GK and Current Affairs Updates

Two U.S. warships made port calls at Vietnam's strategic naval base at Cam Ranh Bay, the U.S. navy said on Tuesday, in a brief but symbolic return for U.S. combat vessels to what was a crucial logistics complex during the Vietnam War.
●    Submarine tender USS Frank Cable and guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain made the visit on Sunday to the deep-water naval base, marking an important step in fast-growing defence ties between the two former enemies.
●    The visit came after the full lifting of a U.S. embargo on trade in lethal arms with Vietnam in May as part of President Barack Obama's strategic "rebalance" toward Asia.
●    At the same time, tension has been rising over rival territorial claims in the South China Sea, straining ties between Vietnam and its giant neighbour China.
●    Vietnam has been intensifying efforts to diversify relations in Europe and Asia and engage more with the United States.
 

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. 

The World Habitat Day was on 3 October 2016 observed across the world with the theme Housing at the Centre.
●    The 2016 World Habitat Day campaign aims to raise awareness about the need for affordable housing for all in urban areas, towns and cities.
●    Access to adequate housing is a global challenge growing fast with urbanization. Around one quarter of the world’s urban population continues to live in slums and informal settlements.
●    An increasing number of urban dwellers, especially the poor and vulnerable groups are living in precarious conditions, addressing their housing needs informally, lacking access to basic services and living space, isolated from livelihood opportunities and vulnerable to forced evictions or homelessness.
●    Every day, as people are born in or move to urban centres in search of opportunities, the demand for housing grows.
●    Globally, a billion new houses are needed by 2025 to accommodate 50 million new urban dwellers per year.
●    World Habitat Day is observed every year on the first Monday of October throughout the world.
●    It was officially designated by the United Nations and first celebrated in 1986.

Karnataka on 3 October 2016 started releasing Cauvery water from Krishna Raja Sagara (KRS) dam. 
●    It was released after the legislature passed a Resolution authorizing the state government to take appropriate decisions to release water.
●    The resolution states that the government will take an appropriate decision regarding the release of water for irrigation purposes after ensuring the drinking water requirements of the state.
●    The move comes after the Supreme Court asked Karnataka government to appraise it whether it has released water to Tamil Nadu or not. 
●    On 30 September 2016, the Supreme Court directed Karnataka to discharge 6000 cusecs water from 1 to 6 October 2016.
●    Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that the government is setting up a technical panel to assess the ground realities to defuse the wrangle between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The World Bank on Wednesday projected that India will grow by a robust 7.8 per cent in 2016 and 7.9 per cent in the next two years. 
●    World Bank also predicted that India will be the fastest growing economy in the world in the next three years and would outpace China.
●    With the recent fall in oil prices, India remains the bright spot of the global economy as Chinese growth is predicted to slow further.
●    According to its latest Global Economic Prospect report which is released bi-annually, the World Bank reduced India's growth rate by a slight 0.2 per cent in 2015 and 0.1 per cent in both 2016 and 2017.
●    The World Bank estimates that China grew at an estimated 6.9 per cent in 2015. 
●    The same report also said that China is estimated to grow at 6.7 per cent in 2016 and 6.5 per cent each in 2017 and 2018.

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.

India beat New Zealand by 178 runs to win the second Test at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens on Monday and claim a 2-0 series win. 
●    As a result, the hosts also replaced Pakistan as the World No. 1 Test team.
●    The victory in India’s 250th Test match at home comes on the heels of the hosts winning their 500th Test match, thus taking an insurmountable lead in the three-match series.
●    Set a daunting victory target of 376, New Zealand started the chase well before the slide began with Martin Guptill falling leg before to Ravichandran Ashwin, Ashwin and spin counterpart Ravindra Jadeja took three wickets each in the second innings.

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

Jharkhand on 1 October 2016 became India’s first state to implement Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in Kerosene. 
●    The scheme is being implemented in four identified districts of the State namely Chatra, Hazaribagh, Khunti and Jamtara.
●    In a statement, Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry said that under the DBT Scheme, PDS kerosene is being sold at non-subsidised price and the subsidy is being transferred to consumers directly into their bank accounts. 
●    This initiative is aimed at rationalising subsidy and plugging the leakages.
●    The government had plans to implement the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in Kerosene in 33 districts identified by 9 State Governments by 1 April 2016. 
●    The identified states were namely, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

India formally joined the Paris Climate Change Agreement by submitting its instrument of ratification at UN headquarters in New York on Sunday - the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
●    The instrument of ratification was deposited by India's permanent representative to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin.
●    By putting Gandhi seal on the climate deal, the country will now urge the global community to adopt 'Gandhian way of life to reduce their carbon footprints and protect the earth from adverse impact of climate change.
●    India will articulate its point vigorously during the next climate conference (COP22) at Marrakech in Morocco, beginning November 7.
●    Since European Union+ (28 nations) has also decided to submit its instrument of ratification on Tuesday.