jackie Stewart to achieve the feat.

• An Indian archer, Mr. Abhishek Verma (26) became the first-ever
Indian to bag silver medal in the 2015 Archery World Cup in the
compound section held in Mexico City. In 2014, Mr. Verma bagged the
gold medal in the men's compound archery team event along with Rajat
Chauhan and Sandeep Kumar and the silver medal in the men's individual
compound event at the Asian Games held at Incheon, South Korea. He
also won a gold medal in the compound men's individual section on
August 15, 2015 in the third leg of Archery World Cup held in Wroclaw,
Poland.

• The Hero Women's Indian Open 2015 has been won by Emily Kristine
Pedersen of Denmark at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon,
Haryana. It was her maiden European Tour title. She beat the trio of
Cheyenne Woods, Becky Morgan and Malene Jorgensen, who tied for the
second position, to pocket the winner's cheque of $ 60000. While
amateur Aditi Ashok was the best Indian performer, who tied at the
13th position and Vani Kapoor, finished tied 20th, was adjudged as the
best Indian professional at the tournament.

• The Television comic and self-styled outsider, Mr. Jimmy Morales won
the 2015 presidential election of Guatemala by defeating the former
first lady Ms. Sandra Torres by a large margin. He is from National
Convergence Front Party.The President of Guatemala is the head of
state and head of government of Guatemala.

• The honourable Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi will
inaugurate a memorial at Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar's London house during
his U.K. visit in November 2015. The 2050 sq feet, three-story
bungalow on King Henry Road, NW3 in London has been purchased by
Maharashtra government in September 2015 for Rs. 31 crore with the
intention of transforming it into an international museum-cum-memorial
of Dr. Ambedkar. Dr. Ambedkar lived in this house when he was pursuing
higher studies at the London School of Economics during 1921-22.

• The Indian-American farmer, Ms. Anita Adalja is among 12 individuals
from across the country who will be recognised as White House
Champions of Change for sustainable and climate- smart agriculture at
an event in the US. Ms. Adaja is a social worker who merged her career
with farming. Presently, she is working as a manager at the Arcadia
Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture. Under her management,
Arcadia Farm grows thousands of pounds of naturally grown produce that
is sold in low-or no-food access areas in Washington, through its
mobile farmers' market programme.

• The World Polio Day has been observed on 24 October 2015. The day
was observed to create awareness about the hazards of the crippling
disease.The Day was established by Rotary International over a decade
ago to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who led the first team to
develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis.

• The Union Government has constituted a 10-member high-level
committee to simplify the provisions of the Income Tax Act (IT), 1961
under the Chairmanship of former Delhi High Court Judge, Justice R.V.
Easwar. The term of the committee shall be for a period of one year
from the date of its constitution. It will study and identify the
provisions which are impacting the ease of doing business as well as
identify the areas and provisions of the Income tax Act for
simplification in the light of existing jurisprudence.

• The Indian filmmaker Pan Nalin's movie "Angry Indian Goddesses" has
bagged the BNL People's Choice Award at the 10th Rome Film Festival.
The movie follows the stories of seven girls and narrates the tale of
how Frieda (Sarah-Jane Dias), invites her close girlfriends to Goa to
announce her wedding and it all turns into a wild bachelorette party.
The film is described as a fresh and unbridled portrayal of women in
India today. It stars Sandhya Mridul, Sarah-Jane Dias, Tannishtha
Chatterjee, Anushka Manchanda, Amrit Maghera, Rajashri Deshpande and
Pavleen Gujral.

• An Indian environment group "Chintan" won the 2015 UN Climate
Solutions Awards for their work with waste pickers and e-waste to
tackle climate change. This Delhi-based group has been awarded for its
project 'E-waste: From Toxic to Green' which revolves around
preventing greenhouse gas emissions due to mass burning of electronic
waste in Delhi NCR while promoting green livelihoods for urban
waste-pickers.

• The world's first 3D blood vessel bio-printer has been invented by
Chinese biotechnological firm Sichuan Revotek. This 3-D blood vessel
bio-printer makes it easy to produce personalised functional organs.
With this innovation, the stem based 3D bio-printing technology has
been plastered. Blood vessel carry nutrients to organs and play a
vital role in organ formation. The research team developed a new
bio-ink called "Biosynsphere", whose primary goal is the personalised
stem cell bio-printing to pave the way for organ regeneration.

