IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS OF NOVEMBER 2nd, 2017

IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS OF NOVEMBER 2nd, 2017

1.The United States On 2nd November  announced it will start revoking passports of registeredchild sex offenders and issue new ones that have a notice saying the bearer "was convicted of a sex offence against a minor". 

a.The step is being taken to comply with the International Megan's Law that aims to curb child
exploitation and child sex tourism.

2.Collins Dictionary has named 'Fake News' Word of the year, with the phrase witnessing a 365% rise in usage since 2016. 

a.Defined as "false... information disseminated under the guise of news reporting," it has been used frequently by Donald Trump.  

3.Goa, with a score of 0.656, is the safest state in the country for women, according to a Gender Vulnerability Index (GVI) report released by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. 

a.Kerala (0.634) has been ranked second, while Bihar (0.410) has been placed last. 

4.Mudhol Hound has become the 1st Indian dog breed to get Army training. 

a.The Indian Army, which generally inducts German Shepherds, Great Swiss Mountain dog, and Labradors, have almost completed training six hounds that will be posted in Jammu and Kashmir later this year. 

5.The Centre On 2nd November  announced that it will promote Khichdi as 'Brand India Food' at the World Food India event in Delhi. 

aKhichdi symbolises India's great culture of unity in diversity at its best, Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said.

6.Paytm Payments Bank On 2nd November  announced that it has appointed former ICICI Bank executive, Sudhanshu Jain, as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO). 

7.Two Indo-British teams of scientists, one which developed a portable device to monitor maternal health and another that worked on producing solar energy more efficiently, have won the first-ever Newton Prize. 

aThe teams would each receive a £200,000 (over ₹1.71 crore) grant. 

b.The UK-India Newton Fund, known as the Newton-Bhabha Fund, has jointly committed over £200 million until 2021.

8.The restored Royal Opera House, located at Mumbai's Charni Road, has received theAward of Merit from the 2017 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.

9.Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani has become Asia's richest personwith a wealth of $42.1 billion, according to Forbes. 

aThis puts him ahead of Chinese real estate giant Evergrande Group's ChairmanHui Ka Yan who has a net worth of $40.6 billion. 

10.CEO of ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar was named the Most powerful woman in India as she ranked 32nd in World's 100 Most Powerful Women list by Forbes. 

a.CEO of HCL Enterprise Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Chairperson of Biocon Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson of Hindustan Times Group Shobhana Bhartia and actress Priyanka Chopra are the other Indian women who featured on the list.

b.Important Note : General Motors CEO Mary Barra is the highest-ranked business woman in Forbes list of most powerful women in business 2017. 

11.The Bank of England has increased interest rates for the first time since 2007 in order to curb high inflation.

a.The base rate has been lifted from 0.25% to 0.5%. 

12.India's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has reduced the interest rates on home and automobile loans by 0.05%, effective November 1. 

a.It has cut interest rate on home loans to 8.3% and on auto loans to 8.7%.

bSBI also cut its fixed deposit rates by 0.25% to 6.25% for most maturities and for senior citizens, the rate has been reduced to 6.75%.

13.Russia is going to help build a new pipeline project to deliver natural gas from Iran to India, Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak announced On 2nd November . 

a.Both Russia and Iran will prepare a legal framework for the 1,200-kilometre long pipeline project which is expected to begin next year.

b.It will involve the participation of Iranian, Pakistani and Indian firms, Novak added.

14.Shuttler Kidambi Srikanth has reached a career-best world number two rank, after becoming the first Indian to win four Superseries titles in a year. 

a. In a span of two weeks, the 24-year-old has moved up six spots, surpassing his previous career-best ranking of third.