17th October 2015 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• Today (17th October) is International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
• This day has been observed every year since 1993, when the United Nations General Assembly, by resolution  designated this day to promote awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution in all countries.
• Fighting poverty remains at the core of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the development of the post-2015 development agenda.
• Theme of International Day of the Eradication of Poverty 2015 : Building a sustainable future : Coming together to end poverty and discrimination
• India is going host the Third India-Africa Forum Summit, one of the biggest summit of African countries outside Africa.
• This summit is going to be held from 26th to 29th October 2015 in New Delhi.
• Nepal's new Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa is on a visit to India from 17th to 19th October 2015.
• This is his maiden visit abroad after taking over a few days ago.

MOUs

• Pakistan and Russia today signed a major agreement to build a 1,100-kilometre gas pipeline from Lahore to Karachi at an estimated cost of $2 billion, a collaboration that is expected to take ties between the two Cold War-era adversaries "to a new level".
• The 1,100-kilometre pipeline with a capacity of 12.4 billion cubic metre per annum will connect Karachi's liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals with those in Lahore.

National Affairs

• The government has introduced a Central Victim Compensation Fund (CVCF) scheme, with an initial corpus of Rs 200 crores, to enable support to victims of rape, acid attacks, human trafficking and women killed or injured in the cross border firing.
• The victims of acid attacks and rapes will now get Rs 3 lakh as part of CVCF while the compensation will rise by 50 per cent in case the victim is less than 14 years of age.
• Ministry of Environment and Climate Change has announced launch of Post-Doctoral Research Fellowships in name of Late Dr. APJAbdul Kalam
• The Post Doctoral Fellowship programme of the Ministry is targeted towards young scientists working in the area of environment and ecology in the country.

Business & Economy

• Following the Reserve Bank of India’s decision to issue licenses to 11 payments banks, Mahindra Comviva, which has a 25 per cent market share in the global mobile money market, has announced that it is entering the Indian market to provide the technological solutions and infrastructure to the payments banks in India. 
• Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Retail will soon start selling 4G LTE smartphones under the 'LYF' brand. 
• The move comes months ahead of a planned 4G service launch from group company Reliance Jio Infocomm. 

New Appointments

• Nepal Parliament has unanimously elected UCPN-Maoist lawmaker Onsari Gharti Magar as the Speaker of the House.
• She became Nepal's First woman speaker of Parliamen.

Sports

• Denmark Open 2015
• India's PV Sindhu beats world champion Carolina Marin of Spain to enter maiden Super Series final

Read more Daily Current Affairs updates from here

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