Finance
1. Exim Bank extends
$7.76 mn line of credit to Cuban Bank
$7.76 mn line of credit to Cuban Bank
- ·
Export-Import Bank of India has, at the
behest of the Government of India, extended two additional Lines of Credit
[LOCs] to Banco Exterior De Cuba, Cuba aggregating $7.76 million. - ·
While one LOC (for $2.71 million) is for
financing the setting up of a bulk blending fertilizer plant, the other (for
$5.05 million) is for financing the modernisation of an injectable products
plant. - ·
With the signing of the above two LOC
Agreements, Exim Bank, till date, has extended three Lines of Credit to Cuba,
at the behest of the Government of India, taking the total value of LOCs
extended to $12.76 million. - ·
Under the LOC, Exim Bank will reimburse 100
per cent of contract value to the Indian exporters, upfront upon shipment of
goods. The LOC will be used for sourcing of goods and services from India. - ·
The main items that India exports to Cuba are
pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, vehicles other than railway or tramway,
organic chemicals, rubber manufactured products, and plastic products. The main
items that India imports from Cuba are vegetables, fruits, nuts and their
preparations, pharmaceutical products, leather, raw hides and skin.
2. RBI considering
G-secs settlement through Euroclear
G-secs settlement through Euroclear
- ·
The Reserve Bank of India is working towards
allowing settlement of government bonds in the international systems like the
Euroclear, Deputy Governor H. R. Khan said here on Wednesday. - ·
“We have the proposal of Euroclear and
Clearsteam settlement. There is a budget announcement also on international
settlement. So, we are working on it to see how we can balance between the loss
of liquidity in the local market as well as providing ease of trading for
overseas investors,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an event here. - ·
However, he did not offer a timeline for
this. - ·
He said to start with only settlement of
government bonds would be allowed on the international system. - ·
When asked about whether the RBI is looking
for further liberalising the external commercial borrowing (ECB) window, Mr.
Khan said the bank had been cautious and it could not fully liberalise the
route.
3. Almost third of
world’s poor in India, finds IMF-World Bank report
world’s poor in India, finds IMF-World Bank report
- ·
India was home to about a third of the
world’s poor in 2011, according to a progress report on various social
indicators from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued Wednesday. - ·
China, whose population is more than India’s
1.25 billion, had a mere 8% of the world’s poor, the Global Monitoring Report
2014-15 says. - ·
The report said 60% of the world’s poor
resided in only five countries in 2011 — India, Nigeria, China, Bangladesh and
Congo. Nigeria, which had 10% of the world’s poor, is wedged between India and
China in the rankings while Bangladesh had 6% six and Congo had 5%. - ·
If another five countries – -Ethiopia,
Indonesia, Pakistan, Madagascar and Tanzania — are taken into account, a
little over 70% of the world’s poor resided in these 10 nations. - ·
The study for 2011, however, also notes that
China and India have lifted 232 million people out of poverty between 2008 and
2011.
India
4. 82nd Indian Air-Force Day Celebrated
- ·
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday saluted the Air Force
personnel on Air Force Day saying they are the nation’s pride and their bravery
and commitment continues to inspire. - ·
“On Air Force Day, I salute our air force personnel. They are our pride
and their bravery, commitment and dedication continues to inspire,” the Prime
Minister said. - ·
Today is the 82nd Air Force Day. The Indian Air Force was officially
established on October 8, 1932 when it was created as an auxiliary air force of
the Indian Empire. - ·
Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar was the chief guest of this event.
5. Cyclonic storm ‘Hudhud’ to hit coast on
October 12
October 12
- ·
The deep depression over north Andaman Sea has intensified into a
cyclonic storm ‘Hudhud’ which is mostly likely to intensify into a very severe
cyclonic storm. - ·
“The cyclonic storm ‘Hudhud’ lay centered about 1150 km southeast of
Gopalpur. It was crossing Andaman and Nicobar Islands close to Long Island.
