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Indian Scientist Detect Crack in Earth's Magnetic Shield

The world’s largest and most sensitive cosmic ray monitor, located in India, has recorded a burst of galactic cosmic rays that indicates a crack in the Earth’s magnetic shield. 
●    The burst occurred when a giant cloud of plasma ejected from the solar corona struck Earth at a very high speed.
●    The GRAPES-3 muon telescope located at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research’s Cosmic Ray Laboratory in Ooty recorded a burst of galactic cosmic rays last year lasting for two hours.
●    The burst occurred when a giant cloud of plasma ejected from the solar corona, and moving with a speed of about 2.5 million km per hour struck our planet. 
●    Earth’s magnetosphere extends over a radius of a million kilometres, which acts as the first line of defence, shielding us from the continuous flow of solar and galactic cosmic rays.

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Paris Agreement becomes International Law

The Paris Agreement officially entered into force on 4 November 2016. The agreement deals with greenhouse gases emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance.
●    The Paris Agreement’s entry into force comes a month after countries representing 55 per cent of the world’s emissions committed to joining the deal.
●    As of November 2016, 192 states and the European Union have signed the Agreement; 97 of those parties have ratified or acceded to the Agreement, most notably China, the United States and India.
●    The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
●    The language of the agreement was negotiated by representatives of 195 countries at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in Paris and adopted by consensus on 12 December 2015.
●    It was opened for signature on 22 April 2016 in a ceremony in New York City.
●    As of November 2016, 193 UNFCCC members have signed the treaty, 97 of which have ratified it.

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11357 Indians Sign up for Asgardia

A group of scientists and space experts based out of Russia, Romania, Canada and the US now want to offer an opportunity to be part of a nation they have christened ‘Asgardia’.
●    According to the statistics on the website, there are 11,098 applications from India till date. People from China have sent the most applications at 127,161, followed by the US with 53,441 and 42,752 from Turkey.
●    Registration on the Asgardia website (asgardia.space), founded by Ashurbeyli who is also a businessman, scientist and founder of the Aerospace International Research Center in Vienna, make you a part of the Asgardia community.
●    Asgardia is not offering official citizenship because it is yet to be officially recognized as a nation. 
●    Once you are a citizen, you will get a passport like in any country. 
●    In fact, the first registered Asgardian child is a boy called Michele from Italy. Anyone under 18 is welcome but needs parental consent, according to the website.

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S&P Rules Out India Upgrade for 2 Years

Standard & Poor's affirmed India's sovereign ratings, welcoming the country's policy stability and improved monetary credibility.
●    But it ruled out any upgrade for this year or in 2017. 
●    The government today slammed global rating agencies for not upgrading India's sovereign rating despite a slew of reforms. 
●    The rating agency expects India's economy to grow 7.9 per cent in 2016 with current account deficit at 1.4 per cent of the gross domestic product. It also expects the RBI to meet its inflation target of 5 per cent by March 2017. 
●    Both S&P and Fitch Ratings currently rate India at "BBB-minus", the lowest investment-grade rating, with a "stable" outlook. Moody's Investors Service rates India at an equivalent "Baa3", but with a "positive" outlook.
●    Mr Das cited various steps taken by the government in the last two years, including controlling inflation and structural reforms like GST and bankruptcy. 
●    The ratings agency also expressed concerns the government could delay subsidy cuts, while noting the country's banking sector would likely need capital infusions of about $45 billion by 2019 global capital norms. 
●    The rating agency expects India's economy to grow 7.9 per cent in 2016. 

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Entire Country gets National Food Security Act coverage 

Kerala and Tamil Nadu have also rolled out the National Food Security Act (NFSA). With this, now the Act has been implemented in all the States and Union Territories. As a result, now 81.34 crore persons will get wheat at Rs. 2/ kg and rice at Rs. 3/ kg. This was announced by Union Minister of Consumer Affair, Food & Public Distribution, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan while interacting with the media here today. Being an important initiative for ensuring food security of the people, the Government of India actively pursued with all the States/UTs for its early implementation.
●    In another significant step towards better targeting and leakage-free distribution of foodgrains, direct benefit transfer is being carried out in two different modes. In the first mode, food subsidy is being transferred in cash into the bank account of beneficiaries, who then have the choice to buy foodgrains from the open market. This has been started in UTs of Chandigarh, Puducherry and urban areas of Dadra & Nagar Haveli. The second mode involves automation of fair price shops, for distribution of foodgrains through an electronic point of sale (e-PoS) device which authenticates beneficiaries at the time of distribution and also electronically captures the quantum of foodgrains distributed to the family. As of 31.10.2016, e-PoS devices are operational in 1,61,854 fair price shops.
●    For smooth functioning of PDS, State Governments are also being provided Central assistance for meeting expenditure of intra-State transportation & handling of foodgrains and fair price shop dealer’s margin. The assistance for fair price shops dealers margin also contains a component of assistance for installation and operation of Pos devices at fair price shops. So far, Rs. 1874 crore has been released to State Governments by the Government of India in 2016-17.
●    At this current coverage, monthly allocation of foodgrains to States/UTs under the Act is about 45.5 lakh tons, with subsidy implication of about Rs. 11,726 core per month or about Rs. 1,40, 700 crore per year.
●    Regarding Sugarcane arrears, Shri Paswan said 2014-15 arrears which were Rs.21,000 at the peak have now come down Rs 205 crore. Prices of pulses except Chana have come down. Regarding wheat prices he said that Government has decided to release additional 10 lakh ton wheat for sale in domestic Market under FCI OMS scheme.

