Current Affairs Oct 03, 2016

1.  At the upcoming climate talks of UNFCCC  COP 22 in Morocco in November, India is planning to stress most on trying to operationalise the $100 billion corpus — called the Green Climate Fund — committed by developed countries. Only a fraction of it has been pledged so far.

-India would push for developed countries to make good on their prior commitments on finance and technology. So far, India has received only $2 million of the $10 million committed this year.
-Green Climate Fund will support projects, programmes, policies and other activities in developing country Parties using thematic funding windows.

It is intended to be the centrepiece of efforts to raise Climate Finance of $100 billion a year by 2020.
-Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a fund within the framework of the UNFCCC founded as a mechanism to redistribute money from the developed to the developing world, in order to assist the developing countries in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change.

2. The 2016 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine goes to Yoshinori Ohsumi of Japan for discoveries about autophagy - how the body breaks down and recycles cellular components.

3. India wins Kolkata Test against New Zealand by 178 runs & takes unassailable lead of 2-0 in the 3 match series. With the win in Kolkata Test India becomes No.1 ranked Test team.

4. Home Minister Rajnath Singh has arrived at Leh for a two-day visit to Ladakh region of the J&K.

5. Haiti begins evacuating residents from high-risk areas as Hurricane Matthew threatens widespread damage with flash floods & winds of 240 kmph. Haiti is a Carribean country.

6. Karnataka Assembly authorizes State government to utilise water in its reserviors in the best interest of the State; Centre tells Supreme Court it cannot be directed to set up the Cauvery Water Management Board.

7. Russia welcomes surgical strikes by India; says every country has a right to defend itself.

8. Surat Railway station named cleanest railway station under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

9. Goa to be the first state to ban Open Defecation.

10. World lauds India's ratification on Paris climate deal. Countries like France USA congratulated India for ratifying the deal.

11. Tuesday's monetary policy announcement will be marked in history as the first meet where the interest rate decision is taken by a panel, and not by an individual--the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor. Urjit Patel, the new RBI chief, will be one among the six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) notified by the government last week under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. The governor, of course, will have a key role in the whole process and a casting vote in case there is a tie. But, beyond that, the RBI governor wouldn't have the stardom, he typically enjoys during bi-monthly monetary policy meets. It isn't a one-man show anymore. Moving away from the usual practice of announcement at 11 am, the fourth bi-monthly monetary policy review would be made public at 2:30 pm tomorrow after the MPC meeting.

12. Rajasthan has become the first state in India to adopt Central Government’s Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP) in all its urban local bodies (ULB). Under this programme, around 5 lakh conventional street lights were replaced with LED street lights across the state. Key Facts The project was funded by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a Public Energy Services Company under the administration of the Union Ministry of Power.

13. The National Mission on Bioeconomy has launched in Shillong, Meghalaya by the Institute of Bio-resources and Sustainable Development (IBSD). The mission is unique to south-east Asia and India has become one of the few countries to tap bio-resources. Key Facts The purpose of the mission is to boost rural economy by utilizing bio-resources. Besides, it can be optimally utilized can create a large number of jobs at village level. It also focuses on sustainable utilization of renewable biological resources for food, bio-energy and bio-based products through knowledge-based approaches.  Bioeconomy is a new concept and few countries like US, Canada, European Union (EU) and Australia have started initiatives in this field. India is the fast-growing bioeconomy at US 35 billion dollars in 2015, which can even rise to USD 100 billion in future. The Institute of Bio-resources and Sustainable Development (IBSD): It functions under the Department of Biotechnology, Union Ministry of Science and Technology.

14.  Foreign national and Non-Resident Indian senior citizens will no longer be able to avail the railway ticket concessions as the Railways has modified  the rules.  Indian Railways have decided to grant concession only to senior citizens of Indian Nationality, permanently residing in India. As per the revised rule, male senior citizens of the age of 60 and above and female senior citizens of the age of 58 and above are only eligible to avail the facility.