Today's Current Affairs-1st October 2022

INTERNATIONAL

Putin announces Russian annexation of four Ukrainian regions

• Vladimir Putin has declared the Annexaton of 4 Ukrainian regions by Russia. The West has denounced the annexation of occupied Ukrainian territory by Russia as an illegitimate land grab after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties.
• The president of Ukraine, Zelenskyy responded by unexpectedly submitting an application to join the NATO armed alliance. Vladimir Putin ‘s action and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ‘s signature of what he called a expedited NATO membership application sent the two leaders hurtling toward each other, raising the possibility of a full-scale battle between Russia and the West.

About Russia:

President: Vladimir Putin 

Capital: Moscow

Currency: Russian ruble

Prime minister: Mikhail Mishustin

About North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) :

Headquarters: Brussels, Belgium

Founded: 4 April 1949, Washington, D.C., United States

Founders: United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Norway…..

2^nd round of Foreign office consultations between India & Nigeria held

• The second round of Foreign Office Consultations between India and Nigeria was held in New Delhi on Thursday. Both sides reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relations covering political, economic and commercial investment, defence and security, development partnership, capacity building, cultural and consular matters. They also discussed ways to further strengthen the close bilateral ties between India and Nigeria. The two sides also exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest and agreed to enhance their cooperation in the multilateral fora.
• Relations between India and Nigeria have traditionally been warm and are based on shared historical ties, values of democracy and vision. There have been regular visits taking place from both sides. Defence cooperation between the two countries has been nurtured over the years. India had helped Nigeria in setting up their Defence Academy. As part of capacity building under ITEC, India offers over 250 slots annually which are being utilised optimally. Under this framework, several Nigerian senior military officers were trained in India, including two former Presidents and the present incumbent President Mohammadu Buhari.

About Nigeria:

President: Muhammadu Buhari 

Capital: Abuja

Currency: Nigerian naira

Euro zone inflation hits record high 10%, raising pressure on ECB

• Inflation in the 19-member eurozone reached 10% in September, the highest it has ever been in the history of the common European currency, according to the latest flash estimate from Eurostat, the EU statistics agency. This is up from the 9.1% seen in August. Just one year ago, inflation was 3.2%.
• The high inflation figure comes as the region experiences soaring electricity and natural gas prices, and also comes amid forecasts of a looming recession. The price of energy has risen 40.8% when compared to last year’s prices, while the cost of food, alcohol and tobacco rose 11.8% in September, up from the 10.6% recorded in August. The inflation figure in Estonia for September was pegged at a whopping 24.2%, a little lower than the 25.2% seen in August, but also the highest in the eurozone.
• Lithuania, Latvia and Netherlands follow closely with their rates of inflation sitting at 22.5%, 22.4% and 17.1%, respectively. According to Eurostat, German inflation is sitting at 10.9%. Berlin presented a new €200 billion ($196 billion) relief plan in a bid to counter soaring energy prices.
• Inflation was being spurred on by rising energy prices which have soared since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

 NATIONAL

Gurugram To Get "World's Largest Safari", Park To Cover Over 10,000 Acres

• World’s largest jungle safari park to be developed in Haryana. The World’s largest jungle safari park is spread across an area of 10000 acres in the Aravalli Mountain Range of Gurugram and Nuh District. This project will be the largest such project in the world. The proposed area to build the World’s largest jungle safari park is Aravalli hills.
• The park will also include a large herbarium, an aviary, four zones for big cars, a large area for herbivores, an area for exotic animal/birds, an underwater world, natural trails, visitors, tourism zones, botanical garden, biomes, equatorial, tropical, coastal, desert, etc.
• For the making of the World’s largest jungle safari park an Aravalli Foundation will be set up which will manage the project. The design and operation will be managed by an international EOI, and two more companies with international experience.

About Haryana:

Capital: Chandigarh

Governor: Bandaru Dattatreya

Chief Minister: Manohar Lal Khattar

 SPORTS

36th National games Mirabai Chanu wins gold in weightlifting

• Manipur's Saikhom Mirabai Chanu won the gold medal at the 36th National Games, Gujarat on Friday in the Weightlifting event. Her compatriot from the state of Manipur Kh. Sanjita Chanu won the silver whereas Odisha's Sneha Soren settled with a bronze.
• Chanu successfully lifted 191 kg in her 49kg event category with a 81kg lift on first attempt. She continued her brilliant run of form in the event. The star weightlifter who came as an assured medal winner at the National Games, won the first gold medal for India at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, held in July-August in Birmingham this year.
• She had previously won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics held last year after the postponement of the Games in 2020 due to COVID-19 outbreak.

