Current affairs: September 28, 2016 for all competetive exams
Indian Unemployment Report
According to the latest annual household survey on employment conducted by Labour Bureau, jobless economic growth
continues to haunt India’s youth, with the country’s unemployment rate rising
to a five-year high of five per cent in 2015-16.
- Female job seekers were the worst hit as
the pace of unemployment rose sharply to 8.7% in 2015-16 compared to 7.7%
in 2013-14.
- While unemployment rate in rural areas rose to 5.1% in 2015-16 from 4.7% in 2013-14, it declined to 4.9% from 5.5% in urban areas during the same period.
WEF ranks India as 39th most competitive
economy
World Economic Forum (WEF) has released the
Global Competitiveness Report for the year 2016-17.
- India has risen rapidly among all
countries in the global competitive stakes by climbing 16 notches to the
39th position during the past year.
- Globally, Switzerland has retained its top position as the world’s most competitive economy for seventh year in a row and is followed by Singapore, the US, Germany and the Netherlands in the top-five.
WHO report on air pollution:
According to a study conducted by WHO, air pollution could have killed at least 600,000 Indians in 2012.
- About a fifth of the 3 million who died worldwide
were exposed to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) that may have aggravated
or been directly responsible for cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer.
- India comes just behind China – which witnessed an estimated 800,000 deaths. It is second among all countries in the absolute number of deaths caused due to exposure to air pollution.
India to invest $2 billion in Sri Lanka over
3-4 years
Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman, during a recent meeting on the Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement (ETCA), said that India will invest $2 billion in Sri
Lanka in the next three-four years.
- The Minister also called on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to discuss the terms of the agreement.
India, China hold
counter-terror dialogue
India
and China held their first high level dialogue on counter-terrorism and
security, amid New Delhi’s concerted effort to term Pakistan as the epicenter
of global terrorism.
- The talks were co-chaired by R.N. Ravi, Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee and Mr. Wang Yongqing, Secretary General of Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of China.
MCGS
Victory:
It is the
first fast patrol vessel delivered to Mauritius by Goa Shipyard Limited. The
50m vessel has been designed for coastal patrolling, anti-piracy,
anti-smuggling, anti-drug surveillance, anti-poaching operations, and search
and rescue operations.
- GSL is the largest exporter of military ships from the Indian subcontinent and is presently executing export orders worth 1,200 crore.
IGI
becomes carbon neutral:
The Indira
Gandhi International Airport has become Asia-Pacific’s only and one of the
world’s few airports to achieve a “carbon neutral” status. Less than 25
airports in the world, with most of them located in Europe, have earned carbon
neutral status.
- IGI, managed by private operator Delhi International
Airport Ltd (DIAL), boasts green buildings, solar power plants, rainwater
harvesting system, etc., which have helped it reduce and offset its carbon
emissions.
- The announcement was made by the Airports Council International during the Airport Carbon Accreditation certificate presentation ceremony held recently in Canada.
Pak. Assembly passes
Hindu marriage bill
Pakistan’s
lower house of Parliament has passed a landmark bill giving its small Hindu
minority the right to register marriages, the last major hurdle on the way to
enacting a law aimed at protecting women’s rights.
- The new bill sets the minimum age
for marriage for Hindus at 18. The minimum legal age for marriage for
citizens of other religions is 18 for men and 16 for women.
- The new law also legalises remarriage for a widow six months after her husband’s death.
New lizard species:
A new
species of a ground-dwelling lizard has been discovered in Mumbai, 130 years
after the last such gecko was discovered, and has been named after a
Bengaluru-based scientist Varad Giri.
- The species, of the genus Cyrtodactylus known in Southeast Asia, India and Sri Lanka, is a member of the subgenus Geckoella, which are small ground-dwelling geckos largely found in leaf litter in forests.
Google
launches new services on its birthday
Technology giant Google ,As part of the 'Google For India' programme, announced
five new launches including Google Station, YouTube Go, Google Assistant in
Hindi, Google Play in low bandwidth (2G) and new Chrome browser that can used
to save web pages of contents to view them later.
- The internet search giant that turned 18, also shared that its service 'Internet Saathi', which is helping women in villages to learn how to use the internet has trained one-million women over this last one year in 25,000 villages of 10 states.
Jim Yong
Kim:
The World
Bank has reappointed Jim Yong Kim to a five-year term as President of the
multilateral development lender after the nomination period closed without any
challengers coming forward.
- Mr. Jim, an American citizen, was unanimously chosen by the bank’s executive directors for a term that begins on July 1, 2017.
Bangladesh writer
Shamsul Haq dead
Syed
Shamsul Haq, one of Bangladesh’s best known writers, passed away at the age of
81.
- Mr. Haq’s literary life spread across genres and he
was known to wield equal mastery over essays, novels, poetry, and plays.
He was also vocal against religious fundamentalism.
- Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed condolences. Haq received the prestigious Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1966, Ekushey Padak in 1984 and the highest civilian award, the Swadhinata Padak, in 2000 for his outstanding contributions to Bengali literature.
