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National:
1. The Department of Posts has released a Commemorative postal stamp on father of Indian Constitution Dr. B.R. Ambedkaras part of his 125th Birth Anniversary celebrations.
2. Uttar Pradesh governmentannounced that it will implement National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 in the state in three phases. The scheme would benefit 15.21 crore people in the state.
3. The World Health Organization (WHO)in its Treat-All recommendation made on removed all the limitations on eligibility for Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) among people living with HIV.
4. World Economic Forum (WEF)released the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) 2015-2016.
The report assesses the competitiveness landscape of 140 economies, providing insight into the drivers of their productivity and prosperity and it remains the most comprehensive assessment of national competitiveness worldwide.
5. India has pledged to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions intensity of its GDP by 33-35 per cent compared to 2005 levels by 2030.
Union Government will take following actions to achieve this-
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 tons 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.
6. Union Government has notified Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Rules, 2015 under the Food Security Act, 2013.
New Rules are -
Temporary utilization of other funds available with the school for MDM in case school exhausts funds meant for meal for any reason.
Food security allowance will be paid to beneficiaries under the temporary fund utilization in case of non-supply of meal for specified reasons.
To check meal quality provided in the rules, it will be tested on randomly on monthly basis by accredited Labs.
If meals are not provided on 3 consecutive school days or five days in a month state government will fix responsibility on the person or agency to check it.
Every child between the age group of 6 to 14 years old studying in classes from I to VIII standard will be provided hot cooked meal having nutritional standards.
It is mandatory for schools shall have the facility for cooking meal in hygienic manner.
Schools located in urban areas may use the facility of centralized kitchens.
7. IDFC Bank went live with a “soft launch”at 23 locations, including 15 branches in rural Madhya Pradesh, becoming the 91st scheduled commercial bank in the country.
The bank, which is aiming to be a ‘hatke bank’ with a stress on technology, has started operations in corporate and wholesale banking, rural banking and treasury verticals as part of the launch.
IDFC’s branches are located in Indore, Hoshangabad, Harda and Khandwa districts of Madhya Pradesh, while it has seven branches undertaking corporate and wholesale banking functions in Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.
8. India has emerged world’s largest cotton producer in the season ending in September 30, 2015 by surpassing China.
9. Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has established the world’s Highest Terrestrial Research Centre near Pengong Lake at Changla in Ladakh.
The centre dubbed as Extreme Altitude Research Centre and is located at 17,600 feet above mean sea level.
10. Union government has found residues of pesticides in vegetables, fruits, milk and other food items collected from various retail and wholesale outlets across the country.
11. Gujarat Government has launched a special Khadi Utsav in Ahmedabad to promote khadi on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 146th birth anniversary.
This utsav seeks to create an aggressive marketing drive in order to promote Khadi in the young generation.
12. The Union Governmentlaunched second phase of the immunization program, Mission Indradhanush, focusing on 352 districts.
The second phase of the program aims at achieving more than 90 per cent full immunization in the country by 2020. The mission targets to cover all children below 2 years of age and pregnant women with full immunization against seven vaccine preventable diseases.
13. The state government of Odishalaunched a healthcare program named ‘Amo doli program’.
The Prime aim behind the program is to help patients and pregnant women from inaccessible areas to reach nearest hospital.
The program was launched in naxal-affected Rayagada district of the state and will benefit people of 183 remote villages to reach the hospital.
Under the Amo Doli program, a stretcher has been designed as a sling to carry patients smoothly and with less effort. Each sling costs around 9000 rupees and the program is being funded under the Integrated Action Plan which is meant for Maoist-affected districts.
14. To reduce input costs for farmers in the Rabi season in view of the Kharif failure, the Telangana Government had announced 50 percent subsidy on purchase of seeds.
The decision was made during the high level review meeting held in Hyderabad. The meeting was held after several farmers committed suicide due to crop failure in Kharif season.
As per the decision, groundnut and Bengal gram seeds will be supplied to farmers at 50 percent subsidy.
Benefits to farmers as per the decision-
30 kilogram bag of groundnut seeds will be sold at 1400 rupees
25 kilogram bag of Bengal Gram seeds will be sold at for 800 rupees.
15. The book titled Ruled or Misruled: Story and Destiny of Bihar authored by the Assistant Editor of theIndian Express’ Santosh Singh was released in last week of September 2015.The book offers a 360 degree journey of Bihar politics since Independence, especially since the Congress’ downfall in 1990.
