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Islamabad SAARC Meet Virtually Off : India Plus 3 more Nations Pull Out


After India said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not travel to Islamabad for the regional SAARC summit in November, three other members - Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Bhutan - have also pulled out of the meet, isolating host Pakistan.
•    The SAARC summit cannot take place even if one of the eight members withdraws. 
•    PM Modi has also reviewed the crucial Indus Waters Treaty, which divides resources from six rivers between India and Pakistan, saying "blood and water can't flow together."
•    Officials said India will now utilise much more of its share of water, which will eat into the surplus that Pakistan had been availing.
•    On Thursday, PM Modi has called for a deliberation on whether to downgrade Pakistan's status as a trading partner.
•    Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj has led India's campaign against Pakistan at the United Nations General Assembly, calling for the isolation of nations that export terror.
 

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27 September : World Tourism Day

 
World Tourism Day 2016 was observed across the world on 27 September 2016. The theme of the World Tourism Day 2016 is Tourism for All - promoting universal accessibility.
•    The official World Tourism Day 2016 celebrations will be held in Bangkok, Thailand.
•    International tourist arrivals grew by 4.6 % in 2015 to 1184 million.
•    In 2015, international tourism generated 1.5 trillion US dollar in export earnings.
•    UNWTO forecasts a growth in international tourist arrivals of between 3.5% and 4.5% in 2016. 
•    By 2030, UNWTO forecasts international tourist arrivals to reach 1.8 billion (UNWTO Tourism Towards 2030).
•    World Tourism Day is held annually on 27 September with purpose to foster awareness among the international community of the importance of tourism and its social, cultural, political and economic value.
 

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India to Suspend Talks on Indus Water Treaty


Declaring that “blood and water cannot flow together”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday held a meeting of senior officials from the Water Resources and External Affairs Ministries and the PMO to discuss the government’s options on the India-Pakistan Indus Waters Treaty in the wake of the Uri attack.
•    While the meeting decided to suspend further water talks and increase the utilisation of rivers flowing through Jammu and Kashmir to maximise India’s share, there was no decision on either reviewing or abrogating the 1960 treaty, official sources said.
•    The government decided to suspend talks on the Permanent Indus Commission, the dispute redressal mechanism that has met 112 times, until “terror comes to an end”.
•    According to Article VIII of the Indus Waters Treaty, the Commission must meet once a year, alternately in India and Pakistan.
•    The last meeting was held in July 2016.
•    The Indus Waters Treaty is a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan, brokered by the World Bank. 
• The treaty was signed in Karachi on September 19, 1960 by Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru and President of Pakistan Ayub Khan.
 

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Jim Yong Kim Reappointed World Bank President


Executive Directors of the World Bank on 27 September 2016 agreed unanimously to reappoint Jim Yong Kim to a second five-year term as President of the World Bank Group, beginning 1 July 2017.
•    Jim Yong Kim is a South Korean-American physician and anthropologist.
•    He has been serving as the 12th President of the World Bank since 1 July 2012.
•    He was formerly the Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
•    He also holds the honour to become the first Asian American president of an Ivy League institution.
•    He was named the world's 50th most powerful person by Forbes Magazine's List of The World's Most Powerful People in 2013.
 

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India - China : 1st High Level Dialogue to Combat Terror


India and China discussed ways to enhance security and cooperation to combat terror.
•    The two sides exchanged views on the international and regional security situation at the first meeting of the India- China High Level Dialogue on Counter-terrorism and Security held here. 
•    The meeting was co-chaired by R N Ravi, Chairman of Joint Intelligence Committee and Wang Yongqing, Secretary General of Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of China.
•    They exchanged information on respective policies, systems and legislation to deal with terrorism, and further enhance their understanding on issues of major concerns to both sides, according to a press release issued by the Indian embassy here.
 

