GK and Current Affairs Updates

India on 18 October 2016 completed its nuclear triad by inducting country's first indigenously-constructed nuclear submarine INS Arihant into service.
●    INS Arihant was formally commissioned by Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba in August 2016.
●    INS Arihant is the lead ship of India's Arihant class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines.
●    The 6000 tonne vessel was built under the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project at the Ship Building Centre in the port city of Visakhapatnam.
●    It was launched on 26 July 2009, the anniversary of Vijay Diwas (Kargil War Victory Day) by the then Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh.
●    After fitting out and extensive sea trials, on 23 February 2016, Arihant was confirmed as ready for operations, and was quietly commissioned in August 2016.
●    It first of the expected five in the class of submarines designed and constructed as a part of the Indian Navy's secretive ATV project.

Russia's Rosneft Oil Company and its partners on 15 October 2016 acquired India’s second biggest private oil firm Essar Oil in an all-cash deal valued at about 13 billion US dollars.
●    Rosneft will have a 49 percent stake in Essar Oil’s refinery, port and petrol pumps.
●    Trafigura Group Pte and United Capital Partners will split 49 percent equity equally. 
●    The remaining 2 percent is held by minority shareholders after delisting of Essar Oil.
●    The deal includes 10.9 billion US dollars for Essar Oil’s Vadinar refinery of Essar Group and 2 billion US dollars for a port terminal that helps feed refinery. 
●    It also includes Essar Oil’s debt of 4.5 billion US dollars and about 2 billion US dollars debt with the Port Company and power plant. 
●    Essar Oil has a portfolio of onshore and offshore oil & gas blocks with about 1.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent in reserves & resources.
●    The company was established in 1969.
●    Essar Group is led by Shashi Ruia and Ravi Ruia.

When India walked out to the middle for the first match of the five-match series against New Zealand, it was the 900th time the team took field in the format. 
●    No side has played more ODIs than India.
●    India played its first ever ODI in 1974 against England at Leeds which ended in a victory for the hosts. 
●    The match was part of a series that would be famously known as the ‘Summer of  42,’ based on the number of runs India managed to score in the second of a three match Test series preceding the ODIs. 
●    Ajit Wadekar was the man who led the Indian side.
●    Since then, India have won two World Cups in 1983 and 2011 and have topped the ICC ODI Rankings multiple times. 
●    India are currently ranked fourth and need a 4-1 victory against New Zealand to move up to third in the rankings.

The Centre has allowed U.S.-based NGO, Compassion International, to disburse funds to ten NGOs in India, months after it was put on the government’s watch list after security agencies reported that it was funding Indian NGOs involved in religious conversions. 
●    The move comes after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had expressed concerns over the treatment of the organisation with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during his India visit in September.
●    Following observations made by Mr. Kerry, the External Affairs Ministry had also written to the Home Ministry and asked the latter to reconsider its decision.
●    There are 21 foreign donors under the government’s scanner right now. 
●    Of these, eight were put under the prior-permission category during UPA government and the remaining 13 after the NDA came to power. 
●    Since the NDA came to power, the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licences of around 10,000 NGOs have been cancelled.

Adding to its string of impressive awards, The Maharajas' Express, the world's most luxurious train owned and operated by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), received the 2016 Seven Star Luxury Hospitality and Lifestyle Awards at Marbella in Spain.
●    The award for the highly decorated train was received by IRCTC Chairman and Managing Director Dr A K Manocha in the 'Seven Star Experience Sector'.
●    As part of the award, Maharajas' Express was presented the "Signum Virtutis", the seal of Excellence.
●    The 23-coach Maharajas' Express currently runs on five routes with choices of 7 Nights/8 Days and 3 Nights/4 Days itineraries. 
●    The itineraries cover destinations like Agra, Jaipur, Ranthambore, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Balasinor, Ajanta, Gwalior, Khajuraho, Varanasi and Lucknow.
●    The train, which began its inaugural journey in 2010, is a winner of the coveted Leading Luxury Train of the World Award for four years on the trot.
●    It is also a notch higher in several aspects--the menus, the cabin experience, the excursions and the events organised for guests. 

