GK and Current Affairs Updates

S. Sivakumar, professor at Indian Law Institute (ILI), in the last week of September 2016 was appointed as full-time member of the 21st Law Commission of India.
●    Earlier, Rajkot-based lawyer Abhay Bhardwaj, who had represented the accused in the 2002 Gulbarg Society Massacre case, had been selected as part-time member of the 21st Law Commission of India.
●    In March 2016, former Supreme Court judge Justice Balbir Singh Chauhan was appointed as the new Chairman of Law Commission of India.
●    Former Gujarat High Court judge Justice Ravi R Tripathi was also appointed as a member of the Commission.
●    In June 2016, Bimal Patel, Director, Gujarat National Law University was appointed as a part-time member of the 21st Law Commission of India.
●    The Law Commission of India is an executive body established by an order of the Government of India.
●    Its major function is to work for legal reform.

The yuan joins the U.S. dollar, the euro, the yen and British pound in the IMF’s special drawing rights (SDR) basket, which determines currencies that countries can receive as part of IMF loans. 
●    It marks the first time a new currency has been added since the euro was launched in 1999.
●    The IMF is adding the yuan, also known as the renminbi, or “people’s money”, on the same day that the Communist Party celebrates the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
●    China will use this opportunity to further deepen economic reforms and open up the sector to promote global growth, the central bank added.
●    China stunned investors by devaluing the currency last year and the yuan has since weakened to near six-year lows, adding to worries about already feeble global growth.

One of the biggest dinosaur footprints ever recorded has been unearthed in the Gobi Desert, researchers said today, offering a fresh clue about the giant creatures that roamed the earth millions of years ago.
●    A joint Mongolian-Japanese expedition found the giant print, which measures 106 centimetres long and 77 centimetres wide.
●    One of several footprints discovered in the vast Mongolian desert, the huge fossil was discovered last month in a geologic layer formed between 70 million and 90 million years ago, researchers said.
●    It was naturally cast, as sand flowed into dents that had been left by the creature stomping on the once muddy ground.
●    The footprint is believed to have belonged to Titanosaur, a long-necked dinosaur, and could have been more than 30 metres long and 20 metres tall, according researchers.

An international team of scientists has found the first gamma-ray binary in a nearby galaxy and the most luminous one ever seen, using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
●    The dual-star system, dubbed LMC P3, contains a massive star and a crushed stellar core that interact to produce a cyclic flood of gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light.
●    Fermi has detected only five of these systems in our own galaxy.
●    Gamma-ray binaries are prized because the gamma-ray output changes significantly during each orbit and sometimes over longer time scales
●    These rare systems contain either a neutron star or a black hole and radiate most of their energy in the form of gamma rays.
●    LMC P3 is the most luminous such system known in gamma rays, X-rays, radio waves and visible light, and it is only the second one discovered with Fermi.

Young filmmaker Katyayan Shivpuri, from Maharashtra, won the first prize at the Swachh Bharat Short Film Festival for his work Murga.
●    Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu awarded Katyayan with a certificate and a cash prize of Rs. 10 lakh.
●    The short film promoting the idea of clean India had Murga as the metaphor depicting the victims that citizens have made of themselves and of the children by not keeping the surroundings clean.
●    The second prize was shared by filmmakers Sudanshu Sharma, KVK Kumar and Akshay Danavale for their films Nahna Doot, Chembuku Moodindi (The Dying Vessel) and Sarkarmi Rati Wadho!,respectively. The third prize was awarded to six entries.

Colombian voters in a referendum rejected the peace deal with Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels. 
●    With votes more than 99 per cent of polling stations counted, 50.2 per cent opposed the accord while 49.8 per cent supported it - a difference of less than 63000 votes out of 13 million ballots.
●    The deal was earlier signed by President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC leader Timoleon Jimenez in fourth week of September 2016 after nearly four years of negotiations. 
●    But, it needed to be ratified by Colombians in order to come into force.
●    FARC rebels had agreed to lay down their weapons after 52 years of conflict in order to join the political process. 
●    President Santos had said that there is no plan B for ending the war.
●    The result is being seen as a major setback to President Santos, who since his election in 2010, had pledged to end a conflict which has killed over 2 lakh 50000 people and displaced about eight million.

Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day celebrations on 26 January 2017. The Crown Prince has accepted the Indian invitation.
●    His visit will give a strong boost to the bilateral ties between the two nations in key areas like trade and security. 
●    This is his second visit to India, earlier he came on a three-day-visit in February 2016.
●    This acceptance of the invitation by Sheikh Al Nahyan, who is also the Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE armed forces, sends out an important message at a time when tensions between India and Pakistan are escalating. 
●    This can be treated as the masterstroke of the government, which is trying to isolate diplomatically over the issue of cross-border terrorism.
●    UAE is one of the closest allies of Pakistan and once the two nations along with Saudi Arabia recognised the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
 

The Swachh Bharat Week that began on the 25th of this month concludes today with Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh becoming the first States to declare all cities and towns in respective States as Open Defecation Free (ODF) and a few districts including Porbandar also declared ODF, on the 147th Birth Anniversary of Mahatama Gandhi which is also the second anniversary of Swachh Bharat Mission.
●    Porbandar, the native district of Mahatma and all the 180 cities and towns in Gujarat were today declared ODF in the presence of Union Minister of Drinking Water & Sanitation Shri Naredra Singh Tomar, Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Vijay Rupani at a special programme in Porbandar.
●    Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Shri N.Chandrababu Naidu declared all 110 cities and towns in the State as ODF at a programme in Tirupati.
●    Addressing the participants of the Porbandar programme through a video-link, Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu said “Declaration of Porbandar district and other areas as Open Defecation Free today is an interim gift to Mahatma on the occasion of his birth anniversary today and the final gift of Swachh Bharat would be presented to Gandhiji on the occasion of his 150th birth anniversary on October 2,2019. The Mood of Developing India (MODI) being strongly for sanitation, Swachh Bharat Mission is becoming a people’s movement and Swachh Bharat will be realized with people leading the grand India Sanitation Alliance of all stakeholders”.
●    In a similar address to Tirupati programme, Shri Naidu urged the people to become ‘Swachhagrahis’ to make the country free from poor hygiene in the spirit of ‘Satyagrahis’ who won political freedom for the country under the leadership of Gandhiji. He said that Rs.186 cr has been sanctioned today for Andhra Pradesh for focusing on solid waste management in urban areas.
●    Shri Naidu complimented Chief Ministers, concerned Ministers, Mayors, Councilors, Municipal Commissioners, the people and all others concerned for making urban areas of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh Open Defecation Free.
●    Speaking at a Short Film Festival on Sanitation, organized by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and National Film Development Corporation, Shri Naidu said “While Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi triggered interest of the people in Swachh Bharat, the Mission is a people’s movement and the credit for building Swachh Bharat would go to the people and all stakeholders including Chief Ministers, elected representatives of the people and others. Mind and body are inseparable like the Advaita. A clean mind resides only in a clean body. Clean individuals make clean environment. Individual actions result in collective effort needed for Swachh Bharat.”. He complimented young film makers who made 120 for making thought provoking short films on sanitation.
●    Shri Naidu also released a book ‘In the Footsteps of Mahatma : Gandhi and Sanitation’ published by the Publications Division of the Ministry of I&B. The book was authored by Prof. Sudarshan Iyangar, a veteran Gandhian.
●    On the last day of Swachh Bharat Week today, Shri Naidu also flagged off a Swachh Awareness Rally organized by NDMC. At a function, also organized by NDMC, Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh administered Swachhata Pledge at Connaught Place.
●    A Postal Stamp on Swachhat was released today by Shri Venkaiah Naidu and Minister of Communications Shri Manoj Sinha in New Delhi.
●    405 cities and towns have so far claimed to have become Open Defecation Free along with 20,000 of the 82,000 urban wards in the country. Another 334 cities and towns would become ODF by March next year.
●    Maharashtra, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram and other North-Eastern States are on course to declare all urban areas as ODF soon.

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. 

West Bengal government has decided to install monorail from Budge Budge in South 24-Parganas to Ruby Connector in Kolkata. 
●    This was informed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on 29 September 2016.
●    The 14-kilometre-long monorail route will connect Budge Budge to Ruby via Taratala, New Alipore and Prince Anwar Shah Road and will come up at a cost of 4216 crore rupees. 
●    This new service will also connect commuters to the proposed metro rail network between New Garia to Kolkata airport.
●    For execution of the monorail project, the state transport department will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Burn Standard Company Limited. 
●    Burn Standard Company Limited will be funding the project and the state government will provide land for the purpose.
●    The Chief Minister said that there would not be any problem over land acquisition as minimum land would be required to construct pillars and elevated tracks would be laid connecting them.