Economy
India Tops List of Global Poor: UN Report
- India tops the list of countries with the largest share of global extreme poor though the poverty rate in southeast Asia as a whole saw a substantial fall from 1990 to 2010
- India had the largest share of global poor at 32.9 percent, more than countries like China, Nigeria and Bangladesh.
- India had the highest child mortality rate worldwide in 2012 with 1.4 million children dying before reaching their fifth birthday.
French firm eyes Indian market with cooperation from HAL
- French aerospace major Thales plans to expand business in India in cooperation with defence behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).
No new taxes in Rs.36,776 crore Delhi budget: Highlights
- Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Friday presented Delhi’s Rs.36,776 crore budget for fiscal 2014-15 in parliament
- The budget proposes Rs.260 crore power subsidy for small consumers.
- Rs.3,702 crore was set aside for the transport sector and Rs.2,724 crore for the health sector.
- Rs.1,249.20 crore was sanctioned for the water sector.
Integrated Plan for Developing Buddhist Circuits in UP and Bihar
- Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his maiden budget allocated Rs.500 crore for development of five tourist circuits, the Buddhist circuit being one of them.
- The total cost of the project will be Rs.4.5 crore, of which the International Finance Corporation (IFC), an arm of the World Bank, will contribute 40 percent of the amount (Rs.1.8 crore).
- Bodhgaya, Nalanda, Rajgir, Vaishali (Bihar), Sarnath, Kushinagar, and Kaushambi (Uttar Pradesh) have been identified among other sites to be developed in the first phase.
Oil exploration resumes in Nagaland after a gap of 20 years
- After a gap of almost 20 years, the resumption of oil exploration started in Champang and Tsori areas under the Wokha district of Nagaland.
- The exploration would be carried out by Metropolitan Oil and Gas Private Limited (MO&GPL).
Railways: to eliminate direct discharge toilets by 2021-22
According to a report submitted by board’s director, mechanical engineering (development) BK Jha to the NHRC Indian Railways plans to eliminate direct discharge type toilet systems from its entire fleet of passenger coaches by March 31, 2022,
- The railways has fixed over 7,000 bio-toilets in 2,774 coaches till December 2013.
India’s olive oil imports drop 10 percent in 2013-14
- India’s olive oil imports declined by 10 percent to 10,718 tonnes in the financial year 2013-14
- Spain continued to be the biggest supplier of olive oil to India (63 percent). Italy is at the number two with 32 percent of total supply.
People in News
Zohra Sehgal: Bollywood diva died on 102 years
- Sehgal started her career as a dancer with Uday Shankar in 1935.
- Born on April 27, 1912 in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
- She worked as choreographer for some moveie including Guru Dutt’s Baazi (1951) and the dream sequence song in Raj Kapoor’s film Awaara.
- In 2012, daughter Kiran wrote Sehgal’s biography named Zohra Segal: Fatty.
- Latest movie in which she contributed her acting are Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya (with Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor) in 2007, Cheeni Kum (with Amitabh Bachchan), Dil Se (with Shah Rukh Khan and Manisha Koirala), Veer Zaara (Shah Rukh and Preity Zinta), Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai) and Bend It Like Beckham.
- She was a Padma Vibhushan awardee.
Former Supreme Court Judge GS Singhvi
- The government has appointed former Supreme Court Judge GS Singhvi as its arbitrator in the dispute with Reliance Industries over natural gas prices.
- Justice Singhvi had been associated with high-profile judgements of the Supreme Court.
Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya
- Former national secretary of the BJP was recently appointed as the Governor of Nagaland with additional charge of Tripura.
P. Narayana: Head of panel to Develop New Capital for Andhra
To examine the various aspects of building a state capital and suggest a plan of action for its development,the Andhra Pradesh government constituted an advisory committee
P. Narayana, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister will head the committee comprises nine members, majority of them industrialists.
The Andhra Pradesh government is currently functioning from Hyderabad.
Event in News
Gaiety Marks Bonalu Festival: Telangana
Bonalu, the folk festival of Telangana, was celebrated with pomp and gaiety in the Mahankali temples in the Old City and other parts of Hyderabad.
The festival is being officially celebrated as the Telangana government has declared it the state festival.
