Daily Current Affairs: 24 October 2014

1) United Nations Day celebrated: United Nations Day was celebrated across the globe on October 24, 2014. The event, in observance since 1948, marks the foundation day of the world body created on the same day in 1945. United Nations Day is devoted to making known to peoples of the world the aims and achievements of the United Nations Organization. The UN's World Development Information Day has also been held on 24 October since 1972.

2) Committee set up to draft national National Intellectual Property Rights policy: The Commerce and Industry Ministry on Friday constituted a six-member think tank to draft the National Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) policy. The panel, to be chaired by retired Justice Prabha Sridevan, will identifies areas in IPRs where study needs to be conducted and furnish recommendations in this regard to the Ministry, an official statement said. The expert group, set up by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), will also advise the government on best practices to be followed in trademark offices, patent offices and other government offices dealing with IPRs to create an efficient and transparent system of functioning in the said offices.

3) Pankaj Advani clinched World billiards title: King of Indian cue sports Pankaj Advani added yet another jewel to his glowing crown, outplaying former champion Peter Gilchrist in the 150 up points format World Billiards Championship final and pocket his 11th world title on 24 October 2014. Advani, 29, conquered Singapore cueist Gilchrist 6-2 in a high quality finals of the shorter format of billiards. While Advani had lost to Gilchrist in the league stage 3-2, the Indian seemed determined to reverse the outcome in the most crucial match of the tournament.

4) World Polio Day observed: World observed Polio day on 24 October 2014 spreading the message of eradicating the disease from the globe. India has now been declared completely free from polio. But its neighbor Pakistan accounts for 85 per cent of world polio cases.

5) ITBP celebrated 53rd raising day: Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday saluted the brave ITBP personnel on their 53rd Raising Day. The ITBP was raised (started) on October 24, 1962. Presently, the ITBP is deployed on border guarding duties from Karakoram Pass in Ladakh to Jachep La in Arunachal Pradesh covering 3,488 km of Indo-China border and manning Border Outposts on altitudes raging from 9000' to 18700' in the Western, Middle and Eastern Sector of the Indo-China border.

6) India’s first fish hospital to come up in Kolkata: The country’s first hospital to treat abnormalities and diseases in fish is set to come up in Kolkata by mid-2015, a senior scientist said. Senior scientist T J Abraham, who is spearheading the project told PTI that the work has already started on the project. He said that nearly 60-65 kinds of disease and abnormality were found in fishes in India and the one reason why West Bengal slipped from the number one position in fish production was due to the fact that 10-20 per cent of them died of diseases.

7) Veteran Tamil actor SS Rajendran dead: Tamil cinema's yesteryear actor SS Rajendran breathed his last on Friday. He was 85. Rajendran, who made his cinematic debut with 1952 Tamil film "Parasakthi", has also starred in films like "Ratha Kanner", "Rangoon Radha" and "Sivagangai Seemai". He is often refered to as first actor legislator of Indian Politics.