Current Affairs Updates from 2nd October 2014

1) Nation paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi on birth anniversary: The nation on 2 October 2014 remembered Mahatma Gandhi on his 145th birth anniversary with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders paying floral tributes at his memorial. Vice President Hamid Ansari, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh were among those who also paid homage to the Father of the Nation. The nation also remembered former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri on his 110th birth anniversary with Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the nation in paying homage to the leader, who gave the slogan 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan', at his memorial at Vijay Ghat.

 2) PM launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan; India's biggest ever cleanliness drive: The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, exhorted people to fulfil Mahatma Gandhi`s vision of Clean India. Launching the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan at Rajpath in New Delhi, the Prime Minister paid homage to two great sons of Mother India, Mahatma Gandhi and former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, on their birth anniversary. He said that out of Gandhiji`s two dreams – Quit India, and Clean India, the people had helped to ensure that the first became a reality. However, the second dream – Clean India – still remained unfulfilled. The Prime Minister said it was our social responsibility as citizens of India to help fulfil Gandhiji`s vision of Clean India, by his 150th birth anniversary in 2019. The Prime Minister congratulated the winners of the crowdsourcing contests for logo and tagline of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan – Anant from Maharashtra and Bhagyashree from Gujarat. The tag-line is “Ek Kadam Swachhta Ki Ore”.

3) India beat Pakistan 4-2 to win men's hockey gold, qualified for 2016 Olympics: A spirited Indian men's hockey team defeated arch-rivals and defending champions Pakistan 4-2 in a nerve-wracking shoot-out to end its 16-year gold medal draught in the Asian Games and earn a direct berth to the 2016 Rio Olympics on Thursday. It turned out to be a humdinger of a contest between the two sub-continental foes as both India and Pakistan refused to give an inch to each other in the entire 60 minutes of a keenly contested tussle. It took a shoot-out to determine the winner as both the teanm were locked 1-1 in the regulation time of the summit clash at the Seonhak Hockey Stadium. The last time India won the gold medal was in the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok.

4) India won women's 4x400m relay gold at Asian Games:  India continued their stranglehold in women's 4x400m relay event in the Asian Games as its quartet ran a brilliant race to win the gold for the fourth time on the trot in Games record time in the 17th edition on Thursday. The quartet of Priyanka Panwar, Tintu Luka, Mandeep Kaur and M R Poovamma won an easy race in 3:28.68 to improve upon the earlier Games record of 3:29.02 which was also in the name of the gold-winning Indian team in 2010. This was the second gold for India from athletics after Seema Punia bagged the yellow metal in women's discus throw.