The Daily Brief – 31st October, 2016

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The Daily Briefs are a comprehensive update of current affairs for the day. To know more about them, read this. If you’d like to receive updates for current affairs every day, you’ll need to subscribe by entering your email address at the right side of this page. The previous Briefs can be accessed at the archives here. Also, check out our mock tests!

  • Eight alleged members of the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) were killed in an encounter by Madhya Pradesh police. The eight men had earlier escaped from the Bhopal Central Jail by killing the security guard.
  • Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman released the report on State-wise Ease of Doing Business rankingsAndhra Pradesh and Telengana topped the all-India ranking with 98.78 per cent each, followed by Gujarat with 98.21 per cent; Chhattisgarh with 97.32 per cent and Madhya Pradesh with 97.01 per cent.
  • Post Diwali night, the levels of air pollution remained “severe” in Delhi. It is the highest warning as per the National Air Quality Index. Lack of wind led to little to no dispersal of firecracker emissions.
  • In the wake of the mutilation of the body of a soldier and the killing of a BSF jawan in Kupwara’s Keran sector, the Army stepped up its counter-offensive. According to an Army spokesman, at least four Pakistan Army pickets were targeted and destroyed.
  • Researchers of the Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) and the University of Calcutta, Department of Anthropology, have found that changes in a particular gene, called the BRCA2 gene, can increase the risk of breast cancer in men.
  • The All India Tennis Association (AITA) has confirmed Pune as the venue for the Asia Oceania Zone Group 1 Davis Cup tournament between India and New Zealand from February 3 to 5.
Kate Rubins
  • Three astronauts landed safely in Kazakhstan following a 115-day mission aboard the the International Space Station, including U.S. astronaut Kate Rubins, the first person to sequence DNA in space. Russian mission control confirmed the touchdown of NASA’s Ms. Rubins, Roscosmos’ Anatoly Ivanishin and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
  • A recent study has found that oceans may be responsible for making the Earth move in and out of ice ages every 100,000 years. By studying the chemical make-up of tiny fossils on the ocean floor, the team discovered that there was more CO2 stored in the deep ocean during the ice age periods at regular intervals every 100,000 years. This suggested that extra carbon dioxide was being pulled from the atmosphere and into the oceans at this time, subsequently lowering the temperature on the Earth and enabling vast ice sheets to engulf the Northern Hemisphere.
  • A team of scientists in Sweden tracked common swifts on a migratory route and found that they can remain airborne for 10 months straight. 
  • Italy’s most powerful earthquake in 36 years struck a new blow to the country. It measured 6.6 on the Richter scale. Norcia’s 14th-century Basilica of Saint Benedict, built on the reputed birthplace of the Catholic saint, was reduced to rubble.
  • Turkish authorities have fired over 10,000 additional civil servants as the government presses a crackdown over the failed July coup.

Today’s Quiz

  1. The Union Cabinet has approved a new agreement on Trade, Commerce and Transit between India and ____.





2. When is National Ayurveda Day commemorated?





3. Who has been awarded the Sakharov Prize for Human Rights for the year 2016?





4. According to recently released study, global wildlife populations have fallen by _____ since 1970.





5. The Andhra Pradesh government has signed a FinTech Cooperation agreement with which country?





6. In the latest World Bank report, ____ ranks number one in overall ease of doing business.





7. Which state has the most crowded prisons in the country, at an occupancy rate of 233.5 per cent?





8. IBM has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Bengaluru-based disaster recovery solution provider _____.









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