Current Affairs Weekly Updates – SEPTEMBER Week III

In Current Affairs 2017
September 22, 2017

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AWARDS AND HONOURS

NAME OF THE AWARD	AWARD WINNER	KEY POINTS TO NOTE
Salman Khan	Global Diversity Award 2017	Honoured for his contribution to the Indian film industry
Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA)	Rajbhasha Keerti Award	─
ANR National Award	S S Rajamouli	For his contribution to the Telugu film industry.
UN peace prize	Zannah Mustapha	Award for his “crucial mediating” role

APPOINTMENTS

NAME	DEPT/FIELD
Ban Ki-moon	Chair of the IOC Ethics Commission
Y.C. Modi	Director General of the National Investigation Agency (NIA)
Bjarni Benediktsso	Iceland’s PM (Resign)
Punit Goenka	President of Indian Broadcasting Foundation
Mercedes Araoz Fernandez	Peru’s Prime Minister
Akshay Kumar	Uttarakhand Swachh Bharat Mission Brand Ambassador
Ajay Bisaria	India’s high Commissioner to Pakistan
Raquel Dodge	Brazil’s First Female Attorney General
B Sambamurthy	NPCI interim Board chairman
Rajat Sharma	President of News Broadcasters Association
Balraj Joshi	Chairman of NHPC Ltd

INDIAN AFFAIRS

India’s first Centre for Animal Law has been established at the city-based NALSAR University of Law.
To improve solid waste management in Delhi, the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs announced Rs 300-crore action plan.
The whole country is expected to be open defecation free by October, 2019, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said.
Well over 3,500 people, including 1,000 Coast Guard personnel, took part in a annual cleaning drive at three Mumbai beaches to mark International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) Day.
Final development trials of indigenous beyond visual range air-to-air missile Astra were successfully concluded, moving it a step closer to induction into the Indian Air Force.
Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi said the state government is considering giving tablets to youths who would get training under the Skill Development Programme.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the Sardar Sarovar Dam on river Narmada, described as Gujarat’s lifeline by BJP leaders, at an event coinciding with his 67th birthday.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has flagged off a hundred mobile veterinary clinics for as many Assembly constituencies in the State at People’s Plaza on the Necklace road.
The 126-member Assam assembly has passed a bill seeking to deduct a fraction of the salary of state government employees for the benefit of their parents or differently abled siblings, in case they do not want to support them.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh has operationalised the intelligence wing of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) to penetrate deep into the matters along India’s vulnerable free border with Nepal and Bhutan.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh launched the ‘Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Shram Anna Sahayata Yojna’ under which nutritious meal will be provided to labourers at a humble price of Rupees five.
Ola and the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation kicked off a campaign to promote responsible tourism, titled #GhoomoResponsibly.
Jammu and Kashmir governor N N Vohra has inaugurated the second International Yoga Festival and International Yoga Sports
Championship 2017 in which about 300 people from across the world are participating.
Tripura was became the first state in the country to set up family welfare district committees to deal with the issue of fake and biased complaints by women against their husbands, in-laws and husband’s relatives, as per an apex court directive.
BJP president Amit Shah has launched the ‘Shaheed Gram Vikas Yojana’ during a programme at Ulihatu in Khunti district of Jharkhand.
Gender Alliance Bihar, a collective effort of over 270 civil society organisations backed by the UN Population Fund, has come up with a mobile application to fight the rampant social evil of child marriage in the state.
A mobile application will be launched tomorrow for central government employees who are about to retire to help them monitor the progress of their pension settlement cases.
The Union Cabinet has approved the revamped Khelo India programme at a cost of Rs.1,756 crore for the period 2017-18 to 2019-20.
The National Conference on Agriculture for Rabi Campaign – 2017-18 is being organized on 19th – 20th September,
The law ministry has given its concurrence to a draft bill that will give powers to the government to confiscate property of economic offenders and defaulters who flee India, albeit with a new provision.
Tata Steel has in association with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) launched an initiative to create awareness about environment issues in school campuses in Odisha’s Jajpur district.
A new project of the Department of Biotechnology aims at starting a ‘lab on boat’ on Bramhaputra River for biological analysis of the river system.
The Union Cabinet has extended the time period for Udaan – the Special Industry Initiative (SII) for Jammu and Kashmir till 31 December 2018.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has released ‘People First’ mobile application for grievance redressal at the Collectors’ conference in Vijayawada.
Union minister Anupriya Patel has launched a nationwide health campaign to sensitise women about the early screening and the preventive care for cancer.
Homegrown FMCG major Dabur India has tied up with e-commerce major Amazon for an online ayurveda marketplace which will house all ayurvedic brands and products of the country.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has said it will auction investment limits for overseas investors for the purchase of government bonds worth close to Rs 2,800 crore.

