National Women Premier Chess Championship

International chess master Padmini Rout won the National Women Premier Chess Championship for the third time. She was representing Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) and to secure a hat-trick of title wins after hard fought draw with her PSPB teammate Eesha Karavade.

S Vijayalakshmi of Air India won silver medal.

Eesha Karavade of PSPB bagged bronze medal.

The victory has ensured that Padmini will be a part of the Indian women team in the next World team chess championship. The other two confirmed members of the team are Grandmasters Koneru Humpy and D Harika.

New INTERPOL President

Meng Hongwei, a politician of People’s Republic of China, has been elected as the new President of International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL). With this, he becomes first Chinese citizen to hold the four-year post.  He was elected at the INTERPOL’s 85th annual general assembly held in Bali, Indonesia and succeeds Mireille “Ballen” Ballestrazzi.

INTERPOL:

Interpol is the 2nd-largest international organization after the United Nations in terms of international representation. The headquartered of INTERPOL is located at Lyon, France. Its work focuses on public safety and battling terrorism, crimes against humanity, environmental crime, genocide, war crimes, etc.

National Student Startup Policy

To promote technology-driven student start-ups President Pranab Mukherjee launched the National Student Startup Policy (NSSP) during the second Visitor’s Conference.

About NSSP:

The National Student Start-up Policy has been formulated by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to propel Indian youth to contribute to the nation’s socio-economic progress. It aims to achieve this by promoting technology-driven student start-ups.

 It envisages to create 1 lakh technology based student start-ups and a million employment opportunities in the next 10 years.

 By developing an ideal entrepreneurial ecosystem, the policy aims to lend crucial soft skills such as decision-making in the students. Apart from this, it aims to promote strong inter-institutional partnerships among technical institutions.

Japan has signed a civil nuclear cooperation deal with India

Japan has signed a historic civil nuclear cooperation deal with India, opening the door for collaboration between their industries in the field even as the countries signed nine other agreements in various areas to bolster bilateral ties. With this, India has become the first non-NPT country with which Japan has signed a Civil Nuclear Agreement. The civil nuclear agreement between the two countries was not realized so far manly because India did not fit into Japan’s ‘Hikaku San Gensoku’ or three non-nuclear principles. These principles adopted in a resolution by Japanese parliament provide that Japan would neither possess nor manufacture nuclear weapons, nor shall it permit their introduction into Japanese territory.

End of cards is near Amitabh Kant

Nowadays,all transactions are done digitally through credit and debit cards. Digital transactions and  ATMs were set to disappear,said by Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant. Digital transaction through cards would disappear around by three to four years and it would move to mobile wallet and biometric modes. “Technology will be a key driver of India’s growth,” Kant said . “India believes in globalisation and it will continue to globalise and shall never talk of protectionism. As a result, it will emerge as an economy that would attract investments and growth and make India a hub of economic engagements par excellence". "Around 1500 companies have located their innovation centres in Hyderabad and Bangalore. India is the centre of frugal engineering"said Amitabh Kant.

‘Kalidas Samman’ 2015-16

Renowned theatre personality and Padma Shri, Prof Raj Bisaria has selected for the prestigious ‘Kalidas Samman’ national award for 2015-16. He will be bestowed with the prestigious award for achievement in theatre in a ceremony to be held in Ujjain.

About Award:

It is an annual award constituted by Madhya Pradesh in 1980. It is bestowed upon personalities in the four fields of classical music, classical dance, theatre and arts. Some of the previous recipients are Pandit Ravi Shankar, MF Husain, Pandit Jasraj, Shambhu Mitra, Habib Tanvir, Ebrahim Alkazi etc.

2016 Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Governance

'Maharatna' firm, Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has won the prestigious 2016 Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Governance. The award was received by Ashwini Kumar, CEO of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) on behalf of SAIL during the 16th London Global Convention on Corporate Governance and Sustainability in London, UK. SAIL was presented the award on account of its exemplary performance in the field of corporate governance that is for balancing the interests of all the stakeholders of the company -- shareholders, management, customers, suppliers, financiers, government and the community.

About Golden Peacock Award:

Golden Peacock Awards, instituted by the Institute Of Directors (IOD), India in 1991, are now regarded as a benchmark of Corporate Excellence worldwide.

