November 2018 Daily News Current Affairs

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  1. Nov 30, 2018
    1. 2st India-ASEAN InnoTech Summit held in New Delhi, organized by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).
    2. India's Gross Domestic Product(GDP) Growth Data released by Central Statistics Office (CSO) for 2nd quarter (July-September) of 2018-19 -
      1. At Constant Prices (2011-2012), GDP rose to 33.98 lakh crores, from 31.72 lakh crores in Q2 of 2017-18, showing a growth rate of 7.1 %. in Q2 2018-19. It is less as compared to 8.2 % Growth of GDP in Q1 of 2018-19.
    3. Visits to India (Nov 21 - 30, 2018) -
      1. Hu Wei, Vice Minister of General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) Visited India. A protocol on Hygiene and Inspection requirements for the export of Fish Meal and Fish Oil from India to China was signed, enabling India to commence export of fish meal and fish oil to China.
      2. Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu visited India.
      3. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Gabon (Central Africa), Regis Immongault Visited India.
      4. Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid Visited India.
    4. Visits fr0m India (Nov 21-30, 2018)
      1. First India Russia Strategic Economic Dialogue held at St. Petersburg in Russia. Indian side was led by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar.
      2. Nitin Gadkari (Minister for Shipping, Road Transport & Highways, Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation) Visited Nigeria for Attending Blue Economy Conference held in Nairobi. Kenya hosted conference with Canada and Japan as co-hosts.
      3. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Laos.
      4. Navy Chief Sunil Lanba Visited Russia.
    5. General Events / Conferences (Nov 21 - 30, 2018) -
      1. 3rd India-Singapore Defence Minister dialogue(DMD) held in Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh).
      2. 24th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF 2018) held in Kolkata, West Bengal.
      3. 4th annual “Aadi Mahotsav”, a National Tribal Festival organized by Ministry of Tribal Affairs in at Dilli Haat (Delhi).
      4. 50th Union World Conference on Lung Health will be held in Hyderabad (Telangana), with theme 'Ending the Emergency: Science, Leadership, Action.
      5. 12th World Congress on Mountain Medicine started in Kathmandu (Nepal), with theme Mountain Medicine in the Heart of the Himalayas.
      6. 2nd India-UAE Strategic Conclave held in Abu Dhabi (UAE).
      7. Government decided to set up domestic Gold council in India to promote the growth of the sector and boost exports of jewellery. It was announced during 2nd India Gold and Jewellery Summit in New Delhi.
      8. PM Narendra Modi laid Foundation Stones of City Gas Distribution (CGD) Projects in 65 Geographical Areas (GAs) in 129 Districts under 9th CGD Bidding Round, awarded by Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB).
      9. 1st offshore wind investment conference held in New Delhi, During which European Investment Bank (EIB) and State Bank of India (SBI) agreed to cooperate on financing renewable energy and wind energy projects across India. EIB also approved a new line of credit worth USD 100 million to Yes Bank to boost private investment in clean energy projects.
      10. Uttar Pradesh Government launched Women Empowerment Resolution Campaign to develop leadership capacities in women and make them vocal for their rights.
      11. National Festival for Children of Child Care Institutions (CCIs)- “Hausla 2018” of Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) was held in New Delhi. Theme for event is “Child Safety”.
      12. Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu launched logo and brochure of Logix India 2019 in New Delhi, Major Logistics sector event scheduled to take place in New Delhi from 31st January to 2nd February 2019.
      13. South Asia Regional Youth Peace Conference held in New Delhi, organized by Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti (GSDS) to mark beginning of celebration of 150th birth anniversary of M K Gandhi.
      14. 2nd International Ambedkar Conclave held in New Delhi as part of commemoration of Constitution Day.
        1. Dr Ambedkar International Centre (DAIC) and Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi signed MoU to enhance research activities and policy formulation aimed at Socio-economic Transformation and Sustainable Development.
      15. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar unveiled 70-feet tall statue of Lord Buddha at Rajgir in Nalanda district of state, as 2nd tallest statue of Buddha in India.
      16. 7th ‘International Tourism Mart’ was held in Agartala (capital of Tripura), with theme Adventure Tourism.
    6. Obituaries (November 2018) -
      1. Stan Lee - Noted American comic book writer. He was Marvel Comics' primary creative leader.
      2. Lalan Sarang - Noted Marathi actress.
      3. M.P. Awati - 1971 War Hero. He commanded a naval unit of Eastern Fleet that led to destruction of an enemy submarine.
      4. K P S Srivastava - Noted Jurnalist.
      5. Vinod Agrawal - Noted Bhajan singer.
      6. Anant Kumar - Serving Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs. After his demise, DV Sadananda Gowda got additional charge of the Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers and Narendra Singh Tomar was assigned Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.
      7. Roshan Lal Sethi - Noted Sports journalist.
      8. Chitta Jena - Noted Odia singer.
      9. Banamali Maharana - Noted Odissi percussionist. He was known for expertise in Mardala Instrument.
      10. Kuldip Singh Chandpuri - Noted war veteran of 1971. He led India in famous battle of Longewala in Rajasthan in which just 120 Indian men defeated over 2000 Troops strong contigent of Pakistani Army.
      11. TS Kanaka - Asis'a first woman neurosurgeon, and third woman neurosurgeon in world.
      12. Alyque Padamsee - Padma Shri awardee Indian Theatre Personality and Ad Film Maker.
      13. Ustad Imrat Khan - Classical Singer. He was noted for sitar and surbahar expertese.
      14. Sandeep Michael - Former Indian hockey player.
      15. William Goldman - Oscar-winning American  screenwriter author.
      16. MH Ambareesh - Kannada actor and former union minister.
      17. Fahmida Riaz - India-born Pakistani poet and human rights activist.
      18. C. K. Jaffer Sharief - Former Union Railway Minister.
      19. Mohammed Aziz - Playback Singer.
      20. Bernardo Bertolucci - Oscar Winning Italian filmmaker.
      21. Iravatham Mahadevan - leading scholar on Indus Valley and Tamil Brahmi scripts.
    7. Industrial Awards (November 2018) -
      1. Punjab Police won Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) good practice award for the development of Digital Criminal Intelligence Gazette and generation of State Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) reports.
      2. Manipal Academy of Higher Education won silver in International Green Apple Award for environmental best practice 2018, in London.
      3. Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) won Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-Exim Bank Business Excellence Award.
      4. Tamil Nadu wn Best State Award in cadaveric organ donation from National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) under Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It has been awarded for 4th consecutive year. It was given during 9th Indian Organ Donation Day observance in Delhi (Nov 27).
    8. Persons Resigned / Retired in November 2018 -
      1. Azhar Ali - Pakistani Cricketer.
      2. John Hastings - Australian cricketer.
      3. Ambati Rayudu - Retired from First Class Cricket, including Ranji Trophy, to focus on limited-overs cricket.
      4. Former Australia captain Mark Taylor resigned from Cricket Australia board.
      5. Jeff Sessions - United States Attorney General.
      6. Binny Bansal - Flipkart co-founder.
      7. Ashok Chawla - Chairman of Yes Bank.
      8. Joe Cole - England Footballer.
      9. Munaf Patel - Indian Cricketer.
      10. Isobel Joyce and Cecelia Joyce - Ireland Female Cricketers.
      11. Erik Solheim - UN’s environment chief.
      12. Didier Drogba - Ivorian Footballer.
      13. R. Chandrashekhar - Yes Bank independent director.
    9. Misc. Appointments (Nov 2018) -
      1. MSG Menon appointed as Director General (Wks & Cer) of IAF.
      2. P S Rajeshwar appointed as 12th Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to Chairman, COSC.
      3. Vishwesh Chaube appointed as new Member (Engineering) in Railway Board.
      4. Hemant Gupta, R Subhash Reddy, M R Shah and Ajay Rastogi appointed as Judges in Supreme Court.
        1. Sanctioned strength of Supreme court judges is 31. Current strength is 28.
      5. Sanjay Kumar Verma appointed as next Ambassador of India to Japan.
      6. Dinkar Asthana appointed as next Ambassador of India to Lao People's Democratic Republic.
      7. Nina Tshering La appointed as next Ambassador of India to Democratic Republic of Congo
      8. Gaddam Dharmendra appointed as India’s Ambassador to Iran.
      9. American multinational investment bank Citigroup appointed John Dugan as its new chairman.
      10. Electric carmaker Tesla appointed Robyn Denholm as Chairman, after Elon Musk resigned from Post.
      11. Indian-American Sikh businessman Harry Singh Sidhu been elected as Mayor of Anaheim city in California (US).
      12. Lok Sabha Secretary General Snehlata Shrivastava got one-year extension in her tenure.
      13. Apple appointed Ashish Chowdhary as its India operation head.
      14. Abhay Kumar appointed as next Ambassador of India to Republic of Madagascar.
      15. Abhay Thakur appointed as next High Commissioner of India to Nigeria.
      16. Stephen Barclay has been appointed as new Brexit Secretary by British Prime Minister Theresa May.
      17. Ministry of Woman and Child Development (WCD) nominated three members to National Commission for Women (NCW) - Chandramukhi Devi, Soso Shaiza, and Kamlesh Gautam. New appointments now leave two positions vacant in NCW. Rekha Sharma is current chairperson of NCW.
      18. Ms Nina Tshering La appointed next Ambassador of India to Republic of Congo (Central Africa).
      19. Google appointed Kerala-born former Oracle product chief Thomas Kurian as head of its cloud division.
      20. Hospitality chain OYO Hotels appointed Aditya Ghosh as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for its India and South Asia operations.
      21. Messaging Platform WhatsApp appointed Abhijit Bose as its India head.
      22. State Bank of Mauritius (SBM) appointed Sidharth Rath as its Managing Director (MD) for India Operations.
      23. LG Electronics appointed Brian Kwon as new president for its Mobile Business.
      24. Earl Eddings named as Chairman of Cricket Australia (CA).
    10. Misc. Sporting Events (November 2018) -
      1. Indian Cricketer Rohit Sharma became 1st to score 4 T20I Centuries, after his knock against West Indies.
      2. Badminton Player Subhankar Dey won SaarLorLux Open at Saarbrucken in Germany, defeating Rajiv Ouseph of Britain.
      3. Simone Biles (US) became first gymnast to win 13 world championship gold medals, by winning her 13th gold medal at world gymnastics championships in Doha (Qatar).
      4. Newly-built Ekana International Stadium of Lucknow renamed after former PM Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to be known as Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee International Cricket Stadium.
      5. Qatar will host 23rd World Corporate Games 2019, for corporations around world to showcase their competitive prowess through sports. This is the first time the World Corporate Games will be held in Middle East.
      6. India won bronze medal in the SAFF U-15 Football Championship at Nepal.
      7. India entered into Division B final of FIBA U-18 women’s Asian championship held at Bengaluru, defeating Hong Kong. India is to face Kazakhstan for its promotion to Division A.
      8. Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia achieved number one rank in world in 65kg category, with 96 points in UWW list.
      9. Harmanpreet Kaur became first ever Indian female Cricketer to hit a hundred in T20I cricket, achieving it against New Zealand in Women’s World T20 2018 in West Indies.
      10. Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum won first WTA Tennis title in L&T Mumbai Open in Mumba. In Doubles, Natela Dzalamidze and Veronika Kudermetova of Russia won the title.
      11. All India Football Federation (AIFF) and State government of Odisha signed MoU, to host National team camps and become home of I-League side Indian Arrows.
      12. India U-19 cricketer Saurabh Netravalkar has been appointed captain of United States national cricket team.
      13. 62nd National Shotgun championship held at Jaipur (Rajasthan).
      14. India’s Pankaj Advani won his third straight IBSF billiards crown in 150-up format, defeating Nay Thway Oo of Myanmar in final.
      15. Kashmiri student Aabid Hamid won gold medal at World Kick Boxing Championships in Argentina.
      16. Indian Chess Maestro Viswanathan Anand won inaugural Tata Steel Chess India Blitz Tournament in Kolkata.
      17. 59th edition of Subroto Cup International Football Tournament held in New Delhi, won by Bangladesh Krida Shiksha Prothishtan (BKSP) by defeating Amini School (Afghanistan).
      18. Indian gymnasts Prins Aris and Rejilesh Suribabu won two bronze medals in Acrobatic Gymnastics World Cup In Baku (Azerbaijan).
      19. Indian Gymnast Dipa Karmakar won bronze medal in vault event in Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Cottbus (Germany).
      20. Known as Oscars of sports, Laureus World Sports Awards 2019 will be held in Monaco on February 18, 2019.
      21. 47 years old Indian Cricketer Pravin Tambe became first player to pick up a hat-trick in history of cricket’s newest format T-10 League. Playing for Sindhis, He achieved this against Kerala Knights.
      22. 62nd National Shooting Championships Held in Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala).
      23. Cricket Administrator BCCI Increased Ban duration for Age Related Frauds, from 1 to 2 years.
      24. Abhinav Bindra (India’s Olympic gold medal-winning shooter) became first Indian to be honoured with Blue Cross by International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF). Blue Cross is the highest laurel for shooters given by ISSF.
      25. India’s Manav Thakkar won bronze medal in U-21 Men’s singles category in International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Challenge Belgosstrakh Belarus Open in Minsk (Belarus).
    11. Committee chaired by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha released its recommendations for stressed thermal power projects, focusing on 34 thermal power stations of capacity 40 gigawatt (GW), entirely fuelled by coal and lignite. Problems arose when after 12th Five Year Plan, 99 GW capacity of plants were added against a requirement of 88GW which led to overabundance and lower productivity.
    12. Karnataka government launched an initiative called ‘DataCity’ inBengaluru, jointly organised by Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) and French utility company Suez. It will be a 7-month innovative programme that will enable corporates to identify the relevant innovative start-ups.
    13. 38th India International Trade Fair Concluded at Pragati Maidan (New Delhi). Uttarakhand was adjudged Best State and Himachal Pradesh 2nd, for their pavilions showcasing potential to boost tourism and promotion of local products. Theme of IITF 2018 was Entrepreneurs of Rural India.
    14. Book authored by Manish Tewari Fables of Fractured Times has been released.
    15. Renowned flutist Pandit Keshav Ginde selected as recipient of 2018 Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Lifetime Achievement Award for Classical Music, by Maharashtra Government.
    16. RBI launched a Survey on India’s startup sector (SISS) to create a profile of the startup sector in India consisting of dimensions relating to turnover, profitability and workforce, To understand problems faced by startup sector.
    17. West Bengal assembly approved renaming West Bengal Green University as Rani Rashmoni Green University, in commemoration of Rani Rashmoni’s 225th Birth anniversary.
  2. Nov 29, 2018
    1. Nov 29 - UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
    2. In Asia Pacific Screen Award (APSA) 2018 (Brisbane (Australia)) -
      1. Best Performance by an Actor (Male) won to India's Nawazuddin Siddiqui for Manto.
      2. Nandita Das, director of Manto received International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) Award for achievement in film in Asia Pacific region.
    3. Odisha government released lexicons of 21 tribal languages for multilingual education (MLE) purposes for elementary schools in tribal dominated districts. It aims to bring back tribal languages in circulation and prevent them from vanishing.
    4. Sanjay Kumar (Founder Geospatial Media & Communications) has been conferred ‘Global Geospatial Industry Ambassador’ Award at United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress at Deqing city (China). Theme was The Geospatial Way to a Better World.
    5. A new deep-sea shark species named Pygmy false catshark discovered in northern Indian Ocean, as first such discovery in India since Mangalore hound shark in 2011. Scientific name of species is Planonasus indicus – ‘planus’ meaning flat and ‘nasus’ meaning nose.
    6. Uttar Pradesh Govt approved construction of a 221-metre long statue of Lord Ram in Ayodhya. Height of statue would be 151 metres, its overhead umbrella would be 20 metres while pedestal would be 50 metres. It will be world’s tallest statue, taking over 181 Metres tall Statue of Unity, of Indian statesman and independence activist Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
    7. World’s first ever underground luxury hotel named - The InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland opened in Songjiang (China). It houses 18 storeys with 16 of them below the ground.
    8. RBI reduce mandatory hedge coverage from 100 to 70 % for external commercial borrowings (ECBs) by eligible borrowers for a maturity period between 3 and 5 years.
    9. Ministry of Finance increased outlay for first phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles (FAME India) scheme, to 895 crores (Up by 100 Crores). It aims to promote mass adoption of electric vehicles. Implementation of first phase has been extended four times by 6 months each, latest being till March 2019.
    10. Delhi Government launched a dedicated Open Transit Data portal (otd.delhi.gov.in), to spot locations of cluster buses at intervals of 10 seconds, developed by IIIT-Delhi. Delhi became first city in the country to open up transit data of city buses.
    11. Jangalmahal festival organised in Kolkata (WB), to promote tribal art and culture.
    12. Historic Bali Yatra festival held in Cuttack (Odisha), as largest trade fair in Orissa.
    13. According to 2017-18 annual report of Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY), Non Banking Financial Company(NBFC) sanctioned Mudra loans under PMMY, grew faster than banks in FY 2018.
      1. NBFCs sanctioned approximately Rs 27,000 crore of Mudra loans, 396 % More than Previos Year. Target for NBFCs was 9050 Crores this fiscal.
      2. While, Public Sector Banks sacntioned 92,492.68 crores worth of MUDRA Loans in this period, annual growth of 29%. AU Small Finance Bank was the top lender among Small Finance Banks (SFBs) and the State Bank of India (SBI) was top lender among state-run banks.
