1. ICICI Bank Launches mVisa Electronic Cardless Transactions for Pockets App
i. The ICICI Bank on Thursday launched a service enabling customers to make electronic payments from their smartphones at physical stores, e-commerce portals, radio taxis and utility billers, among others, without swiping a debit card.
ii. The service is based on 'mVisa', a new mobile payment solution from Visa. ICICI Bank, India's largest private bank, is the first bank globally to launch a mobile app based on 'mVisa' solution for consumers and merchants.
iii. The service has been introduced for its customers in Bengaluru only with 1,500 merchants brought under the fold of mobile electronic payments. The service will be rolled out in other cities shortly.
iv. The process involves scanning a Quick Response code at a merchant location without swiping the card.
2. China launched the first phase of China International Payment System
i. China on 8 October 2015 launched the first phase of China International Payment System (CIPS), a milestone in bolstering Yuan’s global usage and furthering cross-border clearing of its currency from the Chinese mainland instead of offshore centres abroad.
ii. The launch of the CIPS was expected to boost the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ) launched in 2013 as a test bed for new reforms.
iii. Developed and administered by the People's Bank of China, CIPS enables market participants outside China to clear Yuan transactions with their Chinese counterparts directly from 9 am to 8 pm.
iv. The CIPS provides capital settlement and clearing services for cross-border Yuan transactions for financial institutions domestically and abroad.
v. It will enhance efficiency and increase global use of the Chinese currency. CIPS will help shore up China’s real economy and promoting the going abroad strategy of domestic enterprises.
vi. Previously, cross-border Yuan clearing was done either through one of the offshore Yuan clearing banks in places like Hong Kong, Singapore and London, or else with the help of a corresponding bank on the Chinese mainland.
3. Nobel Peace Prize 2015 awarded to Tunisian mediator group
i. Four Tunisian civil society groups have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their contribution to the country’s transition from dictatorship to democracy. The Nobel panel described its award to the National Dialogue Quartet on Friday as an “encouragement to the Tunisian people” that showed the value of dialogue in a region riven by conflict.
ii. Responsible for drafting a political "road map" that is seen as having saved the country from crisis in October 2013, the broad-based quartet cleared the way for the country to establish its first democratic constitution and hold elections late last year.
iii. While Tunisia’s transition has been less violent than that of Libya and Egypt, it has been marred by occasional violence, notably from Islamic extremists. In June, an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant-inspired gunman killed 38 people in the popular tourist resourt of Sousse.
iv. Most were British tourists. Two months earlier, 22 people were shot dead by Islamist gunmen in the country's national museum in Tunis.
4. Indo-China Joint Military Exercise Hand-In-Hand 2015
i. India-China Joint Military Training Exercise HAND-IN-HAND 2015 will be conducted at Kunming Military Academy of Yunnan province in China from 12 to 23 October 2015. It will be the fifth joint military exercise in the Hand-in-Hand series between armies of both countries which had started in 2007.
ii. Broaden and strengthen interoperability and cooperation between armies of both countries as well as complement a number of other exchanges between the two forces.
iii. This edition of exercise will lay emphasis on joint handling of insurgency at sub-unit level and related issues. It will also cover aspect of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief at formation headquarters level.
iv. The curriculum of exercise has been planned progressively in order to make participants to get familiar with each other’s organisational structure, weapons, equipment and tactical drills.
5. World Egg Day observed on 9 October 2015
i. World Egg Day was observed on 9 October 2015 as it is being celebrated every year on second Friday of October as per the directives of International Egg Commission.
ii. Celebration of this day gives a unique opportunity to help propagate the nutritive value of eggs in human nutrition. It also helps in increasing egg consumption, which is the main source of protein.
iii. On this day to promote awareness about the nutritional value of the egg, National Egg Co-ordination Committee (NECC) is conducting several programmes and campaign.
iv. Union government has decided to celebrate the day in four places in the country, Bhubaneswar (Odisha), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), Mumbai (Maharashtra) and Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh).
v. The egg white consists primarily of water (87 per cent) and protein (13 per cent) along with all the essential amino acids in the right ratios. Eggs also contain decent amounts of vitamins, phosphorus, calcium, selenium, folate and zinc. The unique shell egg makes it only farm product that cannot be adulterated.
6. Music composer AR Rahman named as Cultural Ambassador of Seychelles
i. Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman was on 8 October 2015 named as the Cultural Ambassador of Seychelles for his contribution in enhancing the country’s Art and Culture Development.
ii. One of the most globally popular Indian music icons, Rahman has won two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe, besides national recognition in his illustrious career.
iii. Despite of all these awards, Rahman will also receive the fifth Hridaynath Mangeshkar award 2015 on 26 October 2015 by veteran filmmaker Subhash Ghai on the birth anniversary of Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar, the late younger brother of legendary playback singers Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle.