Daily Current Affairs Updates – 8th October 2016

 

Daily Current Affairs Updates–8th October 2016:

Daily Current affairs News Updates about the National and International events were listed here. Candidates those who are preparing for IBPS/SBI/PO/Clerk exam and all other competitive exams can use this.

IMPORTANT DAYS

8 October: Indian Air Force Day

i. The Air Force Day 2016 was on 8 October 2016 observed across India. This is the 84th celebration of the Day that began in 1932.

ii. On this day, the most renowned aerobatics display teams, Red Arrows of the Royal Air Force (RAF), enthralled audience at Indian Air Force Day celebrations in New Delhi. They flew Hawk jets, which are single-engine advanced trainer aircraft.

Besides, the Indian Air Force air displayed various aircrafts at Air Force Station Hindan in Uttar Pradesh.

Government to launch soon Delhi-Katra; Delhi-Jaipur expressway projects

i. Government will soon launch two expressway projects - Delhi-Amritsar-Katra and Delhi-Jaipur which will significantly reduce the travel time to Katra and Jaipur from the national capital.

ii. Official sources said in New Delhi that in principle approval was granted for launch of two greenfield projects ay a meeting chaired by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.

iii. The meeting was also attended by Deputy Chief Minister Punjab Sukhbir Badal, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal and Union Steel Minister Birendra Singh.

The distance between Delhi and Katra will reduced to 572 km from the present 727 km after completion of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra project which will pass via Jind in Haryana.

Maharashtra becomes 17th State to join UDAY: an overall net benefit of Rs. 9725 crores to accrue to the State

i. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) in Maharashtra to provide free LPG connections to BPL households. Speaking on the ocassion in Mumbai, Mr Pradhan said a target of 10 lakh connections has been set under PMUY for Maharashtra in 2016-17 out of which one lakh connections are to be provided in Mumbai. The move will benefit 91 lakh households living below the poverty line in Maharashtra over the next three years.

ii. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was also present on the occasion, gave away free LPG connections to 10 women from BPL families. More than one crore people in the country have given up LPG subsidies and are buying cooking gas at market price now.

Maharashtra

Capital: Mumbai

Governor   C. Vidyasagar Rao

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis (BJP)

Union Government approves Rs.114 crore worth projects under HRIDAY Scheme

i. The Union Ministry of Urban Development has approved projects worth Rs.114 crore under HRIDAY scheme for improving infrastructure facilities around core heritage sites in five cities.

ii. These five cities are: Varnasi (Uttar Pradesh), Amritsar (Punjab), Dwaraka (Gujarat), Puri (Odisha) and Warangal (Telangana). Projects in these districts were selected based on recommendation of inter-Ministerial HRIDAY National Empowered Committee.

Five-day long Durga Puja festival begins in Nagaland

i. In Nagaland, the five-day long Durga Puja festival begins from last evening. The celebration began with Sasthi Puja, followed by some rituals including unveiling the face of the deity. Durga Puja - the ceremonial worship of the mother goddess, is one of the most important festivals of India. ii.There are over 14 Durga Puja pendals in and around Kohima, where Puja will be performed till Tuesday evening.

Governor PB Acharya, and his wife Kavita Acharya extended their warm greetings to the people of Nagaland and the Country on the occasion of Durga Puja and Dussehra.

Capital Kohima

Governor   Padmanabha Acharya

Chief Minister    T. R. Zeliang (NPF)

INTERNATIONAL

US lifts economic sanctions on Myanmar

i. The U.S.  lifted sanctions against Myanmar that have been in place for nearly two decades.

The move came after President Barack Obama’s announcement that the US was ready to lift sanctions on the Asian country during Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi’s visit to Washington in September 2016.

ii. As a result of Obama’s announcement, the Treasury Department stated that the economic and financial sanctions administered by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control were no longer in effect.

India-Pakistan border to be sealed completely by 2018

i. India-Pakistan border to be sealed completely by 2018 October 8, 2016 Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh announced that India-Pakistan border will be completely sealed by December 2018. Announcement in this regard was made after Union Home Minister held meeting of representatives of 4 states sharing border with Pakistan in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.

