Current Affairs October 09, 2015

Sekhar Basu to be the next chairman of Atomic Energy Commission

Renowned scientist Sekhar Basu was on 9 October appointed as chairman of Atomic Energy Commission. Basu, who is presently director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and chief executive of the Nuclear Recycle Board (NRB), will replace RK Sinha who superannuates on October 23 and he will have a tenure till September 19, 2016. Basu has also been appointed Secretary, department of atomic energy. Basu was instrumental in setting up reprocessing and waste management facilities at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research in Kalpakkam.

Author Shashi Deshpande resigned to Sahitya Akademi General Council

Award-sinning author Shashi Deshpande on 9 October resigned from the Sahitya Akademi general council expressing a sense of strong disappointment over the literary body’s silence on the killing of Kannada writer M.M. Kalburgi. She wrote several novels, short stories and essay collections and books for children and won the Sahitya Akademi awasd for her novel “That Long Silence” in 1990. She was awarded the Padma Sri in 2009.

Veteran Music Director Ravindra Jain died

Veteran music director, singer, lyricist Ravindra Jain (71), the genius who overcome his blindness died on 9 October in Mumbai. Jain was one of the most successful composers in the 70s.He was also credited for bringing south Indian singing legend K.J. Yesudas to Hindi movies.

Nobel Peace Prize for Tunisia’s Plural Democracy

Tunisia’s National Dialogue Quartet won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize for building democracy in the country after the 2011 revolution which unleashed the Arab Spring. The Quartet has excercised it’s role as a mediator and driving force to advance peaceful democratic development in Tunisia with great moral authority. Prize money of 9,72,000 dollars will be presented to the committee in Oslo on December 10.

NASA’s New Horizon found blue skies and water ice on Pluto

The first colour images of Pluto’s atmosphere returned by NASA’s New Horizon Spacecraft has revealed a blue skies and numerous small exposed regions of water ice. Scientists say a blue sky often results from scattering of sunlight by very small particles. On Earth those particles are very tiny nitrogen molecules. On Pluto they appear to be larger but still relatively small soot-like particles. The Haze particles are grey or red, but the way they scatter, the blue light attracted the attention of the New Horizon.