  3. Nov 28, 2018
    1. India - UK Joint Naval Exercise KONKAN 18 began in Goa, to last till Dec 06, 2018.
    2. 49th International Film Festival of India held in Goa, showcasing 212 films from over 68 countries.
      1. While Israel is focus country, Jharkhand is the focus state this year. Theme is New India.
      2. Awards -
        1. Israeli Director Dan Wolman was honoured with lifetime achievement award.
        2. Script writer Salim Khan honoured with IFFI 2018 Special Award for his lifetime contribution to cinema.
        3. Best film (Golden Peacock) award - Donbass (Ukrainian movie) directed by Sergei Loznitsa.
        4. Best director (Silver Peacock) award - Lijo Jose Pellissery (Malayalam film-India).
        5. Best Actor (Male) Award - Chemban Vinod for his role in ‘Ee.Ma.Yau’ (Malayalam-India)
        6. Best Actor (Female) Award - Anastasiia Pustovit for her role in ‘When the Trees Fall’ (Ukrainian)
        7. Centenary Award for Best Debut Feature Film of Director - Alberto Monteras II for ‘Respeto’ (Filipino)
        8. ICFT –UNESCO Gandhi Medal: ‘Walking with the Wind’ directed by Praveen Morchhale
    3. Nepal government launched a Social Security Scheme for formal sector workers, Including People of all ages and categories. It will be contribution based and will cover medical facilities, motherhood, accident and physical incapacity security.
    4. Ukraine's parliament imposed martial law for 30 days in country to counter differences with Russia, after a weekend naval confrontation off disputed Crimean Peninsula in which Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian vessels.
    5. European Commission became first major economy to target achieving climate neutrality by 2050, as scientists suggest worldwide in order to avoid catastrophic global warming.
    6. University Grants Commission (UGC) has set up a Consortium of Academic and Research Ethics (CARE) which will prepare a fresh list of credible quality journals in non-science disciplines, amid high share of poor quality research articles published in India. CARE will be headed by UGC Vice Chairman (Currently Bhushan Patwardhan).
    7. Government approved selling 100 % stake in Air India's ground-handling company Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL), the only Profitable Subsidiary of Air India. AIATSL posted profit of over 33 crores INR last year.
    8. Australia become first country world to recognise orphanage trafficking as a form of modern slavery. Children from smaller countries are recruited in orphanages in West for purpose of profit through foreign aid.
    9. US, Mexico and Canada signed new US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) which will replace North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). USMCA will govern over a trillion dollars worth of trade between three countries.
    10. IIT Kharagpur and University of Auckland (New Zealand) signed a pact to foster academic exchange and research collaboration, faculty exchange and visiting/adjunct appointments, student mobility. Its first strategic partnership of University of Auckland with a higher educational institution in India.
    11. As per Global Nutriiton Report 2018 -
      1. With 4.6 Crore stunted children, India tops the list. It is followed by Nigeria (1.4 crore) and Pakistan (1.07 Crore). Stunting Means low height for age, which is caused by long-term insufficient nutrient-intake and frequent infections.
    12. Slovenia became first North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Country with female Army Chief, after appointment of Alenka Ermenc as Head of its Army.
    13. Germany called for France to give up its permanent seat at United Nations Security Council and turn it into a seat for European Union (EU). It would allow EU to speak with one voice at UNSC.
    14. Ohio first US state to accept payment of taxes by businesses in Bitcoin. Businesses can pay 23 different taxes with Bitcoin.
    15. According to National Health Agency, Gujarat emerged as top performer under Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, after 2 months its launch. Around 76,000 hospital admissions have been cleared in Gujarat since September 23, Tamil Nadu ranked second and Chhattisgarh third.
    16. UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) offered to collaborate with Telangana for South-South Cooperation in development of seed sector in African countries.
    17. Mercedes Racer Lewis Hamilton (UK) won Abu Dhabi Grand Prix -
      1. Also, Lewis Hamilton (UK) earlier won F1 Season 2018, as his 5th F1 world title.
      2. 2018 Formula 1 (F1) Calendar -
        1. Serial Grand Prix Date Winner
          1 Australian Grand Prix 25 March Sebastian Vettel (Germany)
          2 Bahrain Grand Prix 8 April Sebastian Vettel (Germany)
          3 Chinese Grand Prix 15 April Daniel Ricciardo (Australia)
          4 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 29 April Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          5 Spanish Grand Prix 13 May Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          6 Monaco Grand Prix 27 May Daniel Ricciardo (Australia)
          7 Canadian Grand Prix 10 June Sebastian Vettel (Germany)
          8 French Grand Prix 24 June Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          9 Austrian Grand Prix 1 July Max Verstappen (Belgian-Dutch)
          10 British Grand Prix 8 July Sebastian Vettel (Germany)
          11 German Grand Prix 22 July Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          12 Hungarian Grand Prix 29 July Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          13 Belgian Grand Prix 26 August Sebastian Vettel (Germany)
          14 Italian Grand Prix 2 September Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          15 Singapore Grand Prix 16 September Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          16 Russian Grand Prix 30 September Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          17 Japanese Grand Prix 7 October Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          18 USA Grand Prix 21 October Kimi Raikkonen (Finland)
          19 Mexican Grand Prix 28 October Max Verstappen (Belgian-Dutch)
          20 Brazilian Grand Prix 11 November Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          21 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 25 November Lewis Hamilton (UK)
  4. Nov 27, 2018
    1. Wipro Chairman Azim Premji bestowed with highest French civilian distinction, Knight of the Legion of Honour.
    2. World Gold Council appointed David Tait as its next CEO.
    3. Salome Zurabishvili to become First woman to be appointed as President of Georgia, after she won Georgia’s presidential elections.
    4. Norway’s Magnus Carlsen retained his title as World Chess Champion beating US opponent Fabiano Caruana, at World Chess Championships in London (UK).
    5. Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) and Sashastra Seema Bal partnered to provide security to Dudhwa forests and its rich wildlife.
    6. Russia’s space corporation (Roscosmos) will venture into Internet of things (IoT) with launch of new satellite system named ‘Marathon’, as part of Its planned space constellation to be completed by 2026.
    7. Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES) for Africa and Asia has termed ‘Titli’, severe cyclonic storm that struck Odisha in October 2018 as ‘rarest cyclone’. Its rarity lies in terms of its characteristics such as recurvature after landfall, retaining its destructive potential after landfall and recurvature away from coastal areas for more than two days.
    8. Finance Ministry appointed CBDT member Akhilesh Ranjan as Convenor of Task Force that is drafting New Direct Tax Legislation (Law). It was constituted in November 2017 to review Income-tax Act 1961 and to draft new direct tax law in consonance with economic needs.
    9. India and China signed protocol to amend Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) for the avoidance of double taxation and for prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income, by allowing exchange of information.
    10. Health and Family Welfare Ministry did soft launch of Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) segment of Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) in seven states, first such initiative to monitor public health surveillance. It will provide near-real-time data to for detecting outbreaks, reducing morbidity and mortality and lessening disease burden in populations and better health systems.
    11. According to Global Wage Report 2018-19 by International Labour Organization (ILO), Titled What Lies behind Gender pay gaps, women are paid most unequally in India, compared to men. This gap in wages, known as gender wage gap is highest in India, among 73 countries studied in report. On average, women are paid 34% less than men in India, compared to Global gender wage gap of 16%.
    12. Japanese electronics company ‘CASIO’ launched world’s first Goods and Services Tax (GST) calculator in India for simplify GST calculations for tax payers, with 2 variants MJ-120GST and MJ-12GST.
    13. UNESCO added six new elements into its list of intangible heritages -
      1. Chidaoba - Georgia’s traditional wrestling.
      2. Hurling - Field game from Ireland. It dates back 2,000 years
      3. Reggae - Jamaican music originating from marginalized groups.
      4. Raiho-shin - Japanese rituals used to admonish laziness and teach children good behavior.
      5. As-Samer - consists mainly of dancing and singing and practiced across many areas of Jordan.
      6. Spring festive rites of Kazakhstan’s horse breeders - Marks beginning of a new annual horse-breeding cycle.
    14. UNESCO/Emir Jaber al Ahmad al Jaber al Sabah Prize for Digital Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities -
      1. Bangladeshi disabilities’ advocate Vashkar Bhattacharjee honored in Individual and Chinese Tencent (China) awarded in Organization Category. They will be presented with awards at UNESCO Headquarters on International Day of Persons with disabilities (3 December).
    15. Indian Railways unveiled ‘eDrishti’ software that will help Railways keep track of punctuality of trains and earnings etc. It has been developed by Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS).
    16. Andaman & Nicobar Islands have 10 % of India’s fauna species and hosts 1067 endemic faunal species found nowhere else. It was stated in Zoological Survey of India (ZSI)'s report Faunal Diversity of Biogeographic Zones: Islands of India. Total area of A&N Islands (comprises of 572 islands) is is about 8250 sq. km has around 11000 species.
    17. Government launched initiative called Bhasha Sangam to introduce school students to 22 Indian languages, as part of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat programme. It will continue till December 21, 2018.
    18. India Autism Centre (IAC), in association with state government, will build a world-class autism township near Kolkata. Children and adults suffering from Autism (developmental disorder) can receive treatment and boarding facilities. It is expected to come up at Sirakol in South 24 Parganas.
    19. Jharkhand government announced to provide free mobile phones to 28 lakh farmers and a separate electric feeder for them for agriculture purpose by 2019/2021.
  5. Nov 26, 2018
    1. Nov 26 - National Milk Day. It marks birth anniversary of Varghese Kurien, founder of dairy firm Amul. He is also known as Milk Man of India.
    2. Nov 26 - Indian Constitution Day. On this day in 1949, constitution was adopted which came into force on January 26, 1950. On 19th November 2015, Government of India declared November 26th as Constitution Day.
    3. On 26 November 2018, India marked 10th anniversary of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks by Pakistani Terrorists. US Announced a reward of $5 million for those who will help to finds the people involved in Attacks.
    4. India signed $200 million loan agreement with Asian Developmemt Bank (ADB) to finance widening and upgrading of about 230 Kilometers State Highways in Bihar to all-weather standards with road safety features. 
    5. Governemnt Launched a centralized electronic platform for processing interest subvention on bank loans to beneficiaries under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) named PAiSA – Portal for Affordable Credit and Interest Subvention Access, developed by Allahabad Bank as Nodal bank.
      1. It is centralised electronic platform for quicker processing of loans under DAY-NULM. It aims to connect directly with beneficiaries and ensure there is greater efficiency in delivery of services.
    6. Book Making of New India: Transformation under Modi Government, edited by  Bibek Debroy, Anirban Ganguly and Shri Kishore Desai has been released.
    7. Government conferred status of Miniratna : Category - I on PSU National Projects Construction Corporation Limited (NPCC), a schedule ‘B’ CPSE under Ministry of Water Resources. It is making continuous profit since 2009-10.
    8. CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (CSIR-IMTECH) partnered with German science and technology firm Merck, to establish a ‘High End Skill Development Centre’ in CSIR-IMTECH Chandigarh. Equipped It will help accelerate healthcare research and train Indian students and researchers in latest life science technologies and make them industry ready.
    9. India signed $75 million loan with Asian Development Bank to provide 24 x7 water supply in Karnataka’s four coastal towns of Kundapura, Mangalore Puttur and Udupi and improve sanitation infrastructure for Mangalore town, as tranche 2 loan agreement of Karnataka Integrated Urban Water Management Investment Program.
    10. Raksha Mantri Nirmala Sitharaman formally launched ‘Mission Raksha Gyan Shakti’, which aims to provide a boost Intellectual Property Rights culture in indigenous defence industry and inculcate IP culture in Indian defence manufacturing ecosystem.
    11. Home Minister Rajnath Singh launched Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) for Himachal Pradesh, making Himachal Pradesh first state to launch pan-India single emergency number ‘112’ under ERSS. The single emergency services number (112) will connect to Police, Fire, Health and other helplines through an Emergency Response Centre in State, obviating need to remember multiple helpline numbers.
    12. A.M. Naik has been appointed as Chairman of National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).
    13. Arvind Saxena has been appointed as Chairman of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
    14. As per Govt, 8 States have achieved 100% saturation in household electrification under Saubhagya -Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, Bihar, J&K, Mizoram, Sikkim, Telangana and West Bengal. Till now, 15 States have 100 % household electrification.
      1. Saubhagya – ‘Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana’ was launched in September 2017 with the objective to electrify all remaining households in country
      2. Aim is to ensure 24x7 access to electricity for all by 31st March 2019.
    15. Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C43) launched 31 satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh).
      1. It Included India’s Hyper-Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS) and 30 foreign satellites. HysIS is an earth observation satellite built around ISRO’s Mini Satellite2 (IMS-2) bus weighing about 380kg. The mission life of the satellite is five years. Primary goal of HysIS is to study the earth’s surface in both visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
      2. Foreign Satellites belonged to Australia (1), Canada (1), Columbia (1), Finland (1), Malaysia (1), Netherlands (1), Spain (1) and USA (23). Satellites from Australia, Columbia, Malaysia and Spain were flown aboard PSLV for the first time.
      3. In December 2018, ISRO has 2 more planned launches - GSAT 11 from French Guiana and GSAT 7A from Sriharikota. Next year, ISRO will have its long expected second mission to moon, Chandrayaan – II. GSAT-11 is being launched from French Guiana as its heaviest satellite of ISRO (5.86 ton) and cannot be carried by GSLV Mk – III which has the capacity to lift only up to four-ton class payloads.
    16. Sunil Arora appointed as new Chief Election Commissioner of India, replacing OP Rawat.
      1. Election commission of India contains 1 Chief Election Commissioner and 2 Election Commissioners. 1 Seat of Election commissioner is held by Ashok Lavasa and Other is currently vacant.
    17. Netherlands won its seventh Women’s Hockey Champions Trophy, held in Changzhou (China), defeating Australia.
    18. NASA’s InSight spacecraft landed on Mars after 7 months of Launch, 458-million-kilometre journey, and a 6.5-minute intense parachute descent through MARS atmosphere. It marks 8th successful MARS Landing for NASA.
    19. Croatia defeated France to 2018 Davis Cup Tennis Tournament, as 2nd title for Croatia.
    20. Government appointed Nageswara Rao Guntur as Chairperson of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).
  6. Nov 25, 2018
    1. Nov 25 - International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. 2018 theme is Orange the World: #HearMeToo. It marks launch of 16 days of activism that will conclude on 10 December 2018, International Human Rights Day.
    2. Qaumi Ekta Week (National Integration Week) observed during November 19 - 25, 2018 -
      1. November 19 - National Integration Day.
      2. November 20 - Welfare of Minorities Day.
      3. November 21 - Linguistic Harmony Day.
      4. November 22 - Weaker Sections Day.
      5. November 23 - Cultural Unity Day.
      6. November 24 - Women’s Day.
      7. November 25 - Conservation Day.
    3. Airports Authority of India (AAI) cancelled UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) licence of low-cost carrier Air Odisha for seven airports for poor and irregular services. Airports are — Jharsuguda, Raipur, Raigarh, Bilaspur, Ambikapur, Jagdalpur and Visakhapatnam.
    4. Bhadohi district of Uttar Pradesh, known for its hand-woven carpets, has been granted export ‘excellence tag’ for product category ‘Carpets and other floor Coverings’ by Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). Carpet makers of the city will now get financial assistance from government to procure modern machines, improve export infrastructure, and organize fairs and exhibitions.
    5. A. N. Patil named as recipient of Kuncha Kala Tapasvi Lifetime Achievement Award, by Chitrakala Shilpi D.V. Halbhavi National Memorial Trust (Karnataka).
    6. Fast patrol vessels of Indian Coast guard, Amrit Kaur and Kamla Devi (named after freedom fighters) have been launched.
    7. Pharma company Lupin launched India’s First chatbot named ‘ANYA’ to provide medically verified information for health-related queries.
    8. International Cricket Council (ICC) renamed ICC World T20 as ICC T20 World Cup. Next edition of events in 2020 in Australia will be known as ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 and ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020.
    9. HDFC ERGO General Insurance has set up a remote sensing lab for crop insurance, to help in early detection of information and alert the farmers. The lab will work accurately for assessing the risks of the insurers and will also be able to give early warnings about the losses.
    10. Jammu and Kashmir State Govt. bought J & K bank under purview of Right to Information (RTI) act, to strengthen better corporate governance. It will now be treated as a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU). It is only state government promoted bank in country, with state government holding 59.3 %.
    11. SEBI released updated rules for re-classification of a promoter as a public investor, as suggested by panel on corporate governance led by Uday Kotak. An outgoing promoter will have to give up special rights as well as control over affairs of listed firm and He cannot hold over 10 % stake. Only compliant listed entities are eligible to apply for re-classification, those who have 25 % minimum public shareholding requirement.
  7. Nov 24, 2018
    1. Women’s World Boxing Championships 2018 Held in New Delhi, as 10th edition of the tournament.
      1. 277 Players from 62 nations participated.
      2. Medal Table -
        1. Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
          1 China (CHN) 4 1 0 5
          2  Chinese Taipei (TPE) 2 0 0 2
          3 India (IND) 1 1 2 4
          4 North Korea (PRK) 1 0 2 3
          5 Germany (GER) 1 0 1 2
      3. Indian Medallists -
        1. Gold -
          1. Mary Kom became India’s only six-time world boxing champion after defeating Hanna Okhota of Ukraine.
        2. Silver -
          1. Sonia Chahal won silver medal after losing to Germany’s OG Wahner in 57-kg category.
        3. Bronze -
          1. Simranjit Kaur (64kg)
          2. Lovlina Borgohain (69kg)
    2. Andhra Pradesh Govt. building India’s first ‘Justice City’ within its new capital Amaravati, to provide state-of-the-art ecosystem built on latest technology for supporting judicial system in state.
