UTTARAKHAND
- Tourism department to frame guidelines for trekkers
- The tourism department is now going to frame new guidelines for trekking and, registration of tour operators including for a separate category of high altitude trekking tour operators.
- The tourism department will be devising the norms with the consultation of forest department and other stakeholders and get it approved in the board meeting of Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board.
- Meanwhile, Uttarkashi forest division has slapped a legal case against the trekking group from Pune for trespassing into the forest of the division without taking its prior permission which is mandatory before embarking on any trek in the region.
INTERNATIONAL
- Kazuo Ishiguro wins Nobel Prize in Literature
- British author Kazuo Ishiguro, best known for his novel The Remains of the Day, has won the Nobel Literature Prize on October 5.
- “In novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world,” the Academy wrote in its citation.
- Born in Nagasaki, he moved to Britain with his family when he was five years old.
- Of the 114 laureates honoured since the prize was first awarded to France’s Sully Prudhomme in 1901, only 14 are women.
· Nobel Peace Prize 2017 Announced
- 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.
NATIONAL
- Gujarat first state to slash VAT on fuel prices
- Ahead of the state assembly elections, the state government has cut value-added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel, making it the first state to follow the Centre’s directions to do so.
- Recently, the union government cut basic excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 2 a litre.
- Gujarat currently levies a 28.96 per cent VAT on petrol and diesel.
- Paryatan Parv of M/O Tourism begins across the country
- The Ministry of Tourism, in collaboration with other Central Ministries, State Governments and Stakeholders is organizing a “Paryatan Parv” across the country from the 5th to 25th October 2017.
- The programme is being organized with the objective of drawing focus on the benefits of tourism, showcasing the cultural diversity of the country and reinforcing the principle of “Tourism for All”.
- The Parv is being inaugurated at the Humayun’s Tomb, New Delhi by Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (I/C) for Culture.
- Mukesh Ambani is India’s Wealthiest Man for the 10th straight year
- Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani emerged as India’s wealthiest for the 10th straight year as his net worth swelled to USD 38 billion (nearly Rs 2.5 lakh crore) while the wealth of 100 richest rose by 26 per cent despite economic hiccups.
- Wipro’s Azim Premji was the distant second with a net worth of USD 19 billion, moving up two places from last year, while Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi slipped from his earlier second place to the ninth now (USD 12.1 billion) on Forbes magazine’s annual ‘India Rich List 2017’.
· Gauri Lankesh is the First Indian Journalist to win Anna Politkovskaya Award
- Journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh, who was shot dead by unknown assailants won the prestigious Anna Politkovskaya Award, instituted by Reach All Women (RAW) in War. It was honored 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.
· India wins its First Ever Wushu World Championship Gold
- Pooja Kadian became the first ever Indian sportsperson to win a gold medal at the Wushu World Championship in Kazan, Russia. Pooja, a head constable in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) won gold in the South Asian Games and silver in the 2013 World Championship.