• To ease access to financial assistance under Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi
(RAN), the Union government has decided to enhance the financial
powers delegated to designated central government hospitals and
institutes from Rs. 2 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh for providing financial
assistance in cases where emergency surgery is to be conducted. After
the enhancement, only cases for financial assistance beyond Rs. 5
lakh/patient would now be required to be referred to Health
Ministry.The purpose of this increment of financial assistance is to
curtail procedural delays for treatment, which would bring relief to
thousands of patients annually. The Government also provides financial
assistance through the Health Minister's Cancer Patient Fund (HMCPF)
under which aid is given to the poor patients in 27 Regional Cancer
Centres. The financial assistance is also available under the Health
Minister's Discretionary Grant (HMDG) to patients having family annual
income up to Rs. 1.0 lakh and below to defray a part of the
expenditure on hospitalization and treatment in government hospitals.

• As per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) notification, the Foreign
Institutional Investors (FIIs)/Registered Foreign Portfolios Investors
(RFPIs) can now invest up to 74% of the paid up capital of DEN
Networks Limited under the Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS).

• The Tianhui-1C mapping satellite of Tianhui-1 series has been
launched by Long March 2D carrier rocket from the Jiuquan launching
base located in the China's northwestern Gansu province.The satellite
has been developed and produced under the China Aerospace Science and
Technology Corp (CASTC) which is China's primary launch vehicle and
satellite contractor. It will be used for scientific experiments, land
resource surveys, mapping, crop yield estimation and disaster relief.

• As per the latest edition of World Bank's Ease of Doing Business
2016 report, India ranked at 130th among the 189 countries. The
ranking of country in this list is based on index averages the
country's percentile rankings on 10 indicators each having equal
weightage. The list is topped by Singapore followed by New Zealand,
Denmark, South Korea, Hongkong, Britain and the USA. The ranking of
BRICS countries are Russia (51), South Africa (73), China (84), Brazil
(116). The ranking of India's neighbouring countries are as follows:
Pakistan (138), Bhutan (71), Sri Lanka (107), Myanmar (167), Nepal
(99), Bangladesh (174).

• The Union Ministry of Finance has launched "E-Sahyog" pilot project
to facilitate taxpayers. The project aims to reduce compliance cost,
especially for small taxpayers. The purpose of the project is to
provide an online mechanism to resolve mismatches in Income tax
returns of those assesses whose returns have been selected for
scrutiny, without visiting the Income Tax Office.

• The 'Scientifically Validated' Anti-Diabetes Herbal Drug "BGR-34"
has jointly developed by CSIR laboratories viz. National Botanical
Research Institute (NBRI) and Central Institute for Medicinal and
Aromatic Plant (CIMAP). The drug is a based on Ayurveda, and is meant
to treat type-II diabetes mellitus. It is basically a combination of
natural extracts obtained from plants. The functions of BGR-34 include
the following: a) It boosts the immune system. B) Works as
antioxidant. C) Helps maintain normal blood glucose levels. D) Reduces
chances of complications caused by persistent high blood glucose
levels. E) Improves the quality of life for patients with high blood
sugar levels.

• India and France has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to
conserve, develop and publicize written heritage, at the National
Library in Kolkata. Both the countries will also share expertise viz.
description of Indian manuscripts in Sanskrit and Tamil. The MoU will
assist a programme on digitization of old manuscripts and documents
which had begun in France 7 years ago. On completion, the National
Virtual Library (NVL) will share and link all knowledge resources
lying within the possession of various government institutes and other
organizations of both the countries. The MoU was signed between Ms.
Sreya Guha, Joint Secretary (Library) in the Union Ministry of Culture
and Bruno Racine, President of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France
(BNF), the National Library of France.

• The senior IRS officer, Mr. Najib Shah has been appointed as the
Chairman of Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). Mr. Shah, a
1979 batch officer of Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central
Excise), will serve the office till March 2017.