Taking India’s space astronomy research a step forward, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has planned to set up a telescope on moon.
●    This telescope can have lot of advantages as there were no atmosphere or atmospheric effects associated with it.
●    At present, the organisation is exploring various possibilities of operating this scientific observation capability analogous to the one in Handley in West Virginia, US, remotely controlled at Bengaluru. 
●    In September last, ISRO launched Astrosat, the country’s first astronomical satellites with two telescopes.
●    Throwing more light on the GSLV Mark III, Kiran Kumar said the agency was gearing up for its launch later this year so that four-tonne satellites can be put up on the orbit. 
●    GSLV-Mark II had the capacity to launch 2.25 tons of satellites.
●    Private operators like SpaceX were posing a great challenge to government space agencies globally and ISRO realised that it can’t survive despite significant achievements unless it continued to innovate.

Tata Trusts and GE Healthcare have entered into an agreement to train 10,000 youth in various technical areas of the healthcare sector in three years.
●    The partnership is aimed at bridging the skills gap among healthcare staff in technical or operating roles.
●    GE Healthcare will expand its network of training institutes from 10 to 25 across the country.
●    While Tata Trusts will provide an interest-free loan of Rs.86,000 per candidate to cover the course fee for an entire year.
●    Once the beneficiaries land full-time jobs, the amount will be repaid to Tata Trusts on minimal monthly instalments. 
●    On completion of the course, the candidates, normally Class 12 passouts, could earn between Rs.12,000 and Rs.18,000 per month depending on the job location.
●    Tata Trusts annually spends about Rs.750 crore on various philanthropic initiatives, out of which 25 per cent goes to healthcare.

As part of promoting coastal shipping in the country under Sagarmala programme, the Ministry of Shipping has sanctioned the Capital Dredging Project for Ro Pax Ferry Services between Gogha & Dahej, in Gulf of Cambay in Gujarat. 
●    The Ministry released Rs 58.50 Crore as first installment of grant-in–aid to Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB). 
●    The total project cost is estimated to be Rs 234 Crore and of which 50% will be funded by Centre Government under the Sagarmala programme. 
●    The project would result in reduction in motorable distance of 231 kms between Gogha & Dahej to mere 31 kms and reduce the travel time from 7 hours to 1 hour.
●    The initiative would not only reduce the travel time but also result in savings in fuel, reduction in CO2 emission and reduction in road congestion. 
●    It is one of the flagship projects under Sagarmala which aims to increase share of waterways transportation in modal mix to 10 per cent from present level of 7 per cent by year 2025. 
 

On Sunday China moved a step closer to establish its permanent space station by 2022 as it launched a spacecraft carrying two astronauts, in its longest-ever manned space mission, who would later join its second experimental space lab orbiting the Earth.
●    Chinese astronauts Jing Haipeng, 50, and Chen Dong, 37, were blasted off into space by Shenzhou-11 (heavenly vessel) spacecraft at 7:30 am local time (5 am IST) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre near the Gobi Desert in northern China. 
●    The Shenzhou-11 was put into orbit by a Long March-2F carrier rocket.
●    It will dock with orbiting space lab Tiangong-2 in two days and the astronauts will stay in the lab for 30 days, Wu Ping, Deputy Director of China's manned space engineering office said.
●    Hours before the lift-off, the two astronauts appeared in good spirits and answered several questions.

The government will keep a record of all the services and benefits availed using the Aadhaar number for seven years, say new rules, prompting fears that the database could be used for surveillance.
●    The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which issues the 12-digit biometric identity to all Indian residents, will be required to preserve its record of verification of an Aadhaar number for the duration.
●    UIDAI chief executive officer ABP Pandey said the concerns were exaggerated. 
●    The agency was keeping records in case a dispute arose over a transaction.
●    The information will be retained online for two years and another five years in the offline archives, say the rules notified in September.
●    Users will be able to check the records but only for two years.