Indian Army men cycling expedition through Himalayas
- A team of 10 Indian Army personnel Saturday successfully completed a never-before attempted cycling expedition.
- About the expedition: 700 km across the Himalayas along the India-China border at heights ranging from 9,000 to 19,000 feet while braving sub-zero temperatures.
- Captain Navjot Thakur from the army’s Striking Lion Division, Kalimpong lead the team.Indian Army men cycling expedition through Himalayas.
International police technology Expo
- The first International Police Expo to promote police technologies used in India and other countries organised in New Delhi.
- The two-day expo was organised by the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) at the Pragati Maidan.
- The exhibition focus on everything about police forces, their welfare and fitness. It also showcase latest and modern equipment and technologies for safety and protection of society.
Automation Expo in Mumbai
- Rwanda will participate in the industrial technology exposition, Automation 2014, in Mumbai from October 15-18 as a partner country.
- Maharashtra will be the partner state for the event.
Miscellaneous
Telangana allots 2,900 acres to Navy
- The land which will be allotted to the Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam, in Dammagudem Reserve Forest at Pudur village, Vikarabad in Ranga Reddy district, will be utilised for setting up a VLF Station.
- The navy will pay Rs.115.06 crores towards compensatory afforestation and net present value of the land in due course.
MH17 : Malaysia Airlines flight crashed
- Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a Boeing 777, crashed in the conflict-hit Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine while flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
- The dead included 192 Dutch, 44 Malaysians (including 15 crew), 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, 10 Britons, and many mores.
India has 274 accredited Universities
- There are 274 universities and 7,070 colleges in India which have been accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).
- The NAAC is an autonomous body established by the UGC to assess and accredit institutions of higher education in the country.
- India has 184 private universities and 17,803 private colleges.
Priyanka Chopra to promote Banarasi saris
- Actress Priyanka Chopra will promote the Indian sari on international platforms.
- This move is sthe part of the mission to promote‘desi’ handloom and textile industry in a big way the world over and a “detailed publicity campaign is being planned for the same.”
Kerala to save endangered plant, animal species
- The Kerala govermemt has launched a move to prevent 26 plant and 13 animal species from getting extinct.
- State Biodiversity Board (KSBB) and the forest department will jointly launch a programme for the same.
- Situated in the Western Ghat and include rare plants and animal species like bats, civets and turtles.
Goa assembly goes virtually paperless
- Now the proceedings in the Goa assembly, which begins its monsoon session will be virtually paperless.
- For the first time in its history, the Goa legislative assembly will concludes its proceedings paperless and almost 95 percent of the proceedings will be online.
Book / Authors
Book Title: “Historic Temples in Pakistan – A Call to Conscience”
- Author: Pakistani author Reema Abbasi
- Book is all about the documentation Hindu shrines and pilgrimage sites in Pakistan through 400 photographs.
Book Title: “The Silk Road Discovered”
- Co-author Anil Gupta.
- The book claims that We deem it entirely possible that, by 2025, the stock of Chinese FDI into India could be $30 billion, and if Chinese industrial clusters come to be established (in India), even larger.
Awards
Gandhi Peace prize 2013: Chandi Prasad Bhatt
- President of India Pranab Mukherjee awarded him at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
- 80-year-old Bhatt, an environmentalist and a social activist is a Gandhian.
Kerala magician gets international Award
- Kerala magician Samraj has been awarded the prestigious “Merlin Award”
- The award is popularly known as the “Oscar of Magic.”
Sports
Rs 1 crore grant to Sania Mirza
- Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has announced a grant of Rs 1 crore to tennis star Sania Mirza.
- Sania Mirza, who is number five in the world (in doubles ranking) will get benefit towards training, coaching and to meet other expenses to attend the US Open and other tournaments.
India win at Lord’s after 28 years
- India get a historic 95-run victory, their first in 28 years at Lord’s, in the second cricket Test against England.
- Ishant Sharma performed his career best as seven for 74 bounced out England to give the defeat dose.
Philipp Lahm: Retired
- Philipp Lahm, the captain of Germany’s football team announced his retirement from international game.
- Under his captainship, Germany won its fourth football World Cup beating Argentina 1-0 in the final of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.