Daily Current Affairs - 3rd October 2014

1) Indian men’s Hockey team moved one more step closer in regaining its lost glory by claiming the gold medal at 17th Asian Games at Incheon on 2 October 2014. India defeated arch-rivals Pakistan by 4-2 in a nerve-wracking shoot-out in the finals to earn a direct berth to the 2016 Rio Olympics. With this win India has now won how many gold medals in men’s hockey at the Asian Games? – Three

Explanation: Prior to this India won only 2 gold medals in men’s hockey event at Asian Games – 3rd Asian Games 1966 (Bangkok) and 11th Asian Games 1998 (Bangkok). It is surprising that despite having 8 Olympic gold medals in men’s hockey event, India’s performance has not been up to the mark in Asian Games. Pakistan has till now won 8 gold medals in this event while South Korea has won 4 gold medals. Hence this win was a big morale booster for the Indian side. South Korea defeated Malaysia by 3-2 to claim the bronze medal.

2) Microsoft Corporation recently gave the first official look of the next version of its hugely popular Windows operating system (OS). What is the name of this latest upcoming OS that was also unveiled? – Windows 10

Explanation: Microsoft gave the world its first official look of the next version of Windows on 30 September 2014 at a press event held in San Francisco (US). The name of this new OS was a surprise because the company skipped over Windows 9 by naming this OS as Windows 10. Its last Windows OS was Windows 8. However, Windows 10 would be made available only in 2015. Some important features of this OS would be re-introduction of the popular ‘Start’ menu, ability to scale from smartphones to giant data centres, improved capabilities for dealing with today’s security threats and capability to run modern apps on the desktop just like other apps.

3) Which two Union Territories of the Indian Union achieved a unique milestone of 100% banking coverage as revealed in a meeting of Finance Ministry on 1 October 2014? – Puducherry and Chandigarh

Explanation: Puducherry and Chandigarh achieved this milestone by providing all the households with at-least one account. This was revealed in the meeting that the Finance Ministry held with representatives of public and private sector banks to review the progress made in the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), the flagship financial inclusion programme launched on 28 August 2014.

4) Indian women’s team defeated which team in the finals to win the gold medal in women’s Kabaddi at 17th Asian Games on 3 October 2014? – Iran

Explanation: India defeated Iran by 31-21 to notch up its second successive gold medal at the Asian Games. This was India’s 10th gold medal in these games.

5) Which country’s Parliament on 2 October 2014 voted to authorize the government to take military action in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State (IS)? – Turkey

Explanation: Turkey is a member of NATO but it was not clear whether Turkey would support the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group. On the other hand the fight for the Kurdish city of Kobane in Syria intensified as Islamic State militia was located just outside the city on 2 October.

6) Legendary Indian boxer M.C. Mary Kom won a historic Asian Games gold medal on 1 October 2014 to become the first Indian woman boxer to win an Asian Games gold medal. She defeated Kazakhstan’s Zhaina Shekerbekova 2-0. Mary Kom won this gold in which weight category? – Women’s flyweight category (48-51kg)

Mary Kom won Gold medal in Boxing

Explanation: M.C. Mary Kom is a 5-times world champion and her personal best was the bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics.

7 Indian women’s relay team won gold medal in which event athletics event at 17th Asian Games on 2 October 2014? – 4X400 m relay event

Explanation: The Indian 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. Japan won the silver in 3:30.80 while China bagged the bronze in 3:32.02. India has traditionally been a strong performer in women’s 4X400 m relay event and it was country’s fourth gold medal in this event. The country has been winning the event since the 2002 Busan Games.