Current Affairs 14th Oct 2015

Important Current Affairs ( 14th oct 2015)

• November 26 will be marked as Constitution Day.
  Significance of Day: On 26 November 1949, Indian constitution was adopted by the 389 member Constituent Assembly (CA) and it came into force on 26 January, 1950.   The date of 26 January was chosen to commemorate the Purna Swaraj declaration of independence of 1930.The  Constituent Assembly took two years, eleven months and seventeen days  to complete task of drafting the Constitution .  On 29 August 1947, the Constituent Assembly set up a Drafting Committee under the Chairmanship of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar to prepare a Draft Constitution for India. Chairman of the Constituent Assembly was Dr. Rajender Prasad.
• Indian pugilist Vijender Singh had the perfect beginning to his professional career as he knocked out Britain's Sonny Whiting via a technical knockout at the Manchester Arena in his debut.
•   K P Sharma Oli(CPN-UML) was  elected as the next Prime Minister of Nepal defeating incumbent Sushil Koirala.
•   Indian shuttler Ajay Jayaram defended his Dutch Open Grand Prix title after defeating Estonia's Raul Must 21-12, 21-18 in the final on Sunday.
    
•  British telecom giant Vodafone has the transfer pricing tax dispute case against Indian Income Tax authorities after Bombay High Court ruled in its favour. Income tax authorities had imposed Rs. 3,700 crore transfer pricing tax on Vodafone India over the capital gains made by the company after selling its call centre business to its Mauritius based subsidiary in 2008. Transfer pricing is referred to the fixing of the price for goods and services sold between related legal subsidiaries (entities) within an enterprise.
   
•    Renowned scientist Shekhar Basu has been appointed as the Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and Secretary of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).
  He will replace R K Sinha who superannuates on 23 October 2015. Prior to this appointment Mr. Basu was Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and Chief executive of the Nuclear Recycle Board (NRB). AEC is the governing body of the DAE which is under the direct charge of the Prime Minister.
  
• Renowned Carnatic flautist Dr. Natesan Ramani passed away in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
   
•   Gujarat has been placed to top position in World Bank’s first ever ranking of States on the ease of doing business in India. All States were assessed over a six-month period from January to June 2015 on the basis of percentage scores in a 98-point reforms agenda. Top 5 States: Gujarat (71.14%), Andhra Pradesh (70.12%), Jharkhand (63.09%), Chhattisgarh (62.45%) and Madhya Pradesh (62.00%). Bottom 5 states: Mizoram (6.37%), Jammu and Kashmir (5.93%), Meghalaya (4.38%), Nagaland (3.41%) and Arunachal Pradesh (1.23%).
•    The Union Cabinet has allowed 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) under the automatic route for white label ATM operations (WLAO). Prior this approval, foreign investment in WLAO was allowed through the government approval route which required some processing time and projects were delayed. Private non-bank companies that own and operate their own brand of ATMs are termed as White label ATMs. They were meant to expand the reach of ATMs in Tier III to VI centres.
•   Every year 11th October is being observed as International Day of the Girl Child (IDGC).
  2015 theme: ‘The Power of the Adolescent Girl: Vision for 2030’.
     
• (PNB) has won the 2015 Beighton Cup hockey tournament. It is maiden title of PNB, In the final match played in Kolkata PNB defeated 4 time winners Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). Instituted in 1895 and is one of the oldest field hockey tournaments running till date.
    
•   Oscar-winning composer Allah-Rakha Rahman has been named the Cultural Ambassador for Seychelles is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The 115-island country, capital is Victoria. Currency –Seychellois Rupee.
•   India’s first Dolphin Community Reserve will be established in West Bengal to protect the Gangetic river dolphins. The reserve would be set up in the Hooghly River between Malda and Sundarbans . Gangetic river dolphins is India’s national aquatic animal and is often known as the ‘Tiger of the Ganges’. Hooghly River in West Bengal is the last
  stretch of the Ganges River. It meets Bay of Bengal in the Sundarbans.
    
•   Veteran music director and lyricist Ravindra Jain passed away in Mumbai, Maharashtra. He was 71.
•   National Dialogue Quartet (NDQ) in Tunisia has won prestigious 2015 Nobel Peace Prize. Norwegian Nobel Committee has selected NDQ for its decisive contribution in building pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the 2011 Jasmine Revolution. NDQ 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.  Tunisia is a North African country capital, Tunis. Currency Tunisian Dinar
• India-China Joint Military Training Exercise HAND-IN-HAND 2015 will be conducted at Kunming Military Academy of Yunnan province in China from 12 to 23 October 2015.
  
• Author Svetlana Alexievich of Belarus has been selected for prestigious 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature. With this she became 14th women Literature Laureate and she is also the first writer from Belarus to receive this award.
    
•  Hoesung Lee of South Korea has been elected Chairman of Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). Lee succeeds environmentalist R.K. Pachauri of India.  Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.
   
• (CCEA) has approved World Bank assisted National Watershed Management Project- Neeranchal. The project will ensure access to irrigation to every farmland (Har Khet Ko Pani) and help to achieve objectives of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) for efficient use of water (Per Drop More Crop). It will be implemented at the National level as well as in the 9 States. These states are Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana.
•  Tomas Lindahl (United Kingdom), Paul Modrich (US) and Aziz Sancar (US) have jointly won 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• Union Cabinet  has given its nod to establish 3 new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). These 3 AIIMS will be established at Nagpur (Maharashtra), Manglagiri (Andhra Pradesh) and Kalyani in West Bengal.
   
• INS Astradharani was 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.