5th October 2016 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• Today (5th October) is World Teachers' Day.
• UNESCO proclaimed 5 October to be World Teachers’ Day in the year 1994, celebrating the great step made for teachers on 5 October 1966, when a special intergovernmental conference convened by UNESCO in Paris adopted the UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, in cooperation with the ILO.
  
• This year World Teachers’ Day marks the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers. 
• It is also the first world Teachers’ Day (WTD) to be celebrated within the new Global Education 2030 Agenda adopted by the world community one year ago.
• Theme of the year 2016 : “Valuing Teachers, Improving their Status”
• India and Singapore today decided to set up a Finance Dialogue to strengthen the bilateral trade and economic ties. 
• The body will be co-chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
• Note : The trade between the two countries had declined to $15.02 billion in 2015-16 from $16.93 billion in the previous financial year.
• Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe arrived in India today for a three-day visit.
• He will address the opening plenary of the India Economic Summit organised by the World Economic Forum tomorrow.

National Affairs

• The Indian Army has provided the government with multiple videos and graphic evidence of surgical strikes across the Line of Control in PoK last week. 
• It has asked the government to take a final call on whether they should be made public. 
• The announcement came before Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a Cabinet Committee on Security meeting in New Delhi.
• The Union Government has made Aadhaar card mandatory for availing cooking gas (LPG) subsidies after November 2016. 
• In this regard, the Union Petroleum Ministry has asked Oil marketing companies (OMCs) to facilitate enrollments of Aadhaar of the consumers to avail the subsidy. 
• Important Points to Note : 
• Currently, the government gives 12 LPG cylinders at subsidised rates per household in a year. 
• The subsidy on every LPG cylinder is transferred directly into bank accounts of individuals who then buy the cooking fuel at market rates.
• The Cabinet today approved the amendments to the HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2014.
• This prohibits specific acts of discrimination by the state, or any other person, against HIV-positive people.
• Furthermore, the bill makes antiretroviral treatment a legal right of HIV/AIDS patients. 
• The bill, introduced by the UPA government, was revived by the current NDA government.
• The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has launched the Indian Bridge Management System (IBMS). 
• It was launched by Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi as a major step towards ensuring safety of bridges in the country.

Awards & Honors

• Jean-Pierre Sauvage, J Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L Feringa won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• They have been honored with this award for their "Design and synthesis of molecular machines". 
• The scientists had contributed to making machines 1000 times smaller than the human hair, including a four-wheel drive nanocar, molecular motors and lifts. 
• History writer Nayanjot Lahiri has won the prestigious 2016 John F. Richards Prize.
• She was honored with this award for her book Ashoka in Ancient India. 

Science & Technology

• The lift-off of the Ariane 5 rocket with Indian satellite GSAT-18 has been delayed by 24 hours due to unfavourable weather conditions, Arianespace has said. 
• According to the French company, the launch will now take place on October 6 from Kourou in French Guiana. 
• Note : GSAT-18 is India's latest communication satellite with 48 transponders for receiving and transmitting communication signals.

New Appointments

• M S Sahoo today took charge as Chairperson of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI).
• Sahoo, a financial markets expert, was appointed as IBBI Chairperson for a period of five years last month.
• Prior to this appointment, Sahoo was a Member of the Competition Commission of India. 

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