. Current Affairs week 41Pdf.

4 Oct 10 October 2015

Best of Current Affairs Desk

11 October

IN THIS WEEK

WHAT'S NEW NIRDESHAK.COM

NOBEL PRIZE - 2015

WORLD BANK GROUP -LIMA 2015
INDIAS GROWTH FORECAST 7.3%
GLOBAL ECONOMIC OUTPUT
INDIAN SKILL DEVELOPMENT SERVICE
(ISDS)
SHASHANKMANOHAR
SAGAR MALA PROJECT

Dear Readers,
Recently we have initiated Best of Nirdeshak
Current Affairs (BNCA) with weekly pdf update.
In todays competitive scenario, it has become
most crucial to read more analytical and
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In the week, information & technology news
remained important as PM Modi visited Silicon
Valley. It is important to know about new
development at IAF with IACCS. Further know
more about key personalities of the week,
banking news, government policies and foreign
relations with neighbours.
Happy learning,

Warm regards

Editorial Team
Nirdeshak.com

Nobel Prize - 2015

Nobel Peace Prize Tunisia
To Know: The National Dialogue Quartet (NDQ) of Tunisia won the 2015
Nobel Peace Prize for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic
democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011.
After the Arab Spring in Tunisia in 2010-2011, the NDQ had paved the way for
a peaceful dialogue between the citizens. The Quartet was formed in the
summer of 2013 when the democratisation process was in danger of
collapsing as a result of political assassinations and widespread social unrest.
It established an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when the
country was on the brink of civil war.
The NDQ consists of four organisations in Tunisian civil society a) the
Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), b) the Tunisian Confederation of
Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), c) the Tunisian Human Rights
League (LTDH) and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers (ONAT).

Nobel Prize 2015 in Chemistry For DNA repair Studies

Three scientists Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz
Sancar were jointly awarded the Chemistry Nobel Prize for
2015
To Know: The Nobel Prize 2015 in Chemistry was
awarded for mechanistic studies of DNA repair. It was
jointly awarded to Tomas Lindahl (Sweden), Paul Modrich
(US) and Aziz Sancar (US).
Tomas Lindahl, who is from the Francis Crick Institute, demonstrated that
DNA decays at a rate that ought to have made the development of life on
Earth impossible. This insight led him to discover molecular machinery, base
excision repair, which constantly counteracts the collapse of our DNA.
Paul Modrich, who is from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Duke
University School of Medicine, successfully demonstrated how the cell
corrects errors that occur when DNA is replicated during cell division.
Sancar, the Turkish-born scientist from the University of North Carolina,
mapped nucleotide excision repair, the mechanism that cells use to repair UV
damage to DNA.

Nobel Peace Prize 2015 for - Medicine

Three scientists were jointly chosen for the Nobel Prize
2015 for Medicine
a) William C. Campbell
(US) b) Satoshi mura (Japan) c)YouyouTu (China)
Explanation: Mr. Campbell and Mr.Omura were
chosen for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy
against infections caused by roundworm parasites. They had discovered a
new drug, Avermectin, the derivatives of which have radically lowered the
incidence of River Blindness and Lymphatic Filariasis. Campbell is a research
fellow emeritus at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey while Omura is a
professor emeritus at Kitasato University in Japan.
Ms.YouyouTu was chosen for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy for
malaria. She had discovered Artemisinin, a drug that has significantly reduced
the mortality rates for patients suffering from Malaria. She is chief professor at
the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
The winners will share the 8 million Swedish kronor (about $960,000) prize
money with one half going to Campbell and Omura, and the other to Tu.
The medicine award was the first Nobel Prize of year 2015 to be announced.

Nobel Prize for Literature Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus)

To Know: 67-year old Svetlana Alexievich was awarded for
her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage
in our time as announced by the Nobel Prize Committee.
Svetlana is known for using the skills of a journalist to
create literature chronicling the great tragedies of the Soviet
Union and its collapse- World War II, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the 1986
Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the suicides that ensued from the death of
Communism.
She thus became the 14th women Literature Laureate.

