Current Affairs 16th October 2017

Current Affairs 16th October 2017 - Important  Points

• New tri-weekly special Rajdhani on Delhi - Mumbai route introduced by Railway from - 16th October 2017
• Audrey Azoulay elected as Director General of UNESCO on - 14th October 2017
• First Indian Woman to sign with World Wrestling Entertainment - Kavita Devi
•  Defence Minister Commissions indigenously-built anti-submarine warship, INS Kiltan on - 16th October 2017
• Indira Gandhi National Integration award won by - T M Krishna, Carnatic Singer
• World Food Day 2017 observed across the world on - 16th October 2017

Current Affairs 16th October 2017 -  Details

New tri-weekly special Rajdhani on Delhi - Mumbai route introduced by Railway from - 16th October 2017

Ministry of Railways is introducing a new tri-weekly Special Rajdhani Express between Delhi and Mumbai from 16th October 2017. The main motto behind the move is to fulfil the long overdue passengers demand and to provide faster and convenient connectivity to passengers between the two metro cities.
Important Highlights

• The new train will be running from Hazrat Nizamuddin and will have stoppages at Kota, Vadodara and Surat stations.
• There won't be any Flexi fare component in the fare structure of the train.
• The travel time is expected to be reduced from 15 hours 50 minutes to 13 hours 55 minutes.
• The special train would be saving around two hours in journey time in comparison to the already plying Rajdhani between Delhi and Mumbai.
• The train will be comprised of one first AC, two 2nd AC and twelve 3rd AC compartments and one pantry car.
• The catering services in this train is going to be optional.

More about Train Fare

• The fare for the train in 3rd AC will be approximately Rs 500 -600 lower than the maximum flexi fare of 3rd AC in Mumbai Rajdhani.
• 2nd AC fare will be lowered by around Rs 700- 800.

Audrey Azoulay elected as Director General of UNESCO on - 14th October 2017

Audrey Azoulay was elected as the Director General of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on 14th October 2017. Executive Board of UNSECO has voted 30 to 28 in favour of Azoulay against Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari from Qatar.

Her election will now be putting forward for approval to UNESCO’s 195 members on 10th November 2017. The selection just released the day after the US announced that it is intending to pull out of UNESCO because of its alleged anti-Israel bias.

Once confirmed by UNESCO's 195-member General Assembly, Azoulay will be succeeding outgoing Director-General Irina Bokova of Bulgaria. Azoulay will be becoming the second French leader of the UNESCO after Rene Maheu, who was UNESCO's Director General between 1961 and 74.

More about Audrey Azoulay

• She was born in Paris in 1972 to a Moroccan Jewish family from Essaouira.
• She is Andre Azoulay's daughter, who served as an advisor to King Hassan II and now to King Mohammed VI.
• In 2014, She was appointed as French Minister of Culture.
• Azoulay also served as a French President Francois Hollande’s cultural advisor.

First Indian Woman to sign with World Wrestling Entertainment - Kavita Devi

Kavita Devi has become the first Indian woman to tie-up with the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on 15th October 2017. Other than this, Shadia Bseiso became the first Arab woman from the Middle East to sign a WWE developmental contract.

Kavita Devi became the first Indian woman to tie-up with the World Wrestling Entertainment on 15th October 2017. Other than this, Shadia Bseiso became the first Arab woman from the Middle East to sign a WWE developmental contract. She is a former competitive powerlifter, took training from Dalip Singh Rana popularly known as The Great Khali.

The 2016 South Asian Games gold medallist, Kavita shot to fame when her video of wrestling in a salwar kameez against woman wrestler B Bull Bull went viral on social media. She is expected to start training at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida in January 2018.
More about WWE Performance Center

• WWE Performance Centre, established in 2013 is a professional wrestling school.
• Located in Orlando, Florida (USA), WWE Performance center train member participants through a comprehensive program including in-ring training,  physical preparedness and character development.
• The WWE's Professional Development program primarily focuses on Life Skills, Education, Wellness & Career Success.

 Defence Minister Commissions indigenously-built anti-submarine warship, INS Kiltan on - 16th October 2017

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman commissioned INS Kiltan, an indigenously-built anti-submarine warfare on 16th October 2017. INS Kiltan is a stealth corvette that portrays growing capability of the Indian Navy.
The Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba and a host of other dignitaries attended the commisioning ceremony. The warship comes as an extension of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.

