Current Affairs - October 15, 2018 Current Affairs

The Minister of State for Commerce & Industry and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution C. R. Chaudhary, attended the 6th RCEP Inter-sessional Ministerial Meeting (IMM) in Singapore. The Ministers from 16 RCEP countries met in Singapore to discuss a modern, comprehensive and mutually beneficial economic partnership agreement among ASEAN and ASEAN's FTA partners. Next round meeting of Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) is scheduled to be held in Auckland, New Zealand.

Suchitra Durai was appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Kingdom of Thailand. Suchitra Durai is an Indian Foreign Service Officer (IFS) of 1988 batch. She is at present, the High Commissioner of India to Kenya. She has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Kingdom of Thailand. She will take up this assignment soon.

A 9-member high power group has been constituted by Naveen Gupta, President, ICA Institute, to study the systemic issues at debt-laden IL&FS Group. Shivaji B Zaware will be its convener and other members include: two past presidents of the CA Institute - Ved Jain and Nilesh S Vikamsey. It has also written to the Reserve Bank of India and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office seeking details about IL&FS issue. The group will suggest remedial measures and improvement in the system.

Haryana launched first-of-its-kind National Autism Intervention Research Centre at Fortis Memorial Research Institute in Gurugram. This has been started in association with Behaviour Momentum India. It will help people suffering from autism who need behavioural and medical experts to get educated, learn play and social skills and improve their quality of life.

The World Bank released the Human Capital Index (HCI) as part of the World Development Report 2019. The theme of the World Development Report (WDR) this year is "The Changing Nature of Work". As part of this report, the World Bank has launched a Human Capital Project (HCP). The HCI has been constructed for 157 countries. The HCI for India has been estimated at 0.44. The Index was released at the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings in Bali, Indonesia. Singapore ranked first for its universal health care system, education exams results and life expectancy figures. It is followed by South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Finland. India was ranked at the 115th position.

Indian tennis legend Leander Paes has won his second Challenger-level title of the season, lifting the Santo Domingo Open trophy with partner Miguel Angel Reyyes-Varela. The second-seeded Indo- Mexican pair, playing its second consecutive final, came from behind to beat Ariel Behar and Roberto Quiroz 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 in the summit clash, which lasted one hour and 26 minutes in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) is to implement an emergency action plan called the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). It aimed at combating air pollution that has begun to show a trend towards very poor category. Under the emergency action plan, stringent actions are implemented based on the air quality of the city. If the air quality in any area falls to an emergency category, measures like stopping entry of trucks into Delhi (except essential commodities), stopping construction activities and appointment of the task force to take a decision on any additional steps, including shutting of schools will be implemented.

NITI Aayog has signed pact with Microsoft India to deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to address challenges various sectors such as agriculture and healthcare. As per the pact, Microsoft will support NITI Aayog by combining the cloud, AI, research and its vertical expertise for new initiatives and solutions across several core area. It will also accelerate the use of AI for the development and adoption of local language computing, in addition to building capacity for AI among the workforce through education. Under the agreement, Microsoft will provide Niti Aayog advanced AI-based solutions such as farm advisory services, healthcare screening models at primary health centers along with building capacity for AI through education.

Sandesh Jhingan was appointed as the captain of Indian football team for the international friendly match against China held in Suzhou, China. This is the first time in 21 years, India and China played football after the Nehru Cup in Kochi in 1997. Indian team was coached by head coach Stephen Constantine. India and China finished the match in a 0-0 draw.

World Migratory Bird Day was observed all over the world. In 2017, International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD) and World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) were merged. From 2018, World Migratory Bird Day is celebrated twice a year, on the second Saturday in May and in October. In 2018, it was celebrated on 12th May and now on 13th October. World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) aims to create awareness on the need for conservation of migratory birds and their habitats. Theme: for World Migratory Bird Day 2018 is "Unifying our Voices for Bird Conservation".