    3. As per 6th edition & 2019 version of India Skills Report, Andhra Pradesh topped list of states with the highest employability followed by Rajasthan and Haryana.
    4. International James Dyson award 2018 won by Nicolas Orellana of Chile and Yaseen Noorani from Kenya, for their innovative design ‘Urban wind turbine’ called O-Wind Turbine. It would help cities to harness energy to produce electricity and was inspired from NASA’s Mars Tumbleweed Rover.
    5. Google’s Next Billion Users (NBU) team announced national roll-out of its Neighbourly app in Delhi and Bangalore. It will help people by sourcing local information from their neighbors about their neighbourhood in an easier way. It offers services in 8 vernacular languages and is a targeted app with a geographic radius between 1 to 5 km.
    6. IIT Hyderabad Researchers developed smartphone-based system to detect adulteration in milk. This could be done by using an indicator paper that changes colour according to acidity which further can be incorporated with algorithms on a smartphone to accurately detect colour change.
    7. World’s first medical imaging scanner “Explorer” that can capture a 3D picture of the whole human body at once in 20-30 seconds, has started functioning. It has been developed by University of California (USA).
  8. Nov 23, 2018
    1. United Nations selected Uttar Pradesh Noida and Greater Noida to participate in its Global Sustainable Cities 2025 initiative, in University City category ahead of Mumbai and Bengaluru as only invitee from India.
    2. Kerala state government signed MoU with Airbus BizLab to open a state-of-the-art innovation center. Bizlab is a part of Airbus’ innovative strategy to bring together start-ups and Airbus intrapreneurs to work for transformation of their innovative ideas into valuable businesses.
    3. Singapore based Mapletree Investments acquired Chennai's SP Infocity for 2500 crores, which is jointly owned by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Shapoorji Pallonji Investment Advisors.
    4. Government appointed Vijay Kumar Dev as Chief Secretary of Delhi.
    5. UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on sexual harassment, first of its kind at UN. It serves as a normative framework on work against sexual harassment, urging nations to condemn violence against women, and pursue a policy of eliminating it.
    6. Karnataka CM H.D. Kumaraswamy launched Badavara Bandhu scheme, which includes mobile banks to disburse interest-free loans to street vendors and small traders. Under this, small traders will get loans of up to Rs.10,000 without any interest and collateral.
    7. Uttarakhand government approved renaming Dehradun’s Jolly Grant Airport after late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
    8. Hong Kong Badminton Open 2018 -
      1. Men's Singles - Son Wan-ho (South Korea)
      2. Women's Singles - Nozomi Okuhara (Japan)
      3. Men's Doubles - Indonesia's Marcus Fernaldi Gideon AND Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo
      4. Women's Doubles - Japan's Yuki Fukushima AND Sayaka Hirota
      5. Mixed Doubles - Japan's Yuta Watanabe AND Arisa Higashino
    9. BlackBerry acquired Cylance, an artificial intelligence and cybersecurity company for $1.4 billion.
    10. Book THE VELEVT GLOVES written by Balakrishna Kamath has been released.
  9. Nov 22, 2018
    1. Cabinet Aprovals (Nov 22, 2018) -
      1. General Approvals -
        1. Approved setting up of Medical College at Silvassa in UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, with yearly intake of 150 students.
        2. Extended term of Commission to examine issue of Sub-categorization of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Central List for six months, till 31st May 2019, as fourth extension to commission for submission for its politically crucial report on creating quotas within quotas.
          1. Government had constituted 5 member Commission under article 340 of Constitution in October 2017, headed by former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Justice G. Rohini. Its report is expected to recommend earmarking sub-quotas for the extremely backward classes within the OBCs.
          2. Commission is formed under Article 340 of Constitution which was also used to establish landmark Mandal Commission (set up in 1979) more than two decades ago which recommended 27% reservation for socially and educationally backward classes in higher education and government jobs.
        3. Approved Allied and Healthcare Professions Bill 2018 for regulation and standardisation of education and services by allied and healthcare professionals. It provides for setting up of an Allied and Healthcare Council of India and corresponding State Allied and Healthcare Councils which will play role of a standard-setter and facilitator for professions of Allied and Healthcare.
        4. Approved development of Kartarpur Corridor from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district of Punjab to international border with Pakistan. Kartarpur is located in Shakargarh in Narowal district of Punjab province of Pakistan. Guru Nanak Dev, founder of Sikhism and its first guru had spent over 18 years of his life here.
      2. MOUs -
        1. Tajikistan - Youth Matters
        2. Uzbekistan - Science, Technology and Innovation.
        3. MoU between Atal Innovation Mission India and Fund "Talent and Success" Russia for promotion of science technology, strong foundation to the collaborative work through exchange of students, teachers, researchers and scientists.
        4. Mauritius - Consumer Protection and Legal Metrology
      3. CCEA Approvals -
        1. Approved to expand scope of mandatory packaging norms under Jute Packaging Material (JPM) Act 1987 -
          1. 100% of food grains and 20% of sugar shall be mandatorily packed in diversified jute bags.
          2. Initially 10% of indents of jute bags for packing foodgrains would be placed through reverse auction on Gem portal, to gradually usher in a regime of price discovery.
          3. This will give a fillip to development of jute sector, increasing quality and productivity of raw jute, diversification of jute sector and also boosting and sustaining demand for jute product.
        2. Approved continuation of 9 sub-schemes of Atmosphere & Climate Research-Modelling Observing Systems & Services (ACROSS) during 2017-2020 at cost of 1450 crores. CCEA also approved establishment of National Facility for Airborne Research (NFAR) with a financial commitment of Rs 130 crore during 2020-21 and beyond.
          1. It will provide improved weather, climate  and ocean forecast and services, ensuring transfer of commensurate benefits to the various services.
    2. India’s Sameer Verma won Syed Modi India Grand Prix Gold badminton title 2018 in men’s singles category, held In Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh). He defeated China’s Lu Guangzu. Women’s singles title won by China’s Han Yue, defeating India’s Saina Nehwal.
    3. Mexican government honoured Indian academician Shyama Prasad Ganguly with “Orden Mexicana del Águila Azteca” (Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle), the highest civilian honour given to a foreigner by Mexico. He was awarded for disseminating Spanish language and Mexican culture to strengthen Mexico-India cultural relations. He is first Indian Academician to get this award.
    4. IIM Calcutta Innovation Park and Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) signed MoU for energising start-up ecosystem in East and Northeast India. It will offer platform for market linkage for start-ups and promote their products especially from northeastern region which need greater attention.
    5. HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar launched Ministry of Human Resource Development's Institution’s Innovation Council (IIC) Program. Innovation cell is established at AICTE to systematically foster culture of Innovation in all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across country. Purpose is to encourage young students by exposing them to new ideas and processes resulting in innovative activities in their formative years.
    6. Annual Sangai Festival celebrated in northeastern state of Manipur, as grandest festival of state named after state animal Sangai, the critically endangered brow-antlered deer found only in Manipur.
    7. Andhra Pradesh Government launched Bhuseva and Bhudaar web portal through which people can view land records online. Bhudaar is 11 digit unique identification code to be assigned to each agriculture land holding and rural and urban property. Unique Bhudaar ID will start with 28 and if it is government land, 28 is followed by 00. Bhudaar card can be generated by land owner or property owner from Bhuseva web portal.
    8. India Meteorological Department (IMD) developed technology called ‘Impact Based Forecasting Approach’ to assess rise of water level in rivers and reservoirs by rain. It can generate scenario to help take decisions to release water or not from reservoirs after heavy downpour.
    9. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) released Antimicrobial Stewardship Guidelines to advise hospitals in setting up Antimicrobial Stewardship Programmes (AMSP) to ensure judicious use of antibiotics. AMSP is hospital-based programmes dedicated to improving antibiotic use.
    10. Scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US) have built and flown first-ever silent airplane with no moving propellers or jet turbines, called Ion Drive. It weighs about 5 pounds with five-meter wingspan. It was flown at distance of 60 meters, repeated 10 times. It is first-ever plane having no moving parts in propulsion system.
      1. It is powered by ionic wind or electrodynamic thrust, a silent but mighty flow of ions that is produced aboard plane. It can generate enough thrust to propel plane over sustained, steady flight.
    11. Ministry of Women and Child Development linked sexual harassment complaints portal ‘She-Box’ with all Central Ministries, Departments and 653 districts across 33 states and UTs. It will help in quick and more accurate redressal of comlaints.
    12. Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved State Assembly with immediate effect, after both rival alliances put their claim to form government.
    13. World Trade Organization (WTO) approved constitution of panels to review complaints against US decision to put tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium.
      1. WTO Dispute Settlement Body will create separate panels for complaints by European Union, China, Canada, Mexico, Norway and Russia, after US stated it would not agree to a single panel to hear all of them.
      2. DSB also agreed for a panel which will review certain Chinese measures pertaining to the protection of intellectual property rights as demanded by US.
    14. Gujarat government launched a Rs 351-crore project for conservation of the Gir lions, after Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) outbreak that claimed 23 Asiatic lions in Gir National park in Saurashtra. It will also include an emergency ambulance van similar to 108 emergency services.
    15. Australia declined signing UN Global Compact for Migration (agreed upon in July 2018), saying that it would undermine its existing immigration policies.
      1. According to Australian government, nation’s immigration policy already promotes safe, orderly and regular migration. Government feels that adopting it would risk encouraging illegal entry to Australia and reverse hard-won successes in combating people-smuggling trade. Australia's harsh immigration policy detains asylum-seekers who try to reach the country by boat on remote Pacific islands.
      2. US has already rejected this UN pact.
    16. Indian-American Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen named by Fortune in its 2018 Business Person of the Year list, ranked 12th. List has been topped by Tricia Griffith (CEO of US Insurance Company Progressive).
    17. Saudi Arabia and UAE announced USD 500 million in aid Yemen, the war torn Arab Nation.
    18. India and Russia signed a USD 500 million deal for construction of two Talvar-class missile frigates in Goa for Indian Navy. MOU was signed between defence PSU Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL) and Russia's state-run defence major Rosoboron.
    19. Australia won ICC Women’s World Twenty20 Cricket title, defeating England . This is Australia’s 4th title win at Women’s World T20 in 6 editions of the tournament. West Indies hosted the event.
  10. Nov 21, 2018
    1. Nov 21 - World Television Day.
    2. Nov 21 - World Fisheries day.
    3. 25th edition of SIMBEX (Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise) held in Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal.
    4. PSU BEML bagged contract for INR 3015 crores for Mumbai Metro Corridor, including manufacturing of 378 Metro cars (63 Metro trains of 6 cars each) for Mumbai Metro Corridor 2A, 2B & 7.
    5. United Nation Environment awarded India's Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) India with Asia Environment Enforcement Awards 2018 for excellent work done by Bureau in combating transboundary environmental crime.
      1. WCCB is honored in Innovation category, for adopting enforcement techniques that have dramatically increased enforcement of transboundary environmental crimes in India. It also developed Wildlife Crime Database Management System to get real time data, to better analyze trends in crime and devise effective measures to prevent and detect wildlife crimes across India.
    6. Voreqe Bainimarama re-appointed as Prime Minister of Fiji (Oceanic Nation).
    7. International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) elected South Korea’s Kim Jong-yang as its next president.
    8. Meeting of BASIC countries organized by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in New Delhi. BASIC group consists of Brazil, South Africa, India and China.
    9. World malaria report by World Health Organisation (WHO) states that India is the only country to have achieved a substantial decrease in malaria cases in 2017, out of 11 highest burden countries throughout world. India accounted for 4 % of global malaria cases in 2017.
    10. Himachal Pradesh government approved implementing Sashakt Mahila Yojna in state with a vision to empower rural women by providing them an interface for organization and socio-economic development.
    11. Noted Actor Amitabh Bachchan has been awarded 3rd third Sayaji Ratna Award, established by Baroda Management Association in memory of erstwhile Baroda ruler Sayajirao Gaekwad III.
    12. IMD World Talent Rankings 2017 -
      1. India Ranked 53rd, down by 2 places compared to last Year.
      2. Top 5 - Switzerland (1), Denmark (2), Norway (3), Austria (4), Netherlands (5)
    13. Tanzanian biologist Joyce Msuya appointed as acting Executive Director of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), after resignation of Erik Solheim.
    14. Wipro chairman Azim Premji won Lifetime Achievement award in Forbes India Leadership Awards 2018. Also, Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) named Best Company and Vivek Chaand Sehgal of Motherson Sumi named Entrepreneur of the Year.
    15. Wasim Jaffer became first cricketer to score 11000 runs in Domestic Cricket Tournament Ranji Trophy.
    16. United Nations children’s agency UNICEF appointed 14 year old Millie Bobby Brown as its youngest ever goodwill ambassador.
      1. Also, Singer Nahid Afrin of Assam has been appointed as first ‘Youth Advocate’ of north eastern region by UNICEF to fight for child rights.
    17. Ujjivan Small Finance Bank became first small finance bank in India to offer personal loan facility for salaried professionals.
    18. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley released a curated coffee table book titled The Illustrated History of Indian Hockey: A Saga of Triumph, Pain and Dreams.
    19. National Academy of Sciences India (NASI) SCOPUS Young Scientist Awards 2018 -
      1. This year 5 categories were introduced - Agriculture, Plant sciences and rural development, Women in science, Environmentally sound sustainable development, Biomedical research and healthcare and innovation in engineering and physical sciences. The prize includes citation, trophy and INR 75000. Winners are -
        1. Agriculture, Plant Sciences and Rural Development - Jitender Giri (National Institute of Plant Genome Research)
        2. Biomedical Research and Healthcare - Maddika Subba Reddy (CDFD)
        3. Environmentally Sound Sustainable Development - Vimal Chandra Srivastava (IIT Roorkee)
        4. Innovation in Engineering and Physical Sciences - Ajay S. Karakoti (Ahmedabad University)
        5. Women in Science - Zhumur Ghosh (Bose Institute Kolkata).
    20. Morocco launched its second earth observation satellite named Mohammed VI-B on board of Arianespace Vega rocket. It will be placed at same orbit as its twin satellite Mohammed 6-A, the first Moroccan satellite launched in November 2017. It completes Morocco’s two-satellite constellation for Earth observation.
  11. Nov 20, 2018
    1. Nov 20 - Universal Children’s Day. It was established in 1954 by UN. Note that India's National Children's Day is observed on Nov 14, marking birth anniversary of first Prime Minister of India, Jawahar Lal Nehru.
    2. PM Narendra Modi launched Grand Challenge on resolving seven identified Ease of Doing Business (EODB) problems with use of cutting edge technologies Including Such as Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence.
      1. Aim is to Bring India in Top 50 countries in Ease of Doing Business Index of World Bank. Note that in World Bank's Doing Business Report (DBR, 2019) released on October 31, India recorded a jump of 23 positions against its rank of 100 in 2017 to be placed at 77th rank among 190 countries.
      2. Top Innovative ideas will be rewarded with 1/2/3 Lakh INR.
      3. Platform for the Grand Challenge is the Startup India Portal.
    3. Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal governments have withdrawn their "general consent" to the CBI to conduct raids and investigations. CBI would now need permission from the respective state governments to carry out any sort of investigation in these states, except those ordered by courts and against central government officials.
    4. World Bank approved US$155.7 million loan to Nepal to build and maintain bridges, and improve food security of vulnerable households and communities.
    5. Asim Kumar Roy appointed Lokayukta of West Bengal for 3 years.
    6. China completed deployment of its indigenously developed BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) constellation with successful launch of 2 more satellites. They will work with 17 other BDS-3 satellites already in space. BDS will be 4th global satellite navigation system after GPS (USA), Russia’s GLONASS and European Union’s Galileo.
      1. BDS will become global in 2020 with over 30 satellites.
      2. India is also building its navigational system called Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), with an operational name of NAVIC (7 Satellites).
    7. National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) launched a mobile app NSE goBID and web based platform for retail investors to buy government securities. It will allow investors to invest in treasury bills (T-Bills) of 91, 182 and 364 days and government bonds from one year to almost 40 years.
    8. 0.7 m GROWTH-India telescope at Indian Astronomical Observatory in Hanle (Ladakh) made its first observation. GROWTH-India is a part of multi-country collaborative initiative known as Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen (GROWTH), to observe transient events in Universe.
    9. UASG (Universal Acceptance Steering Group) conferred “Universal Acceptance Thought Leader award” on Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for providing Rajmail email service for citizens of Rajasthan in local script.
    10. SBI Capital Markets subsidiary SBICAP Ventures launched two funds for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and affordable housing sectors. SME fund is expecting to raise 400 crores while affordable housing fund looking at raising 350 crores.
    11. Maldives Govt. approved to rejoin the Commonwealth, two years after withdrawing from 53-nation grouping.
    12. Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit 2018 held in Papua New Guinea.
      1. APEC is an inter-governmental forum for 21 Pacific Rim member economies. India is not a member of APEC, although it has expressed its interest for Inclusion in APEC.