Nobel Prize for Physics for discovery of Neutrinos

TakaakiKajita of Japan and Arthur McDonald of Canada
were declared the joint winners of the Nobel Prize for
Physics for 2015.
To Know: This years Physics Nobel was awarded for the
discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that
neutrinos have mass. The discovery has changed human understanding of the
innermost workings of matter and can prove crucial to the view of the universe.
Japans TakaakiKajita discovered that neutrinos from the atmosphere switch
between two identities when coming to neutrino detectors. On the other hand,
the research group Canadian scientist McDonald successfully demonstrated
that the neutrinos from the Sun were not disappearing on their way to Earth.
Kajita is director of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research and professor at the
University of Tokyo while McDonald is a professor emeritus at Queens
University in Kingston, Canada.
Both the winners will share the 8 million Swedish kronor (about $960,000)
prize money with one half going to McDonand and the other to Kajita.

Defence
INS Astradharini
The first indigenously-designed and built torpedo launch,
recovery vessel that was commissioned into the Indian
Navy on 6 October 2015.
To Know: The commissioning of INS Astradharini was
done held at the Naval Base in Visakhapatnam on 6 October 2015.
INS Astradharini is an advanced replacement for INS which was
decommissioned on Astravahini on 17 July 2015.
It will be used for carrying out the technical trials of underwater weapons and
systems developed by Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL),
a naval systems laboratory of DRDO.
INS Astradharini is 50 meters long and is capable to do speeds up to 15
Knots. It can operate at high sea states and has a large deck area with
torpedo launchers for deploying and recovering various kind of torpedoes
during the trials.
The design of the INS Astradharini is a collaborative effort of NSTL, Shoft
Shipyard (Bharuch, Gujarat) and IIT Kharagpur.

CORPAT Indonesia
Indian Navy started the 26th edition of the coordinated patrol (CORPAT) on 3
October 2015.
To Know: Indian and Indonesia under the broad ambit of this strategic
partnership, the two navies have been carrying out Coordinated Patrolling
(CORPAT) along the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) twice a
year since 2002.
Main aim of CORPAT exercise is to this keep vital part of the Indian Ocean
Region safe and secure for commercial shipping and international trade.
26th CORPAT is being held near Port Belawan.
INS Saryu, the indigenously built Naval offshore Patrol Vessel (NOPV) based
at the Andaman and Nicobar Command, is participating in this patrolling
exercise.
The CORPAT has strengthened understanding and interoperability between
the navies, instituting measures to prosecute vessels engaged in unlawful
activities and conducting Search and Rescue as well as pollution control.

International - Economy
China International Payment System (CIPS)
To Know: Launch of CIPS is being seen as a
milestone event in Chinas bolstering of Yuans
global usage and furthering cross-border clearing of
its currency from the Chinese mainland instead of
offshore centres abroad.

CIPS will provide capital settlement and clearing services for cross-border
Yuan transactions for financial institutions domestically and abroad and will
effectively enhance efficiency and increase global use of the Chinese
currency.
Till-now, cross-border Yuan clearing had to be done either through one of the
offshore Yuan clearing banks in places like Hong Kong, Singapore and
London, or else with the help of a corresponding bank on the Chinese
mainland.
Chinas Yuan became one of the worlds top five payment currencies in
November 2014, overtaking the Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar,
according to global transaction services organisation SWIFT.

Global Economic Output

The Trans-Pacific Partnership of 12 Pacific Rim countries
Landmark free trade agreement was reached on 5 October 2015 that will cover
almost 36% of global economic output.
To Know: An ambitious agreement to lower
trade and investment barriers in 12 partner
countries in the Asia Pacific region was reached
on 5 October 2015 at the ministerial meeting of
the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) held in
Atlanta, USA. The round-the-clock TPP
ministerial meeting lasted for about five days but
was under negotiation for five years.

The TPP talks involved Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia,
Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam.
The TPP, believed to be the worlds biggest trade agreement in the past two
decades, will lower trade and investment barriers in the 12 partner countries
in the Asia Pacific region and set new rules for the global trading system.
It is widely believed that the deal was necessitated to control the growing
influence of China in the world market
The agreement has now to be approved by the Parliament of the respective
countries.
If approved, the agreement has the potential to influence trade in everything
from dairy produce to cancer treatments.

