October 2016 Current Affairs Highlights (One-

Liners)
o 17th India-Russia Annual Summit was recently held in Goa. Prime Minister
Narendra Modi held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

o 19 years after her debut novel The God of Small Things won the Booker
Prize, Arundhati Roy’s next work of fiction The Ministry of Utmost
Happiness has been announced.
o According to the World Bank's latest 'Doing Business' report, New Zealand
has dethroned Singapore and became the Easiest country in the world to
do business.
o Aiming to make Madhya Pradesh anaemia-free, the state government has
decided to launch a 'Lalima Abhiyan' on November 1. Under the campaign,
free iron folic acid tablets will be provided in anganwadis, academic
institutions and hospitals.
o American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) was incorporated by
inventor Alexander Graham Bell in 1885, making it the world's oldest
telephone company in operation.
o Amit Mishra has become the fastest Indian spinner to claim 50 ODI
wickets, picking up three in the first ODI against NZ at Dharamshala.
o Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have jointly topped the ‘Ease of Doing
Business Reforms Ranking 2015-16’, conducted by the Department of
Industrial Policy and Promotion and the World Bank.
o Anil Ambani-led Reliance Infrastructure and Rafale jets maker Dassault
Aviation has announced a joint venture for the execution of the offset
contract worth about ₹22,000 crore as part of the fighter jet deal.
o Antartica’s Ross Sea was declared as World’s largest Marine Protected
Area (MPA) to protect the Earth’s most pristine marine ecosystem.
o Arunachal Pradesh became the 14th state where BJP is in power after
Tamiyo Taga was sworn in as State Cabinet Minister in the Pema Khandu-
led government.
o Bangladesh's all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan became the country's first
player to complete 150 Test wickets.
o Bank of America has unveiled a virtual assistant called Erica, that uses
artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to learn consumers' personal
spending habits and offer financial advice.
o Basketball player, Palpreet Singh Brar, became the second Indian to be
drafted into NBA's Development League after being picked up by the Long
Island Nets. Earlier in 2015, India's Satnam Singh had become the first
Indian basketball player to be drafted in the NBA.
o Bengaluru-born para climber Manikandan Kumar won the Gold medal in
the IFSC Para Climbing Cup, organised in the United Kingdom.
o Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio has become the world's biggest
telecom company in terms of data traffic only within 45 days of its launch.
o BJP President Amit Shah has announced that the recovery of over ₹65,000
crore under the income declaration scheme marked the beginning of
Bharat Uday, as the money would be spent on farmers and rural
development.
o Brazil has won the inaugural BRICS U-17 Football Tournament 2016 held
at Goa on the occasion of the 8th BRICS hosted in India.
o Brazil hosted the Junior South American Cricket Championship's 2016
edition, which saw participant teams from Chile, Argentina, and Peru.
o Britain's Andy Murray won the Shanghai Masters, his fifth title of 2016,
defeating Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut.
o British Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton won the Mexican Grand Prix.
o Bulgaria has passed a law banning "clothing that partially or completely
covers the face" including hijab and niqab.
o Cabinet approves establishment of Indian Institute of Management (IIM)
at Jammu.
o Canada has been named the Best country to visit next year by Lonely
Planet in its 'Best in Travel 2017' list.
o China and Russia will hold their second anti-missile drills in 2017.
o China has appointed Basketball player Yao Ming as its ambassador to
Mars, in order to promote country's first mission to the Red Planet in 2020.
o China has overtaken the US to become the world's largest market for
Apple's iOS App Store revenue.
o China has recently launched the two-man Shenzhou 11 space mission,
which is its longest-ever manned space mission.
o China recently completed a test run of its first suspended electric monorail
network in the Chengdu city, over a 300-meter line.
o China-based Dalian Wanda's Chairman, Wang Jianlin, has retained his
spot as the country's richest person with a fortune of $32.1 billion, as per
Hurun's 'Richest People in China 2016' list.
o Chinese currency Yuan has joined the International Monetary Fund's
basket of reserve currencies. This marks the first time a new currency has
been added since the euro's launch in 1999.
o Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has announced that he will
donate his Nobel Peace Prize money worth $925,000 to victims of
Colombia's 52-year-old civil war, between the government and FARC
rebels. Santos had won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to
resolve the conflict.
o Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will be
the Chief Guest at the Republic Day parade in 2017.
o Doordarshan and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) have
entered into an agreement for transmission of four Gyan Darshan
educational channels.
o E-commerce marketplace Flipkart is going to launch offline stores in small
cities, where awareness about online shopping is low and users have
inconsistent or limited internet access.
o Ethiopia's government has declared a state of emergency for six months
to restore "peace and stability" following violent anti-government
protests, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced.
o Finland has been declared the safest country in the world according to the
'Global Travel and Terrorism Report' by the World Economic Forum.
o Former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar will be the face of the 2017 New Delhi
Marathon, scheduled to be held on February 26, 2017 in the national
capital.
o Former cricketers Anil Kumble and Virender Sehwag launched a book on
India's Test captain Virat Kohli in New Delhi. Written by journalist Vijay
Lokapally, the book, 'Driven: The Virat Kohli Story', features anecdotes on
the cricketer's rise at the international level.
o Former Jamaican Olympic sprinter Asafa Powell is set to take part in the
2016 edition of the Delhi Half Marathon in November.
o Former World number four Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro won the ATP
Stockholm Open after defeating American Jack Sock 7-5, 6-1 in the final.
o Germany and France signed an agreement to share military transport
planes and announced plans to share an air base in the French city of
Orleans.
o Global airlines body IATA has projected that India will be the third-largest
aviation market by 2026.
o Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has announced that the sex
ratio in the state has reached 922 as of September 2016. Earlier, the sex
ratio in the state was 837.
o Haryana is going to be the first state to give the benefit of the 7th Central
Pay Commission to its employees with effect from 1st January 2016, Chief
Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced.
o Himachal Pradesh was declared 'Open Defecation Free', becoming India's
second state to get this status after Sikkim.
o Hinduja Group flagship Ashok Leyland has launched 'Circuit', the first
zero-emission electric bus made entirely in India.
o Human rights activist Irom Sharmila has announced the name of her party
as ‘People’s Resurgence and Justice Alliance’.
o Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi accounted for nearly half of the ₹65,250
crore black money disclosures made under the Income Declaration
Scheme.
o ICC has announced that the 2020 women's World T20 will be held
separately from the men's tournament for the first time.
o Iceland has been named the best country for adventure tourism according
to a new research compiled by global trade network Adventure Travel
Trade Association.
o India and China have carried out a joint army exercise in eastern Ladakh
in Jammu and Kashmir. During the day-long exercise on Humanitarian Aid
 and Disaster Relief (HADR), a fictitious situation of an earthquake striking
an Indian border village was simulated.
o India and Myanmar agree to enhance engagement in several areas
including Agriculture, Renewable energy & Power sector.
o India and Russia have agreed to double the range of the BrahMos
supersonic cruise missile from 290 km to over 600 km.
o India and Russia have agreed to explore building the world's most
expensive pipeline costing about $25 billion (around ₹1.66 lakh crore) to
transport natural gas from Siberia to India.
o India and Russia have announced a joint venture to build over 200 Kamov
utility helicopters in India.
o India and Russia have signed an agreement for cooperation in the
development of a network of 25 integrated infrastructure Agro irradiation
centres.
o India defeated Iran in the final of the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup in
Ahmedaba, for their third consecutive title in the standard style of the
game.
o India donates 9.3 million rupees to Nelson Mandela Foundation to help it
in its welfare work for people of South Africa.
o India has been ranked 133rd in a new Global Youth Development Index
compiled by the Commonwealth Secretariat which has covered 183
nations. Topped by Germany.
o India has been ranked 19th among 28 nations in the Biopharmaceutical
Competitiveness Survey, commissioned by the Pharmaceutical Research
and Manufacturers of America. The US topped the list.
o India has been ranked low 97th among the 118 countries surveyed in
2016 Global Hunger Index (GHI).
o India has decided to eliminate use of HFC-23, a Green House Gas (GHG)
that harms the ozone layer by 2030.
o India has the fourth largest population of High Net Worth Individuals
(HNWI) in the Asia-Pacific region, with the number of such individuals
reaching 2 lakh in 2015, according to Asia-Pacific Wealth Report 2016 by
Capgemini.
o India is hosting the 2016 Asian Ministerial Conference for Disaster Risk
Reduction (AMCDRR) from 3rd to 5th November 2016 in New Delhi.
o India is planning to supply 500 MW power to Sri Lanka through a network
of sub-sea underground cables.
o India is ranked second among countries with the highest growth in their
contribution to high-quality scientific research, according to a recent
report. China topped the rankings with 40 institutes in the top 100 list.
o India ranks 3rd among Nations inflicted with terrorism and insurgency
related deaths, after areas ridden with violence by ISIS and Nigeria's Boko
Haram.
o India will collaborate with Germany for projects worth ₹1 lakh crore to
improve and enhance rail connectivity of the Indian ports.
o India won the Under-18 Asia Cup hockey tournament after beating hosts
Bangladesh 5-4 in the final.
o India’s banking system has reported total deposits worth ₹100 lakh crore
for the first time ever in September, according to data released by the
RBI.
o India’s Defence Minister Manohar Parikar has released a book titled "Born
to Fly". This book was authored by air commodore Nitin Sathe.
o Indian Banks have been ranked third from the bottom in terms of Tier 1
capital ratio among major emerging market economies, according to the
International Monetary Fund’s latest Global Financial Stability Report.
Only Russian and Chilean banks were ranked below India.
o Indian golfer Gaganjeet Bhullar won his sixth Asian Tour title, winning the
Korea Open in Incheon.
o Indian government is hosting the first Asian Ministerial Conference for
Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR), scheduled to be held from 3rd
November to 5th November 2016 in New Delhi.
o Indian limited overs captain MS Dhoni is set to play in the 2017 edition of
the Vijay Hazare Trophy for his state Jharkhand.
o Indian Railways will introduce three train coaches with glass ceilings in
trains in Kashmir Valley and Araku Valley.
o Indian shuttler Sourabh Verma wins men's singles title at the Chinese
Taipei Open badminton.
o Indian Test captain Virat Kohli was presented with the ICC Test mace for
being the number one-ranked Test side, at the end of the Indore Test
against New Zealand.
o Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia won the Gold medal for India at the Mayor’s
Trophy International Invitational Wrestling competition in Pune.
o India's 19-year-old shuttler Ruthvika Shivani Gadde won the women's
singles title at the Russian Open in Vladivostok.
o India's first indigenously-made nuclear submarine 'INS Arihant' has been
commissioned into Indian Navy's service.
o India's Harika Dronavalli defeated China's Hou Yifan, ranked first among
women players globally, at the Isle of Man International Chess tournament
in Douglas.
o India's latest communication satellite GSAT-18 was successfully launched
by the heavy duty Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou in French Guiana.
o India's rank improved by 21 spots to 87th out of 144 countries on the
World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2016. Topped by
Iceland.
o India's Right to Information (RTI) Act, that was passed in 2005, has been
ranked 4th best in the world, according to the latest rankings of 111
nations with such laws.
o India's Virat Kohli became the first Indian Test captain to score two double
centuries after scoring his first double hundred on home soil on the second
day of the third Test against New Zealand.
