Current affairs OCTOBER 2010

GK UPDATES – OCTOBER 2010
NATIONAL
 India elected to UN Security Council as Non – Permanent member, after 19 years.
 Vietnam offers Maintenance Services for Indian Warships.
 India, Scotland Sign four MOU’s on Education.
 India signs Social Security Agreement with S.Korea.
 India, Bangladesh sign $ 1 billion Line of Credit agreement.
 India – Germany ink Cultural Accord.
 Prime Minister visits Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam.
 The Judicial Standards and Accountability bill approved by cabinet for all – District, High Court and Supreme Court Judges.
 Indian Navy gets Fast Attack Craft (FAC) – INS Kalpeni for Sagar Prahari Bal.
 Rustom -1, a medium altitude and long endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) test flown successfully by Air Force
 Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to be chief guest at R-Day parade.
 January 25 to be National Voters’ Day; foundation day of Election Commission of India.
 Samudra Prahari – first ever oil pollution control warship introduced. It is first such warship in Asia and third in the World
 Three Indian Ladies in Forbes 100 most Powerful women’s list - 6th Indira Nooyi (CEO Pepsico), 89th Shikha Sharma (CEO, Axis Bank), 92nd Chanda Kochhar (MD & CEO ICICI Bank).
 Hidden language ‘KORO’ found in Arunachal Pradesh.
 Elephant declared ‘National heritage animal’.
 India develops first Laser Guided Bomb for accurate hitting, at Instrument Research and Development Establishment, Dehradun.
 India’s first National Green Tribunal established at New Delhi; Chairman: Justice L K Panta; for early disposal of environmental disputes. Only Australia and New Zealand have such Tribunals.
 RSBY, Rashtriya Swathya Bima Yojna opened up to General Public.
 Most visited state by Indian Tourists 2009 : Andhra Pradesh, UP, Tamil Nadu
 Tamil Nadu government spends Rs 1000 Cr on free TV’s to poor
 ‘Statue of Unity’ - proposed Statue of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel at Navagam in Gujarat, near Sardar Sarover dam. 182 meters high which is twice the height of famous Statue of Liberty
 ‘Project Arrow’ – All post offices to be computerized by 2012
 Three Interlocutors appointed for J & K – Dileep Padgaonkar (Journalist), Radha Kumar (Academician), MM Ansari (Economist)
 1700 teams battle out in Himachal’s T-20 Tournament – to be registered for Guinness book of World Records
 Indian Post Department to issue Debit Cards in collaboration with Master Cards
 Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) for Nuclear Power at Kalpakkam, Tamil Naidu – completes 25 years of existence.
 Operation Indradhanush -- Joint exercise between Indian Air Force and Royal Air Force of UK at Kalaikunda, West Bengal
 XIX th Commonwealth Games held at Delhi from 3rd to 13th October, India wins 101 medals (2ND), Australia (1ST) 177 medals.
ECONOMY
 Government launches NELP – IX (New Exploration and Licensing Policy)
 RBI hikes key monetary rates by 25 basis points : Repo rate 6.25%, Reverse Repo rate 5.25%
 Coal India launches largest ever IPO in India to raise Rs 15,000 Crore
 RBI to issue 5 and 2 rupee coins with ‘Commonwealth Theme’ to commemorate the commonwealth games held in Delhi
 Asian Development Bank (ADB) to lend $ 132 million to Bihar for upgrading electricity system and $ 120 million to Assam towards effort to combat floods
 India – Sudan BIPA (Bilateral Investment and Protection Agreement) comes into effect from October 18,2010
 Bharat Diamond Bourse, World’s largest diamond bourse inaugurated in Mumbai
 IRDA allows Post Office Circles to act as Corporate Agent of Insurance Companies
INTERNATIONAL
 17th ASEAN Summit held in Hanoi (Vietnam) in last week of October 2010
 5th East Asia Summit held at Hanoi (Vietnam) in last week of October 2010
 G – 20 Summit of Finance Ministers held in Seoul , South Korea on October 23, 2010
 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) held in Nagoya, Japan in October 2010
 French Parliament passes pension reforms, invoking strong violent countrywide protests
 China unveils World’s fastest train ,average speed 350 km per hour, top speed of 420 kmph
 India at 87th position in Corruption Perception Index 2010
 India 67th among 84 nations in Global Hunger Index compiled by US International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
 Forbes:100 most powerful women Michelle Obama no.1, Indira Nooyi (CEO Pepsico) no.6,Shikha Sharma (CEO Axis Bank) no. 89 and Chanda Kochhar (CEO ICICI Bank) no. 92
 China makes fastest supercomputer – Tiahen 1 with speed of 2.507 petaflops
 Parliament of Chechenya attacked by rebels
PERSONS IN NEWS
 Priti Kumar – First motorwoman (local train driver) of India, of Western Railways, local from Churchgate to Borivili in Mumbai
 Khagendra Thapa Magar – World’s shortest man, 18 years old measures only 67.08 cms and weighs 6.5 kg
 Manpreet Badal – Finance Minister Punjab expelled from party ,SAD
 Hu Jintao – Chinese president topped World’s Most Powerful person list by Forbes, pushing Obama to No. 2
 Kobad Ghandi – Maoist leader presents paper at National Seminar on Development from Tihar Jail
 SK Razdan – First Major General in wheel chair
PLACES IN NEWS
 Leh (J & K) – Entered Guinness Book of World Records after 50,300 saplings were planted in less than 1 hour by 9000 volunteers
 Siberia , Russia – Ancient settlements 4000 years old built by Aryan race found
 Myanmar - Gets New Flag, official name: Republic of the Union of Myanmar, and anthem
 San Jose Mine, Chile: World’s greatest rescue operation for 33 miners trapped in a deep mine
 Gotthard Base Tunnel (Switzerland) – World’s longest rail tunnel, 57 km long, drilling work completed
 Padang, Indonesia – 7.2 magnitude earthquake followed by Tsunami rocked the city on October 25,2010

