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  • Current Affairs 5th October 2018

    Updated : 05-Oct-2018

    Current Affairs 5th October 2018 - Important Points

    • Series of flight trials of Astra Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile conducted by - Indian Air Force 
    • Who has been conferred UNEP Champions of Earth Award 2018 ? - Prime Minister Narendra Modi 
    • Who has been sworn in as 46th Chief Justice of India ? - Justice Ranjan Gogoi 
    • Government inks loan agreement with ADB for India’s first Global Skills Park in -Madhya Pradesh
    • Frances H. Arnold, George P. Smith, Sir Gregory P. Winter win 2018 Nobel Prize in - Chemistry
    • Chanda Kochhar quits as ICICI Bank CEO, MD on - 4th October 2018
    • Aung San Suu Kyi becomes first person to lose honorary Canadian citizenship on - 3rd October 2018

     Current Affairs 5th October 2018 - Details

    Series of flight trials of Astra Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile conducted by - Indian Air Force 

    Indian Air Force has effectively undertaken series of flight tests of Astra Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile- BVR-AAM, from September 26th to October 3rd, 2018. The trails were carried out at Integrated Test Range, Balasore, Odisha as part of final development tests of the missile.
    The missile was trailed in grouping of complex trails for engagement of pilotless target in various modes of manoeuvring, off-boresight, medium & long ranges. These trails make missile ready for initiation in service in 2019.
    More about Astra Missile

    • Astra is air-to-air beyond visual range air-to-air developed in India by DRDO.
    • Above 50 private and public sector businesses are involved in development and production of variois sub-systems of the missile.
    • It is one of the smallest weapon systems developed by Defence Research and Development
      Organisation, having length of 3.8m and weighing 154 kilograms.
    • It is single-stage solid-fuelled missile and has load capacity of fifteen kilograms conventional explosives.
    • It can be released from different altitudes and is capable of appealing targets at varying range and
      altitudes at both short-range targets in tail-chase mode and long-range targets in head-on mode.
    • It is radar homing supersonic missile having supreme velocity of Mach Four which is four times the speed of sound.
    • It possesses high Single Shot Kill Probability making it extremely reliable.
    • It is all-weather missile with active radar terminal guidance, excellent electronic counter-counter
      measure features, smokeless fueled and process improved effectiveness in multi-target situation.
    • It has advance on-board electronic counter-measures that logjam radar signals from enemy radar, making chasing of the missile problematic.

    Who has been conferred UNEP Champions of Earth Award 2018 ? - Prime Minister Narendra Modi 

    PM Narendra Modi was bestowed with UN’s Champions of the Earth Award by United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres at ceremony in Delhi. He is among the 6 winners who got this award. Prime Minister Modi was combinedly awarded this award along with French President Emmanuel Macron under the “Political Leadership” group for their work in championing International Solar Alliance and promoting new areas of co-operation on environmental action.
    More about Champions of Earth Award

    • It is United Nation’s highest environmental gratitude celebrating exceptional figures from public and private areas and from civil society, whose activities have had transformative positive influence on the environment.
    • It was recognized in 2005 by UNs Environment Program.
    • This award program is successor to UNEP’s Global 500 Roll of Honour.
    • Last laureates include, Afroz Shah, who headed world’s largest beach cleanup in year 2016, Rwandan President Paul Kagame in year 2016, Ocean Cleanup Chief Executive Officer Boyan Slat in year 2014, scientist-explorer Bertrand Piccard, developer of Google Earth Brian McClendon in year 2013, and former United States Vice-President Al Gore in year 2007.

