24 October 2017 - Current Affairs

24 October 2017 - Current Affairs

IPPB appoints Suresh Sethi as its MD & CEO

• India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has appointed Suresh Sethi (former MD of Vodafone M-Pesa Ltd.) as its Managing Director (MD)and chief executive officer (CEO).
• He takes over from AP Singh who had held the post in the interim since January 2017.
• IPPB plans to leverage the unparalleled reach of the India Post network to achieve a pan-India roll out of 650 branches by early next year.

Note:

• The India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has been incorporated as a public-sector company under the Department of Posts with 100% GOI equity.
• India Post has about 1,54,000 post offices, of them 90% are in rural areas.
• After State Bank of India, India Post has the largest deposits valued at Rs. 6 lakh crores.

Rakesh Asthana appointed CBI Special Director

• Senior IPS officer (1984-batch: Gujarat cadre) has been appointed as the special director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
• Earlier, Asthana had been serving in the Central Bureau of Investigation as Additional Director.

Note: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the domestic security agency of India, overseen by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions of the Federal government headed by a Cabinet Minister who reports directly to the Prime Minister.

Japan's ruling coalition wins overwhelming victory in general election

• Japan's ruling coalition has won an overwhelming victory in yesterday's general election.
• The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito party won more than two-thirds of the Lower House seats.
• The LDP, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, secured 283 seats, one less than before the election but far more than a simple majority of 233. Komeito won 29, bringing the total of seats held by the ruling camp to 312.

Bangladesh signs Gas Oil Deal with India

• The Bangladesh Petroleum Corp. (BPC) and Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) has signed long-term sales and purchase agreement to import gas oil to meet the country’s energy demand.
• BPC will take up to 250,000 tonnes of gas oil each year from NRL for the first three years of the deal to the BPC’s northern fuel depot via a 131-km (79 mile) pipeline, which will be built by India.

24 October: United Nations Day

• The United Nations Day is being observed globally on 24^th October to make people aware of the aims and achievements of the United Nations Organization.
• In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly declared 24 October, the anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations.
• United Nations Day is part of United Nations Week (runs from 20 to 26 October).

Note: In 1971, the United Nations General Assembly had declared 24th October as the United Nations Day by adopting Resolution 2782.

Alka Yagnik & Udit Narayan to get Lata Mangeshkar Award

• The playback singers Alka Yagnik & Udit Narayan and music composers Usha Khanna, Bappi Lahiri, Anu Malik have been selected for the Madhya Pradesh government's prestigious National Lata Mangeshkar Award.
• The artists will be honored for their contribution in the field of music composition and singing.
• They will get a cash prize of Rs. two lakhs, shawl, shreephal (coconut) and a citation.
• As of 2014, the Lata Mangeshkar Award (Maharashtra government) for Lifetime Achievement consisted of cash reward of Rs. 5,00,000, a citation, a trophy and a shawl.

Awarded by Government of Madhya Pradesh

Year	Recipient	Notes
2012	Usha Khanna	Music Director
2013	Alka Yagnik	Singer
2014	Bappi Lahiri	Music Director
2015	Udit Narayan	Singer
2016	Anu Malik	Music Director

Cristiano Ronaldo named best FIFA Men's Player

• The four-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo claimed the Best FIFA Men's Player award (second straight year) at the 2017 award ceremony in London.
• Real Madrid's Portugal striker helped Real to a Champions League-La Liga double in 2016-17.
• Lieke Martens of Barcelona and the Netherlands won best female player, Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid) was named best men's coach and Sarina Wiegman (Netherlands) the best female coach.
• Arsenal's Olivier Giroud received the Puskas award for the best goal of 2017 for his 'scorpion kick' against Crystal Palace in January.
• Celtic won the fan award after they honoured the club's 1967 'Lisbon Lions' with a stunning 360-degree card display on the 50th anniversary of their historic European Cup win.

TRAI recommends 40% carbon emission reduction in telecom network by 2022-23

• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended 40% carbon emission reduction in telecom network by 2022-23.
• The target for reduction in carbon emission be set as 30% by year 2019-20 taking base year as 2011-12 and 40% by the year 2022-23.
• The report of carbon footprint of telecom operators should be submitted annually within 45 days after March of every year.
• The targets should be reviewed in the year 2022-23.

Semi-Final line-up has drawn in FIFA U-17 World Cup

• Brazil and Spain have joined England and Mali in the semi-finals of the Under-17 FIFA World Cup Football being held in India.
• Brazil will face England in Guwahati, with Spain taking on Mali in Mumbai on 25^th of this month.
• The Final is slated to take place on 29^th Oct 2017 (Saturday) in Kolkata.

Jitu & Heena strike gold in air pistol mixed team event

• Jitu Rai (Commonwealth and Asian Games gold-medallist) and Heena Sidhu have w the gold medal of the ISSF World Cup Final in New Delhi, in the 10m air pistol mixed team event.
• Rai and Sidhu picked up their third gold together in the mixed team event.
• The mixed team competitions were organised as test events in the World Cups this year and will be making their Olympic debut in the Tokyo 2020 Games.
• France secured the silver medal and China settled for the bronze medal.