An out and out reporter’s book, tells an interesting and tumultuous journey of the post-1990 legends of Bihar politics – Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad, Ram Vilas Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi with the legendary clash between Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi – with the untold version on the 2010 dinner cancellation and Nitish’s ambition, providing the third angle.
16. Union Cabinet has given its nod to establish 3 new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
These 3 AIIMS will be established at Nagpur (Maharashtra), Manglagiri (Andhra Pradesh) and Kalyani in West Bengal.
They will be established under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana with the cost nearly 5,000 crore rupees.
17. Union Governmenthas launched KISAN (Crop Insurance using Space Technology and Geoinformatics) Project to benefit farmers.
This project will favor use of satellites, drones and other geospatial technology to collect crop yield data and to assess damage from natural calamities.
18. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA)has approved World Bank assisted National Watershed Management Project- Neeranchal.
The project will ensure access to irrigation to every farmland (Har Khet Ko Pani) and help to achieve objectives of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) for efficient use of water (Per Drop More Crop).
19. Supreme Court has refused to allow some states and statutory bodies like RBI, SEBI to voluntary use of Aadhaar card for welfare schemes.
20. The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal of formation of Indian Skill Development Service (ISDS).
ISDS will be a Group-A Service of the technical cadre of the Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSD&E).
21. The book titled The Courage to Act -A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath authored by Ben S. Bernankewas released in the first week of October 2015.
The book explains the worst financial crisis and economic slump in America.
International:
1. United States, Japan and India have decided to coordinate policies in addressing China’s increasing maritime activities.
2. Nepal has turned to the United Nations over alleged obstruction of a key border trade point with India.
3. India and Germany signed 18 MoUs in various sector including renewable energy, skill development and culture.
The MoUs were signed at the end of third Indo-German Inter-governmental Consultations (ICG) in New Delhi.
The meeting was co-chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel co-chaired the meeting.
The MoU’s signed are in respective fields of Solar Energy, Skill Development, Security Cooperation, Aviation Security and Higher Education.
Also, important agreements were signed in form of Joint Declaration of Intent (JDI) on Languages, Disaster Management, IGSTC (Indo-German Science and Technology Centre), Railways and Plant Protection Products.
4. Islamic State (IS) militants have blown up the iconic Arch of Triumph in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. Arch of Triumph was a centre piece of the UNESCO world heritage site of ancient ruins of Palmyra. It dated between 193 and 211 AD.
5. Governing Centre Right coalition parties led by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho have won the Portugal’s 2015 general election.
In this election the governing coalition has won 99 seats in the 230-seat parliament by securing 39% of votes.
However they failed to secure absolute majority in the Parliament.
Sports:
1. India’s ace shooter Heena Sidhu has clinched a Gold medal in the 10-metre air pistol event of the Asian Air Gun Championships in New Delhi.
2. India slip to 167th in latest FIFA rankings.
3. Venus Williams wins 700th match of career at Wuhan Open.
4. China won the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Asia Championship.
5. Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis won the women’s doubles title of Wuhan Tennis Open.
6. Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, with 15,645 points, held on to the top spot in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world singles rankings released on Monday.
Djokovic has led the world rankings for 167 weeks, with only three left to equal American legend John McEnroe, who retained the same position for 170 weeks, reports Efe.
7. Sergey Karjakin of Russia has won 2015 World Cup Chess Championship held at Baku, Azerbaijan.
8. Russia won the Women’s European Volleyball Championship title.
Awards & Recognition:
1. Indian-American associate professor Kartik Chandranhas been named as a 2015 MacArthur Fellow.
The fellowship entitles him with a prestigious genius grant of US 625,000 dollars.
He has won this prestigious fellowship for his work in transforming pollutant from wastewater into useful products such as energy sources, commodity chemicals and fertilizers.
2. Forbes India Leadership Awards-2015was presented in Mumbai.
List of winners of Forbes India Leadership Awards-2015
Outstanding Start-up for the Year: Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati of Ola
Nextgen Entrepreneur for the Year: Siddhartha Lal of Eicher Motors Ltd
Entrepreneur with Social Impact: Samit Ghosh, Ujjivan Financial Services Pvt. Ltd
Conscious Capitalist Company for the year: Godrej Consumer Products Ltd and Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (Amul)
Best CEO – Multinational Company: Uday Shankar, Star India Pvt. Ltd
Best CEO – Public Sector: Arundhati Bhattacharya, State Bank of Indi
Best CEO – Private Sector: CP Gurnani, Tech Mahindra Ltd
Lifetime Achievement Award for the Year: RC Bhargava of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd
Entrepreneur for the Year: Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd
3. Laureates of 2015 Right Livelihood Awards announced.
Tony de Brum & the People of the Marshall Islands, Sheila Watt-Cloutier (Canada), Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera (Uganda) and Gino Strada & his organisation ‘Emergency’ (Italy) were chosen for the prestigious award that is also known as Alternative Nobel Prize.
