Current Affairs Update – 30th September, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 30th September, 2015. These are Important for the upcoming IBPS PO Mains 2015 Exam.

List/Indexes
Financial Times
released data on FDI in H1 2015; India emerged most-favoured destination
  • London-based business daily Financial Times (FT) on 29
    September 2015 released Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) data for the period
    January – June (H1) of 2015. As per the data, India in the first half of 2015
    surpassed China to emerge as the most-favoured destination for FDI.
  • India received 31 billion dollar of foreign capital inflows
    through FDI during January-June 2015 while China with 28 billion dollars is
    placed at number two position. India and China are followed by the US with 27
    billion dollars at third place.

Main Points with
respect to India
  • FDI inflow into India grew 47% to 24 billion dollar in 2014,
    a year when many other major FDI destinations posted declined.
  • India has more than doubled its mid-year investment levels,
    attracting 30 billion dollars by the end of June 2015 compared to 12 billion
    dollars in the first half of 2014.
  • Ranking of top destinations for greenfield investment
    (measured by estimated capital expenditure) in the first half of 2015 shows
    India at number one having attracted roughly 3 billion dollar more than China
    and 4 billion dollar more than the US.

India up 16 places to
55th on global competitiveness index

  • In a big jump, India has moved up 16 positions to rank 55th
    on a global index of the world’s most competitive economies, where Switzerland
    remains on top.
  • The jump in India’s position underlines the country’s recent
    economic recovery, improvement in the competitiveness of the country’s
    institutions and its macroeconomic environment and a “slight
    improvement” in infrastructure, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said in its
    latest Global Competitiveness Report.
  • Globally, Switzerland has retained its top position as the
    world’s most competitive economy for seventh year in a row and is followed by
    Singapore, the US, Germany and the Netherlands in the top-five.
  • These are followed by Japan, Hong Kong, Finland, Sweden and
    the UK in the top-ten.
  • Among emerging economies, India has ended five years of
    decline with a 16-place jump to 55th position. However, South Africa is ranked
    higher and it has re-entered the top 50, progressing seven places to 49th.
  • WEF said that the most problematic factors for doing
    business in India include corruption, policy instability, inflation and access
    to finance.

Industry
NDTV signed 100 crore
rupees deal with Taboola
  • NDTV Convergence, the digital wing of NDTV group, on 30
    September 2015 signed a strategic deal with the US-based content recommendations
    engine Taboola worth around 100 crore rupees for 3 years. The deal is signed to
    boost the entire network of desktop and mobile sites of NDTV.
  • As per the agreement, Taboola will serve as the exclusive,
    multi-platform content discovery partner across all the sections of NDTV.
    Besides, Taboola will also provide advertisers with an option to target the
    premium NDTV audience through native content marketing. Both the companies will
    also work together to increase the user engagement.

Appointments
Indian Government
appointed four Brand Ambassadors for Digital India Programme

  • Government of India on 29th September 2015 announced that
    four brand ambassadors for Digital India programme were appointed.
  • The appointments were took place in the first week of July
    2015 as part of the Digital India Week campaign.

List of Brand
Ambassadors
  1. Satwat Jagwani, All India IIT-JEE —Advanced Topper -2015
    (Student)
  2. Krati Tiwari, All India IIT-JEE —Advanced Girl Topper -2015
    (Student)
  3. Ankit Fadia, Author & Ethical Hacker
  4. Pranav Mistry, Samsung USA (Computer Scientist & Author
    of 6th Sense)

The services of these Brand Ambassadors will be used for
generating mass awareness for the programme for a period of one year since
their nomination.
Jayant Prasad
appointed as Director General of Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses

  • Former Indian ambassador to Nepal Jayant Prasad was on 29
    September 2015 appointed as the Director General of Institute of Defence
    Studies and Analyses (IDSA), the prestigious New Delhi-based think tank on
    strategic affairs.
  • The post of Director General of IDSA had been vacant since
    August 2014. Prasad takes charge at IDSA at a special moment as 2015 marks the
    fiftieth year of existence of the think tank.
  • He began his career by specialising on the South Asian
    neighbourhood, he most prominently served in Afghanistan as the Indian
    Ambassador during 2008-2010 and as Ambassador to Nepal during 2011-2013.