o Italian football team skipper Gianluigi Buffon won 2016's Golden Foot
award at a ceremony in Monaco.
o Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt has confirmed that he will retire after the
2017 World Championships in London in August.
o Jammu and Kashmir has the highest life expectancy in India for all ages,
barring life expectancy at birth, as per the latest data released by the
Registrar General of India, custodian of census data.
o Jharkhand has become the first state in the country to implement Direct
Benefit Transfer (DBT) in Kerosene Scheme.
o Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has announced that the state government is
planning an increase in the reservation quota in education and
employment beyond 50% for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
o Kochi became the first Indian city to be officially declared as one of the
venues for hosting the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
o Lake Superior, which is shared by Canada and the United States, is
recognised as the largest freshwater lake, according to the Guinness
World Records.
o Lewis Hamilton beat Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg to claim the US
Grand Prix.
o Maharashtra became 17th state to join the UDAY Scheme. UDAY - Ujwal
Discom Assurance Yojna.
o Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has launched India's first
international arbitration centre in Mumbai.
o Maharashtra Government has allocated 40.68 hectare land to Department
of Atomic Energy (DAE) to build LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational
Wave Observatory) India Project at Dudhala village in Hingoli district.
o Maharashtra government has launched ‘Kaushalya Setu’, a skill
development programme for students.
o Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao has signed the state
government’s ordinance to amend the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies
Act, 1960. The ordinance bars directors of mismanaged cooperative banks
from contesting bank elections for two consecutive terms.
o Mahatma Gandhi was named TIME Magazine's Person of the Year in 1930,
and remains the only Indian to be honoured with the title.
o Manipur's Jason Yengkhom has become the first Indian to win a gold
medal in the World Junior Wushu Championships.
o Mercedes' German Formula One driver Nico Rosberg won the Japanese
Grand Prix in Suzuka.
o Microsoft unveiled 'Paint 3D' for Windows 10, an update to its 31-year-old
graphics app, that lets users turn photos or doodles into 3D objects.
o MS Dhoni broke Sachin Tendulkar's record of most ODI sixes by an Indian,
hitting his 196th in the third ODI against New Zealand.
o Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio has claimed to have created “a world
record” by crossing the 1.6 crore subscribers-mark in its first month of
operations.
o Mumbai has been ranked 39th in the 2016 Global Power City Index report,
which was released by the Mori Memorial Foundation’s Institute for Urban
Strategies. London topped the rankings for the fifth consecutive year while
New York stood second.
o NASA has announced the 'Electric Aircraft Testbed', a new research wing
to test electric aircraft at the NASA Glenn Research Centre's Plum Brook
Station in Ohio.
o New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was on a visit to India. The main
aim of this visit is to strengthen the relationship with India.
o Nigeria is going to sign a cash-raising oil deal with India for $15 billion by
the end of 2016, the country's Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said
during his visit to India.
o North Korea won the 2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, after defeating
Japan on penalties in the final of the tournament.
o On the occasion of Diwali, online jewellery startup BlueStone has set up
ATMs which dispense 24 karat gold coins instead of money in Bengaluru
and Delhi.
o Oxford University Press has announced the launch of the Hindi online
dictionary, as part of the Oxford Global Languages programme.
o Pakistan has officially postponed the 8-nation SAARC summit, after five
countries– India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka dropped
out of it.
o Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi has announced plans to reveal his
autobiography next year, titled 'Shahid Afridi: An Autobiography'. The
book is co-authored by Pakistani journalist Wajahat S Khan.
o PM Narendra Modi has laid the foundation stone for 'Urja Ganga' project
in Varanasi. The 1,500-km-long pipeline project will provide piped cooking
gas to Varanasi's residents within two years.
o PM Narendra Modi to visit Japan on 11th &12th November 2016. During
this visit, he is going to hold annual summit meeting with Japanese
counterpart Shinzō Abe.
o President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the 1st edition of World
Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) at Vigyan Bhawan in New
Delhi. Theme of this Summit - Beyond 2015: People, Planet and Progress.
o Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the first National Tribal
Carnival in Delhi on 25th October 2016. Aim of this 4 Day Carnival : To
showcase and promote various facets of tribal culture.
o Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated three Hydro-Electric Projects
(HEPs) with a generating capacity of 1,732 MW in Himachal Pradesh. They
are, Koldam HEP, Parbati HEP and Rampur HEP.
o Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the National SC/ST hub and the
Zero Defect, Zero Effect (ZED) scheme for Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises (MSMEs) at Ludhiana in Punjab.
o Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 5-day 104th Indian
Science Congress at the Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupati on 3rd
January 2017.
o Punjab government will observe November 1 as 'No Tobacco Day' in an
effort to discourage tobacco use in the state.
o Rajasthan has become the first state in India to adopt Central
Government’s Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP) in all its urban
local bodies (ULB).
o Rajasthan is going to launch its own brand olive oil next month, which is
claimed to be India's first indigenously-produced such brand.
o Ratings agency CRISIL has downgraded rating for UCO Bank's tier-II
bonds from "AA-" to "A+".
o Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo registered his first Formula One victory of the
season, winning the Malaysian Grand Prix.
o Russia has quietly signed an agreement with India to lease out a second
Russian Akula-2 class nuclear-powered submarine to the Indian Navy.
o Russia has unveiled pictures of its largest ever intercontinental ballistic
nuclear missile RS-28 Sarmat, dubbed 'Satan 2', that is capable of
destroying France if used.
o Russian defence forces have launched an independent electronic
communication system called 'Closed Data Transfer Segment' that is
independent and protected from unlicensed connections.
o Russian Minister of Trade and Industry Denis Manturov has announced
that Russia is ready for a joint venture with India to produce Ka-226T
utility helicopters. The agreement to build 200 helicopters is expected to
be signed next month.
o Sania Mirza has completed 80 consecutive weeks as the top-ranked
women's doubles player.
o Saudi Arabia has hiked its visa fee by 650% to do business, which could
deter foreign investment required for its oil-dependent economy.
o Shooter Jitu Rai has won a Silver medal in the men's 50-metre air pistol
event, at the 2016 ISSF World Cup in Italy.
o Shyam Saran Negi, a resident of Chini tehsil in Himachal Pradesh, was the
first voter in independent India's first general elections, and has voted in
every general elections since.
o Sikkim has planned to promote the Khangchendzonga National Park and
Mount Kanchenjunga as eco-tourism destinations for adventure sports like
trekking.
o Social networking site Facebook has been named 2016's 'Top Growing
Brand' by brand consultancy Interbrand, with a 48% year-on-year
increase in its brand value to $32.59 billion (around ₹2.17 lakh crore).
o South Africa has announced that it will quit the International Criminal
Court, becoming the second country ever to leave the war crimes tribunal.
Burundi is the first nation to withdraw from the International Criminal
Court.
o South Africa's coast town George has got the continent's first solar-
powered "green" airport.
o Sri Lanka has become the fifth nation to pull out of the SAARC summit
scheduled in Pakistan in November after India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh
and Bhutan boycotted the 8-nation summit.
o Sri Lanka is going to sign the Economic and Technology Cooperation
Agreement (ETCA) with India by the year-end to strengthen economic
ties.
o Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was on a three-day visit
to India. He addressed the opening plenary of the India Economic Summit
organised by the World Economic Forum.
o State Bank of India (SBI) declares Silchar as its 5th zone in North East
after Guwahati, Shillong, Dibrugarh and Jorhat, which will cater to banking
needs of the people of Mizoram, Tripura and Manipur along with the Barak
Valley.
o State Bank of India (SBI) will divest up to 5% of its stake in its life
insurance subsidiary SBI Life Insurance.
o State-owned ONGC and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation have signed
an initial pact to pave the way for the former to buy a majority stake in a
GSPC’s Deen Dayal West gas block in the Krishna-Godavari basin.
o Summer Olympics has been named the second most valuable sports event
brand by the Forbes, with a current brand value of $366 million (nearly
₹2,400 crore). American rugby championship Super Bowl tops the list with
a brand value of $630 million (nearly ₹4,200 crore).
o Swiss tennis star Roger Federer, with a brand value of $36 million, was
named the most valuable athlete brand of 2016 by Forbes.
o Taiwan has announced a simplified group visa policy to encourage tourist
groups from Southeast Asian countries, including India and Indonesia, to
visit the nation.
o Technology giant Microsoft has launched its first full-scale Cybersecurity
Engagement Center (CSEC) in Delhi. It is first-of-its-kind Cybersecurity
Centre in India and overall 7th in the world including in Tokyo, Seoul,
Beijing, Singapore, Berlin and Washington DC.
o Telangana has announced the creation of 21 new districts, taking the total
number of districts in the state from 10 to 31.
o Tennis player Rafael Nadal, joined by 17-time Grand Slam winner Roger
Federer, inaugurated the Rafa Nadal Academy in Nadal's hometown,
Manacor, in Spain.
o The 18th MAMI (Mumbai Acadamy of the Moving Image) Film Festival was
recentlty held at the Opera House in Mumbai.
o The 28th India and Indonesia Coordinated Patrol (CORPAT) and Second
Bilateral Maritime Exercise was recently held at Belawan, Indonesia in the
Andaman Sea.
o The 47th International Film Festival of India will be held in Goa between
November 20 and 28.
o The 4th BRICS Science, Technology and Innovation Ministerial Meeting
was held at Jaipur, Rajastan.
o The 4th Edition of the India-Sri Lanka Joint Military Exercise ‘MITRA
SHAKTI 2016’ was recently held at Sinha Regimental Centre in
Ambepussa, Sri Lanka.
o The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has given its consent for
using the Decision Review System (DRS) in the forthcoming five-Test
series against England in November 2016.
o The Cabinet has approved the amendments to the HIV and AIDS
(Prevention and Control) Bill, 2014. This prohibits specific acts of
discrimination by the state, or any other person, against HIV-positive
people.
o The CBI has registered a case against Canara Bank's ex-CMD RK Dubey
for allegedly allowing deviations in sanctioning credit limits to a company
during his tenure as an Executive Director at Central Bank of India.
o The Centre has decided to give a unique ID to every judge in the country
to keep a record of their judgements.
o The Centre unveiled a regional connectivity scheme, known as UDAN, with
flights priced at Rs.2,500 for one hour of flying time to and from regional
airports. UDAN - Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik
o The Congo River, which spans ten countries in Africa, is considered the
world's deepest river by the Guinness World Records, with a maximum
depth of at least 220 metres (722 feet).
o The country’s largest state lender State Bank of India is going to issue
equity shares on preferential basis to the Centre for capital infusion of
₹5,681 crore.
o The date October 6, 2016 (6-10-2016) is a palindrome– which can be read
the same way backwards and forwards, in the date-month-year format.
