7th October 2014 - Daily Current Affairs updates

7th October 2014 - Daily Current Affairs updates

National Affairs

1. All PIO (Person of Indian Origin) cards are now valid for the lifetime of the cardholder, instead of 15 years, as promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his address at the Madison Square Garden in New York City on September 28, 2014.
2. The government will issue passports with same validity and waiver of fees to those whose passports have been lost or damaged in the Jammu and Kashmir floods, external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said today.
3. Multiple measures, including short-term and long-term steps, would be employed to make river Ganga clean over the next three years, Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati said today.
4. A single judge of the Karnataka High Court today dismissed a plea filed by former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa for grant of bail and suspension of her four-year prison term following her September 27 conviction in a Rs 66.65 crore disproportionate assets case.
5. After the acclaimed International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa will be now hosting the new-born literary extravaganza The Writers and Readers Festival-annually, bringing together authors from across the globe.

International Affairs

• In an unprecedented degree of co-operation between Ireland and Britain, the two governments today signed a historic visa agreement that will allow international tourists to apply for one travel permit to visit both countries.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment to improve health services and his focus on ending open defecation has ‘impressed’ Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates who said it is ‘inspiring’ to see India move to the forefront of providing such services to the underprivileged.
• After al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces in Pakistan's garrison town of Abbottabad, his body was kept in a heavy black bag of 300 pounds of iron chain and dropped into the sea, former CIA director and defense secretary Leon Panetta has said.
• Amid escalation of cross-border firing in Jammu and Kashmir, top military officials of India and Pakistan today discussed the ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and International Border but failed to address the issue.
• DGMO Indian Atmy - Lt Gen Vinodh Bhatia at Wagha
• DGMO Pakistan Army  - Gen Aamer Riaz
• The Islamic State group is about to capture the Syrian border town of Kobani, Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today, as outgunned Kurdish forces struggled to repel the extremists with limited aid from U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.
• The iconic Yal Devi Express from Colombo to Jaffna will resume its run on October 13th, some 25 years after the link was suspended during the height of the Sri Lankan civil war.
• US President Barack Obama has declared fight against Ebola "a top national security priority" and said that authorities would increase screening for the virus at airports both in America and in West Africa. 
• The Pentagon has spent as much as USD 1.1 billion on US military operations against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria since the mission began in mid-June, including more than USD 62 million alone in Navy airstrikes and Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Awards & Honors

• Japanese professors, Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano and US scientist Shuji Nakamura win Physics Nobel Prize 2014 for Blue LEDs discovery (Check complete details from here).
• The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee presented the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration, Academics and Management for the year 2014 to Dr. Apathukatha Sivathanu Pillai at Rashtrapati Bhavan today.

Deaths

• 9 time MLA from Jagdishpur constituency of Amethi district (Uttar Pradesh), Ram Sewak Dhobi passed away.

Banking Awareness

• Indian economy, which accounts for 80 percent of South Asia's output, is set to grow by 6.4 percent in 2015-16 as against 5.6 percent in 2014-15, the World Bank has said.

Sports

• Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps has been suspended from all competition for six months by USA Swimming following his drink-driving arrest.
• The most decorated Olympian in history, Phelps won 22 Olympic medals between 2004 and 2012, 18 of them gold.