Current Affairs : 23rd October

1. India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra) expects India's GDP growth to remain sluggish at 4.9 per cent in the current financial year, due to a mix of domestic and external factors.

2. Tata Steel on 21 October 2013 won a new contract to supply Britain's Network Rail with more than 95 percent of its rails for at least five years.

3. The Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) on 21 October 2013 unanimously elected Kanwar Deep Singh as the president of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) for a four-year term.

4. Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza came into the top 10 of the world women's doubles by gaining two spots to ninth place in the latest WTA Team Rankings issued on 21 October 2013. Sania Mirza jumped from 11th spot to 9th spot.

5. Harsh Vardhan to be BJP's chief ministerial candidate in Delhi.

6. Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries plans to run an exclusive chicken restaurant chain in India in partnership with a UK-based company.

7. U.S. is against penalising countries on greenhouse gas emissions. The US special envoy on climate change, Todd Stern said this at a conference in London on October 22, elaborating on the US vision of the new agreement countries have to sign by 2015.

8. Four companies, including three Chinese firms, have participated in bids for the 1,320-MW Udangudi thermal power project. The other company is the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, says an official in the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO), which has floated bids for the project.

9. Bangalore, known as India’s silicon city, has been ranked as the country’s top business destination, followed by Chennai, Mumbai and Pune in terms of infrastructure, human capital, city culture and basic quality of living, says a survey.

10. India and China on Wednesday inked a comprehensive pact which commits them not to use military capability to attack each other but a deal on a liberalised visa regime could not be signed with India strongly opposing China's stapled visa policy.

11. Reserve Bank on said it has received USD 10.1 billion under two schemes which were announced last month to attract foreign funds.

12. Moscow, the Capital of Russia hosted the 14th India-Russia Annual Summit on 21 October 2013. Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin co-chaired the summit.

13. GAIL India Ltd on signed an agreement for development of natural gas infrastructure and city gas network in Bihar.

14. Canara Bank signed a MoU with industry body CII to facilitate cheaper credit access to micro, small and medium enterprises.

15. Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) marked its re-entry into India after five years by opening a branch in Mumbai.

16. India Post on 22 October 2013 released a commemorative postage stamp on the Golden Jubilee of Bhakra Dam.

17. The Finance Ministry decided to pump in Rs 2,000 crore in State Bank of India and Rs 1,800 crore each in IDBI Bank and Central Bank of India as part of the Rs 14,000 crore capital infusion plan for the current fiscal.

18. India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra) expects India's GDP growth to remain sluggish at 4.9 per cent in the current financial year, due to a mix of domestic and external factors.

19. India will launch the first interplanetary probe, Mars Orbiter Spacecraft onboard the PSLV C-25 on the fifth of next month from Satish Dhawan Space Centre Sriharikota.

20. Lawrence R Klein, Nobel Prize winning economist died on 20 October 2013 in Gladwyne, near Philadelphia.

21. Aung Suu Kyi on 23 October 2013 received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought at Strasbourg, France.

22. Singer Noel Harrison has died at his home in Devon, aged 79 on 22 October 2013. He was the son of the actor Rex Harrison.