There are 29 palindrome days in the current century in the same format,
with the first being February 10, 2001 (10-02-2001) and the last being
February 29, 2092 (29-02-2092), a leap day.
o The Dubai government has announced that it has started the construction
of 'The Tower at Dubai Creek Harbour', which would be the world’s tallest
tower when completed in 2020. Dubai's Burj Khalifa (2,700 feet high) is
currently the world’s tallest skyscraper.
o The 'Dynamic Tower', an 80-storey rotating tower proposed to be built in
Dubai by 2020.
o The Election Commission has announced that the pictures of candidates
will be pasted next to their poll symbol on the electronic voting machines
during elections in five states in 2017.
o The first World Tsunami Awareness Day will be celebrated on 5th
November 2016 at the Asian Ministerial Conference for Disaster Risk
Reduction (AMCDRR) 2016.
o The government has doubled the monetary limit in case of excise duty
evasion to ₹2 crore.
o The Government has made the support for Indian languages mandatory
in all mobile phones to be sold in the country from July 2017.
o The Haryana government has started 'Farm Tourism' scheme. Under this
scheme registered farm owners can host tourists as part of holiday
packages.
o The Home Ministry has come up with a proposal to raise the salary of the
President from ₹1.5 lakh to ₹5 lakh a month.
o The Indian Boxing Council, IBC has been inducted into the World Boxing
Organisation with voting rights in the WBO's annual convention at Puerto
Rico.
o The Indian Coast Guard Ships (ICGSs) ‘Aryaman’ and ‘Atulya’ were
commissioned into Indian Coast Guard in Kochi, Kerala.
o The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced that it is
aiming for a world record by launching 83 satellites into the orbit on a
single rocket in early 2017.
o The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has deployed at least 100 women
at 15 border posts along the Sino-India frontier, making it the first such
posting of ‘mahila’ combatants in a forward area.
o The International Energy Agency (IAE) is going to partner with India to
implement its Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) initiative
globally for energy savings.
o The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has declared
the Kashmiri Red Stag or Hangul as a 'critically endangered species'.
o The Islamic-moderate Justice and Development Party has won the
parliamentary elections in Morocco, winning 125 of 395 seats in second
general elections since Morocco adopted constitutional reforms in 2011.
o The Karnataka Assembly has passed a resolution unanimously to release
10,000 cusecs Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu to help the latter state's
farmers meet their crops and drinking requirements.
o The Karnataka government has decided to celebrate Tipu Sultan Jayanti
across the state on November 10 every year at Ravindra Kalakshetra in
Bengaluru.
o The Labour Ministry has decided to fix the minimum wage at ₹350 per day
for unskilled agricultural labour in C-class towns in the central sphere.
Currently, the national floor level minimum wage is ₹160 per day.
o The largest balloon festival in the world, the 45th Albuquerque
International Balloon Fiesta was recently held in New Mexico, United
States. The theme for the nine-day festival is : 'Desert Kaleidoscope'.
o The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has
announced that it has sanctioned loans worth ₹19,702 crore to the
National Water Development Agency for 50 irrigation projects.
o The National Mission on Bioeconomy has launched in Shillong, Meghalaya
by the Institute of Bio-resources and Sustainable Development (IBSD).
o The one-man judicial committee on One Rank One Pension (OROP), set
up by the government, has submitted its report to Defence Minister
Manohar Parrikar. Chairman of this Committee : L Narasimha
Reddy(Retired Chief Justice of Patna High Court)
o The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee has inaugurated a Global
Conference on ‘National Initiative towards strengthening Arbitration and
Enforcement in India’ at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has permitted startups to raise External
Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) upto USD 3 million in financial year to
boost innovation & job creation.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set the ‘Ways and Means Advances’
(WMA) limit for the central government at ₹25,000 crore for the October-
March period.
o The Reserve bank of India has reduced the key policy rate or the repo rate
by 25 bps to 6.25 per cent in the fourth bimonthly policy review. This is
the first rate decision made by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of
the bank, which is headed by RBI Governor Urjit Patel and comprises six
members.
o The Russia and Turkey have agreed to intensify military and intelligence
contacts.
o The State bank of India has became the first Indian bank to open a branch
in Myanmar's capital Yangon. This is SBI's 54th foreign branch and
extends its presence in 37 countries through 198 offices.
o The Supreme Court in its landmark judgement has widened the scope of
the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 by making it
gender-neutral. The SC ordered deletion of the words “adult male” before
the word ‘person’ in Section 2(q) of the Act making it gender-neutral.
o The Tripura and Vidarbha Cricket Associations became the first full
members of the BCCI to adopt the Lodha Committee's recommendations.
o The U-17 FIFA World Cup will be held in India from 6th to 28th October
next year, with the draw scheduled for July 7.
o The Union Agricultural Ministry has constituted a High-Level Committee to
monitor the bird flu situation and help state governments take steps to
contain the disease. Headed by : Munialappa
o The Union Cabinet gave its approval to sign Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) between India and African Asian Rural Development
Organization (AARDO) for capacity building programmes in the field of
rural development.
o The Union Cabinet has approved the setting up of a National Academic
Depository (NAD), which will be a bank of all digitised education records
from school onward.
o The Union Government has extended anti-dumping duty on import of
certain Chinese products, used in garment, toys and footwear
manufacturing, for another five years i.e. till 2021.
o The Union Government has made Aadhaar card mandatory for availing
cooking gas (LPG) subsidies after November 2016.
o The Union Government has notified the constitution of the 6 member
Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). Chairman : Urjit Patel (RBI Governor)
o The Union Government has reconstituted the Inter State Council (ISC)
and the Standing Committee of the ISC under Clause 2 of the Inter State
Council order, 1990. Head of the Council : Narendra Modi (Prime Minister)
o The Union Government's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, aimed to accelerate
efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and cleanliness,
completed two years on 2nd October 2016. Under the mission, the
government aims to achieve an Open-Defecation Free (ODF) India by 2nd
October 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
o The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has launched the
Indian Bridge Management System (IBMS).
o The Union Ministry of Science and Technology has launched two new
schemes Biotech-KISAN and Cattle Genomics in order to apply science to
boost rural economy.
o The Union Ministry of Urban Development has approved projects worth
Rs.114 crore under HRIDAY Scheme for improving infrastructure facilities
around core heritage sites in five cities. They are, Varnasi (Uttar Pradesh),
Amritsar (Punjab), Dwaraka (Gujarat), Puri (Odisha) and Warangal
(Telangana). [HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation
Yojana]
o The United Nations (UN) is planning to launch its first-ever space mission
aboard a US-based space transport company's Spaceplane in 2021.
o The United Nations has ratified an agreement to curb the aircraft
emissions, the first such pact to set worldwide limits on a single industry.
o The United Nations headquarters in Manhattan, New York celebrated
Diwali for the first time, by beaming Diwali greetings on the facade of its
building.
o The US government's contract with the ICANN (Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers) to control the IP address space allocations
has officially expired.
o The US has announced an initiative to promote the use of small satellites
or 'smallsats'. The project, "Harnessing the Small Satellite Revolution,"
will see collaboration between government agencies like NASA, and the
private sector to find practical uses for these satellites.
o The World Bank has pledged 2 billion US dollars aid package to Bangladesh
to tackle climate change over the next three years.
o The World Health Organisation has asked all countries to introduce a
sugary drinks tax (around 20%) as a way of curbing the obesity rate,
especially in children.
o To provide free LPG connections to the BPL households, Union Petroleum
Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala
Yojana (PMUY) in Maharashtra.
o Top-ranked British tennis player Andy Murray defeated Bulgaria's Grigor
Dimitrov to win his 5th title of the year at the China Open.
o Two top lenders in the country, SBI and ICICI Bank, have announced a
cut of 0.15% and 0.10% in their respective lending rates under a new
system of computation.
o Udaipur becames first city in the country to have an all-woman police
patrol wing.
o UK Prime Minister Theresa May will make her first bilateral visit to India
with a delegation of small and medium-size business representatives in
November.
o Union Government has launched Mining Surveillance System (MSS), a
pan-India surveillance network to check illegal mining using latest satellite
technology.
o Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has recently announced that Indo-Pak
border will be completely sealed by December 2018.
o US President Barack Obama has invited Italian Prime Minister Matteo
Renzi as the guest of honour for the last state dinner that Obama will host
at the White House.
o Vadodara (Gujarat) has got India's 2nd eco-friendly airport which is
located on the outskirts of the city.
o Water Jet Fast Attack Craft (WJFAC) INS Tihayu was commissioned into
the Indian Navy by Flag-Officer-Commanding-in-Chief of the Eastern
Naval Command Vice-Admiral HCS Bisht.
o Zabivaka the wolf has been chosen as the mascot of the 2018 FIFA World
Cup in Russia.

September 2016 Current Affairs Highlights (One-

Liners)
Monday, October 03, 2016Current Affairs Important Updates
sponsored links
Friends, here are the Important Current Affairs Highlights
ofSeptember 2016. These one-liners cover all important International,
National, MOUs, Indexes, Banking, Technology, Books & Authors, Summits,
Committees and Sports affairs of September month (from 1st to 30th
September 2016). You will get the Pdf Version of September 2016 Current
Affairs Quick Review by tomorrow, but we advise you to write these on your
own so that you wont forget them again. All the Best and Happy Reading :)

September 2016 Current Affairs Highlights

o Asia's oldest stock exchange BSE has filed draft papers with markets
regulator SEBI for its Initial Public Offering (IPO).

o American television series 'Game of Thrones' has broken the record for
the highest number of Emmy Awards won by any fictional series, with a
total of 38 Emmys.
o Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos has once again overtaken Berkshire Hathaway
CEO Warren Buffett to become the world's third-richest person with a net
worth of $66.5 billion.
o Actress Rekha's Biography titled 'Rekha: The Untold Story', was recently
released. This book was written by Yasser Usman.
o A 60-year-old Japanese government document, which was recently made
public, has revealed that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose died in a plane crash
in Taiwan on August 18, 1945.
o At least 17 Jawans were martyred in the terror attack at the battalion
headquarters of the Army at Uri, Jammu and Kashmir.
o Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani is on a Two day visit to India. This is
his 2nd visit to the country.
o A book with a collection of all of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple stories is
recognised by the Guinness World Records as the thickest book published.
o According to a recently launched fecility, Drivers would not be required to
carry their driving licence and registration certificate, but can store them
in 'DigiLocker', the secured national digital locker system.
o A 24-year-old transgender British soldier, Chloe Allen has become the first
woman to serve on the front line with the army.
o According to a survey conducted by Virtuoso, an international luxury
travel network, Iceland is the best adventure destination for luxury travel.
o Acharya Balkrishna, the CEO of Patanjali, has become a billionaire with a
net worth of ₹25,600 crore (around $3.8 billion), according to the Hurun
India Rich List 2016.
o Adani Enterprises has commissioned a 648 MW solar power plant in Tamil
Nadu, which it claims is the world's largest solar plant at a single location,
with an investment of ₹4,550 crore.
o A 2-day National Labour Conference was recently held in Odisha.
o Agra's 12-year-old Shahan Ali Mohsin, has became the first Indian to win
the Asian karting championship.
o Aiming to promote avian tourism, the Goa forest department is going to
host its first "Bird Festival" in the state in November.
o Aiming to raise awareness and change perceptions regarding the
Denotified Tribes, the '1st Nomad Film Festival' was recently held at the
India Islamic Cultural Centre in Delhi.
o Air pollution has emerged as the deadliest form of pollution and the fourth-
leading risk factor for premature deaths, which cost the global economy
over $5 trillion in 2013 in "welfare losses", a World Bank report revealed.
o American multinational technology company, Search Engine Giant, Google
was incorporated on 4th September in the year 1998.
o Andhra Pradesh has reportedly become the Second state after Gujarat to
achieve 100% electrification of households.
o Armenian PM Hovik Abrahamyan has announced his resignation after
weeks of civil unrest and economic recession in the country.
o Australian motoring organisation RAC has launched the country's first ever
driverless bus called RAC Intellibus.
o Author of the bestselling novel 'The Da Vinci Code', Dan Brown, is set to
release a new Robert Langdon thriller titled 'Origin' on September 26,
2017.
o Bangladesh has decided to erect a barbed wire fence along its border with
India and Myanmar.
o Barack Obama agreed to lift economic sanctions against Myanmar, during
a meeting with the country's leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
o BCCI (Board Of Control For Cricket In India) has put an age limit of 60
years for the post of National Selectors and has also set September 14 as
the deadline for applying for the posts.
o Bihar replaced Urdu with Hindi as its sole official language in 1881,
becoming the first state in India to adopt the language.
o Bishesh Huirem (27) from Manipur is slated to represent India at the Miss
International Queen contest for transgender women to be held in Thailand
on November 11.
o Britain has approved construction of the $24-billion nuclear power plant
Hinkley Point C, amid national security concerns over Chinese state
companies being involved in "critical" British infrastructure.
o Canada is going to impose a minimum price on carbon emissions in
provinces that do not adequately regulate emissions by themselves, in a
bid to combat climate change.
o China and Russia have carried out joint naval exercises dubbed as Joint
Sea-2016 in the resource-rich South China Sea (SCS) off China’s southern
Guangdong province.
o China finished on top of the medals' table at the Rio Paralympics with 239
medals, while India ended their campaign at 43rd spot with four medals.
