Daily Current Affairs 2nd November, 2017

Daily Current Affairs 2 November 2017 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

President of India inaugurates 21st World Congress of mental health, calls for fighting stigma

The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, inaugurated the 21st World Congress of Mental Health being organised by the World Federation for Mental Health in partnership with Caring Foundation and other institutions in New Delhi.

Inter-State Council reconstituted with Narendra Modi as chairman

The Inter-State Council, which is mandated to investigate and advise on disputes between states, has been reconstituted with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its chairman and six Union ministers and all chief ministers as members.

• According to a gazette notification, the Union ministers who will be members of the reconstituted council are Rajnath Singh (home), Sushma Swaraj (external affairs), Arun Jaitley (finance), Nitin Gadkari (road transport), Thaawar Chand Gehlot (social justice and empowerment) and Nirmala Sitharaman (defence).

India has largest number of malnourished kids in world: Report

According to a joint study by Assocham and EY, India is home to the largest number of malnourished children in the world. The report said that the country needs to frame policies with a focus on reducing health and social inequities. The report found that towards the end of 2015, 40 per cent of the Indian children were undernourished.

Goa ranks top, Bihar at bottom of Gender Vulnerability Index

Goa ranked top and Bihar featured at the lowest in Gender Vulnerability Index (GVI) released by Child development NGO Plan India. The composite index has been developed within research for the NGO’s Plan for Every Child campaign which is aimed at comprehensively understanding the dimensions of various problems affecting children, particularly girls, in difficult circumstances.

• In the ranking, Goa is followed by Kerala, Mizoram and Sikkim. Bihar ranked the lowest at 30, with Uttar Pradesh faring only slightly better at 29 and Delhi at 28.

Mumbai’s Royal Opera House gets UNESCO heritage award

The restored Royal Opera House, located at Mumbai’s Charni Road, has received the Award of Merit from the 2017 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation. The building, which was closed to the public in 1993 and reopened in 2016, was restored by architect Abha Narain Lambah.

Odisha signs MoU with Singapore-based education services for skill development

Odisha Skill Development Authority (OSDA) and Singapore-based ITE Education Services (ITEES) on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for skill development in the State. ITEES is a subsidiary of Singapore’s prestigious Institute of Technical Education (ITE). The initiative will step up the quality of skilled youths in the state.

Walmart opens its first India ‘dark store’ in Bhiwandi

Walmart Stores has opened a fulfilment centre, or ‘dark store’, in India, one of its first globally, in an effort to speed up operations in the country, which is fast adopting online retail services.

• The 45,000 square feet centre at Bhiwandi near Mumbai will serve kirana stores and other B2B businesses through online orders and will mostly stock packaged consumer products and home supplies.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

‘Fake news’ named word of the year 2017

Fake news, a term heavily popularised by US President Donald Trump, has been named the word of the year by Collins dictionary due to its widespread use around the world. It was found that the use of this word registered a 365 per cent rise in the last 12 months.

• Defined as “false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting”, fake news takes over from Brexit – which was named the definitive word last year after the June 2016 referendum in favour of the UK’s exit from the European Union.

BANKING

ICICI Bank teams with Apple to launch voice-based international remittance service for NRIs

India’s largest private sector bank by consolidated assets, ICICI Bank, announced the launch of India’s first voice-based international remittance service to enable non-resident Indians (NRIs) to send money to any bank in India.

• With this new feature in the ICICI Bank’s Money2India app, an NRI customer can instantly initiate a remittance to his/her existing payees in India with just a simple voice command to Apple’s virtual voice assistant, Siri, on their iPhone/iPad.

AU Small Finance Bank gets RBI nod for Scheduled Commercial Bank

AU Small Finance Bank received approval from Reserved Bank of India (RBI) to operate as Scheduled Commercial Bank. AU Small Finance Bank’s name has now been included in the Second Schedule of Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

• Post acquiring scheduled commercial bank status, AU Small Finance Bank will be able to do borrowing and lending with RBI under Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) and Marginal Standing Facility (MSF).

ECONOMY

Core sector growth hits 6-month high of 5.2% in September

Eight core sectors grew to a six-month high of 5.2 per cent in September, helped by a robust performance in coal, natural gas, and refinery segments.

• The eight infrastructure sectors — coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement, and electricity — had witnessed a growth of 5.3 per cent in September last year.

India slips 21 places on WEF Gender Gap index

India slipped 21 places on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap index to 108, behind neighbours China and Bangladesh, primarily due to less participation of women in the economy and low wages.

• At the top of the Global Gender Gap Index is Iceland. It has been the world’s most gender-equal country for nine years.

Asia Index launches S&P BSE 100 ESG Index

Asia Index Pvt Ltd, a joint venture of S&P Dow Jones Indices and BSE, has launched an environmental, social and governance (ESG) index to measure the exposure to securities meeting sustainability investing criteria.

• The S&P BSE 100 ESG Index, which uses the S&P BSE 100 as its universe, excludes all tobacco producing companies, as well as companies with tobacco sales greater than 10 per cent.

SPORTS

Srikanth rises to career-best 2nd rank 

Indian ace shuttler Srikanth Kidmabi has risen to the zenith of his career as he established himself as world number 2 in the latest BWF men’s singles ratings. He has once again created history as he became only the first Indian male badminton player to achieve this rank.

• The top spot of the men’s singles ranking has been held by Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen.

Geeta Phogat wins gold at All India Police Championship

Indian wrestler Geeta Phogat, who won India’s first-ever gold medal in women’s wrestling at the Commonwealth Games in 2010, has won a gold medal at the All India Police Championship 2017.

APPOINTMENTS

Ajay Bisaria appointed as next Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan

Ajay Bisaria has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Bisaria is the present Ambassador of India to Republic of Poland. He will be replacing current envoy Gautam Bambawale, who has been appointed as next Indian Ambassdor to China.

Neelamani N. Raju is Karnataka’s first woman police chief

Neelmani N. Raju is named as Karnataka’s first woman Director General and Inspector General of Police. She will take over from Rupak Kumar Dutta, who is retiring from service.

RECOGNITIONS

Chanda Kochhar named most powerful woman in India by Forbes

CEO of ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar was named the most powerful woman in India as she ranked 32nd in World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list by Forbes. CEO of HCL Enterprise Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Chairperson of Biocon Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson of Hindustan Times Group Shobhana Bhartia and actress Priyanka Chopra are the other Indian women who featured on the list.

• This year’s list is topped by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who retains the number one position for the seventh consecutive year and 12 times in total. She is followed by UK Prime Minister Theresa May (rank 2), who is leading her country through Brexit—a historic and transforming time for the European Union.

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