BANKING AND FINANCE

Exide Life Insurance has announced a partnership with Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC Bank) to offer its protection and savings products to the latter’s customers.
SBI Life Insurance has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India for an IPO of up to Rs 8,400 crore ($1.3 billion), with launch targeted for the September 20-22 period.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based chatbot ‘Eva’ – built for HDFC Bank by Bengaluru-based Sense forth AI Research – has successfully addressed over 2.7 million customer queries in six months to become the country’s largest banking chatbot.
Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Ltd (MUDRA) is toying with the idea of setting up an online platform to help more micro units across the country avail MUDRA loans for their operations.
Punjab National Bank and state-run firm BSNL teamed up to roll out open mobile wallet Speed pay across 10 states in the country.
An advisory committee of market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is likely to discuss a proposal for extending stock market trading hours, even as several brokers feel any such move would increase cost and logistics burden for them.
Private sector lender IndusInd Bank and India’s second largest Microfinance Company Bharat Financial Inclusion have signed an confidentiality agreement for the proposed merger between them.
HDFC Bank has surpassed Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to become the country’s second most valued firm in terms of market valuation.
The Reserve Bank would sell government bonds worth Rs 10,000 crore through Open Market Operations (OMO) to mop up liquidity from the system.
Online marketplace giant Amazon India is racing against time to bring in more sellers so that they sell more on its platform during the festive season. Amazon tied up with the Bank of Baroda to offer micro loans to its sellers.
ICICI Bank has launched cash back scheme for those availing home loan till November 30.
HSBC has entered into an agreement with microfinance industry association Sa-Dhan to develop digital ecosystem for India’s unbanked segment.
Tech giant Google is slated to unveil a digital payment service in India next week that has been developed for the local market, according to industry sources.
Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank (KVGB) is planning to convert 100 villages under its jurisdiction as ‘digital villages’ for banking activities by the end of the current financial year.
According to the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), an extra $1 billion is expected to be raised within a year as part of a planned $5 billion infrastructure investment fund for China’s Road and Belt program.
Fino Payments Bank has launched its mobile banking app called BPay. Fino, which started its banking operations in July with 410 branches and 25,000 access points, aims to make banking easy for millions of under banked people in India.
Aditya Birla Group will shut down its online shopping portal comby the end of this year, weighed down by intense competition from the sector giants Amazon and Flipkart.
Multilateral funding agency ADB has sanctioned a USD 300 million loan facility for carrying forward fiscal reforms in West Bengal.
State Bank of India (SBI) has launched the FTSE SBI Bond Index series in partnership with global index provider FTSE 100, which it is hoped will give tools to investors from India, the UK and globally to analyse India’s government bond market, and drive growth in this market.
State Bank of India (SBI) is India’s most trusted and most popular bank according to a survey conducted by Brand Finance, a business valuation and strategic consultancy headquartered in London.

RANKING AND INDEX

Two UK institutions lead the Times Higher Education World University Rankings of the best universities for the first time in its history, with Oxford holding on to the number one spot for the second year in a row, while Cambridge has risen to second place.
London topped in the 2017 Global Financial Centre’s Index (GFCI) among 92 financial centre’s released by the Z/Yen and China Development Institute.
India has been placed at a low 103 rank, the lowest among BRICS economies, on the WEF’s Global Human Capital Index, which has been topped by Norway.
India ranks 128^thin terms of meeting the UN’s health related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 with low scores on air pollution, sanitation, hepatitis B and child wasting.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The Android and search giant has launched Tez, a free mobile wallet in India that will let users link up their phones to their bank accounts to pay for goods securely.
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is planning to fund a project to develop quantum computers.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

The Indian Council for Agricultural Research(ICAR) will be undertaking major research works on agriculture this year with the World Bank fund of 1100 crore rupees.
India and the United States of America will conduct “Yudh Abhyas” joint exercise between their armies in September. The exercise Yudh Abhyas – 2017, will be held from September 14-27 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in the US.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Belarus President Aleksandr Grigoryevich 7A Lukashenko in New Delhi to discuss various issues of mutual interest of both countries.
India and Belarus inked 10 agreements to expand cooperation in a range of areas and decided to explore joint development and manufacture of military platforms, giving a fresh momentum in bilateral ties.
Aiming to put in place a key maritime route connecting India with Northeast Asia and Western Pacific region Delhi is contemplating to put in place a major connectivity initiative direct shipping link between Chennai and Vladivostok amid China’s ambitious Maritime Silk Route (MSR) connecting Asia with Africa.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

The world’s largest museum dedicated to street art is set to open in Berlin.
World’s biggest beer festival Oktoberfest opens in Munich, Germany.
Beijing will suspend construction of major public projects in the city this winter in an effort to improve the capital’s notorious air quality
The world’s largest museum dedicated to street art is set to open in Berlin.
Acknowledging the role played by yoga legend Bishnu Charan Ghosh and his family members in spreading Indian postural yoga in Japan
Russia and China have begun major military drills less than 100 miles from the North Korean border, amid continuing tensions over the isolated state’s nuclear ambitions.
China has restored the maximum speed of bullet trains on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway line to 350 kilometres per hour, making it the fastest commercially run train, six years after it reduced the speed due to a fatal accident.
Fifty countries have signed a treaty to ban nuclear weapons, a pact that the world’s nuclear powers spurned but supporters hailed as a historic agreement nonetheless.

SPORTS

WINNER	TITLE	SPORT/ VENUE
Ana Carrasco	World Championship motorbike race	First woman to win
Lewis Hamilton	Singapore Grand Prix	─
P V Sindhu	Korean Open title	SK Handball Stadium, South Korea
Purnima Hembram(athletics)	Asian indoor meet	Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

Paris was awarded the 2024 summer Olympics and Los Angeles the 2028 Games, as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) broke with decades of tradition to vote on a unique double allocation.
India’s first ever foreign coach for women boxers — Stephane Cottalorda — has resigned within a month of taking over, complaining of delay in salary payment and lack of professionalism in the national federation.
FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 Slogan: “Dare To Shine”

OBITUARY

NAME OF THE PERSON	FIELD
Shakila	Bollywood actor
Liliane Bettencourt	World’s richest woman

IMPORTANT DAYS

DATE OBSERVED	DAY OBSERVED	THEME/PURPOSE
September 15	International Day of Democracy	Democracy and Conflict prevention
September 15	National Engineer’s Day	156th birth anniversary of Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya
September 16	World Ozone Day	—
September 21	International Day of Peace	Together for Peace: Respect, Safety and Dignity for All
Last Sunday of September	International Day of the Deaf	Full Inclusion with Sign Language