Daily Current Affairs 17th October, 2021

Daily Current Affairs 17 October 2021 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

India signs MoU with Russia for Di-ammonium Phosphate fertiliser supply
To stablise prices of Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP) fertiliser and reduce dependency on the countries like Jordan, Morroco, China, etc, India signed a long-term Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Russia on DAP fertiliser supply.

• Recently, the government has increased the subsidy to 140 per cent on DAP fertiliser in order to retain the selling price for farmers at the current level.
• Moreover, the international prices of phosphoric acid, ammonia etc. used in DAP have gone up by 60 per cent to 70 per cent.

Anthem on India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive launched
Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya launched the anthem on India’s Covid 19 vaccination.

• The song has been sung by eminent singer Padma Shri Kailash kher and the song, produced by the Oil & Gas PSUs.

Kerala Rail signs MoU with IISc for rail safety tech 
IISc-incubated startup L2MRail, Society for Innovation and Development (SID), and IISc have signed an MoU with Kerala Rail aimed at enhancing rail safety, especially in risk-prone terrains.

• The L2MRail team and IISc have pioneered the Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensing technology for a structural health monitoring system (SHMS) for the civil engineering structures of Kerala Rail’s Silverline project.
• The partnership addresses the need for accurate, real-time data on the condition of all rail structures.

BANKING & FINANCE

Vested Finance ties up with SBM Bank for forex transfers 
Vested Finance, a platform for investing in foreign stocks for Indians has tied up with SBM Bank, the Indian subsidiary of State Bank of Mauritius for facilitating forex transfers.

• Vested users will be able to open accounts with SBM Bank and transfer money abroad at low costs.

Sri Lanka Seeks USD 500 Mn Loan from India for Fuel Purchase
Sri Lanka has sought a USD 500 million credit line from India to pay for its crude oil purchases amid a severe foreign exchange crisis in the island nation.

• The move came few days after energy minister Udaya Gammanpila warned that the current availability of fuel in the country can be guaranteed only till next January.

SPORTS

India Finish on Top with 43 Medals at Junior Shooting World Championship
India won a whopping 43 medals, including 17 gold, to finish on top of the pecking order in the just-concluded ISSF Junior World Championship at the Las Palmas Shooting range in Lima,Peru.India was followed by the US and Italy.

• India concluded the meet with 16 silver and 10 bronze medals, in addition to the 17 gold.
• In all, the pistol discipline stole a march over the other two for India, accounting for 26 of the 43 medals on offer.Shotgun had nine medals while rifle won eight.

India’s winner list:
1.Vijayveer Sidhu began the sweep with gold in the junior men’s 25 m standard pistol for his third yellow metal at the championship.
2.Udhayveer, Vijayveer’s twin brother, won silver with 570, with the same score as his brother, however, with three lesser inner 10s.
3.Harsh Gupta took Bronze with a 566 in a 17- strong field.
4.In the 50m pistol for Junior men, Arjun Singh Cheema bossed the 16 strong field with 549 out of 600.
5.Rhythm Sangwan won her fourth gold with a victory in the Junior women’s 25m standard pistol with a score of 573, leaving compatriots Naamya Kapoor (563) and Niveditha Veloor Nair (565) behind in Bronze and Silver positions.
6.In the final event of the ISS Junior World Championship, Shikha Narwal from India won the junior women’s 50m pistol with a score of 530. Esha Singh was second with 529 while Navdeep Kaur was third with 526.
7.Ganemat Sekhon, in the shotgun discipline, in the junior women’s skeet returned with two medals (one gold, one silver) further enhancing her reputation as an excellent future prospect.
8.Manu Bhaker was the most successful Indian athlete with four gold and one bronze medal while Aishwary smashed the Junior World Record en route to winning the Junior men’s 50m rifle positions Gold

APPOINTMENTS

Navrang Saini gets additional charge as IBBI Chairperson
Navrang Saini has been given the additional charge as the Chairperson of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI).

• The post fell vacant after M.S. Sahoo retired after a five-year tenure on September 30.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 

Nasa launches Lucy spacecraft, first space mission to study Trojans Asteroids
Nasa launched Lucy spacecraft, the first space mission to study the Trojans Asteroids. Lucy will journey for 12 years, observing one main belt asteroid and seven Trojan asteroids.

• The swarms of Trojan asteroids associated with Jupiter are thought to be remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets. These primitive bodies hold vital clues to deciphering the history of the solar system.
• The Jupiter Trojan asteroids are leftover raw materials from the formation of our Solar System’s giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) over 4 .5 billion years ago .

OBITUARIES

Veteran News Reader and News Editor Jaya Balaji passes away at 75
Veteran News Reader and News Editor Jaya Balaji passed away in Chennai. She was 75. She passed away after a massive heart attack.

• Jaya Balaji joined AIR Chennai News Unit in 1967 and had worked in AIR Tiruchirapalli and New Delhi. She retired in 2005.

IMPORTANT DAYS

Global Handwashing Day 2021 
Global Handwashing Day is observed every year on October 15 to raise the awareness and importance of handwashing with soap and water.

• The theme for 2021 is, “Our Future is at Hand ‘ Let’s Move Forward Together.” The theme highlights collective and coordinated efforts for working towards hand hygiene globally.

International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction 
International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction is observed on October 13, every year.

• The day aims to promote a global culture of risk awareness and disaster reduction.
• The 2021 edition of International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction will focus on “International cooperation for developing countries to reduce their disaster risk and disaster losses”.

World Sight Day 2021
World Sight Day is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October, to focus global attention on vision impairment, including blindness.

• This year, World Sight Day will take place on October 14, 2021 with the theme: Love Your Eyes.
• Also known as ‘World Eye Day’ or ‘World Vision Day’, the occasion is an international day of awareness to focus attention on and encouraging everyone to think about the importance of their own eye health.

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