Current Affairs Update – 12-13 Oct, 2014

Finance

1. Jean Tirole wins 2014 Nobel Prize for
Economics

  • ·        
    French economist Jean Tirole won the 2014 Nobel Prize for economics for
    his work that has shed light on how governments should regulate powerful
    companies that dominate markets, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on
    Monday.
  • ·        
    “Jean Tirole is one of the most influential economists of our time,’’
    the academy said. “Most of all, he has clarified how to understand and regulate
    industries with a few powerful firms.’’
  • ·        
    The economist will receive an 8 million Swedish crown ($1.1 million)
    prize.
  • ·        
    Mr. Tirole’s research showed that market regulations should be carefully
    adapted to the conditions of specific industries, rather than general
    regulations such as price caps which can do more harm than good, the academy
    said.
  • ·        
    “This year’s prize in economic sciences is about taming powerful
    firms,’’ Staffan Normark, Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of
    Sciences, told a news conference.
  • ·        
    The economics prize, officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in
    Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was established in 1968. It was
    not part of the original group of awards set out in 1895 will of Nobel, the
    inventor of dynamite.
  • ·        
    Mr. Tirole, 61, works at the Toulouse School of Economics in France, and
    has a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  • ·        
    Left unregulated, industries that are dominated by a few single firms
    can produce undesirable results, such as unnecessarily high prices or
    unproductive companies blocking new firms from entering the market. From the
    mid-1980s, Mr. Tirole “breathed new life into research on such market
    failures,” the academy said, adding his work has strong bearing on how
    governments deal with mergers or cartels and how they should regulate
    monopolies.
  • ·        
    It was the first economics prize without an American winner since
    1999. 


2. Amazon and Future Groups signed deal to
jointly sell goods online

  • ·        
    US Online store Amazon and retailer Future Group on 12 October 2014
    signed a deal to jointly sell goods over the internet.
  • ·        
    According to deal, Future group’s portfolio of over 40 brands will be
    retailed exclusively through Amazon.in platform. The partnership will initially
    focus on Future Group’s fashion brands and will subsequently cover all other
    categories.
  • ·        
    The alliance will leverage strong product knowledge, extensive brand
    portfolio and sourcing base of Future Group, and the e-commerce platform,
    customer base and reach of Amazon.in. Both the firms will also explore
    synergies in areas such as distribution network, customer acquisition and
    cross-promotions.
  • ·        
    Besides, Amazon and Future will also jointly develop discounting
    strategy and price tags on their products won’t be very different from rates at
    stores so that both channels don’t end up cannibalizing each other.

3. India reduces hunger, moves up 8 ranks in
global index

  • ·        
    In a pat on the back for the erstwhile UPA Government’s flagship
    programmes, the Global Hunger Index 2014 (GHI) has noted a significant
    improvement in the levels of hunger in India, especially among children,
    between 2005-06 and 2013-14.
  • ·        
    Overall, however, two billion people in the developing world are still
    under-nourished and suffer from ‘hidden hunger’, with the situation “alarming”
    in 14 countries, even as the deadline for the 2015 Millennium Development Goals
    nears.
  • ·        
    This is despite the level of hunger in developing countries falling by
    39 per cent since 1990, says a report released on Monday by the International
    Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe, a German non-profit,
    and Concern Worldwide, an Irish non-profit.
  • ·        
    India has made a marked improvement in the GHI 2014 and no longer ranks
    second-to-last in the world on underweight in children. It has moved into the
    120th spot among 128 countries, with the prevalence of underweight in children
    declining by almost 13 percentage points between 2005-2006 and 2013-2014.

4. At 6.46%, September retail inflation at
near 3-year low

  • ·        
    Bringing some festive cheer to the aam admi, the consumer price
    index-based inflation for September cooled down to 6.46 per cent, aided by
    sharp drop in vegetable prices. It was the lowest since India started computing
    Consumer Price Index (CPI), in January 2012
  • ·        
    This is the fourth straight month when CPI inflation has been lower than
    8 per cent. It has raised hopes that the RBI will be able to meet its January
    2015 goal of keeping retail inflation within 8 per cent.
  • ·        
    Triggered largely due to the sharp fall in vegetable price inflation,
    which lowered significantly to 8.59 per cent as against 15.15 per cent in
    August, the overall food inflation came down to 7.67 per cent in September
    against 9.42 per cent in the previous month.
  • ·        
    Fruit prices also fell, bolstering the downward slide in overall food
    inflation.
  • ·        
    The retail inflation print for September was much lower than the revised
    August 2014 inflation of 7.73 per cent (from 7.8 per cent estimated earlier).
  • ·        
    Reacting to the latest CPI number, Anis Chakravarty, Senior Director,
    Deloitte in India, said the moderation was primarily food articles driven.

