Daily Current Affairs Updates: 15 October 2014

1) Australia’s Richard Flanagan wins Man Booker prize with war story: The first Man Booker prize to allow American nominees was on Tuesday night won by an Australian, with Richard Flanagan triumphing for a “magnificent novel of love and war” that tells the harrowing stories of prisoners and captors on the Burma railway. Flanagan won for The Narrow Road to the Deep North as he became the third Australian to win the prize, following on from Thomas Keneally and Peter Carey.

2) Global Handwashing Day observed: Global Handwashing Day (GHD) is a campaign to motivate and mobilize millions around the world to wash their hands with soap. It takes place on October 15 of each year. The campaign is dedicated to raising awareness of handwashing with soap as a key approach to disease prevention.

3) Tobacco packets to devote 85 percent space to warnings: India Wednesday made it mandatory for tobacco companies to devote 85 percent space on packets of cigarettes and other tobacco products to warnings against the ill effects of tobacco consumption. "We have issued a notification to ensure that in the next few months cigarette manufacturers have 85 percent space on packets covered with either pictorial warnings or messages warning against the perils of tobacco use," union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan announced at a function on the occasion of Global Hand-washing Day. 

4) Maharashtra registers 64% turnout, Haryana creates history with 76% polling: Amid tight security arrangements, voters queued up to exercise their franchise as polling began for the 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra and 90 seats in Haryana on Wednesday. The assembly polls in both states are one of the biggest electoral tests for Narendra Modi, who spearheaded a high decibel BJP campaign to wrest power from the opposition. Over 76% eligible voters in Haryana and 64% in Maharashtra exercised their franchise .Both numbers are an increase from 2009 and the figure is all time highest for Haryana.

5) Raghuram Rajan given Best Central Bank Governor award: Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan has been conferred with the Best Central Bank Governor award for 2014 by Euromoney magazine. Euromoney said Raghuram Rajan’s tough monetary medicine combatted the storm ravaging the deficit-ridden economy in the recent emerging market crisis. Mr. Rajan received Euromoney’s Central Bank Governor of the Year Award 2014 in Washington on October 10, the RBI said in a release on Wednesday.