Golden Peacock Awards, established now for over 25 years, excel. Golden Peacock Awards for Corporate Leadership and Institutional Excellence, over the time, have become a hallmark of excellence, both locally and globally. No award has achieved such respectability and admiration from the industry as the ‘Golden Peacock Awards’, which today receives around 1000 applications for various Awards each year. This is largely due to its transparent and 3-Tier evaluation process, based on internationally recognized criteria. Besides recognition & Award, mere preparation of information and compilation of data required for ‘Self-Appraisal Report’, helps to align & inspire the entire workforce and rapidly accelerates the pace of systems improvement in an organization. Award winners are eligible to use the Golden Peacock Awards Logo with year on all printed and promotional materials, which evidences the highest accolade received by the organisation.

First on-site huamanoid (robot) in India

First on-site huamanoid (robot) in India, was launched by the Kumbakonam-based City Union Bank (CUB) in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Humanoid named 'Lakshmi' is India’s first banking robot.Currently, CUB has readied only one version of huamanoid banker and but is planning to deploy 25-30 robots at key branches by end of year if Lakshmi proves a hit with customers.

Features:

Lakshmi is artificial intelligence powered robot. It can speak English, gesture and engage in a life-like manner in conversations.

The robot can interact with customers on more than 125 subjects including account balance and interest rates on loans.

It will not voice the sensitive financial information like account details rather display it discreetly on its screen.

World Science Day

To raise awareness of benefits of science in our daily life,10 November 2016 is observed as World Science Day for Peace and Development.

2016 Theme:

“Celebrating Science Centres and Science Museums”. It highlights the importance of science centres and museums for capacity building and to send strong messages about the importance of science for sustainable development. To mark the day, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had organised special campaigns, visits to science museums for school children, etc.

Director-General(DG) of the International Labour Organisation

Guy Ryder was re-elected as the Director-General(DG) of the International Labour Organisation(ILO)for another five term. He was elected by the Governing Body of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and received 54 of the 56 votes. Ryder is the 10th DG of ILO and was elected for the first time in May 2012. He has some 35 years of experience in the world of work.

About ILO:

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is a United Nations Agency dealing with Labour Issues. It has 187 state members. In 1969,the organisation received the Nobel Peace Prize for improving peace among classes,pursuing decent work and justice for workers and proving technical assistance to other developing countries. The ILO register complaints against entities that are violating international rules.

APEC meeting

Peru is scheduled to host the 2016 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting,from November 19 to 20, 2016. The theme of the summit is “Quality Growth and Human Development” and the official logo is the architecture of the ancient city of Caral. It will be the second time Peru hosting to the APEC Summit, previously it had hosted the event in 2008. The 2016 summit will gather leaders from the world’s 21 most important member economies, as well as over 1,500 investors and entrepreneurs.

Agenda

Four priority areas were laid out as topics to be discussed for the 2016 APEC summit. These are Human Capital Development, Upgrading SMEs, Regional Food Market, and Regional Economic Integration Agenda. These subjects were chosen to build upon on the discussions from the previous APEC summit in the Philippines.

Smart India Hackathon 2017

World’s largest digital national building initiative “Smart India Hackathon 2017” was inaugrated by Union Human Resource Development Minister Shri Prakash Javadekar. Smart India Hackathon 2017, will enable the HRD ministry to reach out to all technology institutions in India and challenge students to work out innovative solutions to some of the difficult problems faced by the nation.

25 different ministries and government departments have come together for supporting this massive initiative. Some of the ministries and departments participating in the Hackathon include Railways, External Affairs, Defence, Civil Aviation, Indian Space Research Organization, Department of Atomic Energy, etc. The HRD minister announced the first set of 250 problem statements that was received from various ministries. The students will be required to solve these problem statements during the Hackathon that will take place in early 2017.

‘Smart India Hackathon 2017’

 The Smart India Hackathon 2017 will focus on finding digital solutions to problems in the areas concerning: power, education, health, water, finance, agriculture, energy, urban & rural development, aviation & shipping, transport, sanitation, sports, law & justice, skill development & entrepreneurship, defence, textiles, tourism, etc. This initiative will help in harnessing the creativity and skills among youth for nation-building.