Current affairs are required in almost all examination starting from banking, SSC to management interviews. Check this space for weekly current affair capsules and keep yourself updated.
BANKING & ECONOMY
1. World Economic Forum’s 33rd India Economic Summit
- Started on 4th October.
- In partnership with industry body CII.
- Theme of the conference is ‘Creating Indian Narratives on Global Challenges’.
2. BharatQR: Launched by Digital payments network Visa
- This is in partnership with payment gateway entity BillDesk.
- Objective- to enable around 59 service providers to start accepting BharatQR payments.
3. India is likely to be the world’s fastest-growing large economy in the next 10 years
- This is driven by digitization, favorable demographics, globalization and reforms.
- This is according to the Morgan Stanley report.
4. Vijaya Bank’s MoU with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL)
- To enable all HPCL retail outlets with BHIM/UPI merchant solutions.
- Objective- empower all petrol pump attendants and LPG delivery personnel to accept digital payments.
5. Private insurer Tata AIA Life announced the launch of ‘Eazy Connect’- to extend online customer service to social media platforms.
6. Click2Protect Health plan’- Of HDFC Life Insurance and Apollo Munich Health.
- provides both life and health cover under a single plan.
- Aditya Puri is the CEO of HDFC Bank.
7. CBDT ( Central Board of Direct Taxes) has entered into 4 APAs (Advance Pricing Agreements), related to sectors like telecom, banking, manufacturing & education.
ENVIRONMENT & ECOLOGY
1. One Planet Academy- first environment education portal for students and teachers in India
- Launched by WWF-India, in partnership with Capgemini.
2. The first ever ASEAN-India music festival began at Purana Quila in New Delhi
- It is a 3-day festival.
- being organized by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India in collaboration with Culture Ministry.
- AIM- to celebrate the 25th year anniversary of ASEAN-India Dialogue Relations.
- Theme- ‘Shared Values, Common Destiny’.
3. Umiya Dham Ashram- Haridwar
- The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, inaugurated it via video conferencing.
- It will benefit the pilgrims coming to Haridwar.
4. The 8th Conference of the Association of SAARC Speakers and Parliamentarians is being held in Colombo.
5. 6th Khushwant Singh Literary Festival- will be held at the Kasauli Club, Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh from 6th-8th October.
INTERNATIONAL
1. Nobel Peace Prize for 2017
- Awarded to International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) “for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons.
- Awarded by The Norwegian Nobel Committee.
- Nobel Peace Prize 2016 was awarded to Juan Manuel Santos.
2. Donald Trump is now the world’s most followed leader on Twitter
- according to the latest report by Twiplomacy, a Burson Marsteller research project that tracks the use of Twitter by governments and international organisations.
- Narendra Modi is the third.
- India’s Foreign Minister, Sushma Swaraj, is the most followed female world leader in the world with a 9.6 million following on Twitter.
3. France’s govt to ban all production & exploration of oil & natural gas by 2040.
4. Bangladesh on signed a $4.5-billion loan deal with India for developing its infrastructure, health and education.
5. Russia has launched the world’s largest nuclear-powered icebreaker ship
- WHY?-To expand its strategic presence in the resource-rich, terrain of the Arctic.
POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT SCHEMES
1. Blue Whale game banned by Gujarat Government
- Blue Whale Challenge is reportedly a suicide game in which players is given certain tasks to complete over a period of 50 days & the final task leads him or her to commit suicide.
2. Assam govt has set up a Direct Benefit Transfer Cell for implementation of DBT across schemes in the Country.
3. HRD Ministry started a special training course for untrained teachers, designed by NIOS, called Diploma in Elementary Education
- It’s course would be offered through ‘Swayam’, a platform for online education and knowledge through Dish TV.
4. Nitin Gadkari laid the foundation stone for four National Highways projects and several shipping projects in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
5. Government has constituted a committee for proper management of the water resources in the North Eastern Region under the Chairmanship of Vice-Chairman, Niti Aayog.
6.’ Paryatan Parv’ – of the Ministry of Tourism begins on Oct 5 across India
- It is inaugurated at the Humayun’s Tomb, New Delhi..
7. Maharastra Samruddhi Corridor- ambitious Mumbai-Nagpur Super Communication Expressway project in Mumbai
- AIM: To create state-of-the art road connectivity within a period of three years.
- South Korea has recently extended a Rs 35,000-crore loan to the state govt of Maharashtra.
