Current Affairs Update – 12-13 Oct, 2014

• ·        
  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. 

• ·        
  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.

• ·        
  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.

• ·        
  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.

• ·        
  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.

• ·        
  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.

• ·        
  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.

• ·        
  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.

• ·        
  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.

• ·        
  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.

• ·        
  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.

• ·        
  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.

• ·        
  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.

• ·        
  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.

• ·        
  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.

• ·        
  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.

• ·        
  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.

• ·        
  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.

• ·        
  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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