This was India’s best-ever performance at the Paralympics, with two
golds, one silver and one bronze.
o China has began operating the world's largest radio telescope, the FAST
(Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope).
o China has successfully launched Tiangong-2 space lab to develop
expertise for a future space station and conduct science experiments.
o China is set to build the world’s deepest and largest high-speed railway
station under a section of the Great Wall, as part of its preparations for
the 2022 Winter Olympics.
o China tops the World Health Organisation's (WHO) list for the world's
deadliest air pollution, with over one million people dying in the country
in 2012 from dirty air. China is followed by India (6,21,138 deaths), and
Russia (1,40,851 deaths).
o China-based Alibaba has become the most valuable Asian listed company,
after its market valuation rose to $266 billion.
o CRPF topped with 14 Gold, 6 Silver& 6 Bronze medals at 65th All India
Police athletics Championship held in Hyderabad.
o Deaf Indian shooter Priyesha Deshmukh won the bronze medal in her first-
ever international competition at the 1st World Deaf Shooting
Championships held in Kazan.
o Deepa Malik became India's first female Paralympic medallist after
winning the Silver in the F-53 shot put event at Rio Paralympics.
o Deepak Punia, the son of a former milkman Subhash Punia, won the 85kg
wrestling gold at the Cadet World Championships held in Georgia.
o Deutsche Bank has been asked to pay a fine of $14 billion (approx ₹93,611
crores) by the US Department of Justice to settle an investigation into
mis-selling of mortgage-backed securities.
o Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi was on a 3 day visit to India.
During this visit, he held talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi with an
aim to step up engagement in areas of security, counter-terrorism and
trade.
o Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has launched a web portal for pensioners,
which will serve as a one-stop destination for providing information. The
Web Responsive Pensioner's Service Portal will allow pensioners to access
information about pension cases, and pension payments processed by
central departments and banks.
o Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is going to attend the 3-day annual meeting
of IMF and World Bank in Washington, US which begins on October 7.
o Flight attendant Neerja Bhanot was the youngest and the first female
recipient of Ashoka Chakra, India's highest peacetime gallantry award.
o Following Bastian Schweinsteiger's retirement from international football,
the German Football Association has announced goalkeeper Manuel Neuer
as the team's new captain.
o Former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar launched SRT Sports, his own
sports management company.
o Former Indian women's hockey captain Ritu Rani has retired from
international hockey following her axing from the Indian Rio Olympics-
bound squad.
o Former Kerala Finance Minister KM Mani-led Kerala Congress (M) was
recognised as a separate bloc in the Kerala Assembly by the Speaker.
o Former 'One Direction' singer Zayn Malik is publishing an autobiography
titled 'Zayn', which will be released on 1st November 2016.
o Former West Indies pacer Courtney Walsh has joined the Bangladesh
cricket team as its Specialist Bowling Coach.
o Four Indian banks have surpassed Germany-based Deutsche Bank in
market capitalisation this year. With a 50% drop in its shares this year,
Germany's biggest lender is valued at $18 billion, whereas SBI, ICICI
Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Axis Bank are all valued at over $20
billion.
o France has passed a new law banning all plastic utensils, allowing only
those made from biologically-sourced materials.
o France's Melanie Astles became the first ever female pilot to participate in
Red Bull Air Race, an extreme-sport air racing competition.
o German shoemaker Adidas has revealed its first ever shoe made entirely
by robots at the company's robot manufacturing plant in the home
market.
o Germany's biggest lender Deutsche Bank's (DB) shares fell to the lowest
level since mid-1980s. This comes amid reports that the government has
refused any state-aid to the bank before elections next year.
o Google has launched its smart messaging app Allo which is the first
product to have the 'Google Assistant' which will rival Apple's Siri and
Microsoft's Cortana.
o Gujaratis dominated the Forbes list of 'India's 100 Richest People' in 2016
with Mukesh Ambani topping the list for the ninth year in a row.
o Gumthala Garhu Village near Pehowa in Kurukshetra district (Haryana)
became the first Wifi hotspot village in Haryana circle.
o Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar has announced that the Centre has
approved the change in the name of the Gurgaon city and the Gurgaon
district to 'Gurugram'.
o Haryana Transport Minister Krishan Lal Panwar has announced free bus
rides for the girl school students in the state.
o HDFC Bank has emerged as India’s most valuable brand for the third
consecutive year, ranking first on the BrandZ Top 50 list released by WPP
Group.
o ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has received the Securities and Exchange
Board of India's (SEBI) approval to file its initial public offering (IPO),
which will be the first life insurance sector IPO in India.
o ICICI Prudential Life Insurance's Initial Public Offering (IPO), the first ever
by an Indian insurer, opened for subscription and is the biggest local IPO
in last six years.
o In a first-of-its-kind initiative, Delhi Police flagged off five all-women Police
Control Room (PCR) vehicles for improving woman safety in the capital.
o In a step to benefit over 5 lakh coal mine workers across the country,
Aadhaar number would now be linked to their provident fund accounts
and treated as the PF number.
o India (112) has slipped 10 positions and ranks behind Bhutan (78), Nepal
(108) and Sri Lanka (111) but stood higher than China (113), Bangladesh
(121) and Pakistan (133) in the World Economic Freedom Index
2016. Hong Kong topped the index, followed by Singapore and New
Zealand among 159 countries.
o India and Afghanistan have reached an agreement to establish an air
corridor to facilitate trade between the two nations through air.
o India and China have hold the first High Level Dialogue on Counter-
terrorism and Security. This dialogue was held in Beijing (China).
o India and Egypt have signed an agreement in the area of Maritime
Transport to step up co-operation on the seas.
o India and Mali have inked two agreements in the fields of Standards and
Cultural exchange.
o India and Sri Lanka have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
to support livelihood of the fishing and farming project to communities in
Sri Lanka’s southern Hambantota district.
o India contributed nearly twenty five lakh soldiers to the British war effort
in the Second World War, making it the largest ever volunteer force in the
world.
o India finished 2nd in the medals tally at the Track Asia Cup 2016 which
was recently concluded in New Delhi.
o India has approved a $1.04 billion project for constructing and upgrading
558 km of roads to link it with Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal.
o India has been placed at the 35th rank in the World Bank’s 2016 Logistics
Performance Index (LPI) among 160 countries.
o India has lost its World Trade Organization appeal against a US complaint
on discrimination against importers in the solar power sector.
o India has observed National Nutrition Week from 1st of September to 7th
of September. Theme of the year 2016 : "Savor the Flavor of Eating Righ"
o India has officially declared itself free from highly contagious Avian
Influenza (H5N1) or bird flu and has notified the same to the World
Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
o India has officially received certificates from World Health Organisation
(WHO), recognizing the elimination of Yaws and Maternal and Neonatal
Tetanus (MNT) from the country.
o India has ranked on top in terms of offering the least-expensive flight
prices, making it the best value location for international and domestic
flights worldwide, a survey by a global travel website stated.
o India has sent a contingent of 17 athletes, its largest ever, to the
Paralympic Games, which were held in Rio de Janeiro.
o India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Greece to
allow unlimited number of flights into each other’s countries and also has
initiated the air service agreement for open skies.
o India has successfully test-fired a long-range surface-to-air missile,
‘Barak-8' from the Defence Research and Development Organisation
(DRDO) base at Chandipur in Odisha. It has been jointly developed by
India and Israel.
o India is now the world's third-biggest importer for Scotch whisky, after
France and the US.
o India is the 7th largest seafood exporter in the world.
o India is the Second most 'unequal' country after Russia in terms of wealth
and its distribution among masses, with 54% of the wealth being held by
millionaires, a report by a wealth research firm recently announced.
o India slipped 10 positions to the 112th spot, out of 159 countries and
territories on the 'Economic Freedom of the World' rankings which
 measures the extent to which countries' policies and institutions are
supportive of economic freedom.
o India won 4 Golds, 1 Silver and 5 Bronze medals in the recently-concluded
International Table Tennis Federation Junior and Cadet Open
Championships, to finish second to Taipei in the medals tally.
o India, Kazakhstan joint bilateral military exercise PRABAL DOSTYK-16 was
recently held at Karaganda region of Kazakhstan.
o India’s first international conference on cooking gas was recently held in
Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
o India’s high jumper Mariyappan Thangavelu has created history by
winning a Gold medal in the men’s high jump T-42 event.
o India’s largest lender SBI has cut deposit rates by 25 basis points in some
maturities, thereby indicating excess liquidity in the banking system.
o India’s Pinky Balhara has won bronze medal in the sporting event of
kurash at the 5th Asian Beach Games held at Da Nang, Vietnam.
o India’s squash player Velavan Senthilkumar has won the Under-19 Asian
Junior Individual squash championship title.
o Indian cueist Pankaj Advani became the first Indian to win a medal at the
Six-Red World Championships, after winning bronze at the 2016 edition
of the tournament.
o Indian e-commerce company Flipkart has crossed the 100-million
registered users mark, becoming the first e-commerce company in the
country to hit the milestone.
o Indian film Thithi has won the best film award at the first BRICS Film
Festival held in New Delhi.
o Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, which was established in
1847 as Thomason College of Civil Engineering, is the oldest engineering
college in the country.
o Indian kickboxer Sushmita Rai won the bronze medal at the World Martial
Arts Masterships 2016, held at Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do of South
Korea.
o Indian Navy’s indigenously built most Advanced Guided Missile Stealth
Destroyer ‘Mormugao’ was launched in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
o Indian Olympic Association has sent a 208-member contingent, its largest
ever, to the 5th Asian Beach Games starting on September 24 in Danang,
Vietnam.
