Current Affairs Quick Gyan – October 19/2015
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1. BRICS University Forum
Top officials of several Indian Universities have converged at Beijing to attend the BRICS University President Forum 2015 that began a three- day meeting. The Forum, jointly organised by Beijing Normal University and Beijing Municipal Commission of Education from October 17-19, 2015 strives to build an exchange platform among academia, political sphere and business community, leading to in-depth research on major challenges confronted by the BRICS countries and the world at large.
2. NASA’s newly revealed images showing sun’s coronal hole
Solar Dynamics Observatory this Friday confirmed a coronal hole at the topmost layer of the sun. According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officials, as the coronal hole continues it way westward on the sun’s surface, the solar winds will continue to be strong.
The hole, called the coronal or dark spot, has the size 50 times that of the Earth and its magnetic field is releasing an ultrafast solar wind, that is harmless to humans of Earth but can interfere with some satellite communications and few high-altitude radio signals.
3. Actress Pat Woodell dies
Petticoat Junction actress Pat Woodell, who played one of the three original Bradley sisters on CBS’ rural sitcom stalwart of the 1960s, died of cancer. She was 71. Woodell, a native of Massachusetts but living in Fallbrook, California, at the time of her death, originated the role of Bobbi Jo in 1963, but left after the second season.
4. Indian short film An Old Dog’s Diary wins award at 2015 London Film Festival
Indian short film “An Old Dog’s Diary”, directed by Shai Heredia and Shumona Goel, has won the best short film award at the 2015 London Film Festival (LFF). The 11-minute-long film assembles, in puzzle-piece evocations, a portrait of Indian avant-garde painter Francis Newton Souza, revealing the cultural conditions for his work and its eventual eventual institutionalisation. The film was earlier showcased in the Wavelengths category at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
5. China’s Xuerui Li wins 2015 Denmark Open Title of Badminton
P.V. Sindhu’s dream run at the Denmark Open ended in agony as the Indian shuttler suffered a straight-game defeat against Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China in the final of the $650,000 Super Series Premier badminton event. Playing her maiden Super Series final, the two-time bronze medallist at the World Championship Sindhu could not break the stranglehold of Li, who played a compact game and rode on her repertoire of strokes to notch up a 21-19 21-12 win in the summit clash which lasted 47 minutes.
6. Great Britain wins 2015 Sultan of Johor Cup of Hockey
The Indian junior men’s hockey team ended runner-up in the Sultan of Johor Cup after losing nail-biting penalty shoot out 3-4 to Great Britain. The teams were level 2-2 after full time in the title encounter. India had earlier finished at the top of the table in the league encounter just losing one match ironically to Great Britain. Sumit Kumar and Harmanpreet Singh with three goals each have been the top scorers for India in tournament.
7. Acclaimed Egyptian novelist Gamal al-Ghitani passes away
Acclaimed Egyptian novelist and journalist Gamal al-Ghitani has died in Cairo, aged 70. He had been in a coma in hospital for two months after being admitted with respiratory problems. Trained as a carpet designer, Ghitani took up journalism in his 20s and went on to write historical fiction.
Much of his work has been widely translated, including the 1974 novel Zayni Barakat, considered a seminal portrayal of authoritarian rule. As a journalist Ghitani also reported from the frontlines during the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1973.
8. Saketh Myneni wins 2015 Vietnam Open Tennis Trophy
Saketh Myneni has clinched the Vietnam Open trophy, his first singles Challenger title of the season with a straight set win over Australia’s Jordan Thompson. The fourth seed Indian saved five of the six breakpoints en route to a 7-5 6-3 win in the summit clash that lasted one hour and 27 minutes.
It was Myneni’s second singles title at the Challenger level, having won the Indore Open. With 90 points in pocket for his stupendous effort, Saketh is set to better his career-best rank which is 168.
9. PM inaugurates IDFC Bank
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government has initiated a series of banking reforms including re-capitalisation of PSU banks, change in rules for hiring top management and paper-less transactions to curb the black money menace.
Modi said the entire banking sector is undergoing major transformation with the advent of latest technology. “The banking sector is seeing changes. Mobile banking is coming up. Banking will be premises-less and paper-less,” he said at the launch of IDFC Bank here in New Delhi. Modi further said India is slowly moving towards a scenario where the currency printing cost will come down.
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