Thereafter, the system would continue to move west-northwestwards, intensify
further into a severe cyclonic storm during the next 24 hours, subsequently
into a very severe cyclonic storm,” said S. C. Sahu, Director of Bhubaneswar
Meteorological Centre here on Wednesday. - ·
The cyclonic storm would cross north Andhra Pradesh and adjoining Odisha
coast between Visakhapatnam and Gopalpur by October 12. - ·
“When it would hit the coast, the wind speed of cyclonic storm could be
between 120 km per hour and 140 km per hour. As the system will come closer, we
will be in a position to pin-point the exact location where landfall would
occur,” said Dr. Sahu. - ·
Last year, on October 12, a very severe cyclonic storm ‘Phailin’ had hit
Odisha coast at Gopalpur causing extensive damage.
6. Union Government launched
attendance.gov.in website to monitor attendance of staff
attendance.gov.in website to monitor attendance of staff
- ·
The Union Government on 7 October 2014 launched a website
attendance.gov.in to monitor the attendance of government employees in real
time. - ·
The move is aimed at increasing transparency and accountability. The
government launched the attendance system as part of its Digital India
programme. - ·
The website attendance.gov.in uses an Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance
system to track employees from the cabinet secretariat to Border Road
Organization. It provides a graphical representation of attendance in real time. - ·
The information which can be found on the website are attendance, over
time, the number of registered employees and number of employees present. - ·
A back-end administrator will check the details submitted by the
organisation and make the organisation active by assigning it a unique
sub-domain which will be the first name of the website.
7. Anoop Jain won 2014 Waislitz Global
Citizen Award
Citizen Award
- ·
Anoop Jain on 8 October 2014 won 2014 Waislitz Global Citizen Award. He
was awarded for his exemplified values of a Global Citizen through his work in
founding Humanure Power (HP) in Bihar in 2011 that builds community sanitation
facilities in rural India. - ·
The award carried a cash prize of 100000 US dollar in recognition to the
work. Anoop Jain was chosen the winner after getting the maximum votes by
people from across the world. - ·
Jain was among the four finalists for the award. Among the other
finalists was another young Indian Swapnil Chaturvedi who founded Samagra
Sanitation which is focussed on providing awesome sanitation services to the
urban poor in India.
8. 5,000-year-old Harappan stepwell found in
Kutch, bigger than Mohenjo-Daro’s
Kutch, bigger than Mohenjo-Daro’s
- ·
A 5,000-year-old stepwell has been found in one of the largest Harappan
cities, Dholavira, in Kutch, which is three times bigger than the Great Bath at
Mohenjo-Daro. - ·
Located in the eastern reservoir of Dholavira by experts from the
Archaeological Survey of India working with IIT-Gandhinagar, the site
represents the largest, grandest, and the best furnished ancient reservoir discovered
so far in the country. - ·
It’s rectangular and 73.4m long, 29.3m wide, and 10m deep. Another site,
the ornate Rani ki Vav in Patan, called the queen of stepwells, is already on UNESCO
list. - ·
“This is almost three times bigger than the Great Bath of Mohenjo-Daro
that’s 12m in length, 7m in width, and 2.4m in depth,” said V N Prabhakar,
visiting faculty at IIT and superintending archaeologist, ASI.
International
9. Eric Betzig, William Moerner, Stefan Hell
win Chemistry Nobel
win Chemistry Nobel
- ·
Americans Eric Betzig and William Moerner and German scientist Stefan
Hell won the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for developing new methods
that let microscopes see finer details than they could before. - ·
The three scientists were cited for “the development of super-resolved
fluorescence microscopy,” which the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said had
bypassed the maximum resolution of traditional optical microscopes. - ·
Betzig (54) works at the Howard Hughes Medfical Institute in Ashburn,
Virginia. Hell (51) is director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical
Chemistry in Goettingen, Germany. Moerner (61) is a professor at Stanford
University in California. - ·
This year’s Nobel announcements started on Monday with U.S.-British
scientist John O’Keefe splitting the medicine award with Norwegian couple
May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser for breakthroughs in brain cell research that
could pave the way for a better understanding of diseases like Alzheimer’s. - ·
On Tuesday, Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano of Japan and Japanese-born
U.S. scientist Shuji Nakamura won physics award for the invention of blue
light-emitting diodes a breakthrough that spurred the development of LED
technology that can be used to light up homes and offices and the screens of
mobile phones, computers and TVs.
