Current Affairs - September 9, 2013

1.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday released a commemorative stamp in memory of freedom fighter and veteran journalist Lala Jagat Narain.

2. India’s northeastern state of Tripura achieved the first position in literacy with 94.65 percent, beating Kerala (93.91 percent), Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar announced in Agartala on Sunday.

3. Chhattisgarh has been selected for this year’s prestigious National Literacy Award for the first time since its formation in November 2000. The award was presented on the International Literacy Day celebrated on September eight.

4. The 10-day festival of Ganesh Chaturthi, also known as Ganeshotsav begins today. People of Maharashtra especially Mumbaikars are all set to welcome their favourite Lord Ganesh.

5. Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail’ (VVPAT) with Electronic Voting Machines for the by-elections to Noksen Assembly Constituency. VVPAT is a device attached with EVMs which leave a verifiable paper trail of votes cast in an election.

6. Foreign direct investment (FDI) into India increased by 6 percent year-on-year to USD 10.87 billion during the first six months of this year/ According to data from the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), the country had received USD 10.27 billion of FDI in January-June, 2012. Most of the inflows came from Singapore, Mauritius, the Netherlands and the US.

7. Retirement fund body EPFO is likely to announce an interest rate of 8.5 percent on provident fund deposits for 2013-14 to its over five crore subscribers, the same as provided for last fiscal.

8. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Monday announced a huge bonanza for mobile operators with a 50-60 per cent reduction in the reserve price for various spectrum bands.

9. Government will soon launch Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) to make the country Slum Free. Addressing a Press conference in New Delhi today, Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Dr. Girija Vyas said that the implementation phase of the Scheme will be run on a mission mode during 2013-2022.

10. North-East Frontier Railway will bring Agartala in the country’s broad gauge rail network by 2016.

11. BSP has demanded President’s rule in Uttar Pradesh and dismissal of the state government in view of communal violence in Muzaffarnagar.

12. Commissioner and DIG of Saharanpur range transferred following group clashes in Muzaffarnagar district ofUttar Pradesh; Death toll rises to 28.

13. Italian director Gianfranco Rosi’s documentary “Holy GRA”, which looks into everyday life off a Rome ring road, won the Golden Lion for best movie at the Venice film festival on Saturday. The best actor prize went to Greece’s Themis Panou for his role as father to a family which harbours a deep secret in Alexandros Avranas’s “Miss Violence”.

14. Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek win US Open Men’s Doubles title winning 6-1, 6-3 in the final. Leander Paes won his eighth men’s doubles Grand Slam title, and 14th overall.

15. World number one Novak Djokovic to clash with Rafael Nadal in the men’s singles final of the US Open Tennis tournament.