o Indian pacer Lakshmipathy Balaji announced his retirement from First-
class cricket.
o Indian public service broadcaster Doordarshan has began transmission 57
years ago on 15th September in the year 1959.
o Indian Railways has launched Swachhta Saptah (Cleanliness Week) to
mark the ‘Swachh Paryavaran Diwas’ (Clean Environment Day).
o Indian shooters Akhil Sheoran and Vinita Bhardwaj won Gold medals at
the 6th World University Championships at Bydgoszcz, Poland.
o Indian shuttler Rituparna Das won the Polish Open after defeating
compatriot Rasika Raje in the women's singles final.
o Indian shuttlers Pranaav Chopra and Sikki Reddy defeated the Canadian
pair of Toby Ng and Rachel Honderich 21-15, 21-16 to win the Mixed
doubles title at the Brazil Grand Prix.
o Indian table tennis player Sathiyan Gnanasekaran won India's first
international men's singles table tennis title in half a decade, after
securing the Belgian Open.
o Indian tennis star Sania Mirza won her 40th WTA doubles title after
winning the Pan Pacific Open title in Tokyo.
o Indian women’s beach kabaddi team has won the Gold medal at the 5th
Asian Beach Games held in Danang, Vietnam.
o Indian wrestler Manisha won a gold medal in women’s freestyle wrestling
38 kg event at the World Cadet Wrestling Championships in Tbilisi,
Georgia.
o Indiana-based biology professor Thomas Platt has named a parasitic
flatworm 'Baracktrema obamai' in honour of US President Barack Obama.
o India's financial capital Mumbai, which is worth over ₹52 lakh crore, is the
wealthiest city in the country, according to the New World Wealth Report.
o India's historic 500th Test match was recently held in Kanpur. India won
the test by beating New Zealand.
o India's nuclear energy generation capacity has crossed 6,000 MW after
the synchronisation of Unit II of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil
Nadu.
o India's ranking on the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness
Index for 2016-17 has improved 16 places to 39, making it the fastest
riser among the 138 nations surveyed.
o India's Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu has signed a three-year-
long endorsement deal worth ₹50 crore with sports management
company, Baseline.
o India's second biggest stock exchange BSE is planning to launch its initial
public offer (IPO), which will make it India's first listed stock exchange,
by the fourth quarter of this fiscal.
o India's unemployment rate reached a five-year high of 5% in 2015-16,
the Labour Bureau's annual survey on employment stated.
o INS Viraat, world’s oldest aircraft carrier which served the Indian Navy for
29 years, will be decommissioned later this year.
o Iran has began building a Nuclear Plant with Russian help, in a $10 billion
project, after agreeing to limit its nuclear stockpile last year.
o Iran has introduced credit cards for the first time amid attempts to
encourage public spending. Two banks, Bank Melli Iran and Ayandeh
Bank, have started issuing credit cards.
o Iran’s Morteza Mehrzadselakjani has become the tallest athlete to
compete in the history of the Paralympics, standing at 8ft 1in tall.
o Iran's Defence Ministry has launched the production of a home-grown
ballistic missile named 'Zolfaqar', which will come into service by March
2017.
o ISRO has successfully launched 8 satellites into two different orbits for the
first time. This is the longest mission undertaken by ISRO so far.
o J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti has launched ‘CM Scooty scheme’ in the state
under which 300 girls of two colleges were distributed scooters.
o Japan has recently announced a grant assistance of ₹183 crore to Nepal
on the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations
between Japan and Nepal.
o Japan is going to host the Asian Games for the 3rd time in 2026 after the
Aichi Prefecture and its capital Nagoya were confirmed as the venue by
the Olympic Council of Asia.
o Japan PM Shinzo Abe pledged $440 million to help Asian countries
strengthen counter-terrorism measures.
o Japan's biggest opposition Democratic Party has chosen Renho Murata as
its first ever woman leader.
o Javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia became the first Indian to win two
Paralympic gold medals, winning his second with a world record throw in
the F46 javelin event at the Rio Paralympics.
o Kerala's St Joseph's College is the only higher education institute given
A++ grade by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC)
under its new grading system.
o 'Mercedes' German Formula One racer Nico Rosberg won the Italian Grand
Prix.
o Mother Teresa was recently declared 'Saint Teresa of Calcutta' in
canonization ceremony headed by Pope Francis in the Vatican.
o National Security Advisors of the BRICS Nations (Brazil, Russia, India,
China, and South Africa) have decided to launch joint efforts to counter
terrorism and violent extremism in West Asia and North Africa, during a
meeting in New Delhi.
o Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal was on a 4-day state visit to
India. This was his first bilateral visit abroad after assuming office for the
second time as Nepal’s Prime Minister on 4th August 2016.
o New Zealand PM John Key has announced a ban on forced marriages and
introduced family member abuse as a separate offence in a crackdown on
domestic violence.
o Olympic gold-medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra announced his retirement
from shooting.
o One of the most popular Indian writers of the present times, Chetan
Bhagat, who is often credited to have introduced the genre of campus
novels in India, recently announced the title of his next book, One Indian
Girl. Contrary to all his previous books, this has been written from the
viewpoint of a woman.
o Pangolin is the world’s most trafficked mammal and the only one to be
completely covered in scales. India is a major supplier of pangolin meat
and scales across illegal markets in China, Vietnam, and Thailand.
o Paralympics gold medalist Devendra Jhajharia was named Sportsman of
the Year at the GQ Men of the Year Awards 2016.
o PM Narendra Modi and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi have
decided to step up Defence and Security cooperation to deal with
radicalisation and terrorism.
o PM Narendra Modi announced a ₹200 crore package for Jammu & Kashmir,
to involve the state’s youngsters in sports.
o PM Narendra Modi has recently visited Vietnam. This is the first visit by
an Indian Prime Minister to Vietnam in 15 years.
o President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched
Vice President Hamid Ansari's book titled 'Citizen and Society' at the
Rashtrapati Bhawan.
o President Pranab Mukherjee signed the Goods and Services Tax Bill (GST),
making the bill a law. Under GST, taxes previously imposed by the Centre
and States will be replaced with a common nation-wide taxation system.
o Ravichandran Ashwin became the fastest Indian and second fastest
overall to register 200 Test wickets, after reaching the landmark in his
37th Test against New Zealand.
o Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo has topped the list of EA Sports
FIFA 17's top-rated players for the first time since the FIFA 09 edition of
the game.
o Reliance Communications board has approved a merger with Aircel,
making it the largest-ever consolidation deal in India's telecom sector.
o Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani has announced the full-scale
launch of its telecom venture 'Reliance Jio', during the company's 42nd
annual general meeting. Reliance Jio started operations from September
5.
o Russia and Cuba have signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of
peaceful atomic energy use.
o Sikkim is the best workplace for women in India while Delhi is the worst
workplace, claimed a report prepared jointly by the Centre for Strategic
and International Studies, a top American think-tank, and Nathan
Associates.
o Sofia Vergara, known for her appearance in 'Modern Family', has been
named the highest paid television actress in the world by Forbes, earning
$43 million in the last 12 months up to June.
o Solar power capacity of about 4,800 MW will be added in India this year
as the number of installations are increasing.
o Somali refugee Fadumo Dayib has become the first woman ever to contest
in the country's presidential elections.
o Sri Lanka was declared Malaria-free by the World Health Organisation
(WHO).
o State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, IDFC Bank, and digital wallet
Paytm will start issuing electronic tags to vehicles for toll collection.
o State-owned Canara Bank has announced that its board has permitted
raising up to $500 million as a part of its $2-billion medium-term note
programme, for funding its overseas branches.
o Taiwanese electronics maker Acer has recently unveiled the world's first
curved screen laptop named 'Predator 21 X'.
o Tamil film 'Visaaranai' is India's official entry to Academy Awards 2017 in
the Foreign Language Film category.
o Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has announced that the
government will increase maternity leave for female state government
employees from six months to Nine months, fulfilling an electoral promise.
o Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa has announced the set up of 'Amma Marriage
Halls' to help the poor people conduct weddings by paying a reasonable
rent
o The 1st BRICS film festival was recently held at the Sirifort Auditorium
Complex in New Delhi. The film festival is the run up to the BRICS summit
which is to be held in Goa in October 2016.
o The 1st military exercise between Russia and Pakistan named Druzhba-
2016 (Friendship-2016) was recently held.
o The 2016 BRICS Labour & Employment Ministerial Meet was held in New
Delhi from September 27- 28, 2016 to deliberate on issues including job
creation and social security for workers.
o The 2016 Group of Twenty (G20) Summit was held in Hangzhou, China
from 4th to 5th September 2016 .
o The 28th and 29th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Summit was recently held at Vientiane, Laos.
o The 2nd meeting of the High Level Group of Eminent Experts to strengthen
the SAARC Anti-Terrorism Mechanism was held in New Delhi.
o The 8th edition of joint military exercise ‘Indra-2016’ between India and
Russia was recently held at the Russian city of Vladivostok.
o The annual socio-religious Solung festival of Adi tribe was recently held in
Arunachal Pradesh.
o The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved $631 million assistance
for India's first coastal industrial corridor between Visakhapatnam and
Chennai.
o The Bank of England has kept its interest rate unchanged at a record low
of 0.25%, amid expectations of a future rate cut.
o The Bank of Japan has kept the interest rates on the current accounts held
by financial institutions at the central bank unchanged at (-)0.1%.
o The BRICS Convention on Tourism for the year 2016 was recently held
t Khajuraho (UNESCO World heritage) of Madhya Pradesh. The goal of
this 2 day convention is to promote intra-regional tourism.
o The Cabinet has approved a ₹1,102 crore-project to lay an undersea cable
link to Andaman and Nicobar Islands from Chennai.
o The Cabinet has approved the scrapping of the 92-year old practice of
presenting a separate Railway Budget and merged it with the Union
Budget.
o The Cabinet has cleared a $3.14 billion (around ₹21,000 crore) stake buy
in two Russian oilfields by a consortium of Indian Oil, Oil India, and BPCL.
o The Canadian government has approved a new law which allows doctors
to prescribe pharmaceutical-grade heroin to treat severe heroin addicts.
o The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has launched ’e-nivaran’
(electronic resolution) facility for online redressal of taxpayers’
grievances.
o The Central government has decided to ban the use of polythene within a
100-metre radius of all national monuments starting 2nd October 2016,
as a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat campaign.
o The Centre has cleared the deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France,
which is likely to cost India nearly €7.8 billion (over ₹58,000 crore).
o The Centre has cut the import duty on wheat, crude and refined palm oils,
and potato to keep prices in check ahead of the festival season.
o The DCB Bank, a new-generation private sector bank, has launched a
card-less mobile-based payment solution 'mVisa', to make payments at
retail outlets easier.
o The Defence Ministry has approved the acquisition of weaponry worth
₹1,900 crore, including ₹330 crore low-intensity electronic warfare
systems for Jammu and Kashmir.
o The Department of Telecom (DoT) has created ‘Urja Mitra Helpline’
through which customers can get information on power outages from
distribution companies by dialling 14401.
o The Election Commission has confirmed that the Mamata Banerjee-led All
India Trinamool Congress is now a 'National party'.
o The first air show in North Korea was recently held at the Kalma Airport
in Wonsan city.
