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Bob Dylan wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Bob Dylan on 13 October 2016 won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature.
●    Dylan was bestowed with the precious award for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.
●    Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, artist and writer.
●    His early songs such as Blowin' in the Wind and The Times They Are a-Changing became anthems for the American civil rights and anti-war movements.
●    His lyrics have incorporated various political, social, philosophical and literary influences.
●    His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, but songwriting is considered his greatest contribution.
●    Since 1994, he has published six books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries.

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Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstorm Win Nobel in Economics

Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom were on 10 October 2016 awarded the 2016 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for their contributions to contract theory.
●    They have developed a contract theory, a comprehensive framework for analysing many diverse issues in contractual design, like performance-based pay for top executives, deductibles and co-pays in insurance and the privatization of public-sector activities.
●    The new theoretical tools created by Hart and Holmstrom are valuable to the understanding of real-life contracts and institutions, as well as potential pitfalls in contract design.
●    In the late 1970s, Bengt Holmstrom demonstrated how a principal should design an optimal contract for an agent, whose action is partly unobserved by the principal. 
●    Holmström’s informativeness principle stated precisely how this contract should link the agent’s pay to performance-relevant information. 

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Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos wins 2016 Nobel Peace Prize


The 2016 Nobel Peace Prize was on 7 October 2016 awarded to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end, a war that took away the lives of at least 220000 Colombians and displaced nearly six million people.
●    The civil war in Colombia is one of the longest civil wars in modern times and the sole remaining armed conflict in the Americas.
●    President Santos initiated the negotiations that culminated in the peace accord between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas as he consistently sought to move the peace process forward. 
●    The accord was controversial, however he was instrumental in ensuring that Colombian voters were able to voice their opinion concerning the peace accord in a referendum. 
●    The outcome of the vote was not what President Santos wanted as a narrow majority of the over 13 million Colombians voted against the accord. 
●    Despite the "No" majority vote in the referendum, President Santos brought the bloody conflict significantly closer to a peaceful solution. 
●    His endeavours to promote peace thus fulfil the criteria and spirit of prize.

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UR Rao - first Indian to be inducted in IAF Hall of Fame


Former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman Udupi Ramachandra Rao, popularly known as U. R. Rao, was inducted into the 2016 IAF Hall of Fame on 30 September 2016 by the International Aeronautical Federation (IAF).
●    With this, Rao became the first Indian to be inducted into IAF Hall of Fame.
●    U. R. Rao is the former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
●    At present, he is the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Physical Research Laboratory at Ahmedabad.
●    He is also the chancellor of Indian Institute for Space Science and Technology (IIST) at Thiruvananthapuram.
●    He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 1976.
●    On 19 March 2013, he was inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame, Washington at a ceremony organised by the Society of Satellite Professionals International. He was the first Indian to be inducted.

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3 share Chemistry Nobel for Molecular Machines

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on 5 October 2016 was awarded to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir James Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L Feringa.
The second step was taken by Fraser Stoddart in 1991, when he developed a rotaxane. He threaded a molecular ring onto a thin molecular axle and demonstrated that the ring was able to move along the axle.
Bernard Feringa was the first person to develop a molecular motor. In 1999, he got a molecular rotor blade to spin continually in the same direction. Using molecular motors, he has rotated a glass cylinder that is 10000 times bigger than the motor and also designed a nanocar.
●    The trio were bestowed with the prestigious award for the design and synthesis of molecular machines.
●    Jean-Pierre Sauvage is a French coordination chemist. 
●    Sir James Fraser Stoddart is a Scottish chemist. He works in the area of supramolecular chemistry and nanotechnology. 
●    Bernard L Feringa is a synthetic organic chemist, specializing in molecular nanotechnology and homogenous catalysis.
●    Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir James Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L Feringa have developed molecules with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added.


 

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British trio wins Nobel in Physics

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on 5 October 2016 was awarded to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir James Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L Feringa.
●    The trio were bestowed with the prestigious award for the design and synthesis of molecular machines.
●    Jean-Pierre Sauvage is a French coordination chemist. 
●    Sir James Fraser Stoddart is a Scottish chemist. He works in the area of supramolecular chemistry and nanotechnology. 
●    Bernard L Feringa is a synthetic organic chemist, specializing in molecular nanotechnology and homogenous catalysis.
●    Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir James Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L Feringa have developed molecules with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added.
●    The first step towards a molecular machine was taken by Jean-Pierre Sauvage in 1983, when he succeeded in linking two ring-shaped molecules together to form a chain, called a catenane.
 