India
5. Navy launches recon aircraft from INS
Rajali for damage assessment
  • ·        
    The Navy on Monday morning launched a P8-I long range maritime
    reconnaissance aircraft from INS Rajali at Arakkonam morning to gauge the
    magnitude of damage caused by the cyclone Hudhud in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
  • ·        
    A Dornier aircraft got airborne from the restored runway of INS Dega in
    Vizag to join in the effort. Naval assets would be deployed for rescue and
    relief operations on the basis of the assessment, said a Navy spokesperson.
  • ·        
    The rescue and relief efforts would be led by the Navy under ‘Operation
    Lehar’.
  • ·        
    Naval personnel at Vizag were working to get the naval base back to
    being operational. Damage to the Naval Dockyard was minimal thanks to proactive
    and preventive measures undertaken ahead of the cyclone. The airfield at INS
    Dega was flooded and damage was reported to almost all structures. Naval
    aircraft, however, remained unharmed, said an official.
  • ·        
    The Navy was able to get the two runways at naval air station Dega fit
    to conduct flying operations on Monday morning itself. Almost all roads in the
    naval area remained blocked with uprooted trees lying all over. Power supply to
    the base, disrupted owing to damage to transmission lines, was yet to be
    restored. Only the Maritime Operations Centre in Vizag had a communication link
    with Delhi, as BSNL lines, naval satellite Rukmani and INMARSAT were all down.

6. Expert group to examine methods to curb
sex determination
  • ·        
    To step up efforts to curb sex determination and female foeticide, the
    Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has decided to set up an expert group
    to identify the newer methods being used for gender determination that bypass
    the existing regulation of ultra sound machines.
  • ·        
    Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan on Monday while addressing
    members of the reconstituted Central Supervisory Board, the highest body
    overseeing the implementation of the Pre Conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic
    Techniques Act, 1994 (PC&PNDTAct), here said: “While misuse of ultra sound
    machines is still prevalent because it is cheap, newer medical technologies are
    increasingly being used in the name of ‘genetic testing’.”
  • ·        
    The Minister remarked that he is disturbed by the introduction of new
    technologies, some of which are non-invasive, for the purpose of determining
    the gender of the foetus. The use of simple blood tests that determine the sex
    of the foetus represents a new dimension to gender-specific foeticide, he said.
    At IVF-ART clinics couples are given the option of accepting or rejecting a
    foetus depending on the sex, he added.
  • ·        
    Taking cognisance of the rules being flouted, the Minister has decided
    to form an expert group to identify the approaches and formulate responses in
    the form of an Amendment to the Act.

7. India signed the Minamata Convention on
Mercury
  • ·        
    India on 30 September 2014 signed the Minamata Convention on Mercury.
    The convention is named after the Japanese city Minamata that has become
    synonymous with deadly mercury contamination since 1950.
  • ·        
    The Minamata Convention gives five years time to India to control and
    reduce emissions from new power plants and 10 years time for the already existing
    power plants.
  • ·        
    The Minamata Convention on Mercury is a global treaty to protect human
    health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury. It was agreed
    at the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in Geneva, Switzerland
    on 19 January 2013.

The Minamata
Convention is part of a cluster of agreements that include:

•    Basel Convention on the control of transboundary
movement of hazardous wastes and their disposal.
•    Rotterdam Convention for managing
international trade in hazardous chemicals and pesticides.
•    Stockholm Convention on the restriction and
elimination of the production and use of persistent organic pollutants.
International

8. Gaza reconstruction
conference opens in Cairo

  • ·        
    An international donors’ conference to help
    Gaza rebuild after the devastating, 50-day Israel-Hamas war this summer has
    opened in Cairo with participants expected to pledge hundreds of millions of
    dollars.
  • ·        
    Egyptian leader Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi kicked
    off the one-day gathering Sunday involving envoys such as U.S. Secretary of
    State John Kerry. Egypt’s government negotiated a cease-fire that ended the
    fighting on Aug. 27.
  • ·        
    In his address, Mr. Sissi said the
    reconstruction of Gaza hinged on a “permanent calm” between Hamas and Israel.
    He said it also required the exercise of “full authority” by the Palestinian
    Authority, led by Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas.
  • ·        
    The latest Hamas-Israel was the most ruinous
    of three wars between Hamas and Israel since 2008, leaving more than 2,000
    Palestinians, mostly civilians killed. Another 10,000 were wounded, and some
    100,000 people remain homeless.

