Current Affairs Update – 4th October, 2016

• The Reserve Bank of India today
  cut policy rate (repo rate) by 25 basis points to 6.25% from 6.5% citing easing
  inflation.
• In its first meeting, the
  Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Tuesday all members of policy decided for 25
  basis point rate cut.
• This was the fourth bi-monthly
  monetary policy of the RBI. It was first monetary policy statement after Urijit
  Patel took over as governor on September 04, 2016.
• On the basis of an assessment of
  the current and evolving macroeconomic situation MPC decided to reduce the
  policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) by 25 basis
  points from 6.5% to 6.25% with immediate effect.
• Consequently, the reverse repo
  rate under the LAF stands adjusted to 5.75%, and the marginal standing facility
  (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate to 6.75%.
• RBI in a policy statement said
  the decision of the MPC is consistent with an accommodative stance of monetary
  policy in consonance with the objective of achieving consumer price index (CPI)
  inflation at 5% by Q4 of 2016-17. The medium-term target is four% within a band
  of +/- 2%, while supporting growth.

• State Bank of India (SBI) has
  signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IIT Kharagpur for collaborative
  research and running proof of concepts. SBI has a wider programme includes
  ideation, incubation, experimentation and commercialization of new technology
  driven products and services for the banking sector.
• IIT Bombay has a similar MoU with
  SBI and had signed in July. Both parties will identify FinTech start-ups that
  have products or applications that cater to the financial sector. The bank will
  provide a platform for testing and piloting such products and check for any
  specific business linkages. Additionally, the lender said that it may invest in
  the startups and IIT Bombay’s Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
  (SINE) will help in initial screening for technical competency, product road
  map and innovation subject.
• In June, the bank also said that
  it would set aside Rs 200 crore for a startup fund . At the time,  SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said that
  the bank would give assistance of Rs 3 crore to Indian registered companies to
  develop innovations in the fintech space.

• The Maharashtra government signed
  a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Korea Land & Housing Corporation
  (KLHC) of the Republic of Korea.
• This MoU is to build a strategic
  partnership for smart cities, roads and bridges, etc and exchange of knowledge
  and expertise, state Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis tweeted.

• Jharkhand on 1 October 2016
  became India’s first state to implement Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in
  Kerosene. The scheme is being implemented in four identified districts of the
  State namely Chatra, Hazaribagh, Khunti and Jamtara.
• In a statement, Petroleum and
  Natural Gas Ministry said that under the DBT Scheme, PDS kerosene is being sold
  at non-subsidised price and the subsidy is being transferred to consumers
  directly into their bank accounts. This initiative is aimed at rationalising
  subsidy and plugging the leakages.
• Aim: The scheme aims at
  eliminating subsidised Kerosene from the supply chain for targeting the
  beneficiaries and end pilferage and black-marketing. It also aims at cutting
  down adulteration of cheap cooking and lighting fuel with diesel.

• Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh on 2
  October 2016 became the first states to declare their urban areas as Open
  Defecation Free (ODF) on the second anniversary of the Swachh Bharat Mission.
• Other states that will soon
  declare all their urban centres as ODF are Kerala, Himachal Pradesh,
  Maharashtra, Mizoram and a few other Northeast states.
• The mission launched by PM
  Narendra Modi, with its urban and rural component handled by the respective
  ministries, aims to make the country ODF by 2019.

• All 110 cities and towns in
  Andhra Pradesh were given the ODF tag by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu at
  an event in Tirupati.
• Gujarat gave ODF status to each
  of its 180 cities and towns at a function in Porbandar attended by Union
  Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation Narendra Singh Tomar and Gujarat
  Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.
• Gujarat also declared the entire
  district of Porbandar, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, as ODF to commemorate
  the 147th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on 2 October 2016.

• Jawhar Sircar on 3 October 2016
  resigned as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Prasar Bharati Corporation.
  His resignation came four months ahead of the end of his tenure which was about
  to end in February 2017.
• As per rules of the Prasar
  Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990, chairman or any other
  member may resign the office by giving notice thereof in writing to the
  President of India and on such resignation being accepted, the chairman or
  other member shall be deemed to have vacated his office.

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• MS Sahoo on 1 October 2016
  assumed charge as Chairman of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI).
  The oath of the office was administered by Union Finance and Corporate Affairs
  Minister Arun Jaitley.
• He will serve the office will
  2021.
• Sahoo was recently serving as a
  member of anti-trust regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) and was
  earlier a member at capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of
  India (SEBI).
• IBBI is a four-member Board. The
  members of the IBBI are Ajay Tyagi, Amardeep Singh Bhatia, GS Yadav and
  Unnikrishnan.

• Kersti Kaljulaid on 3 October
  2016 was elected as the President of Estonia by the parliament.
• With this, Kaljulaid will become
  Estonia’s first female president.
• Kaljulaid won vote 81-0, with 20
  members absent or abstaining. Her selection follows two failed votes and weeks
  of heated debate.

• World Space Week is an annual
  event that is observed from 4 October to 10 October 2016 in various parts of
  the world including Europe and Asia. 2016 World Space Week is being observed
  with theme Remote Sensing: Enabling our Future.
• This year’s theme celebrates
  Earth Observation from Space for the betterment of the human race.
• By Resolution 54/68 of 6 December
  1999, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed World Space Week, to
  celebrate the contributions of space science and technology to the betterment
  of the human condition.
• The dates recall the launch of
  the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, on 4 October 1957 and its entry into
  force on 10 October 1967, of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities
  of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space including the Moon and
  Other Celestial Bodies.

• The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics
  was on 4 October 2016 one half awarded to David J Thouless and the other half
  jointly to F Duncan M Haldane and J Michael Kosterlitz for theoretical
  discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.
• David J Thouless is a Emeritus
  Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. While, F. Duncan M.
  Haldane is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics at Princeton University, USA
  and J Michael Kosterlitz is the Harrison E. Farnsworth Professor of Physics at
  Brown University, USA.
• All three will jointly share the 8
  million Swedish kronor prize.

• The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska
  Institutet on 3 October 2016 decided to award the 2016 Nobel Prize in
  Physiology or Medicine to Yoshinori Ohsumi.
• Ohsumi is bestowed with the prize
  for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy. He discovered and elucidated
  mechanisms underlying autophagy, a fundamental process for degrading and
  recycling cellular components.

• Film-maker and elephant
  researcher Prajna Chowta was recently appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre National
  du Mérite (Knight in the National Order of Merit) by the French Government.
• The official ceremony is expected
  to be held later in 2016 in Bengaluru.
• The appointment of Chowta by the
  President of the French Republic comes in recognition of a life devoted to
  caring for wild Asian elephants.

• Vinaya Manchaiah, an
  Indian-American associate professor at Lamar University in Texas, in the first
  week of October 2016 was named to the 2016 class of the Jerger Future Leaders
  of Audiology by the American Academy of Audiology.
• Manchaiah is one of only a dozen
  individuals selected nationwide for the honour.