• The Communist leader, Ms. Bidhya Devi Bhandari (54) has been elected
as the first woman President of Nepal,. Ms. Bhandari succeeded Mr. Ram
Baran Yadav who was elected as the country's first President in 2008
after Nepal was declared a Republic following the abolition of a
240-year-old monarchy. Previously, Ms. Bhandari was the
vice-chairperson of the Unified Marxist–Leninist party of Nepal and
chair of the All Nepal Women Association.

• The 8th National Seed Congress 2015 has been organized at Hyderabad
International Convention Centre to deliberate latest challenges of
global seed scenario and cutting edge technologies in the Indian seed
industry. The event was organised by Union Agriculture Ministry was
formally inaugurated by the Telangana state Agriculture Minister, Mr.
Shrinivasa Reddy. The theme of this forum is "Quality Seed for
Farmers' Prosperity".

• The Mysuru railway station is set to become the first visually
challenged-friendly station in India. The tactile layout maps of the
station, with distances in paces toutilities viz. toilets, platforms,
staircases and washrooms, will be displayed. The following facilities
will be made available for Visually challenged people viz. navigation
maps in Braille would be made available on the railway station
premises further the tactile layout maps of the station, with distance
in paces to utilities viz. toilets, platforms, staircase and washrooms
will be displayed. The platform numbers in Braille will be written on
the railings of staircases. The menu cards at the canteen and the
schedule of the trains will also be made available in Braille.

• Mumbai has successfully tested its first Tsunami early warning
system siren in South Mumbai. The siren system has a digital
electronic board that gives out data about the approaching tsunami.
The siren has a radical range of 3 kms in all directions and it gives
continuous hoot for one minute. The system is installed at the
Meteorology Office of Western Naval Command by Indian National Centre
for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), an autonomous organisation
under Ministry of Earth & Sciences (MoES), GoI. The siren will be
connected to and remotely controlled by INCOIS, Hyderabad. India
started its own interim tsunami warning centre in the first quarter of
2005 after the devastating tsunami of December 26, 2004.

• Deepika Kumari has bagged the Silver medal in recurve event at the
Archery World Cup Final in Mexico City.

• The Indian states, Assam and Meghalaya will jointly host the 12th
edition of South Asian Federation (SAF) Games 2016 from January 10 to
20, 2016. It is confirmed by the Union Minister for Youth Affairs and
Sports, Mr. Sarbananda Sonowal. This is the first time that such a
mega event of International level is taking place in North East India.
Out of 23 sports disciplines in the 12th SAF Games, 8 disciplines will
be held in Shillong while the other 15 disciplines will be held at
Guwahati, Assam. The SAG would see participation of around 2,500
athletes from the 8 member-countries viz. Afghanistan, Bangladesh,
Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.The 2019
South Asian Games will be hosted by Kathmandu, Nepal. The last edition
of the SAG was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2010.

• The Exim Bank of India will set up the Kukuza Project Development
Company (KPDC) in Africa to facilitate Indian participation in
infrastructure projects across the continent. The other shareholders
in the company are the IL&FS Group, African Development Bank and the
State Bank of India (SBI). The purpose of this firm is to strengthen
every partner, who will complement each other in building Indian
project exports while simultaneously aiding the furtherance of
economic and political ties between India and Africa.The KPDC will
provide the entire gamut of project development expertise to such
projects viz. project identification, pre-feasibility or feasibility
studies, preparation of detailed project reports, environmental and
social impact assessment, etc.

• The Luxembourg envoy to the United Nations (UN), Ms. Sylvie Lucas
has been appointed as the next chair of the Inter-Governmental
Negotiations (IGN) on United Nations Security Council (UNSC) reforms.
Ms. Lucas was appointed by 70th UN General Assembly President
Mr.Mogens Lykketoft and replaced Jamaican Ambassador to UN Courtenay
Rattray. Luxembourg was a non-permanent member of the 15-nation
Security Council for the 2013-14 term.

• 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. The purpose
of this campaign is to promote gender equality and to educating girls.
With the help of Celltick mobile media, the user is able to get
messages that they can interact with on the homescreen of their
device, enabling ease of use in accessing information about BBBP. The
platform provides a means to reach users based on their location as
well as their language of preference.