9. US promises $212
million in new Gaza aid

  • ·        
    The United States promised $212 million in
    immediate assistance to the devastated Gaza Strip on Sunday yet urged
    Palestinians and Israelis to return to peace negotiations to break a cycle of
    violence that has yielded three wars in six years.
  • ·        
    People in Gaza “need our help desperately not
    tomorrow, not next week, but they need it now,” U.S. Secretary of State John
    Kerry said at an international donor conference. He said more than 20,000 homes
    need to be rebuilt and 100,000 people remain displaced with winter fast
    approaching.
  • ·        
    The Palestinians are seeking $4 billion in
    aid from donors at a conference in Cairo to rebuild Gaza after this summer’s
    50-day war between Hamas and Israel.
  • ·        
    Mr. Kerry said the new U.S. money, which
    takes American aid to the Palestinians to more than $400 million this year,
    would go to security, economic development, food and medicine, shelter and
    water and sanitation projects.
  • ·        
    Six months after the collapse of his
    Israeli-Palestinian mediation effort, the latest U.S. move at forging a Mideast
    peace accord, Mr. Kerry renewed his call for a return to negotiations.
  • ·        
    Mr. Kerry praised Egypt for organizing the
    conference, Israel for pledging to facilitate greater Palestinian economic
    opportunities and the U.N. for creating a monitoring system so that aid to Gaza
    isn’t plundered by the militant group Hamas or used to threaten the Jewish
    state’s security.


9. NASA successfully
installed its first Earth-observing instrument ISS-RapidScat on the ISS
  • ·        
    National Aeronautics and Space Administration
    (NASA)  on 21 September 2014 successfully
    installed and activated its first Earth-observing instrument ISS-RapidScat (ISS
    Rapid Scatterometer) on the International Space Station (ISS).  It was launched aboard during the SpaceX
    CRS-4 mission.
  • ·        
    The ISS-RapidScat will monitor ocean winds
    for climate research as well as weather predictions and hurricane monitoring.
  • ·        
    It has a different orbit than other Earth
    remote sensing platforms. It is closer to Earth and it sees Earth at different
    times of the day with a different schedule.
  • ·        
    The first image from ISS-RapidScat was
    released by NASA on 6 October 2014 which depicts preliminary measurements of
    global ocean near-surface wind speeds and directions.

10. Tatas’ Land Rover
only Indian-owned brand in world’s top 100

  • ·        
    Tata group’s Land Rover has forayed into an
    elite club of world’s 100 most valuable brands as the only Indian-owned entity,
    while iconic Apple has retained its top slot with nearly USD 119 billion
    valuation.
  • ·        
    Land Rover, an iconic British car brand owned
    by Indian conglomerate Tatas, has been ranked 91st with a brand value of USD
    4.47 billion and is one of the five new entrants on this annual list compiled
    by leading brand consultancy Interbrand.
  • ·        
    Apple — maker of iPhone mobiles, Mac
    computers, iPad tablets and iPod music players among others — is followed by
    Google on the second position (USD 107 billion). These are the only two with
    brand values in excess of USD 100 billion.
  • ·        
    While Land Rover is the only Indian-owned
    entity on the list, there are at least six other brands ranked among top 100
    that are part of the entities run by Indian-origin CEOs.
  • ·        
    These include Satya Nadella-led Microsoft
    (5th with brand value of USD 61 billion), Indra Nooyi-led Pepsi (24th; USD 19
    billion), Shantanu Narayen-led Adobe (77th; USD 5.3 billion) and Ajay Banga-led
    MasterCard (88th; USD 4.7 billion).
  • ·        
    Ivan Menezes-led British drinks giant Diageo,
    which also owns majority stake in India’s largest alcoholic beverage
    manufacturer United Spirits, also has two portfolio brands — Smirnoff (34th;
    USD 13 billion) and Johnnie Walker (86th; USD 4.8 billion) — on the top 100
    list.

11. Typhoon Vongfong
hits southern Japan, moves to main island

  • ·        
    Typhoon Vongfong hit Japan’s southern island
    Kyushu earlier on Monday and was expected to bear down on the main island
    Honshu later in the day, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights,
    Japan’s NHK broadcaster said.
  • ·        
    The strongest storm to hit Japan this year
    has forced the evacuation of about 450,000 people on the islands of Kyushu and
    Shikoku, as well as Okinawa which was hit by Vongfong on Sunday, according to
    NHK.
  • ·        
    Vongfong battered the southern Japanese
    island of Okinawa, 600 km south of Tokyo, as well as Kyushu and Shikoku
    islands, injuring 52 people, NHK said.
  • ·        
    On Sunday, wind-speeds weakened significantly
    on Saturday’s peak of 234 kmh hour, which had made Vongfong into a “super
    typhoon”.
  • ·        
    Japan Airlines Co spokesman said 92 flights
    connecting Japan’s western cities and the eastern cities of Osaka and Tokyo had
    been cancelled.