o The first edition of ‘IoT (Internet of Things) India Congress, 2016’ was
recently held in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
o The first Jesse Owens Olympic Spirit Award will be posthumously awarded
to Muhammad Ali.
o The first meeting of Goods & Services Tax (GST) Council has decided to
exempt businesses with annual turnover below Rs.20 lakh out of the GST
net.
o The Global Burden of Disease study has ranked India 143th in a list of 188
countries, citing mortality rates, malaria hygiene and air pollution as
major challenges. Iceland topped the index. Central African Republic was
ranked the lowest.
o The government has approved the Human Resource Development
Ministry's proposal to set up a Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA)
that will pro vide funds for research-oriented infrastructure in premier
institutions like IITs and IIMs.
o The government has ordered the prohibition of photography and shooting
of videos in the Parliament House complex by visitors, officers and staff
of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Secretariat, and allied agencies.
o The government is planning to double the number of schemes under
Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to 147 by March, Finance Secretary Ashok
Lavasa has recently announced.
o The government is planning to make the issuance of passport documents
easier by processing passport applications at major post offices in Delhi
by the year-end.
o The Gujarat government has inked a tripartite memorandum of
understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Airport
Authority of India (AAI). Under these MoUs, 11 small airports and airstrips
will be developed under the Centre’s Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)
to boost regional air connectivity in the State.
o The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has successfully conducted a
technical flight of the new indigenous Light Utility Helicopter (LUH).
o The Incredible India Tourism Investors Summit (IITIS) 2016 was recently
held in New Delhi.
o The Indian Air Force (IAF) has successfully fired the recently acquired
long-range air-to-air MICA missile on a manoeuvring target from Mirage-
2000 Upgrade combat aircraft.
o The Indian Army has set up Army Design Bureau (ADB) in an attempt to
indigenise procurements and reduce import dependence.
o The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) has commissioned well-equipped Offshore
Patrolling Vessel (OPV) named ‘Sarathi’.
o The Indian contingent won a total of 9 medals, including 4 silver and 5
bronze medals at the 9th Asian Wushu Championships.
o The Indian government recently gave its nod for the installation of a Laser
Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the country.
o The Indian Navy has launched the country's latest missile destroyer, the
Mormugao, at Mumbai's Mazagon Docks.
o The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched
GSLV-F05 rocket carrying an advanced weather satellite 'INSAT-3DR' from
Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. This is the first time ISRO has used an
indigenous cryogenic engine on an 'operational flight'.
o The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has signed a contract
with German company DST to design vessels suited to navigate the 1620
km stretch of National Waterway (NW-1).
o The International Union for Conservation of Nature has agreed at an
international summit to ban domestic ivory trade.
o The joint military training exercise between India and United States
dubbed as “Yudh Abhyas 2016” was recently held in Chaubattia in
Uttarakhand.
o The Karni Mata Temple is a temple near Bikaner in Rajasthan where rats
are worshipped.
o The meeting of BRICS Representatives in charge of security was recently
held in New Delhi, India. This meeting was hosted by Ajit Doval (National
Security Adviser).
o The Naropa festival, which is held every 12 years, was recently held at
the 17th century Hemis Monastery in Ladakh.
o The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a US space
agency has launched OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to collect samples from an
asteroid 101955 Bennu and return to Earth.
o The Odisha Government has launched the Biju Kanya Ratna Yojana
(BKRY) for the development of girls in three districts of the state.
o The Odisha government has reduced the stamp duty on the purchase of
land and houses in the name of women to 4% from 5%.
o The Punjab National Bank has recently announced that it will charge
current account holders more from October for not maintaining the
quarterly average balance.
o The Race Course Road, where the Prime Minister's residence is situated,
has been renamed as Lok Kalyan Marg.
o The Railways Ministry has introduced a flexi-fare system for premium
trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi starting September 9, to decide ticket
prices based on the availability of seats.
o The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) left the official cash rate on hold at
a record low of 1.5%, amid concerns that the rates are becoming
ineffective at stimulating growth.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed banks to accept tax dues in
cash under the domestic black money declaration scheme which closes on
September 30.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently announced that it will
reallocate the portfolios for its three Deputy Governors, including shifting
the monetary policy, economic policy and research, and financial market
operations to R Gandhi.
o The Supreme Court has directed authorities, including the Food Safety
and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), to immediately enforce ban on
all forms of chewable tobacco and nicotine.
o The third edition of BRICS Urbanisation Forum Meet was recently in
Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
o The two-day International Buddhist Conclave is going to be held during
3rd and 4th October 2016 at Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh.
o The UK government has agreed to ban plastic microbeads in beauty
products by the end of 2017, following a campaign by environmentalists.
o The UN Security Council has approved a resolution on Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty (CTBT), urging global implementation of the treaty that would
ban tests of nuclear weapons.
o The Union Government has approved 450 crore rupees for Madhya
Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim under the
Swadesh Darshan scheme.
o The Union Government has constituted 4 member expert committee to
study silt in river Ganga in Bihar. The team will be headed by : A .K. Sinha
(member of Ganga Flood Control commission).
o The Union Government has notified National Apprenticeship Promotion
Scheme (NAPS) for providing apprenticeship training to over 50 lakh
youngsters in order to create more jobs.
o The Union Government has signed a memorandum of understanding
(MoU) with one of India's largest selling comic book series, Amar Chitra
Katha to publish and distribute comic book on Swachh Bharat Mission.
o The Union Health Ministry has recently launched the “Leprosy Case
Detection Campaign (LCDC)” to eradicate leprosy from the country.
o The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has approved the use of
Pelargonic Acid Vanillyl Amide (PAVA) shells as an alternative to Pellet
Guns for crowd controlling in Jammu and Kashmir.
o The Union Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has launched
#Gas4India campaign, aimed at promoting the use of natural gas in the
country.
o The United Nations Charter has been translated into Sanskrit for the first
time since coming into force in 1945.
o The United Nations held its first-ever summit on 'Addressing Large
Movements of Refugees and Migrants' to discuss the issue of around 65.3
million refugees displaced around the world.
o The United States has agreed to partner with India for the 2017 Vibrant
Gujarat Global Summit, the biennial investors’ summit to create a
business-friendly environment in Gujarat.
o The United States is the third-most depressed nation in the world, after
India and China, according to a WHO report on mental illness.
o The US has labelled the Syrian jihadist rebel group Jund al-Aqsa as a
terrorist organisation.
o The US House of Representatives has approved a bill authorising the sale
of lethal weapons to Ukraine.
o The World Trade Organization has cut its forecast for global trade growth
in 2016 to 1.7%, down from its April estimate of 2.8%.
o The World War II, which resulted in the death of about 56.4 million people,
is recognised by the Guinness World Records as the war having the highest
death toll ever.
o The world’s largest river island Majuli, was declared as a district to make
it the 35th district of Assam and the only river island district in India.
o The world’s largest Solar Power Plant with an installed capacity of 648MW
was commissioned at Kamudhi in Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu.
o The world's largest indoor theme park, IMG Worlds of Adventure was
recently opened in Dubai.
o To clean up the examination system after the toppers scam, the Bihar
School Examination Board has decided to link Aadhaar card number of the
students with their examination forms to avoid duplication.
o Twitter has announced that it is rolling out changes to its 140-character
limit, which were first announced in May this year.
o UK PM Theresa May is going to introduce the 'Alan Turing' Law, which will
give posthumous pardons for gay men convicted under historic indecency
crimes.
o UK's former PM David Cameron has announced that he is resigning from
the Parliament to end his political career, months after he lost a
referendum to stay in the EU.
o Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman
was a 3-day visit to Sri Lanka. The aim of this visit was to expand bilateral
trade relations between the two nations.
o UP and Bihar have the youngest population in India while Kerala and Tamil
Nadu have the oldest population, stated Census 2011 data.
o US Federal Reserve has left the key interest rate unchanged at 0.25-
0.50% for the sixth straight time.
o US President Barack Obama has established the first national marine
monument in the Atlantic, permanently protecting nearly 5,000 square
miles of underwater canyons and mountains.
o US space agency NASA is building the world's largest and most powerful
rocket at its Michoud Assembly Facility, US.
o US-based flash memory products maker SanDisk unveiled a prototype of
the world's first 1 TB SD memory card.
o US-based Moody's Investor Service has cut Turkey's sovereign credit
rating to "junk" (from Baa3 to Ba1), following an attempted coup and
amid a slowing economy.
o US-based Wells Fargo lost its status as the world’s most valuable bank to
JPMorgan Chase.
o Venezuela is the most successful country in terms of wins at the Miss
World beauty pageant (6 winners). India and the United Kingdom stand
second with five winners each.
o Vice-President Hamid Ansari was on a 5-day visit to Nigeria and Mali. This
is the first-ever high-level visit to Mali from India. The main aim of this
 visit was to strengthen India's bilateral engagements with the two West
African nations.
o West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has left for a week-long visit
to Rome and Germany. During this visit, she attended Mother Teresa's
canonisation ceremony.
o With 86.4% literacy, the Jain community has the highest proportion of
literates among all communities in India, the 2011 Census data has
revealed. Meanwhile, Muslims were revealed as the least educated, with
42.7% of the 17.22 crore being illiterate.
o With an altitude of up to 6,700 m (22,000 ft), Siachen Glacier at the India-
Pakistan LoC, is the world's highest battlefield.
o World leaders have adopted New York Declaration for Refugees and
Migrants at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
o World number one Serena Williams broke the all-time record for most
Grand Slam match wins in tennis history after her 308th win, coming
against Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova in the US Open.
o Young Indian shooter Subhankar Pramanick has won the gold medal at
the ISSF Junior World Cup for pistol, rifle and shotgun in Gabala,
Azerbaijan.
o Zurich in Switzerland has been named the most sustainable city in the
world by global design and consultancy firm Arcadis.