About Manipur:

Capital: Imphal (Executive Branch)

Chief Minister: N. Biren Singh

Governor: La. Ganesan

 IMPORTANT DAYS

World Vegetarian Day 2022: 01^st October

• World Vegetarian Day is celebrated on the first day of October. It also kickstarts Vegetarian Awareness Month. This global day of advocacy and awareness celebrates the benefits of vegetarianism and encourages people to reduce their consumption of animal products. The day is commemorated to create awareness about the benefits of vegetarianism like reducing the risks of heart diseases and other health complications.
• The primary aim of the day is to create awareness about the multiple advantages of vegetarianism and support networks for vegetarians across the world. Animal slaughter on large scale requires a lot of water and other limited resources. The process emits methane and other greenhouse gases which are a big burden on the degrading environmental situation.
• World Vegetarian Day was established in the year 1977 by the North American Vegetarian Society (NAVS) to highlight the surfeit of benefits of vegetarianism, including saving the lives of animals. Following this, in the year 1978, it was endorsed by the International Vegetarian Union. Since then, every year on October 1, people celebrate the day all across the world.

About International Vegetarian Union:

Founded: 1908, Dresden, Germany

Chair : Marly Winckler

 SUMMIT'S & MOU's

India participates at 3rd G20 Sherpa meeting in Indonesia

• India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant led an official delegation to the third G20 Sherpa meeting held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia from 26th to 29th of September. During the deliberations, Mr Kant reaffirmed India’s commitment and active support to Indonesian Presidency’s efforts to finalize meaningful outcomes for the forthcoming G20 Bali Summit in November. He also emphasized the need for G20 to bring enhanced global focus on and strengthen international cooperation and efforts in key priority areas such as sustainable growth, accelerated progress on SDGs, and addressing climate change.
• On the sidelines of the G20 Sherpa meeting, Mr. Amitabh Kant also held bilateral interactions with his visiting Sherpa counterparts from Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, UK and US.

About Indonesia:

Currency: Indonesian rupiah 

Capital: Jakarta

President: Joko Widodo

Minister of State for Culture Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal to attend UNESCO-MONDIACULT 2022 World Conference in Mexico

• The Indian delegation headed by the Minister of State for Culture Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal represented at UNESCO-MONDIACULT 2022 World Conference held at Mexico City during 28th-30th September, 2022. The Minister addressed the conference on burning issues and concerns of the Cultural sector policies. In the conference, Culture Ministers of more than 100 countries participated on this multilateral forum to decide on the global cultural discourse.
• The UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development- MONDIACULT 2022 is convened by UNESCO forty years after the first Mondiacult World Conference on Cultural Policies, held in Mexico City (Mexico) in 1982, and 24 years after the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies for Development held in Stockholm (Sweden) in 1998. This is the third such conference.

About UNESCO:

Headquarters: Paris, France

Founded: 16 November 1945, London, United Kingdom

Parent organization: United Nations

 RANKING

Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath tops 'Hurun India 40 & under self-made rich list 2022'

• Nikhil Kamath, the cofounder of Zerodha, topped the ‘IIFL Wealth Hurun India 40 & Under Self-Made Rich List 2022’ with a net worth of Rs 17,500 crore. Bhavish Aggarwal, the founder of Ola, came in second place (Rs 11,700 crore), and Divyank Turakhia of Media.net in third place (Rs 11,200 crore).
• According to Hurun, this year the number of under-40 billionaires surged to 1,103, an increase of 96. The cumulative wealth of the entrants in 40 & Under Self-made List has increased by 11% in comparison to last year, currently standing at Rs 1,83,700 crore highlighting the increasing rate of entrepreneurship that exists in the ecosystem.
• A majority of young billionaires on the list live in India while some live abroad. The report said 47 of the 53 entrepreneurs reside in India. India’s Silicon Valley Bengaluru has the highest number of billion residents.
• The IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2022 has been researched and compiled by the Hurun Research Institute for the tenth year running. The cut-off used was 31st August 2022 when the rate of exchange to the US dollar was INR 79.50.

 BANKING AND ECONOMY

In-use bank cards drop 2.3 million in August over new RBI norms

• The outstanding credit card base dropped to 77.99 million in August from over 80 million in July, mainly on account of the new norms of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that warrant the deactivation of cards that are inactive for a year. While there was a 2.8 per cent decline in net card additions on a month-on-month (MoM) basis in August, a first in many months, credit card spends slipped 3 per cent on a high base. Still, spends topped the Rs 1-trillion mark for the sixth consecutive month.
• The banking system had been adding about 1-1.5 million cards a month for some time now. But in August, “credit cards outstanding for the industry declined by 2.3 million, largely as a result of sharp declines seen for HDFC Bank and Axis Bank. This is largely on account of the implementation of the new RBI norms requiring credit card companies to deactivate cards that are inactive for 365 days. This should impact other players, as well with a lag”, stated Suresh Ganapathy and Param Subramanian in a report for Macquarie Research.
• SBI Card, on the other hand, added the most cards in the month under review (296,259), followed by ICICI Bank (211,520).

About Reserve Bank of India (RBI):

Governor: Shaktikanta Das 

Ownership: Ministry of Finance, Government of India

Founded: 1 April 1935, Kolkata

Founder: British Raj