UTTAR PRADESH
- UP govt must set up special team to monitor projects: Assocham
- The Uttar Pradesh government should set up a Special Monitoring Committee to ensure timely implementation of 1,050 projects worth of about Rs 9 lakh crore, apex industry body Assocham has suggested. “Even if 50 per cent projects get implemented, it will help UP generate around 1 lakh direct and 1,50,000 indirect job opportunities,” Assocham said in a study titled ‘Uttar Pradesh: Economic Growth and Investment Performance Analysis’. The study, released by Assocham, stated that as of 2016-17, 606 projects worth over Rs 6 lakh crore were under implementation in UP.
INTERNATIONAL
- The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017
- The 2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded to three scientists for improving images made of biological molecules.
- Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson will share the nine million kronor (£831,000) prize.
- They developed a technique called cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), which simplifies the process for looking at the machinery of life.
- Prof Dubochet was born in Switzerland, Joachim Frank is German and Richard Henderson is from Edinburgh, UK.
· World Space Week is observed from October 4th to October 10th
- The World Space Week is observed from 4th to 10th October.
- The theme of 2017 is ‘Exploring New Worlds In Space’.
- On October 4th1957 Sputnik 1 was launched.
- It was the first human-made, Earth-orbiting satellite. Second, the signing of The Outer Space Treaty on October 10th 1967.
NATIONAL
· India Renewable Energy to be double by 2022
- India’s renewable energy capacity will more than double by 2022 to overtake renewable expansion in the European Union for the first time, International Energy Agency (IEA).
- The country’s renewable energy installed capacity is 30 GWas per the recent government data.
- The government has a target of raising it to 175 GWby 2022 including 100 GW of solar and 60 GW of wind energy.
- Earlier this year, the solar and wind power tariffs dropped to an all-time low of Rs2.44 per unit and Rs3.46 per unit in a tariff-based competitive bidding conducted by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).
- From Oct 31, speed past toll booths, pay tax later
- The Union road transport and highways ministry’s much-hyped Electronic Toll Collection (ETC), which will allow commuters to travel seamlessly on highways without having to wait in long queues to pay a toll tax, will finally kick off in all the 370 toll plazas across the country by October 31 over five years after the system was announced.
- A vehicle installed with the RFID also called FastTags that can be recharged once the balance becomes zero, will be able to drive past a toll plaza without having to stop and pay the toll. The tag will have a unique code that will help identify the vehicles so when they will pass through a plaza, the system will read the code and automatically deduct the toll.
· Union Government Names Rajnish Kumar as SBI’s Next Chairman
- The Union Government named Rajnish Kumaras the new chairman of State Bank of India for a three-year term.
- He succeeds Arundhati Bhattacharya.
- Country’s first ITI for dibyangans in Dibrugarh
- Foundation stone for the first ever Industrial Training Institute for the Dibyangans exclusively was laid at Dibrugarh ITI Complex at Borboruah, Dibrugarh by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.
- This is a one of a kind institute in the country in order to set up a new pathway for empowerment of the differently abled youth of the state.
- RBI keeps repo rate, reverse repo rate unchanged
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has kept the repo rate and reverse repo rate unchanged at 6 percent and 5.75 percent respectively.
Repo Rate: Unchanged at 6%
Revrese Repo Rate: Unchanged at 5.75%
Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) Rate: Unchanged at 6.25%
Bank Rate: Unchanged at 6.25%
Cash Reserve Ratio: Unchanged at 4%
Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR): Changed by 50 basis points to 19.5%