International
25th German Reunification
To Know: West and East Germany were formally united on 3 October 1990,
eleven months after East Germanys communist leadership had opened the
Berlin Wall under pressure from massive demonstrations. 25 th anniversary of
this historic event was marked by Germany on 3 October with Chancellor
Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck taking part in a ceremony held
in Berlin. Since reunification, some 1.5 trillion to 2 trillion ($1.7 trillion to
$2.2 trillion dollars) have been funnelled into the east to help bring the region
up to speed after its outmoded industry collapsed. A steady post-1990 drain of
people from east to west appears finally to have been stemmed, with more
people moving east than the other way for the first time in 2013.

Place
Lima (Peru)
The Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the World
Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
or the 2015 WBG/IMF Annual Meetings started on 6 October
2015
To Know: The 2015 WBG/IMF Annual Meetings are the
Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of both World
Bank and IMF, the worlds most important multilateral
agencies.
The heads of World Bank and IMF and the Finance Ministers and Central
Bank Governors of all 188 member countries are taking part in this week-long
meeting. Over 16 thousand participants are also expected to take part in the
multilateral event.
The 2015 WBG/IMF Annual Meetings serve to discuss international economic
and financial developments, the state of the global economy, and policies to
reduce poverty and promote inclusive economic growth.

It is after 48 years that these important series of annual meetings are being held in
Latin America. The last time the WBG/IMF Annual Meetings were held in the
region was in 1967, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Kattupalli Tamil Nadu

To Know: Kattupalli Port is a captive port near Chennais
Ennore port. It also has a huge shipyard which is being
developed by L&T Shipbuilding Ltd. On 3 October 2015
Adani Ports and L&T signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) under which Adani will evaluate the
operations of the port with effect from October 2015 for one month. Adani
shall be responsible for EBIDTA gains and losses arising from the port
operation for this period. However, the shipyard will continue to be managed
and operated by L&T Shipbuilding. The development comes amid reports that
GautamAdani-led Adani group is likely to take over the operational and
management control of L&T Kattupalli International Container Terminal near
Chennai to strengthen its presence on the east coast.

Changla (Ladakh), Jammu & Kashmir

The worlds highest terrestrial Research and Development centre was
established by the Defence Research and Development Organisation
(DRDO).
To Know: DRDOs Extreme Altitude Research Centre at Changla in Jammu
& Kashmirs Ladakh region was inaugurated on 3 October 2015. It is situated
75 km off Leh town towards Pangonglake.
This research centre situated at a height of 17,600 feet above sea level thus
became the worlds highest terrestrial Research and Development centre.
It has been established by Defence Institute of High Altitude Research
(DIHAR), Leh, a constituent establishment of the DRDO.
It will be used for R&D work in frontal areas of food and agriculture and biomedical sciences for well-being of the soldiers deployed in high-altitude cold
desert.

New Projects
AIIMS
Manglagiri (Andhra
Bengal)

Pradesh), Nagpur (Maharashtra)

andKalyani (West

To Know: Three new All India Institutes for Medical Science (AIIMS) to be set
up to address regional imbalances in availability of affordable and reliable
tertiary health care services in these regions.
Total outlay for establishing these three AIIMS will be Rs. 4949 crore. Of
this, Rs 1,618 crore will be spent on AIIMS at Manglagiri, Rs 1,577 crore
for AIIMS at Nagpur and Rs 1754 crore for AIIMS at Kalyani.
It is worth mentioning that six new AIIMS under the PMSSY have been
made functional. On the other hand the construction of AIIMS, Rae
Bareily, is under progress.

Neeranchal
World Bank-assisted National Watershed Management Project to reduce
surface runoff of rainwater, increase groundwater levels and better water
availability in rain-fed areas.
To Know: Project Neeranchal of the National Watershed Management
Project
aims
to
fulfil
the
watershed
component
of
the
PradhanMantriKrishiSinchaiYojana (PMSKY) to reduce surface runoff of
rainwater, increase groundwater levels and better water availability in rain-fed
areas.
It will be implemented across nine States Andhra Pradesh, Telangana,
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand
and Rajasthan. These States have been picked since irrigation coverage is
quite poor here and this project will help increase water levels to benefit
farmers. Of these, Jharkhand has the lowest irrigation coverage at just 5.6%.
The cost of the project is estimated at Rs.2,142.30 crore of which the Centre
will be pitching in with Rs. 889 crore while Rs. 182 crore will be provided by
the respective State Governments. The remaining 50% of the project cost will
be financed by a World Bank loan.

