Daily Current Affairs : 09th October 2013

1. World Post Day(9^th October) celebrated across the world to raise awareness of the role of the postal sector in people’s and businesses’ everyday lives and its contribution to the social and economic development of countries. It is the anniversary of the establishment of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 1874 in the Swiss capital, Berne. It was declared World Post Day by the UPU Congress held in Tokyo, Japan, in 1969.

2. 23rd ASEAN Summit starts today in Brunei Darussalam. Brunei Darussalam also chair the 22nd ASEAN Summit on 24-25 April 2013 . This is the fourth time that Brunei Darussalam has chaired ASEAN, having previously been the Chair in 1989, 1995 and 2001. Brunei Darussalam’s theme for the Chairmanship is “Our People, Our Future Together”. This theme stresses the role of the people in ASEAN Member States in advancing cooperation in the areas of political-security, economic and socio-cultural. ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. 

3.  Michael Levitt, a British and US citizen of Stanford University, US-Austrian Martin Karplus of Strasbourg University and US-Israeli Arieh Warshel of the University of Southern California share The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013 on 9 October 2013. They were awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013 for the development of multi scale models for complex chemical systems. The trio devised computer simulations to understand chemical processes. 

4. Britain is to host next year's Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Org.) summit for the first time since the end of the cold war in 1990. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949.

NATO is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. NATO is an Alliance that consists of 28 independent member countries. India is not a member of NATO.

5.  The autobiography of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot by the Taliban for supporting girls’ education was released yesterday in London. He auto biography “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban” was co-written with British journalist Christina Lamb.

6. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lowered the growth projection for India to 3.8 per cent in 2013-14. This is sharply lower than the 5.6 per cent growth projection it had made in July.

7. The Finance Ministry expects the economic growth in the current fiscal to improve to 5.5 per cent from 5 per cent last year on back of likely pick up in agricultural output on account of good monsoon rains.

8. Aadhaar cards for availing subsidies, market regulator SEBI accepted the Unique Identification Authority of India’s (the agency responsible for making the cards) e-KYC services. Earlier in August 2012, SEBI had said it would accept Aadhaar for proof of address. Prior to that, Aadhaar was recognised by the regulator only as proof of identity.

9. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today restricted foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to purchase shares in Great Eastern Shipping Company and Kajaria Ceramics as the foreign equity shareholding have reached the trigger limit of 24 per cent. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), Non—Resident Indians (NRIs), and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) are allowed to invest in the primary and secondary capital markets in India through the portfolio investment scheme (PIS). Under the scheme, FIIs/NRIs can acquire shares/debentures of Indian companies through the stock exchanges in India.

10. World's largest retail chain Walmart Stores Inc and Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Group have called off their six-year old alliance in India and will own and operate separate businesses in the country going forward. As per the agreement, Walmart would acquire Bharti’s stake in Bharti Walmart Pvt Ltd a joint venture between Bharti and Walmart, giving Walmart 100% ownership of the best price modern wholesale cash and carry business. Bharti Retail will continue to operate ‘easyday’ retail stores across all formats and invest in and grow the business.

11. The Government of India on 9 October 2013 proposed to support setting up of Plastic Parks for the promotion of downstream plastic processing industries. The Scheme to be implemented by the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals envisages setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), which would provide infrastructure and common facilities for the industries. State Government or its agency, which would set up such SPV, will have to mandatorily have equity participation in it.

12. Global payments solutions provider Visa today announced its partnership with Micro Pension Foundation to launch pension scheme for low-income groups in the rural areas to save for their future.

13. Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi and Birmingham Airport, UK on 7 October 2013 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to formalise a working relationship and commit to developing links between the two cities (Birmingham and Delhi). The MoU will allow the sharing information and best practice to enhance links between Birmingham and Delhi and promote tourism and business opportunities at both ends of the route. 

14. Queen's Baton Relay for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games is all set to get under way in London. The baton will travel to all 70 nations and territories of the Commonwealth during its journey of around 248 days. The baton will contain the Queen's hand-written message to the Commonwealth. The 248-day relay starts from Buckingham Palace in London.

15. The Ahmedabad-based Sankalp Group, which twice entered Guinness Book of World Records by making 25 and 32-feet-long dosas in 1997 and 2006, respectively, has broken its own record by preparing a 53-feet-long dosa here on Monday. The 53-ft-long dosa was prepared by a team of 32 chefs who used 80 kg of flour,30 kg of pure ghee and 300 kg of cooking gas to make it in just 10 minutes.

16. Buckingham Palace held its first official football match to mark FA's (Football Association’s) 150th anniversary on 7 October 2013.

17. Embattled Shuttler Jwala Gutta moved the Delhi High Court against the Badminton Association of India (BAI) after its disciplinary committee recommended a life ban on her for an alleged code of conduct breach in the Indian Badminton League.

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