06 October 2017 Current Affairs
First ASEAN India Music Festival to be held at Purana Qila, New Delhi
The first-ever The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) India Music Festival will be held at Purana Quila in New Delhi. The 3 day festival is being organized by External Affairs Ministry in collaboration with Culture Ministry to celebrate the 25th year anniversary of ASEAN-India Dialogue Relations. The main aim is to boost cultural influences among the peoples of the ASEAN member states and India. Famous Indian bands like the Raghu Dixit Project, Avial, Papon LIVE, Bipul Chettri and the Travelling Band, and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy will also participate in the festival.
ICAN awarded Nobel Peace Prize 2017
The Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2017 to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons”. The Prize calls upon nuclear-armed states to initiate negotiations to the gradual elimination of the world’s 15,000 nuclear weapons adding that ICAN has in the past year given the efforts to achieve a world without nuclear weapons a new direction and new vigor.
Donald Trump is Most Followed World Leader on Twitter, PM Modi Third
Donald Trump is the world’s most followed leader on Twitter, while Narendra Modi is the third, according to the latest report by Twiplomacy, a Burson Marsteller research project that tracks the use of Twitter by governments and international organizations. He overtook Pope Francis by a few thousand followers to occupy the first place in Diplomacy’s October report. India’s prime minister Narendra Modi has kept his third place consistently since 2016. Modi’s own account.
Gauri Lankesh, First Indian Journalist to win Anna Politkovskaya Award
Journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh, who was shot dead by unknown assailants recently, has been posthumously accorded with the prestigious Anna Politkovskaya Award, instituted by Reach All Women (RAW) in War. It was honoured to award the annual Anna Politkovskaya Award for women human rights defenders from war and conflict zones jointly to Gauri Lankesh posthumously and to a brave Pakistani activist Gulalai Ismail, who similarly is fighting against Islamic extremism.
FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 started in India
The much-awaited FIFA U-17 World Cup started with four opening day matches to be played in Delhi and Mumbai. The opening matches would be played by teams in Group A and B. In Delhi, the inaugural match would be played between Group A teams Colombia and Ghana at Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium, followed by hosts India who would take on Team USA in the second match. In Mumbai, Group B team New Zealand would be taking on Turkey in the first game at DY Patil stadium in Navi Mumbai.
India’s first portal dedicated to para-sports launched
In a bid to create awareness about para-sports and provide a platform to para sportspersons to narrate their stories of triumph and adversity,thenationspride.com, the country’s first portal dedicated to para-sports has been launched in Mumbai, Maharashtra. thenationspride.com is a non-profit initiative, helmed by 17-year-old Mumbai student and sports enthusiast, Saachi Munot. The portal brings readers inspiring stories of Indian para-sportspersons, who have consistently delivered stellar performances on domestic and global arenas alike, but whose stories have largely gone untold or unheard.
T K Viswanathan Committee report on Sec 66A of IT Act
An expert committee, headed by T K Viswanathan on Section 66A of the IT Act submitted its report. It was constituted by the Centre after the Supreme Court struck down the controversial Section 66A of the IT Act in 2015. According to its recommendations IPC, CrPC and the IT Act be amended to introduce stringent provisions, specifying punishment, to deal with cases of hate speech.
India ranks highest in online harassment in APAC region: Norton
India reported the highest levels of online harassment through cyberstalking and threats of physical violence in the Asia Pacific region, higher than countries like Australia and Japan, a report by Norton by Symantec. The report, which surveyed 1,035 adults in India, found 8 among 10 surveyed saying they had encountered some form of online harassment. The most common forms of online harassment were abuse and insults (63 percent) and malicious gossip and rumors (59 percent).