Exambazaar Current Affairs Oct 2019

www.exambazaar.com/current-affairs

CURRENT AFFAIRSOCTOBER 2019

Important Current Affairs for IAS, SSC, Bank, RRB and Other

Government Exams

WITH SYNOPSIS

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https://www.exambazaar.com/current-affairs

Current Affairs Digest Oct 2019


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APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS

01 Oct Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria takes charge as new IAF chief

02 Oct Kumar Sangakkara takes charge as MCC President

02 Oct Government appoints economist Surjit S Bhalla as Executive Director for India at IMF

02 Oct Budget carrier GoAir's Chief Financial Officer Sanjay Gupta resigns

02 Oct SS Mallikarjuna Rao appointed MD and CEO of Punjab National Bank

03 Oct Shri Pradipta Kumar Bisoi appointed Secretary, Department of Posts

04 Oct Rajat Monga, Senior Group President, quits Yes Bank

08 Oct Chris Silverwood appointed England Head Coach for Cricket

09 Oct Nissan Motor picks Makoto Uchida as CEO, Ashwani Gupta as COO

10 Oct PM António Costa and his Partido Socialista win Portugal general election

12 Oct Justice Manikumar sworn in as Chief Justice of Kerala High Court

15 Oct Sourav Ganguly first Indian cricketer in 65 years to become BCCI president

16 Oct Justice Goswami sworn in as new Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court

16 Oct Flipkart appoints Jeyandran Venugopal Chief Product and Technology Officer

19 Oct Former IMF chief Christine Lagarde appointed head of European Central Bank

19 Oct Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Anup Kumar Singh to be new DG of NSG

19 Oct Indian Banks Association elects Rajnish Kumar as chairman

20 Oct RIL appoints former CVC K.V. Chowdary as director

21 Oct Indonesia’s popular President Joko Widodo sworn in for 2nd term

23 Oct Justin Trudeau wins Canada elections, but loses majority

23 Oct Pankaj Kumar named new UIDAI CEO

24 Oct Centre appoints Tuhin Kanta Pandey as DIPAM secretary

24 Oct Ashok Malik appointed MEA policy advisor

25 Oct PM congratulates Kais Saied on being sworn-in as President of Tunisia

25 Oct Arvind Singh appointed chairman of AAI

26 Oct In major reshuffle, 29 joint secretaries appointed in various govt depts

26 Oct Girish Chandra Murmu appointed Lt. Governor of Jammu, R.K. Mathur appointed Lt. Governor of Ladakh

26 Oct Shri Pramod Kumar Das assumes charge as Secretary, Ministry of Minority Affairs

28 Oct Khattar becomes Haryana CM for second time, JJP's Dushyant deputy CM

29 Oct Peronist Fernandez wins Argentine Presidential election




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29 Oct Dr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu Takes Over as Chairman, National Highways Authority of India

30 Oct Justice SA Bobde named 47th Chief Justice of India

31 Oct Former Maharashtra DGP Dattatray D Padsalgikar appointed Deputy NSA

31 Oct Atanu Chakraborty replaces G.C. Murmu as Department of Expenditure Secretary

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

01 Oct Sports Usain Bolt's World Championships gold medal record broken by USA's Allyson Felix

02 Oct People Uzbekistan honors Mahatma Gandhi by issuing postage stamp

03 Oct National Railway cleanliness survey: Jaipur, Jodhpur, Durgapura emerge top three clean stations

03 Oct National Prime Minister Modi declares India Open Defecation Free (ODF)

04 Oct People Sachin Tendulkar awarded Most effective Swachchta Ambassador

04 OctBusiness and

EconomySiemens Gamesa, Elgi and 2 others bag Deming Prize

05 Oct NationalPresident of India Presented 'Vayoshreshtha Samman – 2019' to Eminent Senior Citizens And

Institutions

06 Oct People Sri Lanka releases Stamp on Mahatma Gandhi

06 Oct Sports Rohit Sharma becomes Second Indian Opener to Score 2 Centuries in a Test

07 Oct Sports World Athletics: Sifan Hassan wins unique double of 1,500 mtrs and 10,000 mtrs

07 OctBusiness and

EconomyUSAID bestows ‘Inclusive Health Access Award’ to Indian NGO Piramal Swasthya

08 Oct People Justice J.K. Maheswari sworn in as the Chief Justice of A.P. High Court

08 Oct People William Kaelin, Gregg Semenza, Peter Ratcliffe receive Nobel for Medicine

08 Oct

Science,

Technology,

Environment

Pepsico India wins US Corporate Excellence Award for Saving Water

09 Oct People Intel VP Arjun Bansal and Zilingo Founder Ankiti Bose in Fortune USA 2019's '40 Under 40'

09 Oct Defence Balakot Air Strike Squadrons awarded citations on IAF Day

09 Oct People Nobel Prize Physics 2019: Awarded to James Peebles, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz

10 Oct People Nobel Chemistry prize goes to Goodenough, Whittingham, Yoshino

10 Oct Sports Mithali Raj becomes first female player to complete 2 decades in international cricket

10 Oct People PM Modi releases commemorative stamp on Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh

11 Oct Books & Authors Poland’s Olga Tokarczuk, Austria’s Peter Handke win Literature Nobels for 2018 and 2019

12 Oct People U.K. to issue coin in honour of Mahatma Gandhi

12 Oct










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12 Oct Sports Kohli scores the highest double hundreds in Indian cricket history

12 Oct People Abiy Ahmed wins Nobel Peace Prize 2019

12 Oct Sports Dutee Chand breaks National record on way to gold at National Open Athletics

13 Oct Sports Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge becomes first to run 42 km marathon in under two hours

14 Oct Sports Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei shatters women’s marathon world record at Chicago

15 Oct People Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer win Nobel in Economics

16 Oct Books & Authors Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo joint winners of Booker Prize

16 Oct Sports Euro 2020 Qualifiers: Cristiano Ronaldo becomes 6th footballer to join 700 goals club

17 Oct People Kiran Uniyal Achieves Individual Guinness World Records

21 Oct PeopleVice President presents ‘Most Eminent Senior Citizen Award’ to former Attorney General, Shri

K. Parasaran

24 Oct SportsPraveen Kumar scripts history, becomes first Indian man to bag gold in World Wushu

Championships

27 Oct People Amazon founder Jeff Bezos regains top spot as world's richest man

29 Oct Sports Federer beats De Minaur for 10th Basel title

30 Oct People Nawazuddin bags Golden Dragon Award at Cardiff International Film Festival

30 Oct People Finance Minister Releases Commemorative Coin on Paramahansa Yogananda










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1. National

GOVERNMENT POLICIES & SCHEMES

02 Oct Government launches app for filing consumer complaints

The Consumer App is available for free in two languages including English and Hindi. It can be

downloaded on Android and iOS platforms.

POINTS TO NOTE

A mobile app available for free in two languages including English and Hindi was launched by the government to

help consumers register complaints easily and get redressal within 60 days.

Consumers must register on the mobile app for filing a complaint on issues related to 42 sectors like airlines, banking

and insurance.

The complaints which are simple in nature will be resolved within 15 days, while complicated ones will be redressed

in 60 days, it said.

The mobile app has important links related to consumers, details of each sector like refund rules and others. Paswan

said this is a step towards achieving the objective of 'Digital India'.

07 Oct Nirmala Sitharaman to Inaugurate National Tax E-Assessment Centre

The setting up of NeAC is a step for better taxpayer service, reduction of taxpayer grievances in line

with the prime minister's vision of 'Digital India' and promotion of ease of doing business.

POINTS TO NOTE

The new initiative shall impart greater efficiency, transparency and accountability in the assessment process. There

would be no physical interface between the tax payers and the tax officers.

Under the new system, taxpayers will receive notices on their registered e-mails as well as on registered accounts on

the web portal www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in with real-time alert by way of SMS on their registered mobile

number, specifying the issues for which their cases have been selected for scrutiny.










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10 Oct Cabinet approves relaxation of Aadhaar seeding of data under PM-Kisan

Cabinet has approved the relaxation of the mandatory requirement of Aadhaar Seeded data as a

pre-condition for release of funds to the beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi

(PM-Kisan) scheme.

POINTS TO NOTE

The scheme provides income support of Rs 6,000 per year to landholding families, subject to certain exclusions. The

amount is released in three 4-monthly instalments of Rs 2,000 each directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries

through DBT mode.

Since the farmers are still gearing up for Rabi season, they are in dire need of money to take care of various farming

activities like procurement of seeds, preparation of soil and other associated activities like irrigation, maintenance and

mobilization of machinery and tools.

Non-seeding of beneficiaries' details with Aadhaar number will delay the release of further instalments and will cause

discontentment among the farmers. Therefore, the mandatory requirement of Aadhaar seeding for release of benefits

after 1st August, 2019 has been relaxed till 30th November, 2019.

16 Oct Indian Railways launches 09 ‘Sewa Service’ Trains

These trains will provide connectivity to the far-flung areas where stoppages of premiere trains

were not possible. These trains will act as link trains to serve the common man of the country.

POINTS TO NOTE

It is a unique concept to start these 09 Sewa trains with layover/ spare rakes as a part of ‘sweating of assets’ initiative

by the Indian Railways. This was part of strategies of Indian Railways to have better utilization of the rolling stock

without any requisition fornew rolling stock.

These trains will run on the “Hub and Spoke” Model, thereby facilitating passengers to use these trains to reach the

“Hub” for availing onward journey to other major stations. These measures are also expected to boost the earnings

of the Indian Railways to help in strengthening the economy.

MOU'S / AGREEMENTS










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06 Oct India, Bangladesh sign 7 Pacts

Both Prime Ministers welcomed the initiatives for development of closer Maritime Security

Partnership, and the MoU on Establishment of Coastal Surveillance Radar System in Bangladesh.

India has provided such systems to Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives and planning one in Myanmar.

POINTS TO NOTE

PMs Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hasina signed seven pacts -

1. MoU for providing a Coastal Surveillance System

2. Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on the use of Chattogram and Mongla Ports for Movement of goods to and

from India

3. MoU on withdrawal of 1.82 cusec of water from Feni River by India for drinking water supply scheme for Sabroom

town, Tripura

4. Agreement concerning Implementation of the Lines of Credit (LoCs) committed by India to Bangladesh

5. MoU between University of Hyderabad and University of Dhaka

6. Renewal of Cultural Exchange Programme

7. MoU on Co-operation in Youth Affairs.

The two leaders also inaugurated through video-link three bilateral development partnership projects

Import of Bulk LPG from Bangladesh

Inauguration of Vivekananda Bhaban (students hostel) at Ramakrishna Mission, Dhaka

Inauguration of Bangladesh-India Professional Skill Development Institute (BIPSDI) at the Institution of Diploma

Engineers Bangladesh (IDEB), Khulna

31 Oct Delhi and Riyadh set up Strategic Partnership Council

The two sides signed a record number of 12 agreements across sectors including medicine and

diplomatic academies. Riyadh has emerged as a key partner for India with Saudi Arabia under

Crown Prince Salman opening new doors of opportunities.

POINTS TO NOTE

India and Saudi Arabia elevated their partnership to a new level by establishing Strategic Partnership Council.

The two sides signed a record number of 12 agreements across sectors including medicine and diplomatic academies.

Investment related pacts worth $ 15 billion were signed on the sidelines of Future Investment Initiative meet.

Under Vision-2030, Saudi Arabia has selected eight countries for entering into strategic partnerships. These are: India,

China, the UK, the US, France, Germany, South Korea and Japan.

COMMITTEES & MEETS










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05 Oct AIM, NITI Aayog, UNDP India Jointly Launch Youth Co:Lab

In a latest initiative to recognize young people as critical drivers of sustainable development, Atal

Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) India

launched Youth Co:Lab which aims at accelerating social entrepreneurship and innovation in young

India.

POINTS TO NOTE

Co-created in 2017 by UNDP and the Citi Foundation, and operational in 25 countries across the Asia Pacific region,

the Youth Co:Lab initiative aims to create an enabling ecosystem to promote youth leadership, innovation, and social

entrepreneurship.

AIM including Self-Employment and Talent Utilisation (SETU) is Government of India’s endeavour to promote a culture

of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Objective of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is to serve as a platform for the promotion of world-class innovation hubs,

grand challenges, start-up businesses and other self-employment activities, particularly in technology driven areas.

17 Oct Tribal Affairs Minister launches Van Dhan Internship Programme of TRIFED

18 interns (to be called Minister’s interns) from some of the reputed Institutes of Rural Management/

Management Institutions/ Institutes of Social Work/ Social Services of the country are participating in

the 'Van Dhan Internship Programme'.

POINTS TO NOTE

The interns have been selected to go and work on Van Dhan programme in the field. These interns have an inclination

towards involving in matters related to tribal livelihood.

After their selection through the walk- in- interview, these interns are undergoing a one week training programme. The

period of internship is 6 months (extendable developing upon the need of the organisation and mutual

sustainability).

These interns will work with the team of TRIFED in various states and districts in tribal areas in development of tribal

welfare and inclusive growth (a dissertation has to be submitted on conclusion of the internship).










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26 Oct Health Ministry to observe Vigilance Awareness Week from 28th Oct to 2nd Nov

The theme of the vigilance awareness this year is “Integrity- a way of life”. Vigilance Awareness Week

will commence with the administration of ‘Integrity Pledge’ to fight against corruption and commit to

highest standards of honesty and integrity.

POINTS TO NOTE

It is also proposed to award prizes to winners of the competitions to be conducted by this Ministry.

During the week-long Vigilance Awareness campaign, various activities like public interaction for redressal of their

grievances, usage of generic medicines, surprise inspections, conducting seminars, and other vigilance related

awareness activities will be carried out in sync with the theme of the year 2019.

OTHERS

01 Oct Gadkari inaugurates Rs 1,058 crore Delhi-Meerut Expressway Phase 3

The third phase or package from Dasna in Ghaziabad to Hapur is over 22-km long, with a civil cost of

Rs 1,058 crore. The 82-kilometer long Delhi-Meerut Expressway connects Delhi with Meerut in

western Uttar Pradesh.

POINTS TO NOTE

This 6-lane section has 2+2 lane service roads on either sides, and a 4.68-km long 6-lane elevated corridor at Pilkhuwa.

The project will help in decongesting National Capital Region and bring significant reduction in pollution level.

The Delhi-Meerut Expressway project is being implemented in four packages –

An 8.72 km long 6-lane expressway/ 8-lane NH 24 from Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi to Ghazipur border, already

completed in June 2018,

A 19.28 km long 6-lane expressway/ 8-lane NH 24 from Ghazipur border to Dasna in UP which is 60 per cent

done

22.23 km long 6-lane NH 24 with 2+2 lane service roads on either sides from Dasna to Hapur in UP, which is

being inaugurated.

The fourth package includes a 31.78 km long greenfield 6-lane expressway from Hapur to Meerut, work on

which is 57 per cent is done










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03 Oct Railway cleanliness survey: Jaipur, Jodhpur, Durgapura emerge top three clean stations

Among the over 610 stations in the non-suburban category, Jaipur topped the list with a total

score of 931.75, followed by Jodhpur, Durgapura, Jammu Tawi, Gandhinagar-Jp, Suratgarh,

Vijayawada, Udaipur city, Ajmer and Haridwar.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Indian Railways has a network of about 8,000 stations and for this report, however, 720 stations were taken into

consideration. These stations were divided into three categories — non-suburban, suburban and halt stations, on the

basis of footfalls and earnings.

Of the top 10, seven stations fall under North Western Railway, two under Northern Railways (Jammu Tawi and

Haridawar) and one under South Central railway (Vijayawada).

Perungalathur station, near Chennai, came at the bottom of the list with a total score of 258.50. Other stations at the

bottom of the list were Delhi Sadar Bazar, Guduvancheri, Singaperumalkoil (both near Chennai) and Ottappalam

(Kerala).

Andheri station topped the list ranking over 105 suburban station with a score of 728.52, followed by Virar, Naigaon,

Kandivli and Santragachi.

03 Oct Digital Exhibition on Mahatma Gandhi titled 'Digital Gandhi Gyan-Vigyan' inaugurated

Bringing a scientific context to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, an exhibition

titled “Digital Gandhi Gyan Vigyan Exhibition” was inaugurated.

POINTS TO NOTE

The exhibition has the following components :

1. VR Experience - The visitor wears a VR Headset wired to a computer and experiences the feeling of walking

around in the Sabarmati Ashram and gets to view important periods and locations in it by moving physically

in the real world.

2. Charkha with an AR App -This is a fabricated physical model of a Charkha which gets animated when seen

through an AR app on a hand-held device such as a smart-phone or tablet.

As a portion of the celebrations, IIT Gandhinagar has been engaged by the Department for organizing a workshop for

about 200 school children on 3rd and 4th October 2019 which explains the working of an innovative Charkha

Generator to the school children.










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03 Oct Prime Minister Modi declares India Open Defecation Free (ODF)

Narendra Modi also said the world appreciated India for providing toilets to over 60 crore people

in India.

POINTS TO NOTE

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the juncture of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi declared the

country open defecation-free, demanding success for the government’s initiative under which every household

outwardly has access to a toilet.

The PM assured that his government is committed to make the country free of plastics by 2022, setting an ambitious

target.

This occasion was witnessed by more than 20,000 village heads from across the country and representatives from

several countries at Sabarmati riverfront ground.

In 60 months, 600 million people have been given access to toilets, more than 110 million toilets have been built.

04 Oct Nationwide 'Paryatan Parv 2019' Inaugurated in New Delhi

Organized by the Ministry of Tourism, Paryatan Parv 2019 will be held from 2nd to 13th October 2019

across the country.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Minister of Environment, Forest & Climate Change and Information & Broadcasting Shri Prakash Javadekar;

Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Minister of Steel, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the nationwide

“Paryatan Parv 2019" in the presence of the Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism and Culture, Shri Prahlad Singh Patel

today in New Delhi.

Organisation such events and undertaking the promotional efforts has led to 1.5 times jump in the number of foreign

visitors in last 5 years.

The world tourism ranking of the country has jumped from 65 in 2013 to 34 in 2019. Shri Prahlad Singh Patel assured

that as outlined by the Prime Minister, the doubling of number of tourists will be achieved much before the set target

of 2022.

Single Use Plastics will no longer be permitted within ASI protected Monuments and within 100 m of these

Monuments, the Toursim Minister announced.

The three components of Paryatan Parv, are:

1. Dekho Apna Desh

2. Tourism for All

3. Tourism & Governance










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04 Oct Home Minister Amit Shah flags off the New Delhi-Katra 'Vande Bharat' Express

Amit Shah said that religious tourism has a very important role in the development and progress

of Jammu-Kashmir. Modi has put forward a vision to connect places of religious interest across

the country with a safe, efficient and comfortable high-speed railway network.

POINTS TO NOTE

The first Vande Bharat Express, New Delhi to Varanasi was flagged off on 15th Feb. 2019. This is the second ‘Vande

Bharat’ express.

Vande Bharat Express has been tested at 180 kmph and can run upto maximum speed of 160 kmph on passenger

service.

As another step toward green initiatives, the train has been provided with regenerative brake system which can lead

to savings of up to 30% in electrical energy consumption.

Aerodynamic shape of the nose cone and fully sealed gangway are in line with the overall theme of the modern train

set and will lead to lowered energy requirement by reduction of air drag.

The present Vande Bharat to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra shall be running at a maximum speed of 130 km on this

route and shall cover the distance between New Delhi-Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra in 08 hours. A reduction of 4

hours from the current fastest train, will thus be achieved.










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05 Oct President of India Presented 'Vayoshreshtha Samman – 2019' to Eminent Senior Citizens And

Institutions

Vayoshreshtha Samman is a Scheme of awards instituted by the Ministry of Social Justice &

Empowerment and gradually upgraded to the status of National Awards, for institutions involved in

rendering distinguished service for the cause of elderly persons especially indigent senior citizens

and to eminent citizens in recognition of their service/achievements.

POINTS TO NOTE

Two years ago, the Ministry has started “Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana” under which physical aids and assistive living

devices viz. wheel chairs, hearing aids, spectacles, support sticks etc are distributed to the older persons of Below

Poverty Line category.

Vayoshreshtha Samman is a Scheme of awards instituted by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment and

gradually upgraded to the status of National Awards, for institutions involved in rendering distinguished service for

the cause of elderly persons especially indigent senior citizens and to eminent citizens in recognition of their

service/achievements.

These awards are presented as part of the celebration of the International Day of Older Persons (IDOP) which is

celebrated every year on 1st October.

List of Awardees in different categories of award:

1. Best Institution for Research in the field of Ageing: Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences, New

Delhi.

2. Best Institution for providing services to Senior Citizens and Awareness Generation: Gandhi Bhawan

International Trust, Kollam, Kerala.

3. Best District Panchayat in providing services and facilities to Senior Citizens: District Panchayat, Panna,

Madhya Pradesh.

4. Best Urban Local Body in providing services and facilities to Senior Citizens: Municipal Council, Unhel,

Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh.

5. Best State in implementing the Maintenance and Welfare of parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, and

providing services and facilities to Senior Citizens: The State of Tamil Nadu

6. Best Public Sector Organisation in promoting the wellbeing and welfare of Senior Citizens: Artificial Limbs

Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO)










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07 Oct Golden Jubilee Edition of International Film Festival of India (IFFI) from 20-28 Nov

The 50th International Film Festival of India 2019 will witness over 200 best films from 76 countries,

26 feature films and 15 non feature films in Indian panorama section and around 10,000 people and

film lovers are expected to participate in the golden jubilee edition.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Minister also stated that as IFFI is celebrating its Golden Jubilee edition , 12 prominent films in different languages

that have completed 50 years in 2019 ,will also be showcased from 20th to 28th November.

This year, the Feature Film Jury was headed by acclaimed filmmaker and screenwriter Shri Priyadarshan.

The Jury has chosen the film HELLARO (Gujarati) directed by Abhishek Shah as the Opening Feature Film of Indian

Panorama 2019.

The Non – Feature Jury was headed by well-known documentary Filmmaker Shri Rajendra Janglay .

The Non-Feature film Jury selected the film “Nooreh” directed by Ashish Pandey as the Opening non-feature film of

Indian Panorama 2019.











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08 Oct Dr Harsh Vardhan launches eDantseva

The eDantseva website and mobile application is the first ever national digital platform on oral health

information and knowledge dissemination.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Union Health Minister also released the Braille booklet and Voice over on Oral Health Education for the visually

impaired individuals, along with the oral health posters for pregnant women and children.

Dental caries/cavities and periodontal disease remain the two most prevalent dental diseases of the Indian population

and dental infections have a potential for serious diseases/infections.

This initiative of the Ministry with AIIMS and other stakeholders aims to sensitize the public about the significance of

maintaining optimum oral health and equips them with the tools and knowledge to do so, including awareness on

the nearest oral health service facility.

e-DantSeva contains a unique feature called the ‘Symptom Checker’, which provides information on symptoms of

dental/oral health problems, ways to prevent these, the treatment modes, and also directs the user to find their

nearest available dental facility (public and private sectors both).

In 2014, National Oral Health Programme in its current form was introduced. The Center for Dental Education and

Research (CDER), AIIMS, New Delhi functions as the National Center of Excellence for Implementation of NOHP.

11 Oct MSDE launches Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship Programme with IIM Bangalore

To boost skill development at the district level, the Ministry of Skill Development and

Entrepreneurship (MSDE) signed a contract with IIM Bangalore for introducing a two-year Mahatma

Gandhi National Fellowship (MGNF) programme.

