GK and Current Affairs Updates

India's consumer inflation is expected to have eased to a four-month low in August, helped by smaller rises in food price.
•    Consumer prices, which the Reserve Bank of India tracks as it sets interest rate policy, likely rose 5.5 percent in August, according to a Reuter’s poll of economists, compared with an increase of 6.07 percent in July.
•    Data on the consumer price index and industrial output will be released at 1200 GMT Monday.
•    Economists predict annual growth in industrial output decelerated to 1.7 percent in July from June's eight-month high of 2.1 percent.
•    Even if retail inflation eases as much as anticipated, it will still be above the RBI's March 2017 target of 5 percent, despite low global crude prices.
•    In Asia, China's annual consumer inflation slowed to 1.3 percent in August, while Indonesia's pace slowed to a near seven-year low of 2.8 percent

The world’s first driverless bus service began carrying passengers in the first week of September 2016 in Lyon, France.
•    The buses include features like LiDAR radar technology and motion sensors to help it avoid collisions.
•    They’re equipped with a range of detectors that allow them to know exactly where they are.
•    It can hold up to 15 passengers.
•    The bus is designed by French company Navya.
•    The electric buses were tested in several French cites and in Switzerland before coming to Lyon.
•    They are also set to undergo trials in Dubai.
•    LiDAR is a surveying technology that measures distance by illuminating a target with a laser light.
•    It is sometimes considered an acronym of Light Detection and Ranging.
•    However, it was originally created as a portmanteau of light and radar.
•    It is popularly used as a technology to make high-resolution maps, with applications in geodesy, geomatics, archaeology, geography, geology, etc.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has put all it bases in the western sector under UAV surveillance in the run up to an air exercise scheduled later next week. 
•    As part of the forthcoming Air exercise in WAC (Western Air Command) and to enhance security measures, all Air Force bases in Western Air Command are now under continuous security surveillance by UAVs.
•    Pathankot air base, which came under attack from Pakistan-based terrorists earlier this year, also comes under the Western Air Command. 
•    The air exercise, which comes in the aftermath of the Pathankot terror attack, is scheduled to be held in Haldwara in Punjab next week.
•    During the exercise full strength of a base is on operational deployment and the security pickets and patrols are enhanced and strengthened. 
•    The WAC also rates its performance and compares it with reports by independent bodies like DASI and AEB.
 

The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) has commissioned well-equipped offshore patrolling (OPV) vessel named ‘Sarathi’. 
•    It was commissioned by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar at Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL) shipyard at Vasco in south Goa. 
•    ICGS Sarathi is the third in the series of six OPVs built by GSL for Indian Coast Guard (ICG). 
•    It is designed and built indigenously by GSL. It is the largest i.e. 105-meter long and is most advanced new generation off-shore patrol vessel. 
•    It has a state-of-the-art propulsion system that can propel the vessel to a speed of over 25 knots. 
•    It is designed to carry one twin engine light helicopter and five high speed boats. 
•    The vessel will be joining coast guard fleet based at Kochi, Kerala and will form part of the Naval Training Squadron. 
•    It will be deployed for other surveillance and to safeguard the maritime interests of the country. 
•    It will also help the coast guard meet the increasing requirement of policing and patrolling of the India’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

The results of the 2016 ‘Swachh Survekshan’ (Cleanliness Index) for rural India was released on 8 September 2016. 
•    Mandi (Himachal Pradesh) and Sindhudurg (Maharashtra) were declared as the cleanest districts in India.
•    The results were declared by the Minister, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.
•    A total of 22 hill districts and 53 plain areas were assessed under the Gramin Swachh Survekshan launched in May 2016.
•    Households having access to safe toilets and using them (toilet usage, water accessibility, safe disposal of waste) (40%)
•    Households having no litter around (30%)
•    Public places with no litter in the surrounding (10%)
•    Households having no stagnant wastewater around (20%)
•    The assessors appointed by QCI individually visited all districts covered under the Survekshan to make a comprehensive analysis of the on-ground situation & progress.

