27 October 2017 Current Affairs
27 October: World Day for Audiovisual Heritage
World Day for Audiovisual Heritage is observed globally on 27 October. “Discover, remember and share” is the theme of this year’s celebration of the WDAH. The General Conference of UNESCO approved the commemoration of a World Day for Audiovisual Heritage in 2005 as a mechanism to raise general awareness of the need to preserve and safeguard important audiovisual material for future generations.
Chile named best country to visit in 2018
Lonely Planet, the travel guide company, ranked Chile as the number one country to visit in 2018, in its Best in Travel 2018 list. In the top 10 countries category, Chile was ranked the number one country. It was followed by South Korea and Portugal in the 2nd and 3rd positions. In the top 10 cities category, Seville of Spain was ranked as number one. In the top 10 regions category, Belfast & the Causeway Coast of Northern Ireland was ranked number one. In the top 10 best value, Tallinn of Estonia was given the number one rank.
Infantry Day observed on 27 October
Infantry Day was observed across India on 27 October 2017 to commemorate the sacrifices made by the infantry who fought against Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir in 1947. This was the first infantry action by the Indian Army after independence.
Indian Railway’s first set of solar plant of 5 MW capacity launched
Indian Railway’s first set of solar plants with total capacity of 5 megawatt peak (MWp) was launched on roof tops of Hazrat Nizamuddin, New Delhi, Anand Vihar and Delhi railway stations by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal. This project was launched as part of Union Government’s ambitious National Solar Mission in which Indian Railways plans to commission 1000 MWp solar plants across its network.
70 Indian words added to Oxford English Dictionary
Indian words like ‘Dadagiri’, ‘Jugaad’, Surya Namaskar’, ‘Anna’, ‘Achcha’, ‘Bapu’ and few others were added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in the month of September 2017. These words are among 70 Indian words from various regional languages like Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Bengali and Gujarati that were added to the dictionary. The dictionary added over 1000 new words in its September edition.
Rajsthan Assembly passes bill increasing OBC quota to 26 per cent
The state government of Rajasthan has passed a bill that increased reservation quota for Other Backward Classes (OBC) from 21 per cent to 26 per cent. The Backward Classes (reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions in the State and of Appointments and Posts in Services under the State) Bill will provide reservation to the five most backward OBC communities:
– Gujjars
– Banjara Baldiya, Labana
– Gadiya Lohar, Gadoliya
– Raika, Rebari, Debasi
– Gadariya, Gadri, Gayari.
Saudi Arabia, first country to grant Citizenship to a Robot
Saudi Arabia has become the first country to give a robot citizenship. The move is an attempt to promote Saudi Arabia as a place to develop artificial intelligence and, presumably, allow it to become a full citizen. The Robot is named as ‘Sophia’. Sophia was confirmed as a Saudi citizen during a business event named Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh. It is historic to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with citizenship.
Malayalam writer Punathil Kunjabdulla passes away
Renowned Malayalam writer Punathil Kunjabdulla passed away in Kozhikode following a prolonged illness. He was 77. Kunjabdulla is regarded as one of the major figures of modernism in Malayalam literature. He won the Sahitya Akademi award for his novel Smarakasilakal in 1980 and the Kerala Sahithya Akademi award twice for the same novel in 1978 and for Malamukalile Abdulla in 1980.
Kilogram will get new measure set by value of Planck constant from 2019
The International Conference of heads of Metrology Institutes held in Sevres, France has decided that the measure of kilogram will no longer be pegged to cylinder. From 2019 onwards, it will be set by value of Planck constant in combination with definitions of meter and second. Till now, the kilogram is the only one among units of measures pegged to real object. It was pegged to a cylinder (shown in fig) made up of 90% platinum and 10% iridium (In India, salt-shaker-sized cylinder weighing exactly a kilogram in National Physical Laboratory was used as ideal measure of kilogram since 1957). It was serving as reference for variety of industries to keep their weights accurate. But this cylinder’s weight in kilogram is known to fluctuate due to surface contamination with time, making it tricky to define its exact mass.
World’s first track-less train
China began test runs of its world’s first track-less train in Zhuzhou city, China. The train runs on virtual track and is being considered as the ‘World’s First smart train’. This train could travel at the speed of 70 kmph and is called Autonomous Rail Transit (ART). This train was created to reduce urban traffic problems. This train is a hybrid between a bus and tram.
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