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Delhi's Airport : 1st Carbon-neutral Airport in Asia Pacific


The Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) on 27 September 2016 announced that the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) has become the first airport in the Asia-Pacific region to achieve carbon neutral status.
•    DIAL is a GMR Group-led consortium which manages and operates IGI airport.
•    The announcement on the carbon neutral status was made by Airports Council International (ACI) during the Airport Carbon Accreditation certificate presentation ceremony held in Montreal, Canada.
•    Carbon neutrality, or a net zero carbon footprint, occurs when the net carbon emissions over an entire year is zero.
•    This means the airport absorbs or offsets the same amount of emission that was generated.
•    It is used in the context of carbon dioxide releasing processes associated with transportation, energy production, and industrial processes such as production of carbon neutral fuel. 
 

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Historic Pact between Colombia and FARC


Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Marxist rebel leader Timochenko used a pen made from a bullet on Monday to sign an agreement ending a half-century war that killed a quarter of a million people and made their nation a byword for violence.
•    After four years of negotiations in Havana, Santos, 65, and Timochenko - a nom de guerre for 57-year-old revolutionary Rodrigo Londono - shook hands on Monday on Colombian soil for the first time.
•    Some 2,500 foreign and local dignitaries attended the ceremony in the walled, colonial city of Cartagena.
•    The agreement to end Latin America’s longest-running conflict turns the FARC fighters into a political party fighting at the ballot box instead of the battlefield they have occupied since 1964.
 

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CSIR celebrates its Platinum Jubilee


India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) celebrated its platinum jubilee. 
•    The platinum jubilee celebrations were inaugurated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is also the President of CSIR. 
•    PM Modi also released seven new plant varieties developed at CSIR laboratories. 
•    He also witnessed exclusive CSIR Showcase on major technological contributions of CSIR. Besides, prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prizes was presented to eminent scientists on the occasion along with other CSIR awards. 
•    CSIR is an autonomous body and the largest research and development (R&D) organisation in India. It became operational on 26 September 1942. 
•    It is registered under the Registration of Societies Act of 1860. 
•    It is mainly funded by the Union Ministry of Science and Technology. 
•    CSIR’s R&D activities include aerospace engineering, ocean sciences, structural engineering, metallurgy, life sciences, chemicals, mining, food, petroleum, leather, and environment.

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India Likely to Ratify Paris Agreement on Gandhi Jayanti

India will ratify its U.N. climate change commitments next month to mark Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday and as a tribute to Deendayal Upadhyaya.
•    Days after the G20 summit in Hangzhou where it decided not to commit itself to ratifying the Paris Agreement on climate change this calendar year, India announced it would ratify the decisions on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. 
•    India’s position at the G20 was seen as a snub to China, the summit host, for having blocked New Delhi’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group earlier this year. 
•    Speaking at the BJP national council meeting in Kozhikode, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country would ratify the Paris Agreement on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi who led his life with minimum carbon footprint.
 

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FAST - World'sLargest Radio Telescope Built in China


China has built world’s largest radio telescope nicknamed Tianyan (Heavenly Eye” or “The Eye of Heaven) or the five-hundred-metre aperture spherical radio telescope (FAST). 
•    It has started its operation and is part of China’s drive to become a science powerhouse. 
•    It is located in the Dawodang depression (vast natural crater), a natural basin in Pingtang County in the Guizhou Province, Southwest China. 
•    With its opening, the intensive testing phase of the telescope will begin. 
•    It will take nearly three years to calibrate the instruments of telescope to become fully operational. 
•    The facility is part of China’s drive to become a science powerhouse. It is an ambitious project of the National Astronomical Observatories of China. 
•    It is made up of 4,450 panels and has reflector as large as 30 football pitches. It has 500 meters diameter, giving it more sensitivity. 
•    It will be also used to study stellar radio emissions, gravitational waves and potentially signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. China’s best supercomputers the SkyEye-1 will be used to process the massive amounts of data supplied by FAST.

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