Monthly Current Affairs October 2015
Read the October 2015 Monthly Current Affairs for IBPS PO, IBPS Clerical, RBI, SBI, UPSC prelims, SSC, NDA, CDS, AFCAT, State Civil Services and other exams. All the important monthly current affairs consolidated in an easy to read and revise manner.
Contents
Current Affairs October 2015 – National
- Government releases commemorative stamp on Dr. B.R. Ambedkar on his 125th birthday (1st October 2015).
- Union Government plans to produce power, compost from solid waste under Swachh Bharat Mission.
- Union Government launches 2nd phase of Mission Indradhanush:
The week-long programme will be implemented in 352 districts of the country. Mission Indradhanush aims to cover all those children by 2020 who are either unvaccinated or are partially vaccinated against 7 vaccine preventable diseases. These 7 diseases are Diphtheria, Whooping cough, Tetanus, Polio, Tuberculosis, Measles and Hepatitis B.
- Union Cabinet gives nod to RCE i.e. 2904.04 crore rupees for Kaladan Multi Modal Project in Myanmar. Kaladan Multi Modal Transit Transport Project aims to create a multi-modal mode of transport for cargo shipment from the eastern ports of India to Myanmar. This project will connect Sittwe Port in Myanmar to the India-Myanmar border via roadway. Thus it will provide alternative cost effective shortcut to landlocked north eastern states.
- Supreme Court permits voluntary use of Aadhaar Cards in Welfare Schemes MGNREGA, PM’s Jan Dhan Yojana, all types of pension schemes and EPF. The apex court modified its earlier order which restricted use of Aadhaar to public distribution system (LPG) and LPG (cooking gas) subsidy.
- Supreme Court has declared National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act, 2014 and 99th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2014 unconstitutional and void. SC bench has held that Collegium system will remain operative which was established by its earlier ruling of in 1993 for the appointment of judges to the higher judiciary.
- Telecom operators to compensate consumers by Rs 1 for call drop: TRAI
- Union Government approves induction of women fighter pilots in Indian Air Force.
- Third India-Africa forum summit begins in New Delhi.
- Union Government launches e-Sahyog Pilot Project to facilitate Taxpayers.
Current Affairs October 2015 – International
- India to head G20 in 2018. Turkey which is the head of G20 forum in 2015 will hand over the chair for the next year i.e. 2016 to China and in 2017 Germany is going to head G20.
- Germany celebrated 25 years of reunification on 3 October 2015 marking the day in 1990 when communist East Germany and capitalist West Germany reunited country.
- IS militants blows up Palmyra’s (Syrian city) iconic Arc of Triumph.
- Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement signed:
12 Pacific Rim countries have signed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement which covers about 40 per cent of the world economy.
These 12 countries are: Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Japan, Canada, United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Australia and New Zealand.
TPP agreement will pave way creation of a new economic bloc with reduced trade barriers between the 12 nations involved. It cuts trade tariffs and sets common standards. It sets minimum standards on various global issues ranging from environmental protection and Workers Right. It sets up guidelines for dispute settlement between governments and foreign investors. It eliminates more than 18000 taxes levied by various countries on American goods in turn benefiting farmers, ranchers and manufacturers.
- K P Sharma Oli of CPN-UML elected as the new Prime Minister of Nepal.
- Australian art gallery to return 2000 year old Buddha idol to India.Earlier, Germany had returned 10th century Durga idol in Mahishasuramardini avatar to India which had gone missing from a temple at Pulwama in Kashmir in 1990s.
- China operationalises Zam Hydropower Station on Brahmaputra in Tibet which has raised concerns in India over the likelihood of disrupting water supplies of River. The dam is considered to be the world’s highest-altitude hydropower station and largest of its kind.
- Myanmar Government inks peace pact with 8 ethnic rebels groups.
- Pakistan and Russia have signed a major agreement to build a 1,100-km North-South gas pipeline from Lahore to Karachi.
- Typhoon Koppu hits northern Philippines
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has launched Trident Juncture Military Exercise in Italy to test the alliance’s ability to respond to new security threats.
- United States and Spain have reached an in principle agreement to clean up land at Palomares site (in Spain) contaminated by plutonium radiation from undetonated US nuclear bombs.
- Justin Trudeau of Liberal Party elected as Canada’s new PM
- US President appoints Brett McGurk as Special Envoy to US-led coalition for fighting IS
- Nasser Khan Janjua appointed as National Security Advisor of Pakistan
- Hurricane Patricia hits Mexico’s Pacific coast.
- Bidhya Devi Bhandari elected as first female President of Nepal.
- John Magufuli elected as President of Tanzania.
- China abandons its decades old One Child Policy and changed it to Two-child policy.
Current Affairs October 2015 – Sports
- Heena Sidhu wins gold medal at Asian Air Gun Championships.
- Sergey Karjakin of Russia has won 2015 World Cup Chess Championship held at Baku, Azerbaijan.
- Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis win 2015 China Open Women’s Doubles Title of tennis.
- Lewis Hamilton wins 2015 Russian Grand Prix of F1.
- Cricketer Zaheer Khan announces retirement from International cricket.
- Great Britain wins 2015 Sultan of Johor Cup of Hockey played at Johor Bahru, Malaysia.In the final, India lost to Great Britain in penalty shoot by 3-4 goals score.
- India’s Saketh Myneni wins 2015 Vietnam Open Tennis Trophy.
- Virender Sehwag announces retirement from International Cricket.
- Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain has won 2015 United States Grand Prix title of Formula One for the fourth time. With this victory, he also won 2015 World Drivers’ Championship (WDC) for third time.
Current Affairs October 2015 – Appointments
- V Shanmuganathan sworn-in as 17th Governor of Manipur. He is also presently the governor of Meghalaya.
- Shashank Manohar elected as BCCI president.
- Jack Dorsey appointed as permanent CEO of Twitter
- Hoesung Lee of South Korea has been elected Chairman of Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). Lee succeeds environmentalist R.K. Pachauri of India who had resigned following the sexual abuse scandal in which he was allegedly involved.IPCC is the leading international body for the assessment of climate change having headquarters at Geneva, Switzerland.
- Shekhar Basu appointed as Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission
- Kundhavi Kadiresan appointed as Assistant Director of FAO
- VK Malhotra appointed as President of All India Council of Sports.
- Alok Rawat becomes first male member of National Commission for Women.
- Economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das nominated on RBI Central Board.
- Najib Shah appointed as the chairman of Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).
Current Affairs October 2015 – Regional
- Maharashtra government has decided to impose ‘drought tax’ in a bid to raise funds to tackle the drought like situation in the state.
- Tamil Nadu Government bans Ketoprofen drug to save vultures.It is believed that Ketoprofen causes same effect on the vulture population caused by Diclofenac.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone Amaravati, a new capital city of Andhra Pradesh.
- Himachal Pradesh to host India’s first Paragliding World Cup.
- MP Government announces 33 percent quota for women in government jobs
Current Affairs October 2015 – Economy and Banking
- Asian Development Bank to provide loan of 120mn USDfor India-Bangladesh Electricity link upgradation.
- India emerges as world’s largest cotton producer.
- Google officially becomes Alphabet Inc.
- Infosys appoints Ranganath D Mavinakere as new CFO
- RBI formed Financial Inclusion Fund with Rs. 2000 crore corpus.This fund will support the developmental and promotional activities covered under the financial inclusion initiatives.
- FIF has been established as a single entity (fund) by merging Financial Inclusion Fund (FIF) and Financial Inclusion Technology Fund (FITF). It will provide support for funding the setting up and operational cost for running financial inclusion and Literacy Centres. One of its major objective will be enhanced investment in Green Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solution.
- It will be administered by the reconstituted Advisory Board constituted by Union Government and will be maintained by NABARD. Contribution to FIF would be from the interest differential in excess of 0.5 per cent on Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) and Short-Term Cooperative Rural Credit (STCRC) deposits. These deposits are held on account of shortfall in priority sector lending kept with NABARD by banks.
- RBI, UAE Central Bank ink MoU for supervisory information exchange.
- Infosys to acquire US based firm Noah Consulting.
- RBI allows banks to fix interest rates on gold deposit scheme.
- RBI allows NRIs to subscribe to National Pension Scheme.
Current Affairs October 2015 – Awards
- Sheila Watt-Cloutier wins 2015 Right Livelihood Award for her lifelong work dedicated to protect the Inuit of the Arctic and defend their right to maintain their livelihoods and culture which threatened by climate change.
- Nobel Prize for Medicine 2015 winners:Three scientists Youyou Tu (China), Satoshi Omura (Japan) and William Campbell (Ireland) have won 2015 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
William Campbell and Satoshi Omura: Both biochemists have won half of the Nobel Prize of this edition for discovering avermectin, a derivative which is used to treat hundreds of millions of people with river blindness and lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis).
Youyou Tu: She was awarded the other half of the prize for discovering artemisinin, a drug that has reduced malaria deaths and has become the mainstay of fighting the mosquito-borne disease. She is the 13th woman to win Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine and became first Chinese woman laureate.
- Takaaki Kajita (Japan) and Arthur B. McDonald (Canada) have jointly won the prestigious 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has selected them for their key contributions to experiments showing that neutrinos change identities. They individually have discovered neutrino oscillations and shown that neutrinos have mass.
- Tomas Lindahl (United Kingdom), Paul Modrich (US) and Aziz Sancar (US) have jointly won 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has chosen them for their research on mechanistic studies of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) repair.
- Author Svetlana Alexievich of Belarus has been selected for prestigious 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy has selected Svetlana for her polyphonic writings, courage and a monument to suffering. With this she became 14th women Literature Laureate and she is also the first writer from Belarus to receive this award.