• The Saudi Arabian blogger and author of the website Free Saudi
Liberals, Mr. Raif Badawi won 2015 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of
Thought for courageously expressing his ideas and openly raising his
doubts on the rules of his country which he deemed overtly
restrictive. Currently, he is serving a 10-year sentence and 1,000
lashes for insulting Islam. The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought
has been awarded by the European Parliament since 1988 to individuals
or organisations for their contribution to the fight for human rights
and democracy.

• Dr. John Pombe Magufuli (56) is the fifth President of Tanzania, who
won the 2015 Tanzanian general election. He was the candidate from
ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party.

• As per World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Shapers Annual Survey
2015, late South African President Mr. Nelson Mandela is the most
admired leader of the world followed by Pope Francis(2nd), Tesla
Motors' CEO Elon Musk (3rd) , Mahatma Gandhi (4th), Microsoft Founder
Bill Gates(5th), US President Barack Obama (6th), Virgin Group Founder
Mr. Richard Barson (7), Apple Founder Mr. Steve Jobs (8), Nobel
laureate Mohammad Yunus (9), Prime Minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi
(10th) and US investor Mr.Warren Buffett (11).

• As per the Freedom on the Net (FOTN) report 2015, the Internet
freedom is partly free in India. Among 65 countries, India scored 40
points (the score has improved by 2 points to 40 from 42 in 2014). The
FOTN 2015 scores are based on a scale of 0 to 100 with 0 representing
the best level of freedom on the net progress and 100 the worst. The
2015 ratings reflect the period January 1 through December 31, 2014.
Iceland is the most Internet free country with 6-points followed by
Estonia (7), Canada, Germany and USA. The world's worst abuser of
Internet freedom is China with 88 points was followed by Syria (87)
and Iran (87).

• The radio broadcaster, Radio Mirchi in association with Delhi
International Airport Limited (DIAL) launched a 24×7 custom-produced
airport radio "MIRCHI T3 ". MIRCHI T3 is India's first and one-of-its
kind airport radio that will transform and enhance the travel
experience of passengers at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI)
Airport's Terminal 3. The passengers will get a chance to hear a
melange of songs co-curated by Bollywood composer trio
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy without using any gadgets and also, free of cost.

• To review University Grants Commission (UGC) fellowships, the Union
Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has set up a 5-member
committee headed by ex-director of IIT- Guwahati, Mr. Gautam Barua.
The fellowships include National Eligibility Test (NET) based junior
research fellowship and the non-NET ones. The committee's members
include Central University of Gujarat vice-chancellor Syed Bari,
Central University of Himachal Pradesh vice-chancellor Kuldeep
Agnihotri and Karnataka State Women's University vice-chancellor Meena
Rajiv Chandawarkar. The committee has to submit its report by December
2015.

• The Indian social activist and founder of the New Delhi-based Sulabh
Sanitation Movement, Mr. Bindeshwar Pathak (72) has been named the
recipient of the New York Global Leaders Dialogue (NYGLD) Humanitarian
Award for 2016 for his contribution to sanitation and enhancing the
quality of life for millions of manual scavengers. The NYGLD will be
presented to Pathak on April 12, 2016 in New York. Mr. Pathak is a
great humanist and known as a social reformer for his 42 years long
campaign against untouchability in different parts of India.

• The 12th Global Tuberculosis Report 2015 is published by the World
Health Organization (WHO). As per the report, India, Indonesia and
China had the largest number of cases: 23%, 10% and 10% of the global
total, respectively. India is among 9 high-burden countries viz.
Brazil, Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, India, Myanmar, the Philippines,
Uganda and Vietnam, where all 2015 targets for mortality, prevalence
and incidence were met.

• The Union Government has decided to set up National Tribal Advisory
Council (NTAC) for real time monitoring of the ongoing programmes and
schemes aimed at welfare of tribal people and development of tribal
areas.The council will be chaired by the Prime Minister and will meet
once or twice in a year.

• Tamil Nadu is the largest leather producing state in India. It
accounts for 40 per cent of the country's leather production. Chennai,
Ambur, Ranipet, Vaniyambadi, Vellore, Trichy, Dindigul and Erode are
major leather producing centres in Tamil Nadu. Kolkata, Kanpur,
Jalandar, Bengaluru, Delhi and Hyderabad are the other important
places involved in leather manufacturing and exports in the country.