NPS & APY assets crossed Rs. 1 Lakh crore

To Know: National Pension System (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY)
together have more than one Crore subscribers with total Assets Under
Management (AUM) of Rs.1,00,275 crores. NPS & APY together crossed
milestone figure of Rs. 1 lakh crore (or Rs. 1 trillion)
NPS available for every Indian Citizen from 01st May 2009 on a
voluntary basis.
APY was launched on 1 June 2015 to provide required impetus to the
social security schemes. APY scheme provides minimum government
guaranteed monthly pension to subscribers ranging from Rs. 1000 to Rs
5000. Government co-contributes 50% of the total contribution made by a
subscriber during a financial year subject to maximum of Rs 1,000/- per
annum for a period of five years.

Political
Makkal NalaKootiyakkam (MNK)
New political front founded in Tamil Nadu, by Vaiko-led MDMK, the CPI, CPI
(M) and VCK as an alternative to the DMK and the AIADMK.
To Know: Makkal NalaKootiyakkam stands for Peoples Welfare Front. It
was floated as an alternative front by MDMK, the CPI, CPI (M) and VCK in
Tamil Nadu, which is set for elections early next year.

Banking
UCO Bank
Worst performing Bank among the public sector banks
(PSU banks) for registering the highest increase in
gross non-performing assets (NPAs) in percentage
terms against total loans for last fiscal year.
To Know: According the provisional data of the RBI,
the gross NPA to gross advances ratio of Kolkatabased UCO Bank increased to 8.05% at the end of March 2015 from 4.47%, thus
registering a huge increase of 3.58 on annual basis. It was followed by Indian
Overseas Bank (IOB) and Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) with gross NPA rising to
8.30% and 6.18%, respectively, at the end of March 2015. In case of Indian
Overseas Bank, variation compared to the previous financial year was 3.46 whereas
it was 3.02 for Bank of Maharashtra. Rising NPAs have hit the bottom line of banks
and to strengthen their balance sheet, the government is providing Rs. 25,000 crore
capital support in the current fiscal year.

National
Indias Latest Growth forecast 7.3%
The latest growth forecast for India for year 2015-16 as stated
by the International Monetary fund (IMF) in its latest World
Economic Outlook (WEO) that was released on 6 October
2015 at Lima (Peru).
To Know: IMF has thus lowered Indias growth forecast from
its July 2015 forecast of 7.5%.
However, the IMF expects growth to bounce back to 7.5% in 2016-17 on the
back of reforms.
Recently, Asian Development Bank (ADB) had slashed Indias economic
growth for 2015-16 to 7.4% from its earlier projection of 7.8%.
IMF expects Indias current account deficit to be 1.4% of GDP in 2015-16,
rising to 1.6% in 2016-17.
IMF also scaled down global growth projections. It now projects world GDP to
grow at 3.1% in 2015 lower than its earlier forecast of 3.3%. In 2014, world
GDP grew at 3.4%. Global growth is expected to rebound to 3.6% next year.

KISAN C(K)rop Insurance using Space Technology &GeoiNformatics

An ambitious project with the objective to speed up payment of crop
insurance.
To know: KISAN Project
KISAN stands for C(K)rop Insurance using Space technology And
geoiNformatics. It was launched by the Union Govt. on 5 October 2015.
KISAN project uses satellite and drone-based imaging and other geospatial
technology to get accurate data on crop yields.
Crop Insurance is usually calculated on the basis of crop cutting experiments,
often leading to delays in settlements. KISAN project will try to address these
concerns.