    Who has been sworn in as 46th Chief Justice of India ? - Justice Ranjan Gogoi 

    Justice Ranjan Gogoi took oath as 46th Chief Justice of India. He was directed oath of the office by President Ram Nath Kovind. With this, Justice Ranjan Gogoi is the 1st Chief Justice of India from the

    North-East. He succeeded Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra who retired from the office. He will have job duration of about thirteen months, from October 3rd, 2018 till his retirement on November 17th, 2019.
    More about Justice Ranjan Gogoi

    • Justice Gogoi was born on November 18th, 1954. He is a native of Assam and is son of former Assam CM Keshab Chandra Gogoi.
    • He had joined Bar in 1978 and initiated practice mainly in Gauhati High Court.
    • He was selected as permanent judge of High Court in February 2001. He was transferred to Punjab and Haryana High Court in September 2010 and was selected its Chief Justice in February 2011.
    • He was promoted to the Supreme Court in April 2012.
    • In Supreme Court, Justice Gogoi had headed vital benches that have dealt largely with matter of
      corruption in politics and public life.
    • His Bench is also monitoring development made by government in selection of anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal.
    • Justice Gogoi was one of the four most senior Supreme Court judges who seized January 12th, 2018 press conference bringing-up matter of selective assignment of sensitive cases by fresh Chief Justice of India’s to certain judges in the Supreme Court.

    Government inks loan agreement with ADB for India’s first Global Skills Park in -Madhya Pradesh

    Government has signed US $150 million loan contract with multilateral lender Asian Development Bank for establishing India’s 1st Global Skills Park in Bhopal, MP. It will have training amenities focusing on skills for production, service and advanced agricultural jobs, profiting approximately 20,000 trainees and trainers.
    More about Global Skills Park

    • It will be loaded with international training amenities to improve the quality of Madhya Pradesh’s
      Technical and Vocational Education and Training system.
    • It will engage international Technical and Vocational Education and Training partners to care advanced training by bringing global best performs in Technical and Vocational Education and Training management, training infrastructure, industry co-operation and quality assurance.
    • The campus will contain core Advanced Training Institutes including Centre for Advanced Agricultural Training and Centre for Occupational Skills Acquisition and other support services concentrating on entrepreneurship, training of trainers and skill-based research.
    • It will also assist in modernizing ten industrial training institutes across state by modernizing training infrastructure and advancing skills courses to align with industry and market requirements.
    • It will advance quality and relevance of state’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training programmes and will assist impart advanced job-ready skills training of international morals.

    Frances H. Arnold, George P. Smith, Sir Gregory P. Winter win 2018 Nobel Prize in - Chemistry

    The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on October 3rd, 2018 presented the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with one half to Frances H. Arnold ‘for the focused evolution of enzymes’ and the other half mutually to George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P.Winter ‘for the phage display of peptides and antibodies.’ The all 3 of them connected the power of evolution which is exposed through the diversity of life. They took control of evolution and utilised it for determinations that bring the greatest advantage to mankind.

    Important Highlights

    • Enzymes generated via directed evolution are utilised to produce everything from biofuels to pharmaceuticals. 
    • Antibodies, evolved utilising a method known as phage display, are capable to fight against autoimmune diseases and in few cases cure metastatic cancer.
    • The laureates utilised the similar principles of genetic change and selection to progress proteins that solve humankind’s chemical difficulties.
    • Frances H. Arnold of California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States carried out the 1st focused evolution of enzymes in 1993, which are proteins that catalyse chemical reactions.
    • Since then, she has polished the methods that are now routinely utilised to develop new catalysts.
    • The usage of Frances Arnold’s enzymes consists of more environmentally friendly production of chemical substances, including pharmaceuticals, and the production of renewable fuels for a greener transport sector.
    • In 1985, George Smith of the University of Missouri, Columbia, United States industrialized an elegant method called phage display, where a bacteriophage, a virus that infects bacteria, can be utilised to grow new proteins.
    • On the contrary, Gregory Winter of MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom utilised phage show for the directed evolution of antibodies with the purpose of producing new pharmaceuticals.
    • The phage display has generated anti-bodies that can neutralise toxins, counteract autoimmune diseases and  treat metastatic cancer.

