3rd November 2016 Events - Important Current Affairs

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Dear Great Ambitionists, here are today's (3rd November 2016) Important Current Affairs updates. Happy Reading :)

Current Affairs of 3rd November 2016

National Current Affairs

• Maharashtra has became the first state in the country to have a Cyber Police Station in each district simultaneously.
• The state is converting 42 state-of-the-art cyber-crime labs into police stations. 
• The state government is also setting up 51 cyber-crime labs. 
  
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi today inaugurated 3-day Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) in New Delhi.
• Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan today said over 80 crore people have been covered under the National Food Security law, which was implemented across the country from November 1. 
• Adding that the scheme would cost the government ₹1,40,000 crore annually in subsidy, Paswan said it would cover 50% urban areas and 75% rural areas.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Saur Sujala Yojana that would provide solar powered irrigation pumps to farmers at a subsidized price. 
• It was launched in Chhattisgarh as part of the state’s 16th foundation day celebrations. With this Chhattisgarh becomes the first state to implement the scheme.

New Appointments

• The Union Ministry of Railways has appointed Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak (73), the founder of Sulabh International as a Brand Ambassador for Swachh Rail Mission of Indian Railway.
• Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was unveiled as the Brand Ambassador of Equitas Small Finance Bank.
• Note : Equitas Small Finance Bank is the first private sector bank from Tamil Nadu post independence.  
• India born Sarabjit Singh Marwah has become the first Sikh to be appointed to the Canadian Senate (upper house). 
• Important Points to Note : 
• He was among six people from Ontario who have appointed to Senate by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 
• With this, he becomes the only Indian-origin member of the Canadian Senate. 
• He is third Sikh person in the Canadian parliament after Defence Minister Harjeet Sajjan and Science Minister Navdeep Bains. 
• The Centre has reconstituted the Central Advisory Board on Culture and increased the number of its members to 23 from 11. 
• The panel now consists of actor Anupam Kher, noted classical dancer Sonal Mansingh, and ex-Jharkhand and Bihar governor in the NDA regime M Rama Jois, among others. 
• The appointees are entrusted with the task to advise the Culture Ministry.

MOUs & Agreements

• India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Palestine for setting up of Palestine-India Techo Park at Ramallah in Palestine. 
• The decision to set up Techno Park was taken during the visit of President Pranab Mukherjee to Palestine in October 2015.
• Global professional network LinkedIn has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Human Resource Development Ministry to create more job opportunities for Indian students.
• The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation has inked MoU with Common Services Centre (CSC), a SPV of Ministry of Information Technology for enabling online submission of applications under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban). 
• The MoU was signed in the presence of Union Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation M Venkaiah Naidu and Union Minister for IT Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Awards & Honors

• An Indian researcher was among the 25 scholars awarded for their 'green ideas' by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. 
• Twenty-nine-year-old PhD student Shamik Chowdhury was awarded for his research combining urban sustainability, resource efficiency, cleaner production and eco-innovation. 

Deaths

• Former Jammu and Kashmir Deputy CM Mangat Ram Sharma passes away.

Banking & Economic Affairs

• India's largest public sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) has reduced the home loan rates to 9.1%, the lowest in 6 years. 
• This comes as a part of a festive season loan scheme for women, or with women as co-borrowers. 
• However, the loan rate for others will be 9.15%, with processing fees waived for all.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed banks to ensure that at least 10% of their ATMs dispense ₹100 banknotes within the next 15 days. 
• To keep in line with the Clean Note Policy's objectives and to ensure that requirement of public for ₹100 denomination banknotes are met, the banks should increase their dispensation, the RBI said.
• Following the GST Council meet, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the panel has fixed a four-tier GST rate structure at 5%, 12%, 18%, and 28% slabs. 
• The peak rate will be applicable for FMCG and consumer durables. 
• Further, there will be zero tax rate on food grains used by common people, Jaitley added.
• The government today imposed anti-dumping duty on TMT steel bars from China to reduce overseas purchases of the alloy and shield local mills. 
• The anti-dumping duty has been levied for six months.

Science & Technology

• NASA is developing an instrument called 'Bio-Indicator Lidar Instrument' (BILI) to 'sniff' out signs of life on Mars. 
• BILI is a fluorescence-based lidar, similar to radar in principle and operation, that uses light to detect and analyse the composition of atmospheric particles. 
• The instrument is based on a technique typically used to monitor air to detect bio-hazardous chemicals.

Sports Current Affairs

• Indian shuttler Pratul Joshi has won the Bahrain International Challenge badminton tournament in the men’s singles category

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

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