• Hockey India appointed Neil Hawgwood as chief coach of Indian
women's hockey team. Hawgwood had earlier also served as the chief
coach of the women's national team. It was during Hawgwood's regime
that the team won the Hockey World League Round 2 in 2013, silver in
the Asian Champions Trophy, bronze medal at Asian Games 2014 and
bagged 5th position at Commonwealth Games in 2014.

• China is planning to design of a super giant particle collider which
will be bigger and more powerful than any particle accelerator on
earth. Chinese scientists have completed an initial conceptual design
of collider. With a circumference of 50 to 100 km, the proposed
Chinese accelerator Circular electron Positron Collider will generate
millions of Higgs bosons particles, allowing a more precise
understanding.

• Tanzania's ruling party candidate John Magufuli has won the
presidential elections with 58% of the vote. He defeated his closet
rival, Edward Lowassa, a former prime minister and opposition leader.

• China over took the US to become the world's largest online retail
market as its e-commerce revenues grossed $439 million last year
constituting 7% of its GDP. According to US journal Statista, US
online sales last year accounted to about $290 billion. In 2014, the
number of online shoppers in China climbed to 361 million,
representing 55.7% of the nation's shoppers.

• Long jump great Bob Beamon was awarded special Olympic award by the
Association of National Olympic Committees. Bob Beamon had set a world
record with a stunning jump at the 1968 Mexico City games. On October
18, 1968, Beamon soared 29 feet, 2-1/2 inches on his first jump,
shattering world record by 21-3/4 inches in one of the iconic moments
in Olympic history. The world record stood for 22 years before Mike
Powell broke it in 1991, but Beamon's jump still stands as the Olympic
record.

• As per global market research firm JD Power 2015 India Customer
Service Index (CSI) study, Maruthi Suzuki India has topped the
after-sales customer service satisfaction among mass market brands for
a record 16th consecutive year. Maruthi Suzuki with a score of 906, on
a scale of 1,000 performs well across all factors with greatest
improvements in service initiation followed by service facility. Honda
Cars India, with a score of 880 ranked second. Hyundai Motor India and
Tata Motors are tied at third position.

• Narmada Nidhi is a new breed of disease-resistant chicken developed
by Nanaji Deshmukh veterinary university in Madhya Pradesh. The new
protein rich rooster carries genes of fowl breeds – Kadaknath and
Jabalpur colour. Kadaknath is a local breed of chicken found in tribal
dominated Jhabua and Alirajur district of Madhya Pradesh. The new
breed is cheaper and rich in nutrition values and has been developed
for the weaker section of the rural society.

• The 2016 Asia Cup T20 tournament will be held in Bangladesh in
February. India will host 2018 edition of Asia Cup.

• Saudi blogger Raif Badawi has been chosen for the prestigious
European Union's prize for human rights and freedom of thought. Badawi
was well known for insulting Islam and for cyber crime. Named in
honour of Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, the prize
has been awarded by the European Parliament annually since 1998. The
first recipients were Nelson Mandela and Russian author and dissident
Anatoly Marchenko.

• Railway launched Vikalp, a new scheme under which waitlisted
passengers can get confirmed accommodation in next alternative train
if they opt for the option while booking their tickets online. The
scheme was launched in trains running on Delhi-Lucknow and Delhi-Jammu
sectors on a pilot basis.

• Lake Kariba is the world's largest man-made lake and reservoir by
volume. It lies along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.

• Writer and historian Shrabani Basu is penned the book "For King and
Another Country: Indian Soldiers on the Western Front 1914-18". The
book is published by Bloomsbury and reveals how Indian soldiers were
treated during Britain's World War.

• A big data base for International shipping, which is said to be
first in Asia, will be established in east China's port city of
Quingdao. The 5 billion yuan project includes a big data exchange, a
research academy, an industrial park and a big data centre.

