1. 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).
2. 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'.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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).
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. Leelaben Chhabildas Gurjar from Gujarat has been awarded the iconic mother award from President Pranab Mukherjee.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. Kurti district court in Jharkhand became the first court in the country to operate on solar energy.
18. 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.
19. The 13th World Spice Congress (WSC) was held here from February 27 to 29, 2016.
20. CORPAT is a bilateral maritime exercise between India and Indonesia.
21. 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).
22. 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.
23. 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.
24. 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.
25. Renowned Indian composer, singer and musician Allah-Rakha Rahman has been named as a cultural ambassador for Seychelles in India.
26. Iran has successfully test-fired the Emad a new generation long-range ballistic missile.
27. 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.
28. 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%.
29. 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.
30. 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.
31. 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. 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.
32. 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.
33. 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.
34. 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.
35. 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.
36. 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.
37. For commercial remote-sensing services, China launched "Jilin-1" satellites from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in China's Gansu province.
38. 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.
39. 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.
40. 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.
41. Dr. Natesan Ramani commonly known as N. Ramani or N. Flute Ramani, was an eminent Indian Carnatic flautist.
42. 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.
43. 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.
44. 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.
45. 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.
46. 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.
47. 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.
48. 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.
49. 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.
50. 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.
51. 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.
52. 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.
53. 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.
54. Britain defeated defending champions India to won the Sultan Johor Cup Hockey-2015.
55. 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.
56. Walnut (Juglans sp.) is the most important temperate nut fruit of the country. Kashmir occupying the largest share in total area and production.
57. China commissioned the world's high altitude hydropower station on Brahmaputra river. 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).
58. 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.
59. 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.
60. Bombay Stock Exchange on 14 October has become the world's fastest stock exchange clocking a median trade speed of six micro seconds.
61. 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).
62. 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.
63. 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.
64. Portugal became the first European country to sign the MoU on establishment of Nalanda University at Rajgir, Bihar.
65. 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.
66. The first National Tribal Carnival will be held between February 12 to 17, 2016 in Delhi.
67. Sweden is set to become the first ever cashless country in the world.
68. 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.
69. South African batsman AB de Villiers was appointed as brand ambassador of tyre manufacturing giants MRF limited.
70. 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.
71. Oxybenzone, a common UV-filtering compound found in sunscreen killing coral reefs around the world.
72. 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.
73. 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.
74. To ensure economic and social security to women in distress, the Haryana Government approved Swadhar Greh scheme.
75. 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.
76. 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'.
77. 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.
78. The Former Delhi High Court judge, Ms. Reva Khetrapal (63) has been designated as the 4th Lokayukta (or anti-graft ombudsman) of Delhi.
79. 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.
80. 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.
81. 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.
82. 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.
83. 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.
84. 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:
85. 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.
86. 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).
87. 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.
88. India and France has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to conserve, develop and publicize written heritage, at the National Library in Kolkata.
89. 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.
90. 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".
91. The Mysuru railway station is set to become the first visually challenged-friendly station in India.
92. 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. 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.
93. 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.
94. 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.
95. 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.
96. 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). Iceland is the most Internet free country with 6-points followed by Estonia (7).
97. 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.
98. 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.
99. 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.
100. Lake Kariba is the world's largest man-made lake and reservoir by volume. It lies along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.
101. 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.
102. As per the World Health Organisation (WHO), India has recorded the largest number of Tuberculosis cases in the world last year.
103. 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.
104. 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.
105. 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.
106. 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.
107. 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.
108. 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.
109. 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.
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