Weekly Current Affairs (02 Oct - 08 Oct)

Banking and Financial Awareness

• ●HDFC Life Insurance Company has launched Neo which is a servicing bot for Twitter.
• ●The Appointments Committee of the government has named Rajnish Kumar as the new chairman of SBI or the State Bank of India.

• ●Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced Fourth Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy Statement for the financial year 2017-18. Repo and Reverse repo rates were unchanged.
• ●The state-owned Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) has become the first Indian financial institution to raise ‘green masala bonds’.
• ●Digital payment firm Mobikwik partnered with IRCTC Rail connect app.
• ●RBI has opened a new branch in Dehradun the capital city of Uttarakhand state.
• ●HPCL- Hindustan Petroleum Corporation tied up with Vijaya Bank for Digital payments.
• ●India signed a contract with EIB- European Investment Bank for financing Bangalore Metro Rail project.

New Appointments

• ●Mridul Kumar has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to Malaysia.
• ●Soumya Swaminathan has been appointed as one of the Deputy Directorr Generals of WHO.
• ●FICCI appointed Param Shah as the new director for the United Kingdom operations.

Obituaries

• ●Veteran Film director Kundan Shah passed away.
• Monojit Datta, famous Indian musician passed away.
• ●Hanumant Moreshwar Marathe, Indian journalist and writer passed away.
• ●Former Union Minister Purushottam Lal koushik passed away.

Honour and Awards

• ●Journalist Gauri Lankesh has been honoured posthumously with the Anna Politkovskaya Award.
• ●PC Narayan, faculty from the Finance and Accounting at IIM Bangalore has been selected for the ‘Teaching Innovator Award-2016’ by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.
• ●Renowned vocalist Manik Bhide has been chosen for the prestigious Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi award for the year 2017-18 for her contribution in the field of music.
• ●Indian lawyer Colin Gonsalves Wins Swedish Right Livelihood Award.
• ●IPS Officer of Uttar Pradesh Cadre, Aparna Kumar became the first Indian woman to scale Mount Manaslu.

Nobel prize awardees:

• ●English writer Kazuo Ishiguro has been awarded the Nobel Literature Prize for 2017
• ●International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has been awarded with the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize
• ●Scientists Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson won the 2017 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
• ●Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries about the body's daily rhythms.
• ●The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne for their detection of gravitational waves

Important Days

• ●International Day of older persons was celebrated on 1 October 2017.
• ●China celebrated 68th national day on October 1, 2017.
• ●2 October 2017 was observed as the 148th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and birth anniversary of Lal Bahadur Shastri.
• ●International Day of Non violence is also observed on October 2
• ●International Teachers Day was celebrated on 5 October 2017.

Index and Ranking:

• ●Gujarat International Finance Tec-City International Financial Services Centre (GIFT IFSC) has been ranked tenth in the latest edition of Global Financial Centres Index 22 (GFCI)-London.

MoUs and Partnerships:

• ●Nepal and India have decided to conduct a joint headcount of tigers in the national parks, forests and sanctuaries.
• ●14th India- EU summit was held at New Delhi.PM Narendra Modi represented India.
• ●Bangladesh signed a $.5 billion dollar LoC agreement with India for its infrastructure and social development.

Important News- World

• ●India is going to be a part of the upcoming Annual Gathering of World's Summit of Governments. This summit is scheduled for February 11 to 13, 2018.
• ●Russia has launched the world’s largest nuclear-powered icebreaker ship called Sibir.
• ●The eighth edition of Conference of the Association of SAARC Speakers and Parliamentarians (ASSP) began in Colombo.
• ●The United Arab Emirates has begun collecting new "sin" taxes on tobacco products, energy drinks and soft drinks.
• ●The government of Saudi Arabia has announced that Eman Al-Ghamdi ,the first woman to be appointed as assistant mayor of Al Khubar governorate.
• ●India has opened two immigration check posts along the borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh.
• ●The International Police Organization or Interpol has accepted Palestine as its new member.
• ●Austria's laws banning face veils has come into effect from this month.

Important News- India

• ●Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India in collaboration with Ministry of Culture and is organising the first ever ASEAN-India Music Festival from October 6th-8th 2017 at Purana Quila in New Delhi.
• ●The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, in collaboration with other Central Ministries and State Governments is organizing a “Paryatan Parv” across the country from the 5th to 25th October 2017. 
• ●President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed a five-member Commission-G Rohini committee- to examine sub categorization of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) under Article 340 of the Constitution
• ●The government of India has unveiled 3rd National Wildlife Action Plan (NWAP) 2017-2031.
• ●"Secure Himalaya", a six year program, was launched by Government of India on the inaugural day of the Global Wildlife Programme (GWP) conference.
• ●The Centre has notified a new set of rules under the head Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017 replacing the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010.
• ●The Ministry of Women and Child Development will be hosting the 3rd annual ‘Women of India Organic Festival’ from October 1st to 15th, 2017, in New Delhi.
• ●Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya signed an MoU under Ek Bhart ; Sreshta Bharath program to boost cultural ties.

Science and Technology:

• ●The home ministry is examining the recommendations of TK Viswanathan committee formed to propose new laws or amendments to deal with hate speech on the internet
• ●The third edition of India International Science Festival will be held from October 13-16 at IIT-Chennai.
• ●Defence Security Corps personnel have got a new software called ‘ARPAN’ version 3.0.
• ●Yatra online inc has partnered with OYO to expand the hotel inventory.
• ●National Highways Authority of India, NHAI launched new website and a PMIS, Project Monitoring Information System -mobile app.
• ●Flipkart launched MarQ, an in-house brand to sell large appliances.

Important News- States

• ●Development of a Turtle sanctuary in Allahabad along with a River Biodiversity Park at Sangam has been approved under Namami Gange programme.
• ●Government has set up a high-level committee to evolve a strategy for management of the north east region’s water resources.
• ●Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan inaugurated a toilet for the third gender in the Mangalwara area for their exclusive use.
• ●The State government of Karnataka has launched Mathru Poorna Scheme. This scheme aims to meet the nutritional needs of pregnant and lactating women in rural areas.
• ●'No helmet, no petrol' rule for two-wheeler riders has come into force in Andhra Pradesh.
• ●Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched 'Single Click Pension Delivery' scheme, where the money will go directly into the account of the beneficiaries.
• ●Niti Aayog will host the eighth annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad on November 28-30.
• ●Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has inaugurated the Pratham—Shyok bridge in Leh.
• ●Gujarat is to become the second state after Goa to use the Electronic voting machines with voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) system for assembly elections.
• ●Madurai's Meenakshi Temple of Tamilnadu named the best Swachh Iconic place in India.
• ●CM of Andhra Pradesh ChandraBabu Naidu launched " Swachh Andhra Mission ". Shuttler PV Sindu is chosen as Brand Ambassador.
• ●Madhya Pradesh launched Mukhya Mantri Kaushal Samvardhan and Kaushalya Yojana.

Sports News

• ●Pooja Kadian has bagged India's maiden gold medal at the World Wushu Championships.
• ●The 20th edition of Asia Masters Athletics Championship was held in Rugao, China. Indian athletic team bagged 146 medals in total.
• ●Jagan Kumar wins sixth title at National Motorcycle racing.
• ●FIFA Under 17 Football World Cup 2017 commenced in India.