    13. Supreme Court directed states to start implementing draft witness protection scheme framed by Centre in consultation with National Legal Services Authority (NALSA). It was stated in response to plea made by Attorney General KK Venugopal that finalized draft scheme would be made into a law soon, but till then court should direct the states to start implementing it.
    14. A Special RBI board meeting discussed over several contentious issues including -
      1. No change in BASEL norms, deadline pushed back by a year for last tranche. RBI agreed to extend transition period for implementing last tranche of 0.625 % under Capital Conservation Buffer (CCB) by 1 year (up to March 31, 2020).
      2. Restructuring of stressed standard assets of MSME borrowers with aggregate credit facilities of up to Rs 25 crore, subject to conditions of ensuring financial stability.
      3. Prompt Corrective Actions (PCA) framework on banks will be examined by RBI's Board for Financial Supervision.
      4. RBI will set up a high-powered committee to examine issues related to surplus capital of 9.69 lakh crores with RBI.
    15. Nov 20 - Africa Industrialization Day (AID). 2018 theme is ‘Promoting Regional Value Chains in Africa’.
    16. Visits to India (Nov 11 - 20, 2018) -
      1. Minister for Public Service & Good Governance, Law & Justice of Tanzania, Haroun Ali Suleiman Visited India.
      2. 9th Session of India-Kyrgyz Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation (IK-IGC) held in New Delhi. Kosmosbek Cholpon Baev, Health Minister of Kyrgystan Visited India.
      3. India and Morocco have signed an agreement on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, during India visit of Morocco Minister of Justice, Mohamed Aujjar.
    17. Visits From India (Nov 11 - 20, 2018) -
      1. President Ram Nath Kovind Visited Vietnam and Australia.
        1. Vietnam - 4 cooperation agreements signed -
          1. Cooperation in Ministries of Communications.
          2. Cooperation among Department of Foreign Affairs.
          3. Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics in Hanoi and New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.
          4. Confederation of Indian Industry(CII) and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
        2. Australia - 5 Cooperation Agreement signed -
          1. Welfare of Differently abled persons, bilateral investment, scientific collaboration and innovation.
          2. Agreement between Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University Guntur and University of Western AustraliaPerth for cooperation in agricultural research and education.
          3. Joint PhD agreement between Indraprashta Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIITD) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Brisbane.
      2. PM Narendra Modi Visited Singapore -
        1. He attended 33rd ASEAN Summit, 13th East Asia Summit , 16th ASEAN-India Summit and 2nd RCEP Summit. Also, Officials from 4 countries (Quad) – Australia, India, Japan and the United States also held their third “Quadrilateral” meeting in Singapore.
        2. He attended 3rd Singapore Fintech Festival and launched Application Programming Interface Exchange (APIX) platform through which ASEAN financial institutions, innovators and users would connect with Indian users. APIX aims to connect companies to financial institutions globally and become a banking solution for two billion people without bank accounts worldwide.
        3. He invited South African president Cyril Ramaphosa to be chief guest at 2019 Republic Day parade of India.
      3. PM Narendra Modi Visited Maldives, to attend swearing in ceremony of Ibrahim Mohamed Solih as new President of Maldives.
    18. General Events / Conferences (Nov 11 - 20, 2018) -
      1. 1st Indo-Japan Business Council- KONNICHIWA PUNE Festival held in Pune (Maharashtra).
      2. 2 day annual meeting of World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Future Councils held in Dubai (UAE).
      3. 6th Indian Social Work Congress held in New Delhi, with theme Human Development and Social Inclusion: Imperatives for Social Work Education and Practice.
      4. Global IT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities (GITC) 2018 held in New Delhi.
      5. Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) hosted a conference on Global Digital Content Market (GDCM) 2018 in New Delhi.
      6. 2 day Global Cooling Innovation Summit Held in New Delhi -
        1. During the Summit, Global Cooling Prize was launched as an international competition to incentivize development of a residential cooling technology that will have at least five times lesser climate impact than the standard Room Air Conditioning (RAC).
        2. Prize is supported by Government of India and will be administered by leading research institutes Including Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), Conservation X Labs, Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE) and CEPT University.
        3. A winning technology could prevent up to 100 gigatons (GT) of CO2-equivalent emissions by 2050, and put the world on a pathway to mitigate up to 0.5˚C of warming by 2100.
        4. Over US$3 million will be awarded in prize money over 2 year competition. Up to 10 short-listed competing technologies will be awarded up to US$200,000 each in intermediate prizes to support design of their innovative residential cooling technology.
        5. Winning technology will be awarded at least US$1 million to support its incubation and early-stage commercialization.
        6. Risk is that There are currently 1.2 billion room air conditioning units in service around world, estimated to rise to 4.5 billion by 2050. India alone will see over 1 billion air conditioning deployed by 2050. 
      7. 26th Conference of Central and States Statistical Organizations at Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, with theme Quality Assurance in Official Statistics.
      8. Twitter India launched #PowerOf18 campaign aimed at encouraging youth to contribute in public debates and participate in civic engagement for 2019 general elections.
      9. Inaugural session of General Assembly of Network for Development of Agricultural Cooperatives in Asia and the Pacific (NEDAC) held in New Delhi. NEDAC was set up in 1991 by United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
      10. 8th National Conference of Women in Police held in Ranchi (Jharkhand).
      11. Election Commission has set up ‘Sangwari’ polling booths in various constituencies of Chhattisgarh to encourage women voters to vote in Assembly elections.
      12. Delhi government announced “Jashn-e-Virasat-e-Urdu”, a festival to celebrate Urdu culture and its heritage.
      13. 4 day regional meeting of World Customs Organisation (WCO) held in Jaipur (Rajasthan).
      14. Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) organised a seminar on “International Standards and the Fourth Industrial Revolution” in New Delhi to celebrate the World Standards Day 2018 (October 14).
      15. India and China held 9th Annual Defence and Security Dialogue in Beijing (China), attended by Defence secretary Sanjay Mitra.
      16. 38th edition of India International Trade Fair (IITF) 2018 inaugurated at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi today, to last till Nov 27, 2018.
  12. Nov 19, 2018
    1. Nov 19 - World Toilet Day. It is also observed as International Men's day.
      1. On Occaion of World Toilet Day, Sulabh International introduced India’s first sewer cleaning machine to end unsafe manual scavenging.
    2. Nov 19 - National Integration Day in India, marking Birth Anniversary of FormerPM Indira Gandhi.
      1. On this occasion, Govt announced that Delhi-based environment think-tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) will be awarded Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development 2018, for its steadyfast advocacy of measures to combat environmental deterioration and for its success in influencing public policies and programmes.
    3. Book Radio Kashmir – In Times of Peace & War written by Rajesh Bhat has been released.
    4. Government of India signed $310 million World Bank Loan Agreement for Jharkhand Power System Improvement Project to provide reliable, quality, and affordable 24x7 electricity to the citizens of Jharkhand.
      1. Project is part of India’s Power for All program launched in 2014. It envisages addition of over 4.5 GW generation capacities by 2022 (including a significant share of 1.5 GW from solar energy).
    5. 26th meeting of General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) held in Versailles (France). It was notable as members voted for redefinition of 130 years old Le grand K – the SI unit of kg in terms of the fundamental Planck’s constant(h). New definitions will come into force on 20 May 2019.
      1. CGPM comprises 60 countries including India and 42 Associate Members.
      2. Out of five draft resolutions, revision of International System of Units and the definition of timescales are important. Definition of seven base units namely, second, metre, kilogram, ampere, Kelvin, mole and candela has been changed from being linked to artefacts to being based on the fundamental constants on nature.
      3. Definition of kilogram changed from being mass of prototype sanctioned by the 1st CGPM held in Paris in 1889 and deposited at the BIPM to Planck constant which is a physical constant. Definition of metre changed to link it to the speed of light. Similarly, there is a change in the definition of time also. Units are expected to be stable in the long term, internally self-consistent and practically realisable.
      4. International prototype of kilogram (IPK) is kept at BIPM, Paris and serves as international standard of kilogram. It is made of 90% platinum and 10% iridium and is a cylinder of 39 mm diameter and 39 mm height.
        1. Replicas of IPK are made of the same material and used at BIPM as reference or working standards and national prototype of kilogram (NPK), kept at different National Metrology Institutes (NMIs).
      5. Having an artifact as the world standard for a measurement unit has two fundamental problems
        1. It can change value over time but, without any way of knowing how it changes, as it’s a standard.
        2. It is difficult to bring every mass-measurement device to France every time it needs calibration. Thus, national standards labs have their own kilogram standards that they periodically bring to France for comparison against Prototype. NPK-57, kept at CSIR- National Physical Laboratory (India), is sent periodically to BIPM for calibration. Precise measurements help country in production of international quality products.
      6. As per New Definition, The kilogram is defined by taking fixed numerical value of the Planck constant h to be 6.626 070 15 × 10−34 when expressed in the unit J s, which is equal to kg m⊃2; s−1, where the meter and the second are defined in terms of c and Δv.
        1. When it comes into force on May 20, 2019 (World Metrology Day), new kilogram definition will do away with comparisons to International Prototype. It will enable the national labs to create their own standard for the kilogram because it will be reproducible. Process for realising a kilogram will rely on a tool called Kibble balance.
        2. Kibble balance is a self-calibrating electromechanical balance and provides measurements of mass, traceable in terms of electrical parameters and provides linkage of macroscopic mass to Planck constant(h). Nations Including UK, USA, Canada, Germany Have successfully developed Kibble balance for 1 kg with an uncertainty of measurement in order of 10-8. NPL India is looking forward for development of 1 kg Kibble balance.
        3. Pictorial Representation of Kibble Balance -
          1. Tool uses coils and magnets wherein current in the coil exerts a known force and that current can be measured to sufficient accuracy. Current can be used to derive an upward force from which the mass of an unknown object can be compared. When the forces are equal, mass of unknown object can be measured. Voltage and current measurements are based on Planck’s Constant.
    6. India’s Badminton Player Lakshya Sen won bronze medal in BWF World junior badminton championship at Markham (Canada). He was defeated by Thailand’s Vitidsarn.
      1. Boys' Singles title was won by Kunlavut Vitidsarn (Thailand), while Girls' Singles title won by Goh Jin Wei (Malaysia).
    7. Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma became first Indian to win Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of Year award, after finishing tied 41st at season-ending DP World Tour Championship event in Dubai.
    8. Indian Army picked Russia’s Igla-S missile system as choice for its multibillion dollar contract for man-portable air defence systems (MANPADS).
      1. Russia’s Rosoboronexport, with bid Around $1.47 billion, emerged lowest bidder for Indian Army’s Very Short Range Air Defence (VSHORAD) deal. Other bidders were MBDA of France (bid of $3.68 billion) and SAAB of Sweden (bid of $2.6 billion).
      2. It is designed for use against visible aerial targets at short range such as tactical aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs), cruise missile, head-on or receding, in presence of natural (background) clutter and countermeasures. As per requirements of Indian Army, it will have maximum range of 6km, altitude of 3km along with all-weather capability.
    9. Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy (AYUSH) Ministry celebrated first Naturopathy Day on Nov 18, 2018, with aim of promoting drug-less system of medicine to prevent diseases by altering diet and lifestyle.
    10. India’s Ankita Raina and Karman Kaur Thandi won doubles title at Taipei Open Women's Tennis 2018. In final, they defeated Russian pair of Olga Doroshina and Natela Dzalamidze. This marks first WTA title for an Indian since Sania Mirza, success came on WTA Tour and Grand Slam stage.
      1. In Singles, Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum won by defeating Sabine Lisicki (Germany).
    11. 14th edition of Jashn e Bachpan a theatre festival for children held in New Delhi, organised by National School of Drama’s (NSD) Theatre in Education (TIE) Company.
    12. Government will set up first-of-its-kind institute of Inter-Faith Studies in Punjab to promote brotherhood and diversity, as part of year-long activities to commemorate 550th birth anniversary of first Sikh Guru and founder of Sikh religion Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
      1. Government constituted National Implementation Committee (NIC) under Chairmanship of Home Minister Rajnath Singh to commemorate 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.
    13. Bombay Stock Exchange decided to discontinue ties with S&P Dow Jones, that manages benchmark Sensex, planning to develop inhouse indices.
      1. Joint venture among two called Asia Index was launched in 2013, to provide array of indices enabling global and domestic investors to participate in South Asia economies.
      2. BSE will not renew its agreement with S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC which expires on December 31, 2018 and it is looking to develop indices through its own team.
      3. S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC is subsidiary of The McGraw-Hill Companies and it is world’s largest global resource for index-based concepts, data and research. BSE is Asia’s oldest stock exchange and is home to iconic Sensex index – a leading indicator of Indian equity market performance.
    14. India and US Army Joint Exercise named Vajra Prahar 2018 began at Mahajan Field Firing Range (MFFR) in Bikaner (Rajasthan).
    15. 4 new species of Indian horned frogs discovered from Himalayan regions of Northeast India, by team of researchers that comprised S D Biju, famously known as the ‘Frogman of India’.
      1. Scientists have named them as Himalayan horned frog (Megophrys himalayana), Garo white-lipped horned frog (Megophrys oreocrypta); Yellow spotted white-lipped horned frog (Megophrys flavipunctata) and Giant Himalayan horned frog (Megophrys periosa.
    16. Airports Authority of India (AAI) partnered with US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) to develop a roadmap for modernisation of its air traffic services (air traffic management (ATM) and communication, navigation and surveillance (CNS).
    17. West Bengal Assembly passed West Bengal Land Reforms (Amendment) Bill 2018 to give land rights to enclave dwellers in north Bengal. It will end uncertainity for people residing in those enclaves, giving them full-fledged status as citizens of India. It will result in creation of 13 ‘mouzas’ (administrative district), while rest area will be amalgamated with existing 31 ‘mouzas'.
      1. Bangladesh and India exchanged total of 162 enclaves in August 2015 as per historic 1974 Land Boundary Agreement (LBA), ending one of world’s most-complex border disputes.
      2. In Cooch Behar, 111 Indian enclaves became part of Bangladesh territory and 51 Bangladesh enclaves joined India.
    18. Maharashtra legislative assembly passed Maratha Reservation Bill, approving 16 % reservation for Maratha community in education and jobs in state. Bill will now be sent to the state’s upper house, legislative council (Vidhan Parishad). State legislature will create a new category called SEBC (socially and educationally backward class) in order to give reservation to Marathas.
    19. Baba Kalyani led committee tasked to study existing SEZ policy of India submitted its report to Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu.
    20. Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu released a report on Industrial Park Rating System, prepared by Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP). It will be a useful tool for policymakers and investors and database includes 3000 parks and all industrial parks will be rated on - Internal infrastructure, External infrastructure, Business services and facilities AND Environment and safety management.
  13. Nov 18, 2018 -
    1. 11 Days Joint India Russia Army Exercise Indra 2018 began at Babina Field Firing Ranges in Uttar Pradesh.
    2. Nov 12 to 18 - World Antibiotic Awareness Week . Nov 18 is also observed as World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.
    3. India and Indonesia Joint Bilateral Exercise ‘Samudra Shakti’  Held in Indonesia, participated by INS Rana on India's Behalf.
    4. Credit Rating Agency Fitch affirmed India’s “Long term Foreign-currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR)” at ‘BBB-‘with a stable outlook, keeping India’s Credit rating unchanged for 12th year in a row.
      1. Fitch Ratings is one of big three credit agencies, Other two being Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s.Fitch last upgraded India’s Sovereign rating from ‘BB+’ to ‘BBB-‘with stable outlook in 2006.
      2. Fitch expects India’s economy to grow with a growth rate of 7.8 in fiscal year ending on 31 March 2019 and 7.3 in FY20 and FY21.
      3. Fitch expected current-account deficit to widen to 3 % in FY2018-19 and 3.1 % in FY2019-20 from 1.9 % in FY2017-18.
    5. International Energy Agency (IEA) report World Energy Outlook 2018 stated that natural gas will overtake coal as world’s second largest energy source after oil by 2030, expected due to a drive to cut air pollution and rise in liquefied natural gas (LNG) use.
      1. Global gas demand would increase by 1.6 % a year to 2040 and would be 45 % higher by then than present. Electricity demand will grow 2.1 % a year and will account for a quarter of energy used by 2040.
      2. CO2 emissions would rise by 10 % to 36 gigatonnes in 2040, mostly driven by growth in oil and gas.
    6. RBI imposed fine of 6.1 crores fine on Deutsche Bank (3.1 Crores) and Jammu and Kashmir Bank (3 Crores), for non-compliance with the directions issued by RBI on Income Recognition and Asset Classification (IRAC) norms, KYC/AML norms etc.
  14. Nov 17, 2018
    1. Nov 17 - International Students’ Day.
      1. Originally commemorates Nazi storming of Czech universities in 1939 and subsequent killing and sending of students to concentration camps.
      2. Note that World Students' Day is observed annually on Oct 15, marking birth anniversary of Former Indian President and Noted Missile Scientist A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. In 2015, United Nations declared 15 October as World Students' Day.
      3. World Teachers' Day is held annually on October 5.Established in 1994, it commemorates signing of the 1966 UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers.
      4. National Teachers' Day in India is observed annually on September 05, on Birth anniversary of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, first Vice President of India (1952–1962) and 2nd President of India (1962-1967).
    2. 2nd India International Cherry Blossom Festival hosted in Shillong (Meghalaya), as world’s only autumn cherry blossom festival.
    3. Odisha government announced a new Biotechnology Policy 2018 to attract investments in sector, at concluding day of Make in Odisha Conclave in Bhubaneswar.
    4. Kerala Govt. launched 'Cow Samridhi Plus Scheme' to provide insurance coverage to dairy farmers in the state. Farmers belonging to general category will be getting 50% subsidy on premiums while those belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) category would get 70% subsidy on the premium.
    5. Nongkrem dance festival annual event celebrated in Khasi Hills in Shillong (Meghalaya). It is performed by members of Hima Khyrim, a sub-tribe of the indigenous Khasi tribe.
    6. Alexander Zverev (Germany) won ATP World Tour finals in London, defeating Novak Djokovic (Serbia). He became first player to beat both Djokovic and Federer in same ATP Finals.
    7. Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan has been presented with Sumitra Charat Ram Award for Lifetime Achievement for his contribution to Indian classical music.
    8. Online fashion retailers Myntra and Jabong will merge as one, with Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan as Head of Merged Unit. They will however, continue to operate as separate brands. Flipkart acquired Myntra in 2014 and Myntra acquired Jabong in 2016.
    9. Karnataka Bank has launched a special campaign for opening current account and savings accounts (CASA), named KBL SB - TASC, a specialized product for Trusts/Associates/Societies/Clubs.
    10. Sunil Mehta, the chairman of a bankers' panel working on the faster resolution of stressed assets in public sector banks, announced that an asset management company (AMC) for resolving large bad loans has been formed and will be called as Sashakt India Asset Management.
    11. Goverment appointed UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey as new revenue secretary, succeeding Hasmukh Adhia. Also, Sumanta Chaudhuri is appointed as new Coal Secretary.
    12. Jalaj Srivastava has been appointed the chairman of the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI).
    13. French President Emmanuel Macron and Morocco's King Mohammed VI have inaugurated Morocco's first high-speed rail line, first ever such line in Africa. $2 billion project was launched in September 2011 by the king and Nicolas Sarkozy, then president of France. Known as LGV, it will connect the economic hubs of Tangier and Casablanca in 2 hours 10 minutes at a speed of up to 320 kph (199 mph).
    14. Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) rolled out– KOOL, its Online Open Learning training platform, to train teachers, students and general public. KOOL has been designed in a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) model.
    15. PM Narendra Modi inaugurated the Kundli-Manesar section of the Western Peripheral Expressway. He also inaugurated 3.2-kilometer long Escorts Mujesar-Ballabhgarh corridor of the Delhi Metro.
      1. Western Peripheral Expressway also known as KMP expressway is expected to divert more than 50 thousand heavy vehicles away from Delhi. 136-kilometer long six-lane expressway has been built at a cost of over 6400 crore rupees.
      2. PM Narendra Modi also laid foundation of India’s first Skill Development University, named Sri Vishwakarma Skill Development University, in Palwal (Haryana).
    16. Times Higher Education Global University Employability Rankings 2018 -
      1. India's IISc Bangalore (28), IIT Delhi (58) and IIM Ahmedabad (144) have made it to Top 150 Universities list.
      2. Top 5 -
        1. Harvard University (USA)
        2. California Institute of Technology (USA)
        3. Massachussetts Institute of Technology (USA)
        4. University of Cambridge (UK)
        5. Stanford University (USA)
    17. Central Asisn Nation Tajikistan inaugurated a USD 3.9 billion hydro-electric power plant, a mega project that will eliminate domestic energy shortages and will enable exporting electricity to Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is Built on Vakhsh River and expected to reach height of 335 metres, becoming world’s tallest hydro-electric dam.
    18. ‘Toxic’ has been chosen as the ‘Word of the Year 2018’ by Oxford Dictionaries, Stating that it had become a “descriptor for year’s most talked about topics”. While, Dictionary.com chosen misinformation as its word of the year.
  15. Nov 16, 2018
    1. Nov 16 - National Press Day (NPD). This was the day on which Press Council of India (PCI) started functioning.
    2. Nov 16 - International Day for Tolerance. Declared by UNESCO in 1995 to generate public awareness of dangers of intolerance.
      1. On This Day, World Tolerance Summit (WTS) 2018 held in Dubai (UAE) with theme Prospering from Pluralism: Embracing Diversity through Innovation and Collaboration.
    3. India signed $105 million loan agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB), for transmission system upgrades in Himachal Pradesh for increased supply of hydropower to the state and the national grid. The tranche 3 loan is part of the $350 million multi-tranche financing facility (MFF) for Himachal Pradesh Clean Energy Transmission Investment Program approved by ADB Board in September 2011.
    4. India signed $300 million Loan Agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB), to support lending by India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL).
    5. India signed $169 million loan loan agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB), as First Tranche of a $500 million multi-tranche financing to develop climate-resilient water supply, sewerage, and drainage infrastructure in at least 10 cities in Tamil Nadu.
    6. Govt. launched upgraded version of AirSewa 2.0 web portal and mobile app, for superior user experience with enhanced functionalities. Improvements include secure sign-up with social media, support chatbot, improved grievance management and detailed flight schedule.
      1. Ministry of Civil Aviation launched AirSewa portal and app, to address passengers issues issues like flight delays, problem in refunds, long queues, inadequate facilities at airports and complaints of lost baggage.
    7. A Great Association-Glimpses into the Life of Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha, book authored by Swami Nirviseshananda Tirtha has been released. Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha is renowned saint of Narayanashrama Tapovanam (Kerala).
    8. China has built an ‘artificial sun’ that reaches 6 times temperature of Sun’s core of 15 million °C. Scientists from China’s Institute of Plasma Physics announced that plasma in their Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) also called ‘artificial sun’, reached 100 million °C, temperature required to perform nuclear fusion on Earth.
    9. Winter session of Lok Sabha will be held between Dec 11 - Jan 08, 2019. Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh had recommended convening Winter session of Parliament between this period.
    10. Government appointed Sanjay Kumar Mishra as full-time Director of Enforcement Directorate (ED), for 2 years.
    11. Punjab becomes third state after Maharashtra and Gujarat to ban hookah bars or lounges.
    12. India's Saroj Suman Gulati (Director of Blue Bells Schools) conferred with Global Education Leaders Award 2018 by UAE.
    13. IIT Kharagpur Researchers have devised decision support system (DCS) to help maximise LPG connections in BPL (below poverty line) households under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, as first such analysis of national level energy policy. Its a computer program that helps in making sound rational decisions using mathematical programming and operation research techniques.
    14. Shri Ramayana Express, a special tourist train to run on Ramayana circuit to cover major spots related to Hindu epic flagged off from Safdarjung Railway Station (New Delhi). It will have 2 travel components - one each in India and Sri Lanka. It will cover important destinations of Ramayana circuit such as Nandigram, Sitamarhi, Janakpur, Varanasi, Prayag, Shringverpur, Chitrakoot, Nasik, Hampi and Rameshwaram.
      1. Fare for 16-day trip at 15,120 per person. Sri Lanka leg of the tour will be charged separately as passengers opting for Sri Lanka leg of Ramayana Yatra package can take flight to Colombo from Chennai.
    15. Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) announced that government will pay employers salaries for first seven of 26 weeks of maternity leave for women earning more than Rs 15,000 month, amid complaints that many companies were reluctant to hire pregnant women after maternity leave was extended from 12 to 26 weeks and some were even firing women employees.
      1. It covers both government as well as private sector.
      2. Government had increased maternity leave for pregnant women was extended from 12 weeks to 26 weeks in 2017 after Parliament had passed Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Bill 2016.
    16. Indian Navy completed refitting of Maldivian Coast Guard Ship (MCGS) Huravee at Naval Dockyard Visakhapatnam and formally handed it over to Maldives. It was originally commissioned as INS Tillanchang in March 2001, and was subsequently gifted to Maldives by India in April 2006.
    17. Ministry of Tourism inaugurated 2 important projects as part of Development of North East Circuit under Swadesh Darshan Scheme in Arunachal Pradesh -
      1. Bhalukpong- Bomdila – Tawang Project : Sanctioned by Ministry of Tourism in March 2015.
      2. Nafra- Seppa- Pappu, Pasa, Pakke Valleys- Sangdupota- New Sagalee- Ziro- Yomcha Project - It was sanctioned in December 2015.
    18. South Asian Regional Conference on Urban Infrastructure held in New Delhi, organised by NITI Aayog in partnership with United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UNESCAP) and Asian Development Bank (ADB).
    19. India’s first specialized hospital for elephants was formally opened Churmura village in Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, promoted by Wildlife SOS which had established first elephant conservation and care centre in 2010. It is designed to treat injured, sick or geriatric elephants.
    20. Government approved 3 proposals under Nirbhaya Fund including setting up of 1023 Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs). It was proposal forwarded by Department of Justice under Ministry of Law and Justice) to dispose off pending cases of rape and POCSO Act across country. It will have total financial outlay of Rs 767.25 crores.
  16. Nov 15, 2018
    1. Nov 15 - Jharkhand Statehood day. It was formed on this day in 2000. It is also observed as World Philosophy Day.
    2. As per report by ‘Which? Travel’, Iceland is safest country to visit, while India is the fourth dangerous.UAE and Singapore are 2nd & 3rd respectively.
      1. South Africa is least safe, owing to high risk of crime, health and terrorism. Turkey was second most dangerous, Thailand is 3rd least safe and India is 4th least safe.
    3. Shripad Naik (Minister of state for Ayush) laid foundation stone for All India Institute of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy at Dhargal (North Goa). It will also boost tourism in Goa by offering various short-term courses on yoga and naturopathy. This was a part of 2-day International Conference on Yoga for Public Health that held at Kala Academy (Panjim).
  17. Nov 14, 2018
    1. Nov 14 - World Diabetes Day. 2018 theme is The Family and Diabetes.
    2. Nov 14 - Children's Day in India. It marks birth anniversary of first Prime Minister of India, Jawahar Lal Nehru.
      1. NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and UNICEF India announced UNICEF – Atal Tinkering Labs Young Champions Awards, presented to top six most innovative solutions from across country, shortlisted through Atal Tinkering Marathon.
    3. India’s junior shooters won total 11 medals (4 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze), at 11th Asian Air Gun championships held in Kuwait City (Kuwait).
    4. Tripura government will purchase 26 % equity shares of the Palatana gas thermal power project from the Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS). Its a 726.6 mw gas-based thermal power project, run by ONGC Tripura Power Company (OTPC). It was started in 2014 as a joint venture between ONGC, IDFC, IL&FS and Tripura government.
    5. Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio launched GPS Mapping of Government Schools and Personnel Location System in Kohima, to help in digitization of records of all government schools.
    6. West Bengal Govt. will set up development boards for Matua and Namasudra communities, for social representation and welfare of the 2 communities present in large numbers in state.
    7. 5th World Internet Conference (WIC) held in Wuzhen (China), to bring out mutual learning, cooperation and sharing in digital fields space.
      1. During this event, Xinhua, China’s state-run press agency, unveiled world’s first artificial intelligence (AI) anchor that can read news in English and Chinese. They have been developed by Xinhua and Chinese search engine Sogou.
    8. Finnish mobile maker Nokia and Indian IT services firm Infosys partnered to work in AI and machine learning driven solutions, to drive digital transformation in various sectors.
    9. Goa government banned import of fish into state for six months, amid uncertainty about the presence of formalin in imported fish in Goa.
    10. National Monogenic Diabetes Study Group formed to identify cases of monogenic diabetes across country, supported by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF) and Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre (DMDSC).
    11. Indian Army has dedicated 2018 to welfare of Disabled Soldiers who have been disabled in line of duty.
  18. Nov 13, 2018
    1. Government approved constitution of new boards of Governors for 20 IIMs as per IIM Act 2017, to give them complete autonomy and ensure a quality expansion of higher education. This will pave way for complete control of the institutions by reputed academicians and alumni.
    2. United Nations Security Council lifted sanctions against Eritrea, after nine years of imposition. The Security Council had imposed an arms embargo, asset freeze and a travel ban on Eritrea, amidst claims that the northeast African nation, supported al-Shabab militants in Somalia.
    3. Amnesty International took away its highest honour, the ‘Ambassador of Conscience’ award, from Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, over her indifference to atrocities committed by the Myanmar military against and increasing intolerance of freedom of expression.
    4. NITI Aayog constituted ‘Himalayan State Regional Council’ to ensure sustainable development of the Indian Himalayan region. It will review and implement identified action points based on Reports of five Working Groups, constituted by NITI Aayog. Himalayan State Regional Council will be chaired by the Dr VK Saraswat (Member in NITI Aayog).
    5. Minister for Food Processing Industries, Harsimrat Kaur Badal inaugurated 2nd Mega Food Park in Maharashtra, named Paithan Mega Food Park Pvt Ltd, in Wahegaon and Dhangaon village in Paithan Taluka of Aurangabad district. State's first Park was inaugurated on 1st of March 2018 in Satara district. Paithan Mega Food Park Park has been set up in 102 acre of land at a cost of Rs. 124.52 crore.
    6. Tamil Nadu Govt. received SEBI approval to launch its State Shelter Fund for attracting investments in the affordable housing segment.
    7. PSU NBCC (India) Limited signed agreement with Health Ministry to acquire Govt stake in other PSU Hospital Services Consultancy Corporation (HSCC), for INR 285 crores. HSCC provides consultancy services in healthcare and other social sectors in India and abroad.
    8. Bank for International Settlements (BIS) appointed Siddharth Tiwari as Chief Representative for Asia and Pacific.
    9. International Energy Agency report World Energy Outlook stated that India will overtake the U.S. to become world’s second-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide from the power sector before 2030. China will remain the biggest emitter.
    10. Argentina Footballer Lionel Messi named La Liga Player of the Year for 6th time. England player Bobby Robson received FIFA’s fair play award, while presidential award for contributions to football and society went to Jordan’s Queen Rania.
    11. Kochi Corporation and Vilnius (Lithuania) signed MoU as part of European Union (EU) project ‘International Urban Cooperation’.
    12. Fuzhou China Badminton Open 2018 -
      1. Men’s Singles - Kento Momota (Japan)
      2. Women’s Singles - Chen Yufei (China)
      3. Men’s Doubles - Marcus Fernaldi Gideon Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (Indonesia)
      4. Women’s Doubles - Lee So-hee, Shin Seung-chan (South Korea)
    13. Severe Cyclone Storm Gaja affected Tamilnadu and UT of Puducherry, causing heavy rainfalls and losses.
    14. India and Japan held their first ever joint military exercise 'DHARMA GUARDIAN-2018', in Vairengte (Mizoram).
    15. Andhra Pradesh government finalised its new emblem for official use, five years after state's bifurcation in 2014. Inspired by Amaravati School of Art, it consists of "Dhamma Chakka" - "the Wheel of Law". Representation is -
      1. 200px-Official_Emblem_Of_Andhra_Pradesh.jpeg (200×200)
  19. Nov 12, 2018
    1. Nov 12 - Public Service Broadcasting Day in India. It commemorate first and last visit of M K Gandhi to All India Radio Studio (AIR), New Delhi in 1947. Nov 12 is also observed as World Pneumonia Day.
    2. Czech Republic won 2018 Fed Cup Tennis Trophy for 6th time in eight years, defeating defending champion USA.
    3. ATP World Tour Tennis Awards 2018 -
      1. Player of the Year - Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
      2. Doubles Team of the Year - Oliver Marach (Austria) AND Mate Pavić (Croatia)
      3. Most Improved Player - Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece)
      4. Newcomer of the Year - Alex de Minaur (Australia)
      5. Comeback Player of the Year - Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
      6. Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award - Rafael Nadal (Spain)
      7. ATPWorldTour.com Fans' Favorite - Roger Federer (Switzerland) - Record 16th Consecutive Time
    4. 7 individuals have been given 2018 US Presidential Medal of Freedom (United States’ highest civilian award), Including three posthumous recipients-
      1. Elvis Presley (Music)
      2. Babe Ruth (Baseball)
      3. Antonin Scalia (SC Judge)
      4. Miriam Adelson (Philanthropist)
      5. Football Hall of Famers Roger Staubach and Alan Page.
      6. Orrin G Hatch.
    5. World’s largest supercomputer Spiking Neural Network Architecture (SpiNNaker) machine designed to work in same way as human brain was switched on for first time, built at University of Manchester in UK. It can model more biological neurons in real time than any other machine on planet. It is capable of completing more than 200 million million actions per second, with each of its chips having 100 million transistors.
      1. It is unique as it mimics the massively parallel communication architecture of brain, sending billions of small amounts of information simultaneously to thousands of different destinations. It has massive potential for neurological breakthroughs in science such as pharmaceutical testing.
    6. Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) announced winners of Infosys Prize 2018 in 6 different categories -
      1. Engineering and Computer Science - Navakanta Bhat (IISc Bangalore), for his work on novel biosensors.
      2. Humanities - Kavita Singh (School of Arts & Aesthetics at JNU), for her illuminating study of Mughal, Rajput and Deccan art.
      3. Life Sciences - Roop Mallik (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR)), for his work on molecular motor proteins.
      4. Mathematical Sciences - Nalini Anantharaman (University of Strasbourg in France), for her work related to ‘Quantum Chaos.’
      5. Physical Sciences - SK Satheesh (IISc Bangalore)., for his work in field of climate change.
      6. Social Sciences: Sendhil Mullainathan (University of Chicago (US)), for his work in behavioural economics.
    7. Ministry of Finance will release Rs 75 commemorative coin on occasion of 75th anniversary of hoisting of Tricolour for first time by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at Cellular Jail, Port Blair on December 30, 1943. 35-gram coin will be composed of 50% silver, 40% copper, and 5% each of nickel and zinc.
      1. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on this day hoisted Tricolor for first time on free Indian soil at Cellular Jail of Port Blair.
      2. It was much before India attained Independence in 1947. He announced freedom of Andaman & Nicobar Islands (making it first Indian Territory) from British rule and renamed them as “Shaheed-dweep” and “Swaraj-dweep”.
      3. Island was liberated from British rule by Japan which captured it during World War – II. Major General Arcot Doraiswamy Loganadan of Indian National Army (INA) was made Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
    8. PM Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s first Inland Multi-Modal Terminal Port on river Ganga at Ramnagar in Varanasi and received first container cargo belonging to PepsiCo. It is first of four Multi-Modal Terminals being constructed on National Waterways-I (NW1) on River Ganga as part of World Bank-aided Jal Marg Vikas project of Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI).
      1. The other three terminals are under construction at Sahibganj, Haldia and Gazipur.
      2. It will enable commercial navigation of vessels with capacity of 1500-2,000 DWT on river Ganga.
      3. JMVP was approved in January 2017 for capacity augmentation of navigation on NW-1, at cost INR 5369 crores. IWAI in February 2018 had signed project agreement with World Bank for Jal Marg Vikas Project, for $375 million.
    9. Uttar Pradesh Government has approved renaming of Faizabad and Allahabad divisions as Ayodhya and Prayagraj respectively. Government justified name changes are merely restoring older names and correcting historical distortions.
    10. Tata Trust and The Global Fund backed Indian Health Fund (IHF) has chosen four innovators for early detection of tuberculosis (TB), malaria to effectively tackle these eradicate diseases. Three selected innovators are related to TB and one to malaria. Government has set a target of eliminating TB by 2025 and malaria by 2030.
    11. Delhi Police launched an e-learning portal ‘Nipun’ to impart training and provide up to date information to police officers, designed under project CLAP “The Collaborative Learning and Partnership”. It will have online courses and resources on law, standing orders, investigation checklists, forms for case files, latest High Court and Supreme Court rulings.
    12. Sprinter Hima Das appointed as first ever youth ambassador of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) India. She was the first Indian athlete to win gold medal in track event at IAAF World U20 Championships held in Tampere (Finland). In 2018 Asian Games, she won silver medal in 400 m.
    13. IndusInd Bank launched first interactive Credit Card in India with buttons called Nexxt Credit Card, created in partnership with Pittsburgh USA headquartered Dynamics Inc. This interactive Credit Card provides customers with flexibility of three payment options at Point of Sale (POS) terminal – Credit, Converting Transactions into EMIs with 4 tenure options (6, 12, 18 & 24 months) or using accumulated Reward Points.
    14. Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare will launch new index to rank states on ‘ease of doing agri-business’, to incentivise states for various reform measures undertaken by them. It will broadly rank states on six major reform parameters related to the farming sector and have a total score of 100. These six parameters include -
      1. Marketing reforms (weightage of 25)
      2. Reducing cost of inputs (20)
      3. Governance and land reforms (20)
      4. Risk mitigation (15)
      5. Increasing production and productivity (10)
      6. Investment in agriculture (10)
    15. Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) has set up state of-the-art National Data Repository which is database of all geo-scientific data of hydrocarbon resources in country. It will provide ready access to interested companies. Its main objective is to provide reliable exploration and production data for India with provisions for seamless access and online data management.
    16. More than 30 countries announced establishment of African Carnivore Initiative, to save 4 carnivores species - (Panthera leo), Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), Leopard (Panthera pardus), and African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus).
      1. It is unique collaboration between only two global treaties whose mandate is to conserve endangered species - Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
    17. SEBI tightened disclosure standards for credit rating agencies (CRAs) while assigning ratings to debt instruments, asking to analyse deterioration in liquidity conditions of issuer, while monitoring its repayment schedules and taking into account any asset-liability mismatches.
      1. Currently there are 6 credit rating agencies in India which are registered under SEBI - CRISIL, ICRA, CARE, SMERA, Fitch India, ONICRA.
    18. 10th Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) held in Kochi (Kerela), to discuss maritime issues pertaining to cooperative capacity-building to deal with common security concerns in region. The theme for this year’s seminar was “IONS as Catalyst for SAGAR’. SAGAR stands for ‘Security and Growth for All in Region.
  20. Nov 11, 2018
    1. Nov 11 - National Education Day in India. It commemorates birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, freedom fighter and first Education Minister of independent India.
    2. 2nd International Symposium to Promote Innovation & Research in Energy Efficiency (INSPIRE 2018) held in New Delhi, organised by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) and World Bank.
      1. Awards were given to four pathbreaking innovations in clean energy and energy efficiency as part of #InnovateToINSPIRE, a first-of-its-kind energy innovation challenge.
      2. To support investments in new, innovative and scalable business models, EESL and Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed an agreement for a Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant of USD 13 million to establish an Energy Efficiency Revolving Fund (EERF).
      3. During INSPIRE 2018, EESL and GAIL signed MoU to develop natural gas based cogeneration and trigeneration projects in Commercial & Industrial Sectors in India.
    3. MoU signed between Department of Biotechnology and Cancer Research UK for India-UK India-UK Cancer Research Initiative, as a collaborative 5-year bilateral research initiative. Both CRUK and DBT will invest £5m each in this 5-year pilot, and seek investment from potential partners. It was launched at Inaugural Researchers’ Summit held in New Delhi.
      1. David Hunter of University of Oxford and CS Pramesh of Tata Memorial Hospital will serve respectively as Chair and Co-chair of India-UK Cancer Research Initiative’s Advisory Panel.
    4. D. V. Sadananda Gowda has been given additional charge of Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, in addition to his existing portfolio of Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation.
    5. National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) launched a youth-friendly scheme ‘Yuva Sahakar-Cooperative Enterprise Support and Innovation Scheme” for attracting them to cooperative business ventures. It will be linked to Rs 1000 crore ‘Cooperative Start-up and Innovation Fund (CSIF)’ created by NCDC.
      1. Funding for project will be up to 80% of project cost for special categories as against 70% for others.
      2. It envisages 2% less than applicable rate of interest on term loan for project cost up to Rs 3 crore including 2 years moratorium on payment of principal. All types of cooperatives in operation for at least one year are eligible.
    6. GSAT-29 communication satellite successfully launched by Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle MarkIII (GSLV MkIII-D2) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh).
      1. GSAT-29 satellite weighed 3423-kg.
      2.  GSLV Mk III is a three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
    7. Satya Pal Singh, Minister of State (Ministry of Human Resource Development) launched two new initiatives - Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) and Annual Refresher Programme In Teaching (ARPIT).
      1. LEAP is a three weeks Flagship leadership development training programme (2 weeks domestic and 1 week foreign training) for second level academic functionaries in public funded higher education institutions. objective is to prepare second tier academic heads who are potentially likely to assume leadership roles in future. Implementation will be through 15 NIRF top ranked Indian Institutions. Foreign Universities identified for training are -
        1. University of Michigan, NTU Singapore, Harvard University, Purdue University (USA), University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania / Stanford, Monash University, London School of Economics/ Oxford University University of Cambridge and University of Virginia, USA.
      2. ARPIT is a unique initiative of online professional development of 15 lakh higher education faculty using MOOCs platform SWAYAM. 75 discipline-specific institutions have been identified and notified as National Resource Centres (NRCs) in first phase, tasked to prepare online training material.
        1. Course is a 40 hour module with 20 hours of video content and 20 hours of non-video content. Faculties who successfully complete online refresher course will be certified. The courses will remain open from 1st November, 2018 to 28th February, 2019. 
        2. ARPIT will be an ongoing exercise so that every year NRCs will continuously develop new refresher module in their earmarked discipline each year. NRCs will revolutionize professional development of faculty by catering to massive numbers by leveraging ICT and online technology platform of SWAYAM.
    8. Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) signed MoU in with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) to explore the possibility of storing ADNOC crude oil at ISPRL’s underground oil storage facility at Padur in Karnataka, which has a 2.5 million tonne capacity.
      1. ADNOC is only foreign oil and gas company so far, to invest by way of crude oil in India’s strategic petroleum reserves program.
      2. It has been announced a few days after cabinet Approved filling of Padur Strategic Petroleum Reserves(SPR) at Padur (Karnataka) by overseas National Oil Companies (NOCs).
    9. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy prepared a draft of new Scheme called Indian Wind Turbine Certification Scheme (IWTCS) incorporating various guidelinesTurbine Certification Scheme (IWTCS), as a consolidation of relevant National and International Standards (IS/IEC/IEEE), and various best practices from other countries to ensure quality of wind energy projects.
      1. IWTCS is aimed at assisting and facilitating Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), End Users -Utilities, State Nodal Authorities (SNAs), Developers, Independent Power Producers (IPPs), Owners, Authorities, Investors and Insurers, Certification Bodies and Testing Laboratories.
      2. Type Certification of wind turbines plays an active role in ensuring that wind turbines in India meet the requirements of requisite IS/IEC/IECRE standards in vogue.
    10. 33rd ASEAN (Association of South East Asia Nations) Summit held in Singapore, with theme Resilient and Innovative. Other related summits including East Asia Summit (EAS), Regional Comprehensive Economic Summit, (RCEP) and ASEAN plus summits also to be held along with.
      1. India's Union Minister for Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu attended RCEP member countries meet in Singapore.
      2. Also, Officials from 4 countries (Quad) – Australia, India, Japan and the United States also held their third “Quadrilateral” meeting in Singapore.
    11. New Chief Justices of 4 High Courts Appointed -
      1. Sanjay Karol - Tripura
      2. Amreshwar Pratap Sahi - Bihar
      3. SK Seth - Madhya Pradesh
      4. Govind Mathur - Uttar Pradesh
    12. According to National bureau of economic research (NBER)'s first analysis of status of mobility in urban India, using Google maps, Bangalore tops as most congested city with Mumbai ranked 2nd. other top 5 - Delhi (3rd) , Chennai (4th) and Kolkata (5th).
    13. Actress Manisha Koirala unveiled her book ‘Healed’, her personal story of a battle against ovarian cancer.
    14. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) issued announcement of opportunity (AO) to international space scientists to propose their scientific payloads to be carried on its mission to Venus planned for 2023.
    15. Munin Barkotoki Literary Award 2018 in Assam has been given to young writer-critic Dr Debabhuson Borah for his book on literary criticism titled ‘Nirbochon’.
    16. Indian freelance journalist Swati Chaturvedi won 2018 London Press Freedom Award for Courage. She is author of I am a Troll: Inside the Secret World of the BJP Digital Army.
    17. Indian mountaineer Satyarup Siddhanta became first Indian to climb Mt Giluwe - second highest mountain in Papua New Guinea (4367 metres). Satya now scaled 5 of 7 volcanic summits. He will now set out to summit Mt Wilhelm (highest mountain of Papua New Guinea with height 4509 Metres).
    18. RBI canceled certificate of registrations of 31 NBFCs for unspecified reasons. It also canceled the certificate of registrations of 17 NBFCs following a request by them for it. 27 of 31 companies which lost licenses are from Bengal.
    19. Book Yoga and Mindfulness, written by Mansi Gulati has been released.
    20. Mercedes Racer Lewis Hamilton (UK) won Brazilian Grand Prix -
      1. Also, Lewis Hamilton (UK) earlier won F1 Season 2018, as his 5th F1 world title.
      2. 2018 Formula 1 (F1) Calendar -
        1. Serial Grand Prix Date Winner
          1 Australian Grand Prix 25 March Sebastian Vettel (Germany)
          2 Bahrain Grand Prix 8 April Sebastian Vettel (Germany)
          3 Chinese Grand Prix 15 April Daniel Ricciardo (Australia)
          4 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 29 April Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          5 Spanish Grand Prix 13 May Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          6 Monaco Grand Prix 27 May Daniel Ricciardo (Australia)
          7 Canadian Grand Prix 10 June Sebastian Vettel (Germany)
          8 French Grand Prix 24 June Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          9 Austrian Grand Prix 1 July Max Verstappen (Belgian-Dutch)
          10 British Grand Prix 8 July Sebastian Vettel (Germany)
          11 German Grand Prix 22 July Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          12 Hungarian Grand Prix 29 July Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          13 Belgian Grand Prix 26 August Sebastian Vettel (Germany)
          14 Italian Grand Prix 2 September Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          15 Singapore Grand Prix 16 September Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          16 Russian Grand Prix 30 September Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          17 Japanese Grand Prix 7 October Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          18 USA Grand Prix 21 October Kimi Raikkonen (Finland)
          19 Mexican Grand Prix 28 October Max Verstappen (Belgian-Dutch)
          20 Brazilian Grand Prix 11 November Lewis Hamilton (UK)
          21 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 25 November
  21. Nov 10, 2018
    1. Nov 10 - World Science Day for Peace and Development. 2018 theme is Science, a Human Right.
    2. Odisha government constituted a 3-member inter-ministerial committee to address issues raised by farmers, headed by state Finance Minister Shashi Bhusan Behera.
    3. UK India Business Council released its report named Beyond the Top 200-Effective International Collaboration for Indian Higher Education, -
      1. By 2030 India will have the largest number of people in the world of college-going age - 140 million. Currently there are 736 universities in India educating 28.6 million students. India will need another 1,500 institutions by 2030 to accommodate huge influx of students.
    4. Women and Child Development Ministry launched online marketing portal named: “Mahila-E-Haat” for promoting women farmers and entrepreneurs. It will serve as an e-platform to promote achievements of women farmers. It was launched during 5th Women of India National Organic Festival 2018 in New Delhi.
    5. Samay Godika won 4th Breakthrough Junior Challenge 2018 global science video competition. He had submitted a video in the life sciences category on circadian rhythms. He will receive $400,000 (nearly Rs. 2.92 crore) in educational prizes.
    6. 34th National Junior Athletics Championships 2018 held in Ranchi (Jharkhand).
    7. Kerala government commenced a scheme to offer free education and vocational training to the children of fishermen who died or went missing in 2017 Ockhi cyclonic storm.
    8. General Confrences (Nov 1 - 10, 2018) -
      1. Ayodhya Deepotsav 2018, an event organised to mark Diwali celebrations in Ayodhya town - has entered Guinness Book of World Records. On this occasion, over 3 lakh clay lamps were illuminated at Ram Ki Paidi on Chhoti Diwali as part of Deepotsava.
      2. Indo-French Conclave held in Nagpur (Maharashtra), in which French and Indian firms signed 12 agreements worth 200 million euro.
      3. Seminar on ‘Emerging Trends in Aviation Engineering and Logistics’ (AVIAMAT-2018) concluded at Air Force Auditorium in New Delhi.
      4. Indian Air Force has organised a two day seminar on ‘Emerging Trends in Aviation Engineering and Logistics’ (AVIAMAT-2018) at Air Force Auditorium, Subroto Park, New Delhi.
      5. First Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health held at WHO Headquarters in Geneva (Switzerland).
      6. Preparatory meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization Joint Exercise on Urban Earthquake Search & Rescue- 2019 held in new Delhi. Main exercise is scheduled for February 2019 in Delhi.
      7. 2 day Gyan Kumbh held at Patanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar (Uttarakhand).
      8. India-UAE Partnership Summit (UPS) 2018 was held in Dubai (UAE). It aimed to identify the investment areas, projects, funding needs and helped to raise investments to funds vital infrastructure projects.
      9. 1st ‘Annual Senior Care Conclave – Igniting Industry for India’s Ageing Sector’ held at the Indian Habitat Centre in New Delhi.
      10. 13th Indo-Myanmar Regional Border Committee Meet concluded at Mantripukhari Garrison in north Imphal (Manipur).
    9. Visits from India (Nov 1 - 10, 2018) -
      1. 18th Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Council of Ministers Meeting held in Durban (South Africa), attended by VK Singh (Minister of State for External Affairs) on India's Behalf. Bangladesh was appointed as Vice Chairman of Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) for 2019-21 and eventually as Chairman for 2021-23. ‘Be the Legacy’ internship programme announced to be launched on July 18, 2019, 101st birth anniversary of Nelson Mandela.
      2. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu visited African Natiosn Botswana, Zimbabwe and Malawi -
        1. Botswana -
          1. An MoU was signed for waiving Visa for Diplomatic Passport holders.
          2. Botswana decided to join India based International Solar Alliance.
        2. Zimbabwe -
          1. India announced $310 million loan to Zimbabwe to finance a rehabilitation project for a thermal power plant that would entail upgrading the station and extending its lifespan. A fund of $2.9 million will also be extended to upgrade the Indo-Zim Technology Centre, which India had gifted to the African country.
          2. India and Zimbabwe signed six signed agreements, including on mining, Information and communications technology (ICT), visa waiver and traditional medicine.
        3. Malawi -
          1. India and Malawi have signed three MoUs on Extradition Treaty, cooperation in the field of Atomic Energy for peaceful
          2. India will also extend a new Line of credit of 215 million US dollars to Malawi for 18 water projects.
      3. Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu visited France to represent India at events commemorating centenary of signing of the armistice ending World War I. He inaugurated first India-bulit war memorial in northern France, to pay tribute Indian soldiers who sacrificed lives during World War I.
    10. Visits to India (Nov 1 - 10, 2018) -
      1. Mrs. Kim Jung-sook, First Lady of South Korea Visited India -
        1. She was Chief Guest at Deepotsav event being organized by the State Government of Uttar Pradesh and ceremony of new Memorial of Queen Suriratna (Heo Hwang-ok) in Ayodhya. Ayodhya and Korea have a deep historical connection through the legendary Princess Suriratna of Ayodhya, who traveled to Korea in 48 CE and married Korean King Suro.
        2. MOU signed for cooperation in sports and Tourism.
  22. Nov 09, 2018
    1. Nov 9 - Legal Service Day in India, stared by Supreme Court in 1995 to offer help and support to weaker and poor group of sections of people. Nov 9 is also known as Uttarakhand Statehood Day. State was formed on Nov 09, 2000.
    2. United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) issued special stamps with Diyas lamps (special event sheet) to commemorate India Hindu festival of Diwali, in denomination of US $1.15.
    3. Government and RBI opened Sovereign Gold Bonds 2018-19 (Series III) for subscription, with issue price 3183 per gram. There is also discount of 50 per gram for online payment.
      1. Earlier in October 2018, Goveremnt had issued schedule for issuing Sovereign Gold Bonds every month from October 2018 to February 2019, through banks, Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited (SHCIL), designated post offices, NSE and BSE.
        S.No. Tranche Period of Subscription Date of Issuance
        1 2018-19 Series II October 15-19, 2018 October 23, 2018
        2 2018-19 Series III November 05-09, 2018 November 13, 2018
        3 2018-19 Series IV December 24-28, 2018 January 01, 2019
        4 2018-19 Series V January 14–18, 2019 January 22, 2019
        5 2018-19 Series VI February 04-08, 2019 February 12, 2019
        1. Features of Bond - 
          Item Details
          Eligibility Bonds will be restricted for sale to resident individuals, HUFs, Trusts, Universities and Charitable Institutions.
          Denomination Bonds will be denominated in multiples of gram(s) of gold with a basic unit of 1 gram.
          Tenor Tenor will be for 8 years with exit option in 5th, 6th and 7th year to be exercised on the interest payment dates.
          Minimum size Minimum permissible investment will be 1 gram of gold.
          Maximum limit 4 KG for individual, 4 Kg for HUF and 20 Kg for trusts and similar entities per fiscal (April-March).
          Issue / Redemption price Price will be fixed in INR on basis of simple average of closing price of gold of 999 purity, published by India Bullion and Jewellers Association Limited for last 3 working days of week preceding subscription period (50 per gram less for online payments)
          Payment option Cash payment (upto a maximum of `20,000) or demand draft or cheque or electronic banking.
          Interest rate The investors will be compensated at a fixed rate of 2.50% per annumpayable semi-annually on the nominal value.
          Collateral Can be used as collateral for loans. Loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is to be set equal to ordinary gold loan mandated by RBI.
          Tax treatment Interest on Gold Bonds shall be taxable as per provision of Income Tax Act 1961. Capital gains tax arising on redemption of SGB to an individual has been exempted.
          SLR eligibility Bonds acquired by banks shall be counted towards Statutory Liquidity Ratio.
          Commission Commission for distribution of bond shall be paid at rate of 1 Rupee per 100 Rupees of total subscription received. Receiving offices shall share at least paise 50 per hundred Rupees of commission so received with agents.
    4. RBI will establish an ombudsman for digital payments by March 2019, to take load off the increasing number of complaints currently being handled by banking ombudsman.
    5. Meghalaya Government announced 378 crores INR investment in 2nd phase of State’s flagship aquaculture mission aimed at cutting down fish imports into hill State. Mission named Aqua Mission 2.0 was announced at 5th state aqua festival held in Shillong at U Soso Tham auditorium premises.
    6. With a lifespan of roughly 10 years, China’s Tiangong space station (also known as Heavenly Palace) will become replacement of International Space Station, which will retire in 2024. Three astronauts will be permanently stationed in 60-tonne orbiting lab, which will enable crew to conduct biological and microgravity research.
      1. ISS is a collaboration between US, Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan. It has been in operation since 1998.
    7. Saudi Arabia banned Israeli Muslims from visiting Mecca for Hajj pilgrimage. Earlier, Israeli Muslims visited Mecca by going to Jordan where they got temporary Jordanian passports that allowed them to travel to Saudi Arabua, as Israel and Saudi don’t have diplomatic ties. Saudi will no longer accept temporary Jordanian passports.
    8. As per a UN Report, Ozone layer that shields life from cancer-causing solar rays is recovering at a rate of 1 - 3 per decade, reversing years of dangerous depletion caused by the release of harmful chemicals. It may get fully healed by 2061.
      1. Montreal Protocol, which was signed in 1987, has been termed as Most Successful environmental agreement ever. It was an International agreement for banning industrial gases such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), whic harm Ozone Layer.
    9. Scotland mandated a curriculum that will teach about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights at all public schools, being first such move in world.
    10. China and Myanmar signed an agreement to build a port in Myanmar’s Kyaukpyu town along the Bay of Bengal. China will fund 70% of the project, while the remaining 30% will be funded by Myanmar.
      1. China has been in India's Vicinity as it has helped build port in Gwadar in Pakistan, Hambantota in Sri Lanka and Chittagong port in Bangladesh.
    11. American Express became first foreign payments company allowed to build a network in China, with a 50:50 joint venture with Chinese fintech firm LianLian to set up the payment network.
    12. United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group have formed strategic partnership to support efforts eliminate hunger globally by 2030. Alibaba Cloud will work with WFP to develop digital “World Hunger Map”, to monitor global hunger and operations to end scourge by 2030, one of UN’s key Sustainable Development goals.
  23. Nov 08, 2018
    1. Cabinet Approvals (Nov 08, 2018) -
      1. General Approvals -
        1. In-principle approval for leasing out six airports of AAI - Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru for management under Public Private Partnership (PPP) through Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC).
        2. Apprised of India joining as Member of Advanced Motor Fuels Technology Collaboration Programme (AMF TCP)under International Energy Agency (IEA).  AMF TCP works under International Energy Agency (IEA) to which India has "Association" status since 30th March, 2017.
          1. Aim is to facilitate market introduction of Advanced motor fuels/ Alternate fuels with an aim to bring down emissions and achieve higher fuel efficiency in transport sector.
        3. Approved filling of Padur Strategic Petroleum Reserves(SPR) at Padur (Karnataka) by overseas National Oil Companies (NOCs). The SPR facility at Padur is an underground rock cavern with a total capacity of 2.5 million metric tonnes (MMT). The filling of the SPR under PPP model is being undertaken to reduce budgetary support of Government of India.
          1. Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd. (ISPRL) has constructed and commissioned underground rock caverns for storage of total 5.33 MMT of crude oil at three locations namely Vishakhapatnam (1.33 MMT), Mangalore (1.5 MMT) and Padur (2.5 MMT).
        4. Approved setting up a Central Tribal University in Andhra Pradesh, in Relli village of Vizianagaram District.  420 crores INR Funds for first phase expenditure have been approved.
        5. Defence Ministry enhanced Financial Powers of Vice Chiefs of Tri-Services by Five Times, with enhanced ceiling of 500 Crores.
      2. MOUs -
        1. Morocco - Mutual Legal Assistance in Civil and Commercial Matters. Also Approved Extradition Agreement with Morocco.
        2. Italy - for continuing training and education in the fields of Labour and Employment.
      3. CCEA Approvals -
        1. Approved strategic disinvestment of 100% Government of India's shares in DCIL to consortium of four ports namely, Vishakhapatnam Port Trust, Paradeep Port Trust, Jawahar Lal Nehru Port Trust and Kandla Port Trust. Presently the Government of India holds 73.44% shares in Dredging Corporation of India Limited.
    2. Supreme Court gave its nod for a separate High Court for Andhra Pradesh, which will start functioning from January 1 next year. It will will be 25th High Court in the country and will temporarily function from a makeshift building till permanent structure is built in Justice City complex in Andhra’s de-facto capital Amaravati.
    3. Indian GDP Growth Forecasts (Nov 2018) -
      1. As per Moody's - Indian economy will expand 7.4 % in 2018-19, but the growth will slow down to 7.3 % in 2019-20.
      2. Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) released its Economic Outlook 2018 report, which predicted GDP growth to decline marginally to 7.3% in 2019 and 7.4% in 2020 from 7.5% in 2018.
    4. Marathi actor Jayant Sawarkar will be awarded Maharashtra government’s Natvarya Prabhakar Panshikar Lifetime Achievement award in the field of theatre. Also, Tabla artist Vinayak Thorat will be awarded Sangeet Acharya Annasaheb Kirloskar Lifetime Achievement. Both awards consist of cash prizes of Rs 5 lakh.
    5. Novel Don’t Tell The Governor, authored by Ravi Subramanian has been released.
    6. 8th Asian Shotgun Championship held in Kuwait. Angad Vir Singh Bajwa won gold medal by setting world record score in men’s skeet final. He became first Indian skeet shooter to win continental or world level event.
    7. Pranoy Kumar Musahary has been appointed as chairperson of Meghalaya’s first Lokayukta.
    8. Mathematician and Super 30 founder Anand Kumar honoured with education award global education award in Dubai, by Malabar Gold & Diamonds.
    9. Noted Amputee Athelete Arunima Sinha awarded an honorary doctorate by University of Strathclyde of United Kingdom in Glasgow (Scotland). She has been awarded for her inspirational achievements in mountaineering. In 2013, she became world’s first woman amputee to climb Mount Everest.
    10. Bihar Government approved to pay INR 25000 to every girl graduating in 2018 and onwards, irrespective of the pass division, community or region.
    11. Noted Indian Origin French scholar Jawahar Lal Sarin presented with France’s highest civilian honour Chevalier de la Lgion d’Honneur, for his outstanding contribution to enhancing Indo-French cultural cooperation and promoting French language. He is president of Alliance franaise de Delhi’s governing body.
    12. Government appointed Ashok Kumar Gupta as Chairperson of Competition Commission of India (CCI), replacing Sudhir Mital.
      1. Competition comissoion was established in October 2003 and became fully functional in May 2009.
      2. It consists of Chairperson and 2 - 6 Members. Presently, Chairperson and four Members are in position.
    13. Government appointed K Dash, Akhilesh Ranjan and Neena Kumar as new members of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).
      1. Current Chairperson of CBDT is Sushil Chandra.
    14. Restoration of an aristocratic house project from partial ruin state in Ladakh undertaken by LAMO (Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation) Center won 2018 UNESCO Asia-Pacific award for Cultural Heritage conservation in Award of Distinction category.
      1. Its recovery establishes precedent for conserving non-monumental urban fabric of Leh Old Town.
      2. Other Category awardees -
        1. Award of Excellence - Give to restoration project of early 20th-century Shijo-cho Ofune-hoko Float Machiya in Japan.
        2. Award of Distinction - LAMO Center, Ladakh, India
        3. Award of Merit - 5 Martin Place, Sydney (Australia); Aijing Zhuang, Fujian (China); Commercial Bank of Honjo Warehouse, Saitama (Japan).
    15. Indian Army inducted three major globally combat proven artillery gun system - M777 A2 ultra light howitzers (ULH), K-9 Vajra-tracked self-propelled guns (South Korea) and Composite Gun Towing Vehicle (Ashok Leyland -India) at Deolali Field Firing Range in Maharashtra, as first artillery gun systems to be inducted by Indian Army in three decades.
      1. Last inducted was Bofors artillery gun system procured from Sweden in early 1980s.
    16. USA exempted India from imposition of certain sanctions for development of strategically-located Chabahar port in Iran, along with construction of railway line connecting it with landlocked Afghanistan. This exception relates to reconstruction assistance and economic development for Afghanistan. These activities are vital for ongoing support of Afghanistan’s growth and humanitarian relief.
      1. US has imposed toughest ever sanctions on defiant Iran aimed at altering the Iranian regime’s “behaviour”. It covered Iran’s banking and energy sectors and reinstate penalties for countries and companies in Europe, Asia and elsewhere that do not halt Iranian oil imports.
      2. However, eight countries — India, China, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey — were temporarily allowed to continue buying Iranian oil as they showed significant reduction in oil purchase from Iran.
    17. Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) signed MoU with US-based Research Institute for Fragrant Materials (RIFM) for improving quality of fragrant oils, during annual conference of International Fragrance Association (IFA) in Paris (France).
      1. It will standardize fragrant material produced in India and bring it to an international level. It will give impetus to aroma mission of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) which aims at enhancing production of fragrant materials.
    18. RBI liberalised norms governing external commercial borrowings (ECBs) for infrastructure creation.
      1. RBI reduced minimum average maturity required for the ECBs in the infrastructure space raised by eligible borrowers to three years from earlier five years.
      2. It also has reduced average maturity requirement for mandatory hedging to five years from earlier ten years.
    19. According to research firm Canalys, India overtaken US to become second largest smartphone market in the July-September 2018 quarter. India saw shipment of 40.4 million units during third quarter and was second to China where 100.6 million smartphones. USA was at 40 million units.
    20. Nov 8 - International Day of Radiology.
  24. Nov 07, 2018
    1. Nov 07 - National Cancer Awareness Day.
      1. On this occasion, Book written by Murali Mohan Chunthar, ‘Arivu’ has been released. It explains about Mouth Cancer and its prevention.
    2. India participated in China’s 1st International Import Expo (CIIE) at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai. Aims is to reduce he over USD 51 billion trade deficit with neighboring nation. It is considered to be the world’s first import-themed national-level expo.
    3. Journalist N Ram (Hindu Group of Publications Chairman) chosen for Raja Ram Mohan Roy Award by Press Council of India (PCI). It will be presented on November 16, on National Press Day. Other Winners arr -
      1. Rural Journalism - Ruby Sarkar
      2. Developmental Reporting - VS Rajesh
    4. ‘The Fire Burns Blue: A History of Women’s Cricket in India’, co-authored by Karunya Keshav and Siddhant Pathak has been released.
    5. Bihar Government approved redevelopment of Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) into world’s largest 5462-bed hospital, at cost 5540 crores.
    6. South Korea and USA resumed their battalion-level marine exercises “Korea Marine Exercise Program (KMEP)”, in Pohang (South Korea).
    7. ICICI Bank partnered with ‘Amazon Pay’ to launch a co-branded credit card. This will make online shopping more affordable and provide the best value to Amazon Pay customers.
    8. 2018 Rolex Paris Masters Tennis Title -
      1. Singles - Karen Khachanov (Russia)
      2. Doubles - Rajeev Ram (USA) AND Marcel Granollers (Spain)
  25. Nov 06, 2018
    1. Delhi government and Indian Railways launched a scheme to give free tourism package for senior citizens travelling to 5 religious circuits, named Mukhyamantri Tirth Yatra Yojana. Under it, 1100 senior citizens from all Delhi constituencies will be able to avail the offer. State government will bear expenses of 77,000 pilgrims every year.
    2. National Green Tribunal formed committee to conduct an inspection and submit report about the waste dumping issue at the Polavaram dam in Andhra Pradesh, headed by NGT Chairperson Adarsh Kumar Goel.
    3. Chola MS General Insurance and IndusInd Bank Ltd renewed their decade old corporate agency arrangement for a period of 5 years.
    4. Western Pacific nation Palau became first country to ban many kinds of sunscreen, to protect its coral reefs from chemicals that cause significant damage.
    5. Indian Pavilion inaugurated at Videocittà 2018 event in Rome Film Festival (Italy),with India as partner country for the event.
      1. “Mere Pyaare Prime Minister” was only Asian film screened at 13th Rome Film Festival.
    6. RBI allowed banks to provide partial credit enhancement (PCE) to bonds issued by systemically important non-deposittaking non-banking financial companies (NBFC-ND-SIs) registered with RBI and Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) registered with National Housing Bank.
      1. This shall be done by maintaining exposure limit of the bank within the aggregate PCE exposure limit of 20 %. This will help for affordable housing finance and lower rated retail NBFCs by easing fund-raising by the NBFCs from the debt market.
    7. 26 countries and 11 international organisations committed to Changsha Declaration at the end of a forum on international development cooperation in Changsha, China. It focuses on agricultural and rural development, eliminate poverty and hunger.
    8. India ranked 12th in world in terms of web-borne threats, according to report by global cybersecurity company Kaspersky Labs. 32.8 % of users were attacked by web-borne threats in India.
    9. Singapore ranked most sustainable city in Asia, and fourth in world, according to the Asia Sustainable Cities Index 2018 by Arcadis.
    10. Oil Marketing Companies (IOCL, HPCL & BPCL) and CSC e-Governance Services India Limited signed an MOU for collaboration in LPG services, under Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana (PMUY).
    11. Indian Railways announced elimination of all Unmanned Level Crossings (UMLCs) on Broad Gauge. There were 3479 Unmanned Level Crossings on Broad Gauge routes of which, 3402 UMLCs have been eliminated in last 7 months. 12 Zonal Railways have been freed from UMLC on Broad Gauge route.
  26. Nov 05, 2018
    1. Nov 5 - World Tsunami Awareness Day.
    2. Fitch ratings affirmed IDBI Bank’s long-term issuer default rating (IDR) at ‘BB+’ and its viability rating (VR) at ‘ccc’. It reflects expectation of a moderate probability of extraordinary state support given the bank’s market position and linkages to state.
    3. India and 6 other members of South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) pulled out of Saudi Arabia led-South West Asian Football Federation (SWAFF). Other are Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
    4. Nov 5, 2018 - Ministry of AYUSH observes Ayurveda Day every year on Dhanawantari Jayanti (Dhanteras). On this occasion, Ministry organized a “National Seminar on Entrepreneurship and Business Development in Ayurveda” in New Delhi.