• As per the World Health Organisation (WHO), India has recorded the
largest number of Tuberculosis cases in the world last year.
Tuberculosis killed 1.5 million people in 2014 which ranks alongside
HIV as a leading killer worldwide. As per the report, India, Indonesia
and China had largest number of cases at 23 per cent, 10 per cent and
10 per cent respectively of the global total in 2014. India and
Nigeria accounted for about one-third of global TB deaths.

• Samuel Paul was a founder-chairman of the Public Affairs Centre and
Public Affairs Foundation. He was best known for pioneering management
education in India at IIM Ahmadabad. Later he moved to advisory
positions in the World Bank and several international organisations.
He was honoured with Padma Shri in 2004. Paul was recipient of the
Fred Riggs awards of the American Society of Public Administration and
Nohria award of All India Management Associations. He was also the
first Asian to be awarded the Jit Gill Memorial award by the World
Bank.

• New Zealand team overwhelmed Australia 34-17 to clinch the Rugby
World cup for a record third time. It became the first nation to
retain the Webb Ellis cup.

• Senior advocate Upamanyu Hazarika is the chairman of the commission
appointed by the Supreme Court in May, 2015 to review illegal migrants
from Bangladesh to Assam. The commission submitted its report on
October 5. The commission in its report suggested to stop the
continued aggression of illegal migrants. It includes restriction on
the sale of land and immovable property only to those who were
citizens in 1951 and their descendants. The commission has made
several other recommendations to protect the indigenous inhabitants.

• Najib Shah, 1979 batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer was
appointed as chairman of the Central Board of Excise and Customs
(CBEC). CBEC comprises of a chairperson and up to six members, is the
apex body for framing policy and administrative issues related to
indirect tax, and central excise duty.

• Baliyo Ghar (Strong house) is a five year, US $ 8 million project
that will train local masons, carpenters, engineers and affected
homeowners. It will be implemented by the National Society for
Earthquake Technology (NSET) in cooperation with the Ministry of Urban
Development, Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development and
National Planning Commission.

• Mayank Shrivastava, an Indian Institute of Science (IISc), professor
has become the first Indian to get IEEE electron devices society early
career award. He has been recognised for his contribution to
micro-nanoelectronics. The award will be presented during the
International Electron Devices meeting at Washington DC in the U.S in
December.

• Tamil Nadu topped the list of states in terms of number of
investment proposals from the micro, small and medium enterprises
(MSME) in the financial year 2013-14, according to Associated Chambers
of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham). Tamil Nadu garnered the
highest share over 32 per cent in the total number of investment
proposals from the MSME across the country from the 2013-14 fiscal.
Tamil Nadu is followed by Gujarat (16.2 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (12.5
per cent), Karnataka (7.2 per cent) and Maharashtra (5.5 per cent).

• Gulam Kaderbhoy Noon was a British businessman. He was originally
from Mumbai, India. Popularly known as the Curry King, Noon operated a
number of food product companies in Southall, London. Noon was
conferred royal honours for his contribution to business and Britain's
Asian community.

• SLINEX (Sri Lanka India Naval Exercise) is bilateral naval exercise
between India and Sri Lanka. The SLINEX series of naval exercises were
initiated in 2005. Since then, three such successful engagements were
conducted. The fourth edition was held at Trincomalee from October 28
to November 1. The Indian naval ships Kora, Kirpan and Savitri along
with ship-borne integral helicopters participated in the exercise. The
Sri Lankan navy was represented by Sayura, Samudra, Sagara, six fast
attack crafts, two fast gun boats and one fast missile vassal.

• Space scientist B N Suresh has been chosen for the Karnataka Science
and Technology Academy (KSTA) Lifetime achievement award-2015. The
award carries a gold medal, a citation and purse of Rs. 1 lakh.

• Times Group launched the country's first real estate channel
Magicbricks Now. The channel will be distributed across DTH and cable
TV networks and is already available on all platforms that carry the
channels of Times Network. The channel has been launched to guide the
consumer through the complex and seemingly intimidating world of
real-estate transactions.

• Indian golfer S Chikka won the India Masters title after defeating
compatriot Shubhashankar Sharma. Abhijit Chadha took third place,
while countryman Rashid Khan and American Greg Moss settled one shot
back in the fourth place. Chikka will take home a winner's prize
cheque of $21,000 and receive six world ranking points courtesy his
win.

