28th September 2016 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• Today (28th September) is World Rabies day.
• World Rabies Day is an international campaign coordinated by the Global Alliance for Rabies Control, a non-profit organization with headquarters in the US and UK. 
• Theme of the year 2016 : “Rabies: Educate. Vaccinate. Eliminate”.
• India's Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar today summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit over the Uri terror attack and gave him proof of "cross-border origins" in the terror strike. 
• Jaishankar issued names of the Uri attackers and guides hailing from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.  
• Note : This is the second time India has summoned Basit over the Uri attack in less than 10 days.
• The Ministry of External Affairs has announced that "in the prevailing circumstances" of increasing cross-border terrorist attacks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not take part in the 19th SAARC summit which is going to be held in Pakistan. 
• Note : Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Bhutan have also refused to attend the summit scheduled for November 9-10, after India called for a boycott.
• China tops the World Health Organisation's (WHO) list for the world's deadliest air pollution, with over one million people dying in the country in 2012 from dirty air. 
• China is followed by India (6,21,138 deaths), and Russia (1,40,851 deaths). 
• Note : WHO claims that air pollution kills 30 lakh people worldwide every year.
• India's ranking on the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index for 2016-17 has improved 16 places to 39, making it the fastest riser among the 138 nations surveyed. 
• India’s competitiveness improved across the board, particularly in goods market efficiency, business sophistication, public institutions, and innovation. 
• Note : Switzerland topped the rankings, followed by Singapore and the US.
• India and China have hold the first High Level Dialogue on Counter-terrorism and Security.
• This dialogue was held in Beijing (China).

National Affairs

• Nation paid homage to great freedom fighter Shaheed Bhagat Singh on his 109th birth anniversary today.
• The 189th Gunners Day was celebrated today.
• The Regiment of Artillery in India was raised on September 28, 1827 as 5 Bombay Mountain Battery as part of the Bombay Army in the Presidency of Bombay and it's now celebrated as Gunners' Day.
• Note : They're known as gunners as they handled guns and artillery equipment.
• Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar has announced that the Centre has approved the change in the name of the Gurgaon city and the Gurgaon district to 'Gurugram'. 
• Note : Gurgaon is said to be the ancestral village of Guru Dronacharya.
• The Coal Ministry has decided to move all its papers and documents into digital format from November 1st to bring efficiency and transparency in its functioning.
• Note : Earlier, the Human Resource Development Ministry had also announced that it was working towards providing degrees and certificates to students in digital format from the 2017 academic session.
• INS Viraat, world’s oldest aircraft carrier which served the Indian Navy for 29 years, will be decommissioned later this year. 
• Before being commissioned in the Indian Navy in 1987, it had also served in the UK’s Royal Navy for 27 years. 
• INS Viraat had also played a major role in Operation Parakram and Operation Vijay.

Awards & Honors

• Actress Zeenat Aman was honoured by Norway as its postal department released a special stamp acknowledging her lifetime contribution to cinema on the occasion of the 14th edition of Bollywood Festival Norway.
• Note : Zeenat was also the first South Asian woman to win Miss Asia Pacific.
• Gurmeet Singh is set to receive the 2016 World Sikh Award by The Sikh Directory in London for working towards the welfare of abandoned patients in Patna every night for the past twenty years. 
• Singh feeds patients in the abandoned ward and buys their medicines. 
• Tamil film 'Irudhi Suttru' will be showcased at the Tokyo Film Festival in October. 
• The film, which released in Hindi as 'Saala Khadoos', has been directed by Sudha Kongara and also features R. Madhavan and Ritika Singh in the lead roles. 
• Singer Selena Gomez has become the first person to get 100 million followers on photo-sharing platform Instagram.
• Actress Kangana Ranaut has been named 'Woman of the Year' while actor Ranveer Singh has been named 'Actor of the Year' as part of 'GQ Awards 2016'. 
• The 'GQ Men Of The Year' further features Amitabh Bachchan as 'The Legend' while Tiger Shroff has won the GQ Award for being a 'Youth Icon'. 
• Meanwhile, Vicky Kaushal was named 'Breakthrough Talent'.

Science & Technology

• German shoemaker Adidas has revealed its first ever shoe made entirely by robots at the company's robot manufacturing plant in the home market. 
• The company currently manufactures around 300 million shoes annually, mostly made by hand. 
• Adidas says that in a couple of years, its robot-staffed manufacturing plants will produce a million pairs annually.

MOUs & Agreements

• Russia and Cuba have signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of peaceful atomic energy use. 
• The agreement was signed between Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom and Cuba’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment in Vienna.

Business & Economy

• The World Trade Organization today cut its forecast for global trade growth in 2016 to 1.7%, down from its April estimate of 2.8%. 
• This would be the slowest pace of trade and output growth since the 2009 financial crisis. 
• Further, the WTO has projected 1.8-3.1% growth in global trade in 2017, as against its earlier forecast of 3.6%.
• India will invest up to $2 billion in Sri Lanka over the next two-four years in a range of sectors including real estate, energy and infrastructure, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday following her visit to the island nation. 
• This comes as China continues with its $1.4 billion real estate project next to Colombo’s main port.

New Appointments

• The World Bank today announced that current President Jim Yong Kim has been unanimously reappointed as its head for a second five-year term, which begins on July 1, 2017.  
• The government has appointed Ravindra Prabhakar Marathe as the new Chairman and Managing Director of Bank of Maharashtra with immediate effect.

Sports

• The official emblem of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, scheduled in India next year, was launched during the AFC U-16 Championships in Goa today. 
• The ceremony was attended by FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Praful Patel, Chairman of the All India Football Federation. 
• Note : The FIFA U-17 World Cup will be held across six venues in India in October 2017.
• The world's first non-rectangular football field has been made in Thailand by Thai real estate developer, AP Thailand, in the Khlong Toei community of Bangkok.

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