8. Karnataka government launched the Rs. 302-crore Mathru Poorna scheme
- AIM: /To provide free mid-day meals to pregnant and lactating women in rural areas.
9. India’s first ever Industrial Training Institute for the Divyangans
- Foundation stone laid at Dibrugarh ITI Complex at Borboruah, Dibrugarh by Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.
SPORTS
1. The Queen’s Baton for the 2018 Commonwealth Games arrived in New Delhi, India
- The 2018 Commonwealth Games will be held in Australia.
- Baton reached India from Pakistan. From India, the Baton will be taken to Bangladesh on October 9.
- Baton was received by Indian Olympic Association (IOA) joint secretary Rakesh Gupta.
2. Rio Olympic Committee Chairman, Carlos Arthur Nuzman arrested on Corruption Charges.
3. 2019 edition of the Commonwealth (Youth, Junior and Senior) Weightlifting Championships
- To be hosted by India.
- 2017 edition is being held at the Gold Coast, Australia.
4. FIFA U-17 World Cup- started with four opening day matches to be played in Delhi and Mumbai
- The Official Mascot of the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 is a clouded leopard called Kheleo.
5. International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Shotgun Championship
- Indian shooter Ankur Mittal won the silver medal in the double trap event.
6. Puja Kadian: First Indian wushu player to win a gold medal in the World Championships in Kazan, Russia
- She is head constable with CRPF,and became the world champion with a win over Evgeniya Stepanova of Russia in the women’s 75 kg event.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
1. An artificial leaf that absorb sunlight to generate hydrogen fuel from water is developed by scientists.
2. BSNL has signed a MOU with US-based company Coriant
- To start 5G and Internet of Things in India.
3. ISRO Cartosat-2
- It will be sixth “eye in the sky” of India.
- Will be launched in November.
4. Mass Embryo Transfer programme
- Undertaken by Department of Animal husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries in co-operation with 12 States.
- Objective: Conservation and development of indigenous breeds under Rashtriya Gokul Mission.
- How? -Plan to carry out 440 embryo transfers during October 2-10, 2017 throughout the country.
5. HDFC Life Insurance Company has launched Neo
- It is a servicing bot for Twitter that uses artificial intelligence for customer service.
PERSON IN NEWS
1. Parineeti Chopra( Appointment)- First Indian woman Ambassador to encourage Indians to visit Australia
- Appointed by the Australian Govt.
- She was awarded with Friend of Australia recognition.
2. Dr Virendra Kumar( Appointment) – Minister of State for Women and Child Development
- He is 6 times MP of Lok Sabha from Tikamgarh (Madhya Pradesh)
3. Sultan Ahmed( Death) – Politician
- He was Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MP from West Bengal’s Uluberia constituency.
4. Gauri Lankesh( Award) – Posthumously accorded with the prestigious Anna Politkovskaya Award, instituted by Reach All Women (RAW) in War
- She is the 1st Indian Journalist to win this award.
- Gauri Lankesh, was shot dead by unknown assailants recently.
5. Banwarilal Purohit( Appointment)- Governor of Tamil Nadu
- Sworn-in by Madras High Court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee.
6. Rajnish Kumar ( Appointment) as the new chairman of State Bank of India
7. Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017 – Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson “for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution”.
8. Soumya Swaminathan( Appointment)- New Deputy Director General of The World Health Organization (WHO).
9. Param Shah ( Appointment)- new Director for the United Kingdom (UK) operations of The apex industry body, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
PERSON IN NEWS
1. World Space Week
- It happened from October 4 to October 10.
- To mark two big events, first, on October 4th, 1957 Sputnik 1 was launched and second, the signing of The Outer Space Treaty on October 10th 1967.
- Theme: ‘70’, marking the seven decades of India’s independence after Partition from Pakistan.
2. ‘India Rich List 2017’
- Mukesh Ambani with a net worth of USD 38 billion, topped the India Rich List 2017 for the tenth year in a row
- Seven women have been named in India’s 100 richest persons list.
- Savitri Jindal, with a net worth of USD 7.5 billion ranked at the 16th place.
3. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) announced the launch of news services in four more Indian languages — Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi and Telugu.
4. The first US crude oil cargo of 1. 6 million barrels bought by Indian Oil Corporation from the US reached Paradip Port, Odisha.
5. Chairman of National Highways Authority of India Shri Deepak Kumar launched a world-class, new multilingual website of the organization.
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