POINTS TO NOTE

Designed under Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) the fellowship aims

to address the challenge of non-availability of personnel for implementation of various programmes at national, state

and district levels.

The MGNF programme has an in-built component of on-ground practical experience with the district administration.

Launched on a pilot basis in 75 districts across Gujarat, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and

Uttarakhand, eligible fellows for the programme have to be in 21-30 years age-group, have a graduation degree from a

recognized university and be citizens of India. Proficiency in official language of state of fieldwork will be mandatory.










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11 Oct Mumbai 12th richest city in the world, NYC on top with 65 billionaires

Delhi, Bengaluru & Hyderabad among Indian cities expected to grow strongly over the next 10

years.

POINTS TO NOTE

New York City, one with the highest number of wealthiest people in the world, has 65 billionaires and over 380,000

millionaires.It is also home to two largest stock exchanges in the world.

Mumbai is the only Indian city to feature in the top 20 list.

Delhi, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad have been named in the ‘cities to watch’ category.

14 Oct 10th edition of ‘Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav’ under the Ministry of Culture in Jabalpur

Ministry of Culture is organizing the 10th edition of Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav under the Ek Bharat

Shrestha Bharat initiative in Madhya Pradesh from 14th to 21st October 2019.

POINTS TO NOTE

Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav was first organised in the year 2015 . After the grand success of this Mahotsav in 2015,

the Ministry of Culture decided to organize it with an intent to showcase the rich cultural heritage of the Country in all

its rich and varied dimensions, viz Handicrafts, Cuisine, Painting, Sculpture and Performing Arts-Folk, Tribal, Classical

and Contemporary- all in one place.

The Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav will cover a profusion of folk art forms from 22 States and it would offer the chance

to experience the best in established and emerging virtuosity.

The Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat programme was launched by the Prime Minister on 31st October, 2016 to promote

engagement amongst the people of different States/UTs so as to enhance mutual understanding and bonding

between people of diverse cultures, thereby securing stronger unity and integrity of India.

15 Oct Union Minister Paswan inaugurates celebration of 60th 'World Standard Day'

The Minister encouraged that BIS must take the lead in making global standards & benchmarks and

it should look for ways and means to become synonymous with trust and quality.

POINTS TO NOTE

Bureau of Indian Standards, which sets quality standards for piped water, has a huge role to play in Modi’s vision of

providing tap water to all households by 2024.In regard to this, Paswan said that he has written to all State Chief

Ministers to make drinking water Standards mandatory for tap water.

Secretary, Consumer Affairs Shri Avinash K Srivastava highlighted the road map for BIS including ‘One Nation One

Standard’, working on reducing ‘Single Use Plastic’, enforcing standards for piped drinking water, implementing Gold

Hallmarking etc.










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16 Oct India is 102 in Hunger Index of 117 nations, undoing decade of improvement

Over a longer-term horizon, the fall in India’s rank is sharper: From 83rd out of 113 countries in

2000 to 102nd out of 117 now.

POINTS TO NOTE

India's rank has dropped from 95 in 2010 to 102 in 2019 on the Global Hunger Index (GHI), with the increase in

prevalence of wasting (low weight for height) among children under five, contributing the most to the country’s poor

performance.

In India, just 9.6 per cent of all children between 6 and 23 months of age are fed a minimum acceptable diet.Even

conflict-ridden Yemen and climate crisis-hit Djibouti fared better than India on that front.

India has demonstrated an improvement in other indicators constituting the index: The under-5 mortality rate,

prevalence of stunting among children, and prevalence of undernourishment owing to inadequate food.

As per National Family Health Survey of 2015-16 Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra

were the big states that contributed to the high wasting percentage in the country.

17 Oct 20th Livestock Census - Total Livestock population increases 4.6% over Census-2012

Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying

has released the 20th Livestock Census report, livestock population Increases to 535.78 million .

POINTS TO NOTE

The Census will prove beneficial not just for policy makers but also for agriculturists, traders, entrepreneurs, dairying

industry and masses in general. This release provides some key results reflecting the aggregate counts of various

species as well as its comparison with previous census.

The Livestock Census has been conducted in the country periodically since 1919-20. The Livestock Census covers all

domesticated animals and its headcounts.

The major thrust given to 20th Livestock Census is the collection of data through tablets computers. The 20th livestock

census is indeed a unique attempt as for the first time such a major initiative has been take to digitise household level

data through online transmission from the field.










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22 Oct Shri Prahlad Singh Patel launches the E-Portal of CCRT ‘Digital Bharat Digital Sanskriti’ and CCRT

YouTube Channel

Union Minister of State for Culture & Tourism (IC), Shri Prahlad Singh Patel said that this will enable

dissemination of cultural education through digital interactive medium into the classrooms all over

the country.

POINTS TO NOTE

Union Minister also released a film ‘Rahas’ directed by Sunil Shukla. Rahas is basically Raaslila of Chhattisgarh.

Subsequently he released a book “Dewas ki Sanskritik Parampara” written by Shri Jeewan Singh Thakur.

CCRT should provide a platform for specifically dropout children so that they can join the mainstream so o that they

can pursue their dreams and make a career out of it be it music, painting, theatre, martial arts or any other art forms.

30 Oct Justice SA Bobde named 47th Chief Justice of India

President Ram Nath Kovind signed a warrant appointing Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde as the next

Chief Justice of India.

POINTS TO NOTE

SA Bobde will be the 47th CJI. He will hold office till April 23, 2021.

CJI designated Bobde will take over at a crucial time when the country would still be coming to grips with the

Ayodhya ruling of outgoing CJI Gogoi. Justice Bobde is part of the five-judge bench which reserved its order in the

case.

Bobde will also get a host of contentious issues such as NRC, BCCI and Sahara cases as a worrisome legacy from his

predecessor.








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30 Oct Court will take victim’s word in rape cases, says SC

Rape is presumed if occurrence of sexual intercourse is proved and the woman claims the act

was committed without her consent, the Supreme Court has held.

POINTS TO NOTE

A reading of the Section 114-A of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 makes it clear that where sexual intercourse by the

accused is proved and the question is whether it was without the consent of the woman alleged to have been raped,

and such woman states in her evidence before the court that she did not consent, the court shall presume that she

did not consent.

Three-judge Bench of Justices U.U. Lalit, Indu Malhotra and R. Subhash Reddy observed the reading in a recent

judgment.

The immediate case involved a woman who accused her employer of repeatedly raping her and taking inappropriate

pictures for the purpose of blackmail.

31 Oct Indian Railways expands NIC e-office system

Indian Railways adopted e-office system to make it paperless, efficient, transparent and expeditious.

The implementation of phase-I of NIC e-office suite has been completed ahead of time by RailTel

under an MoU with Indian Railways in March 2019 with a mandate to complete the work by March

2020.

POINTS TO NOTE

RailTel has till now created 50000+ users in 58 establishments of Indian Railways which have adopted paperless work

culture and also trained all the executives to handle the platform.

There is an absolute transparency as anything once written on the file is archived. There is also a monitoring

mechanism to check as to where the files are held up.

This would enable quick disposal of files and systematic, timely monitoring of pending files. e-Office fosters paper-

less culture which will not only save operational cost but also reduce the carbon foot print.










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31 Oct National Symposium on ‘United to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis’ Inaugurated

India is committed to eliminate two of these NTDs - Lymphatic Filariasis (Hathipaon) and Visceral

Leishmaniases (Kala-Azar) that put the future of children at high risk.

POINTS TO NOTE

Dr. Harshvardhan pointed out Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), which are a group of debilitating infectious diseases

that impact over 1.5 billion people globally and hold back the poorest communities from reaching their full potential.

Since the launch of the Global Program to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GPELF) by the World Health Organization in

2000, endemic countries across the world including India have adopted a twin pillar strategy - prevention through

Mass Drug Administration (MDA) using combination of 2 anti-filarial drugs (DEC and Albendazole), and, providing

Morbidity Management and Disability Prevention (MMDP) services to those affected by the disease.










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2. International

COMMITTEES & MEETS

20 Oct Sri Lanka removed from FATF’s Grey List

The island nation will no longer be subject to the Financial Action Task Force’s monitoring under its

ongoing global anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT)

compliance process.

POINTS TO NOTE

The FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and

other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.

The FATF said Sri Lanka made significant progress in addressing the strategic AML/CFT deficiencies identified earlier.

In October 2016, the FATF announced that Sri Lanka will be subjected to a review of the International Cooperation

Review Group (ICRG) of the terror financing watchdog to assess the progress of AML/CFT effectiveness in the

country. It indicated Sri Lanka had not made sufficient progress in four parameters - international cooperation,

supervision, legal persons and arrangements and targeted financial sanctions on proliferations (North Korea and Iran).

The FATF warned Pakistan of getting blacklisted, if it does not control terror funding by February next year.

OTHERS

06 Oct Saudi Arabia allows Unrelated Foreign Men and Women to Share Hotel Rooms

Women, including Saudis, are also permitted to rent hotel rooms by themselves, in a break with

previous regulations.

POINTS TO NOTE

The moves appear to pave the way for unaccompanied women to travel more easily and for unmarried foreign

visitors to stay together in the Gulf state.

Saudi Arabia threw open its doors last week to foreign tourists from 49 countries as it tries to grow that sector and

diversify its economy away from oil exports.

An influx of tourists could push boundaries further and risks conservative backlash










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06 Oct Trump Signs Order Restricting Visas for Those Who Cannot Afford Healthcare

The proclamation says immigrants will be barred from entering the country unless they are to be

covered by health insurance within 30 days of entering or have enough financial resources to pay

for any medical costs. The measure will be effective from November 3.

POINTS TO NOTE

The new rule applies to people seeking immigrant visas from abroad and not those in the U.S. already. It does not

affect lawful permanent residents. It does not apply to asylum seekers, refugees or children.

The Trump administration is trying to move away from a family-based immigration system and into a merit-based

system.

An immigrant will not be able to obtain a visa if using the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies when buying insurance.

Those subsidies are paid for by the federal government.

There are about 1.1 million people who obtain green cards each year.

07 Oct Pervez Musharraf to return to Pakistan Politics after a 1 year Hiatus

General (retd) Musharraf, 76, who has been living in Dubai since March 2016, is facing the

treason case for suspending the Constitution in 2007. A conviction for high treason carries the

death penalty or life imprisonment.

POINTS TO NOTE

The former president is suffering from amyloidosis, a rare disease caused by a build-up of an abnormal protein called

amyloid in organs and tissues throughout the body, according to his family.

Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008, has been declared a fugitive in the Benazir Bhutto assassination

and the Red Mosque cleric killing case.

On General Musharraf's instructions, the APML was resuming its political activities across Pakistan.

07 Oct Chinese oil company withdraws from $5-billion Iran deal

The South Pars field deal, struck in the wake of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, appears

to be just the latest business casualty of America’s pressure campaign on Tehran following President

Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of the US from the deal.

POINTS TO NOTE

China’s state oil company has pulled out of a $5-billion deal to develop a portion of Iran’s massive offshore natural

gas field, an agreement from which France’s Total earlier withdrew over US sanctions.

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif separately complained about the US campaign against Tehran and its

impact on foreign investments.










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09 Oct U.S. blacklists 28 Chinese entities over abuses in Xinjiang

The U.S. says they are implicated in rights violations and abuses targeting Uighurs and other mostly

Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region

POINTS TO NOTE

According to an update to the U.S. Federal Register published on October 2, the blacklisted firms included video

surveillance company Hikvision, as well as artificial intelligence companies Megvii Technology and SenseTime.

Right groups say China has detained around one million Uighurs and other Muslims in re-education camps in western

Xinjiang region in a step Washington says is reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

The U.S. move came after Washington banned technology giant Huawei and other Chinese firms from government

contracts, amid the trade war between the two countries.

10 Oct PM António Costa and his Partido Socialista win Portugal general election

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has congratulated Prime Minister of Portugal, Mr. António

Costa and his Partido Socialista, on winning Portugal general election.

POINTS TO NOTE

Indian-origin Antonio Costa's Socialist Party won 106 seats in the recently held general elections. Gaining twenty more

seats from 2015, the party commanded a vote share of 35.88 per cent.

Costa’s family on his father’s side hails from Goa — his grandfather was born in the former Portuguese colony, and

spent most of his life there. His father, was born in Mozambique and was a writer whose works reflected strong Goan

roots, and included essays on Rabindranath Tagore.

17 Oct U.S. House passes Hong Kong 'Democracy Act'

The law would end the Hong Kong-U.S. special trading status unless the State Department

certifies annually that city authorities are respecting human rights and the rule of law.

POINTS TO NOTE

The law would end the Hong Kong-U.S. special trading status unless the State Department certifies annually that city

authorities are respecting human rights and the rule of law.

China expressed "strong indignation" over the passing of the act, which also requires the U.S. president to identify

and sanction people who are responsible for the erosion of autonomy and serious abuses of human rights in Hong

Kong.

The act will now move to a similar vote in the Senate before it can become law.










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19 Oct China's Q3 GDP growth slows to 6%, slowest in 27 years

The reading is the worst quarterly figure since 1992 but within the government's target range of 6.0-

6.5 percent for the whole year. The economy grew 6.6 percent in 2018. There have been more

warnings of "mounting downward pressure".

POINTS TO NOTE

China's economy expanded at its slowest rate in nearly three decades in the third quarter, hit by cooling domestic

demand and a protracted US trade war. Services and high-tech manufacturing were the key areas of growth, while

employment was "generally stable".

Beijing has stepped up support for the economy with major tax and rate cuts and has scrapped foreign investment

restrictions in its stock market. Although this week, Beijing posted weaker-than-expected import and export figures for

September after Washington imposed new tariffs that month.

China's commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng said that its negotiators have "accelerated efforts" to hammer out the

details of this mini-deal, and the two sides were aiming for an "early agreement".








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21 Oct World's oldest pearl found in Abu Dhabi

The natural pearl was found in the floor of a room discovered during excavations at Marawah

Island, off the capital of the UAE, which revealed the earliest architecture found in the country.

POINTS TO NOTE

The layers from which the pearl came have been carbon-dated to 5800-5600 BC, during the Neolithic period.

According to archaeologists this pearl is proof that the objects have been traded since Neolithic times.Emirati experts

believe that the pearls were traded with Mesopotamia - ancient Iraq - in exchange for ceramics and other goods.

The excavation of the Marawah site, which is made up of numerous collapsed Neolithic stone structures, has also

yielded ceramics, beads made from shell and stone, and flint arrowheads.

The "Abu Dhabi Pearl" will be shown for the first time in the exhibition "10,000 years of Luxury" which is opening on

October 30 at the Louvre Abu Dhabi - the outpost of the famous Paris museum.

22 Oct China unveils new commercial carrier rockets to compete with India for global market

The new set of rockets are basically capable of meeting the requirements of the overwhelming

majority of launch missions for domestic and foreign commercial satellites.

POINTS TO NOTE

The new Long rocket series comprises a cluster of solid-fuelled rockets codenamed the Smart Dragon (SD) family, and

a Tenglong liquid-propellant rocket was unveiled by the China Rocket, a commercial space wing of the country's

leading rocket-maker China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. Tenglong rocket is expected to make its maiden

flight in around 2021.

China which has an established space programme with the mission to Moon has elaborate plans to extend its mission

to Mars besides setting up its own permanent space station by 2022.

China Rocket said it will raise 10 billion yuan (USD 1.4 billion) from the public in a phased manner to use the money

for innovation and capability building in the fields of research of commercial rockets and the development of reusable

launch vehicles.










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22 Oct Number of 'unicorn' startups in China exceeds US to become largest in the world

There were 206 Chinese firms out of a global total of 494 ultra-valuable start-ups known as

"unicorns" in June 2019, according to the research firm Hurun Report.

POINTS TO NOTE

China now has more privately-held start-ups valued by investors at over $1 billion than the US. China is home to the

world's three most valuable unicorns -- Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial, app maker ByteDance and ride-hailing giant

Didi Chuxing, which have a combined value of $280 billion.

China and the US dominate with over 80 percent of the world's known unicorns, despite representing only half of the

world's GDP and a quarter of the world's population.

Major US names like Airbnb and coworking space operator WeWork also made the list, which included lesser-known

startups like California-based automated pizza delivery company Zume and Indian fantasy sports platform Dream11.

23 Oct Justin Trudeau wins Canada elections, but loses majority

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will remain in power but with a minority government that will

require the support of a smaller left-leaning party after a hard-fought election in which he was

dogged by scandals.

POINTS TO NOTE

Mr. Trudeau, who took power in 2015 as a charismatic figure promising “sunny ways,” saw his popularity drop over

old photos of him in blackface and his handling of a corporate corruption case. He will now have to rely on the New

Democratic Party (NDP) to push through key legislation.

Mr. Trudeau (47), who has championed diversity as prime minister, was endorsed by former U.S. President Barack

Obama in the final stretch of the campaign and is viewed as one of the last remaining progressive leaders among the

world's major democracies.

Canada's economy, however, has been on a general upswing in 2019. The Canadian dollar has been the best-

performing G10 currency this year, rising more than 4% against its U.S. counterpart, as the economy added jobs at a

robust pace and inflation stayed closed to the Bank of Canada's 2% target.










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24 Oct Hong Kong government to withdraw extradition bill that sparked protests

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam had proposed the amendments to resolve a case involving a man

wanted for murder in Taiwan who could not be sent to the self-ruled island because there was no

extradition agreement in place.

POINTS TO NOTE

Hong Kong authorities are set to formally withdraw an unpopular extradition bill that sparked months of chaotic

protests in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

The proposal stoked widespread fears residents would be put at risk of being sent into mainland China's Communist

Party-controlled judicial system, and Lam was forced to drop the bill in the face of fierce opposition.

24 Oct TOEFL score reports to be available within six days of appearing for exam

The Educational Testing Services, which conducts the test, has also launched an official TOEFL app to

help students register for the English language examination.

POINTS TO NOTE

The TOEFL, a global test for English language, is welcomed by more than 10,000 institutions in over 150 countries. It is

universally accepted in popular destinations like the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and by over

98% of the universities in the United Kingdom.

Students can now download the TOEFL app through the Apple app store or the Google play store. The app will offer

similar features to students’ online accounts, including test registration, searching for test centres and finding open

seats in a two-month period.

Requests for disability accommodation or health-related needs accommodation can also be made using the app.

Users will also be able to view the status of their current and past requests.

From August, the duration of the test was shortened by 30 minutes and the number of questions in three sections —

reading, listening and speaking — were reduced. The earlier duration of the test was three-and-a-half hours.

28 Oct Donald Trump announces Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi dead

Mr. Trump said Baghdadi died after running into a dead-end tunnel. He ignited his suicide vest,

killing himself and his three children.

POINTS TO NOTE

Baghdadi killed himself during the raid by detonating a suicide vest during a raid by U.S. special forces in

northwestern Syria.

U.S. forces suffered no personnel losses. Trump also thanked Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iraq for their support.

While the destruction of the quasi-state that Baghdadi built has denied the group its recruiting tool and logistical

base from which it could train fighters and plan coordinated attacks overseas, most security experts believe Islamic

State remains a threat through clandestine operations or attacks.










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29 Oct Kartarpur corridor to have 80 immigration counters for speedy clearance

India and Pakistan last week signed the agreement on the Kartarpur Corridor that will allow Indian

pilgrims to undertake visa-free visit to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, the shrine of the Sikh religion’s

founder Guru Nanak Dev in Pakistan, notwithstanding a chill in bilateral ties over Kashmir.

POINTS TO NOTE

The agreement will allow 5,000 Indian pilgrims daily to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib where Guru Nanak spent last 18

years of his life.

Pakistan has set up 80 immigration counters at the Kartarpur Corridor to speed up the clearance process of the large

number of pilgrims who are expected to visit the holy shrine.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is scheduled to formally inaugurate the Kartarpur Corridor on November 9, ahead

of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak on November 12.








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29 Oct Pakistan stops TV anchors from giving opinions during shows

As per the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) code of conduct, the role of

anchors is to moderate the programmes in an objective, unbiased and impartial manner,

excluding themselves from their personal opinions, biases and judgements on any issue.

POINTS TO NOTE

Pakistan's electronic media regulator has barred the television anchors from giving "opinions" during the talk shows

and has limited their role of being a "moderator". The regulatory body directed the media houses to select the guests

in talk shows with the utmost care and keeping in view of their expertise in a particular subject.

PEMRA warned the media houses that non-compliance with its directives/guidelines and orders of the Superior Court

shall compel the authority to initiate legal action under sections of the PEMRA Ordinance 2002 as amended by the

PEMRA (amendment) Act, 2007.

The order, which was issued to all satellite TV channel licencees, comes following an order by the Islamabad High

Court dated October 26 in the matter of Shahbaz Sharif versus the state taken cognisance of various speculative TV

talk shows whereby anchors, in violation of the code of conduct, tried to malign the judiciary and its decision with

mala fide intention, the report said.

29 Oct EU nations agree to Brexit extension until January 31

The European Union agreed a three-month flexible delay on Monday to Britain's departure from

the bloc as Prime Minister Boris Johnson pushes for an election after opponents forced him to

request an extension.

POINTS TO NOTE

Johnson, who became prime minister in July by pledging, “do or die”, to deliver Brexit on Oct. 31, was compelled to

request a postponement after he was defeated in parliament over the sequencing of the ratification of his divorce

deal.

The 27 countries that will remain in the EU agreed on Monday to put off Brexit until the end of January with an earlier

departure possible should the faction-ridden UK parliament ratify the separation deal Johnson agreed with the bloc.

EU member states will need Britain to formally reply to its offer of a three-month delay before launching a “written

procedure” whereby governments will have 24 hours to accept or reject.










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31 Oct Pakistan issues commemorative coin to mark Guru Nanak’s 550th anniversary

The year 2019 marks the 550th birth anniversary year of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, whose

birthplace is Sri Nankana Sahib in Pakistan.

POINTS TO NOTE

Pakistan on October 30 issued a commemorative coin to mark Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary in November.

The coin comes ahead of the inauguration of the Kartarpur corridor by Prime Minster Khan on November 9.

Kartarpur Sahib is located in Pakistan’s Narowal district across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba

Nanak shrine.

31 Oct Cambridge Analytica Scandal: Facebook to pay a GBP 500,000 fine to UK

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has faced questioning by US and EU lawmakers over how the

political consultancy obtained the personal data of 87 million Facebook users from a researcher.

POINTS TO NOTE

Facebook has agreed to pay a 500,000 pound fine for breaches of data protection law related to the harvesting of data

by consultancy Cambridge Analytica, Britain's information rights regulator.

Facebook said it was pleased to have reached a settlement and the company wished it had done more to investigate

the claims about Cambridge Analytica in 2015.

31 Oct WhatsApp sues Israel's NSO for allegedly helping spies hack phones

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco, WhatsApp accused NSO of facilitating

government hacking sprees in 20 countries. Mexico, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were

the only countries identified.

POINTS TO NOTE

WhatsApp alleges that NSO helped government spies break into the phones of roughly 1,400 users including

diplomats, political dissidents, journalists and senior government officials.

WhatsApp said the attack exploited its video calling system in order to send malware to the mobile devices of a

number of users. The malware would allow NSO's clients to secretly spy on a phone's owner, opening their digital

lives up to official scrutiny.










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31 Oct US Fed cuts key rate by 25 bps

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates for a third time this year in a move to ensure the US economy

weathers a global trade war without slipping into a recession, but signalled its rate-cut cycle might be

at a pause.

POINTS TO NOTE

Fed said that it will monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook as it assesses the

appropriate path of its target interest rate, a less decisive phrase.

