Current Affairs of 4 October 1. India signs off 8th in Asiad medals tally India on Saturday ended its 17th Asian Games campaign at the eighth spot on the medals tally, a drop of two positions from the previous edition of the mega-event which drew to a close here. India signed off with 57 medals -- 11 gold, 10 silver and 36 bronze. The tally dipped considerably compared to the 2010 edition in Guangzhou, China. In 2010, the country had ended sixth with 65 medals -- 14 gold, 17 silver and 34 bronze. As expected China ended their campaign on top claiming 342 medals. The Chinese contingent walked away with 151 gold, 108 silver and 83 bronze medals. Hosts South Korea finished a distant second with 234 medals -- 79 gold, 71 silver and 77 bronze. They were followed by the Japanese, who notched up 200 medals, including 47 gold, 76 silver and 77 bronze. Thus, the line-up of top-three remained the same as the previous edition. 2. Rajasthan becomes first state to start olive refinery Rajasthan today started the country’s first olive refinery and expressed hope that it would be able to fulfil the country’s demand of olive oil in coming years. Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje inaugurated the refinery set up with a cost of Rs. 3.75 crore in Lunkaransar area in the district and said it was an achievement for Rajasthan to become the first state in the country to set up such refinery. The olive oil produced in the refinery will be marked under the brand name of ‘Raj Olive Oil’ and will be available in markets after some time. “Rajasthan is leading in the area of Olive farming and the first state to set up the refinery. It is a big achievement,” Raje said in the inaugural function. The Vasundhara Raje government in its earlier term in 2007 had commenced the olive cultivation project by taking assistance from Israel and had planted 1.12 lakh saplings in 7 agro-climatic zones. 3. EU clears Facebook’s $19 bn buyout of WhatsApp European Union regulators today cleared the buyout of the WhatsApp mobile messaging service by Facebook, despite opposition by telecom companies afraid of the growing power of US technology giants. In a statement explaining its approval of the $19 billon (€15 billion) deal, the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said Facebook and WhatsApp were “not close competitors” and that consumers would continue to have a “wide array of choices”. “We have carefully reviewed this proposed acquisition and come to the conclusion that it would not hamper competition in this dynamic and growing market,” EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement. Facebook, the world’s biggest social network, announced the buyout of the WhatsApp messenger service, used by 600 million people, in February and US authorities approved the deal in April. 4. Ebola outbreak ‘running’ ahead of world’s response: UN official Terming the spread of the Ebola virus an “unprecedented situation”, a top UN official said that despite best efforts, the outbreak is “running” ahead of the world’s response to curtail it and funding for the international response is also lagging. Despite best efforts, “the (Ebola) virus is running faster than the international community,” World Food Programme (WFP) Regional Director Denise Brown said, adding concerted efforts to get the virus under control had not succeeded. “(The virus) is way ahead of us”, she said. Calling it an unprecedented situation, Brown urged the international community to take exceptional measures to collectively get in front of the virus and to stop it. The head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), Anthony Banbury, is in Sierra Leone on the second leg of his visit to the most affected countries, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters here yesterday. 5. Pension regulator forms 18-member advisory panel to help frame rules The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has set up an 18-member advisory committee to help frame regulations for developing a robust pensions system in the country. The move comes eight months after the PFRDA law got notified on February 1 this year, giving the regulator the much-needed statutory backing. The setting up of the advisory panel — Pension Advisory Committee (PAC) — is an important step and the final stage of structural arrangement for finalising the regulations for the pension sector, RV Verma, Acting Chairman of PFRDA, told BusinessLine here. With the setting up of the PAC, there will be a more focused and structured stakeholder consultation before regulations are finalised, he said. As many as 12-13 draft regulations are currently under the process of receiving public feedback and these are then expected to go through the newly set up PAC before being taken up by the PFRDA Board for final approval, Verma said. The draft regulations that had been already exposed to the public include pension funds management, points-of-presence regulations, aggregator regulations, customer grievance regulations and exit regulations. “By end-November, we expect all the 12 regulations to be notified (after PFRDA Board approval),” Verma said. The newly set up PAC has drawn representatives from industry, Government departments, regulatory bodies, research outfits and also pension fund managers 6. Telangana Govt strives to make slum-free Hyderabad The Telangana Government would strive to make Hyderabad a slum—free city and construct two— bed room flats in place of shanties, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said today. “K Chandrasekhar Rao, the Chief Minister, announced that Hyderabad will be a slum—free city. Every slum will be developed with two—bedroom flats for convenience of the families residing there,” a release from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) quoted him as saying. Rao was speaking after laying foundation for construction of 396 houses at IDH Colony and four adjacent colonies in Secunderabad.. 7. F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel to leave Red Bull, set to join Ferrari Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel is leaving Red Bull at the end of the season and is set to join Ferrari, the Formula One team said on Saturday. Red Bull said in a statement that Vettels seat would be taken by 20-year-old Russian driver Daniil Kvyat, while team boss Christian Horner said at the Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday the German would be racing for Ferrari from next season. Vettels departure may trigger a merry-go-round of team switches, with Fernando Alonsos future at Ferrari a hot topic of paddock discussion. Alonsos contract runs until the end of the 2016 season but the 33-year-old Spaniard has been linked heavily with a move to former outfit McLaren. 8. China tests 10,000-km range nuclear missile China has flight-tested an upgraded version of its 10,000-km range Dongfeng missile which could reach most of the U.S. and European cities, days before its National Day on October 1, 2014 to demonstrate its nuclear capability, media reports said. The People’s Liberation Army launched a Dongfeng-31B on September 25 from the Wuzhai Missile and Space Test Centre also known as the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in Shanxi province, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported quoting U.S. media reports.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 07:08:07 +0000
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