Current Affairs Update – 29th to 31st October, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs from 29th October to 31st October, 2015.

• India and France on 28 October
  2015 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to conserve, develop and
  publicize written heritage at the National Library in Kolkata.
• The MoU was signed by Sreya Guha,
  Joint Secretary (Library) in the Union Ministry of Culture and Bruno Racine,
  President of the National Library of France.
• This MoU will entail development
  of digital co-operation, sharing of technical and other expertise, competency,
  skill-building and cultural co-operation between the two countries. The MoU
  will assist a programme on digitization of old manuscripts and documents that
  began in France seven years ago.

• The Madhya Pradesh Government on
  28 October 2015 decided to provide 33 percent reservation to women in
  government jobs in the state. The decision was taken during a cabinet meeting
  headed by the state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
• With the decision, the
  reservation for women in government jobs in the state increased from the
  present 30 percent to 33 percent.
• In addition, the state Cabinet
  also gave its nod to a proposal providing compensation to farmers. As per the
  proposal, the farmers will only have to repay 90 thousand rupees on a loan of
  one lakh rupees.

• US based global technology
  company IBM and the Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge (TASK) on 28
  October 2015 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for provision of
  technology platforms and services in cloud computing for academia in Telangana.
• The agreement aims at making the
  IBM cloud available to colleges in Telangana for faculty and students to
  utilize it for practicals and project work.
• As per the agreement, IBM and
  Task will together work upon bringing the IBM cloud experience to the
  engineering colleges in the state.

• India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS)
  2015 was held for four days between 26 October and 29 October 2015 at Indira
  Gandhi Stadium Complex in New Delhi.
• Besides PM Narendra Modi, the
  summit was attended by top leaders of 40 African nations.
• The purpose of the meeting was to
  enable consultations at the highest political level between 54 nations across
  Africa and the Indian government.
• India announced 10 billion US
  dollars of credit at concessional rate over 5 years. It is in addition to about
  7.4 billion US dollars that India has already pledged since 2008.

• Economic Affairs Secretary
  Shaktikanta Das was on 30 October 2015 nominated as a Director to the Central
  Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The nomination of Das is
  effective from 30 October 2015 and until further orders.
• Shaktikanta Das is presently working
  as a Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs under the Union Ministry
  of Finance. Das is a 1980 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre officer.

• Senior IRS officer Najib Shah was
  on 28 October 2015 appointed as Chairman of Central Board of Excise and Customs
  (CBEC), apex body on Indirect Taxes. His appointment was approved by the
  Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC).
• Shah will serve the office till
  11 March 2017, when he will attain the age of superannuation that is 60 years.
  Shah is a 1979 batch officer of Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central
  Excise). Prior to this appointment, he has been working as Member of the CBEC
  since May 2015.

• Former Benetton India MD Sanjeev
  Mohanty was on 30 October 2015 appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and
  Managing Director (MD) of fashion focused e-tailer Jabong with effect from
  December 2015.
• With his appointment, for the
  first time the Indian e-commerce would witness a CEO from a traditional
  retailer heading an online venture in India. Mohanty served United Colors of
  Benetton Indian unit for 11 years, during which he made the Italian giant the
  largest international fashion brand in the country.

• Republican Paul Ryan was on 30
  October 2015 elected as the 54th speaker of the US House of Representatives
  after fetching the votes of 236 members by the full House of Representatives.
  Only nine House Republicans voted against Ryan on the House floor. He succeeds
  John Boehner of Ohio.
• Following his election, Ryan was
  sworn in as Speaker of the House. He took the oath on his own copy of the New
  American bible and kept the gavel he wielded as Chairman of the powerful tax
  writing committee.

• John Pombe Magufuli, the ruling
  Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party’s candidate, on 29 October 2015 won
  presidential elections of Tanzania. The National Electoral Commission (NEC)
  said that Magufuli won the election with 58.46 percent of votes.
• Magufuli’s closest rival Edward
  Lowassa of Chadema party won 39.9 percent votes in total. Lowassa is the former
  Prime Minister of Tanzania.
• This win cements Chama Cha
  Mapinduzis (Party of the Revolution) firm grip on power, after ruling Tanzania
  since 1977 when two independence-era parties, namely Tanganyika African
  National Union (TANU) and the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP), were merged. CCM is one
  of the longest-reigning ruling parties in Africa.