12. China reopens
embassy in Mogadishu after 23 years
  • ·        
    China has officially reopened its embassy in
    Somalia and accredited a new ambassador to the horn of Africa country recovering
    from years of conflict.
  • ·        
    China, like other nations, closed its embassy
    and relocated its staff after the breakout of civil war in Somalia in 1991 when
    the country descended into a chaos and lawlessness that lasted during the next
    23 years.
  • ·        
    Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud and
    Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Ming announced the official reopening of
    the embassy in a ceremony in the capital Mogadishu on Sunday, Xinhua reported.
  • ·        
    Somalia and China established diplomatic
    relations soon after the horn of Africa nation gained independence from Italy
    in 1960, and Somalia was among African countries that lobbied for a UN seat for
    China.


13. World’s biggest cave
discovered in China
  • ·        
    Explorers have discovered the world’s largest
    cave by volume in China. Researchers have found that Miao Room Chamber in China
    is the largest in the world with a volume measured as 10.78 million cubic
    metres. This is approximately 10 per cent larger than Sarawak Chamber in Malaysia,
    the previous record holder.
  • ·        
    However, the Malaysian cavern is still the
    world’s largest by surface area, with some 1.66 million square feet of expanse.
  • ·        
    The Miao Room cave was scanned as part of a
    2013 expedition co-led by Richard Walters from Penrith-based company Commendium
    Ltd.
  • ·        
    The scan data was provided to engineers at Lancaster
    University, who used this raw data to make calculations on the area, volume and
    other values of the underground spaces.
  • ·        
    In addition, engineers at Lancaster Product
    Development Unit were able to use its suite of additive manufacturing resources
    to produce a scaled model of the inside of the cave.

Sports
14. ICC banned Zimbabwe
bowler Prosper Utseya and Bangladeshi bowler Sohag Gazi for illegal action
  • ·        
    International Cricket Council (ICC) on 8
    October 2014 banned the Zimbabwe bowler Prosper Utseya and Bangladeshi bowler
    Sohag Gazi from bowling in international cricket. They were banned after ICC
    found that both the off-spinners exceeded the 15 degree limit of arm extension
    in their bowling action.
  • ·        
    In August 2014, Utseya was reported for a
    suspect bowling action following the third ODI against South Africa in
    Bulawayo.
  • ·        
    Earlier, ICC had banned three other
    off-spinners. These were: Saeed Ajmal of Pakistan, Sachithra Senanayake of Sri
    Lanka and Kane Williamson of New Zealand.
  • ·        
    Although all the players suspended from bowling
    by the ICC are permitted to apply for reassessment after modifying their
    actions.

15. Roger Federer won
Shanghai Masters trophy of Tennis

  • ·        
    In Tennis, the 17-time Grand Slam winner
    Roger Federer won his maiden ATP Shanghai Masters trophy. In the title clash
    played on 12 October 2014, Switzerland’s Federer defeated Frenchman Gilles
    Simon, 7-6, 7-6.
  • ·        
    In 2010, Federer lost in the finals of the Shanghai
    Masters to Briton Andy Murray.

16. Lewis Hamilton wins
inaugural Russian GP

  • ·        
    Lewis Hamilton cruised to victory in the
    inaugural Russian Grand Prix on Sunday, leading a 1-2 finish for Mercedes that
    clinched its first Formula One constructors’ title.
  • ·        
    Nico Rosberg placed second despite having to
    pit early in the race but now trails his teammate by 17 points in the drivers’
    standings, with three races remaining.

17. Mahesh Mangaonkar
wins JSW PSA Challenger Tour
  • ·        
    Mahesh Mangaonkar, ranked World No. 56, won a
    rare first home professional circuit event when he defeated the top seed and
    World No. 45 from Egypt, Zahed Mohamed, in the final of the JSW PSA Challenger
    Tour 10 squash event at the Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana here on Sunday.
  • ·        
    The 20-year-old local champion won the
    52-minute final 14-12, 15-13, 11-4; it was his second PSA title this year and
    fourth since he turned professional four years ago.
  • ·        
    Competing against the Egyptian for the first
    time in a PSA event, Mangaonkar picked up three vital points at 11-all to win
    the pulsating opening game in 20 minutes. He then showed his resilience to
    level scores at 10, rallying from a 0-6 deficit and clinch the second in 24
    minutes. He broke away from 3-all in the third game and finished it in eight
    minutes.

18. India to host first
leg of Asia Cup Archery Tournament in Delhi in January 2015
  • ·        
    India will host first leg of Asia Cup Archery
    Tournament in Delhi in January 2015. The announcement was made on 12 October
    2014 by Archery Association India (AAI).
  • ·        
    The Asia Cup will be held on the format of
    the annual World Cups. Asia Cup will replace the Asian GP.
  • ·        
    The first leg will be conducted in Delhi in
    January 2015 while the second and third legs was allotted to Bangkok and
    Tehran.
  • ·        
    Second leg will be held in March 2015 and the
    third leg will be held in June 2015.  

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