• Kerala Gramin Bank has won the IDBRT best bank award for best
IT-enabled Regional Rural Bank.

• New Delhi is the site for the Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav that was
began from November 1. Varied folk, traditional, tribal and classical
art forms from across the country will be showcased in the event. The
debut edition of the National Cultural festival is being organised by
the Ministry of Culture. Over 700 artists from seven zonal councils
will be presenting 49 art forms during the festival which will
showcase how culturally rich and vibrant the country is.

• Reang or Riang are one of the 21 scheduled tribes of the Indian
state of Tripura. The Reang are the second most populous tribe of
Tripura after the Tripuris. The Reang can be found mainly in the North
Tripura, Dhalai and the South Tripura districts of Tripura state in
India. However, they may also be found in Mizoram, Assam, Manipur and
Bangladesh. They speak the Reang dialect of Kokborok language which is
of Tibeto-Burmeseorigin and is locally referred to as Kau Bru.

• Rashtriya Ekta Diwas (National Unity Day) is celebrated to pay
tribute to Patel, who was instrumental in keeping India united. It is
to be celebrated on 31 October every year as annual commemoration of
the birthday of the Iron Man of India Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, one of
the founding leaders ofRepublic of India.

• BRICS nations Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa signed
Moscow Declaration for partnership in addressing common regional and
global socio-economic challenges by utilising science, technology and
innovation (STI). It was signed at the third meeting of the BRICS
Ministers for Science, Technology and Innovation held in Moscow,
Russia.

• Government has decided to set up a National Tribal Advisory Council
for effecting monitoring and implementation of various tribal welfare
schemes. This was announced by Union Tribal Affairs Minister Shri Jual
Oram. The council will be chaired by the Prime Minister and will meet
once or twice in a year.

• V N Misra was one of the eminent archaeologists of post-independent
India. He was known as doyen of Indian prehistoric archaeology. Misra
was best known for his extensive field studies and excavations in
Central India and Rajasthan, where he made several significant
contributions to the reconstruction of India's prehistoric past.

• Ministry of Human Resource Development has decided to constitute a
Drafting Committee for framing the New Education Policy. The Chairman
of the Drafting Committee is Shri T.S.R. Subramanian, Former Cabinet
Secretary and the four members are: Smt. Shailaja Chandra, former
Chief Secretary, NCT of Delhi; Shri Sewaram Sharma, former Home
Secretary, NCT of Delhi; Shri Sudhir Mankad, former Chief Secretary,
Gujarat and Prof. J S Rajput, former Director, NCERT. The National
University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), New
Delhi will act as its Secretariat. The Committee is expected to submit
the Draft National Education Policy as soon as possible but not later
than 31st December, 2015. Along with the draft education policy, the
Committee will also submit a Framework for Action.

• British former Prime Minister Tony Blair has apologised for mistakes
made over the Iraq War. He conceded that the war has caused the rise
of Islamic State militant group.

• The 4th edition of Sri Lanka-India bilateral Naval Exercise
(SLINEX-2015) has been held at Trincomalee coast, Sri Lanka. The 6-day
exercise is focused on anti-piracy exercises, gun firings, cross-deck
helicopter operations and anti-surface operations. The purpose of 2015
SLINEX is to enhance the capability of the two navies to work together
at sea and contribute towards maritime security in the region. The
exercise also seeks to reinforce the strong neighbourly ties
underscored by extensive maritime interaction.

• The Madhya Pradesh government has decided to provide 33 %
reservation to women in government jobs. With this decision, the
reservation to women in government jobs in the state has been
increased from present 30 % to 33 %.

• The 2016 South Asian Rugby 7'S Championship will be hosted by Jammu
and Kashmir at Bakhshi Stadium from June 18 to June 20, 2016. The
8-teams from many countries viz. Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan,
Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and India will participate.

• To facilitate easy travel throughout the Schengen Area (Europe) and
aid in issuance of long-term visas, France has introduced biometric
visas to Indian nationals from November 2, 2015. The recorded
biometric data will be stored for a period of 59 months (almost 5
years) and will remove the need for applicants to come in person again
for renewing their visa.