24 October 2105 Current affairs / GK / GA: India’s first Paragliding World Cup will be hosted by Himachal Pradesh.
- India’s first Paragliding World Cup has begun at Bir Billing near Baijnath town in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh.
- Snow leopard is the official mascot of this World Cup.
- It is for the first time that Paragliding World Cup is being organised in a South Asian country.
- Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju flagged off the event.
Two Indian mountaineers Arjun Vajpai and Bhupesh Kumar becomes first people to climb unnamed peak in Himchal’s Spiti Valley.
- The duo named the peak as Mout Kalam, in honour of former President of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam.
- Newly named Mt. Kalam is located near Bara Shigri Glacier, largest glacier located in Himachal Pradesh.
- Bara-Sigri glacier is the second longest glacier in Himalaya after Gangotri both are around 30 km long.
Japan offers soft loan to india for bullet train project.
- Japan has offered soft loan of 15 billion dollars (Rs 90,000 crore) at an interest rate of less than 1 per cent to India’s ambitious first bullet train project viz. Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail corridor along with technology.
- In this regard, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has submitted its report to the Union Railway Ministry.
- In its report JICA has envisaged a reduction in the travel time on the 505-km long corridor between the two western cities to 2 hours from the existing period of over 7 hours.
- The report also has mentioned that the bullet train is expected to run at speeds of around 300-350 km/hour.
President Pranab Mukherjee conferred Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowships and awards for year 2014 at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday.
- Leading musicologist S R Janakiraman, theatre doyen and noted filmmaker M S Sathyu, and musicians Vijay Kumar Kichlu and Tulsidas Vasant Borkar were awarded fellowships of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.
- 35 eminent personalities were honoured with Akademi Awards in the categories of music, dance, theatre, traditional folk/tribal music/dance/theatre and puppetry and overall contribution/scholarship in the performing arts.
- Nine artistes — including Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, Iqbal Ahmed Khan, Nath Neralkar, Nayan Ghosh and Ronu Majumdar— received awards for their contribution to music, while eight artistes were honoured for their contribution to dance.
First World Indigenous Games has kicked off in the northern Brazilian city of Palmas.
- The lavish opening ceremony of the multi-sport event was attended by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
- The first of its kind international multi-sport event will involve around 2000 indigenous athletes belonging to different indigenous ethnic groups from 30 countries.
- First World Indigenous Games will host sporting events like archery, canoeing, spear tossing and a race through the forest.
- Besides, non-competitive events will be also hosted to showcase different traditions of indigenous ethnic groups.
Indian origin Ashok Alexander sworn in as mayor of Bonn in Germany.
- Bonn is the 18th most populated city in Germany and the provisional capital of erstwhile West Germany.
- Sridharan was elected to the office as a candidate of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel-led Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) party in an election held in September 2015.
- With this win, Sridharan became the first Person of Indian Origin (PIO) to be elected as the mayor of a major city in the country.
Hurricane Patricia struck Mexico’s Pacific Coast on 23rd October 2015.
- Hurricane carrying destructive winds with a speed of 165mph forced thousands to flee homes and beach front resorts.
- Patricia landed about 55 miles west-northwest of Manzanillo, home to the largest container port on Mexico’s Pacific seaboard.
- There were no reported casualties and officials said the damage might not be as catastrophic as feared.
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Western Digital to acquire SanDisk for USD 19 billion.
- Both the Multi National Corporations (MNCs) are based in the USA.
- The acquisition is expected to pave the way for utilization of complementary product lines of both the companies and will provide the foundation for a broader set of products and technologies from consumer to datacenter.
- Western Digital is an industry-leading developer and manufacturer of storage solutions that enable people to create, manage, experience and preserve digital content.
- SanDisk is a Fortune 500 and company and is a global leader in flash storage solutions.
