Daily Current Affairs: 22 October 2014

1) SBI launched mPassBook facility on its smartphone application: The nation's largest lender State Bank of India(SBI) launched a facility called 'mPassBook' on 22 October 2014, on its 'State Bank Anywhere' mobile application, for its retail banking users. Launching the facility, SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya, said that 'mPassBook' is an electronic application of a physical passbook for savings bank and current accounts. The facility is currently available on Android phones but would soon be available on iOS and Blackberry phones too. The facility empowers users to view their transaction history on their smartphone and maintain an entire year's historical data on it.

2) India wins re-election to UN Human Rights Council:  In a significant victory, India was on 22 October 2014 re-elected to the UN's main human rights body for the period of 2015-17, receiving the highest number of votes in the Asia-Pacific group. India is currently a member of the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and its first term is due to end on December 31, 2014. India was competing in the Asia-Pacific group in which four seats were up for election. The other countries competing in the group were Indonesia, Bangladesh, Qatar, Thailand, Kuwait, Cambodia, Philippines and Bahrain. Out of them, India, Bangladesh, Qatar and Indonesia made it to the UNHRC.

3) Tata's JLR opened first overseas facility in China: Tata's Jaguar Land Rover rolled out its premium luxury Range Rover Evoque at a colourful ceremony here inaugurating its first overseas factory in China with an investment of over USD 1.7 billion to consolidate its position in the world's largest car market.

4) Boxer Sarita Devi suspended for Asian Games protest:  Taking a strict action, AIBA has provisionally suspended India's woman boxer Laishram Sarita Devi for refusing to accept the bronze medal at the Asian Games podium ceremony. Protesting against a controversial verdict, Sarita in an unprecedented move, had refused to wear the medal around her neck as she broke down on the podium during the ceremony for the 57-60 kg category. "The AIBA also provisionally suspended Sarita's coaches (Messrs Gurbakhsh Singh Sandhu, Blas Iglesias Fernandez and Sagar Mal Dhayal) as well as Indian chef-de-mission in the Incheon Asiad, Adille J Sumariwalla and will not allow any of them to participate at all levels of competitions, events and meetings until further notice," an AIBA statement said. 

5) Malala Yousafzai gets US Liberty Medal: Pakistani teenager and Noble Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has been conferred with the Liberty Medal, and the youngest recipient of the American award said this will encourage her to continue her campaign for child rights in countries including India. Malala has pledged to donate the $100,000 award money towards education in Pakistan. Previous recipients of this award include Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair, George H W Bush, Bill Clinton, Kofi Annan and Hamid Karzai.

6) Canada's parliament attacked: Canada's capital was jolted on Wednesday by the fatal shooting of a soldier and an attack on parliament building in which gunshots were fired outside a room where Prime Minister Stephen Harper was speaking. The gunman in the parliament building was shot dead and Harper was safely removed.

7) Oct 31 to be celebrated as "Rashtriya Ekta Diwas": The Central government has announced to commemorate Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's birth anniversary Oct 31 as "National Integration Day." Sardar Patel, known as the "Iron Man of India", was instrumental in the merger of over 500 princely states to create a modern India, just after Independence between 1947-1949. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said the central government will make the "National Integration Day" or "Rashtriya Ekta Divas" as a popular mass movement with voluntary participation from all sections of the society.

8) Ex-CEC Gopalaswami new chairman of Kalakshetra Foundation: The government has appointed former Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami as the new chairman of the governing board of the Chennai-based Kalakshetra Foundation. The Ministry of Culture stated in a notification on Tuesday that Mr. Gopalaswami has been appointed for a term of five years, according to a release from New Delhi. Earlier, on June 3 the government had accepted the resignation of Mr. Gopalkrishna Gandhi from the chairmanship of the foundation.