    5. Ministry of Road Transport & Highways mandated that all new public service vehicles except auto rickshaws and e-Rickshaws, registered on and after 1st January 2019 to be equipped with Vehicle Location Tracking ( VLT )with emergency buttons. Objective: To ensure safety of passengers especially women.
  27. Nov 04, 2018
    1. India announced contributions of $13.36 million (over ₹97.2 crore) for various United Nations (UN) agencies and development activities at the 2018 United Nations Pledging Conference for Development Activities. 19 countries pledged a total of $425.69 million at the conference.
    2. Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath made three announcements -
      1. Faizabad district will be renamed as Ayodhya.
      2. New airport named after Lord Rama and medical college named after King Dasharatha will be opened in district.
    3. Maharashtra government approved hyperloop project between Pune and Mumbai as a public infrastructure project. This Fresh approval will ensure more competition and easier land acquisition for this ultra-high speed project, which aims to bring travel time between Pune and Mumbai down to 25 minutes.
      1. Bidding will be held under ‘Swiss challenge’ method, which allows the government to invite global firms to bid for the project and challenge original proponents of endeavour, Virgin Hyperloop One.
    4. Named Little India Gate, first-of-its-kind structure in Indonesia recognizing contribution of Indian community in development of Medan city, has been unveiled.
    5. According to a study named ‘Ease of Moving Index’ by Ola Mobility Institute, Kolkata topped among all metro cities in public transport. Patna and Bhubaneswar topped list for growing and emerging cities.
    6. Madras High Court banned online drug sale in Tamilnadu. It said the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 was enacted during the colonial era and much before advent of online trade. There is no provision in it that permits the online sale of drugs and medicines.
    7. Karnataka Government launched Samruddhi, 800-crore entrepreneurship and skill development scheme, for economically and socially underprivileged youth of small towns. It aims to train youth from SC and ST communities through private organisations in retail management and franchise opportunities.
  28. Nov 03, 2018
    1. Odisha Government launched Aerospace and Defence Manufacturing Policy 2018, aimed at forwarding process of industrialization through promotion of aerospace and defence manufacturing enterprises and generate employment. Key Features -
      1. Proposes to extend subsidy upto 50% of cost of land, building, plant and machinery to special purpose vehicle (SPV) for setting up first state-of-the-art Aerospace and Defence Park in state.
      2. Sets ceiling of 50 crore for Common Facility Centre, 30 crore for Technology Innovation Centre and 25 crore for Testing Centre to be established with private participation.
      3. It allows interest subsidy allowed up to a limit of Rs. 10 Crore per annum and Rs. 5 crore per annum for first three OEMs setting up manufacturing units in state based on investment of over 500 Crore and between 100 - 500 crores respectively. This provision is designed to attract key players to set up units in state.
    2. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated long awaited Delhi's Signature Bridge, the first asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge in India, constructed at expenditure of 1518 crores. The 675-metre bridge aims to reduce travel time and traffic congestion between the north-eastern and northern parts of Delhi.
      1. It was first approved in 1997 after school bus fell off the narrow Wazirabad Bridge into the Yamuna, killing 22 children.
    3. US International Trade Commission ruled against putting an anti-dumping duty on the import of a synthetic fluoropolymer from India and China. Fluoropolymer is a key ingredient in the non-stick coating for pans and other cookware.
      1. Without the orders, PTFE imports from India would have been subject to an anti-dumping duty of 22.78 %.
    4. Ministry of Home Affairs released 113.36 crores to 6 Border States under Border Area Development Programme (BADP) to improve the condition of people living in these isolated locations. States - Assam, Nagaland, Sikkim, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand. With this, so far, Home Ministry has released total 637.98 crores during 2018-19 to states having International Border.
    5. Supreme Court fixed December 15, 2018 as he deadline for filing of claims and objections by individuals excluded from the first draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of Assam, published on July 30, 2018.
    6. Ministry of Finance clarified that autonomy for Central Bank, within framework of RBI Act, is an essential and accepted governance requirement. This clarification came after rumours about government’s decision to invoke never-before-used powers by invoking Section 7 of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act, 1934, allowing Govt. to issue directions to RBI Governor on matters of public interest such as liquidity for NBFCs, capital requirement for weak banks and lending to SMEs.
      1. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley recently during meeting of Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), blamed RBI for failing to stop a lending spree during 2008-2014 that left banks with USD 150 billion of bad debt.
      2. Rift between Central Government and RBI grew after RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya said that undermining a central bank’s independence could be “potentially catastrophic”.
    7. Odisha government launched initiative named ‘Mo Bus’ services in Bhubaneswar, ahead of the Men’s Hockey World Cup to be hosted in city in Nov - Dev 2018. Also, Tata Steel announced as an official partner of men's hockey World Cup 2018.
      1. State govt also launched ‘Bhubaneswar Me Wi-Fi’ project to make Bhubaneswar a fully Wi-Fi enabled city before Hockey World Cup 2018.
    8. India signed World Bank loan agreement of $172.20 million, for enhancing agricultural productivity, and climate resilience of marginalized farmers in Andhra Pradesh, named Andhra Pradesh Integrated Irrigation and Agriculture Transformation Project (APIIATP).
    9. In a first for India, HSBC Holdings Plc executed a trade finance transaction using blockchain for an export by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to US-based Tricon Energy. Blockchain-enabled letter of credit (LC) transaction reduced time taken for such deals (from 7-10 days to under a day).
    10. Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) formed a new industry expert committee to develop and promote an augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) ecosystem in India, chaired by Namrita Mahindro (Mahindra Group).
    11. Kirloskar group received licence from RBI to launch non-banking finance company (NBFC) business with name Kirloskar Capital, headed by Vimal Bhandari. Company will invest Rs 1,000 crore in proposed NBFC.
    12. National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) acquired IDFC Infrastructure Finance (IDFC-IFL), an infrastructure debt fund. This acquisition is first investment from NIIF strategic fund. IDFs are investment vehicles for channelling investment into India's infrastructure sector.
    13. India signed $950 million contract with Russia for two upgraded Krivak III-class stealth frigates. The 4,000-ton Krivak III vessels will also accommodate two multirole helicopters and will be used for anti-submarine and airborne early warning missions.
  29. Nov 02, 2018
    1. Nov 02 - International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.
    2. Gafur Rakhimov (Uzbekistan) elected as President of International Boxing Association (AIBA).
    3. Journalist Namrata Ahuja from The Week magazine received Intellectual Property India (IPI) Journalism Excellence award 2018, for her exclusive story on Nagaland underground camps.
    4. Noted Musician A.R. Rahman's biography Notes of a Dream, Written by Krishna Trilok has been released.
    5. RBI Fined Fino Payments Bank with 1 Crore INR, for violating Norms for Payments Banks. Fino PB was asked to stop all account opening activities after RBI found out that there were few accounts with the bank with deposits in excess of Rs 1 lakh, which is against criteria of a payments bank.
    6. Indian Actor Anupam Kher honoured with ‘Distinguished Fellow Award’ in Boston (USA), at 3rd India Global Summit held at MIT Sloan School of Management in Boston.
    7. India Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA) appointed Rajesh Ram Mishra as its new President.
    8. As per survey by World Bank, student dropout rate in Nagaland’s upper primary (VI-VIII) and secondary (IX-X) class stood at 17.7 % and 35.1 % respectively. It is highest in India and four times above the national average.
    9. Global Passport Index 2018 by Passportindex.org -
      1. Most Powerful Passport is of Singapore, along with Germany. India is ranked 66th in List.
      2. Note that Recent Henley Passport Index 2018 ranked Indian passport at 81st Place, with Japan at top.
    10. Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena announced to lift suspension of parliament as international pressure mounted on him to open legislature and resolve a leadership struggle.
      1. Recently, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena removed Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister of Sri Lanka, amid Political Turmoil because of Differences between President Sirisena and PM Vikramasinghe. Mahinda Rajapaksha was appointed as new Prime Minister.
    11. RBL Bank appointed Vikas Muttoo as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of its subsidiary Swadhaar Finserve.
    12. India’s first indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant completed its first deterrence patrol, completing its first long-range mission with live nuclear-tipped missiles.
      1. During deterrence patrol, a nuclear submarine carries nuclear missiles on board, where command and control protocols for its operations are fully tested by its crew.
      2. With this, India completed its survivable nuclear triad by adding maritime strike capability to land and air-based delivery platforms for nuclear weapons. It makes India sixth country — after US, Russia, UK, France and China — to have fully operational nuclear triad.
      3. INS Arihant is India’s first indigenously developed nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine. It was launched in 2009 and its nuclear reactor went critical in 2013 and it was commissioned in 2016.
    13. Researchers from Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) designed India’s first indigenous microprocessor called ‘Shakti’.
      1. Microprocessors are brain of all computing and electronic devices and are used to operate larger high-speed systems and supercomputers.
      2. It will reduce dependency on imported microchips especially in communication and defence sectors and thus eliminate risk of cyber-attacks. It can be used in mobile computing, wireless and networking systems.
      3. IIT M researchers are now conducting research on ‘Parashakti’, an advanced microprocessor for supercomputers, to be ready by December 2018. It will have its applications in desktops and 32 such interconnected microprocessors may be used in supercomputers.
      4. IIT Madras also developed portable solar-powered cold storage device with 500 kg capacity for storing vegetables and fruits. It will help farmers store their produce for sufficient time so that it does not get spoilt before it is sold, preventing wastage of agricultural produce.
    14. Odisha Government launched Saura Jalnidhi scheme to encourage use of solar energy in irrigation by farmers. Under this, farmers will be given 90% subsidy and 5,000 solar pumps. It will provide irrigation benefits in 2,500 acres. For this, state government has made a provision of 27.18 crore in 2017-18.
    15. Maharashtra cabinet approved conversion of Indian Navy’s longest-serving aircraft carrier INS Viraat, into India’s first-ever moored maritime museum-cum-marine adventure centre. It was decommissioned in 2017.
    16. RBI initiated setting up wide-based digital Public Credit Registry (PCR) to capture loan information of individuals and corporate borrowers, by inviting expression of interest (EOI) for developing PSC from companies with turnover of over 100 crore in last three years.
      1. PCR is digital registry of authenticated granular credit information. It will work as financial information infrastructure providing access to various stakeholders and enrich the existing credit information ecosystem.
    17. Indian Coast Guard (ICG) launched new Offshore patrol vessel (OPV) ICGS Varaha, as 4th in series of 98 MOPVs designed and built indigenously by Larsen & Toubro (L&T).
    18. New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) launched quick response (QR)-enabled fridge magnets for digital payment of bills. The magnets are personalised and each customer will have unique QR Code mapped to their consumer account number, powered by SignCatch. Consumers can stick these magnets on their refrigerators at home and use their smartphones to scan QR Code on magnet to pay their bills instantly.
  30. Nov 01, 2018
    1. Nov 01 - Foundation day of seven Indian states - Karnataka, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. UTs of Lakshwadeep, Puducherry, Andaman & Nicobar also celebrate their formation day on November 1.
    2. Cabinet Approvals (Nov 01, 2018) -
      1. MOUs -
        1. Morocco - Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.
        2. Russia - M0U for cooperation in transport education and MoC with Russian Railways for technical cooperation in railways.
        3. South Korea - Cooperation in Tourism.
      2. General Approvals -
        1. Approved promulgation ordinance to amend Companies Act 2013, aimed at declogging National Company Law Tribunals (NCLTs) and decriminalise minor offences by companies. It will transfer 90% of the cases to regional directors under Ministry of Corporate Affairs from NCLTs. It will retain status of all non-compoundable offences since they are serious in nature.
        2. Approved renaming Jharsuguda Airport in Odisha as Veer Surendra Sai Airport.
        3. Approved moving a Resolution in first Assembly of International Solar Alliance (ISA) for opening up ISA membership to all United Nations Member Nations. It will make ISA inclusive, where all member countries that members of UN could become members.
    3. Railways launched UTSONMOBILE mobile app, introduced Unreserved Mobile Ticketing to promote Cashless transactions, Contact less ticketing and Customer convenience. It will enable booking of unreserved tickets on all non-suburban sections across all Zonal Railways.It will remove need for passengers to wait in queues for purchasing tickets.
      1. It involves registration and booking ticket through this application within ticketing area and outside Geo-fenced area (geofenced area is station premises and train route within which ticket cannot be booked.  Ticketing area is outside geofenced area as defined in application).
    4. India signed a Loan Agreement with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for Japanese Official Development Assistance loan for construction of Turga Pumped Storage (I) of Yen 29.442 Billion (INR 1817 crores). It aims to improve stability of power supply in West Bengal.
    5. India elected as a Member of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Council for 4-year term (2019-2022), during ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2018 at Dubai (UAE).
    6. India's WAPCOS and Austria based Doppelmayr signed MOU for providing end-to-end solutions for passenger ropeway projects. Doppelmayr are world’s largest ropeway manufacturers with cutting-edge ropeway technologies.
    7. Ministry of Food Processing Industries(MoFPI) approved operationalisation strategy for Operation Greens. It was announced in Budget speech 2018-19 with outlay of 500 crores, to stabilize supply of Tomato, Onion and Potato(TOP) crops. Measures Include -
      1. Short term Price Stabilisation Measures - NAFED will be Nodal Agency to implement price stabilisation measures. MoFPI will provide 50% of the subsidy on two components -
        1. Transportation of Tomato Onion Potato(TOP) Crops from production to storage;
        2. Hiring of appropriate storage facilities for TOP Crops.
      2. Long Term Integrated value chain development projects -
        1. Capacity Building of FPOs & their consortium
        2. Quality production
        3. Post-harvest processing facilities
        4. Agri-Logistics
        5. Marketing / Consumption Points
        6. Creation and Management of e-platform for demand and supply management of TOP Crops.
      3. Eligible Organisations for assistance under the scheme will be required to submit online application on SAMPADA portal of ministry (https://sampada.gov.in/).
    8. World Bank Ease of Doing Business Report 2018 (16th Edition) -
      1. India saw a surge of 23 places with 77th rank in current report. In Previous report, India was ranked 100th. Overall, India has improved by 57 places in 2 years, compared to 130 in 2016 and 77 in 2018.
      2. Top 10 - New Zealand (1), Singapore (2), Denmark (3), Hong Kong (4), South Korea (5), Georgia (6), Norway (7), USA (8), UK (9), Macedonia (10).
      3. Bottom 5 - Somalia (190), Eritrea (189), Venezuela (188), Yemen (187), Libya (186)
      4. Neghbours - China (46), Pakistan (136), Bangladesh (176), Nepal (110), Sri Lanka (100)
    9. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched unveiled 12 key initiatives for Development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector -
      1. Launched 59 minute loan portal to enable easy access to credit for MSMEs, for availing pre approved loans upto 1 crores.
      2. 2 % interest subvention for all GST registered MSMEs, on fresh or incremental loans. For exporters who receive loans in pre-shipment and post-shipment period, increase in interest rebate from 3 to 5 % was announced.
      3. Companies with turnover over 500 crores must compulsorily be brought on Trade Receivables e-Discounting System (TReDS). It will enable entrepreneurs to access credit from banks, based on their upcoming receivables, to resolve problems of cash cycle.
      4. Public sector companies have now been asked to compulsorily procure 25 % (up from 20 %) of their total purchases, from MSMEs. 
      5. Out of 25 % procurement mandated from MSMEs, 3 % must now be reserved for women entrepreneurs.
      6. PSUs of Government must now compulsorily be a part of Public produrement platform GeM (Government e-Marketplace).
      7. Stating that Tool rooms across country are a vital part of product design. 20 hubs will be formed across country, and 100 spokes in form of tool rooms will be established.
      8. 8th announcement is related to pharma companies. Clusters will be formed of pharma MSMEs. 70 % cost of establishing these clusters will be borne by the Union Government.
      9. 9th announcement is on simplification of government procedures. Return under 8 labour laws and 10 Union regulations must now be filed only once a year.
      10. 10th announcement is that now establishments to be visited by an Inspector will be decided through a computerised random allotment.
      11. 11th announcement is that under air pollution and water pollution laws, now both these have been merged as a single consent. Return will be accepted through self-certification.
      12. As 12th announcement, An Ordinance has been brought, under which, for minor violations under Companies Act, entrepreneur will no longer have to approach the Courts, but can correct them through simple procedures.
    10. Indian Snooker Player Pankaj Advani won Asian Snooker Tour by defeating Ju Reti of China.
    11. First ever India-US Dialogue on Intellectual Property (IP) was launched in New Delhi to deepen bilateral strategic cooperation on IP policy.
    12. Noted Boxer MC Mary Kom named as brand ambassador of 10th Women’s World Championships to be held in New Delhi in November 2018.
    13. Satyajit Ray directed Pather Panchali included in BBC’s 100 best foreign language films, as only Indian film in list. It was releaesed in 1955.
    14. Former Indian crickcter Rahul Dravid formally inducted into ICC Cricket Hall of Fame, as 5th Indian to receive this honour.  The other four Indians are Bishan Singh Bedi, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Anil Kumble.
    15. China launched first High Orbit Satellite of BeiDou-3 Navigation system, placed 36000 km above Earth. It will follow the Earth’s rotation, in a geostationary orbit, and will view the same point on Earth continuously.
    16. Noted Malayalam novelist M Mukundan selected for Kerala government’s highest literary award ‘Ezhuthachan Puraskaram’ for this year.

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