Unemployment is near a 50-year low, inflation is moderate, and data earlier showed gross domestic product grew at

an annual rate of 1.9% in the third quarter, a slowdown from the first half of the year but not as sharp a decline as

many economists expected.










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3. Regional and State


08 Oct Delhi Govt will incentivise good samaritans who take accident victims to hospitals

Under the scheme, the city government will incur the treatment expenditure of eligible road accident

victims and give incentives to those who helped them.

POINTS TO NOTE

Kejriwal named this scheme as 'Farishtey Dilli Ke' and said the Good Samaritan scheme had been initiated in 2017 on a

pilot basis.

At least 3,000 lives were saved during the pilot project of the initiative which ran for 18 months.

The chances of survival increase by 70-80% if an accident victim is taken to the hospital within one hour of his

accident, which is the 'Golden Hour'.

11 Oct Cabinet okays Rs 5.5 lakh each for 5.3k PoK Families in Jammu and Kashmir

The announcement of the resettlement package comes with polling to take place for block

development councils (BDC) in J&K on October 24.

POINTS TO NOTE

In a Cabinet release, the government said in the wake of the1947 Pakistani aggression in J&K, 31,619 families migrated

from PoK to the state of J&K.

Further, during the Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971, 10,065 more families were displaced from Chhamb Niabat area.

Hence,The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a one-time payment of Rs 5.5 lakh as a resettlement package for

the 5,300 displaced families who had come from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and initially settled outside Jammu

and Kashmir but later relocated to the state.

Meanwhile, Congress state unit chief G A Mir, released recently from house arrest, said his party’s boycott of the block

development council polls was to protest the “indifferent attitude of the state administration and continued

detention of senior party leaders in the valley.”










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27 Oct Yogi Adityanath launches single helpline number 112 in Uttar Pradesh

This single helpline number will reduce the response time. Route chart of 112 should be prepared

and positioning at district, station level should be done.

POINTS TO NOTE

Adityanath also lauded the state Uttar Pradesh police over their efforts towards maintaining law and order across the

state.

He even hailed the police over successful completion of Kumbh in Prayagraj, 15th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Varanasi

and Lok Sabha elections.

29 Oct Free bus rides for women in Delhi from Tuesday as AAP govt scheme kicks off

As per AAP government scheme, conductors will distribute pink tickets having face value of Rs 10

each to women passengers for free-travel. The government will then reimburse the transporters

based on the number of such tickets issued.

POINTS TO NOTE

There are around 3,700 DTC buses and 1,800 buses under the cluster scheme of the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal

Transit System (DIMTS). According to Gahlot, 30 per cent of travellers in DTC and cluster buses are women.

The facility will also be available in Noida-NCR service, airport and other special services operated by the DTC and

cluster scheme operators.

According to the government, women employees of the Delhi government, local bodies and undertakings will not be

entitled for transport allowance if they opt for free ride in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and cluster buses.

The Delhi Assembly has also approved a grant of Rs 150 crore for implementation of the scheme in metro.

MOU'S / AGREEMENTS










34



14 Oct ADB, India sign $190 million loan for improving road connectivity in Rajasthan

Loan to upgrade 754 kilometers of state highways and major district roads (MDRs) to two-lane or

intermediate-lane standards that will benefit about 26 million people in 14 districts of Rajasthan.

POINTS TO NOTE

The ADB value-addition will consist in financing part of the construction costs for the annuity-based public private

partnership (PPP) concessions and EPC contracts and ensure good governance during project implementation,

particularly on procurement and safeguards.

The annuity-based PPP model attracts private sector financing to address capital investment requirements, where a

proportion of initial capital expenditure is paid during construction while the balance is serviced by annuity payments

during the operation and maintenance phase.

OTHERS

06 Oct Tripura gets its first-ever SEZ at Sabroom

The proposal involves estimated investment of Rs. 1550 crores and generates estimated

employment to the tune of 12000.

POINTS TO NOTE

Rubber based Industries – Tyres, Threads etc, Textile and Apparel Industries, Bamboo Industries and Agri-Food

Processing Industries are the industries which will be set up.

The state government informed that as per SEZ rules for sector specific SEZ, minimum land requirement for the North

East States including Tripura is 25 Hectares.

According to state government, setting up of the SEZ at Sabroom would open new avenues and attract private sector

investment considering proximity of the Chittagong Port which is located relatively closer to the State and

construction of the bridge across Feni River in South Tripura which is underway.

The SEZ will have Duty free import/domestic procurement of goods for development, operation and maintenance of

SEZ units; 100% Income Tax exemption on export income for SEZ units under Section 10AA of the Income Tax Act for

first 5 years, 50% for next 5 years thereafter and 50% of the ploughed back export profit for next 5 years.










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18 Oct Niti Innovation Index: Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra ranked top three states in innovation

The index, released by Aayog's vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar and CEO Amitabh Kant, has been

developed on the lines of the Global Innovation Index.

POINTS TO NOTE

Chattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand are at the bottom of the index among states.

Among north-eastern states, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have topped the index while Delhi,

Chandigarh and Goa have topped the list among union territories in the countries.

The idea behind the index, which has been developed over last one-and-a-half year, is to analyse innovation at state

level. The index is based on seven pillars which include five enablers and two performance indicators some of which

include human capital, investment, knowledge workers and knowledge output.

21 Oct CII adopts 100 villages in Punjab, Haryana to mitigate pollution caused by stubble burning

To curb alarming pollution levels in north India, especially during winter months, CII on Sunday said it

has adopted over 100 villages and 100,000 acres of farm area in Punjab and Haryana to enable zero

crop residue burning. The industry body has adopted Ludhiana, Barnala and Patiala districts in

Punjab, and Rohtak, Sirsa and Fatehabad in Haryana.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has created an ecosystem to engage stakeholders, including experts,

corporates, state governments, village community and farmer groups, to implement possible solutions to the issue of

stubble burning.

CII is proactively engaging with over 15,000 farmers to provide farm machinery, organise technical trainings and

massive awareness drives in the adopted villages of Punjab and Haryana.

Air quality monitors have been installed to monitor village level air pollution data, to measure the impact of reduced

stubble burning.

28 Oct Khattar becomes Haryana CM for second time, JJP's Dushyant deputy CM

The BJP emerged as the single largest party by winning 40 seats in the Assembly polls, but it fell

short of six seats to form the government on its own. The majority mark in Haryana State

assembly is 46.

POINTS TO NOTE

Manohar Lal Khattar of the Bharatiya Janata Party was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Haryana for the second time.

Jannayak Janta Party’s Dushyant Chautala took oath as Deputy Chief Minister of the State.

The BJP and the JJP, which secured 10 seats in the polls decided to come together to form the next government in the

State.










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31 Oct West Bengal govt to create forests using Japanese Miyawaki method

The Miyawaki method involves planting dozens of native species in the same area, which becomes

maintenance-free after the first three years. This method ensures plant growth is 10 times faster and

the resulting plantation is 30 times denser.

POINTS TO NOTE

West Bengal government's panchayat & rural development department has decided to create forests across the state

using the Miyawaki method, a Japanese method of tree planting that helps in building dense, native forests.

The first such forest would be coming up on 1,000 acres in the village of Shibganj, in Shyampur-I block in Uluberia

subdivision in Howrah district. This forest would be named after the famous Swedish environment activist, Greta

Thunberg.

The plants to be planted are native species species like bahera, bael (wood apple), jamun (blackberry), mango, haritaki,

babla, banyan, palash, shirish, tal, karamcha and mahua.










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4. Business and Economy


02 Oct TRAI prescribes rate of Rs 6.46 for mobile number portability service

Telecom regulator TRAI on Tuesday prescribed nearly 66 per cent cut in per transaction charge to

Rs 6.46 for port out services offered by mobile number portability service providers (MNPSPs).

POINTS TO NOTE

The authority has issued 'Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability Per Port Transaction Charge and Dipping

Charge (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2019' prescribing the PPTC of Rs 6.46 for each port request, on 30

September, 2019

TRAI had previously fixed Rs 19 as PPTC for mobile number portability services offered by mobile number portability

service providers.

The revamped mobile number portability (MNP) or port out rules aim to makes the entire process faster and simpler

05 Oct Cabinet Approves New Strategic Disinvestment Process of PSUs

Department of Investment & Public Asset Management(DIPAM) and NITI Aayog will now jointly

identify PSUs for strategic disinvestment.

POINTS TO NOTE

Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) under the Ministry of Finance has been made the

nodal department for the strategic stake sale. This was done with a view to streamlining and speeding up the process,

reducing the role of administrative ministries which often used to place hurdles in the path of major stake sales.

DIPAM secretary would now co-chair the inter-minister group on disinvestment, along with the secretary of

administrative ministries concerned.

Officials said strategic sale may involve two-stage bidding beginning with an expression of interest (EoI) or a

preliminary intent showing bid, and a final financial bid.

The government has set a target of mobalising Rs 1.05 lakh crore from disinvestment proceeds and achieving this has

become more critical after it doled out Rs 1.45 lakh crore stimulus by way of a cut in corporate tax.










38



11 Oct Input tax credit under GST regime restricted to 20% of claims: CBIC

Businesses will have to pursue their vendors on a monthly basis to upload their invoices to enable

them to take the entire input tax credit (ITC) after the indirect tax board came out with a notification

to restrict these credits to 20 per cent of the claims.

POINTS TO NOTE

Experts said it would block cash flow of businesses and increase their compliance burden.

Though theoretically, businesses have to reconcile their ITC within 60 days, this clause was never implemented since

the auto-populated form of purchases by suppliers GSTR2, has been suspended.

As such, businesses are supposed to reconcile their input tax credit at the time of annual returns. However, the

deadline of annual returns even for the first year of the GST rollout — 2017-18 — have been deferred a number of

times. The deadlines were extended after the businesses and experts complained about the complex nature of filing

these returns and reconciliation of audited accounts with these returns. For instance, tax and legal consultants had

said hundreds of amendments, notifications and circulars have made the GST Act very complex.

24 Oct BSNL, MTNL to be merged, Cabinet approves four-way revival plan

In order to revive loss-making telecom PSUs BSNL and MTNL, the government today decided to

merge the two ailing firms as part of a revival package that includes raising sovereign bonds,

monetising assets and voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for employees.

POINTS TO NOTE

Pending this, MTNL will act as a subsidiary of BSNL. MTNL is listed but has its net worth already eroded. BSNL is

unlisted.

Prasad said the government will raise Rs 15,000 crore through sovereign bonds. "Assets worth Rs 38,000 crore will be

monetisated in four years.

Prasad also announced that 4G spectrum will be allocated to BSNL and MTNL. The allocation of 4G spectrum to them

would be done at 2016 prices and administratively.










39



24 Oct Govt relaxes fuel retailing norms, private firms can set up petrol pumps

Paving the way for the entry of new players in the fuel-marketing space, the government

scrapped a rule that mandated a company to commit at least Rs 2,000-crore investment in the

petroleum sector.

POINTS TO NOTE

Entities seeking authorisation will now need to have a minimum net worth of Rs 250 crore only.

Authorised entities will, however, have to meet certain conditions such as setting up a minimum 5 per cent of their

retail outlets in the notified remote areas within five years of grant of authorisation.

Also, these entities will be required to install facilities for marketing at least one new-generation alternative fuel, such

as CNG, LNG, and biofuel, at their retail outlets within three years of operationalisation of outlets selling

conventional fuel.

While Total has tied up with Adani for fuel marketing, BP and Reliance Industries have announced a new venture for

marketing automobile fuel and electric charging.

24 Oct CCEA approves MSP for Rabi Crops of 2019-20

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the increase in the Minimum

Support Prices (MSPs) for all mandated Rabi Crops of 2019-20 to be marketed in Rabi Marketing

Season (RMS) 2020-21.

POINTS TO NOTE

The increase in MSP for Rabi Crops for RMS 2020-21 is in line with the principle of fixing the MSPs at a level of at least

1.5 times of the all India weighted average cost of production (CoP), which was announced in the Union Budget 2018-

19.

This MSP policy whereby the farmers are assured of a minimum of 50 percent as margin of profit is one of the

important and progressive steps towards doubling farmers' income by 2022 and improving their welfare substantively.

Cost of production is one of the important factors in the determination of MSPs. This year's increase in MSP of Rabi

crops for RMS 2020-21 provides higher than 50 per cent return (except safflower) over all India weighted average cost

of production.

The new Umbrella Scheme “Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanraks Han Abhiyan” (PM-AASHA) announced by the

government in 2018 will aid in providing remunerative return to farmers for their produce. The Umbrella Scheme

consists of three sub-schemes i.e. Price Support Scheme (PSS), Price Deficiency Payment Scheme (PDPS) and Private

Procurement &Stockist Scheme (PPSS) on a pilot basis.










40



24 Oct Cabinet approves finance related MoU between India and Kuwait

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is for capacity building and strengthening the accounting,

financial and audit knowledge base in Kuwait.

POINTS TO NOTE

The MoU entails that two entities of India and Kuwait which are: Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and

Kuwait Accountants and Auditors Association (KAAA).They will work together to hold and conduct technical events,

seminars and conferences in Kuwait for the benefit of both organizations’ members and development of their

professional expertise. Costs will be shared as agreed in writing by both parties for each event.

AI and KAAA shall work together for establishing possible cooperation in respect of Corporate Governance, technical

research and advice, quality assurance, forensic accounting, issues concerning Small and Medium-sized Practices

(SMPs), Islamic Finance, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and other subjects of mutual interest.

KAAA will provide venue for all the events and will encourage its students and faculty members to attend these

events.

KAAA and ICAI will collaborate to offer short-term professional courses in the domain of accounting, finance and audit

in Kuwait for Kuwaiti nationals and members of the ICAI.

The proposed MoU is expected to consolidate the trust and help to build a positive image for the Indian Chartered

Accountants in Kuwait.

MOU'S / AGREEMENTS

10 Oct Cabinet approves MoUs signed between India, foreign broadcasters for exchange of technical

expertise

The MOU was signed in the field of radio and television to facilitate exchanges of technical expertise

and training of manpower to meet emerging challenges in broadcasting.

POINTS TO NOTE

The pacts with the foreign broadcasters will help the public broadcaster in exploring new visions; new strategies to

address the demands of new technologies and stiff competition, media liberalisation and globalisation.

Exchanges of technical expertise and training of manpower would help the public broadcaster to meet the emerging

challenges in the field of broadcasting.










41



11 Oct MakeMyTrip announces tie-up with TripAdvisor for international travel

MMT aims to grow the segment as hotels and associated package business give better margins than

air ticketing.

POINTS TO NOTE

MakeMyTrip, an online travel company, announced a sourcing tie-up with travel website TripAdvisor, offering its

customers tours and activities in over 100 places abroad.

The data of make my trip shows consistent increase in the number of outbound Indian travellers who are willing to

spend more on new and differentiated local experiences. With the roll-out of international experiences with

TripAdvisor on their platform, Make my trip can now empower Indian travellers with more choices when they travel

overseas.

International hotels and packages is one of the fastest growing segments. The firm was investing here in technology,

products, supply and brands to achieve growth.

14 Oct IHMCL, GSTN to ink pact to link FASTag with GST e-way bill system

The Indian Highways Management Company Ltd (IHMCL) and Goods and Services Tax Network

(GSTN) will sign an MoU for integration of FASTag with GST e-way bill system at the 'One Nation, One

FASTag' conference.

POINTS TO NOTE

FASTag is a simple to use, reloadable tag which enables automatic deduction of toll charges and lets vehicle pass

through toll plaza without stopping for cash transaction.

This integration will help revenue authorities track the movement of vehicles and ensure that they are travelling to the

same destination that the transporter or the trader had specified while generating the e-way bill.










42



30 Oct India signs deal with Saudi Arabia for strategic oil reserves and retail matters

Sources said Aramco is currently evaluating its Indian investments and views buying out BPCL as a

good opportunity.

POINTS TO NOTE

India’s energy partnership with the world’s biggest oil producer that will enable energy security in the long term took a

leap forward with a bilateral deal to build emergency crude reserves as a buffer against volatility in oil prices and

supply disruptions for Asia’s third largest economy.

India has already built 5.33 million tons of underground reserves in three locations, which can meet about 10 days of

the country’s oil needs. Delhi plans two new reserves with a combined capacity of 6.5 million tons, sufficient to cover

for an additional 12 days.

While Reliance has the world’s largest and most modern integrated refinery complex, Saudi Aramco is the world’s

largest oil producer. Aramco is currently in the process of an IPO that could value the company at $1.5 trillion to $2

trillion.

31 Oct Saudi Aramco to keep 4.6 mn barrels of oil in India's Padur reserve: Govt

So far, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co is the only foreign company storing oil in India's strategic reserves,

at Mangalore, also in Karnataka.

POINTS TO NOTE

India will lease a quarter of its strategic petroleum reserve in Padur to Saudi Aramco to store about 4.6 million barrels

of oil.

Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd, a government company charged with building oil storage, signed a

memorandum of understanding with the Saudi state firm for its participation in the 2.5-million-tonne facility in

Karnataka state.

India, which relies on imports for about 80% of its oil needs, has underground emergency storage in three locations to

protect against any supply disruption. The reserves can hold 36.87 million barrels.

Global oil producers are eager to gain a foothold in India, where fuel demand is expected to keep rising as the

country's economy grows.

OTHERS










43



02 Oct Ford hands over the wheels to Mahindra in $275 million deal

The two companies have for months been negotiating the deal which will see Ford take a 49 per cent

stake in the new entity and end most of its independent local operations in India.

POINTS TO NOTE

Under the terms of the deal, which is likely to be finalised by mid-2020, Ford will transfer its local automotive assets,

including both its car manufacturing plants in the country, and employees to the new entity

By shifting to a joint venture, Ford is changing its India strategy where it has long run an independent operation in a

market dominated by Asian car makers like Suzuki Motor Corp and Hyundai Motor Co and where several others have

struggled to make money.

Ford's two car manufacturing plants,one in Chennai in southern India and the other in Sanand in western India which

was inaugurated in 2015,will be moved to the new joint venture, the companies said. Ford will retain its engine plant

at Sanand and its global business centre in Chennai.

The new entity, which will be operationally managed by Mahindra, will develop and sell Ford brand vehicles in India

and export Ford and Mahindra brand vehicles to emerging markets.

02 Oct SoftBank Vision Fund looks to acquire 3.28% more stake in Delhivery

In February, CCI had approved SVFD's subscription to compulsorily convertible preference shares

amounting to 22.44% of the total shareholding of Delhivery.

POINTS TO NOTE

According to a regulatory document filed with the Competition Commission of India, SVFD, a holding company on

behalf of SoftBank Vision Fund LP (SVF), proposes to acquire up to 3.28 per cent of the issued and paid up share

capital of Delhivery on a fully diluted basis.

Following the transaction, Softbank had become the largest shareholder in Delhivery, followed by Tiger Global and

Nexus Venture Partners with 15.38 per cent and 14.77 per cent, respectively.

The founders Sahil Barua, Mohit Tandon, Suraj Saharan, Kapil Bharti and Bhavesh Manglani collectively hold 8.51 per

cent stake in the company










44



04 Oct Siemens Gamesa, Elgi and 2 others bag Deming Prize

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Power Pvt. Ltd., Elgi Equipments Ltd along with two other Indian firms

have won the prestigious Deming Prize for 2019 to be awarded in Tokyo, for implementing total

quality management (TQM).

POINTS TO NOTE

The Deming Prize is one of the highest global awards on TQM, being awarded by the Union of Japanese Scientists and

Engineers (JUSE) to firms that have demonstrated exceptional performance through TQM.

The award ceremony will be held at Tokyo on November 6.

Elgi is the first globally established, industrial air compressor manufacturer, outside of Japan, to win the prestigious

award in over 60 years.

Leading industrialist Venu Srinivasan, CMD, TVS Motor Co. Ltd, was awarded the Deming Distinguished Service Award

For Dissemination and Promotion Overseas.

The other two Indian firms are: JSW Steel Ltd’s Salem Works and L&T.

06 Oct Care Ratings downgrades Ramdev's Patanjali on Ruchi Soya Acquisition

Care Ratings Ltd. downgraded Patanjali's long-term bank facilities to A- from A+, citing a likely

weakening of its financial position as it partly funds a merger with a maker of soya products.

POINTS TO NOTE

Patanjali Consortium Adhigrahan Pvt., a venture by Patanjali Ayurved and three other companies controlled by yoga

guru Baba Ramdev, is taking over Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd. for Rs 43.5 billion ($614 million).

India’s company court approved a bid by Patanjali Consortium last month to take over Ruchi Soya. Creditors of the

cooking oil producer are set to receive a maximum of Rs 42.4 billion in repayments, a 65% haircut to their verified

claims of about Rs 121 billion.










45



07 Oct USAID bestows ‘Inclusive Health Access Award’ to Indian NGO Piramal Swasthya

Hyderabad-based Piramal Swasthya is one of the five global healthcare NGOs that were awarded

by USAID for developing solutions to optimise health systems so that people receive the health

care they need in ways they trust without having to pay too much or travel too far.

POINTS TO NOTE

The five winners from 400 applications across 68 countries received a USD 30,000 grant from USAID's Innovation

Incentive Award Authority.

Piramal Swasthya was awarded for impacting 10.7 crore beneficiaries over 12 years through its innovative high impact

solutions and in recognition of tribal health programme in Andhra Pradesh, and ‘Aspirational Districts Transformation

Programme’ in partnership with the NITI Aayog.

Piramal Swasthya is poised to transform India’s most pressing healthcare needs and help India achieve a Maternal

Mortality Rate of 70

07 Oct Seven of India's Top 10 companies lose over Rs 1 lakh Crore in Market Cap

Seven of the 10 most valued domestic companies suffered a combined erosion of Rs 1 lakh crore in

their market valuation last week with HDFC Bank taking the biggest hit by losing over Rs 30,000 crore.

POINTS TO NOTE

Besides HDFC Bank, the other losers included Reliance Industries (RIL), Hindustan Unilever (HUL), HDFC, Kotak

Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finance.

On the other hand, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and ITC are among the top 10 firms that saw rise in their

market valuation for the week ended Friday.

In terms of ranking of top-10 firms, RIL retained its top position, followed by TCS, HDFC Bank, HUL, HDFC, Infosys, ITC,

Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finance, which pipped State Bank of India to acquire the tenth position.










46



07 Oct Embassy Parks to invest $300 million in warehousing, logistic projects

The company, a joint venture between realty firm Embassy group and private equity firm Warburg

Pincus, is developing industrial and warehousing parks in Chakan (Pune), Bilaspur and Farrukhnagar

(NCR), Sriperumbudur and Hasur (Tamil Nadu), and Hyderabad in phased manner.

POINTS TO NOTE

Embassy Group is one of India’s largest real estate conglomerates with a broad portfolio of over 54 million sq ft of

prime commercial, residential and industrial space in India. Embassy and Blackstone launched India’s first real estate

investment trust earlier this year.

The company has invested around $80 million since 2016 when it started the operation.

The demand for Grade-A warehousing spaces has gone up with the implementation of the goods and services tax

(GST). E-commerce and third-party logistics firms are the main drivers of this demand, said Virwani, who is also the

chief operating officer (COO) of the realty firm Embassy group.

According to the property consultant, the leasing of warehousing spaces went up by 31 per cent to over 13 million sq

ft across eight major cities in the first half of 2019.

09 Oct Reliance Mutual Fund is now Nippon India Mutual Fund

Following the purchase of 75% stake in Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management by Nippon Life

Insurance, Reliance Mutual Fund has been renamed as Nippon India Mutual Fund.