Mariyappan Thangavelu won India’s first gold medal at the Rio Paralympics. 
•    He won the gold in the Men’s High Jump T-42 event with a leap of 1.89 metres.
•    With this, Thangavelu also became the first Indian high-jumper to win gold at the Paralympics.
•    This was India’s overall third gold at the Games and the first after 12 years.
•    In addition, Bronze in the event also went to India through Varun Singh Bhati, who jumped his personal best of 1.86 metres to finish third. 
•    USA's Sam Grewe bagged the silver medal.
•    India had claimed a Gold and a Bronze at Athens in 2004. 
•    Javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia had then won the Gold, with Rajinder Singh claiming the Bronze in powerlifting.
•    In the last edition of the Games in London, India had attained just a Silver. 
•    India had won its first ever Paralympics Gold in the 1972 Heidelberg Games through Swimmer Murlikant Petkar.
 

Haryana has bagged ‘Best Horticulture State’ award for the concerted efforts made by the state government to increase the income of the farmers in horticulture.
•    The award was received by Haryana Agriculture Minister OP Dhankar on 9 September 2016 at two-day 9th Agricultural Leadership Summit 2016. 
•    The summit was organized by Indian Council of Food and Agriculture (ICFA) in New Delhi. 
•    At present, about 2.5 lakh hectares of land of the state is under horticulture and a target has been set to increase it up to nine lakh hectares. 
•    For this purpose, the state has decided to set a Horticulture University in the state.
•    It also decided to set up centers of excellence in horticulture in every district of the state and create 340 horticulture villages in the state.
•    In addition, it would also set biggest Horticulture Mandi of the country at Ganaur on the pattern of Rungis Mandi of France and Shenzhen Mandi of China.
•    Besides, the 2016 best agriculture state award went to Odisha. 
•    It was awarded with the award in recognition of the efforts towards development of agriculture and bringing rural prosperity.

Angelique Kerber won the US Open on Saturday, marking her rise to world number one with a gritty victory over Karolina Pliskova for her second Grand Slam title of the year.
•    Germany's Kerber, the second seed, rallied from a break down in the third set to beat the hard-hitting 10th-seeded Czech 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
•    The 28-year-old left-hander, who beat Serena Williams in the final at Melbourne and lost to the US great in the Wimbledon final, will officially rise to world number one.
•    But she was assured of that spot when Pliskova toppled Williams in the semi-finals.
•    Angelique Kerber is a German professional tennis player. 
•    Having made her professional debut in 2003, Kerber rose to prominence upon reaching the semifinals of the 2011 US Open, at which time she was ranked no. 92 in the world.
•    She will achieve a career-high ranking of world No. 1 on September 12, 2016. 
•    At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Kerber won an Olympic silver medal while representing Germany.

Astronomers have found evidence of a magnetar — magnetised neutron star — that spins much slower than the slowest of its kind known until now, which spin around once every 10 seconds.
•    The magnetar 1E 1613 — at the centre of RCW 103, the remains of a supernova explosion located about 9,000 light years from Earth — rotates once every 24,000 seconds.
•    On June 22, 2016, an instrument aboard NASA’s Swift telescope captured the release of a short burst of X-rays from 1E 1613.
•    The Swift detection caught astronomers’ attention because the source exhibited intense, extremely rapid fluctuations on a time scale of milliseconds, similar to other known magnetars.
•    These exotic objects possess the most powerful magnetic fields in the universe — trillions of times that observed on the Sun — and can erupt with enormous amounts of energy.
•    These properties include the relative amounts of X-rays produced at different energies and the way the neutron star cooled after the 2016 burst and another burst seen in 1999.
•    The source is rotating once every 6.67 hours, much slower than the slowest magnetars known until now, which spin around once every 10 seconds.

Security company Kaspersky Lab has launched the Kaspersky Cybersecurity Index to measure the current cyber threat levels that internet users face. 
•    The Kaspersky Cybersecurity Index is based on this data, collected from thousands of users across the globe. 
•    The Cybersecurity Index, described as 21-29-60 shows that one-in-five users (21%) currently believe he or she is threatened by anything online. 
•    At the same time, almost one third of users (29%) have fallen victim to cybercriminal schemes 
•    Only 60% of users have installed security solutions on all the devices they use to access the Internet. 
•    The Index demonstrates that, today, many users underestimate cyberthreats even after facing them, which has an impact on their security online. 
•    This was based on a a survey carried out in 21 countries in August 2016. 
•    The index will combine three indicators which will be measured every six months to assess the level of risk. 
•    The 'concerned' indicator shows the percentage of people who believe they may be targeted by a cyber attack.