Current Affairs 20th October 2015

Current Affairs 20th October 2015 - Important Points

• Who is appointed as head of the All India Council of Sports - VK Malhotra

• By how much % did import duty on wheat increased - 15%

• Who has been crowned Miss Diva 2015 - Urvashi Rautela

• Who is elected as the Prime Minister of Canada - Justin Trudeau

• PM Narendra Modi inaugurated - IDFC Bank

• World Statistics Day observed on - 20th October 2015

• WHO released Global Status Report on Road Safety 2015

Current Affairs 20th October 2015 - Details

Who is appointed as head of the All India Council of Sports - VK Malhotra

On 19th October 2015, Vijay Kumar Malhotra is appointed as the President of the All India Council of Sports by the Union Government.

The council also includes former sportspersons, including PT Usha, Limba Ram, N Kunjarani Devi, IM Vijayan, Baichung Bhutia and P Gopichand.

Earlier to this, Malhotra had served as the Senior Vice President of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and is currently the President of the IOA after the arrest of Suresh Kalmadi in connection with the alleged irregularities in awarding contracts for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

He had also been the President of the General Association of National Sports Federations and the President of the Archery Association of India.

About All India Council of Sports

Objectives of the council are :

• Implementation of policies for promotion of sports and games in the country
• Preventing drug abuse in sports, fraud of age and sexual harassment of women in sports
• Promotion of sports sciences and sports medicine
• Popularizing sports amongst the youth as a way of life
• Increasing outreach of sports to rural and tribal areas, areas affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE), North-East and Jammu & Kashmir
• Integration of sports in educational curriculum in schools, colleges and universities

By how much % did import duty on wheat increased - 15%

On 19th October 2015, the basic customs duty on wheat was increased to 25% from 10% by Union Government.

A statement from the Ministry of Finance said that the duty has been raised in view of the continued fall in international prices of wheat and the anticipated adverse impact of increased imports during the first half of financial year 2015-16.

This increment will help protect Indian farmers against cheaper imports.International wheat prices have fallen considerably over 2014. The price of wheat in the US was 216 dollars a tonne on 16th October 2015, which was -25.7 percent of what it was in 2014.

Apart from this, the government also exempted specified biodiesel from central excise duty.

Who has been crowned Miss Diva 2015 - Urvashi Rautela

On 18th October 2015, Model-actress Urvashi Rautela was crowned as Yamaha Fascino Miss Diva 2015 at a star-studded event in Mumbai and became the India’s representative for the Miss Universe pageant.

She was crowned as the 1st runner up while Naveli Deshmukh from Aurangabad was crowned 2nd runner-up.

Earlier, she had won the I Am She – Miss Universe India in 2012 but was dethroned from crown due to a controversy over her age. She had also been a winner of the title of Miss Asian Supermodel 2011 in South Korea.

Who is elected as the Prime Minister of Canada - Justin Trudeau

On 19th October 2015, Canada's Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau was elected as the Prime Minister of Canada after his Liberal Party won 189 seats, a majority of Parliament’s 338 seats. The party needed 170 to gain a majority.

The Conservative Party was next with 97 seats, followed by the New Democratic Party at 28 seats and Bloc Quebecois with 9 seats. With this, nine-year reign of Conservative Party PM Stephen Harper and his party came to a sudden end.

Justin Trudeau has became the second youngest Prime Minister in Canadian history. Joe Clark, a Conservative, who took office in 1979 the day before he turned 40 was the first youngest Prime Minister of Canada.

PM Narendra Modi inaugurated - IDFC Bank

On 19th October 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the IDFC Bank in New Delhi.

IDFC Bank Limited, is an Indian Banking company with headquarters in Mumbai that forms a part of IDFC, an integrated infrastructure finance company and was established on 1st october 2015.

IDFC Bank was granted a universal banking license in July 2015 by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

IDFC was incorporated on 30 January 1997. It founded a non-operative financial holding company (NOFHC) in 2014 to manage its five subsidiaries IDFC Bank, IDFC MF, IDFC Alternatives, IDFC IDF & IDFC Securities to conform with RBI guidelines.

World Statistics Day observed on - 20th October 2015

On 20th October 2015, The World Statistics Day was observed across the world with the theme "Better Data, Better Lives". This year celebrations mark the second observance of the World Statistics Day.

The theme focuses on the critical role of high-quality official statistical information in analysis and informed policy decision-making in support of sustainable development. It also shows the importance of sustainable national statistical capacity to produce reliable and timely statistics and indicators measuring a country’s progress.

The year 2015 marks the aniversary of the birth of George Boole, whose work on the application of the principles of logic as a form of algebra underpins modern computer science.

WHO released Global Status Report on Road Safety 2015

On 19th October 2015, World Health Organization (WHO) released the Global status report on road safety 2015. It reflects information from 180 countries and indicates that worldwide the total number of road traffic deaths has gone up to 1.25 million per year.

The report indicated that road safety strategies are actually saving lives.

The report says that in the last three years, 17 countries have aligned at least one of their laws with best practice on seat-belts, drink–driving, speed, motorcycle helmets or child restraints.

Highlights of the report

• It highlights that road users around the world are unequally protected.
• It says that the risk of dying in a road traffic crash still depends, in great part, on where people live and how they move around.
• A big gap still separates high-income countries from low- and middle- income ones where 90% of road traffic deaths occur in spite of having just 54% of the world’s vehicles.
• Europe, in particular the region’s wealthier countries, has the lowest death rates per capita; Africa the highest.
• Road traffic fatalities take an unacceptable toll – particularly on poor people in poor countries.
• In the last three years, 79 countries have seen a decrease in the absolute number of fatalities while 68 countries have seen an increase.
• Countries that have had the most success in reducing the number of road traffic deaths have achieved this by improving legislation, enforcement, and making roads and vehicles safer.
• The report reveals that globally:
• 105 countries have good seat-belt laws that apply to all occupants
• 47 countries have good speed laws defining a national urban maximum speed limit of 50 Km/h and empowering local authorities to further reduce speed limits
• 34 countries have a good drink–driving law with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit of less than or equal to 0.05 g/dl as well as lower limits of less than or equal to 0.02 g/dl for young and novice drivers
• 44 countries have helmet laws that apply to all drivers, passengers, roads and engine types require the helmet to be fastened and refer to a particular helmet standard
• 53 countries have a child restraint law for occupants of vehicles based on age, height or weight, and apply an age or height restriction on children sitting in the front seat.
• More attention required to protect vulnerable road users and improve vehicle safety
• The report also found that some vehicles sold in 80% of all countries worldwide fail to meet basic safety standards, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where nearly 50% of the 67 million new passenger cars were produced in 2014.
• Motorcyclists are particularly vulnerable, making up 23% of all road traffic deaths. In many regions this problem is increasing; in the region of the Americas, for example, the proportion of motorcycle deaths out of all road traffic fatalities rose from 15% to 20% between 2010 and 2013. In the South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions a third of all road traffic deaths are among motorcyclists.
• Pedestrians and cyclists are also among the groups with the least protection, making up 22% and 4% of global deaths respectively.