1) Which landmark free trade agreement was reached on 5 October 2015 that will cover almost 36% of global economic output? – The Trans-Pacific Partnership of 12 Pacific Rim countries

Explanation: An ambitious agreement to lower trade and investment barriers in 12 partner countries in the Asia Pacific region was reached on 5 October 2015 at the ministerial meeting of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) held in Atlanta, USA. The round-the-clock TPP ministerial meeting lasted for about five days but was under negotiation for five years.

·         The TPP talks involved Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam.

·         The TPP, believed to be the world’s biggest trade agreement in the past two decades, will lower trade and investment barriers in the 12 partner countries in the Asia Pacific region and set new rules for the global trading system.

·         It is widely believed that the deal was necessitated to control the growing influence of China in the world market

·         The agreement has now to be approved by the Parliament of the respective countries.

·         If approved, the agreement has the potential to influence trade in everything from dairy produce to cancer treatments.

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2) The Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the 2015 WBG/IMF Annual Meetings started on 6 October 2015 at which city? – Lima (Peru)

Explanation: The 2015 WBG/IMF Annual Meetings are the Annual Meetings of the Boards of

Governors of both World Bank and IMF, the world’s most important multilateral agencies.

·         The heads of World Bank and IMF and the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of all 188 member countries are taking part in this week-long meeting. Over 16 thousand participants are also expected to take part in the multilateral event.

·         The 2015 WBG/IMF Annual Meetings serve to discuss international economic and financial developments, the state of the global economy, and policies to reduce poverty and promote inclusive economic growth.

·         It is after 48 years that these important series of annual meetings are being held in Latin America. The last time the WBG/IMF Annual Meetings were held in the region was in 1967, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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3) Union Health Ministry on 5 October 2015 launched the second phase of ‘Mission Indradhanush’, which aims to achieve fully immunizing more than 89 lakh children. This launch was done after achieving huge success in the first phase of the mission. The second phase of ‘Mission Indradhanush’ has been launched in how many districts? –352 districts

Explanation: In the second phase of ‘Mission Indradhanush’, 352 districts have been selected including 279 mid-priority districts, 33 from North-East states and 40 districts from the phase one, where large numbers of missed-out children were detected. The Health Ministry seeks to reach an estimated 45 lakh children who have never received vaccines or remain partially- immunised in the second phase.

·         The First phase of ‘Mission Indradhanush’ was launched on 25 December 2014 with the aim to immunize all children against seven vaccine preventable diseases namely diphtheria, whooping cough (Pertussis), tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B by 2020. The second phase starts from 7 October 2015 for a week.

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4) Takaaki Kajita of Japan and Arthur McDonald of Canada were declared the joint winners of the Nobel Prize for Physics for 2015, as announced by the Nobel Prize Committee on 6 October 2015. What is the field of their experiments for which they were chosen for the prestigious prize? – Neutrinos

Explanation: This year’s Physics’ Nobel was awarded for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass. The discovery has changed human understanding of the innermost workings of matter and can prove crucial to the view of the universe.

·         Japan’s Takaaki Kajita discovered that neutrinos from the atmosphere switch between two identities when coming to neutrino detectors. On the other hand, the research group Canadian scientist McDonald successfully demonstrated that the neutrinos from the Sun were not disappearing on their way to Earth.

·         Kajita is director of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research and professor at the University of Tokyo while McDonald is a professor emeritus at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada.

·         Both the winners will share the 8 million Swedish kronor (about $960,000) prize money with one half going to McDonand and the other to Kajita.

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5) Writer Nayantara Sahgal on 6 October 2015 announced returning her ‘Sahitya Akademi Award’ to the Union Govt. in protest against the “failure of the state to safeguard Indian cultural diversity”. Sahgal, a niece of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, had received this prestigious award in which year? – 1986

Explanation: She was awarded the 1986 Sahitya Akademi Award for English, for her novel, ‘Rich Like Us’ (1985), by the Sahitya Akademi.

·         In a statement explaining her decision, titled “Unmaking of India”, she refers to the recent mob killing of a Muslim man over rumours that he had eaten beef, and also the killings of rationalists MM Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare. This statement was released on 6 October.

·         She is the second of the three daughters born to Jawaharlal Nehru’s sister, Late Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.