Current Affairs - October 22, 2018 Current Affairs

Every year, 21st October is observed as the Police Commemoration Day in memory of the 10 policemen killed in an ambush by Chinese troops in 1959 in Ladakh's Hot Spring area. On Police Commemoration Day 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the National Police Memorial (NPM) in New Delhi to the nation in recognition of the sacrifices made by police personnel since India's independence.

Sursagar Society of Dilli Gharana announced Grammy-winning Hindustani classical music instrumentalist Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt as the recipient of the annual Ustad Chand Khan Lifetime Achievement Award. The award will be given at the two-day Indian classical music festival scheduled to be held on October 21-22, 2018 and organized by Sursagar Society of Dilli Gharana. Mr. Bhatt is known for his Grammy award winning album "A Meeting by the River" with Ry Cooder.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro is the only domestic firm to be featured among the top 25 companies in the Forbes' global 2000 best employers list that is led by Google parent Alphabet. While L&T is ranked 22, there are only four domestic firms in the top 100 list which include Mahindra & Mahindra at 55, Grasim Industries at 59 and HDFC at 91, and only 24 domestic companies in the overall list,as per the US magazine. The Top 3 companies in the List are; 1. Alphabet, 2. Microsoft, 3. Apple.

The Uttar Pradesh government made the man-animal conflict a 'State Declared Disaster'. These incidents would be under the ambit of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF). According to the provisions of the order, a compensatory amount of Rs.5 lakh would be given to the family of the deceased if the victim of the animal attack dies. The disbursement of compensation for injury would be in accordance to SDRF guidelines.

BJP-ruled Himachal Pradesh government is considering a proposal to rename state capital Shimla to Shyamala. The demand was made by right-wing Hindu groups as part of efforts to remove symbols of British rule. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that his government will seek public opinion on the demand for Shimla's renaming. A Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) functionary claimed that Shyamala was the original name of Shimla city. State Health Minister Vipin Singh said that he feels that there would not be any harm in changing the name.

Japanese-born Marine biologist Osamu Shimomura, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, has died. He was 90. Shimomura and two American scientists shared the 2008 Nobel prize for the discovery and development of a jellyfish protein that contributed to cancer studies. Shimomura was born in Kyoto in 1928 and studied in Nagasaki, where he survived Aug. 9, 1945, U.S. atomic bombing. After earning chemistry degree in 1951, he moved to Princeton University, where he found the protein from 10,000 jellyfish samples on America's West Coast.

National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has signed a MoU with the Dubai Internet City (DIC)to help small and medium-sized Indian enterprises expand their operations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The MoU between NASSCOM and the Dubai Internet City DIC is the first of its kind in the MENA region. The MoU was signed by Ammar al-Malik, Managing Director of DIC and Dubai Outsource City (DOC) and Kamal Agarwala, SME Council Chair, NASSCOM. As per the MoU, DIC will give NASSCOM's, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) members opportunity to develop their operations by offering support and a platform to expand in the MENA region.

The need for equity infusion for State-owned carrier Air India came to an end after the government guaranteed to raise Rs 3,500 crore as loan. Air India has raised Rs 3,000 crore so far which includes Rs 1,000 crore to the airline from the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF) on behalf of the government. Another Rs 500 crore will be raised by the airline through a loan from the unused sovereign guarantee.

India for the first time announced a railway station named, the Keylong station, to be built inside a tunnel at a height of 3,000 metres in Himachal Pradesh. This will be built along the Bilaspur-Manali-Leh line close to the Sino-India border. The station will be at a height of around 3,000 metres and will be inside a 27-km-long tunnel. It will connect all important locations between Bilaspur and Leh like Sundernagar, Mandi, Manali, Keylong, Koksar, Darcha, Upshi and Karu and other towns of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

Angria, India's first luxury cruise ship, has been inaugurated at Mumbai. Union minister for shipping Nitin Gadkari and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis flagged-off the cruise which will operate between Mumbai and Goa. Named after the first Maratha Navy Admiral Kanhoji Angre and the Angria bank coral reef near Vijaydurg, the luxury ship has 104 rooms, divided into eight different categories. It can accommodate 399 passengers and will have 67 crew members including hospitality and marine crew.

The Breakthrough Prize Foundation announced the 9 recipients of the 2019 Breakthrough Prize On October 19, 2018. It will be held at the seventh annual Breakthrough Prize ceremony, known as the "Oscars of Science," hosted by Pierce Brosnan on November 4, at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. Vincent Lafforgue was conferred with 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics for ground breaking contributions to several areas of mathematics.

The 7th meeting of education ministers of member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was held in Astana, Kazakhstan. The meeting was organised with the assistance of: Government of Kazakhstan, Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan and Rector's Office of the University of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, (USCO) and the main (basic) universities of Kazakhstan, affiliated with USCO. Minister of Education and Science of Kazakhstan Yerlan Sagadiyev chaired the event. Implementation of the agreement between the governments of SCO member states on establishing and operating USCO was approved. It was agreed to conduct the 8th meeting of education ministers of SCO member states in the Russian Federation during the Russian Federation's presidency of SCO.

The National Solidarity day was observed in India on 20th October 2018. On October 20, 1962, China started the attacks on India and the Sino-Indian War started. National Solidarity Day is an annual reminder of fundamental unity. This day honours our Armed Forces who guard our extensive borders.

The 27th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2018) was held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. It aims to provide a forum for the discussion of key physics and technology issues as well as innovative concepts of direct relevance to the use of nuclear fusion as a source of energy.

State Bank of India is the first bank to introduce wealth business services for its customers. The wealth hub was launched by SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to attend the fourth edition of the NITI Lecture Series. The lecture is themed as "Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Inclusive Growth". In the lecture, the keynote address will be delivered by Jensen Huang, President and Co-founder of U.S.-based technology firm NVIDIA Corporation. NITI Aayog, the government think tank, said that the 2018 theme for the lecture series 'AI for All: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Inclusive Growth' is part of the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence. It aimed at evolving a robust ecosystem in India for AI research and adoption.

The National Commission for Women (NCW) launched a dedicated e-mail address to report instances of sexual harassment at workplace. The email address is: ncw.metoo@gmail.com. It was done after receiving formal written complaints from various women about instances of sexual harassment at their workplace.

A parliamentary panel will examine the functioning of retirement fund body Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), its coverage and recovery of arrears. The panel will be headed by BJP MP Kirit Somaiya. The panel has selected a wide range of subjects related to labourers, including the International Labour Organisation conventions binding on India and the measures taken by the government to implement them. Earlier, the panel had suggested that the EPFO should act as the sole regulator for all categories of provident funds, particularly private PF trusts.