4. Luis Leao Pinto of Portugal has won 2015 MTB Himalaya Title, Asia’s premier mountain biking race for the second time in the Solo Men’s category.
With this victory he received the crown tile of ‘King of the Himalaya’.
5. The Tiruchirapalli City Municipal Corporation was awarded with Skoch Smart Governance Award.
The award was given for Achieving Operational Excellence in Waste Transportation using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based solutions.
6. Takaaki Kajita of Japan and Arthur McDonald of Canada won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for the discovery of neutrino oscillations.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the two researchers had made key contributions to experiments showing that neutrinos change identities.
Neutrinos are particles that whiz through the universe at nearly the speed of light. They are created in nuclear reactions, such as in the sun and the stars, or in nuclear power plants.
7. Veteran Bollywood actor Shashi Kapoorwas honored with the Lifetime Achievement award during the closing ceremony of the 6th Jagran Film Festival in Mumbai.
The 77-year-old actor, who is wheelchair bound, received the award from filmmaker Shyam Benegal.
8. Tomas Lindahl (UK), Paul Modrich (US) and Aziz Sancar (US)have jointly won 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
They were being chose by Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for their research on mechanistic studies of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) repair.
9. Saudi blogger and activist Raif Badawi and British poet and critic James Fentonwere awarded with the 2015 PEN Pinter Prize.
10. Indian firm Nualgi won Popular Choice Award at Climate CoLab of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge.
11. Forbes released ‘Top Asia’s richest families list’.
The top 10 richest families in Asia on the Forbes Asia list with their main businesses:
Lee from South Korea (Samsung): US$26.6 billion
Lee from Hong Kong (Henderson): $24.1 billion
Ambani from India (Reliance): $21.5 billion
Chearavanont from Thailand (Charoen Pokphand): $19.9 billion
Kwok from Hong Kong (Sun Hung Kai): $19.5 billion
Kwek/Quek from Singapore, Malaysia (Hong Leong): $18.9 billion
Premji from India (Wipro): $17 billion
Tsai from Taiwan ( Cathay Financial): $15.1 billion
Hinduja from India, Britain (Hinduja Group): $15 billion
Mistry from India (Shapoorji Pallonji Group): $14.9 billion
Mergers & Acquisition:
1. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) tied-up with US firm Prakash Labto provide the Prakash Lab’s low cost paper folding-microscope, the Foldscope to students in India.
Foldscope will be used as an educational tool to understand physics, chemistry, biology and instrumentation.
Economics:
1. Asian Development Bank (ADB) has decided to provide 120 million dollars loan to upgrade the India-Bangladesh electricity network.
This loan fund will allow Bangladesh to meet its increasing power demand from India and support power exchanges across South Asia region.
2. Maharashtra government has decided to impose ‘drought tax’ in a bid to raise funds to tackle the drought like situation in the state.
3. Private sector lender ICICI Bank cut its base rate by 0.35 per cent to 9.35 per cent.
4. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)gave more room for foreign investment in venture capital (VC) funds, raising the limit from 10 per cent to 25 per cent.
According to World Bank Report Projections released by Bank President Jim Yong Kim in Washington, US about 702 million people or 9.6 per cent of the world population will live below the poverty line in 2015 and mostly it will comprise populations from Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
Report Findings:
There is continuous decline in extreme poverty as result of dynamic economic growth in developing nations and investment in education and health as well as social safety nets.
There is decline in extreme poverty in Asia (particularly India) and South America. However slowdown in emerging markets worldwide and in Latin America may spurt extreme poverty.
East Asia and Pacific region was mainly focused in this projections but the reliable data was not available in parts of the West Asia and North Africa because of conflict.
The Index of Eight Core Industries with base year 2004-05 was released on 30 September 2015 by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) under Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
As per official figures released on 30 September 2015, growth of eight core sectors grew by 2.6 percent in August 2015, as compared to the August 2014. The combined Index of Eight Core Industries stands at 169.6 in August 2015. Its cumulative growth during April to August, 2015-16 was 2.2 percent.