Praveen Dixit
appointed as Maharashtra DGP

  • Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau chief Praveen Dixit was
    on 29 September 2015 appointed as the state’s Director General of Police (DGP).
  • Dixit, a 1977-batch IPS officer who was heading the
    Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) will have tenure of just over a year.
  • Dixit succeeded Sanjeev Dayal who retired from his office on
    30 September 2015.

Sportzlive appointed
as official marketing partner for 2nd Indian Badminton League 2016
  • Sportzlive was on 30 September 2015 appointed as the
    official marketing partner for 2nd Indian Badminton League that is scheduled to
    be held from 2 January to 17 January 2016. Sportzlive’s appointment was
    approved by the Badminton Association of India (BAI).
  • Sportzlive primarily focuses on investing and creating
    Sports Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in the Indian Sub-Continent. Indian
    Badminton League 2 will feature six franchisee teams across India who will beef
    up their teams with the very best Indian and International Badminton players.
  • The player auction for the IBL 2 is scheduled for 20
    November 2015.

India
Maharashtra
Government declared 2017 as Visit Maharashtra Year

  • The Maharashtra government on 28 September 2015 declared the
    year 2017 as the Visit Maharashtra Year to promote tourism in the state and
    thus to attract more tourists.
  • The government also launched international tourism promotion
    project Maharashtra International Travel Mart 2015 (MITM).
  • For attracting more tourists, the ministry of tourism of
    Maharashtra planned a lot of new initiatives to put Maharashtra on the global
    tourism map. One such initiative is an international Buddhist Conclave, which
    will be a B2B exhibition and will be held in March 2016.

INS Kochi: India’s
largest stealth warship commissioned

  • Naval warship INS Kochi was commissioned by Defence Minister
    Manohar Parrikar at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai on September 30, 2015.
  • INS Kochi is the second ship of the Kolkata-class (Project 15A)
    Guided Missile Destroyers.
  • The warship is designed by the Navy’s in-house organisation,
    Directorate of Naval Design, and constructed by Mazagon Dock Ship builders Ltd.
    in Mumbai.
  • Although conceived as follow-on of the earlier Delhi class,
    the ship is vastly superior and has major advancements in weapons and sensors.

Top features
  • INS Kochi weighs over 7500 tonnes and is designed to achieve
    speeds in excess of 30 knots.
  • The ship is loaded with long-range BrahMos surface-to-
    surface missile.
  • It has 76 mm Super Rapid Gun Mount (SRGM) and AK 630 Close
    In Weapon System (CIWS) designed to take on air and surface targets.
  • INS Kochi’s anti-submarine arsenal consists of Indigenous
    Rocket Launchers (IRL), Indigenous Twin-tube Torpedo Launchers (ITTL) and
    bow-mounted new generation HUMSA Sonar Dome.
  • It is equipped to operate two Sea King or Chetak
    helicopters.

World
First-ever
US-India-Japan Trilateral Ministerial dialogue held

  • The first-ever US-India-Japan Trilateral Ministerial
    dialogue was held on 29 September 2015. It was held on the sidelines of the
    70th UN General Assembly session in New York.
  • The trilateral meet was attended by the Japanese Foreign
    Minister Fumio Kishida, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Union External Affairs
    Minister Sushma Swaraj.
  • During the meet, the foreign ministers of Japan, the United
    States and India agreed to coordinate policies in addressing China’s increasing
    maritime activities.

Highlights of the
dialogue
  • The three leaders agreed that the rule of law should be
    observed and that disputes should be settled peacefully to maintain peace and
    security in the Asia-Pacific region.
  • They also agreed to launch a trilateral meeting of experts
    to enable joint rescue and relief efforts in the event of major disasters.
  • The three countries agreed to work together to maintain
    maritime security through greater collaboration.
  • They also underscored the importance of international law
    and peaceful settlement of disputes, freedom of navigation and over flight and
    unimpeded lawful commerce, including in the South China Sea was also
    underscored.

