Current Affairs October 3-4, 2015

NATO launches biggest military exercise since 2002

·        NATO launches its biggest military exercise since 2002, putting 36,000 alliance soldiers through their paces in Italy, Spain and Portugal to boost preparedness against the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis.

·        The exercise will also involve Canada, Norway, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, together with operations in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

·        Trident Juncture 2015 will demonstrate NATO’s new increased level of ambition in joint modern warfare and will showcase a capable, forward-leading alliance equipped with the appropriate capability and capacity to meet present and future security challenges.

Government to register postal bank by year end

·        The government is likely to register the postal bank by the end of the year while a pilot for payment services will be launched around January 2017.

·        The bank will be an independent company with initial corpus of Rs 300 crore and the new entity will enter into revenue sharing model with the Department of Posts (DoP).

·        As per RBI guidelines, payments banks would offer a limited range of products such as demand deposits and remittances.

·        They will be allowed to issue ATM or debit cards as also other prepaid payment instruments, but not credit cards.

Mobile museum on Gandhi’s life

·        Gujarat Chief Minister has inaugurated a mobile museum on Mahatma Gandhi’s life at his birthplace Porbandar.

·        The mobile museum has been built on a mini truck by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for the 3rd India-Africa Forum Summit to be held in New Delhi between October 26 and October 29

·        This mobile museum displays various photographs, written messages, audio-video presentations and small documentaries.

Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace becomes disabled-friendly

·        The Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace in Bengaluru has become the first Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) monument in Karnataka and the third in the country to have facilities such as the tactile pathway and Braille signage.

·        Two other monuments that have both Braille signage and tactile pathway in India are Sanchi Stupa in Bhopal and Lakshmana Temple at Sirur in Chhattisgarh.

ICICI launch mVisa a cardless and device-less solution

·        ICICI has become the first institution worldwide to launch mVisa -a card-less and device-less solution.

·        ICICI Bank has incorporated the mVisa application in its Pockets app, which allows payments to be made by scanning a static QR code and entering the amount.

·        For its mVisa launch, ICICI Bank has tied up with 1,500 merchants in Bangalore and it plans to ramp up this number to 15,000 in a couple of months.

Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis win Wuhan Open women’s doubles title

·        Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis are on winning spree, as the duo clinched its seventh title together by winning the Wuhan Open women’s doubles trophy. 

·        The top-seeded pair eased past the Romanian team of Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu 6-2, 6-3 in the title clash. Sania and Hingis had it relatively easy in the second round, quarterfinals and semi-finals after getting a first round bye in the tournament.

Source: The Hindu,PIB