As per the recent announcement made by National Green Tribunal (NGT), all the commercial vehicles entering Delhi will have to pay environmental compensation charge in addition to the toll tax.
Environmental Compensation would be payable at the rates of INR 1,000 for three-axle, INR 700 for two-axle vehicles and INR 500 for four-axle and above.
5. Government of India and Federal Republic of Germany (KFW)signed two loan agreements worth 125 million Euros for financing two projects under the Green Energy Corridor program.
6. Mauritius is in talks to review a tax treaty that has made this island of just 1.3 million people the biggest single source of foreign direct investment in India.
7. India’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow at 7.5 per cent in 2015.
The above prediction was made by The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
Appointments & Resignations:
1. Sarat Kumar Acharya assumed office as Chairman and Managing Director of Neyveli Lignite Corporation Limited (NLC).
2. Dr. Anup K Pujari assumed additional charge as the Chairman and Managing Director of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).
3. Shashank Manohar has been elected as President of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
4. Ashish Bahuguna, who is already working as the Chairman of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) was also appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FSSAI.
5. Flipkart appointed Sriram Venkataraman as the new Chief Finance Officer (CFO) for its commerce platform (CP).
6. The homegrown online marketplace also appointed Pramod Jain as Vice President and Head of Taxation.
7. Micro blogging site Twitter has appointed its co-founder and interim chief executive officer (CEO) Jack Dorsey as permanent CEO for second time.
He will succeed Dick Costolo who had resigned in June, 2015 after serving to this top post for five years.
8. The Infosys veteran Ashok Vemuri resigned from his position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of iGATE Corporation.
9. Hoesung Lee of South Korea has been elected Chairman of Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC).
10. Sushil Koirala resigns as Nepal PM, Parliament to elect new premier.
11. Eminent poet and writer K Satchidanandan today resigned from all committees of the Sahitya Akademi, saying the literary body had “failed” in its duty to stand with writers and uphold freedom of expression.
Science & Technology:
1. China has successfully launched 20th new generation satellite into space as part of its domestic BeiDou Navigation System (BDS).
It was launched using Long March-3B carrier rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the south-western province of Sichuan.
2. Internet Search engine giant Google has officially has converted into new parent companyAlphabet Inc.
3. Odisha Government has launched citizen portal www.citizenportal-op.gov.in to facilitate citizens with various services.
4. Google has released the Delhi Public Transport Offline app. The app is aimed at helping people get around the city using public transport without needing internet connectivity.
People can download the app from Google’s play store.
It covers the Delhi Metro, Gurgaon Rapid Metro, DTC buses and DIMTS Orange buses.
5. Chinese smartphone brand Gionee will officially announce its first ‘Made in India’ smartphone in presence of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu along with the company’s president William Lu.
Important Dates:
1. Every year October 2is being observed as International Day of Non-violence throughout the world on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Significance of Day
This day is observed by all member countries of the United Nations to promote the principles of non-violence through education and public awareness. In India, this day is referred as Gandhi Jayanti.
2. Every year 1st Octoberis being observed as International day of Older Persons (IDOP).
Significance of Day
To raise awareness about issues affecting the elderly and to appreciate the contributions that older people make to society.
Theme for year 2015
‘Sustainability and Age Inclusiveness in the Urban Environment‘.
3. Germany has completed its 25 years of reunification on 3rd October 2015. The day was marked in 1990 when communist East Germany and capitalist West Germany reunited country.
4. United Nations (UN) celebrated 5th Oct, 2015 as World Habitat Day. It is observed on first Monday of October every year to generate awareness about the state of human settlements and the future of cities.
Theme for year 2015: Public Spaces for All. The theme aims to recognize good public spaces in order to enhance community cohesion and promote happiness, health and well-being of all citizens. It also seeks fostering investment, economic development and environmental sustainability.
5. The Air Force Day 2015 was on 8th October 2015 observed across India. This is the 83rd celebration of the Day that began in 1932.
Death:
1. Telugu Cinema Producer Edida Nageswara Rao passed away in Hyderabad, Telangana. He was 81.
2. Renowned and bestselling Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell passed away in Gothenburg, Swedan. He was 67. He was best known for a series of mystery crime novels starring his most noted fictional creation Inspector Kurt Wallander.
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