POINTS TO NOTE

This has been one of the largest foreign direct investments in the financial sector, and now Nippon India Mutual Fund

is the largest foreign-owned Asset Management Company in India.

Sundeep Sikka will continue to lead company as the CEO.

In Japan, one out of 12 people is a policyholder of Nippon Life Insurance. The company will continue to focus on

increasing market share and profitability.










47



10 Oct India ranks 68th on WEF global competitiveness index, Singapore on top

India ranked at 15th place in terms of corporate governance, while it is ranked second globally for

shareholder governance.

POINTS TO NOTE

India has moved down 10 places to rank 68th on an annual global competitiveness index by Geneva-based World

Economic Forum (WEF), largely due to improvements witnessed by several other economies, while Singapore has

replaced the U.S. as the world’s most competitive economy.

Announcing its latest index, the WEF said that India ranks high in terms of macroeconomic stability and market size,

while its financial sector is relatively deep and stable despite the high delinquency rate, which contributes to

weakening the soundness of its banking system.

In terms of the market size, India is ranked third, while it has got the same rank for renewable energy regulation.

India also punches above its development status when it comes to innovation, which is well ahead of most emerging

economies and on par with several advanced economies.

But, these positive metrics contrast with major shortcomings in some of the basic enablers of competitiveness in case

of India, while flagging limited ICT (information, communications and technology) adoption, poor health conditions

and low healthy life expectancy.

The healthy life expectancy, where India has been ranked 109th out of total the 141 countries surveyed for the index,

is one of the shortest outside Africa and significantly below the South Asian average.

With a ratio of female workers to male workers of 0.26, India has been ranked very low at 128th place. India is also

ranked low at 118th in terms of meritocracy and incentivisation and at 107th place for skills.











48



11 Oct India jumps to 7th spot in Brand Finance Nation ranking

As per the latest report by independent brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance, India has jumped

to seventh position from 9th last year, after recording a solid 19 per cent growth in brand value to

USD 2.6 trillion.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Indian economy was quick to recover after the global financial crisis, with growth now reduced by a recent

slowdown in both the manufacturing and construction sectors.

Last year, Canada was at the 7th position which has dropped to 8th position. South Korea, which was at the 10th

position last year has managed to jump a level up to reach the 9th position.

Italy, which was at 8th position last year, slipped to the 10th, while the US, China and Germany continued to be the

top three nations, respectively even in 2019.

Japan and the UK swapped positions with the former jumping to 4th, while the latter falling to 5th position as against

its ranking last year.

13 Oct Air India, AAI join Trade Receivables Discounting System platform

Recent permission granted to NBFCs to access the benefits of TReDS platform will add to the number

of financiers.

POINTS TO NOTE

The concept of TReDS, which was introduced by the RBI in 2014, helps small companies get their bills discounted at a

competitive rate through an auction where multiple registered financiers can participate.

The recent permission granted to non-banking financial system (NBFCs) to access the benefits of TReDS platform will

add to the number of financiers while large public sector undertakings from different sectors joining in will encourage

cash strapped MSMEs to increasingly seek the benefits from the digital platform.

The Reserve Bank of India granted approval to Mynd Solutions Pvt Limited to set up and operate M1xchange, the first

trade receivable exchange in India.










49



15 Oct Total of France agrees to buy 37.4% stake in Adani Gas for ₹6,152 crore

Total SA of France, world’s second-largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) player has agreed to buy a

37.4% stake in Gautam Adani-led Adani Gas, to tap the potential of the fast-growing gas demand of

the Indian market.

POINTS TO NOTE

Adani and Total have signed definitive agreements to deepen their existing partnership and commitment for

developing multi-energy offerings to the Indian energy market.

Total’s investment in Adani Gas reinforces India’s natural gas and demand potential. The partnership will derive

significant synergies between Adani’s capabilities of developing world-class assets and Total’s global best practices as

well as leveraging business synergies across LNG, Fuel Retail and City Gas distribution.

As part of the existing joint venture, Adani and Total in the coming years will target to build a fuel retail network of

1,500 retail stations, on the main roads of the country, such as highways and intercity connections.

15 Oct Retail inflation rises to 3.99 per cent in September

Retail inflation inched closer to the Reserve Bank of India’s medium-term target of 4% in September

for the first time in 14 months on higher food prices, although economists maintain that the

economic slowdown will prompt a sixth consecutive interest rate cut in December.

POINTS TO NOTE

Wholesale inflation eased to its lowest level in more than three years. Retail inflation accelerated to 3.99% last month.

Overall, food inflation could remain high this year even as core inflation declines. That should improve terms of trade

for the farmers. Core inflation softened 8 basis points to 4.19%, underlining the ongoing slowdown.

Food prices would continue to rise till at least March 2020, mainly due to the base effect. Other items that exerted

pressure on retail inflation in September are expenditure on health, education and personal care.

15 Oct YES Bank completely exits Fortis Healthcare, sells 6.6% stake in bulk deal

YES Bank on Monday sold 6.6 per cent equity stake amounting to more than 49.5 million shares of

Fortis Healthcare. The shares were sold at Rs 130.27 a piece fetching YES Bank Rs 645 crore.

POINTS TO NOTE

YES Bank had become Fortis's biggest shareholder with an approximate 17 per cent stake, after it and other lenders in

March 2018 called in the shares that had been put up as collateral by founders Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh.

Eastspring Investments was one of the buyers that purchased the shares of the healthcare company.

After the sale, YES Bank holds just 1,850 shares in the hospital chain.










50



18 Oct Self-drive car sharing service 'Ola Drive' launched

To build and scale up the service across several Indian cities, Ola intends to host a fleet of 20,000

cars by 2020, 50 per cent more than the fleet size of the entire industry put together.

POINTS TO NOTE

Ola unveiled 'Ola Drive', a self-drive car-sharing service. The service has been initially rolled out for users in Bengaluru

with Hyderabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi to follow shortly.

The development would further deepen Ola's battle with US rival Uber to capture the mobility market in India as well

as take on early self-drive car-rental players such as Mahindra-backed Zoomcar and Revv, which counts Hyundai

Motors among its investors.

The car-sharing market in India has been largely untapped, with the most popular use case being leisure trips.

18 Oct OYO launches online portal 'Super Agent' for travel agents

The portal provides pre-registered and verified offline travel agents access to OYO inventory at the

best price to deliver great value to their customers.

POINTS TO NOTE

The company claimed that SuperAgent offers travel agents a simplified homepage including recent searches,

recommended hotels, great deals, and important actions right at their fingertips.

OYO has created SuperAgent to simplify the booking experience for travel agents and to help them engage better with

consumers.

With the hospitality, travel and tourism market seeing exponential growth in India, the role of travel agents in the

industry has become increasingly important in ensuring a seamless experience for customers.











51



18 Oct IL and FS completes wind power units sale to Orix for 4,800 crore

This move gives Orix, which previously owned 49% stake a 100 % ownership in each of the seven

projects. The entire debt of around Rs 3,700 crore held in the seven SPVs will now be with Orix

thereby resulting in no haircuts for the lenders.

POINTS TO NOTE

Bankrupt infra major IL&FS completed the sale of its 51 percent stake in seven wind power special purpose vehicles to

Orix Corporation of Japan for Rs 4,800 crore.

With the order of the NCLT Mumbai, Orix has transferred the money into an escrow account-- around Rs 590 crore

towards equity value and an additional Rs 216 crore towards full repayment of debt advanced by IL&FS Energy

Development Company to these SPVs.

21 Oct World Bank says India halved its poverty rate since 1990s

The World Bank's observations on India's growth before the Annual meeting between it and the

International Monetary Fund stated that the country has achieved annual growth exceeding 7% over

the last 15 years

POINTS TO NOTE

India’s growth is expected to continue and elimination of extreme poverty in the decade is within reach. The key points made

by the World Bank ahead of the annual meeting between it and the International Monetary Fund:

Land will need to be used more productively in urban areas and in rural areas by increased agricultural productivity.

India’s water management will need to provide for shifting water allocation to higher-value uses and policies to

increase the value of water use within sectors.

Electricity generation will need to be less carbon intensive.

India’s rapidly growing economy needs investment in infrastructure an estimated 8.8 percent of GDP or $343 billion a

year until 2030.

The female labour force participation in India is at 27% and is among the lowest in the world despite the country

overcoming gender gaps in education.










52



25 Oct India jumps to 63rd position in World Bank's Ease of Doing Business 2020

The report ranks 190 nations based on ten parameters, which includes ease of starting a

business, construction permits, getting electricity, getting credit, paying taxes, trade across

borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.

POINTS TO NOTE

The country was 77th among 190 countries in the previous ranking last year, an improvement by 23 places. The report

assess improvement in ease of doing business environment in Delhi and Mumbai.

India put in place four new business reforms during the past year and earned a place in among the world’s top ten

improvers for the third consecutive year.

However, India still lags in areas such as enforcing contracts and registering property . It takes 58 days and costs on

average 7.8% of a property’s value to register it, longer and at greater cost than among OECD high-income economies.

And it takes 1,445 days for a company to resolve a commercial dispute through a local first-instance court, almost

three times the average time in OECD high-income economies.

26 Oct Jeff Bezos loses world’s richest man title as Amazon's earnings fall

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates overtook Jeff Bezos to once again become the world’s richest person.

POINTS TO NOTE

Jeff Bezos has lost the title as the world’s richest man after Amazon’s lacklustre Q3 results resulted in Mr. Bezos losing

nearly $7 billion in stock value.

Earlier, Mr. Bezos ended Gates’ 24-year run as the richest man in 2018 and became the first man on earth with a net

worth of $160 billion.

In an earnings call, Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said that the profit decline was mostly related to the

global e-commerce business.

27 Oct Mahindra's subsidiary to acquire 100% stake in Peugeot Motorcycles

Mahindra Two Wheelers Europe, a Mahindra subsidiary, currently holds 51 per cent in PMTC. Even

after the buyout, the Peugeot brand will continue to be used under the trade licence agreement

between PMTC and Peugeot.

POINTS TO NOTE

The subsidiary is set to seek full control of Peugeot Motorcycles (PMTC) for an undisclosed amount.

The Peugeot design teams will continue to assist in the design and development of PMTC products.

Rajesh Jejurikar, president – farm equipment services and Two Wheelers at Mahindra, said the firm was seeing positive

momentum at Peugeot Motocycles with Kisbee, the 50cc vehicle in Europe becoming the largest selling 50cc vehicle in

Europe.










53



27 Oct Microsoft wins Pentagon's $10 bn 'war cloud' deal over Amazon

The contentious bidding process for the contract pitted Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle, among

others, against one another. Tech giants Oracle and IBM pushed back with their own bids. Oracle

also challenged the bid process in federal court, but lost.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Pentagon has awarded Microsoft a $10 billion cloud computing contract called JEDI.

The resulting system will store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the US military to use artificial

intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities.

Microsoft, Amazon, Google and other tech giants have faced criticism from their own employees about doing

business with the government, especially on military and immigration related projects.

27 Oct Start-ups reap windfall from efforts to boost Ease of Doing Business

The number of start-ups in the country has also risen significantly, with India being the third largest

ecosystem in the world for unicorns.

POINTS TO NOTE

India made a big leap on the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) rankings, jumping 14 places to the 63rd position, out of

190 countries. This comes after the country jumped 23 ranks last year to be placed at the 77th position.

Tracxn show that start-ups raised USD 11.3 billion this year, up from USD 10.5 billion a year ago. The number of start-

ups in the country has also risen significantly, with India being the third largest ecosystem in the world for unicorns.

Unicorns are start-ups that are valued at more than USD 1 billion.

Industry insiders say this has happened because the means of starting and maintaining a business in India have

become simpler.










54



29 Oct GVK to sell 79% stake in airport business to 3 investors

The GVK group will raise Rs 7,614 crore by selling 79.1 per cent stake in its airport business to three

investors to pare debt and stave off the Adani group’s proposed acquisition in Mumbai airport.

POINTS TO NOTE

The group announced signing off a definitive agreement with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), PSP

Investments of Canada, and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) for selling stake in its airport

business holding company.

The proceeds from the transaction will be used by GVK to retire around Rs 5,500-crore debt of its holding companies

and fund the purchase of additional shares in Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) from two South African entities —

Bidvest and Airports Company South Africa. The GVK group owns 50.5 per cent in MIAL and is also developing the

Navi Mumbai International Airport. An arbitration tribunal has given the GVK group time till October 31 to deposit Rs

1,248 crore for acquiring Bidvest's 13.5 per per cent stake.

After the stake sale, the GVK group will continue to have management control of its airport business.








https://www.exambazaar.com/eqad



55



29 Oct Mukesh Ambani to set up Alibaba like online shopping space worth Rs 1.7 lakh crore

The board of Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. approved a proposal to plow 1.08 trillion rupees

($15 billion) into the fully owned subsidiary, which will in turn invest that amount in Reliance Jio

Infocomm Ltd., the conglomerate’s telecommunications venture.

POINTS TO NOTE

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani moved a step closer to creating an e-commerce giant for India, unveiling plans to set up a

$24 billion (Rs 1.7 lakh crore) digital-services holding company that would become the main vehicle in his ambition to

dominate the country’s internet shopping space.

Ambani told shareholders in August that the new businesses, including retail, are likely to contribute half of

Reliance’s earnings in a few years, versus about 32% now. Ambani has also been stitching together a network of

partners through acquisitions and stake purchases to build a backbone for his e-commerce plans.

Following the equity infusion, Reliance Jio will transfer liabilities worth 1.08 trillion rupees to a subsidiary of the

parent, turning Jio almost debt free, excluding airwave-related liabilities. Jio’s debt stood at about 840 billion rupees

as on Sept. 30.

With the new holding firm, Ambani is also readying the businesses for an initial public offering, which he has vowed

to complete within five years.

While Jack Ma started Alibaba in 1999 from scratch, Ambani is using the heft of his empire to build something similar

for India by connecting retailers and consumers.

The tycoon has also revealed a plan to sell 20% of Reliance’s oil and chemicals business to Saudi Arabian Oil Co. at an

enterprise value of $75 billion.

30 Oct In one of the largest deals for Airbus, IndiGo orders 300 A320neo aircraft

IndiGo had earlier in three tranches placed orders for 530 Airbus planes between 2005 and 2015.

IndiGos total number of A320neo family aircraft order now stands at 730.

POINTS TO NOTE

Budget carrier IndiGo announced it has placed a firm order for 300 A320neo family aircraft, comprising A320neos,

A321neos and A321XLRs.

This marks one of Airbus largest aircraft orders ever with a single airline operator.

IndiGo, one of the early launch customers for the A320neo, continues to build its future with Airbus, making IndiGo

the worlds biggest customer for the A320neo family.










56



5. Banking Awareness


03 Oct DIN system of CBDT launched, about 17500 Communications with DIN Generated on First day

This DIN system has been created as per the direction of Finance Minister Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman

and from now onwards every CBDT communication will have to have a documentation identification

number.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Documentation Identification Number (DIN) system of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has come into

existence with the generation of about 17,500 communications with DIN on the very first day.

All such communications with DIN would be verifiable on the e-filing portal and no communication would be issued

manually without DIN except only if it is in the specified exceptional circumstances.

Whenever any such manual communication would be issued, it would be necessarily required to specify reason of

issuing such a communication without DIN along with the date of obtaining written approval of the Chief

Commissioner/Director General of Income Tax in a particular format.Any communication which is not in conformity of

with the prescribed guidelines shall be treated as invalid.

CBDT has specified that any communication issued manually under exceptional circumstances would have to be

uploaded and regularised on the system portal within 15 days of its issuance.

With the present system of attaching a DIN to every notice or communication of CBDT would result in better services

to taxpayers without any possible harassment.

10 Oct Cabinet approves 5% additional DA/DR due July, 2019

Cabinet approved to release an additional instalment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central

Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners w.e.f. 01.07.2019 representing an

increase of 5% over the existing rate of 12% of the Basic pay/Pension, to compensate for price rise.

POINTS TO NOTE

This will benefit about 49.93 lakh Central Government employees and 65.26 lakh pensioners.

The additional financial implication on account of this increase in Dearness Allowance is estimated at Rs 8590.20 Crore

per year, and Rs 5726.80 Crore in the current Financial Year of 2019-20 (for 8 months from July 2019 to February 2020).

Dear Allowance/Dearness Relief is paid to Central Government employees/pensioners to adjust the cost of living and

to protect their basic pay/pension from erosion in the real value. Dear Allowance/Dearness Relief is revised twice a

year from 1st January and 1st July.










57



19 Oct No charges on digital payments made to large biz establishments from Nov 1

FM Nirmala Sitharaman had said business establishments with annual turnover of more than 50

crore should offer low cost digital modes of payment to their customers and the RBI and banks

should absorb cost of transactions.

POINTS TO NOTE

The government said banks or system providers will not impose charges or Merchant Discount Rate on customers as

well as merchants on digital payments made to establishments having turnover in excess of Rs 50 crore from

November 1.

Following the announcement, amendments have been made in the income tax act as well as in the Payment and

Settlement Systems Act 2007.

The CBDT has also invited applications from banks and payment system providers who are willing that their payment

systems may be used for the purpose as the government plans to prescribe certain electronic modes of payment.

OTHERS

05 Oct RBI Monetary Policy Meet: RBI Cuts Repo Rate by 25 bps

RBI reduced repo rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 5.15 per cent. This is the fifth straight rate cut from

the RBI and it results in an overall decline of 135 bps or 1.35 percentage point in the key lending rate.

Reverse repo rate stood at 4.90 per cent.

POINTS TO NOTE

Repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends to banks, while reverse repo rate is the rate in which it borrows from

banks. The central bank has maintained its "accommodative" stance.

When the RBI cuts rates, banks are expected to pass on the benefit to consumers and reduce interest rates on home,

auto , personal or other loans which may result in lower EMIs (equated monthly instalments).

With first quarter GDP (gross domestic product) growth plunging to 5 per cent, the RBI cut its estimate of

economic growth in the current fiscal to 6.1 per cent from its estimate of 6.9 per cent.

The next meeting of the MPC is scheduled during December 3-5 2019










58



05 Oct RBI Monetary Policy Meet: NEFT Transfer to be Available for 24 hours Now

Currently, NEFT is available only till 7:45 pm on working days. The revised timings will be effective

from December this year.

POINTS TO NOTE

The revised timings is likely to spur retail and online payments in the country.

National Electronic Funds Transfer is Reserve Bank of India controlled platform which facilitates interoperable

payment for fund transfer by a customer between different accounts.

The government looks to spur demand and growth while also achieving the medium-term target for consumer price

index inflation of 4%.

05 Oct RBI Monetary Policy Meet: RBI increases lending limit of MFIs to Rs 1.25L

RBI has raised the lending cap for microfinance institutions to Rs 1.25 lakh, against the earlier limit of

Rs 1 lakh, to improve credit availability in rural and semi-urban areas.

POINTS TO NOTE

It has also been decide to increase the househld income of limit for borrowers of non-banking financial companies -

microfinance institutuions (NBFC-MFI's) from the current level of Rs 1L for rural areas and Rs1.60 lakh for urban/semi

urban areas to Rs.1.25L and Rs.2L, respectively.

RBI has been taking steps for popularising cross-border transactions in Indian Rupee ,especially in respect of external

commercial borrowing (ECB),trade credit and exports and imports ,therby reducing the exchange risk for ersons

residing in India.

RBI said that it has been decided to enhance the scope of non-interest bearing special non-resident rupee (SNRR)

account by permitting persons residing outside India to open such accounts.

Further, restriction on the tenure of SNRR account, which is currently seven years, is also proposed to be removed for

the aforesaid purpose.










59



08 Oct Banks to reclassify loans given to HDIL as fraud

Real estate developer HDIL is currently in default to various banks and has been admitted for

proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

POINTS TO NOTE

Lenders to HDIL will have to classify their loans to the developer as fraud and will need to set aside more money for

these advances in their balance sheet.

This is because the provisioning norms for loans where fraud is committed by the borrower is different from those

governing regular advances.

According to RBI’s master circular on prudential norms, the entire amount due to a bank (irrespective of the quantum

of security held) or for which the bank is liable is to be provided over a period not exceeding four quarters.

The RBI has started coming down hard on banks after it detected that they continued to treat a borrower as a normal

defaulter .Following this, many banks started reporting their loan exposure to Bhushan Power and Steel as fraud.

While seeking remand of HDIL’s promoters Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan, the economic offences wing (EOW)

counsel had said that 70% of depositors’ money at PMC Bank was availed by HDIL as loans. It was also revealed that

the cooperative bank created 21,000 fictitious accounts to camouflage these advances.

According to the developer’s annual reports for FY19, it had a dozen lenders. These were Allahabad Bank, Andhra

Bank, Bank of India, Central Bank of India, IDBI Bank, IL&FS, Life Insurance Corporation, Syndicate Bank, The Jammu

& Kashmir Bank, UCO Bank, Union Bank and Yes Bank.

08 Oct India gets first tranche of Swiss account details under Automatic Exchange Framework

This is the first time that India has received details from Switzerland under the AEOI framework,

which provides for exchange of information on financial accounts.

POINTS TO NOTE

The AEOI only relates to accounts that are officially in the name of Indians and they might include those used for

business and other genuine purposes.

India is among 75 countries with which Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration (FTA) has exchanged information on

financial accounts within the framework of global standards on AEOI, an FTA spokesperson told PTI. The information

exchange is governed by strict confidentiality clauses, and the FTA officials refused to disclose specific details on the

number of accounts or about the quantum of financial assets associated with the Indian clients of Swiss banks.

There are at least 100 cases of older accounts held by Indians that might have been closed before 2018, for which

Switzerland is in the process of sharing details with India under an earlier framework of mutual administrative

assistance as Indian authorities had provided prima facie evidence of tax-related wrongdoing by those account

holders.










60



19 Oct Reliance Industries becomes first Indian company to hit Rs 9 lakh crore market capital mark

In August 2018, RIL became the first domestic firm to cross the Rs 8 lakh crore mark in terms of

market valuation. The m-cap figure of companies changes daily with stock price movement.

POINTS TO NOTE

Shares of the country's most valued company rose by 1.37 per cent to close at Rs 1,415.30 ahead of its earnings

announcement.

TCS is the second most valuable company with a m-cap of Rs 7,71,996.87 crore after RIL , followed by HDFC Bank ,

HUL , HDFC , Infosys , Kotak ,Mahindra Bank, ITC , ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finance in the top-10 list.

The m-cap figures of companies change daily with stock price movement.

20 Oct DHFL exposure: RBI rejects banks’ ‘Trust’ proposal

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) rejected a proposal by banks that would have allowed them

provisioning relief to the tune of Rs 6,000 crore on borrowings by troubled mortgage lender Dewan

Housing Finance Corp.

POINTS TO NOTE

The lenders had proposed the creation of a trust that would hold 51% of the company following the conversion of

some part of debt to equity. This could then be classified as an “ownership change”. Under a clause in the regulator’s

June 7 circular on the stressed asset resolution framework, additional provisions on an account can be reversed if

ownership changes. The RBI said that equity holding through a trust cannot be considered a change in ownership as

the loans are sitting on the banks’ books.

Banks have a total exposure of Rs 40,000 crore to DHFL and will be required to make 15% provisioning on the account

by the end of the December quarter. If nonconvertible debentures (NCDs) are included, banks have an exposure of

around Rs 47,000 crore to DHFL. The total debt of DHFL is pegged at around Rs 1 lakh crore.










61



22 Oct Government launches BHIM 2.0 with new functionalities, additional language support

Some of the striking features marking BHIM 2.0 include a ‘Donation’ gateway, increased transaction

limits for high-value transactions, linking multiple bank accounts, offers from merchants, an option of

applying in IPO and gifting money.

POINTS TO NOTE

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also launched a StartUp Hub portal and Indian Software Product Registry at IT

Ministry’s MeitY Start-up Summit.

BHIM app, a UPI-based payment interface developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) that allows

real-time fund transfer, was launched in December 2016.

The new version of BHIM also supports three additional languages - Konkani, Bhojpuri and Haryanvi - over and above

the existing 13.

The minister also launched an Indian software products registry, which will act as a single window portal to collate

Indian software product database.

29 Oct UPI hits 1 billion transactions in October, plans to go global

The UPI platform, which was launched before demonetisation in 2016, enables users to send

money from their account to any account without entering bank details by using an email-like

handle or scanning a QR code.

POINTS TO NOTE

Transactions using India’s own domestic payments platform—Unified Payments Interface (UPI)—hit a landmark of

one billion in October, three years after its launch. The UPI also recently crossed 100 million users, making it the

fastest adoption of any payments system anywhere in the world.

Having achieved this double milestone, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which operates the UPI

platform, aims to take the network global by enabling acceptance of UPI in Singapore and the UAE.

While all major banks are part of the UPI network and many have proprietary apps, the open architecture of UPI

enables any bank account to be accessed from any UPI app.











62



29 Oct RBI imposes Rs 35 lakh fine on Tamilnad Mercantile Bank

The bank has been penalised for non-compliance with certain provisions of directions issued by RBI

on frauds classification and reporting.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Reserve Bank has imposed a penalty of Rs 35 lakh on Tamilnad Mercantile Bank for violating norms on frauds

classification and notification.

The RBI had conducted a statutory inspection of Tamilnad Mercantile Bank on its financial position as on March 31,

2017, based on which a show cause notice was issued to the bank as to why penalty should not be imposed for non-

compliance with the directions. After considering the bank's reply to the notice and oral submissions made in the

personal hearing, the RBI concluded that the non-compliance warranted imposition of monetary penalty.

30 Oct RBI imposes Rs 1 crore fine on Janata Sahakari Bank, Rs 25 lakh on Jalgaon Peoples Co-operative

Bank

The RBI has imposed monetary penalty for non-compliance with directions issued on income

recognition and asset classification (IRAC) norms, management of advances and exposure norms

and statutory or other restrictions.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed a fine of Rs 1 crore on Pune-based Janata Sahakari Bank and Rs 25 lakh

on Jalgaon Peoples Co-operative Bank for violating income recognition, advances management and asset classification

norms.

The penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers vested in the RBI under the provisions of the Banking Regulation

Act, 1949, taking into account failure of the bank to adhere to the aforesaid directions issued by the RBI.










63



31 Oct India signs MoU with Saudi Arabia to launch RuPay card in Gulf Kingdom

The RuPay card is a first-of-its-kind Indian domestic Debit and Credit Card payment network, with

acceptance at ATMs, POS devices and e-commerce websites.

POINTS TO NOTE

India signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to launch the RuPay card in the country, making it the third nation in the

West Asia to initiate India's digital payment system which will benefit not only the 2.6 million Indians in the Gulf

Kingdom but also Haj and Umrah pilgrims.

India has already launched the RuPay card in the UAE, Bahrain, Singapore and Bhutan.

The RuPay card was launched in 2012 to fulfil the Reserve Bank of India's vision to have a domestic, open and

multilateral system of payments.

RuPay is a highly secure network that protects against cyberhacks and is India's version of Master Card and Visa.

RuPay has also tied-up with international players like Discover, Japan Credit Bureau and China Union Pay to enhance

its international acceptance and recently achieved a milestone of issuing 25 million RuPay cards.










64



6. Science, Technology and Environment


04 Oct No idol immersion allowed in Ganga and its tributaries

A directive that was issued by Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General of National Mission for Clean

Ganga, said no idol immersion should be allowed in Ganga river and its tributaries.

POINTS TO NOTE

State government officials have to submit an action-take report within seven days after the end of festivals like

Ganesh Chaturthi, Vishwakarma Puja, Dussehra, Deepawali, Chath Puja and Saraswati Puja.

Directions issued by National Mission for Clean Ganga asked the state governments to construct temporary confined

ponds with removable synthetic liners at the bottom.

Violating the order will attract a fine of Rs 50,000 as environment compensation that should be levied, collected and

deposited with state pollution control boards.

Strict implementations for the same in the states of Uttarakhand ,Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

10 Oct Dr. Harsh Vardhan launches WHO India Country Cooperation Strategy 2019–2023

The Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) provides a strategic roadmap for WHO to work with the

Government of India towards achieving its health sector goals, in improving the health of its

population and bringing in transformative changes in the health sector.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Health Minister stated that the four areas identified for strategic cooperation of WHO with the country

encompass:

to accelerate progress on UHC,

to promote health and wellness by addressing determinants of health,

to protect the population better against health emergencies, and

to enhance India’s global leadership in health.

The India CCS is one of the first that fully aligns itself with the newly adopted WHO 13th General Programme of Work

and its 'triple billion' targets, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and WHO South-East Asia Region’s eight

Flagship Priorities.

Various social initiatives are taken up such as Eat Right India movement, Fit India movement and Poshan Abhiyaan

that have collectively engaged with the people and enhanced the awareness around these crucial health areas

through people’s participation.










65



12 Oct Mobile App mHariyali Launched for ‘Environment Protection in Government Colonies’ Website

The app is aimed to encourage Public engagement in planting trees and other such Green drives.

People can now upload information/photos of any plantation done by them, which is linked to app and

will be displayed on the website www.epgc.gov.in.

POINTS TO NOTE

The App provides for automatic geo-tagging of plants. This app will also enable nodal officers to periodically monitor

the plantation.

Earlier this month, as part of activities to promote ease of living, the Directorate of Estates, Ministry of Housing and

Urban Affairs carried out the following activities in 103 selected government colonies through public/stakeholders

participation:

1. Cleaning and greening of open space through plantation

2. Rain Water Harvesting – Awareness and construction

3. Sensitization on Source Segregation of Household waste and Orientaion and Capacity building on Home

composting.

For each colony, the above activities were taken up in a campaign mode over and will continue, Nodal Officers were

appointed from the Directorate, CPWD and ULBs to liaison with Resident Welfare Association to ensure maximum

public participation.

A mass plantation drive “Haryali Mahotsav” was launched in San Martin Park, Chanakyapuri on 28.7.2019 by Secretary

HUA in which approx 500 plants were planted and about 150 people, including students, participated.

17 Oct Dr Harsh Vardhan launches Food Safety Mitra (FSM) scheme on World Food Day

The ‘Food Safety Mitra (FSM)’ scheme will support small and medium scale food businesses to

comply with the food safety laws and facilitate licensing and registration, hygiene ratings and

training.

POINTS TO NOTE

The scheme was introduced for strengthening and scaling up ‘Eat Right India’ movement. The theme of the day was

‘Healthy Diets for a Zero Hunger World’.

This scheme would create new employment opportunities for youth, particularly with food and nutrition background.

The FSMs would undergo training and certification by FSSAI to do their work and get paid by food businesses for their

services.

The ‘Eat Right Jacket’ was launched. This jacket has a smart design to hold tech devices like tablets/smart phone, a QR

code and RFID tag for identification and tracking. Apart from providing safety to field staff on duty, this jacket brought

efficiency, professionalism and transparency in food safety administration and bring in a sense of ownership &

visibility of FSOs.

The ‘Eat Right Jhola’, a reusable cloth bag shall replace plastic bags for grocery shopping in various retail chains.

FSSAI has partnered with the Domestic Workers Sector Skill Council (DWSSC) under the Ministry of Skill Development

and Entrepreneurship to launch a training course for domestic workers and homemakers across the country. In the

first phase, one lakh domestic workers and homemakers will be trained through training partners of DWSSC in

association with RWAs.










66



OTHERS

01 Oct September rainfall in India on course to be highest in 102 years

All-India average rainfall in September stands at 247.1mm - 48% above normal and the third

highest in India Meteorological Department’s records since 1901.

POINTS TO NOTE

The monsoon rainfall has lifted the June-September season’s rain to 9% above normal, barely a percentage point

short of excess monsoon rainfall.

As red alerts for very heavy rain have been issued for Gujarat and Bihar, this month’s rainfall is likely to go past 1983’s

figure (255.8mm) which will be the wettest September in India in over a century, behind only 1917 (285.6mm), when

the highest rainfall for the month since 1901 was recorded.

Haryana, Delhi and east Uttar Pradesh, in particular, will end the season with high deficits.

IMD said there were three reasons for the monsoon deluge since August :

1. El Nino conditions over the Pacific Ocean, which suppress the monsoon, receded in July.

2. Conditions in the Indian Ocean became favourable for monsoon with the Indian Ocean Dipole turning

positive.

3. The third factor was the development of a series of low pressure systems in the Bay of Bengal.

05 Oct Health Minister Launches FSSAI’s ‘Trans-Fat Free’ Logo

This marked an important milestone in the movement against Trans-Fats and also provided a

momentum to accelerate the ‘Eat Right India’ movement of FSSAI.

POINTS TO NOTE

Primacy given to nutrition and healthy eating practices by the Government forms the pivot of the Poshan Maah,

which was observed in September.

Trans fats are the worst type of fats with known health risks. India is committed to eliminating it from the food supply

and is progressing towards its objective of trans fat elimination by 2022; a year ahead of the global target by WHO.

FSSAI is committed to reducing the industrially produced trans fatty acids to less than 2% by the year 2022 in a phased

manner and is geared up to get freedom from trans fats with the motto ‘India@75; Freedom from Trans

Fats’. Industrial trans-fats are made by adding hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid, and to

increase the shelf life of foods. Trans-fats are largely present in partially hydrogenated vegetable fats/oils, vanaspati,

margarine and bakery shortenings, and can be found in baked and fried foods.

Dr Harsh Vardhan released a slogan ‘Chefs 4 Trans Fat Free’, under which more than 1,000 chefs from different parts of

the country took a pledge to use trans-fat free oils in their recipes and work.

Dr Harsh Vardhan also launched the Green Purple initiative logo. The initiative aims to qualify the chefs on food

safety legal requirements and sustainable cooking methods, in order to promote trans-fat free cooking.

During the event, sessions were also held on FSSAI’s Hygiene Rating and Right Place to Eat Scheme which is an

online, transparent scoring and rating system that aims to empower consumers with informed food choices while

eating out.










67



07 Oct India launches 'Green Crackers' in its bid to curb air pollution

Science & Technology Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan today announced that Council of Scientific and

Industrial Research (CSIR) labs have been successful in developing various environment-friendly

fireworks such as sound emitting crackers, flowerpots, pencils, chakkar and sparklers.

POINTS TO NOTE

Dr. Harsh Vardhan also highlighted that the emissions testing facilities for the new fire crackers have been set up at

CSIR-NEERI as well as their approved National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration (NABL) facilities whose

list is available at CSIR NEERI website.

About 530 emissions testing certificates have been issued to fireworks manufactures for new and improved

formulations meeting the stipulated guidelines of green crackers.

The Minister also lauded the efforts made by CSIR in developing these green crackers and informed that nearly 165

fireworks manufactures have been roped in and around 65 more manufacturers are in the process of coming on

board.

Apart from defining green crackers, baseline values for benchmarking green crackers and assessing Barium levels in

conventional crackers and green crackers, have been laid down for legal and policy interventions.

08 Oct Pepsico India wins US Corporate Excellence Award for Saving Water

PepsiCo India has been named the global winner in sustainable operations in the multinational

enterprise category for its sustainable farming initiative in India. 2019 Secretary of State's Award for

Corporate Excellence (ACE)

POINTS TO NOTE

Established in 1999, the ACE recognises US companies that promote and uphold high standards as responsible

members of their communities where they do business.

The award recognises the company's effort to save more than 17 billion litres of water through its community water

programs and replenishing over 5 billion litres of water, positively impacting 60,000 community members

Other recipients of the award are Chambers Federation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Procter and Gamble

Asia Pacific in Singapore and Agilis Partners in Uganda.










68



09 Oct Jal Shakti Minister launches Ganga Aamantran Abhiyan

The ‘Ganga Aamantran Abhiyan’ is a pioneering and historic exploratory open-water rafting and

kayaking expedition on the Ganga River to be held between 10th October 2019 to 11 November 2019.

POINTS TO NOTE

Starting at Devprayag and culminating at Ganga Sagar, the expedition will cover the entire stretch of over 2500 kms of

the Ganga River.

This is the first ever effort by National Mission for Clean Ganga to raft across the entire stretch of the river and also the

longest ever social campaign undertaken through an adventure sporting activity to spread the message of River

Rejuvenation and Water Conservation on a massive scale.

The expedition will encompass the five Ganga basin states including Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and

West Bengal with stops at Rishikesh, Haridwar, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Sonepur and Kolkata.

The team from CSIR–Indian Institute of Toxicology Research will collect water samples from across diverse ranges of

the river for the purpose of water testing, while members of the Wildlife Institute of India will undertake flora and

fauna census for the year 2019.

The Minister of Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will lead from the front and will not only flag-off the expedition

but also be a part of the expedition from Devprayag to Rishikesh.

The expedition is led by Wing Commander Paramvir Singh from Indian Air Force, who is the only person to have

swum the entire length of Ganga from Devprayag to Gangasagar in 2015. He holds 13 World, 3 Asian and 7 National

Records.

09 Oct Saturn overtakes Jupiter as the planet with most moons

Twenty new moons have been found around Saturn, giving the ringed planet a total of 82 moons.

That beats Jupiter and its 79 moons.

POINTS TO NOTE

Our solar system’s biggest planet Jupiter still has the biggest moon. Jupiter’s Ganymede is almost half the size of

Earth. By contrast, Saturn’s 20 new moons are minuscule, each barely 5km in diameter.

Mr. Sheppard and his team used a telescope in Hawaii to spot Saturn’s 20 new moons over the summer. About 100

even tinier moons may be orbiting Saturn, still waiting to be found. These baby moons may have come from larger

parent moons that broke apart right after Saturn formed.

Seventeen of Saturn’s new moons orbit the planet in the opposite, or retrograde, direction. The other three circle in

the same direction that Saturn rotates. They’re so far from Saturn that it takes two to three years to complete a single

orbit.

This announcement came from the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center.










69



10 Oct Monsoon begins withdrawal on October 9, the most delayed in its recorded history!

The most delayed monsoon withdrawals in the past were recorded in 1961 (October 1) followed by

2007 (September 30).

POINTS TO NOTE

The IMD had said earlier that a weak El Niño effect may have some impact during the initial months, fading out

gradually and giving way to a normal monsoon season.

The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is turning from neutral to positive. This will make up for the rain deficit due to weak El

Niño effect.A positive IOD signifies a warmer-than-normal western Indian Ocean, which brings high precipitation

across India, while the opposite means drier weather.

The withdrawal line passes through Lat. 31.5°N / Long. 74.5°E, Kapurthala, Ambala, Karnal, Churu and Lat. 27.5°N /

Long. 70.0°E.

13 Oct Typhoon Hagibis makes landfall as Japan braces for worst storm in 6 decades

Hagibis is forecast to be the first storm rated quot very strong quot, to hit the main island of Honshu

since 1991, when the category system was introduced.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Japan Meteorological Agency warned of dangerously heavy rainfall in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures,

including Gunma, Saitama and Kanagawa, and later expanded the area to include Fukushima and Miyagi to the north.

An earthquake shook the area drenched by the rainfall shortly before the typhoon made landfall in Shizuoka

prefecture.











70



15 Oct DPIIT launches website and mobile app for Intellectual Property Rights

Secretary Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Guruprasad Mohapatra

launched the website and mobile application 'Learn to Protect, Secure and Maximize Your Innovation'

on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs).

POINTS TO NOTE

The website and app has been developed by Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM)-DPIIT in collaboration

with Qualcomm and National Law University (NLU), Delhi.

The modules of this e-platform will aid and enable youth, innovators, entrepreneurs and small and medium industries

(SMEs) in understanding IPRs for their ownership and protection, integrate IP into business models and obtain value

for their R&D efforts.

The L2Pro has been successfully implemented in Germany, United Kingdom, Italy and France, benefiting immensely

from close collaboration with respective IP organizations and public research institutions. The learning app has been

customized for India in order to ensure that innovation which is fundamental to startups are protected, managed and

commercialised.

18 Oct IIT-H partners with Odisha tech institute to develop bio-brick

These bio-bricks developed from agricultural waste that serves a dual purpose – better waste

management and promoting eco-friendly and sustainable building material.

POINTS TO NOTE

The team’s research also received a Special Recognition Trophy for sustainable housing at Rural Innovators’ Start-Up

Conclave-2019 organised recently by the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR),

Hyderabad.

Bio-bricks are not only sustainable when compared to clay bricks, but are carbon sinks as they fix more carbon

dioxide than they produce during their life cycle. These bricks provide good insulation to heat and sound and help in

maintaining humidity of the buildings, making these houses suitable for hot-humid climate like India.

Although these bio-bricks are not as strong as burnt clay bricks and cannot be used directly to build load-bearing

structures, they can be used in low-cost housing with a combination of wooden or metal structural framework.

19 Oct US makes history with first all-female spacewalk

The US sent its first female astronaut into space in 1983, when Sally Ride took part in the seventh

Space Shuttle mission, and has now had more women astronauts than any other country.

POINTS TO NOTE

US astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir became the first all-female pairing to carry out a spacewalk, following a

spacesuit flub earlier this year that caused the historic mission to be aborted.

The first such mission was supposed to take place in March.

The mission will see the first woman to set foot on the lunar surface, possibly as part of an all-woman team.










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20 Oct Protein Rendering Radiation Resistance in Cervical Cancer found

Early stage Cervical cancer show very good response to radio and chemo but the in later stages

some patients fail to respond to therapy.

POINTS TO NOTE

Cervical cancer patients are treated with a combination of radiation and chemo therapy.

Sweta Srivastava and her team in the St. Johns Medical College and Hospital, Bengaluru studied the molecular

pathway in the tumours and found that some cells of the tumour, which are resistant to therapy, have increased

expression of a particular protein (RhoC). This leads to enhanced DNA repair in cells exposed to radiation.

Similarly, ROCK2 is another molecule that gets over expressed because of irradiation and protects tumour cells against

radiation.

The presence of RhoC and ROCK2 in the tumour cells made the scientists suggest that the two molecules can be

developed as predictive biomarkers for radiation response in cervical cancer. These molecules also have the potential

to be used as targeted therapy leading to changed treatment of late stages of cervical cancer.

20 Oct Mars had Salt Lakes similar to Earth

Mars once had salt lakes that went through wet and dry phases similar to those on Earth,

according to a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

POINTS TO NOTE

The study noted that over 3 billion years ago the lake that was present in Gale Crater, an immense 95-mile-wide rocky

basin that is being explored with the NASA Curiosity rover since 2012, underwent a drying episode possibly linked to

the global drying of Mars. The Gale Crater formed about 3.6 billion years ago when a meteor hit Mars.

According to the researchers, liquid water on Mars may have become unsustainable and evaporated as the planet’s

atmosphere and the pressure of the surface became thinner.

The researchers said that the salt ponds on Mars are similar to some found on the Earth such as those in a region

called Altiplano near the Bolivia-Peru border. Altiplano is an arid, high-altitude plateau where rivers and streams from

mountain ranges do not flow to the sea but lead to closed basins, similar to what used to happen at Gale Crater on

Mars.










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24 Oct Cabinet approves Science and Technology Cooperation MoU between India and USA

Agreement will open a new chapter in bilateral relations as both sides will leverage complementary

strengths spurred by a significant convergence of mutual interests in science and technology.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Agreement would provide an opportunity to promote ‘high quality’ and ‘high impact’ research and innovation

partnerships as well as broadening and expanding relationships between the extensive scientific and technological

communities.

The cooperation would be made in the various forms which include the following:

1. Exchanges of scientific & technical information and experts.

2. Convening of seminars and meetings.

3. Training of scientists and technical experts.

4. Conduct of cooperative research projects.

5. Establishment of science & innovation-based public-private partnerships.

6. Use of advance research facilities.

27 Oct CSIR offers free mapping of Indian genomes

The aim of the exercise was two fold: To test if it’s possible to rapidly and reliably scan several

genomes and advise people on health risks that are manifest in their gene and, understand the

variation and frequency of certain genes that are known to be linked to disease.

POINTS TO NOTE

IndiGen initiative, a programme managed by the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) and the

CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) is a programme for a free mapping of their entire genome.

Those who do get their genes mapped this way will get a card and access to an app, which will allow them and

doctors to access “clinically actionable information” on their genomes.

The CSIR exercise ties into a larger programme coordinated by the Department of Biotechnology, which plans to scan

nearly 20,000 Indian genomes over the next five years, in a two-phase exercise, and develop diagnostic tests that can

be used to test for cancer.










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27 Oct NASA plans to send water-hunting robot to moon surface in 2022

The VIPER robot will drive for miles (km) on the dusty lunar surface to get a closer look at

underground pockets of hundreds of millions of tons of water ice.

POINTS TO NOTE

NASA will send a golf cart-sized robot to the moon in 2022 to search for deposits of water below the surface, an effort

to evaluate the vital resource ahead of a planned human return to the moon in 2024.

VIPER stands for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover. VIPER is going to assess where the water ice is then

NASA is going to be able to characterize the water ice, and ultimately drill.

The rover is expected to arrive on the moon’s south polar region in December 2022, carrying four instruments to

sample lunar soil for traces of hydrogen and oxygen - the basic components of water that can be separated and

synthesized into fuel for a planned fleet of commercial lunar launch vehicles.

Earlier, NASA crashed a rocket onto the moon’s south pole in 2009 to confirm traces of lunar water ice in the plume of

dust kicked up upon impact.








https://www.exambazaar.com/qp



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28 Oct Google search to get biggest update in 5 years - BERT

Google is paying more attention to the small words in searches. It looks at the whole context of

words to try to understand the search intent.

POINTS TO NOTE

The company is rolling out the change to English language searches in the US starting this week. It said it expects the

shift will give better results for every one in 10 searches.

The change is rooted in Google’s natural language processing research, which studies how to teach computers to

understand the nuance of speech and communication. This newest update is based on a training technique called

Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformers, or BERT.

Google trains the system by using a “fill-in-the-blank” practice, having the machines guess which word is missing in a

sentence until it gets better at finding the right answer all the time.

The technique involves teaching the systems to better understand the order and context in which a word appears.

30 Oct Young inventors create a device that converts noise to electricity

The gadget reverses the functioning of a normal speaker which vibrates to create sound when

electricity is passed through it. It uses sound and converts it to electricity.

POINTS TO NOTE

A group of students from the Philippine Science High School-Western Visayas Campus (PSHS-WVC) has created an

inexpensive device that converts noise to electricity and can power bulbs.

It can come in handy in heavily polluted areas like roads and construction sites.

The invention won the Silver Award during the Young Inventors Challenge 2019 in Malaysia.

With this low-cost light, rural communities would be able to have access to electricity especially light to help improve

their way of life. With this invention, students will be able to study in the comfort of their homes.










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7. Defence

01 Oct Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria takes charge as new IAF chief

Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria succeeds Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa, who retired after 41 years of

service in the IAF.

POINTS TO NOTE

As the 26th chief of the Indian Air Force, Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria, Air Chief Marshal took charge of succeeding

Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa, who retired after 41 years of service in the IAF.

An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Bhadauria was commissioned into the fighter stream of the IAF in June

1980 and won the coveted 'Sword of Honour' for standing first in the overall order of merit.

He devised a method for carrying bombing from the Jaguar aircraft using the Global Positioning System (GPS).

01 Oct Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh launches DefExpo 2020 website

The website, www.defexpo.gov.in, provides online services to exhibitors, besides hosting informative

content about the product profile of DPSUs and Ordnance Factories.

POINTS TO NOTE

The website of the 11th edition of DefEXpo to be held in Lucknow from 05 - 08 February 2020 was launched by Raksha

Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh.

The website, www.defexpo.gov.in, on the first-come-first-serve basis, provides online services to exhibitors, besides

hosting informative content about the product profile of DPSUs and Ordnance Factories.

From 05 - 07 February, 2020Trade visitors will be able to buy their tickets on the website for visiting the show during

business days.

Entry for the general public will be free on February 08, 2020.










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01 Oct BRAHMOS Supersonic Cruise Missile, with major indigenous systems, successfully test-fired

BRAHMOS supersonic cruise missile featuring Indian propulsion system, airframe, power supply and

other major indigenous components, was successfully test fired from ITR, Chandipur in Odisha.

POINTS TO NOTE

Featuring Indian propulsion system, airframe, power supply, and other major indigenous components, the BRAHMOS

supersonic cruise missile, was successfully test-fired from ITR, Chandipur in Odisha for its full range of 290-km during

the launch jointly conducted by DRDO and BrahMos Aerospace.

With this successful mission, the indigenous content in the formidable weapon has reached a high value, thus

bolstering India’s defense indigenization and the flagship ‘Make in India’ program.

Jointly developed by India and Russia, the versatile BRAHMOS has been operationalized in the Indian Armed Forces

with all the three services.

05 Oct Army Inducts Israeli Spike Anti Tank Missiles

The Army has begun to induct a limited number of Israeli Spike anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs)

to meet immediate operational requirements till the indigenous man-portable “tank killers” being

developed by DRDO are ready for induction.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Army moved to buy the initial amount of the fire-and-forget Spike ATGMs, which have a strike range of up to 4-

km, for around Rs 280 crore after the Jaish-e-Muhammed training facility at Balakot in Pakistan was bombed by

Indian Mirage-2000 fighters on February 26.

The third-generation MP-ATGM, which has state-of-the-art infrared imaging seekers along with advanced avionics, hit

the targets mimicking operational tanks in top-attack mode to destroy them with precision at 2.5 km range.

The Army’s existing second-generation Milan-2T (2-km range) and Konkurs (4-km) ATGMs, produced by defence PSU

Bharat Dynamics under licence from French and Russian companies, do not have night-fighting capabilities.

In late 2017, India had scrapped a proposed Rs 3,200 crore deal for 8,356 Spike missiles, 321 launchers and 15

simulators that had been first approved by the Defence Acquisitions Council in June 2009.










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05 Oct Goa Maritime Conclave 2019 Inaugurated on Oct 4 by NSA Ajit Doval

The deliberations were focused on capacity building among IOR Navies to tackle emerging maritime

threats, in addition to discussing cooperative strategies for enhancing interoperability among partner

maritime agencies.

POINTS TO NOTE

The theme for the conclave is “Common Maritime Priorities in IOR and need for Regional Maritime Strategy”.

The event was attended by Chiefs of Navies and senior representatives from 10 Indian Ocean littoral countries which

included Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand from South East Asia, Bangladesh, Myanamar and Sri-Lanka

from India’s immediate neighbourhood and the islands of Seychelles, Maldives and Mauritius.

06 Oct Defence Minister approves four-fold Increase in Funds to Families of Battle Casualties

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has given in-principle approval to enhance monetary assistance to

next of kin of battle casualties from existing Rs 2 lakh to Rs 8 lakh under Army Battle Casualties

Welfare Fund (ABCWF).

POINTS TO NOTE

At present, financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh was given to battle casualties in case of death and also to those sustaining

60 per cent and above disability besides to several other categories.

The ABCWF has been set up under Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (ESW) after a large number of people offered

to provide monetary assistance to the families of battle casualties following an incident in February 2016 at Siachen

where 10 soldiers were buried in an avalanche.

The already existing monetary grant includes ex-gratia for various ranks ranging from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 45 lakh and

Army Group Insurance ranging from Rs 40 lakh to Rs 75 lakh

09 Oct Balakot Air Strike Squadrons awarded citations on IAF Day

IAF chief RKS Bhadauria decorated the 51 Squadron and the 9 Squadron for their role in the air strike

on terrorist camps in Pakistan's Balakot in February.

POINTS TO NOTE

Two squadrons of the Indian Air Force, which played a role in the Balakot air strike, were decorated with citations at

the Hindon base on the 87th IAF Day.

Every year, the Air Force Day is celebrated at Hindon base in presence of the IAF chief and senior officials of the three

armed forces.

The IAF was founded on October 8, 1932, and the force has participated in several crucial wars and landmark missions.










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19 Oct Rajnath Singh approves admission of girl students in Sainik schools

The decision is in line with the objective of the government towards greater inclusiveness, gender

equality, enabling greater participation of women in armed forces and strengthening the motto of

'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao'

POINTS TO NOTE

Singh also directed the officials concerned to ensure availability of necessary infrastructure and sufficient female staff

in those educational institutes.

The decision was taken following the success of a pilot project started by the Defence Ministry for admission of girls

in Sainik School Chhingchhip in Mizoram two years ago.











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19 Oct Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Anup Kumar Singh to be new DG of NSG

The NSG is a counter terrorism unit under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). It was raised in 1984,

following Operation Blue Star, Akshardham Temple attack and the assassination of Indira Gandhi,

"for combating terrorist activities with a view to protect states against internal disturbances".

POINTS TO NOTE

The post was lying vacant for over two months after the retirement of Sudeep Lakhtakia, a 1984-batch Indian Police

Service (IPS) officer of Telangana cadre.

The NSG was raised as the federal contingency force to counter terrorists and hijack-like incidents in 1984.

The commandos of the force are based in five hubs across the country, apart from their main garrison in Gurgaon's

Manesar. They also render personal security to some of the most high-profile VVIPs like Defence Minister Rajnath

Singh and some chief ministers.

A 1985-batch IPS officer of the Gujarat cadre, Singh's appointment was approved by the Appointments Committee of

the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

21 Oct 3 terror camps across LoC destroyed, 6-10 Pak soldiers killed: Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat

In a major counter-offensive after Pakistan's unprovoked firing, the Indian Army carried out heavy

artillery strikes on Sunday, targeting terror camps and several Pakistani military positions in

Neelam Valley in PoK.

POINTS TO NOTE

Six to ten Pakistan Army personnel were killed and three terror camps destroyed in a retaliatory action by the Indian

Army opposite the Tangdhar sector in Jammu and Kashmir.

Ever since the abolition of special provisions (for Jammu and Kashmir),the army is getting repeated inputs about

infiltration by terrorists from across the border.

If Pakistan continued with such activities, the Indian Army would not hesitate to retaliate, the Army chief asserted.










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22 Oct Govt approves procurement of indigenously developed military hardware worth Rs 3300 cr

The first two projects include procurement of third generation anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) and

the auxiliary power units (APUs) for the T-72 and the T-90 battle tanks.

POINTS TO NOTE

It said both these projects will be implemented under the 'Make-II' category and will provide a boost to indigenous

research and development in the private sector.

While the third generation ATGM would provide 'fire and forget' and 'top attack' capabilities to the troops in an

armoured battle, the APUs would enable incorporation of various upgrades to fire control system and night fighting

capabilities of the tanks.

The third indigenous project pertains to procurement of discrete Electronic Warfare (EW) systems for mountains and

high-altitude terrain.

The system would be designed and developed by the DRDO and manufactured by design cum production partner

from the Indian industry.

23 Oct IAF successfully test fires Brahmos surface-to-surface missile from mobile platform

BrahMos Aerospace, an India-Russian joint venture, produces the missile that can be launched from

submarines, ships, aircraft, or from land platforms.

POINTS TO NOTE

Surface-to-surface missiles were fired by IAF at Trak Island in the Andaman Nicobar group of islands.

The drill was conducted to check the IAF's capability to hit targets with "pin-point" accuracy at targets close to 300 KM .

A direct hit on the target was achieved in both the cases. Firing of the missile has enhanced IAF's capability to engage

the grounds targets with pin point accuracy from a mobile platform.

23 Oct Ministry of Defence nominates DRDO for building e-warfare systems

The Mountain EW system would be designed and developed by DRDO and manufactured by design-

cum-production partner from the Indian (private) industry.

POINTS TO NOTE

The denial of a design and development role to the private industry comes even as a private firm, Tata Power

(Strategic Engineering Division, or SED), is building two far more complex integrated Mountain EW systems, a global

tender it won in 2013 for Rs 926 crore. An amended order was placed in July, which is on track to be delivered in 24

months.

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) has strongly protested this sidelining of private firms.

The MoD cites ‘security concerns’ to place orders for EW systems with the DRDO/DPSUs. This has been strongly

protested by the private sector, which cites its own stringent security protocols.










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26 Oct Indo-French joint military drill under 'Exercise Shakti-2019' from October 31

A joint exercise, 'Exercise Shakti-2019' by Indian and French armies will focus on counter-terrorism

operations in the backdrop of semi-desert terrain in Rajasthan under the United Nations mandate.

POINTS TO NOTE

Indian and French armies will conduct joint counter-terrorism drills under 'Exercise Shakti-2019' in the Mahajan field

firing range in Rajasthan from October 31 to November 13.

A contingent of the Sikh Regiment of south western command will represent the Indian Army in the exercise, while the

French Army delegation will be represented by troops of the 21st Marine Infantry Regiment of the 6th Armoured

Brigade.

The training will culminate in a 36-hour-long validation exercise which will involve neutralisation of terrorists in a

village hideout.

The exercise aims at enhancing understanding, cooperation and interoperability between the two armies.










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8. Sports

01 Oct Sumit Nagal wins title at ATP Challenger, achieves career-best ranking of 135

The 22-year-old from Haryana jumped off 26 spots, to achieve a career-best ranking of 135 on

Monday.

POINTS TO NOTE

At the USD 54,160 ATP Challenger Tournament, 22-year-old Sumit Nagal, an Indian tennis player from Haryana

notched up a straight-set win over home favorite Facundo Bognis to claim the men’s singles title.

It was Sumit’s second Challenger title of his career, following the triumph in the Bengaluru Challenger event in 2017.

The talented youngster jumped of 26 spots to achieve a career-best ranking of 135 .

01 Oct Usain Bolt's World Championships gold medal record broken by USA's Allyson Felix

Felix’s gold tally is now at 12, one more than what Bolt finished with at the 2017 World

Championships.

POINTS TO NOTE

Felix, 33, now has a dozen golds at the world championships in five different events: 200m, 400m, 4x100m, 4x400m

and the mixed 4x400m.

She surpassed Usain Bolt helping her team to the 4x400m mixed relay title in Doha.

Felix has won five additional Olympic gold medals as a member of the United States' women's relay teams.

Felix is also the most decorated athlete in IAAF World Championships history with 18 career medals.

02 Oct Kumar Sangakkara takes charge as MCC President

The former Sri Lankan wicketkeeper-batsman is the first non-British President of MCC and will hold

the post for one year.

POINTS TO NOTE

41-year-old Kumar Sangakkara, Former Sri Lanka captain and wicketkeeper-batsman took over as the first non-British

President of the historic Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).

Sangakkara’s tenure as MCC President will encompass two England Tests against West Indies and Pakistan, ODI against

Australia and the launch of The Hundred competition.










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03 Oct Shri Kiren Rijiju flags off Fit India Plog Run at Indira Gandhi Stadium

Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports (I/C) Shri Kiren Rijiju flaged off Fit India Plog Run organised by

Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports on the occasion of the 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma

Gandhi at Indira Gandhi Stadium.

POINTS TO NOTE

Kiren Rijiju flagged off Fit India Plog Run by plogger Ripu Daman, eminent sportspersons, students belonging to

different schools of Delhi, Doctors, NGOs, and other institutions.

The Minister addressed that such runs will create awareness among the people of the country as plogging is a

combination of picking up wastes particularly plastics and jogging.

The Plog Run has also been organized by the Nehru Yuva Kendras, NSS centers, and government and private

institutions across the country

06 Oct India’s Avinash Sable qualifies for Tokyo Olympics in Men's 3000m Steeplechase

He shattered his own national record for the second time in three days though he finished 13th in the

final race of the World Championships in Doha.

POINTS TO NOTE

Avinash clocked 8 minute 21.37 seconds to breach the Olympics qualifying standard of 8:22.00.

He also bettered his own national record of 8:25.23 which he clocked during the first round heats.

Reigning Olympic champion Conseslus Kipruto of Kenya defended his 2017 title with a time of 8:01.35, more than 20

seconds faster than Avinash, while Lamecha Girma of Ethiopia and Soufiane Bakkali of Morocco took the silver and

bronze respectively.

06 Oct IAAF World Championships: Steven Gardiner Wins Gold for Bahamas

A month after Hurricane Dorian destroyed houses and livelihoods, Steven Gardiner said he was

hopeful his world championship victory could bring a little happiness to the Bahamas.

POINTS TO NOTE

Gardiner stepped up to bring the Bahamas gold, smashing his personal best to win in 43.48 seconds, more than half a

second clear of Colombian Anthony Zambrano.

Gardiner’s family home on the Abaco islands was one of many damaged in the Sept. 1 hurricane. His win in the 400

meters on Friday prompted a stream of messages from his family and friends still rebuilding their lives there.

The U.S. men’s 4x100 relay squad withstood two shaky handoffs and two post-race protests to advance into the final.










84



06 Oct Dalilah Muhammad sets new world record to win 400m hurdles gold

Dalilah clocked 52.16 seconds at the ongoing World Athletics Championships in Doha, bettering her

own record, as she went past her US rival Sydney McLaughlin who was rewarded with silver in 52.23

seconds.

POINTS TO NOTE

At the US Championships in Des Moines earlier in July this year, Dalilah had bettered the 2003 world record of 52.34

set by Russia's Yulia Pechonkina, recording a time of 52.20 seconds.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she won gold in the 400 metres hurdles.

Muhammad is only the second female 400 meter hurdler in history, after Sally Gunnell, to have won the Olympic and

World titles and broken the world record.

06 Oct Rohit Sharma becomes Second Indian Opener to Score 2 Centuries in a Test

Sunil Gavaskar is the other Indian opener to have scored a century in both the innings of a

Test. Rohit also became the sixth Indian to score a hundred in both innings a Test.

POINTS TO NOTE

Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar (3 times), Rahul Dravid (2 times), Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane have also made

centuries in both innings of a Test.

The 32-year-old stylish right-hander also broke the record for most sixes in a Test with 13 hits over the fence,

surpassing Pakistan great Wasim Akram who smashed 12 in a game against Zimbabwe in 1996.











85



07 Oct World Athletics: Sifan Hassan wins unique double of 1,500 mtrs and 10,000 mtrs

She became the first athlete, male or female, to win the two events at a single Olympic Games or

world championships

POINTS TO NOTE

Hassan, who moved to the Netherlands after leaving Ethiopia as a refugee when she was 15, took over the lead at the

end of the first lap and never looked back as she broke the championship record with a time of three minutes 51.95

seconds.

Titleholder Faith Kipyegon of Kenya finished in second, despite setting a Kenyan record of 3:54.22, and Ethiopia's

Guday Tsegay took the bronze.

Salazar was banned for four years by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Monday for “orchestrating and

facilitating prohibited doping conduct”.

The remarkably versatile Hassan also broke the world mile record this year, won world championship bronze over

1,500 metres in 2015 and 5,000 metres two years ago.

07 Oct Novak Djokovic beats John Millman to clinch Japan Open

Djokovic, who played his first Japanese competition ever, dominated throughout the week, never

losing a single set to claim the trophy.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Serb crushed Australian qualifier John Millman 6-3, 6-2, to mark his 10th win in a tournament main draw debut in

his celebrated career, which includes 16 Grand Slams.

It was his first competition since pulling out of the US Open due to a left shoulder injury.

07 Oct Marc Marquez seals MotoGP title with Thailand win

Spain's Marquez finished just ahead of 20-year-old rookie Frenchman Quartararo with another

Spaniard Maverick Vinales third.

POINTS TO NOTE

Marc Márquez Alentà is a Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and one of the most successful motorcycle racers

of all time with eight Grand Prix world championships to his name - six of which are in the premier MotoGP class.

Márquez races for Honda's factory team since his MotoGP debut in 2013

The win in Buriram gives him an insurmountable lead over closest rival Andrea Dovizioso with four races left in the

season. He also described the 2019 season as his best ever in MotoGP.

Italy's Luca Marini won the Moto2 while Albert Arenas from Spain grabbed the Moto3 victory.










86



07 Oct Naomi Osaka beats world number one Ashleigh Barty to win China Open

The Japanese two-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka won a second tournament by defeating

world number one Ashleigh Barty in the China Open final.

POINTS TO NOTE

Naomi Osaka is a Japanese professional tennis player. She is the reigning champion in women's singles at the

Australian Open. Osaka has been ranked No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association, and is the first Asian player to hold

the top ranking in singles.

This was a third title of 2019 for Osaka and fifth in her short career.

Ashleigh Barty is an Australian professional tennis player and former cricketer. She is ranked No. 1 in the world in

singles by the Women's Tennis Association and is the second Australian WTA singles No. 1 after Evonne Goolagong

Cawley.

07 Oct World Athletics: USA breaks the relay ‘curse’, wins gold in 4x100m

The star-studded quartet of Gatlin, newly-crowned 100m champion Christian Coleman, 200m gold

medallist Noah Lyles and Michael Rodgers recorded the second fastest time in history - 37.10s.

POINTS TO NOTE

The British and the Japanese set new European and Asian records with times of 37.36s and 37.43s respectively.

Sifan Hassan surged to her second gold with victory in the 1,500m, shrugging off the doping controversy that has

embroiled her banned coach Alberto Salazar. It was Hassan’s second gold of the championships following her win in

the 10,000m, making her the first woman to win the two events.

Lelisa Desisa gave Ethiopia its first World marathon title since 2001 winning in a time of 2hrs 10min 40sec.

09 Oct U.S. Women win fifth straight Gymnastics World Championship Title

Simone Biles secured her 21st world medal, overtaking Russia’s Svetlana Khorkina for the women’s

record.

POINTS TO NOTE

Only Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus has won more world medals with 23, which Biles could surpass by the end of the

Championship.

The Americans scored 172.330, 5.801 points more than second-placed Russia. Italy took third spot for its first world

team medal since 1950, while China slipped off the podium for the first time since 2003.

Biles is a four-time World all-around champion, four-time World floor exercise champion, two-time World balance

beam champion, the 2018 World vault champion, a six-time United States national all-around champion, and a

member of the gold-medal-winning American teams.










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10 Oct Jamaica's Fraser-Pryce wins the fourth 100m World Championship gold at 32

A look at Jamaican sprinter Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce's career shows that she continues to clock the

best times in the history of the 100m event despite being 32, and is a favourite to win at the 2020

Olympics

POINTS TO NOTE

Fraser-Pryce had won her first world championship gold in the 100m sprint in 2009. Her 10.71s run in the 2019 world

championship final at Doha is her joint-quickest in the competition.

Over the years, Fraser-Pryce has shown no signs of relenting. She was 22 when she won the Olympic gold for the first

time in the event. At 32, she ran the second-fastest time of her career in Doha.

With a personal-best timing of 10.7s, Fraser-Pryce is the joint-fourth fastest in the women’s 100m in history. She shares

the record with her compatriot, Elaine Thompson.

10 Oct Mithali Raj becomes first female player to complete 2 decades in international cricket

She achieved the feat while leading India to an emphatic eight-wicket win over South Africa

women in the first ODI of the three-match series here on Wednesday.

POINTS TO NOTE

Mithali, who made her ODI debut against Ireland on June 26, 1999, completed 20 years and 105 days in the 50-over

format.

The right-handed batswoman has played 204 ODIs till now, the most by a female, followed by England’s Charlotte

Edwards (191), Jhulan Goswami (178), Alex Blackwell (144) of Australia.











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12 Oct Simone Biles wins 16th world gymnastics title

Biles, 22, earned the 22nd world medal of her career, leaving her just one short of the all-time

record, having already won team gold with the USA.

POINTS TO NOTE

Biles, 22, earned the 22nd world medal of her career, leaving her just one short of the all-time record.

Chinese teenager Tang Xijing, 16, took silver and Angelina Melnikova of Russia claimed bronze in the all-around event.

With two golds won and potentially four more medals to come, Biles has put a testing two years behind her. In

January 2018, she revealed she was a victim of Larry Nassar, the disgraced former doctor of the US women's Olympic

team, who was jailed for sexually abusing hundreds of girls and women.

12 Oct Kohli scores the highest double hundreds in Indian cricket history

Star batsman Virat Kohli eclipsed legendary Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag by amassing

a record seventh double hundred, the highest in Indian cricket history.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Indian skipper, who now has 26 Test hundreds and 69 international tons (43 in ODIs), for a brief period of time

had also surpassed Sir Don Bradman’s eight scores of 150 plus before reaching his double hundred.

On way to his double ton on day two of the second Test against South Africa, Kohli also equalled former Australia

skipper Ricky Ponting by scoring the most number of centuries as Test captain. Both Kohli and Ponting now have a

record 19 hundreds as a Test captain.

12 Oct Dutee Chand breaks National record on way to gold at National Open Athletics

Chand smashed her own national record, clocking 11.22 seconds in the women's 100m semifinals,

surpassing her previous timing of 11.26s which she had set at the Asian Championships in April2019.

POINTS TO NOTE

Her state-mate Amiya Kumar Malik, who has been struggling to find his rhythm the whole season, won the bragging

rights as the fastest man in the National Open.

He won the men's 100m in 10.46 seconds, breaking the beam a hundredth of a second ahead of Malaysia's Jonathan

Anak Nyepa.










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13 Oct Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge becomes first to run 42 km marathon in under two hours

The Olympic marathon champion and world record holder completed a course around Vienna's

Prater Park in one hour 59:40 only.

POINTS TO NOTE

The IAAF has said it would not recognise the run as an official record because it was not in open competition and it

used in and out pacemakers although its president Sebastian Coe had welcomed the record attempt.

The run, organised and funded by the British chemical company INEOS and dubbed the INEOS 1.59 challenge, was

Kipchoge's second attempt to break the barrier, having missed out by 26 seconds in Monza two years ago.

13 Oct Jamuna Boro settles for bronze in AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships

In the 54kg category, Boro in her maiden World Championships faced a 0-5 defeat at the hands of

Chinese Taipei's Huang Hsiao-Wen.

POINTS TO NOTE

Manju Rani trounced Thailand's Chuthamat Raksat in the semifinal match to secure a final berth. She became the first

Indian boxer after 18 years to reach the finals on debut. Mary Kom in 2001 had reached the finals.

Six-time world champion Mary Kom was knocked out of the tournament after facing a defeat in the semifinals by

Turkey's Busenaz Cakiroglu 4-1 in the 51kg category. As a result, she settled with a bronze medal.

Lovlina Borgohain lost the 69kg category bout in a split decision of 2-3, and settled for bronze as well.