10. Twitter sues US government over
surveillance rights
surveillance rights
- ·
Twitter has sued the US government for restricting the micro-blogging
site from sharing online government surveillance reports with its users. - ·
In its 19-page complaint filed in US District Court in California,
Twitter stated that the company wants to report data in a way that reflects the
“limited scope” of US government surveillance of Twitter accounts. - ·
The government’s position, the complaint said, “forces Twitter either to
engage in speech that has been pre-approved by government officials or else to
refrain from speaking altogether”. - ·
In a post online, Twitter vice president Ben Lee said: “It is our belief
that we are entitled under the First Amendment to respond to our users’
concerns and to the statements of US government officials by providing
information about the scope of US government surveillance-including what types
of legal process have not been received”. - ·
The San Francisco-based firm had prepared a transparency report and
submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) April 1 this year, seeking
pre-publication review. - ·
Twitter wanted to tell users how many National Security Letters and
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act orders it received from July 1 to Dec 31,
2013, Forbes reported.
11. First space weather forecast centre opens
in Britain
in Britain
- ·
The first space weather forecast centre opened on Wednesday in Exeter,
southwestern England. - ·
With a funding of 4.6 million pounds ($7.4 million) from the British
government, the Met Office Space Weather Centre in Devon also houses the Met
Office’s headquarters, Xinhua reported. - ·
It will provide space weather forecasts and develop an early warning
system aimed at protecting critical infrastructure from the impacts of space
weather. - ·
Space weather has been identified as one of the most important risks
listed on Britain’s national risk register. It could cause power grid outages,
global positioning system disruption, high frequency radio communications
outages, satellite damage and increase radiation threat at high altitude.
12. Georgetown University appoints first
Hindu priest
Hindu priest
- ·
The Georgetown University has appointed its first Hindu priest —a woman
— to serve the religious needs of its Hindu students, whose number has
increased in recent years. - ·
Pratima Dharm, who recently retired as the first Hindu chaplain in the
U.S. Army, has been appointed as the first Hindu chaplain at the Georgetown
University, a move welcomed by the Hindu students of this top private research
university. - ·
Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Jesuit and Catholic university in the
U.S. - ·
Ms. Dharm began her new assignment at Georgetown on October 1, 2014, the
university said in a media statement. - ·
Previously she served on Army bases and hospitals around the world,
including a yearlong deployment in Iraq. - ·
A native of Mumbai, she came to the United States in March 2001, only
months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. - ·
Georgetown was the first Catholic university to hire a rabbi to serve as
a chaplain in 1968. Three decades later, it became the first American
university to hire a Muslim cleric to serve as a full-time chaplain.
13. China to Launch New Marine Surveillance
Satellites HY-3 by 2019
Satellites HY-3 by 2019
- ·
China on 8 October 2014 announced that it will launch a new
constellation of marine surveillance satellites by 2019. - ·
The satellites will monitor ships, oil rigs and marine disasters. It
aimed to amidst a string of raging maritime disputes with its neighbours. - ·
The HY-3 constellation will include a series of satellites that employ
synthetic aperture radar technology. The technology will be capable of
operating day or night and in all weather conditions. - ·
The satellites will be able to see and monitor meter-long objects from
space and generate high-definition imagery of both land and ocean surfaces.
Sports
14. People’s Choice
Award: Bhuvneshwar Kumar nominated
Award: Bhuvneshwar Kumar nominated
- ·
Promising India medium pacer Bhuvneshwar
Kumar has emerged as one of the five players nominated for the LG People’s
Choice Award ahead of the ICC annual awards. - ·
The 24-year-old bowler from Meerut has had a
good run in international cricket in recent times. - ·
This year’s fifth LG People’s Choice Award
sees five players from five different countries nominated to win the only award
voted for by the public. - ·
The quintet of players nominated for the
award are England women’s captain Charlotte Edwards, Australia fast bowler
Mitchell Johnson, Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews, South Africa fast bowler
Dale Steyn and of course Bhuvneshwar. - ·
ICC Chief Executive David Richardson and ICC
Cricket Committee Chairman Anil Kumble will attend the press conference. - ·
The short-list was nominated by an elite
panel of cricket experts, which is headed by Kumble. Other members of the panel
are Jonathan Agnew, a former England international, ex-Sri Lanka opener Russel
Arnold, former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming and Betty Timmer, former
Chair of the ICC Women’s Committee.
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