Daily Current Affairs – 25th October 2016
1) Disarmament Week is observed from 24 October to 30 October in various parts of the world.
The week was established by the General Assembly in 1978 through resolution S-10/2. In 1995, the General Assembly invited governments, as well as NGOs, to continue taking an active part in Disarmament Week (resolution 50/72 B, 12 December 1995).
The annual observation of the Week starts on the anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, which is observed as the United Nations Day.
On the occasion, the United Nations invites states to highlight the danger of the arms race, propagate the need for its cessation and increase public understanding of the urgent tasks of disarmament.It invited the Secretary-General to continue using United Nations information entities to promote a better understanding among the public of disarmament problems.
Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. This year during the annual United Nations Treaty Event the attention was focused on the Arms Trade Treaty, which was signed by 27 countries which includes the United States and ratified by three, bringing the total number of signatures to 113 and the total number of parties to seven.
2) North Korea’s women’s U-17 team has won the 2016 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup.
This is North Korea’s second U-17 Women’s World Cup title. The country won the first ever U-17 Women’s World Cup in 2008 which was held in Jordan from 30 September to 21 October 2016. They defeated Japan in penalty kicks to grab the title.
The FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup is an international association football tournament for female players under the age of 17. It is organized by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The tournament is held in even-numbered years, starting in 2008.
The official emblem of the 2016 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup was unveiled on 3 May 2015, which was designed to showcase Jordan’s most iconic symbols. Visual aspects of the Jordanian culture can be seen on the emblem that has the traditional shape of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Trophy.
3) The Union Government will provide higher a subsidy for airlines connecting two regional airports.
The subsidy will be provided under the UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam naagrik) scheme for three-years so that the route would become viable. It will be provided to airlines to fund their losses to enable them to offer airfares at Rs. 2,500 for an hour’s flight on half the seats under the Regional Connectivity Scheme.
The subsidy amount given to airlines that operate between two unserved or underserved airports will be 10% higher than sum offered to airlines that connect only one regional airport.
Besides, airlines can also transfer their rights or contract to get subsidy from government and fly on regional routes to another airline operating a similar type of aircraft.The Union Government has also reduced the bank guarantee to be provided by airlines to fly on each regional route.
The subsidy amount for airlines connecting to one regional airport will vary between Rs. 2,350 and Rs. 5,100 per seat depending upon distance covered between two destinations. Now, Airlines will be required to submit a bank guarantee equivalent to 5% of the total subsidy amount.
4) World Development Information Day was observed on 24 October 2016 annually.
The day is annually observed to draw attention of world public opinion to development problems and the need to strengthen international cooperation to solve them.
The General Assembly in 1972 instituted World Development Information Day via resolution 3038 (XXVII). The Assembly decided that the date for the Day should coincide in principle with United Nations Day, 24 October, which was also the date of the adoption, in 1970, of the International Development Strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade.
5) India was ranked 38th for female literacy rates as per International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity.
India’s school education system is under-performing in terms of quality in female literacy when compared to its neighbours, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.
The female literacy rates in India went up by one to 15% after completing two years of schooling. Corresponding numbers for Pakistan and Nepal were three to 31% and 11 to 47% respectively.
For this research, researchers had devised a way to measure the quality of education around the world, with a specific focus on girls. They had used data from nationally representative Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) which is one of the most comparable data sources on living standards in developing world.
6) The board of Tata Sons Ltd has replaced Cyrus Mistry as Chairman of the India’s largest conglomerate.
The board named his predecessor Ratan Tata as the interim chairman for four months. He will be interim head of the group while a Selection Committee appointed by the company searches for a replacement.
Mistry was only the sixth group Chairman in nearly 15 decades and the first from outside the Tata family. He will remain a director of the individual companies, though his tenure as Chairman is the shortest so far at the group.
Besides, the board also named a five-member search committee, which includes Tata to choose a successor within four months. The other members of the committee include TVS Group head Venu Srinivasan, Amit Chandra of Bain Capital, former diplomat Ronen Sen and Lord Kumar Bhattacharya. All of them, except Bhattacharya, are on the board of Tata Sons.
7) The World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ABD) must provide help countries including India to shift away from coal.
The aid global development lenders will facilitate countries to adopt Super critical and ultra-super critical (USC) plants technologies.
Coal is backbone of countries energy mix to meet their energy demands. Even if countries push towards renewable energy they are not going to do away with coal in overall energy mix.
It was proposed by the World Coal Association to finance countries to help them to shift from their to more efficient technologies so that they can meet their COP21 commitments.
Super critical and ultra-super critical (USC) plants technologies have capability to substantially reduce CO2 emissions and virtually eliminate PM emissions. It will help countries in reducing their emissions from coal, rather than reducing coal itself and meet target provided in Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).
8) Haji Ali Dargah Trust will grant equal access to women to the inner sanctorum of the Haji Ali shrine in Mumbai.
The Supreme Court earlier on 17 October 2016 extended the stay granted by Bombay High Court to facilitate an appeal against its decision to lift the ban on entry of women.
Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, appearing for the trust, filed an additional affidavit on behalf of the Dargah trust to allow women inside the shrine.
The Dargah Trust sought four weeks time for making changes in the infrastructure.
The 15th century shrine located on a rocky outcrop in the Arabian Sea, 500m from the Mumbai coastline, houses the tomb of Sufi saint Haji Ali. The trust had banned women from the inner sanctum in 2012.
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