14 Oct Valtteri Bottas wins Japanese Grand Prix, Mercedes clinch record constructors' title

Charles Leclerc could only finish sixth in the second Ferrari, meaning Mercedes clinched a record

sixth successive constructors’ world championship with their double podium finish.

POINTS TO NOTE

Valtteri Bottas hopped from third to first with an electric begin to win the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday in front of

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and the Finn's Mercedes partner Lewis Hamilton.

The 2019 Japanese Grand Prix was a Formula One dashing occasion started on 13 October 2019 at the Suzuka

International Racing Course in Suzuka in the Mie Prefecture, Japan.










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14 Oct Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei shatters women’s marathon world record at Chicago

Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei shattered Paula Radcliffe’s 16-year-old women’s marathon world record on

October 13, winning the Chicago Marathon in 2 hours, 14 minutes and 4 seconds.

POINTS TO NOTE

Kosgei won the London Marathon in April and clocked the fastest half-marathon in history this year of 1:04:28.

Ethiopians Ababel Yeshaneh and Gelete Burka came second and third in this marathon.

Kenya’s Lawrence Cherono won a men’s race while Ethiopia’s Dejene Debela was second with Ethiopian Asefa

Mengstu came third. The 2018 winner Mo Farah of Britain finished a distant eighth.

14 Oct Lakshya Sen bags first BFW World Tour title

Rising Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen clinched his maiden BWF World Tour title by winning the Dutch

Open title beating Yusuke Onodera of Japan.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Dutch Open is an annual badminton tournament held in the Netherlands since 1932 and currently organized by

Nederlandse Badminton Bond (NBB). It is a part of the European Badminton Circuit.It is is a BWF World Tour Super 100

tournament.

Lakshya, currently ranked 72nd, had won the Belgian Open last month and reached the final of the Polish Open this

year. He had also won the Asian junior championships, a silver at the Youth Olympic Games and a bronze at the World

junior championships last year.











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14 Oct Indian Boxer Manju Rani wins silver in World boxing championships

Manju Rani’s World boxing championships ended with a silver medal after she lost the light flyweight

(48kg) final to Russia’s Ekaterina Paltceva.

POINTS TO NOTE

Manju Rani was the lone Indian to make a final after six-time champion M.C. Mary Kom , Jamuna Boro and Lovlina

Borgohain finished with bronze medals.

Earlier this year, she won a silver medal on debut at the prestigious Strandja Memorial tournament, one of Europe’s

oldest and most competitive boxing events.

15 Oct Double Asian Games silver medallist Fouaad Mirza bagged the top honors at the CCI3*S

Fouaad is currently the highest-ranked individual in Group G for Asia-Pacific Zone with 34 points on

one horse Fernhill Facetime, 30 points on the second horse Touchingwood and at present qualifying

his third horse, Dajara.

POINTS TO NOTE

The 27-year-old shot to fame after he became the first Indian to win an Asian Games individual medal in

equestrian since 1982 besides guiding the country to a second-place finish in the team competition in Jakarta last year.

The eight-year-old Dajara, procured by the Embassy Group, is a promising German Holsteiner with an excellent track

record of wins including a German National Championship, Bundeschampionat.

In equestrian, qualification for the Olympics is based on an elaborate ranking system. A rider-horse duo collects

points by taking part in tournaments throughout the year. At the end, the points are added to compile the world

rankings.

15 Oct Sourav Ganguly first Indian cricketer in 65 years to become BCCI president

Sourav Ganguly is set to become only the second India cricketer after Maharaja of Vizianagaram

to serve as the president of BCCI.

POINTS TO NOTE

Ganguly will be elected unopposed as the new BCCI president. He was accompanied by former BCCI bosses Niranjan

Shah and N Srinivasan as he became the only candidate to file the nomination.

Maharaja of Vizianagaram, who led India in a Test tour to England in 1936. Despite playing only 3 Test matches for

India, the Maharaja of Vizianagaram a.k.a Vizzy served as BCCI president between 1954 and 1956.










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16 Oct Euro 2020 Qualifiers: Cristiano Ronaldo becomes 6th footballer to join 700 goals club

He has scored 700 goals in 973 matches, only Czech-Austrian Josef Bican (805 goals), Brazil legend

Romario (772), Pele (767 goals), Hungary legend Ferenc Puskas (746) and Germany striker Gerd

Muller (735 goals) are ahead of him.

POINTS TO NOTE

In terms of international goals, Ronaldo, who slotted in his 95th goal for Portugal, is at the second place with only

Iran’s Ali Daei ahead of him with 109 goals in his career.

Argentina’s Lionel Messi is the only active player who can go past the 700 goals mark. He currently has 672 goals to his

credit.

19 Oct Indian cyclist Ronaldo Singh wins gold medal in Asian Track Cycling Championships

Ronaldo Singh bagged a gold medal in the men’s junior Keirin event at the Asian Track Cycling

Championships being held at Incheon, South Korea.

POINTS TO NOTE

Apart from Ronaldo, James Singh also brought laurel for the nation as he clinched a bronze medal in the event.

The men’s and women’s junior sprint team won two bronze medals.

21 Oct Belinda Bencic wins Kremlin Cup after sealing WTA Finals slot

The victory came a day after the 22-year-old clinched the final slot at the season-ending WTA Finals

in Shenzhen, a tournament boasting record $14 million prize money.

POINTS TO NOTE

Belinda Bencic secured her second title of the season with a three-set victory over former champion Anastasia

Pavlyuchenkova to win the VTB Kremlin Cup.

It is the first time that Bencic has reached the WTA Finals where she will line up against Ashleigh Barty, Karolina

Pliskova, Simona Halep, Bianca Andreescu, Naomi Osaka, Petra Kvitova and Elina Svitolina.

Earlier Bencic won the WTA event in Dubai and reached the final at the Mallorca Open.










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21 Oct Raunak Sadhwani becomes India's 65th Grandmaster

Sadhwani stunned Russian GM Alexander Motylev to reach five points to be a Grandmaster in 13

years, nine months and 28 days!

POINTS TO NOTE

In the opening round of Chess.com Isle of Man International at Douglas, Viswanathan Anand escaped to a 74-move

win over a 12-year-old Raunak Sadhwani, an International Master rated.

Sadhwani, part of the recent training camp for chosen Indian teenagers under former World champion Vladimir

Kramnik, entered the world’s strongest Swiss league tournament for a starting rank of distant 129th out of 154

participants.

Sadhwani’s first GM norm came in the 2019 Aeroflot Open and the second in the 2019 Porticcio Open.

With this, Sadhwani joins the growing list of country’s teenaged GMs that includes Nihal Sarin, R. Praggnanandhaa

and D. Gukesh, among others.

23 Oct Paris reveals golden Marianne logo for 2024 Olympics

Parisians got their first glimpse of the logo when it was flashed up on the outside of the French

capital's iconic Grand Rex cinema.

POINTS TO NOTE

The logo for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, depicting the Olympic flame within a gold medal, was unveiled in

host city Paris.

The circular design with Paris 2024 in the art deco style which was in vogue in 1924 when Paris last hosted the Games,

also incorporates the lips and outline of Marianne, the personification of the French Republic since the revolution in

1789.

For the first time in the history of the Games, emblem will be common to the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

Organisers called it "a new phase" in the project where the objective was no longer the bid but the promotion of the

Games themselves to the public and potential sponsors.










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24 Oct Praveen Kumar scripts history, becomes first Indian man to bag gold in World Wushu Championships

Kumar defeated Russel Diaz of the Philippines 2-1, thus becoming the first Indian male to win a world

title in the sport. In the semi-finals, the 23-year-old outplayed Uzbekistan’s Khasan Ikromov 2-0.

POINTS TO NOTE

Wushu sanda is a martial art, which includes kickboxing, punches and wrestling.

In 2017, Pooja Kadian became the first female to win the world title (75kg).

Kumar defeated Russel Diaz of the Philippines 2-1, thus becoming the first Indian male to win a world title in the

sport. In the semi-finals, the 23-year-old outplayed Uzbekistan’s Khasan Ikromov.

After winning silver in the 2016 Asian Championships, Kumar, who hails from Haryana, joined the Assam Regiment

Centre (Shillong). The same year he won the national title.

In the championship Poonam (75kg) and Sanathoi Devi (52kg) won silver, while Vikrant Baliyan clinched bronze in the

men’s 60kg.











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25 Oct Gunasekaran wins 3rd gold, Shivpal too bags top honours in World Military Games

After claiming top honours in the men’s disabled 100m and 400m IT1 events earlier, Gunasekaran

won the gold in men’s disabled 200m IT1 event with a timing of 24.31s.

POINTS TO NOTE

The World Military Games are being held in China for the first time where over 10,000 athletes from more than 140

nations are participating across 27 disciplines.

Para-athlete Anandan Gunasekaran clinched his third gold of the event, while javelin thrower Shivpal Singh bagged

another yellow metal for the country as India continued their fine show at the ongoing 7th CISM World Military

Games.

Fajardo Pardo Teodicelo of Colombia won the silver in men’s disabled 200m IT1 event, while Peru’s Casa Jose bagged

the bronze.

In 25m center fire pistol men individual event, 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist marksman Gurpreet Singh

claimed the bronze medal .

Aneesh Kumar Surendran Pillai and Virender are the other gold medal winners for India in men’s disabled shot put

categories.

25 Oct India slip to 106 in latest FIFA rankings, Belgium retain top spot

Despite securing an impressive 0-0 draw against Asian champions Qatar in September, the home

stalemate against then 187th ranked Bangladesh saw India drop two ranks from 104 to 106 in the

latest tally.

POINTS TO NOTE

Belgium has remained at the top spot in the rankings with France and Brazil also holding on to their positions.

Top-ten rivals Uruguay, Croatia, Argentina have edged closer to the summit, according to the FIFA website.

And there are celebrations, too, for Kosovo (114th, up 5), who can again feel pride on their best Ranking position to

date.

26 Oct Shtembuliak, Polina crowned World junior chess champions

After three years, Indians again remain medal-less; Karthikeyan, Aakanksha finish fifth in the

championship.

POINTS TO NOTE

Indians finished medal-less after the overnight leaders, Armenia’s Evgeny Shtembuliak and Russia’s Polina Shuvalova,

performed to expectations to claim their maiden World junior (under-20) chess crowns.

Polina, playing black, beat China’s Song Yuxin and won the girls’ title. While Shtembuliak took his time and

overpowered Russian prodigy Volodar Murzin to win the boy's title.

India's second seed M. Karthikeyan signed off with a win and took the fifth spot, like he did in 2016. Among the girls,

Aakanksha Hagawane was the best finisher. She won the last round to take fifth place.










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28 Oct Marc Marquez wins Australia MotoGP thriller

World champion Marc Marquez secured his 11th victory of the season at the Australian MotoGP after

disaster struck fellow Spaniard Maverick Vinales, who crashed on the last lap.

POINTS TO NOTE

Britain's Cal Crutchlow came second with Australian Jack Miller third.

Italian veteran Valentino Rossi, racing in an incredible 400th Grand Prix, was eighth.

Vinales had won in Australia last year and started from pole, having reigned supreme through practice and qualifying.

28 Oct Sabalenka lifts WTA Elite Trophy in China

Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka overpowered top seed Kiki Bertens in the final of the WTA Elite Trophy in

Zhuhai to lift her third singles title of the year in China.

POINTS TO NOTE

Sabalenka won the titles in Shenzhen and Wuhan earlier this year.

Aryna Siarhiejeŭna Sabalenka is a Belarusian professional tennis player who won her first Grand Slam title in doubles

at the 2019 US Open alongside Elise Mertens. She has won eight WTA titles in total, five in singles and three in

doubles.

29 Oct Federer beats De Minaur for 10th Basel title

Federer’s 10 Basel titles ties the 10 he owns from Halle. The Swiss has also won Wimbledon eight

times.

POINTS TO NOTE

He is now just six short of the record 109 ATP titles won by American Jimmy Connors.

This victory was his 75th win in Basel and extended his win streak at his hometown tournament to 24 matches with

his last loss at the event coming in the 2013 final to Juan Martin del Potro.

He now owns four titles this season after Dubai, Miami and Halle.










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30 Oct India’s first ever day-night Test to be against Bangladesh in Kolkata

The Test is scheduled to be held at the Eden Gardens from November 22-26 and will be the

second game of a two-match series.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Indian cricket team will play its first-ever Day/Night Test match here against Bangladesh next month.

Ganguly first proposed the idea to the Bangladesh Cricket Board, which faced resistance from its players.

Ganguly was instrumental in organising the first-ever pink ball match in India although it was a Cricket Association of

Bengal (CAB) Super League final between Mohun Bagan and Bhowanipore under lights in June, 2016. Ganguly headed

the CAB at the time.











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30 Oct ICC suspends Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan for two years for not reporting corrupt approach

Shakib has been handed a full ban for a year and a 12-month suspended sentence, which will come

into effect if Shakib fails to comply with the anti-corruption code of the world body.

POINTS TO NOTE

Bangladesh captain and star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was handed a two-year suspension by the ICC for failing to

report three corrupt approaches, including one at the IPL, by a suspected Indian bookie, ousting him from the

upcoming tour of India.

Shakib, who escaped the maximum punishment of five years for the offence, will not have the right to appeal as he

accepted the ICC’s investigation and charges.

He is unarguably one of the greats of the game in Bangladesh with more than 11,000 runs and over 500 wickets across

three formats.

In his absence, senior-most player Mushfiqur Rahim might lead the team in Tests while one among Mahmudullah

Riyadh Mosaddek Hosain is set to be the skipper in the three T20 Internationals.

31 Oct Ravinder settles for silver at U-23 World Wrestling Championship

Ravinder had won gold at the South Asian Games in 2016 and also a bronze at the Cadet Asian

Championships in 2014.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Indian Air Force wrestler from Haryana lose to Kyrgyzstan’s Ulukbek Zholdoshbekov in the final of the 61kg

freestyle event and settled for a silver.

The IAF wrestler has already had to undergo surgery in his right knee twice, and then was lucky to get into the draw in

the national U-23 championships that he won to book his spot in the Hungary meet.

In 2013, he won gold at the National School Games. A bronze followed in the 2014 Asian cadet championships.

In the inaugural U-23 meet at Poland in 2017, Indian won three silver medals, while Ravi Dahiya won silver in the 2018

edition in Bucharest.










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9. People

APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS

02 Oct Government appoints economist Surjit S Bhalla as Executive Director for India at IMF

His appointment has been cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by

Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

POINTS TO NOTE

On the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), 71-year-old, Surjit S Bhalla, the eminent economist was

appointed as the Executive Director for India.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the

appointment of Bhalla for a period of three years from the date of assumption of charge of the post or until further

orders.

He will succeed former RBI deputy governor Subir Gokarn, who died after a brief illness in the US on July 30.

In another order, an additional charge of the post of the Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, was assigned to

Amarjeet Sinha

Bhalla, an economist and columnist, in December last year resigned as part-time member of the Economic Advisory

Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM).

02 Oct Budget carrier GoAir's Chief Financial Officer Sanjay Gupta resigns

GoAir has seen a churn in its senior management in the past and its CEO Cornelis Vrieswijk resigned

in February.

POINTS TO NOTE

The airline had strengthened its management, expanded its network and turned aggressive in its marketing ahead of a

possible initial public offering. But currently, Sanjay Gupta, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of GoAir’s has quit the airline.

He joined the company in March, who previously worked with Emami Agrotech and Unilever in Singapore.










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02 Oct SS Mallikarjuna Rao appointed MD and CEO of Punjab National Bank

Rao, at present the chief executive of Allahabad Bank, will head the Delhi-based PNB till September

18, 2021.

POINTS TO NOTE

Punjab National Bank will go into merger under the stewardship of SS Mallikarjuna Rao, who has been appointed as

the new chief executive of the bank.

He at present was the chief executive of Allahabad Bank.

Rao, a career banker, has 33 years of banking experience behind him.

He will replace Sunil Mehta in PNB, which is currently under a process of three-way amalgamation with Oriental Bank

of Commerce (OBC) and United Bank of India.

03 Oct Shri Pradipta Kumar Bisoi appointed Secretary, Department of Posts

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Shri Pradipta Kumar

Bisoi (IPoS:1985) to the post of Secretary, Department of Posts.

POINTS TO NOTE

Shri Pradipta Kumar Bisoi is an an officer of the 1985-cadre of Indian Postal Service (IPoS). In 2018, he got a promotion

while serving as Director, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai National Postal Academy, Ghaziabad, and was posted as Member

(Personnel), Postal Services Board, Postal Directorate, New Delhi. He had earlier served as Chief Postmaster General,

Maharashtra Circle.

Upon the superannuation of Shri Ananta Narayan Nanda on 31.10.2019, Pradipta Kumar Bisoi was appointed.

04 Oct Rajat Monga, Senior Group President, quits Yes Bank

Rajat Monga, senior group president and one of the veterans of Yes Bank, has quit Yes Bank citing

personal reasons - the lender’s MD and CEO Ravneet Gill informed investors.

POINTS TO NOTE

Gill replaced Kapoor in March following the latter's term being cut short by the RBI over governance issues and under-

reporting of bad loans.

Gill said this has to be seen in the context of a shrinking asset base, and noted that it added 1.80 lakh new accounts

during the September quarter. But its balance sheet has shrunk by over 4 per cent now over last year. The new

deposits are also up 13 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

The bank, which is known for high growth, is consolidating and taking a measured growth approach. The bank is on

the lookout for capital either from a private equity investor or a strategic investor or family office.










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08 Oct Chris Silverwood appointed England Head Coach for Cricket

The former England fast bowler, who played six Tests and seven one-day internationals, replaces

Australian Trevor Bayliss.

POINTS TO NOTE

British media reported last week that former India and South Africa coach Gary Kirsten had emerged as the leading

contender, but Silverwood, the team's former bowling coach, was preferred.

Silverwood's first assignment will be England's tour of New Zealand on which they play five Twenty20 internationals

starting on November 1 and two Tests, before they travel to South Africa.

09 Oct Nissan Motor picks Makoto Uchida as CEO, Ashwani Gupta as COO

The decision comes after months of turmoil at Japan's second-largest automaker following the

downfall of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn last year and the departure of former CEO Hiroto

Saikawa last month.

POINTS TO NOTE

Directors at Nissan, including those from top shareholder Renault SA, voted unanimously in favour of the two

executives.

Chairman Carlos Ghosn is awaiting trial in Tokyo on financial misconduct charges that he denies. Hiroto Saikawa was

forced to step down after he admitted to being improperly overpaid.

The India-born Gupta is currently COO of alliance junior partner Mitsubishi Motors Corp.

12 Oct Justice Manikumar sworn in as Chief Justice of Kerala High Court

JusticeManikumar, former Judge of Madras High Court, succeeds Justice Hrishikesh Roy, who was

elevated to the Supreme Court.

POINTS TO NOTE

Enrolling as an advocate on November 23, 1983, S. Manikumar, now 58, practiced for nearly 22 years in the Madras

High Court, the Tamil Nadu State and Central Administrative Tribunals on constitutional and service matters.

He has held the posts of Senior Central Government Standing Counsel for Government of India and Assistant Solicitor

General of India. Justice Manikumar was appointed Additional Judge at the Madras High Court on July 31, 2006, and as

permanent Judge on November 9, 2009.










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16 Oct Justice Goswami sworn in as new Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court

Justice Arup Kumar Goswami has been appointed after the retirement of the former Chief Justice Vijai

Kumar Bist.

POINTS TO NOTE

President appointed Shri Justice Arup Kumar Goswami, senior-most Judge of the Gauhati High Court, has been

appointed to perform the duties of Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court.

Justice Goswami was the Acting Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court and was proposed to be elevated as Sikkim’s

Chief Justice by the Supreme Court Collegium on August 22.

16 Oct Flipkart appoints Jeyandran Venugopal Chief Product and Technology Officer

Venugopal will provide strategic leadership to the organisation and define the technology vision for

the company with a specific focus on building future capabilities across product and engineering

POINTS TO NOTE

He would help implement new technologies at the pace and the scale that will enable us to become an even more

agile, future-ready organization.

Venugopal will facilitate prioritization of technology investments and drive continued agility in decision-making while

working closely with tech and business leaders across the organisation, said the company.

He had previously served as the chief technology officer (CTO) of fashion firm Myntra, before moving to Flipkart in

January 2019.











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19 Oct Former IMF chief Christine Lagarde appointed head of European Central Bank

The former chief of the International Monetary Fund is all set to replace Mario Draghi at ECB from

November 1. Lagarde's confirmation for a non-renewable term of eight years comes after EU

leaders nominated her for the position on July 2.

POINTS TO NOTE

European Union leaders confirmed the appointment of Christine Lagarde as the new chief of the European Central

Bank, replacing Mario Draghi from November 1.

Lagarde's confirmation for a non-renewable term of eight years comes after EU leaders nominated her for the

position on July 2.

Lagarde was the first woman to become Finance Minister of a G8 economy (and the only woman as of 2019) and is

the first woman to head the IMF.

19 Oct Indian Banks Association elects Rajnish Kumar as chairman

SBI's head Rajnish Kumar has been elected as the chairman of Indian Banks Association for fiscal

2019-20.

POINTS TO NOTE

The body, which represents banks' interests with the government and regulators, announced three top bankers from

various lenders as its deputy chairmen - Union Bank of India's G Rajkiran Rai, S S Mallikarjuna Rao of Punjab National

Bank and Madhav Kalyan JP Morgan Chase Bank.

IDBI Bank's managing director and chief Rakesh Shamra will be the honorary secretary of the body.

20 Oct RIL appoints former CVC K.V. Chowdary as director

A mathematics graduate from Loyola College Chennai and Post Graduate in Mathematics from lIT

Chennai, Mr. Chowdary was the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) from June 2015 to June 2019.

POINTS TO NOTE

Chowdary's four-year term was marked by some controversy in relation to few politically-sensitive cases, particularly

with regard to the infighting in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2018.

On his retirement, he was appointed as an Advisor to the Department of Revenue on issues relating to black money.

Mr. Chowdary started his career as a probationary officer in Andhra Bank and later joined Indian Revenue Service in

1978. On deputation, he went to the Department of Revenue as Under Secretary and thereafter to the Department of

Company Affairs as Deputy Secretary. He held several executive positions in the government and retired as Chairman

of CBDT.










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21 Oct Indonesia’s popular President Joko Widodo sworn in for 2nd term

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who rose from poverty and pledged to champion democracy, fight

entrenched corruption and modernize the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.

POINTS TO NOTE

Known for his down-to-earth style, Mr. Widodo, 58, opted for an austere ceremony at the heavily guarded Parliament

without the festive parade.

Popularly known as Jokowi, Mr. Widodo is the son of a furniture maker and the first Indonesian president from

outside the country’s super rich, and often corrupt, political, business and military elite.

In an interview with The Associated Press in July, Mr. Widodo said he would push ahead with sweeping and

potentially unpopular economic reforms, including a more business-friendly labour law, because he is no longer

constrained by politics in his final term.

23 Oct Pankaj Kumar named new UIDAI CEO

Pankaj Kumar, the additional secretary in the ministry of electronics and information technology, will

be the CEO of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which issues Aadhaar.

POINTS TO NOTE

Senior IAS officer Sanjeev Nandan Sahai was on appointed the new power secretary replacing Subhash Chander Garg,

who had sought voluntary retirement after being shunted out from the post of finance secretary soon after the

budget was passed by Parliament. Sahai is at present special secretary in the ministry.