August 2016 Current Affairs Highlights (One-

Liners)

o 41st 'Twins Days Festival', the largest gathering of twins in the world, was
recently held in United States' Ohio.
o A 2 day meeting of BRICS Women Parliamentarian’s forum was recently
held in Jaipur.
o A book titled R D Burmania: Panchamemoirs authored by senior Bollywood
film and music-biz journalist Chaitanya Padukone was recently released.
o A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) committee on Capacity Building, has
recommended that Banks should identify specialized areas for certification
of staff manning key responsibilities. This Committee was headed by : G
Gopalakrishna (former executive director)
o A total of 5 Indian companies have made it to the Forbes list of 'World's
Most Innovative Companies' of 2016. India's largest paint company Asian
Paints was ranked 18, the highest among Indian firms.
o According to an Assocham study, Delhi has the highest percentage
(42.5%) of people with diabetes among Indian cities, followed by Mumbai
(38.5%), Ahmedabad (36%).
o After Punjab National Bank and the United Bank of India, more banks are
likely to start a facility wherein an account holder can electronically verify
his Income Tax Returns (ITR) without having a netbanking account.
o Andhra Pradesh became the first state in the country to launch DNA Index
System (DIS) for DNA (Deoxyribonucleac acid) profiling of criminals.
o Assam became first state in India to ratify The Constitution (122nd
Amendment) (GST) Bill, 2014.
o Australia has recently announced that it is going to close the controversial
Asylum seeker detention centre in Papua New Guinea (PNG).
o Australia won the 2016 Quidditch World Cup held in the German city of
Frankfurt.
o Automobile manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M) has introduced
DiGiSENSE, a cloud based technology solution to track vehicle information
in real time.
o Bhutan is the world's first carbon negative country, meaning that the
country's forests absorb more carbon dioxide each year than it produces.
o By pumping 100 cusecs of water from tubewells into a dug-up channel,
the Haryana government has recently recreated the lost river ‘Saraswati’.
o China and India held their 8th high-level Financial and Economic Dialogue
to strengthen trade and economic cooperation between the two Asian
economies.
o China and ten member countries of Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) have agreed to form a framework for a code of conduct to ease
tension in disputed South China Sea.
o China has launched a cargo train service to Russia in an attempt to
improve trade and commerce with the country.
o China has launched its first Tibetan-language search engine 'Yongzin'.
o China has successfully launched the first satellite dubbed as The Tiantong-
01 for mobile telecommunication.
o China is going to launch the world’s first quantum communication satellite
which boasts of hack-proof ultra high security features to prevent
wiretapping and intercepts.
o China joins the ranks of the world's 25 most-innovative economies in
Global Innovation Index (GII). Switzerland topped the list.
o Coastal state of Goa has been given the opportunity to host the BRICS
summit.
o Cricket icon and Rajya Sabha MP Sachin Tendulkar has selected Donja
village in Osmanabad district for development under the Sansad Adarsh
Gram Yojna.
o Current Olympic and Wimbledon champion Andy Murray will become the
first tennis player to carry Team Great Britain’s flag at the Olympics.
o Doha Bank, one of the prominent banks in Qatar, is formally inaugurated
its first branch in Kerala.
o Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi will visit India from 1st to 3rd
September 2016.
o England captain Wayne Rooney has confirmed his international retirement
after the 2018 football World Cup in Russia.
o External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is going to address the 71st
session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 26
in New York.
o Food and beverages brand Nestlé has topped Fortune Magazine's list of
the 'Most Admired Food Companies' for 11 consecutive years, since 2006.
o Forbes has recently announced the '100 Richest Tech Billionaires in the
World in 2016'. Microsoft founder Bill Gates has topped this list. Two
Indians Azim Premji and Shiv Nadar made it to the list.
o Former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju will head a legal panel
which will advise and guide BCCI in adopting the Lodha Committee
recommendations.
o Gujarat has become the first state in the country to distribute two crore
LED bulbs under the Centre’s UJALA scheme.
o Health insurance arm of Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG)
has received the final regulatory approval from sector watchdog IRDAI
and it is likely to begin operations in the last quarter of 2016.
o Human rights activist Irom Chanu Sharmila has ended her 16-year-long
fast against Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 and was granted
bail by an Imphal court on ₹10,000 personal bond.
o In a major administrative revamp, the two-year-old Telangana
government has issued draft notification on rearranging district borders
to create 17 new districts. After the completion of the process, the number
of districts in the State will go up to 27 from the present 10.
o India and Bangladesh have agreed to jointly produce a documentary on
the 1971 War which led to independence for Bangladesh.
o India and Bangladesh have signed a Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) on Route Permit for carrying Petroleum Goods to Tripura via
Bangladesh.
o India and Germany have signed an agreement on vocational training that
aims to foster conditions to create and improve workplace-based
vocational training in India’s industrial clusters.
o India and Myanmar have signed four Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) to enhance cooperation and bilateral relations between the two
countries.
o India and the United States have signed Logistics Exchange Memorandum
of Agreement (LEMOA) that will enable both countries to use each other’s
bases for repair and replenishment of defence supplies.
o India and the US have agreed on a $30 million joint research initiative on
Smart Grid and Energy Storage Technology.
o India approves $318 million loan for Sri Lanka Railways to upgrade its
communications system and rolling stock in the Tamil-dominated north.
o India has announced financial assistance worth Nepali Rs 3.9 crore for the
construction of a new building and a hostel facility at a Sanskrit school in
eastern Nepal.
o India has been ranked 77th on the World Risk Index 2016. This list was
topped by Island state of Vanuatu.
o India has figured among the top 10 wealthiest countries in the world with
a total individual wealth of $5,600 billion while the United States topped
the chart.
o India has jumped 15 spots to become 2nd most innovative middle income
economy in world.
o India has provided One million US Dollars grant to Zimbabwe in the wake
of El Nino induced drought disaster.
o India has ranked 66th in the 2016 Global Innovation Index (GII).
o India has witnessed its highest-ever tea production during 2015-16, at
1233.14 million kilograms.
o India ranks a low 39th in terms of fixed broadband adoption in the list of
53 Asia Pacific countries.
o India’s first ever BIO-CNG plant producing CNG (Compressed Natural Gas)
from agricultural residue was inaugurated in Pune, Maharashtra.
o India’s first facility to produce Nickel was launched by the Hindustan
Copper Limited (HCL) at its Indian Copper Complex (ICC) at Ghatshila in
Jharkhand.
o Indian boxer Vijender Singh broke into the World Boxing Organisation's
top-10 rankings for the first time, after being ranked 10th following his
Asia Pacific super middleweight title win last month over Australian Kerry
Hope in New Delhi.
o Indian Martial artist Vivek Teja won the Martial Arts Championships in
Sydney, Australia, to become the World Karate Champion.
o Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ashraf Ghani have
jointly inaugurated the renovated Stor Palace in Kabul through video
conferencing.
o Indian Railways has announced the commencement of the world's tallest
girder rail bridge on the Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal railway line in Manipur.
o Indian Railways has launched 'Rail Geet', a three-minute song with
moving trains visuals, as an ode to its employees and to establish a
connect with the public. Titled 'Indian Railways, we love Indian Railways',
the song will be played now at every railway function's beginning.
o Indian state-owned telecommunications company Bharat Sanchar Nigam
Limited (BSNL) is going to launch its 4G service during the next financial
year.
o Indian tennis player Sania Mirza along with her Romanian partner Monica
Niculescu, won her 7th title of the year and 39th title overall after clinching
her career's third Connecticut Open.
o Indian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt's bronze medal from the London Olympics
2012 has upgraded to Silver after the silver medallist from the 2012
Games, deceased Besik Kudukhov of Russia, has been stripped off his
medal for using banned substance.
o India's first tiger cell will be set up in Dehradun to aid the tiger
conservation efforts.
o Iran has launched the first phase of the country's own national internet
network to provide high speed and quality connections at low costs.
o Israeli Parliament has passed the 'Youth Bill' amid a surge in attacks by
young Palestinians. This bill allows imprisoning children under the age of
14 convicted of "terrorist offences".
o Jack Ma, Founder of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, is the richest
Asian in the '100 Richest Tech Billionaires in the World in 2016' list.
o Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's cabinet has approved fiscal stimulus worth
around $277 billion, which is about 6% of their GDP.
o Japan's largest public broadcaster NHK has started the world's first 8K
resolution regular TV satellite broadcast, which is 16 times as sharp as
1080p and allows 22.2-channel audio.
o Karnataka Bank has launched ‘KBL-SMARTz’, a mobile application (app)
built on the unified payments interface (UPI) platform of the National
Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
o London-based risk analysis firm Verisk Maplecroft has ranked India the
fourth riskiest in a list of 198 countries losing out on business
opportunities due to civil unrest. War-torn countries Syria, Yemen and
Libya took the first three spots on the list.
o Maharashtra and Telangana states have signed agreement for three
irrigation projects to be constructed on Godavari, Pranahita and Painganga
rivers.
o Maharashtra became the first state in the country to draft its own internal
security legislation The Maharashtra Protection of Internal Security Act
(MPISA), 2016.
o Maharashtra Government has unveiled ambitious Mumbai-Nagpur Super
Communication Expressway project in Mumbai.
o Maharashtra has became the first state to sign an agreement with the
Civil Aviation Ministry to develop 10 almost non-functional regional
airports/airstrips helping move closer to reality the Centre's ambitious
regional connectivity plan.
o Man Kaur, a 100-year-old sprinter from Chandigarh, finished a 100-metre
sprint in one minute and 21 seconds, to win Gold at the American Masters
Games in Vancouver.
o Marking the National Handloom Day, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik
has launched ‘Baristha Bunakar Sahayata Yojana’, a pension scheme for
the weavers in the state.
o Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg (Germany) has won the 2016 Belgian Grand
Prix of Formula One.
o 'Motorcycle ambulance' is an initiative currently functional in Chhattisgarh,
which helps save lives in remote regions in India where four-wheelers
can't reach.
o Mumbai has been named the most expensive city in India for travellers
but the second least expensive city in the world after Hanoi in Vietnam by
TripAdvisor.
o Mumbai-born Chetna Gala Sinha, an economist-turned-farmer, had
founded India’s first rural financial institution for women, called the ‘Mann
Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank’ in 1997.
o Myanmar has officially announced to support for China’s ambitious One
Belt and One Road (OBOR) connectivity initiative along the ancient Silk
Road.
o Nalanda University, one of the India's oldest institutes, conducted its first
convocation in nearly 800 years on 28th August 2016.
o Nepal's new Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' will embark
on a 3-day official visit to India on 15th September 2016.
o Odisha Cabinet has approved the Odisha Startup Policy 2016. The aim of
this policy is to promote entrepreneurship for start-up ventures with
provision of govt incentives.
o Orkut Büyükkökten, creator of Google's social networking platform Orkut,
has launched a new social network 'Hello' to connect people who share
the same passions across the world.
o Pakistan is going to host the 19th SAARC Summit in Islamabad and Murree
during 9th & 10th November 2016.
o PM Narendra Modi has inaugurated the first phase of the ₹12,000-crore
Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran for Irrigation (SAUNI) project in Gujarat’s
Jamnagar.
o Policy think tank Niti Aayog has inked a pact with the US Energy
Information Administration to set up a portal which will constitute all data
related to the energy sector.
o Prime Minister Modi has officially launched the first phase of 'Mission
Bhagiratha' in Telangana's Medak district to provide piped drinking water
to every household in Telangana.
o Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the 1st phase of SAUNI-
Saurastra Narmada Avataran Irrigation yojana at Sanodara of Jamnagar
district of Gujarat.
o Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has inaugurated the state's first
'Sewa Kendra' where people will be able to avail 243 services under one
roof.
o Putting an end to a 92-year-old tradition of the colonial era, the Railway
Budget will be merged with the General Budget from 2017-18 onwards.
o Qatar National Bank (QNB) has obtained an approval from the Indian
regulatory authorities to open a branch in India to offer banking services.
o Rajasthan has become the first state in the country to approve sewage
and waste water policy.
o Russia has lifted its ban on charter flights to Turkey.
o Season-3 of the Indian Super League (ISL) Football would be held from
1st October 2016 to 18th December 2016, with the opening game
scheduled in Guwahati and the venues of the two-legged semi finals to be
decided later.
o South American nation Venezuela, with a score of 188.2%, has been
ranked 'most miserable' in the world by the Misery Index (computed by
adding inflation to the unemployment rate), out of 74 economies surveyed
by Bloomberg.
o South Indian Bank, leading private sector bank, and SBI Card, one of
India's leading Credit Card issuers, announced the launch of co-branded
credit cards for the customers of South Indian Bank.
