Daily Current Affairs 14th October, 2019

Daily Current Affairs 14 October 2019 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

Gadkari inaugurates conference on ‘One Nation One Fastag’

Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated a conference on ‘One Nation One Fastag’ in New Delhi.

• MoUs with state departments and other agencies for bringing in a unified electronic tolling solution across the country were signed in the conference.
• This would mean enabling the use of the same Fastag affixed on the windscreen of a vehicle at every toll plaza in the country under the jurisdiction of different states and agencies and other entities.

India on track to achieve 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022: Government

Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh exuded confidence that India will achieve 175GW of renewable energy target by 2022.

• He also spoke about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent announcement that India will have 450GW of renewables by 2030.

India extends Line of Credit worth USD 30 mn to Sierra Leone for irrigation development

India and Sierra Leone signed six agreements including a Line of Credit to the tune of USD 30 million for irrigation development in Tomabum to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production.

Delhi Govt to set up university for skill development and entrepreneurship

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that his government will soon set up the ‘Delhi Skills and Entrepreneurship University’.

• The main focus of the university will be to provide employment to the maximum number of students. Its performance will be assessed by seeing the level of employment that its students get.

Kerala: India’s first visually impaired woman IAS officer takes charge as Thiruvananthapuram’s Sub-Collector

Pranjal Patil, India’s first visually challenged woman IAS officer took charge as Sub-Collector of Thiruvananthapuram. She served as an assistant collector in Ernakulam for a year in 2018 before taking charge here.

• Patil, who hails from Ulhasnagar in Maharashtra, lost her eye-sight at the age of six.

Army Commanders’ Conference held in Delhi 

The Army Commanders’ Conference was held in New Delhi. The conference is an important event in the planning and execution process of the Indian Army. To ensure due diligence, decisions are taken through the collegiate system comprising Army Commanders and Senior Officers.

10th National Cultural Festival begins in Madhya Pradesh

10th edition of the Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav-National Cultural Festival is being organized by the Union Ministry of Culture from 14th to 21st of October under the ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’ campaign in Madhya Pradesh.

• The National Cultural festival will display diverse forms of folk, art and culture of 22 states. The concept of National Cultural Festival was conceived in the year 2015.

PM Modi becomes most followed leader on Instagram

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become the most-followed elected world leader on photo-sharing app Instagram.

• He is ahead of US President Donald Trump, Indonesian President Joko Widodo and former president Barack Obama.
• With 30 million followers, PM Modi leads the list of world leaders on Instagram, with Joko Widodo coming in a close second with 25.6 million followers on the popular app.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Union Minister Prahlad Patel attends BRICS Culture Ministers’ meeting

Union Minister Prahlad Singh Patel participated in BRICS Culture Ministers’ meeting held in Curitiba, Brazil. Speaking at the event Prahlad Patel asserted that BRICS for India is a valuable forum for consultation, coordination and cooperation on contemporary global issues of mutual interest.

BANKING & FINANCE

Life Insurance Council plan to launch life insurance industry’s first joint mass media campaign ‘Sabse Pehle Life Insurance’

Life Insurance Council has decided to launch the Indian life insurance industry’s first joint mass media campaign with the slogan ‘Sabse Pehle Life Insurance’.

• The slogan will encourage Indian households to opt for adequate life insurance cover as the fundamental necessity in their lives.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

World Bank says slowdown in India is severe, cuts GDP forecast to 6%

The World Bank cut India’s economic growth forecast by the most among South Asian nations, below the outlook pegged by the nation’s central bank for this year, mainly because of a deceleration in domestic demand.

• India’s gross domestic product growth is projected at 6 per cent in the fiscal year started on April 1, the bank said in its latest South Asia Economic Focus report. Growth is expected to gradually recover to 6.9 per cent in 2020-21 and to 7.2 per cent in the following year, it said.

SPORTS

Dutch Open: Lakshya Sen wins maiden BWF World Tour title

ising Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen clinched his maiden BWF World Tour title by winning the Dutch Open men’s singles title after beating Yusuke Onodera of Japan in the summit clash.

• The Dutch Open is a BWF World Tour Super 100 tournament.

Manju Rani wins silver medal in World Women’s Boxing C’ships

Manju Rani settled for silver medal in World Women’s Boxing Championships at Ulan-Ude in Russia. Russian Ekaterina Paltceva defeated Rani 4 -1 in the 48-kilogram category in the final match of the tournament.

South Eastern Railway lifts All India Railway Hockey Championship trophy

South Eastern Railway defeated North Eastern Railway 2-0 to lift 26th All India Railway Hockey Championship trophy.

• Altogether seven RPF teams from different Railway Zones of the country participated in the tournament, which include Northern Railway (New Delhi), South Eastern Railway (Kolkata), Western Railway (Mumbai), North Eastern Railway (Gorakhpur), Southern Railway (Chennai), West Central Railway (Jabalpur), and Central Railway (Mumbai).

APPOINTMENTS

K Satish Reddy appointed Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance president

K Satish Reddy, Chairman of Dr Reddy’s has been appointed as President of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) for 2019-2021.

AWARDS

The Nobel Prize in Economics 2019

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2019 was awarded jointly to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.”

• Indian-born Abhijit Banerjee is an American citizen while Esther Duflo is French-American.
• Michael Kremer is also from the US.
• Abhijit Banerjee, 58, was born in India and has a PhD from Harvard University. He is a Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US.

Indian entry to Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition bags golden award

An Indian entry to the eighth edition of the Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition 2019 has bagged a golden award in the outdoor garden category.

• The Indian entry was submitted for an Outdoor Exhibition under the sub-theme ‘Harmony with Nature’ and received the award.

Director Priyadarshan gets MP govt’s Kishore Kumar award

Noted director and producer Priyadarshan, who has made several blockbuster Malayalam and Hindi films, was on Sunday conferred the Madhya Pradesh government’s National Kishore Kumar Samman for 2018-19 at a function in Khandwa, the birthplace of the legendary singer- actor.

IMPORTANT DAYS

World Cotton Day

The first-ever World Cotton Day (WCD) was hosted by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva on October 7, 2019. The international day aims to celebrate the advantages of cotton, ranging from its qualities as a natural fibre to the benefits people obtain from its production, transformation, trade and consumption.

• World Cotton Day also aims to highlight the challenges faced by the world’s cotton economies, as cotton is significant for the least developed, developing and developed economies worldwide.

World Standards Day

World Standards Day (or International Standards Day) is celebrated internationally each year on 14 October. The aim is to raise awareness among regulators, industry and consumers as to the importance of standardization to the global economy.

• This year’s theme is “Video standards create a global stage”.

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