• Nepal on 28 October 2015 signed a
  Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China in order to ease fuel crisis in
  the country by importing all kinds of fuel. The MoU was signed between Nepal
  Oil Corporation (NOC) and China National United Oil Corporation (PetroChina) in
  Beijing.
• This will be the first time that
  China is commercially supplying petroleum to Nepal. Moreover, China has also
  agreed to donate 1.3 million litres of petrol to Nepal earlier.
• With this, the long-held monopoly
  of India in supplying fuel to Nepal ended. Annually, Nepal used to buy around
  1.3 billion dollars of gasoline from the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).

• China on 29 October 2015 allowed
  all couples to have two children and scrapped its decade-long One Child Policy.
  The decision is intended to balance population development and address the challenge
  of an ageing population.
• The announcement was made through
  a communiqué issued by the ruling communist party after a four-day Communist
  party summit in Beijing.
• The summit participated by
  China’s top leaders saw debate on financial reforms and how to maintain growth
  at a time of heightened concerns about the economy.

• BRICS nations Brazil, Russia,
  India, China and South Africa on 30 October 2015 signed Moscow Declaration for
  co-investment of resources for supporting multilateral Research and Development
  (R&D) Projects in mutually agreed areas.
• The Moscow Declaration was signed
  during the third meeting of the BRICS Ministers for Science, Technology and
  Innovation that was held in Moscow, Russia. Indian delegation to this meeting
  was led by Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science and Technology and
  Earth Sciences.
• The declaration reflects BRICS
  partnership in addressing common global and regional socio-economic challenges,
  utilising such drivers as science, technology and innovation (STI).

• Saudi blogger Raif Badawi on 29
  October 2015 awarded Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought for the year 2015.
• An announcement in this regard
  was made by the President of European Parliament Martin Schulz at European
  Parliament assembly in Strasbourg, France; Subsequently, Schulz appealed to
  Saudi King Salman to free him, so he can accept the prize.
• Badawi was one of three nominees
  for the prize along with assassinated Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov
  and the Venezuelan opposition movement Mesa de la Unidad Democratica.

• Sociologist and founder of Sulabh
  International Bindeshwar Pathak on 29 October 2015 was selected for the
  prestigious New York Global Leaders Dialogue Humanitarian Award for his
  contribution to sanitation and improving the quality of life for millions of
  manual scavengers.
• Pathak will be presented with the
  award on 12 April 2016 in New York, US.
• The activist first understood the
  plight of manual scavengers in 1968 when he joined the Bhangi-Mukti
  (scavengers’ liberation) Cell of the Bihar Gandhi Centenary Celebrations
  Committee.

• Union Minister of State
  (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs & Sports, Sarbananda Sonowal on 28
  October 2015 inaugurated Games Secretariat of the 12th South Asian Federation
  (SAF) Games 2016 at Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Complex, Polo Ground in Shillong,
  Meghalaya.
• The Secretariat would oversee the
  smooth functioning of the SAF Games.
• This is the first time that such
  a mega event of International level is taking place in North East India.

• Indian para-athlete Amit Kumar
  Saroha on 28 October 2015 won silver medal in men’s club throw F51 event in the
  IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha. With this, Amit sealed a berth for
  2016 Rio Paralympic Games.
• Amit clinched silver with an
  effort of 25.44m, behind Serbia’s Zeljko Dimitrijevic who won gold in a
  championship record of 26.29m. Milos Mitic of Serbia bagged the bronze in
  25.40m.

• The National Unity Day was
  observed across India on 31 October 2015 to commemorate the birthday of Sardar
  Vallabhai Patel. On this occasion of 140th birth anniversary of Sardar
  Vallabhbhai Patel, PM Narendra Modi flagged off Run for Unity at Rajpath in New
  Delhi.
• Moreover, on this day, all
  ministries and departments of the government and all the state governments and
  administrators of all the Union Territories organise programmes including the
  Pledge-taking Ceremony, Run for Unity involving people from all sections of
  society.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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