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Indian Origin Kiara Nirghin wins 2016 Google Science Fair Prize

Indian-origin South African girl Kiara Nirghin on 1 October 2016 won the Google Science Fair prize 2016. 
●    She won this grand prize of 50000 US dollars scholarship for using orange peel to develop a cheaper super-absorbent material that helps soil retain water.
●    Kiara Nirghin is a Grade 11 student at St Martin’s private school. She did a project titled No More Thirsty Crops which was aimed at tackling the severe drought plaguing South Africa. 
●    Her solution to the problem of drought uses orange and avocado fruit peel, which are normally discarded.
●    The Google Science Fair is a programme for budding scientists between the ages of 13 to 18, who are invited to solve the world’s biggest challenges using science and technology.
●    The fruit peel serves perfect alternative to super-absorbent polymers (SAPs), which absorb and carry about 300 times their weight in liquid relative to their own mass.
●    These SAPs are not biodegradable, are costly and full of acrylic acid, sodium hydroxide and other chemicals. 


 

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Japanese Researcher Wins Nobel for Work on Cell Recycling

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet on 3 October 2016 decided to award the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Yoshinori Ohsumi.
●    Ohsumi is bestowed with the prize for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy. 
●    He discovered mechanisms underlying autophagy, a fundamental process for degrading and recycling cellular components.
●    Autophagy is the natural, destructive mechanism that disassembles, through a regulated process, unnecessary or dysfunctional cellular components.
●    Yoshinori Ohsumi is a Japanese cell biologist specializing in autophagy.
●    He is a professor in Tokyo Institute of Technology's Frontier Research Center.

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Elephant Researcher Prajna Chowta Conferred with Knighthood by France


Film-maker and elephant researcher Prajna Chowta was recently appointed Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite by the French Government.
●    The official ceremony is expected to be held later in 2016 in Bengaluru.
●    The appointment of Chowta by the President of the French Republic comes in recognition of a life devoted to caring for wild Asian elephants.
●    Chowta is the founder of Aane Mane Foundation.
●    The Foundation has been researching and conserving wild Asian elephants.
●    She has also authored the Elephant Code Book on captive elephant management as well as the French book Enfant d’Elephant (Elephant’s Child) in 2014. 
●    The book is based on the sketches of tribals and their relationship with elephants.
●    She is among the few Indian women to be appointed a Knight

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President Presents ‘Vayoshreshtha Samman’ to Older Persons & Institutions on International Day of Older Persons 


The President of India Shri Pranab Mukharjee presented the National Awards for Senior Citizens“Vayoshreshtha Samman-2016” to eminent senior citizens and institutions in recognition of their service towards the cause of elderly persons, especially indigent senior citizens at a function organized by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment here today. Union Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment Shri Thawaarchand Gehlot presided over the function. Ministers of State for Social Justice & Empowerment Shri Vijay Sampla and Shri Krishna Pal Gutjar, Secretary, M/o Social Justice & Empowerment Smt. Anita Agnihotri and many dignitaries were present. These awards were presented as part of the celebration of the International Day of Older Persons (IDOP) on 1st October.
●    Addressing on the occasion, the President said that the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is doing a good job by providing various reliefs to the elderly in society. The efforts of the Ministry are being complemented by other Ministries of the Government of India but the problem is gigantic. Senior citizens in our country – that is, the segment of our population that is aged above 60 years, numbers about ten and half crores. Of these, 5.1 crore are male and 5.3 crores are female. Current projections indicate that by the year 2026, the number of senior citizens, male and female, will be 8.4 and 8.8 crores respectively i.e. a total of 10 percent of our population. In view of this, there will be increased requirement of trained manpower and medical infrastructure for geriatric care. Additional resources will be required to protect their rights and to ensure their social inclusion and economic independence. Social inclusion of the aged population is an indispensible gesture that can only partly repay the gift of life and nurturing received from our elders.
●    International Day of Older Persons is observed on 1st of October every year pursuant to the adoption of a resolution by the UN General Assembly to observe the year 1999 as the International Year of Older Persons with the theme, “a society for all ages”. The Ministry has been conferring “Vayoshrestha Samman” every year on this day since 2005, to eminent citizens and institutions in recognition of their outstanding services to the elderly people, especially indigent senior citizens. The “Vayoshrestha Samman” was elevated to the level of national awards in 2013 under 13 categories and this is the second year in which these national awards are being conferred. 

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