Current Affairs Updates of 12th and 13th October 2013

International Affairs

• India and the US on Sunday (13th) agreed to work together to target the financial network and fund raising activities of Pakistan-based terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the Haqqani network and individual terrorists associated with these organizations.
• A Malaysian appeals court ruled on Monday that only Muslims can use the word “Allah” to refer to god, upholding a government ban on the word being used in a Catholic publication.
• North Korea on Saturday issued a fresh warning of an "all-out war", urging the United States to stop military drills and what it described as "nuclear blackmail".
• Maldivian President Mohamed Waheed withdrew from the 2013 presidential election, even as a fresh directive from the Supreme Court on re-registration of voters added uncertainty to holding of polls on October 19.

National Affairs

• India has detained an armed ship operated by a US maritime security company and the 35 people on board for failing to produce papers authorizing it to carry weapons and ammunition in Indian waters, the coast guard said on Sunday.
• India, the world's child marriage capital, has once again failed its under-age brides. The country has refused to sign the first-ever global resolution on early and forced marriage of children led by the UN.
• India made it clear at the just-concluded Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) meeting of the Committee on World Food Security in Rome that the procurement of foodgrains and distribution under the new Food Security Act will not be substantially higher than the ongoing public distribution system, indicating that it will not contribute to international price distortions.
• The department of posts launched a Mobile Money Transfer Service (MMTS) across the 1,350 post offices in Andhra Pradesh effective from Saturday.
• A team of auditors from Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has slammed the Haryana government for adopting a "pick and choose" method while selecting candidates for state-level awards for outstanding artists in music, art and folk singing.
• The HIV-AIDS patients can look forward to life insurance cover from April 1, 2014.The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) will be making in mandatory for insurers to offer insurance cover for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Science and Technology

• Indian technologists have developed a Bluetooth-enabled device that can serve as a Swiss army knife for smartphones.
• Under a potential change to Australia's national privacy laws, bosses are likely to be banned from demanding access to job seekers' Facebook or other social media pages or accounts.
• An Iranian newspaper is reporting that the Islamic Republic plans to send another monkey into space within a month.
•  He hacked some of the most secured internet networks existing on world wide web and got rewarded by his targets. Monendra Sahu, a young mining engineer from National Institute of Technology (NIT-Raipur) has the distinction of hacking websites of Microsoft, Google, Nokia, Blackberry, Yahoo and many others and is now listed in the "Security Hall of Fame".

Economy

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will soon come out with new rules for the entry of foreign banks that may even allow them to take over Indian banks, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has said.
• Telecom major Airtel has increased international call rates by up to 80% this month, mainly due to the impact of depreciation in rupee. Another leading operator Idea Cellular has also hiked international call rates by up to 25%, according to the company's website.
• The pharmaceutical industry has been the subject of increased scrutiny by regulatory bodies worldwide and in the recent past, Indian pharma sector too has witnessed more scrutiny. The US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is one regulator that requires the highest standards of safety and quality and even as an increasing number of Indian companies are attracted to and have a presence in the U.S. market, this also means that the numbers of inspections and defaults are rising.
• India has asked the World Bank and other multilateral development banks to create special windows for ensuring finance for infrastructure development, which should include provision to help projects that face a sudden scarcity of funds due to volatile capital flows.
• Expressing full confidence in the American economy and asserting there are low chances of US default, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has ruled out selling out the Indian assets in the United States.

Sports

• Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel stormed to a fourth victory in five years at the Japanese Grand Prix Sunday but will have to wait to celebrate a fourth successive Formula One world title.

 Current Affairs Updates of 12th and 13th October 2013