Stanford University has been named the World's Most Innovative University for the fourth consecutive year in Reuters' ranking of World's Most Innovative Universities. This list ranks educational institutions based on new technologies they have invented and new markets and industries they have powered. Stanford University is followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania.

A human rights activist Oyub Titiev won the Council of Europe's Vaclav Havel prize. The prize consists of 60,000-euro ($67,000) prize as a recognition to his struggle defending human rights in the troubled Russian Caucusus republic. Titiev is the prize's 6th recipient. He heads the Grozny office of the Memorial Human Rights Centre in Chechnya. The chairman of Memorial's board accepted the award on Titiev's behalf. The Memorial was set up in 1989 and is the oldest existing Russian non-governmental organisation for human rights.

Japan Association of Athletics Federations announced to be the host of the 2019 edition of 4th International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Relays, beginning May 11, 2019. The first three editions of the IAAF World Relays, in 2014, 2015 and 2017, were held in the Bahamian capital of Nassau. The 2019 meet will take place May 11 and 12 at Nissan Stadium in Yokohama, near Tokyo. This will serve as a qualifier for the world championships taking place in Doha in September and October.

The Coffee Day Malnad Ultra Marathon 2018 has flagged off successfully from Lalbaug Estate in Chikmagalur, Karnataka. He event is split into three categories - 50km, 80km and 110km. Here, 811 runners from 13 countries and 22 states from across India gathered at the start line for the flag off of the ultra marathon. There were as many as 43 international runners from UK, Poland, France, USA, Maldives, Germany, Australia, Canada, Belgium, Singapore, Colombia, Japan, and Malaysia who participated in the run with USA having the highest representation of 7 endurance runners. The endurance run also had an incredible number of 143 female runners and also saw participation from people up to 75 years of age.

Rashtriya Mahila Kisan Diwas is celebrated on 15th of October. In 2016, the Ministry had decided to observe 15th October as RMKD to recognise the contribution of women farmers in various aspects of agriculture including sowing, planting, fertilizing, plant protection, harvesting, weeding, and storage. Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh addressed the function in New Delhi. Women farmers, entrepreneurs, farming organizations, agricultural scientists and researchers from different states participated in the event.

Scientists have developed a new camera called the T-CUP, which might be the world's fastest camera. T-CUP can capture 10 trillion frames per second. It can freeze time to see light in extremely slow motion. It was developed by researchers at INRS (Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique) led by Lihong Wang of California Institute of Technology, US. The researchers integrated Compressed ultrafast photography (CUP) which was at 100 billion frames per second with femtosecond lasers to form T-CUP system.

The International Day of Rural Women is observed on 15th October. The day recognizes the crucial role of women and girls in ensuring the sustainability of rural households and communities, improving rural livelihoods and overall wellbeing. This year's theme is "Sustainable infrastructure, services and social protection for gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls". The theme places empowerment of rural women at the heart of fulfilling the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs.

Novelist Maryse Conde has been announced as the winner of the New Academy prize in literature. This award was created after the Swedish Academy postponed this year's Nobel prize for literature following a rape scandal. Maryse Conde will receive £87,000 cash prize that was raised from crowdfunding and donations, at the award ceremony on 9 December 2018, a day before the Nobel award ceremony.

The Karnataka State government has cleared a Rs.198-crore drinking water project proposal for Ullal. Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy launched the Brand Mangaluru campaign and a village camp programme initiated by the Dakshina Kannada Working Journalists Union. Mr.Kumaraswamy said that the city has the potential to grow on a par with Bengaluru in terms of economic activity and development. The campaign is expected to project the true abilities and positive aspects of Mangaluru.

India's first agri and food business online learning platform was launched at the SR Innovation Exchange (SRiX) Campus, Warangal in Telangana. It was inaugurated by British Deputy High Commissioner Hyderabad Andrew Fleming. Additionally, Sarras Academies Ltd, a UK-based company, and SR Innovation Exchange have joined hands to launch the Academy. The name of the platform is: SRiX Agri-Business Academy. It is an Indo-UK collaborative initiative and a technology business incubator under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.