- National Dialogue Quartet (NDQ) in Tunisia has won prestigious 2015 Nobel Peace Prize for its decisive contribution in building pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the 2011 Jasmine Revolution.
- Microeconomist Angus Deaton has won the prestigious 2015 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has selected him for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare. His research work has linked detailed individual choices and aggregate outcomes which inturn has helped to transform the fields of macroeconomics, microeconomics and development economics.
- Jamaican author Marlon James wins 2015 Man Booker Prize for his novel “A Brief History of Seven Killings”. With this, he became first Jamaican to win Man Booker Prize.
- Kailash Satyarthi selected for 2015 Harvard Humanitarian of the Year Award
- Indian short film An Old Dog’s Diary wins award at 2015 London Film Festival.
- Noted criminologist K Chockalingam wins IIPA’s 2015 Paul H Appleby Award
- Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has been awarded 2015 Confucius Peace Prize by China. The Prize is dubbed as Chinese equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize. Robert Mugabe is the founding leader of Zimbabwe and has ruled the country since it gained independence in 1980 from United Kingdom.
- AR Rahman conferred with 2015 Hridaynath Mangeshkar Award.
- Saudi blogger Raif Badawi has been selected for European Union’s prestigious Sakharov Prize for human rights for year 2015.
Current Affairs October 2015 – Science and Technology
- DRDO sets up world’s Highest Terrestrial Research Centre in Ladakh.
- China’s first lunar rover Yutu sets record for longest stay on Moon
Current Affairs October 2015 – Defence
- Indigenously built INS Astradharani commissioned into Indian Navy. It is Indian Navy’s first totally indigenously-designed and built Torpedo launch and recovery vessel (TRV).
- 3rd India-Sri Lanka joint training exercise Mitra Shakti-2015 concludes.
- India, US and Japan navies kick off 2015 Malabar Naval Exercise.
- India-China Joint Exercise Hand-in-Hand 2015 concludes in Kunming.
- 4th edition India, Sri Lanka bilateral naval exercise SLINEX 15 begins in Sri Lanka.
Current Affairs October 2015 – Environment
- India pledges 33-35 per cent GHGs emission cut by 2030.
India has submitted Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Union Government will boost the renewable energy capacity to 40 per cent by 2030.About 40 per cent of country’s electricity requirement will be met through non-fossil fuel sources. Increase tree cover across the country to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent.
Require about 2.5 trillion dollars in addition to a number of clean technologies to meet these targets and measures for adaptation to climate change.
- NGT orders to levy environmental tax on trucks entering Delhi.
- Union Government flags off Climate Special Science Express with the theme of Climate Change.
- Asia Pacific region most disaster prone part of the world: UN Report
Current Affairs October 2015 – Reports and Surveys
- India ranked 55th on Global Competitiveness Index 2015 as per World Economic Forum Report. Top 3 countries are: Switzerland, Singapore, United States. China was at 28th, South Africa at 49th. India moved up 16 places as it was at 71st position in 2014 in the same index.
- World Bank report says that Extreme poverty to fall below 10% for first time.
- India ranks 130 in World Bank’s 2016 rankings of Ease of Doing Business report.
Top 3 Countries: Singapore (1st), New Zealand (2nd), Denmark (3rd)
BRICS Nations: India ranks lowest in Doing Business among the BRICS nations. Russia (51), South Africa (73), China (84), Brazil (116) and India (130).
India’s Neighbours: Bhutan (71), China (84), Nepal (99), Sri Lanka (107), Maldives (128), Pakistan (138), Bangladesh (174).
Ranking of country in this list is based on index averages the country’s percentile rankings on 10 indicators each having equal weightage.
10 indicators are: business, getting electricity, dealing with construction permits, registering property, protecting investors, getting credit, employing workers, trading across borders, paying taxes, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.
Current Affairs October 2015 – Miscellaneous
- 1st October: International day of Older Persons. Theme for year 2015: ‘Sustainability and Age Inclusiveness in the Urban Environment‘.
- 2nd October: International Day of Non-violence
- 5th October 2015: World Habitat Day observed
- 9 October 2015: World Egg Day
- 8 October 2015: 83rd Indian Air Force (IAF) foundation day.
- Veteran Music Director Ravindra Jain passes away.
- A.R. Rahman named Cultural Ambassador for Seychelles.
- 11 October: International Day of Girl Child. 2015 theme: ‘The Power of the Adolescent Girl: Vision for 2030’.
- 16 October: World Food Day. Theme of 2015: ‘Social Protection and Agriculture’.
- 17 October: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Theme: Building a sustainable future: Coming together to end poverty and discrimination.
- Sam Pitroda’s autobiography Dreaming Big- My Journey to Connect India launched.
- 24 October: World Polio Day
- Union Government sets-up R.V. Easwar Committee to simplify the provisions of IT Act, 1961
- October 31: Rashtriya Ekta Diwas. To commemorate the 140th birthday of Independent India’s first Deputy Prime Minister and Sardar Vallabhai Patel.
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