Current Affairs - October 16, 2017 Current Affairs

The Odisha government's Directorate of Treasuries and Inspection and the State Bank of India have signed an MOU for integration of SBI e-Pay with cyber treasury. The MoU is a landmark initiative by the state government to facilitate revenue collection from citizens through digital banking platform, The SBI e-Pay is the payment aggregator service wing of the bank which will facilitate on line payment of government dues by the customers of any public private sector banks by using the payment gateway of SBI.

India must invest around $45 billion to generate an additional capacity of handling 500- 600 million passengers at its airports by 2030. As per the estimation of Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) the country's top 17 airports current capacity is 298-316.5 million passengers per annum approximately. The ten airports namely Pune, Jaipur, Srinagar, Lucknow, Dehradun, Agartala, Guwahati, Kozhikode, Mangalore, and Trichy are managed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), are already operating "beyond their design capacity".

INS Kiltan was commissioned into the Indian Navy at the Eastern Naval Command (Naval Dockyard) in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. It is India's first major warship to have a superstructure of carbon fiber composite material resulting in improved stealth features, lower top weight. INS Kiltan commissioned into Indian Navy in Visakhapatnam October 16, 2017.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman commission an indigenously-built anti-submarine warfare stealth corvette INS Kiltan into the Indian Navy at the Naval Dockyard in Visakhapatnam. The commissioning ceremony will be attended by Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba and a host of other dignitaries. INS Kiltan is the latest indigenous warship after Shivalik Class, Kolkata Class and sister ships INS Kamorta and INS Kadmatt to have joined the Indian Navy's arsenal.

Eminent writer and India author Namita Gokhale has been nominated for the first Centenary National Award for Literature, to be conferred by one of the most prestigious literary bodies in India - the Asam Sahitya Sabha - for her outstanding literary contributions as well as her service to the nation in supporting and showcasing literary talent and creating a literary environment in the country.

Singer T M Krishna won 30th Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration for the year 2015 and 2016. He is a pre-eminent vocalist in the Carnatic tradition of Indian classical music and has been an activist who has worked to break down caste-barriers in the society. The award is conferred for promoting national integration and strengthening nation's sense of solidarity. It carries a citation and a cash prize of Rs. 10 lakh.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the first All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), set up along the lines of AIIMS, on Ayurveda Day. Set up as an apex institute in New Delhi under the ministry of AYUSH, the AIIA aims to bring synergy between Ayurveda and modern diagnostic tools and technology.

Pakistan and Iran have agreed not to let their territories be used for terrorism against each other as the two neighbouring countries signed an MoU to improve border security management. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed during the 21st two-day meeting of Pakistan-Iran Joint Border Commission in the port city of Gwadar in Balochistan province.

Roger Federer won world number one Rafael Nadal 6-4 6-3 to win the Shanghai Masters and register his fourth victory of the year over his Spanish rival. He is the only man who can still stop Nadal ending the year as number one, took an hour and 12 minutes to claim his sixth title of the year and his second Shanghai crown with a clinical performance. He has also won a record eighth Wimbledon title & became the tournament's oldest champion with a straight-sets victory over Marin Cilic.

Minister of State Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore stated that Union Government started sending money to Gram Panchayats directly so that they can plan their development works on their own. Around 29 crore new accounts have been opened in last two and half years and now benefits of different schemes are being transferred directly to the accounts of the beneficiaries.

Audrey Azoulay, a French civil servant and politician, has been elected to become the new Director-General (DG) of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). She will succeed outgoing DG Irina Bokova of Bulgaria. Azoulay was born in Paris to a Moroccan Jewish family from Essaouira, and is the daughter of Andre Azoulay, who is current adviser to king Mohammed VI of Morocco.

FAO celebrates World Food Day each year on 16 October to commemorate the founding of the Organization in 1945. Events are organized in over 150 countries across the world, making it one of the most celebrated days of the UN calendar. The Theme for World Food Day 2017 is "Change the future of migration. Invest in food security and rural development". The day is to celebrate the progress we have already made towards reaching #ZeroHunger.