    Chanda Kochhar quits as ICICI Bank CEO, MD on - 4th October 2018

    The ICCI Bank Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Chanda Kochhar quit her post with immediate effect on October 4th, 2018. The statement came after her plea for premature retirement was acknowledged by the bank. 
    Chandra Kochhar, who had led ICICI Bank since May 2009, is also walking down from the board of directors of its units. Her 3rd term was initiated end in March 2019.  Sandeep Bakhshi, who was nominated as the bank's COO in June 2018, has been named to replace Kochhar as the bank’s new MD and CEO.
    Bakhshi has been nominated for a time period of 5 years until October 3rd, 2023, subject to different sanctions. He had earlier taken the helm on an interim basis in June after Kochhar had been sent on leave due to a pending inquiry. He is a previous head of the life insurance branch at ICICI Bank, which is India's 3rd-largest lender by assets. 
    Meanwhile, ICICI Bank has elucidated that Kochhar's post-retirement reimbursements would be subject to inquiry result. It also said that the enquiry records started earlier against Kochhar will remain unaffected by this development.
    More about Chanda Kochhar

    • Chandra Kochhar was born in Jodhpur, Rajasthan in 1961. Following her graduation in 1982, she studied cost accountancy from Institute of Cost Accountants of India.
    • She got the JN Bose Gold Medal for maximum marks in that year.
    • Kochhar joined ICICI Limited in 1984 as a management trainee. During her starting years at the bank, Kochhar handled project evaluation, while monitoring and assessing projects in the petrochemical, textile, paper and cement industries.
    • In 1993, Kochhar was part of the core team that initiated ICICI Bank and was elevated to AGM in 1994.
    • She was tasked with handling the freshly-formed Infrastructure Industry Group of the bank, which formed industry expertise in areas of telecom, power and transportation.
    • In 1998, Kochhar was elevated as GM and made the head of the Major Clients Group, which was tasked with handling the bank’s top 200 clients.
    • In July 2000, under the leadership of Kochhar, ICICI Bank arrived into the retail business and within a short span of approximately five years, the Bank arose as one of the largest retail financers in India. In April 2001, she took over as ED, heading the retail business in ICICI Bank.
    • In 2006, Kochhar started serving on the bank’s international operations before becoming the Chief Financial Officer and MD in 2007.
    • Just 2 years later, she was elevated and became the CEO.
    • She also worked as the President of the International Monetary Conference and Deputy Chairman of the Indian Banks Association. In 2011, she was the co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in 2011.
    • Throughout her memorable career, Kochhar secured many prestigious awards including the 3rd-highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan.
    • She has also been graded as most powerful women and professional by various publications including Fortune, Forbes and TIME magazine.

    Aung San Suu Kyi becomes first person to lose honorary Canadian citizenship on - 3rd October 2018

    Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on October 3rd, 2018 became the 1st person to be exposed of the honorary Canadian citizenship for her role in gross human rights violations against the Rohingya people. The Canadian Senate officially revoked the symbolic honour that was presented on Suu Kyi in 2007. Senators universally accepted a genocide motion tabled by Independent Senator Ratna Omidvar in the red chamber. 

    Important Points

    • Senator Ratna Omidvar informed that they want to send a strong signal here in Canada and worldwide that if anyone is an accomplice of a genocide, then they are not welcome there in Canada. Certainly not as an honorary Canadian citizen.
    • Suu Kyi, the Burmese State Counsellor, has been extensively criticised for turning a blind eye to the violence and military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state that pushed above 700000 Rohingya Muslims to look forward as refuge in Bangladesh, creating one of the world's biggest refugee crisis.
    • A UNs fact-finding mission freshly found that the Myanmar military was obligating genocide against the Rohingyas, the minority Muslim population; and other ethnic minorities and in the middle of all this, Suu Kyi had been unsuccessful in her duty to safeguard her own inhabitants.
    • The report names 6 military commanders in Myanmar who should be inspected for genocide in Rakhine state and for crimes against humanity in other areas.
    • The report convicts Suu Kyi for unsuccessful to utilise her power to avoid the genocide and fulfil her
      accountability to safeguard the civilian population, thus, leading to mass murder, rape and displacement.

    Nobel Peace Prize remains with her
    Notwithstanding the international criticism and cancelling of honorary Canadian citizenship, Suu Kyi will hold her Nobel Peace Prize. Suu Kyi secured the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for campaigning for democracy.