Maharashtra Government allocates land to LIGO India Project

i. Maharashtra Government has allocated 40.68 hectare land to Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to build LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) India Project at Dudhala village in Hingoli district. With this, India will join elite league of countries consisting of US, UK, Italy, Germany and Japan that support on-going research on gravitational waves. Besides, it will be third such laboratory in the world and first outside US. The existing two LIGO laboratories in US are located in Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford, Washington.

ASEAN Regional Forum HDUCI Meet concluded in New Delhi

The 20th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) – Heads of Defence Universities / Colleges / Institutions Meet (HDUCIM) concluded in New Delhi. The participating nations reinforced their commitment to reinvigorate professional military education to meet the contemporary challenges to military leadership.

The member states also renewed their pledge to fulfil the core objectives of ARF and enhance its relevance and effectiveness by promoting and accelerating the process of preventive diplomacy in parallel with strengthening of confidence building measures and conflict resolution mechanisms through dialogue, cooperation and mutual trust.

The meet was hosted by the National Defence College (NDC), New Delhi under the aegis of Ministry of Defence. National Defence College of Philippines will conduct the next ARF meet in Manila in 2017.

BANKING NEWS

Payment Banks need RBI’s Prior product approval

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has notified entities that have been granted a payments bank (PB) licence will need to take specific approval for products they would be offering to customers. In this regard, RBI has issued separate operating guidelines for payments banks in view to focus on financial inclusion.

Employee of Payment Bank should be available for sufficient duration at a fixed location to attend customers. They must at least have 25% of access points in un-banked rural areas.

RBI had granted in-principle licences to 11 payments banks in August 2015.  While three out of 11 PBs have dropped out, others will have to start operations within 18 months of receiving in-principle approval.

BUSINESS NEWS

Govt to get Rs 37000 crore from spectrum auction this fiscal

The government will garner as much as 37,000 crore rupees this fiscal from spectrum auction after taking into account close to 5,000 crore rupees of service tax that telecom companies will pay.

The government has received commitment of 65,789 crore rupees by selling 964.80 MHz of spectrum. This is more than the combined amount of airwaves sold in past four auctions, in a sale that concluded on Thursday. Of this, winners have to deposit 32,000 crore rupees within 10 days of receipt of allotment letters.

AGREEMENTS & MoUs

Doordarshan, IGNOU sign MoU to telecast Gyan Darshan

Doordarshan and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) have entered into an agreement for transmission of four Gyan Darshan educational channels. It ran successfully till June 2, 2014, but was shut down by ISRO to facilitate migration from INSAT 3C to GSAT-10. IGNOU now needs to apply for a fresh license to start the uplinking of its channels for GSAT-10

India to be 2nd largest coal producer by 2020

India will surpass the US and become the world’s second-biggest coal producer after China by 2020, according to market analyst BMI Research. India's share in the world output will increase to 12.7% by 2020 from 9.8% currently, BMI claimed. However, it warned that India could miss its output target due to delays in opening up the sector to private miners.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Green energy to power all lighthouses by December

All lighthouses dotting India's 7,517-km coast line will be fuelled by solar energy by December which will help reduce emission of 6,000 kg of greenhouse gases per day. In a ststement, Shipping Ministry said the Directorate General of Lighthouse & Lightships (DGLL), presently maintaining 193 Lighthouses which provide aids to marine navigation to the mariners transiting in coastal waters of India.

The statement said that with the complete solarization of lighthouses, approximately 1.5 Megawatt hours (MWh) energy will be generated which will amount to approximately reducing 6000 kg of greenhouse gases per day. It said till date 176 Lighthouses have been fully solarized.

New termite species named Chiraharitae discovered

New termite species named Chiraharitae discovered A new termite species Glyptotermes Chiraharitae was discovered at Kakkayam in the Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala. It has been named ‘Chiraharitae’ after the tropical evergreen forests of the Western Ghats, where it was spotted.

 

 

For More Daily Current Affairs Updates - Click Here

Let's block ads! (Why?)