In other appointments, Braj Raj Sharma has been appointed as the chairman of the Staff Selection Commission (SSC)

by temporarily upgrading the post and keeping the recruitment rules of the post in abeyance. He is currently the

secretary in the department of border management, ministry of home affairs.

Nagendra Nath Sinha, who was the chairman of the National Highways Authority of India, has been transferred and

posted as secretary of the department of border management in place of Sharma.

Senior bureaucrat Sanjeev Gupta will be the secretary of the Inter State Council Secretariat in the ministry of home

affairs.

Minority Affairs Secretary Sailesh has been appointed secretary in the department of public enterprises, the ministry of

heavy industries and public enterprises.










105



24 Oct Centre appoints Tuhin Kanta Pandey as DIPAM secretary

Among the 10 secretary-level appointments, S N Sahai, the current special secretary in the power

ministry, would replace power secretary Subhash Chandra Garg upon his retirement on October 31.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Centre on Tuesday appointed Tuhin Kanta Pandey, IAS (Odisha cadre,1987 batch) as the secretary of department

of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) following early repatriation of Anil Kumar Khachi.

Among the 10 secretary-level appointments, S N Sahai, the current special secretary in the power ministry, would

replace power secretary Subhash Chandra Garg upon his retirement.

24 Oct Ashok Malik appointed MEA policy advisor

Ashok Malik, former press secretary to President Ram Nath Kovind, has been appointed policy

advisor in the Ministry of External Affairs with the rank of additional secretary.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Malik, a distinguished fellow in the

Observer Research Foundation on contract basis.

Ashok Malik's pay and allowances will be as of an additional secretary rank officer in the government of India, for a

period of two years "with effect from the date of assumption of charge of the post or until further orders, whichever is

earlier by temporarily upgrading a post of Director in the Indian Foreign Service Grade IV of IFS to Additional Secretary

level in the ministry.











106



25 Oct PM congratulates Kais Saied on being sworn-in as President of Tunisia

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated the President Kais Saied on being sworn-in as the

President of the Republic of Tunisia.

POINTS TO NOTE

The 61-year-old law professor has no prior political experience, never held office and barely ran a campaign.

Saied sealed a resounding victory in a runoff election on October 13, largely buoyed by a groundswell of support from

young voters. He won just over 72 percent of the votes, with about 27 percent of ballots cast for his media-mogul

opponent Nabil Karoui.

25 Oct Arvind Singh appointed chairman of AAI

Arvind Singh is at present working in his cadre-state Maharashtra. He has been appointed as the

chief of AAI in the rank and pay of additional secretary.

POINTS TO NOTE

Ganji Kamala V Rao, at present in his cadre-state Kerala, has been named the chairman and managing director, India

Tourism Development CorporationNSE 0.62 % (ITDC) Ltd.

Debashri Mukherjee, joint secretary in the Prime Minister's Office has been appointed as the additional secretary,

department of water resources in the river development and Ganga rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti.

IAS officer Amit Yadav, joint secretary in the department of telecommunications, has been appointed as the director

general, directorate general of foreign trade.

26 Oct In major reshuffle, 29 joint secretaries appointed in various govt depts

Of the total officers, thirteen are from IAS and the rest from other services like IRS, IFoS and CSS,

among others

POINTS TO NOTE

The Centre appointed 29 joint secretaries in different government departments as part of a major bureaucratic

reshuffle effected by it.

Those appointed include Alaknanda Dayal, Punjab-cadre IAS officer, as joint secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs.

Ashutosh Jindal, joint secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, has been transferred to the Cabinet

Secretariat at the same post.

IAS officer Puneet Aggarwal will be joint secretary in the Department of Defence.

Satya S Lolla, an officer of Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise), has been appointed as joint secretary,

NATGRID under the Ministry of Home Affairs.










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26 Oct Girish Chandra Murmu appointed Lt. Governor of Jammu, R.K. Mathur appointed Lt. Governor of

Ladakh

They replace Satya Pal Malik, who oversaw the transition phase since the withdrawal of the

special status.

POINTS TO NOTE

President Ram Nath Kovind transferred Jammu & Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik to Goa and appointed

Expenditure Secretary Girish Chandra Murmu as the Lieutenant Governor of J&K and Radha Krishna Mathur as the

Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh.

P.S. Sreedharan Pillai appointed Governor of Mizoram.

The Centre withdrew the special status of Jammu & Kashmir on August 5. The newly created Union Territories of J&K

and Ladakh will come into existence on October 31. Though the appointments are made in the name of the

President, the Home Ministry is the nodal Ministry.

The Centre also appointed former chief of the Intelligence Bureau Dineshwar Sharma, who was the Centre’s

interlocutor for Jammu & Kashmir, as administrator to Lakshadweep.

26 Oct Shri Pramod Kumar Das assumes charge as Secretary, Ministry of Minority Affairs

Prior to this, he was serving as the Special Secretary, Department of Expenditure in the Ministry of

Finance.

POINTS TO NOTE

Shri Das is a Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer of 1986 batch.

He has held several other important positions in the Union as well as State Governments. These include Additional

Secretary, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, Joint Secretary in DOPT and Ministry of Industry &

Commerce at the Centre and many more.

29 Oct Peronist Fernandez wins Argentine Presidential election

Peronist Fernandez, a 60-year-old law professor, had 47.36 percent of the votes crossing the

threshold for outright victory - after 75 percent of the votes had been counted.

POINTS TO NOTE

Center-right incumbent Mauricio Macri was trailing with 41.22 percent votes.

His win also caps a remarkable political comeback for his running mate, ex-president Cristina Kirchner, who will be his

vice-president. Kirchner has long been a polarizing figure who succeeded her husband Nestor Kirchner as president in

2007 and remained in power until 2015.










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29 Oct Dr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu Takes Over as Chairman, National Highways Authority of India

Prior to his current assignment, Dr. Sandhu was Additional Secretary in the Department of Higher

Education, Govt. Of India where he looked after Technical Education.

POINTS TO NOTE

Dr. Sukhbir Sandhu is an IAS Officer of 1988 batch Uttarakhand Cadre, who has held important positions in the

Central Government and the Government of Uttarakhand, Government of Uttar Pradesh and Government of Punjab.

Dr. Sandhu has done his MBBS from Government Medical College, Amritsar and Master’s Degree in History from Guru

Nanak Dev University, Amritsar and is also a Law Graduate.

Sandhu has been appointed as the NHAI chairman against the vacancy caused due to the appointment of Nagendra

Nath Sinha, who was earlier appointed as the secretary, department of border management.

31 Oct Former Maharashtra DGP Dattatray D Padsalgikar appointed Deputy NSA

For the first time, an IPS officer from the Maharashtra cadre has been appointed as the deputy NSA.

Dattatray D Padsalgikar was previously Director General of Police, Maharashtra.

POINTS TO NOTE

Apart from him, former diplomat Pankaj Saran and former R&AW chief Rajinder Khanna also hold the post of deputy

NSA.

Padsalgikar spent 22 years across two stints in the country’s premier domestic intelligence agency, the Intelligence

Bureau (IB) and rose to the post of Additional Director.











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31 Oct Atanu Chakraborty replaces G.C. Murmu as Department of Expenditure Secretary

Mr. Murmu, a 1985-batch Gujarat-cadre IAS officer, was appointed as the Jammu and Kashmir

lieutenant governor.

POINTS TO NOTE

Senior bureaucrat Atanu Chakraborty has been appointed as the Department of Expenditure secretary, replacing G. C.

Murmu who was named as the first Jammu & Kashmir Lieutenant Governor last week.

Mr. Murmu, who hails from Odisha, was the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his tenure as

the Gujarat Chief Minister.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

02 Oct Uzbekistan honors Mahatma Gandhi by issuing postage stamp

There will be several other events taking place in Uzbekistan dedicated to 150th anniversary of

Gandhi-ji whose image, ideas and philosophy are quite popular among Uzbeks. Several avenues and

streets in Uzbekistan carry the name of Mahatma Gandhi.

POINTS TO NOTE

In a unique move in partnership with the Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications

“O’zbekiston Pochtasi”, Uzbekistan Post Association will put into circulation from October 2 a postage stamp on the

occasion of 150th birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

The stamp depicts a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi with an inscription in Uzbek and English languages.

Last year Mahatma Gandhi’s book “Story of my life” was published in Uzbek language.

There will be several other events taking place in Uzbekistan dedicated to 150th anniversary of Gandhi-ji whose image,

ideas and philosophy are quite popular among Uzbeks.

04 Oct Sachin Tendulkar awarded Most effective Swachchta Ambassador

Shri Ram Nath Kovind presented the award to Shri Sachin Tendulkar in India Today's Safaigiri

Summit on the occasion of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

POINTS TO NOTE

Declaring India as open defecation free (ODF), Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that it is a real tribute to Mahatma

Gandhi on the occasion of his birth anniversary.

Modi pointed out that though the United Nation had set sustainable development goals to be achieved by 2030,

India would be completing it 11 years ahead of the schedule.










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06 Oct Sri Lanka releases Stamp on Mahatma Gandhi

In a warm gesture, the Department of Posts, Sri Lanka, recently released a stamp and first day cover

to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

POINTS TO NOTE

Organised by the Sri Lanka Deputy High Commission, Chennai, the event saw an exchange of stamps and first day

covers released by Sri Lanka and India.

About 40 countries have issued stamps to commemorate Gandhi’s birth anniversary and 33 more countries are likely

to release stamps.

In turn an album of stamps released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 2 was presented

08 Oct Justice J.K. Maheswari sworn in as the Chief Justice of A.P. High Court

Post-bifurcation, Andhra Pradesh got a separate High Court on January 1 this year and it started

functioning from a temporary premises in the Amaravati capital region.

POINTS TO NOTE

The position of the Andhra Pradesh High Court Chief Justice had been lying vacant since the day of its inception.

Following its creation, the High Court, which was functioning from the state capital Amaravati, was being headed by

the Acting Chief Justice Chagari Praveen Kumar, along with 12 other sitting judges.

He is replacing acting CJ Justice C. Praveen Kumar.

08 Oct William Kaelin, Gregg Semenza, Peter Ratcliffe receive Nobel for Medicine

They received the award jointly for finding how cells adapt to fluctuating oxygen levels, paving the

way for new strategies to fight diseases such as anaemia and cancer.

POINTS TO NOTE

The seminal discoveries by this year's Nobel laureates revealed the mechanism for one of life's most essential

adaptive processes. Their research established the basis for the understanding of how oxygen levels affect cellular

metabolism and physiological functions.

Nobel prizes for achievements in science, peace and literature have been awarded since 1901 and were created in the

will of dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel.

Nobel medicine laureates have included scientific greats such as Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, and

Karl Landsteiner, who identified separate blood types.

Last year American James Allison and Japanese Tasuku Honjo won the prize for discoveries about how to harness the

immune system in cancer therapies.










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09 Oct Intel VP Arjun Bansal and Zilingo Founder Ankiti Bose in Fortune USA 2019's '40 Under 40'

Also on the list is Voice user interface designer at Amazon Alison Atwell, 31, who is in charge of

training Alexa, Amazon's cloud-based voice service.

POINTS TO NOTE

One of Intel's key AI projects involves specialised computer chips developed by Nervana, the startup co-founded by

Bansal and acquired by the chip giant in 2016 in a deal reportedly worth over $350 million. Bansal's team of nearly

100 workers, scattered throughout the US, Israel and Poland work on AI technologies like reinforcement learning and

natural-language processing, all intended to help keep Intel's silicon chips working swimmingly with the latest AI

software.

Bose, 27, launched the four-year-old Singapore-based startup after visiting Bangkok's Chatuchak market. What

started as an aggregator of small fashion retailers has since expanded into business-to-business offerings, such as

supply-chain tools, and has tapped into Southeast Asia's booming Internet connectivity and smartphone adoption.

Just 10 per cent of the world's venture capital backed startups worth $1 billion had a female founder as of last year.

Also on the list is 37-year old US Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.

09 Oct Nobel Prize Physics 2019: Awarded to James Peebles, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz

The Nobel Prize for Physics has been awarded to James Peebles for theoretical discoveries in

physical cosmology, and Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for discovering an exoplanet orbiting a

solar-type star.

POINTS TO NOTE

Canadian-American cosmologist James Peebles and Swiss scientists Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz won the 2019

Nobel Prize for Physics for shedding light on the evolution of the universe and discovering planets orbiting distant

suns.

James Peebles' theoretical discoveries contributed to our understanding of how the universe evolved after the Big

Bang. Using theoretical tools and calculations, Peebles was able to interpret trace radiation from the infancy of the

universe and so discover new physical processes.

Mayor and Queloz announced the first discovery of a planet outside our own solar system, a so-called "exoplanet",

starting a revolution in astronomy. Over 4,000 exoplanets have since been found in the Milky Way.

Among the Nobels, physics has often taken centre stage with winners featuring some of the greatest names in science

like Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and Niels Bohr, as well as ground-breaking inventors such as radio pioneer Guglielmo

Marconi.










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10 Oct Nobel Chemistry prize goes to Goodenough, Whittingham, Yoshino

The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to John B Goodenough, M. Stanley

Whittingham and Akira Yoshino for the development of lithium-ion batteries.

POINTS TO NOTE

Lithium-ion batteries have revolutionized our lives and are used in everything from mobile phones to laptops and

electric vehicles. This year's Chemistry Laureates have laid the foundation of a wireless, fossil-fuel-free society.

The laureates receive them at an elegant ceremony in Stockholm the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896 together

with five other Nobel winners. The sixth one, the peace prize, is handed out in Oslo, Norway, on the same day.

10 Oct PM Modi releases commemorative stamp on Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the 'at home' program of the Indian Air Force to mark its

87th raising day and released a commemorative stamp to honor Marshal of the Air Force late Arjan

Singh.

POINTS TO NOTE

The commemorative stamp was launched during Prime Minister Modi's visit to the Indian Air Force exhibition on 'Self

Reliance Through Innovation and Indigenisation'.

Arjan Singh is an icon of Indian military history and is best remembered for providing excellent leadership to a young

IAF during the 1965 war. Government of India designated him as the Marshal of the Air Force in January 2002. He

remains the only officer of the IAF to be given a five-star rank.

He served as the chief of Air Staff from August 1964 to July 1969. Even after retirement, he continued to serve in

various positions including India's Ambassador to several countries.











113



12 Oct U.K. to issue coin in honour of Mahatma Gandhi

Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid asked the Royal Mint of the UK to propose a new

commemorative coin in Gandhi’s honour at the annual GG2 ceremony in London.

POINTS TO NOTE

Mr. Javid has topped the GG2 Power List released annually by the Asian Media Group (AMG), UK-based publishers

behind the GG2.

Priti Patel, the Indian-origin home secretary in the Boris Johnson led government, was named the second most

influential person on the 2019 GG2 power list.

The third spot on the list went to anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller, born Gina Nadira Singh to British Guyana’s

former Attorney-General Doodnauth Singh.

Miller was followed by London’s Pakistani-origin mayor Sadiq Khan at No. 4.

The UK’s senior-most counter-terrorism officer, Neil Basu, is ranked fifth.

Indian-origin junior minister serving under Mr. Javid as the Chief Secretary to the UK Treasury, Rishi Sunak, the son-in-

law of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, also made it to the top 10 at No. 7.

The Nobel Prize-winner and president of the Royal Society, Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan Venky, is ranked ninth.

UK-based Indian-origin businessmen Hinduja brothers, Gopichand and Srichand, took the 10th spot in this year’s list.

12 Oct Abiy Ahmed wins Nobel Peace Prize 2019

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is Africa's youngest leader and has instilled a certain

optimism in a region of Africa marred by violence.

POINTS TO NOTE

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won the Nobel Peace Prize 2019 for his efforts to resolve the long-running

conflict with neighboring foe Eritrea.

He received the award for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive

initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea.

Following a historic meeting in Eritrea's capital Asmara, Abiy and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki formally ended a

20-year-old stalemate between the countries in the wake of the 1998-2000 border conflict.










114



15 Oct Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer win Nobel in Economics

Banerjee, born in 1961 in Mumbai, bagged the award for his "experimental approach to

alleviating global poverty".

POINTS TO NOTE

Duflo, a French-American, and Banerjee have been married for four years. They teach in Massachusetts Institute of

Technology. They are the first couple to win the economics Nobel, and the sixth Nobel-winning couple.

Banerjee is the second India born to get the economics Nobel — the formal award is called the Sveriges Riksbank

Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Duflo is the second woman to receive the prize.

Banerjee and Duflo’s work on poverty first drew global attention with the publication of their 2011 book, Poor

Economics.

The authors’ insights included why poor families often invest in the education of only one of several children or why

small farmers are often reluctant to use better farming methods. Their central thesis was that small changes, including

tweaks in existing structures, often produced lasting and big outcomes in reducing poverty.

17 Oct Kiran Uniyal Achieves Individual Guinness World Records

Kiran Uniyal, w/o a serving Colonel of Indian Army has created Individual Guinness World Records for

“The most full contact knee strikes in three minutes (one leg) (female), 263 strikes” & “The most full

contact knee strikes alternate legs in one minute(female),120 strikes”.

POINTS TO NOTE

The objective of both her records were to promote martial arts for girls and women safety and self-defence. While

creating the record for the most full contact knee strikes for three minutes, she surpassed the existing male category

record of 226 knee strikes.

Kiran Uniyal created her 1st Individual Guinness World Record for “The most full contact elbow strikes (one hand) in 3

minutes,466 strikes”, which also featured among the Best of Guinness World Record official video of Jan 2019.

She has so far achieved 15 World Records, including 10 Guinness World Records in Martial Arts, Fitness and Social

Work.










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21 Oct Vice President presents ‘Most Eminent Senior Citizen Award’ to former Attorney General, Shri K.

Parasaran

Shri Parasaran was honored with the Award on the occasion of the Elder’s Day celebration of Age

Care India, an organization working for the welfare of the elderly.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Vice President of India, Shri M Venkaiah Naidu today presented ‘Most Eminent Senior Citizen Award’ to legal

luminary, scholar and former Attorney General of India, Shri K. Parasaran.

Known for his erudition, discipline, hard work, honesty and ethics, Shri Parasaran’s legal canvas has been wide. With

equal felicity, Shri Parasaran, throughout his distinguished career, had handled a wide array of cases.

In recognition of his accomplishments, he was nominated, in 2012, as a member of the Rajya Sabha and was

decorated with the honours of Padma Bhushan in 2003 and Padma Vibhushan in 2011.

27 Oct Amazon founder Jeff Bezos regains top spot as world's richest man

Bezos had lost to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates after Amazon's lacklustre Q3 results resulted in him

losing nearly $7 billion in stock value.

POINTS TO NOTE

Gates is just $4.1 billion behind Bezos at number two richest, worth $105.8 billion. Bezos ended Gates' 24-year run as

the richest man in 2018 and became the first man on earth with a net worth of $160 billion.

Bezos first joined The Forbes 400 list of richest Americans in 1998, one year after Amazon went public, with a net

worth of $1.6 billion

30 Oct Nawazuddin bags Golden Dragon Award at Cardiff International Film Festival

The actor has made a mark internationally with Netflix's 'Sacred Games', Ritesh Batra's "Photograph"

and BBC UK's 'McMafia'.

POINTS TO NOTE

Siddiqui, who came into limelight after his performnce in Gangs of Wasseypur, was presented the award by counsel

general of Wales, UK, Mick Antoniw, at an event in Cardiff.

Hollywood legend Judi Dench was also honoured with the Lifetime Achievement award at the ceremony.










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30 Oct Finance Minister Releases Commemorative Coin on Paramahansa Yogananda

Sitharaman said that the Paramahansa Yogananda was great son of India, who became so

recognised globally.

POINTS TO NOTE

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) is considered one of the preeminent spiritual figures of modern times.

Author of the best-selling spiritual classic Autobiography of a Yogi, this beloved world teacher went to America in 1920

from his native India, and was the first great master of yoga to live and teach in the West for an extended period

(more than 30 years).

OBITUARY

12 Oct Alexei Leonov, first man to walk in space, passes away at 85

Leonov was a close friend of Yury Gagarin, who became the first human to go to outer space in

1961. Leonov made history when he left a spacecraft during the Voskhod 2 mission for a spacewalk

that lasted 12 minutes and nine seconds.

POINTS TO NOTE

The Russian space agency Roscosmos said it was saddened to announce the death of "cosmonaut No 11" who was

twice decorated with the country's top honour, the Hero of the Soviet Union.

The flight and spacewalk were successful on the whole but Leonov's return to Earth nearly ended in tragedy when

Leonov and another cosmonaut, Pavel Belyayev, crash-landed in Siberian woods.











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30 Oct Sadako Ogata, first female UN refugee chief, dies at 92

Sadako Ogata worked on some of the largest crises of the decade during her time in service from

1991 to 2000.

POINTS TO NOTE

Ogata was widely respected for her efforts to help refugees and internally displaced people around the world and

emphasised making visits to conflict zones during her tenure from 1991-2000.

She worked to help Kurdish refugees from Iraq after the Gulf War, and was also known for tackling crises in Rwanda,

Zaire, Sudan and the former Yugoslavia.

After becoming the first Japanese woman to represent the country at the United Nations in 1976, Ogata served as the

Japanese representative at the UN Commission on Human Rights from 1982 to 1985.










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10. Books & Authors

11 Oct Poland’s Olga Tokarczuk, Austria’s Peter Handke win Literature Nobels for 2018 and 2019

The literature prize was cancelled last year after an exodus at the Swedish Academy, which

chooses the winners, following sex abuse allegations.

POINTS TO NOTE

Jean-Claude Arnault, the husband of a former academy member, was convicted last year of two rapes in 2011.

Mr. Handke’s worki s appreciated for exploring “the periphery and the specificity of human experience” with linguistic

ingenuity.

Ms. Tokarczuk is one of Poland’s best-known authors, known for her humanist themes and playful, subversive streak.

She won the Booker International Prize in 2018 for Flights. She is only the 15th woman to win the Nobel literature

prize in more than a century. Of the 11 Nobels awarded so far this week, all the other laureates have been men.

Ms. Tokarcuzk has been attacked by Polish conservatives and received death threats for criticising aspects of the

country’s past, including its episodes of anti-Semitism. She is also a strong critic of Poland’s current right-wing

government.

16 Oct Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo joint winners of Booker Prize

Canadian author Margaret Atwood wins for The Testaments and Anglo-Nigerian author

Bernardine Evaristo for Girl, Woman, Other.

POINTS TO NOTE

Atwood becomes only the second female author to win the award twice, sharing the £50,000 prize at the 50th

anniversary ceremony at London’s Guildhall. She was honoured for her best-selling sequel to her 1985 dystopian

classic The Handmaid’s Tale.

This year's shortlist featured six novelists - four of them women - born across four continents.

The five-judge panel included the writer-broadcaster Afua Hirsch and the British-Chinese novelist and filmmaker

Xiaolu Guo.










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21 Oct PM unveils the book “Bridgital Nation” on the importance of technology

Bridgital Nationis a visionary book that is replete with positivity and optimism and delves in-depth

about the importance of technology.

POINTS TO NOTE

The book has been written by Shri N Chandrasekaran and Ms. Roopa Purushottam.

The book argues that instead of accepting technology as replacement of human labour, India can use it as an aid to

generate more jobs. The cutting edge digital tools can act as a bridge between aspirations and achievements - hence

the term ‘bridgital’.

In the event PM mentioned about the use of data intelligence, digital mapping and real time monitoring in Ujjwala

Yojana which has transformed the lives of millions of women. He also talked about how technology has helped in

empowering people through schemes like Jan Dhan Yojana and Ayushman Bharat.










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