More about INS Kiltan

• It was commissioned at the Naval Dockyard in Visakhapatnam.
• It is an addition to indigenous warships after Shivalik Class, Kolkata Class and sister ships INS Kamorta and INS Kadmatt.
• It is the three - fourth of the Kamorta-class corvettes being built under Project 28.
• It is designed by the Indian Navy's in-house organisation, Directorate of Naval Design.
  Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers based in Kolkata built it.
• This would be India's first major warship to have a superstructure of carbon fibre composite material.
• This helps in an improved stealth features, maintenance costs and lower top weight.
• It is well equipped to fight in Nuclear, Biological and Chemical warfare conditions.

Important Points

• The ship derives its name from one of the islands in Aminidivi group of the strategically located Lakshadweep and Minicoy group of islands.
• It also shares its name with the former Petya Class ship of same name ‘Kiltan (P79)’, which had also played a major role as the Task Force Commander in ‘Operation Trident’ during 1971 Indo-Pak war.
• The former ship, which was built in USSR, had served the nation with distinction for approximately 20 years from 30th October 1969 to 30th June 1987.

More about Project 28

• These are class of anti-submarine warfare corvettes at present in service with the Indian Navy.
• They are the first anti-submarine warfare stealth corvettes to be built in India.
• The project was approved in 2003, with construction of the lead ship, INS Kamorta starting in August 2005.
• Two among the four corvettes-INS Kamorta and INS Kadmatt - were commissioned in 2014 and 2016 respectively.
• The fourth, INS Kavaratti is still under construction and slated to be completed by end of 2017.

Indira Gandhi National Integration award won by - T M Krishna, Carnatic Singer

Carnatic music vocalist, T M Krishna would be honoured with the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration for 2015 -16 on 31st October 2017, on Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary.
Sonia Gandhi, President of Indian National Congress Party would be conferring this award to him.
He is being awarded for his services to promote and preserve national integration in the country.
More about T M Krishna 

• Born in Chennai on 22nd January 1976, T M Krishna was exposed to south Indian classical music at an early age.
• His first concert was at the Spirit of Youth series organised by the Music Academy, Chennai.
• He is an eminent vocalists in the rigorous Carnatic tradition in the Indian classical music, plus an activist who has worked to create egalitarian spaces for music and breaking down caste-barriers in the form.
• He was even a part of a movement launched to help the war-torn Tamil- dominated northern province of Sri Lanka rebuild its classical music traditions.
• He also previously won the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award for bringing ‘social inclusiveness in culture’ in 2016.
• He has talked and written about a wide range of socio-political issues, including rights of women, needs of children, issues that make a society civil or un-civil and the dangers of the mentality of war and narrow nationalism.

Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration

• The award was established in 1985 by the Congress Party in its centenary year.
• It consists of a citation and a cash prize worth Rs 10 lakh.
• It is conferred on 31st October for promoting national integration, understanding and fellowship among different communities and cultures of India.
• The early recipients of the award include spiritual leader Swami Ranganathananda, freedom fighter Aruna Asaf Ali, the Bharat Scouts and Guides, bureaucrat P N Haksar, singer M S Subbulakshmi, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, and former presidents Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam and Shankar Dayal Sharma.
• Other winners include musician A R Rehman and Ramakrishna Mission Ashram, Narainpur, the Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust (Indore in Madhya Pradesh), Chhattisgarh (jointly), poet Gulzar, scientist Dr. M S Swaminathan and activist P V Rajagopal who is a filmmaker Shyam Benegal and lyricist Javed Akhtar.

World Food Day 2017 observed across the world on - 16th October 2017

World Food Day was observed globally on 16 October 2017 with the theme ‘Change the future of migration. Invest in food security and rural development’.
More about World Food Day

• The day is celebrated annually on 16th October to commemorate the founding of the Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN in 1945.
• Events are organized in more than 150 countries all across the world, making it one of the most celebrated days of the UN calendar.
• The events mainly aim to promote worldwide awareness and action for those who suffer from hunger and for the need to ensure food security and nutritious diets for all.
• The day is also a chance for everyone to show their commitment towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 – to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030.
• It also offers an occasion to celebrate the progress that the world has already made towards reaching the same goal of #ZeroHunger.