CURRENT AFFAIRS OCTOBER 2016
Ø Singer and song writer Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature for ‘having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition’.
Ø Dylan is the first American to win the prize since novelist Toni Morrison, in 1993.
Ø Dylan’s some albums are; ‘Bringing it all back home’ & ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ (1965), ‘Blonde on Blonde’ (1966), ‘Oh Mercy’ (1989), and ‘Modern Times’ (2006).
Ø World sight day-13/October (2nd Thursday of October)[Theme- Stronger together], It was originally initiated by the Sight First
Ø Thailand’s king Bhumibol Adulyadej, who was the world’s longest reigning monarch (for seven decades after ascending the throne in 1946) died in age of 88. His son and heir apparent , the 63year old crown prince Mahavajiralongkorn, is expected to become new king.
Ø Maldives quits Commonwealth grouping. It becomes the latest to leave the commonwealth after Gambia which quits in 2013.
Ø Nobel prize-winning Italian playwright, director and political activist Dario-fo has died aged 90. He won the nobel prize for literature in 1997.
Ø The Global TB Report 2016, recently released, has revised the estimates for the tuberculosis (TB) burden in India upwards. The country has 27% of the global burden of incident tuberculosis and 34% of global TB deaths.
Ø KIGALI AGREEMENT- * The Kigali agreement is significant in that it amends the 1987 Montreal Protocol, initially conceived only to plug gases that were destroying the ozone layer, to new include gases responsible for global warming. * This has been the turf of agreements such as the recently ratified Paris Agreement pushes countries to cap global warming to ‘well below 2 degrees Celsius’ by 2100. (India follows up its ratification of the Paris Treaty with a promise to phase out HFC use). *Nearly 200 came to an agreement to phase out a family of potent greenhouse gases by the late 2040s and move to prevent a potential 0.5 degree Celsius rise in global temperature by the end of the century. * Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are a family of greenhouse gases that are largely used in refrigerants in home and car air-conditioners. They are currently the world’s fastest growing gases, with emissions increasing by up 10% each year. *India will freeze HFC use by 2028 on a 2024-2026 ‘baseline’, which means It will not emit more HFC after 2031 than it does in 2024-2026.
Ø PARIS AGREEMENT- The Paris agreement is an agreement within the United Nations framework convention on climate change s(UNFCCC) dealing with greenhouse gases emissions mitigations, adaption and finance starting in 2020. It was signed on 22/4/2016. Its location is in Newyork. The aim of convention is described in article 2. The agreement will come in affect from 4/11/2016. Its depositary secretary is the general of the U.N.
Ø SCIENTIST PRODUCES ELECTRICITY FROM WATER WITHOUT USING ENERGY- In a major breakthrough, scientists at Delhi’s National Laboratory (NPL) have developed a novel way of producing electricity from water at a room temperature without using any power or chemical. * A team led by Dr. R.K. Kotala used nanoporous magnesium ferrite to split water into hydronium(H3O) and hydroxide(OH) ions and used silver and zincs as electrodes to make a cell that produces electricity. * Since magnesium has high affinity for hydroxide, it spontaneously splits water into hydronium and hydroxide ions. The hydronium ions get trapped inside the nanoporous of magnesium ferrite and generate an electric field. The electric field helps in further dissociation of water. Magnesium ferrite is made as an oxygen deficient material and has plenty of oxygen vacancies. To further enhance the activity of magnesium ferrite, about 20% of magnesium is replaced with lithium. The substitution of lithium at magnesium site increases the sensitivity of magnesium ferrite. This is helpful in dissociating water at room temperature as the electrons get trapped in the oxygen deficient sites. Because electrons are trapped in the oxygen vacancies they attract the water molecules towards the surface of magnesium ferrite. Only when water molecules is brought very close to the magnesium atom can magnesium have any affinity with hydroxide and start the dissociation process.
Ø Star shuttler Saina Nehwal has been appointed member of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Athletes’ commission.
Ø Beginning her political journey, Irom Sharmila announced a new political party, named ‘The Peoples Resurgence and Justice Alliance’ (PRJA), will contest the assembly polls in Manipur in 2017. She will be contesting from two constituencies in the state, Thoubal and Khurai ( her home constituency).
Ø Virendra kumar Malhotra is going to be the next member-secretary of the Indian council of social science research (ICSSR).
Ø In order to protect and increase wild tiger population, ‘the project C.A.T.- conserving acres for tigers’ by discovery communications and NGO world wildlife fund (WWF).
Ø The headquarters of world boxing organization is located in San Jaun, Puerto Rico.
Ø Sino India cooperation 2016, a joint tactical excise, between India and China was recently held in Ladakh.
Ø Antonio Guterres who was appointed as the next Secretary-General of the United Nations by the General Assembly is the former Prime Minister of Portugal.
Ø The Union Cabinet approved signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Hungary on cooperation in the field of Water management.
Ø The country that formally joined China's One-Belt One Road Initiative and has elevated its bilateral relationship with China to Strategic Partnership agreeing to co-operate in all regional and international issues is Bangladesh.
Ø The theme for the 2016 International Day of Rural Women is Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too.
Ø The First World Tsunami Awareness Day will be celebrated at the Asian Ministerial Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction 2016 on - 5 November 2016
Ø Person appointed as Prime Minister of Morocco recently- Abdelilah Benkirane
Ø The winner of the 2016 China Open Women's Singles title is - Agnieszka Radwanska
Ø The theme for the 2016 International Day of the Girl Child is - Girls' Progress = Goals' Progress: What Counts for Girls
Ø Person who won the 24th Ekalabya Award for the year 2016- Srabani Nanda
Ø The actor who will be awarded with the 44th Chaplin Award for the year 2016 by Film Society of Lincoln Center is - Robert De Niro
Ø India completed its nuclear triad by inducting country's first indigenously-constructed nuclear submarine named - INS Arihant into service
Ø Country ranked as the safest place as per Global Travel and Terrorism Report 2016 of World Economic Forum- Finland
Ø Cricket team of which country recently became the world first team to play 900 ODIs- India
Ø Kigali V Ndahindurwa who passed away recently was the last king of – Rwanda
Ø The World Bank has pledged 2 billion US dollars aid to tackle climate change to – Bangladesh
Ø The city that became the first Indian city to be officially declared as one of the venues for hosting the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup is Kochi.
Ø Union Government unveiled a Regional air connectivity scheme - UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik)
Ø Sandra Lee Bartky, an influential feminist philosopher, argued that women were subconsciously submitting to men by accepting an unnatural cultural standard for the ideal female body, died aged 81. What she called the “tyranny of slenderness”.
Ø The TATA SONS board sacked Cyrus Mistry, Ratan Tata will lead group till new chairman is appointed.
Ø Anti-Vietnam war (1960s) activist Tom Hayden dead. He was a member of the “Chicago 7” convicted on federal charges of conspiracy and incitement to riot over anti-vietnam war protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Ø ISRO started the first set of a series of ground and aerial tests related to the critical moon landing of Chandrayaan-2. The latest aerial tests took place at ISRO’S new site at Challakere in Chitradurga district, some 400km from Bengaluru. Chandrayaan-1 was successfully launched under the leadership of Dr. Annadurai who was also the project director in 2008.
Ø Bird flu (avian influenza), caused by H5N8 virus has been detected among ducks.
Ø D S Rana & Arvind kumar of Sir Ganga Ram hospital here have been selected for the presitious Dr. B C Roy award for excellence in the field of medicine. The awards will be presented by the president next year.
Ø Paul beatty’s novel “the sellout,a blistering satire about race in America”, won the Man Booker Prize.