3rd October 2016 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• Today (1st Monday of October) is World Habitat Day. 
• This day was first declared by the United Nations General Assembly in the month of December in the year 1985. 
• It was first started celebrating in the year 1986 at first Monday of the October.
• Theme of the year 2016 : Housing at the Centre
• Today (3rd October) is World Architecture Day.
• Theme of the year 2016 : Design a Better World
• The largest balloon festival in the world, the 45th Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta was recently started in New Mexico, United States.
• The theme for the nine-day festival is : 'Desert Kaleidoscope'.
• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today commenced a three-day visit to Canada.
  
• During this visit, he will review the progress made in trade ties with the country, including in the proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. 
• He will also review the Foreign Investment and Protection Agreement. 
• Later he will attend the IMF and World Bank meetings in the US on October 7.

National Affairs

• The Government today released commemorative postal stamps on the Swachh Bharat Mission.
• These stamps were designed by children aged 10-14 years. 
• The Department of Posts had organised a nationwide competition for designing the postage stamps of denominations of ₹5 and ₹25, and a miniature sheet. 
• The first prize of ₹10,000 went to 12-year-old Binita Biswajeeta.
• Rajasthan has become the first state in India to adopt Central Government’s Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP) in all its urban local bodies (ULB). 
• Under this programme, around 5 lakh conventional street lights were replaced with LED street lights across the state.
• BJP President Amit Shah today announced that the recovery of over ₹65,000 crore under the income declaration scheme marked the beginning of Bharat Uday, as the money would be spent on farmers and rural development. 
• Shah claimed that the Modi government has recovered over ₹1.40 lakh crore of black money and undisclosed assets in India and abroad so far.
• Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh have become the first two Indian states to declare their urban areas free of open defecation. 
• All 180 cities and towns of Gujarat and 110 cities and towns of Andhra Pradesh were declared Open Defecation Free on Sunday. 
• Maharashtra, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Mizoram would also declare their urban areas ODF soon.
• The National Mission on Bioeconomy has launched in Shillong, Meghalaya by the Institute of Bio-resources and Sustainable Development (IBSD). 
• The mission is unique to south-east Asia and India has become one of the few countries to tap bio-resources. 

People in News

• The Ministry of External Affairs has announced that the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day parade in 2017.

Books & Authors

• 19 years after her debut novel The God of Small Things won the Booker Prize, Arundhati Roy’s next work of fiction The Ministry of Utmost Happiness has been announced.
• This novel will be published in June 2017.

Science & Technology

• Facebook today started rolling out a less data consuming Android version of its Messenger app called 'Messenger Lite'. 
• The app allows users to send text messages, photos and links, but doesn't support video or voice calls, or making payments. 
• Currently launched in Kenya, Tunisia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Venezuela, the app will launch in more countries in the coming months.
• China recently completed a test run of its first suspended electric monorail network in the Chengdu city, over a 300-meter line. 
• The world's first computer, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), was designed during the World War II in the United States, to compute artillery range tables, aiming to make targeting by weapons easier. 
• However, the computer was completed only in 1946, the year after the end of the war. 
• It occupied over 1800 square-feet of space and weighed 30 tons.

Business & Economy

• Anil Ambani-led Reliance Infrastructure and Rafale jets maker Dassault Aviation today announced a joint venture for the execution of the offset contract worth about ₹22,000 crore as part of the fighter jet deal. 
• This is reportedly India's largest-ever offset contract. 
• Note : The announcement of Dassault Reliance Aerospace follows India and France signing an agreement for 36 Rafale fighter jets.
• The US government's contract with the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to control the IP address space allocations has officially expired. 
• ICANN, which was founded in 1998, is now a fully "multi-stakeholder" non-profit organisation that will control the web's naming system. 
• The process has been underway since 1998 and was part of a move to internet privatization.
• Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi accounted for nearly half of the ₹65,250 crore black money disclosures made under the Income Declaration Scheme.
• Hyderabad reportedly topped the list with ₹13,000 crore, while Mumbai and Delhi received disclosures worth over ₹8,000 crore each. 

Awards & Honors

• The 2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to Japanese cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi for his discoveries about autophagy or how the body's cells detoxify and repair themselves. 
• He studied baker's yeast to find the genes that regulate this "self-eating" process. 
• Ohsumi's work helps explain what goes wrong in a range of diseases, from cancer to Parkinson's.
• The noted music director and violinist Uttam Singh has been named for 2016 Lata Mangeshkar Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Maharashtra government. 
• He has been selected for the prestigious award for his contributions in the field of music. 
• Murga has won the first prize at the Swachh Bharat Short Film Festival (SBSFF).  
• The short film was directed by young filmmaker Katyayan Shivpuri from Maharashtra. 
• Kiara Nirghin, a 16-year-old Indian-origin South African student has topped the 'Google Science Fair 2016' contest in the US, winning a scholarship worth $50,000. 
• Indian-American associate professor from US Vinaya Manchaiah has been named as the Future Leader of Audiology. 
• In this regard, he was inducted into the 2016 class of the ‘Jerger Future Leaders of Audiology’ by the American Academy of Audiology. 

General Knowledge

• The Nobel Prize has been awarded to 5 Indian citizens since its inception in 1901. 
• Indian Nobel laureates are Rabindranath Tagore in Literature, CV Raman in Physics, Mother Teresa in Peace, Amartya Sen in Economic Sciences and Kailash Satyarthi in Peace. 
• The Prize has been awarded 574 times, including the one recently awarded to Japan's Yoshinori Ohsumi in Medicine.
• The Nazis created the V-2 rocket, which became the first man-made object to go to space after a successful test launch, 74 years ago on this day (3rd October) in the year 1942. 
• The rocket, created to be used in strikes during WWII, travelled 190 kilometres during the test launch. 
• Note : Due to Nazi atrocities, more people died manufacturing it than were killed by it.

Sports

• Indian golfer Gaganjeet Bhullar won his sixth Asian Tour title, winning the Korea Open in Incheon today. 
• India defeated New Zealand by 178 runs in the second Test on Monday to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match Test series. 
• With the victory, India regained its status as the world's number one Test team from Pakistan.
• Kabaddi, which is believed to have originated in ancient India, is the national game of Bangladesh, where its variant, called Ha-Du-Du, is popular in many regions. 
• Note : Kabaddi is also one of the national sports of Nepal.
• Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo registered his first Formula One victory of the season, winning the Malaysian Grand Prix today. 
  

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