1st November 2016 Events - Important Current Affairs

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Dear Gr8 Ambitionists, here are today's (1st November 2016) Important Current Affairs updates. Happy Reading :)

Current Affairs of 1st November 2016

International Current Affairs

• Today (1st November) is World Vegan Day.
• This day was established in 1994 by Louise Wallis, then President & Chair of The Vegan Society, United Kingdom to commemorate its 50th anniversary and in 2014 the 70th anniversary of the term 'vegan', 'veganism', and the establishment of The Vegan Society.
  
• China and Belgium have agreed to expand cooperation in areas such as investment, new energy, and in the Belt and Road Initiative. 
• This came following the meeting of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel in Beijing. 
• Russia has invited India to join in developing next-generation nuclear reactors and to participate in its fast-neutron reactor project.
• Ecological problems linked to reprocessing and deactivation of radioactive waste can be solved by the fast-neutron reactor.
• The multipurpose fast research reactor project 'MBIR', is coming up in Russia's Dimitrovgrad.
• MBIR - Model Based Iterative Reconstruction
• The 10th edition of Indo-Nepal joint military exercise Surya Kiran commenced at Army Battle School, Saljhandi in Nepal. 
• Its emphasis will be on counter terrorism in mountainous terrain. 
• The two weeks (from 31 October to 13 November 2016) military exercise seeks to boost defence ties between India and Nepal.

MOUs & Agreements

• The European Union and Canada today signed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), a free trade deal. 
• This enables the provisional implementation of the pact by early-2017, but it needs to be cleared by around 40 national and regional parliaments in Europe. 
• Note : CETA eliminates tariffs on almost 99% of goods and will reportedly increase Canadian-EU trade by 20%.

National Current Affairs

• Today is Haryana Day.
• On this day in 1966 Haryana was carved out of the Indian state of Punjab.
  
• Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today declared the state Open Defecation Free. 
• Important Points to Note : 
• Kerala has become the third Open Defecation Free state in the country.
• Earlier, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim had declared themselves Open Defecation Free.
• Puducherry today celebrates its Liberation Day with great fervor.
• Karnataka 61st Rajyotsava (Karnataka Formation Day) is being observed today.  
• This was the day in the year 1956 when all the Kannada language-speaking regions of South India were merged to form the state of Karnataka.
• A 995-acre tea plantation in Kerala, which features a tea museum and a tea factory, is set to open next month. 
• The Priyadarshini Tea Environs will give its guests a chance to witness the various stages of tea production. 
• Further, it will offer adventure tourism activities like trekking and biking.
• PM Narendra Modi today inaugurated Asia's largest man-made jungle safari, a nearly 800-acre Nandanvan Zoo and Safari, at Naya Raipur in Chhattisgarh. 
• Note : He will also launch the 'Saur Sujala Yojana,' which aims to provide solar pumps to 51,000 farmers in the state.
• Maharashtra has been ranked first state in the country in 2016 Agricultural Marketing and Farmer Friendly Reforms Index. 
• The first-ever index based on initiatives taken by the states in implementing farm sector reforms was issued by the NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog.

Deaths

• Silvio Gazzaniga (95), who created the FIFA World Cup Trophy, passed away today.

Business & Economy

• The Bank of Japan (BOJ) today kept the interest rates on the current accounts held by financial institutions at the central bank unchanged at (-)0.1%. 
• Further, BOJ also pledged to buy bonds at the current pace so that its holdings rise to 80 trillion yen ($764 billion) annually. 
• It also pushed back the target for hitting 2% inflation to FY18.
• India has emerged as the world's third largest startup base, behind the US and UK, according to a new report by Nasscom. 
• Note : Bengaluru, NCR, and Mumbai remain the country's major startup hubs.
• The Central Vigilance Commission has made it mandatory for public sector banks to report frauds of ₹1 crore and above. 
• The anti-corruption watchdog will recommend whether a CBI probe can be ordered in such matters. 
• The banks will also have to share details of how the fraud was conducted with other banks to prevent such cases being repeated.
• Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya today announced that the government will soon issue a notification authorising retirement fund body EPFO to pay 8.8% interest to "inoperative" provident fund accounts. 
• Adding that about ₹42,000 crore lies in "inoperative" accounts, Dattatreya said about 9.7 crore workers will benefit from this. 
• The inoperative accounts have not been paid interest since 2011.

New Appointments

• Senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Sushil Chandra took over as Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) today. 
• He has replaced Rani Singh Nair who retired from service.

People in News

• Arnab Goswami, the renowned television journalist known for his live debate ‘The Newshour’, resigned as the Editor-in-Chief of Times Now and ET Now today. 

Awards & Honors

• Filipino model Kylie Verzosa has won this year's Miss International 2016 title. 
• She received the crown from Miss International 2015 Edymar Martínez (Venezuela). 
• Veteran actress Rekha is set to be honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the upcoming Dubai International Film Festival.

Sports

• Following the end of the association between the Ballon d'Or award and FIFA earlier this year, the governing body has announced a new set of awards to replace the Ballon d'Or. 
• The new set of awards, titled 'The Best FIFA Football Awards', will be decided after voting from captains and coaches of FIFA's member countries.
• India retained the top spot in the latest ICC Test team rankings with 115 rating points, four rating points ahead of rivals Pakistan. 
• Australia and England occupy the fourth and fifth spots on the list with 108 rating points apiece. 
• Bangladesh, who claimed their first-ever Test win over England, occupy the ninth spot, one spot above bottom-placed Zimbabwe.

This is the end of today's Current Affairs session friends. Good Day :)

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