APPOINTED / ELECTED
 Ms. Dilma Rousseff - First women president of Brazil elected on October 31 , 2010
 K. Vijay Kumar – Director General of Central Reserve Police Force, (CRPF)
 P L Punia - Chairman, National Commission for Schedule Castes
 Lokeshwar Singh Panta – Chairman, National Green Tribunal
AWARDS / HONOURS
 LG ICC Cricketer of the year award - Sachin Tendulkar  ‘People’s choice award’ at Asian Awards 2010 - Sachin Tendulkar
 LG ICC ‘People’s choice award’ - Sachin Tendulkar  Danish Award 2010 -J.K Rowling
 SASTRA Ramanujan Prize 2010 - Wei Zhang  Miss World 2010 - Alexandria Mills
 Man Booker prize 2010 for fiction - Howard Jacobson (British) for The Finkler Question
Jamnalal Bajaj Award – Mr Chewang Norphel (Ladakh),Mr Chunnibhai Vaidya (Ahmedabad),Ms. Lia Diskin(Brazil)
 Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration – Mr A.R Rehman & Ramakrishna Mission Ashram
 Finance Minister of Asia award – Mr Pranab Mukherjee  The Sir Garfield Sobers Cricketer of the year – Sachin Tendulkar
 Mahatma Gandhi Peace Award – Mr John Brumby  Sahitya Academy Fellowship – Khushwant Singh
 ET Awards for Corporate Excellence: Business Leader – Aditya Puri, Company of the year – L & T
NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS FOR 2010
FIELD WINNER ACHIEVEMENT
MEDICINE Robert Edwards, British physiologist. Work on test tube baby (In-Vitro Fertilization)
PHYSICS Andre Gein, Netherlands Konstantin Novoslov, U K For developing thinnest material ever made – Graphene – an atom thin.
CHEMISTRY Richard Heck-USA, Eiichi Negishi-Japan, Akira Suzuki- Japan For developing
Palladium Catalyzed Cross Couplings.
LITERATURE Vargas Llosa, Peru Novelist of Spanish language.
ECONOMICS Peter A. Diamond-USA, Dale T. Mortensen Christopher A. Pissarides-UK Work on Search Theory for optimal choices.
PEACE PRIZE Liu Xiabo-China For his pro democracy efforts in China.
BOOKS & AUTHORS
 The Bridge – The Life & Rise of Barack Obama – David Remnick
ABBREVIATIONS
 NGT – National Green Tribunal  GHI – Global Hunger Index
 BASIC – Brazil-South Africa-India -China  FCCC- Framework Convention on Climate Change (Of UN)
 IBSA – India-Brazil- S. Africa  OECD – Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
SPORTS NEWS
 India beats Australia to win test series after 15 years
 Krishna Poonia – wins First Gold In athletics after 52 years
 Sebastion Vettel – German F-1 driver becoming first person to remain on no.1 spot in Castrol Driver Rankings for 29 weeks
 Sebastion Vettel (23) – Youngest World Champion in F-1 car racing
 F-1 Chief Bernie Ecclestone approves India’s first F-1 race track at Noida, UP
 VH (Venkateshwara Hatcheries) second Indian organization to buy stake in EPL club’s Blackburn Rovers Football team in UK
 Trecia Smith (triple jump champion) of Jamaica declared best athlete of Commonwealth Games
 Govt. doubles cash awards for medal winners in Commonwealth Games : Gold—20 lakh, Silver – 10 lakh, Silver – 6 lakh
MAJOR SPORTS EVENTS IN OCTOBER
EVENT / SPORT VENUE / PLACE WINNER LOSER
Federation Cup, Football Cuttack, Odisha East Bengal Mohun Bagan
Ryder Cup, Golf Newport, UK Europe USA
World Gymnastics Championships Rotterdam, Germany Kohei Uchimura,Japan (Men), Aliya Mustafina, Russia (Women)
Korean Grand Prix, F-1 racing Yeongam, South Korea Fernando Alonso, Spain Lewis Hamilton, UK
World Boxing Championship - Heavyweight Vitali Klitschko, Ukrain
Shannon Briggs, USA

Source: ctdi