World Today - 09th October 2015

1. International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected the economic growth rate of 7.5 percent for India in 2016 as against China’s 6.3 percent. In its latest World Economic Outlook Update, IMF said growth in India is expected to rise above the rates in other major emerging market economies.
2. The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2015 is awarded to the Belarusian journalist and author Svetlana Alexievich “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time”.
3. Bollywood actor Sidharth Malhotra has been named the first Indian ambassador for Tourism New Zealand, which markets New Zealand as a visitor destination.
4. INS Astradharini, the first indigenous-designed and built torpedo launch and recovery vessel commissioned into the Indian Navy. INS Astradharini is an advanced replacement for INS Astravahini which was decommissioned earlier.
5. South Korea’s Hoesung Lee has been elected as the new head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN body tasked with assessing climate science at its 42nd session in Dubrovnik, Croatia. He succeeded India’s R.K. Pachauri.
6. An expert committee under the Chairmanship of former Secretary General of the Lok Sabha, P.D.T. Achary, and formed by the Speaker of the Delhi Assembly Ram Niwas Goel has proposed a huge 316% salary increase for the MLAs of Delhi in its report. The committee proposed raising the salary from present Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 50,000 per month.
7. Saudi blogger and social activist Raif Badawi and British poet and critic James Fenton were jointly awarded with the 2015 PEN Pinter Prize. While, due to Badawi’s imprisonment, his award was accepted by Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia and campaigner for Raif Badawi.
8. Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan launched ‘KISAN Project’ (C(K)rop Insurance using Space technology And geoiNformatics) that seeks to speed up payment of crop insurance claims to farmers and provide accurate assessment of crop damage. An Android-based app for collection of data of hailstorm with assistance from ISRO to assess large-scale damage to standing crops was also launched.
9. Russia’s women volleyball team beat the Netherlands to win 2015 Women’s European Volleyball Championship held in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
10. Russia’s Sergey Karjakin won the 2015 FIDE World Chess Cup by beating Peter Svidler (Russia) by 6-4 in the final. Championship was held in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku.
11. IFS officer Vinay Mohan Kwatra was appointed as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in Prime Minister’s Office for three years. Kwatra, a 1988 batch Indian Foreign Service officer will be replacing IFS officer Jawed Ashraf in the PMO. Steve Simon has been named as the new Chief Executive of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). Earlier he was the Tournament Director and Chief Operating Officer of the BNP Paribas Open Indian Wells Tennis Tournament. Simon (American) succeeds Stacey Allaster.
12.  National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) signed an agreement with Kotak Mahindra Bank. Under the agreement, farmers and traders who have kept their commodities in NCDEX-approved warehouses, can use such commodities as collateral for availing financial assistance from Kotak Mahindra Bank