o Space-exploration startup Moon Express has became the first ever private
company to receive permission by the US government to travel to the
moon.
o Sri Lanka and China have signed a tripartite agreement to proceed with
the construction of a mega multi-billion dollar port city project in capital
Colombo.
o Sri Lankan spinner Rangana Herath (38) became the oldest player to take
a Test hat-trick, when he achieved the feat against Australia in Colombo.
o Swimmer Michael Phelps will be the flag bearer of the USA contingent at
the Rio Olympics opening ceremony on 5th August 2016.
o Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa has announced 500 Amma gymnasiums and
parks for as many as 1,000 villages in the state.
o Thailand’s tallest building (314 metres tall), the 'MahaNakhon' was
officially inaugurated.
o The 2 day SAARC Finance Ministers’ Conference was recently held at
Islamabad.
o The 2016 Kabaddi World Cup will be hosted in Ahmedabad, Gujarat during
7th to 22nd October 2016.
o The 300 residents of the Australian village of Tyalgum have backed a plan
to switch off the national power lines and set up their own solar power
supply.
o The 6th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD)
was recently held in Kenyan capital Nairobi.
o The 7th meeting of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC) Immigration Authorities was recently held in Islamabad,
Pakistan.
o The Assam Assembly has passed the Assam Amusements and Betting Tax
(Amendment) Bill, 2016 to give a fillip to the local film industry by
reducing the service charge of cinema tickets.
o The autonomous apex statutory body Insurance Regulatory and
Development Authority (IRDAI) has imposed Rs 35 lakh fine on Bharti Axa
General Insurance Co Ltd for violation of various norms including
outsourcing activities and corporate governance guidelines.
o The Bank of England has cut its benchmark interest rate to the lowest in
its 322-year history at 0.25%, its first cut since 2009.
o The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has developed a kit for onsite
determination of toxic Hexavalent Chromium Cr (VI) in drinking water.
o The Cabinet has approved a proposal to offer Permanent Residency Status
(PRS) to foreign investors meeting minimum investment and employment
generation criteria.
o The Cabinet has recently approved the Surrogacy Regulation Bill, 2016.
The main aim of this bill is to ban commercial surrogacy but permitting
“altruistic” surrogacy under strict rules.
o The Children's Film Society of India (CFSI) has organised a film festival in
Nagaland. Titled ‘CFSI Film Bonanza’, the week-long festival will cover all
major cities like Kohima, Wokha, and Dimapur.
o The Committee on Border Protection has submitted its report to the Home
Minister Rajnath Singh. The committee has made a detailed study on
threat perception, field visits and made a detailed recommendations
pertaining to strengthening of border protection on Indo-Pakistan Border.
The Committee was headed by : Madhukar Gupta (former Home
Secretary)
o The first Children Court of South India was launched at the Nampally
Criminal Courts Complex in Hyderabad, Telangana to fast disposal of cases
related to children.
o The first National Conference of Investigating Agencies was held from
August 12 to 13, 2016 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
o The first South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Youth
Parliamentarians Conference on `Peace and Harmony for Development’
was recently held in Islamabad, Pakistan.
o The Gujarat high court has quashed 10 percent reservation quota for the
Economically Backward Classes (EBCs).
o The Indian government is going to launch ‘AsliTarakki (Real development)’
campaign in the five cities of the National Capital Region to promote
awareness about the need for sanitation.
o The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kanpur has adopted five villages
in Uttar Pradesh under the Namami Gange programme.
o The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch a
record 68 satellites in one mission by early next year.
o The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully tested its
Scramjet (Supersonic Combusting Ramjet) engine from the Satish
Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
o The International Olympic Committee has unanimously agreed to add
karate, skateboarding, surfing, sports climbing and baseball/softball to
the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
o The Maharashtra Government became first state in the country to launch
India’s first comprehensive ‘Crime Criminal Tracking Network System’
(CCTNS) in Mumbai.
o The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions has accepted
the 7th Pay Commission's recommendation of increasing the minimum
monthly pension for retired central government employees by 157.14%,
from ₹3,500 to ₹9,000.
o The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and the
Ministry of Textiles have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU)
in a bid to "bring a paradigm shift in the handloom industry".
o The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has announced that
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) application has become operational.
o The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has constituted five-member
review committee to probe the Indian shooters’ Rio Games debacle. The
committee will be headed by : Abhinav Bindra (India’s first and only
individual Olympic gold-medallist).
o The only underground museum in India will open at the Rashtrapati
Bhavan in Delhi on 2nd October 2016.
o The Parliament has passed Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, 2016
to conduct of uniform entrance examination for admission to all medical
educational institutions.
o The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated a CII-IIEST
Conference in Kolkata, West Bengal. Theme of this conference : “Enabling
Make in India through Industry Academia Innovation Platform”.
o The Rajya Sabha has passed the Goods and Services Tax (Amendments)
Bill with most of the political parties, except the AIADMK, voting in its
favour.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced bi-monthly monetary
policy review on 9th August 2016. In this review, the RBI kept the rates
unchanged.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that they had set up a
committee to study why Indians spend a large sum of money on gold and
also understand their household financing patterns. The Committee will
be chaired by : Tarun Ramadorai (Professor of Financial Economics,
University of Oxford).
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks to provide loans up to
Rs 3 lakh at 7 per cent interest rate to Women Self-Help Groups (SHG).
This loan scheme must be provided under the National Rural Livelihoods
Mission (NRLM)-Aajeevika scheme during 2015-16.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed penalty on two cooperative
banks in Chhattisgarh under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has launched a website 'Sachet' to
identify instances of illegal acceptances of deposits, and provide timely
information to the public.
o The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set up a committee to look at the
various facets of household finance in India and to benchmark the
country’s position vis-à-vis both peer countries and advanced countries.
The committee will be headed by : Tarun Ramadorai (professor of
Financial Economics, University of Oxford)
o The Rio Olympics, are the first Summer Olympics to be held during the
host country's winter season.
o The State Bank of India’s (SBI’s) board of directors has approved merger
of its five associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) with itself.
o The state-owned telecommunications company, Bharat Sanchar Nigam
Limited (BSNL) and Microsoft India have signed a Memorandum of
Understanding to offer telecom and IT solutions for big businesses to meet
the demand for IT and cloud services.
o The tallest moving observation tower in the world, the 'British Airways
i360' opened in Brighton city, United Kingdom.
o The Telangana government has signed an MoU with the Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO) for setting up a Telangana Water Resources
Information System (TWRIS) on ISRO’s geo-portal Bhuvan (similar to
Google Earth).
o The Tourism Ministers of BRICS countries will meet in Madhya Pradesh's
temple city Khajuraho for a two-day long conference from 1st September
2016.
o The Tunisian Parliament has voted to approve the new government led by
Prime Minister-designate Youssef Chahed, who backs the implementation
of an austerity programme.
o The UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution approving an
agreement to make the International Organisation for Migration (IOM)
part of the UN (United Nations) as a related organisation, underlining a
 closer legal and working relationship between them is needed “more than
ever”
o The Union Cabinet has given its approval for signing of new Air Services
Agreement (ASA) between India and Fiji. The Agreement is for updation
of the existing ASA between the two countries which was signed in
January, 1974.
o The Union Cabinet has given its approval to create a Project Development
Fund (PDF) for catalysing Indian economic presence in the CLMV countries
viz. Cambodia, Laos Myanmar and Vietnam. It will be operated through
the EXIM Bank.
o The Union Finance Ministry has constituted 11 members high-level
committee to suggest steps to promote card payments with an aim to
discourage cash transactions. The committee will be headed by : Ratan P
Watal (Principle Adviser for social sector in NITI Aayog and former Finance
Secretary).
o The Union Government has allowed online authentication using Aadhar for
new mobile connections.
o The Union Government has constituted a National Committee on Trade
Facilitation (NCTF) to develop the pan-India road map for trade
facilitation. This Committee will be headed by : Pradeep Kumar Sinha
(Cabinet Secretary of India).
o The Union Government has set up a Committee to look at easing the policy
regime for e-commerce players, including the rules for foreign direct
investment (FDI). This committee will be headed by : Amitabh Kant (CEO
of NITI Aayog).
o The Union Human Resource Ministry has formally launched Indian
Institute of Techonogy (IIT) Dharwad in Karnataka.
o The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development has launched
Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) e-box, in New Delhi.
o The United Nations has issued a stamp in honour of carnatic music legend,
M S Subbulakshmi, on her birth centenary on August 15th, coinciding with
the celebrations of India's 70th Independence Day.
o The United States declared Pakistan based Jamaat-ur-Ahrar (JuA) as a
‘terror group’ by adding it to its list of global terrorists.
o The United States is going to create world’s largest protected marine
reserve area named as Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument
off the Hawaiian coast.
o The urban development ministry has certified 10 towns - five each in
Maharashtra and Telangana - as Open Defecation Free (ODF).
o The US Air Force declared the first squadron of fifth-generation F-35A
fighter aircraft as 'Combat Capable'.
o The Uttar Pradesh government has increased the House Rent Allowances
(HRA) of government employees by 20%.
o The West Bengal State Assembly approved a proposal to rename West
Bengal as "Bengal" in English and "Bangla/Banga" in Bengali.
o The World Bank has approved a $100 million credit from the International
Development Association (IDA) to support the Sri Lanka's economic
reforms programme.
o The world’s first self-driving taxi service was launched in Singapore.
o The world's "largest aircraft" the Airlander 10 embarked on its maiden
flight, four days after a previous attempt was abandoned due to technical
issues.
o The Yemeni government has accepted a UN-proposed peace agreement
to end Civil War in the country.
o The youth wing of the Congress, called Indian Youth Congress (IYC), has
launched ‘Adhikar’, a free legal aid centre for the poor.
o To enhance transparency in power transmission sector of the country, the
Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and
Mines, Piyush Goyal has launched the ‘TARANG’ Mobile App, ‘e-Trans’ &
‘DEEP’ e-bidding web portals.
o Under the "Campus Carry" law, which was recently passed, students in
Texas over 21 years of age, with a concealed handgun license will be
allowed to bring pistols into classrooms.
o Union Health Minister JP Nadda has launched a nationwide breastfeeding
campaign called MAA (Mother's Absolute Affection).
o United States has announced 138 million dollar new aid to South Sudan.
o US Secretary of State John Kerry was on a 3-day visit to New Delhi. During
this visit, he co-chaired the 2nd India-US Strategic and Commercial
Dilogue along with US commerce secretary Penny Pritzker, Indian External
Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and Commerce and Industry minister
Nirmala Sitharaman.
o Uttarakhand has emerged as the top state in India in terms of growth in
industry and service sectors during 2004-05 to 2014-15.
o Vietnam has the second fastest GDP growth rate per capita in the world
since the 1990s, behind only China.
o Western Railway won the overall team championship in the 82nd All India
Railway athletic Championship held at Tiruchirapalli Tamil Nadu.
o With a total of 302 weeks as World No 1 in ATP World Rankings, Tennis
player Roger Federer holds the record for most number of weeks at the
top spot.
o World Breastfeeding Week (WBW), an annual celebration which is
observed every year during 1st to 7th August.
o World number one Novak Djokovic was elected as the ATP Player Council
President, ahead of the US Open.