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RBI asks banks to ensure 10% of ATMs dispense Rs. 100 notes

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 2 November 2016 directed all the banks to dispense more 100 rupees notes through ATMs within the next 15 days.
●    The decision came after a review of steps taken by banks for installing ATMs dispensing lower denomination banknotes was conducted. 
●    After the review, it was found that very few banks had taken initiatives in setting up ATMs dispensing lower denomination notes including 100 rupees banknotes.
●    Moreover, RBI also decided to conduct a pilot project wherein 10 percent of the ATMs in the country will be calibrated to dispense 100 rupees banknotes exclusively. 
●    For this purpose, banks are free to select the branches with the sample covering relatively large number of centres or states. 
●    Once it is completed, the banks will further share their feedback on the pilot project after a lapse of two months.

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Ramnath Goenka Awards Excellence in Journalism Awards 2016 given

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 2 November 2016 presented the Ramnath Goenka Awards for Excellence in Journalism at a function in New Delhi.
●    Ramnath Goenka was an Indian newspaper publisher. 
●    He launched The Indian Express and created the Indian Express Group with various English and regional language publications.
●    Award for Uncovering India Invisible: Ashwaq Masoodi of Mint.
●    Award for Reporting from J&K and the Northeast: Subhajit Sengupta of CNN-IBN, Maddipatla Rajshekar of Scroll.in and Esha Roy of The Indian Express.
●    Award for excellence in Sports Journalism: Devendra Pandey of The Indian Express.
●    Category of Environmental Reporting: Pritha Chatterjee and Aniruddha Ghosal of The Indian Express.
●    Award for Commentary and Interpretative Writing: Anna Vetticad of Blink and Pramit Bhattacharya of Mint
●    Award for Feature Writing: Shamik Bag of Mint and Sreedevi V of Malayala Manorama
●    Award for Reporting on Politics and Government: Ashutosh Bhardwaj of The Indian Express (Print); Halimabi Kureshi of IBN(Broadcast.)
●    Photo Journalism category: Burhaan Kinu of Hindustan Times.

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Oldest known evidence of human settlements in Australia's outback found

Archaeologists discovered ancient artefacts in a South Australian cave that have been dated to as far back as 49,000 years ago.
●    The site, which is a newly discovered cave in the Flinders Ranges, about 550 km north of Adelaide, is known as the Warratyi rock-shelter. 
●    Archaeologist Giles Hamm from La Trobe University in Melbourne led the excavations at the cave, finding what appear to be some of the oldest bone and quartz tools ever found in Australia. 
●    Until now, the oldest human tool found in Australia’s vast, interior has been a tiny axe fragment found earlier this year in the Carpenter's Gap rock-shelter of the Kimberley region of northwest Australia.
●    The tools have been dated based on a couple of estimates but radiocarbon dating of the burnt eggshells, revealed them to be between 45,000 and 49,000 years old.
 

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NASA completes construction of World's Largest Space Telescope

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on 2 November 2016 completed the construction of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) after more than 20 years of hard work.
●    This largest-ever space telescope is expected to launch in 2018 following the in-depth testing.
●    The telescope has 18 large mirrors that will collect infrared light, sheltered behind a tennis-court-size sun shield. 
●    It is considered as the successor to NASA's iconic Hubble Space Telescope.
●    It is a 8.8 billion US dollars worth space observatory built to observe the infrared universe like never before.
●    The telescope's infrared view will pierce through obscuring cosmic dust to reveal the universe's first galaxies and spy on newly forming planetary systems. 
●    It will also be sensitive enough to analyze the atmospheres of exoplanets that pass in front of their stars, perhaps to search for signs of life.

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India's air quality among World's Worst in Deewali Weekend

On October 30 and 31, 2016, from 9PM to the next morning, North India–especially parts of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar–recorded PM 2.5 levels.
●    PM 2.5 is fine particulate matter about 30 times finer than a human hair. 
●    These particles can be inhaled deep into the lungs, causing heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer and respiratory diseases, and are known to pose the greatest risk to human health. 
●    Their measurement is considered to be the best indicator of the level of health risks from air pollution, according to the World Health Organization.
●    South Delhi’s 24-hour average PM 2.5 levels in 2016 were 38% higher than on Diwali night 2015.
●    The next day, these levels were twice as high as the day after Diwali in 2015, crossing 26 times levels considered safe. 
●    On the morning of November 1, 2016, citizens in Delhi woke up to an average PM 2.5 level of over 700 µg/m³–some of the highest levels recorded the world over.
●    It’s 29 times above WHO standards.

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