IMF Announces
Disbursement of USD 504 Million to Pakistan
  • The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced
    “immediate disbursement” of USD 504.8 million to Pakistan, bringing
    the total amount released to bolster the country’s struggling economy to USD
    4.54 billion.
  • The decision was announced yesterday after the IMF Executive
    Board completed 8th review of a 36-month extended fund facility for Pakistan on
    September 28.
  • The new disbursement brings total disbursements to Pakistan
    to about USD 4.54 billion, Dawn reported.
  • In completing the review, the board also approved the
    authorities’ request for waivers of non-observance of the end-June 2015
    performance criteria on the ceiling on overall budget deficit and the ceiling
    on net government budget borrowing from the State Bank of Pakistan.

Awards
& Honors –
Indian-American
environmental engineer Kartik Chandran named MacArthur Fellow

  • Kartik Chandran, an Indian-American associate professor of
    earth and environmental engineering at Columbia Engineering, on 29 September
    2015 was named a 2015 MacArthur Fellow. He was also given a genius grant of
    625000 US dollars for working on a novel solution to the world’s need for food,
    clean water and energy.
  • Chandran has won the prestigious accolade for his work in
    transforming wastewater from a pollutant requiring disposal to a resource for
    useful products, such as commodity chemicals, energy sources and fertilisers.
  • Kartik Chandran is an IIT Roorkee graduate who uses microbes
    to turn wastewater into fertilizer, energy and potable water.

M.R. Poovamma
(Athletics) and Babita Kumari (Wrestling) Receive Arjuna Award 2015
  • Minister of State (I/C) for Youth affairs and Sports Shri
    Sarbananda Sonowal here today conferred Arjuna Award 2015 to M.R. Poovamma
    (Athletics) and Babita Kumari (Wrestling).
  • Both awardees received statuette, certificate and award
    money of Rs.5 lakh each. M.R. Poovamma and Babita Kumari could not receive the
    Arjuna Award from President of India on 29August 2015 as both of them were
    abroad due to professional commitments.

Days
International
Translation Day observed on 30 September

  • The International Translation Day was observed across the
    world on 30 September 2015 with the theme The Changing Face of Translation and
    Interpreting.
  • Established by the International Federation of Translators
    (FIT), the annual celebration of the International Translation Day is an
    opportunity to pay tribute to the work of translators who endeavour to make the
    world a slightly smaller place by breaking down language barriers.
  • The work of translators is seen as being of growing
    importance due to growing opportunities for international travel and
    globalisation of trade markets. The event is marked with a series of dedicated
    events, seminars and symposiums across the world.

Sports
Heena Sidhu, Shweta
Singh win gold and silver at Asian AirGun Championship

  • Former world number one Heena Sidhu lived upto the billing
    as she clinched the gold medal in women’s 10m air pistol to cap off India’s
    campaign at the 8th Asian AirGun Championship on a winning note on Wednesday.
  • India also had the silver medal in the kitty as Shweta Singh
    stood second on the podium in the day’s marquee event, ahead of bronze
    medallist Seon A Kim of Korea.
  • Having topped the qualification with a score of 387
    alongside another young Indian shooter Yashaswini Singh Deshwal, former world
    champion Heena shot 197.8 to win the top prize in the final. Shweta aggregated 197.0,
    while Kim managed 175.8.
  • In her first international final, Yashaswini finished a
    creditable fourth after shooting 155.3.
  • India, thus, won an impressive haul of 17 medals, including
    six gold (two in individual senior), to finish as toppers in the continental
    event, which lost some sheen after the pull-out of powerhouse China and Korea’s
    decision to not send numero uno pistol shooter Jin Jong-oh.
  • India bagged five silver and six bronze.

Books
& Honors –
Hungry Bengal: War,
Famine, Riots and the End of Empire authored by Janam Mukherjee

  • The book titled Hungry Bengal. War, Famine, Riots and the
    End of Empire authored by Janam Mukherjee was in news in fourth week of
    September 2015.
  • The book Hungry Bengal highlights the tumultuous period in
    the history of Bengal before the independence and after partition of
    India.  It says that Bengal represented
    both as a major front in the Indian struggle against colonial rule, as well as
    a crucial front in the British/American conflict with Japan during World War
    II.
  • It highlights that for the British the priority was to save
    the empire from imminent collapse, for the majority of the Indian population
    the 1940s were years of acute scarcity, violent dislocation and enduring
    calamity.

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