A pilot study under KISAN project has been initiated in rice and cotton fields of
the ongoingkharif season in four districts Kurukshetra (Haryana), Shimoga
(Karnataka), Yavatmal (Maharastra) and Seoni (Madhya Pradesh). The
survey will be carried out into the 2015-16 rabi season in eight districts in
same states to assess the yields of rice, wheat and shorghum.

Health - Mission Indradhanush

Immunization project to achieve full immunization
To Know: In the second phase of Mission Indradhanush, 352 districts have
been selected including 279 mid-priority districts, 33 from North-East states
and 40 districts from the phase one, where large numbers of missed-out
children were detected. The Health Ministry seeks to reach an estimated 45
lakh children who have never received vaccines or remain partiallyimmunised in the second phase.
The First phase of Mission Indradhanush was launched on 25 December
2014 with the aim to immunize all children against seven vaccine preventable
diseases namely diphtheria, whooping cough (Pertussis), tetanus, polio,
tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B by 2020. The second phase starts from
7 October 2015 for a week.
Sagar Mala Project
Objective To modernize Indias ports
so that ports can contribute
significantly to Indias growth
To Know: The Sagar Mala Project was
approved by the Union Govt. on 25 March
2015. The main objective of this project is
to develop 12 major ports and also over
1,200 islands spread across the country.

The project also aims at developing an efficient evacuation system by

integrating road, rail, inland and coastal waterways so that ports become the
driver of economic activity in countrys coastal areas.
The meeting of the National Sagarmala Apex Committee (NSAC) was held to
have deliberations on constitution and scope of NSAC, Concept of Sagarmala
and decisions of Government of India relating to Sagar Mala Project.
Important members of NSAC are Vice Chairman NITI Aayog, Chief
Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra,
Odisha, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, Union Cabinet Ministers
of Finance; Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation;
Urban Development; Railways; Agriculture; Rural Development; Civil Aviation;
Skill Development & Entrepreneurship; Environment, Forests & Climate
Change; Commerce and Industry and Tourism.

Personality
ShashankManohar
ShashankManohar was elected unopposed as
the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India
(BCCI). This will be his second term as BCCI President
and he is from which cricket association? Vidarbha
Cricket Association (Nagpur)
To Know: The election was necessitated by the sudden
demise of JagmohanDalmiya, who had a short term of seven months after his
election in March this year. Dalmiya was made the interim President when N.
Srinivasan stepped aside in the wake of revelations that his son-in-law was
involved in betting during the 2013 IPL season. Manohars earlier stint was for
three years between 2008-09 and 2010-11. His appointment also means that
Srinivasan now has little chance of coming back into the BCCI fold till 2017
when ShashankManohars tenure will end.

Hoesung Lee (South Korea)

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN body
tasked Hoesung Lee for the assessment of Climate Science.
To Know: Hoesung Lee is an expert on climate economics and
sustainable development. He was elected to chair the panel at its
ongoing meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia on 6 October.
Lee is the fourth person to lead the IPCC in its 27-year history.
He succeeded Indias RajendraPachauri, who resigned amidst a sexual
harassment scandal in February 2015.
IPCC was set up as a consensus forum to deliberate on climate science and
policy. It has been massively influential in the climate change debate.

Corporate & Industry

Top three most valuable companies:
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), Reliance Industries Ltd.
(RIL) and Infosys.
To Know: Data from BSE showed that Infosys had a market
capitalization of Rs. 269,489 crore, after its shares closed 1.1%
higher on 1 October 2105. Earlier in the day, Infosys shares had
climbed 3.15% to an all-time high of Rs.1,197 apiece. Shares of HDFC Bank,
the second-largest private lender in terms of assets, closed almost unchanged
at Rs. 1,068.45. Its market capitalization stood at Rs. 2,69,056 crore. This
clearly meant that Infosys has seen a marked turnaround in its performance
since Vishal Sikka took over as CEO.

Skill Development
Indian Skill Development Service (ISDS)
A new Group A service for the technical cadre.
To Know: Indian Skill Development Service (ISDS) will be a new Group A
service
It will be the technical cadre of the Ministry of Skill Development &
Entrepreneurship (MSD&E)
This cadre was earlier known as the Directorate General of Employment &
Training, Ministry of Labour Employment