Current Affairs - October 28, 2018 Current Affairs

Cricket Australia (CA) reappointed its controversial chairman David Peever for a span of another three years. Also, Kevin Roberts, who recently served as Cricket Australia's director, will officially take over from James Sutherland as the new CEO. Also CA announced an AUD 8.3 million surplus at the meeting with a spurt in the growth of women's cricket, with "six in every 10 new participants being female".

NATO's (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Trident Juncture 2018 military exercise began in Norway. This is NATO's biggest military exercise since the Cold War. Trident Juncture 2018, will be held till November 7, 2018. Nearly 50,000 personnel from all 29 NATO allies, partners Finland and Sweden, are taking part. Around 65 vessels, 150 aircraft and 10,000 vehicles are taking part. The drill will be conducted in central and eastern Norway, the North Atlantic and the Baltic Sea. It aims to train the Alliance to mobilise quickly to defend an ally under attack.

The central government announced the appointment of new Chief Justices for High Courts of Bombay, Calcutta, Uttarakhand, Gauhati and Sikkim. Calcutta High Court judge Justice D K Gupta has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court. Bombay High Court judge N H Patil has been appointed as the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court. Uttarakhand High Court judge V K Bist has been appointed has Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court. And Karnataka High Court judge Justice Ajjkuttira Somaiah Bopanna has been appointed as Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court.

According to a Lloyd's of London's report - A world at risk- Closing the insurance gap, India has the second largest insurance gap in the world of USD 27 billion (in absolute terms) after China. It was prepared by Lloyd's and Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). This report also includes all the latest non-life underinsurance and insurance penetration data for natural catastrophes for 43 countries across the globe. It was first published in 2012.

India has donated three lakh Dollars for a peacekeeping initiative at the UN. The UN Department of Field Support announced that the Indian government donated the amount for the 'Pipeline to Peacekeeping Command Programme' with a specific focus on issues of conduct and discipline over a period of three years.

According to a report named QS Asia University Rankings 2019 by Quacquarelli Symonds, India doubled their presence in the ranking. India has the third largest number of universities and institutes, after mainland China (112) and Japan (89). There are 40 new Indian institutions taking the total number to 75 at the top 500 list. But none made it to the top 20. IIT-Bombay remains the highest ranked institution. It moved one place to the 33rd position. National University of Singapore has been assessed as Asia's best university.

Jair Bolsonaro has won a sweeping victory in Brazil's presidential election. Mr. Bolsonaro won 55.2% of the votes cast against 44.8% for Fernando Haddad from the left-wing Workers' Party. Mr. Bolsonaro campaigned on a promise to eradicate corruption and to drive down Brazil's high crime levels. His campaign slogan was "Brazil above everything, God above everyone".

Two initiatives of India won the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management Award, 2018, at its Annual General Members Meet, in Georgetown, Guyana. The initiative named "Unnayan Banka" - Reinventing Education Using Technology, of Banka District of Bihar was awarded under the Category "Innovation Incubation". Another initiative named "Unified Agriculture Markets" of Co-operation Department of Karnataka was selected under the Category 'Innovation in Public Service Management'. This initiative also won the overall Gold Award for CAPAM Awards, 2018. Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions is an institutional member of CAPAM.

Engineers of Caltech (California Institute of Technology) in the US, led by Professor Ali Hajimiri, have developed a new optical gyroscope that is 500 times smaller than the current state-of-the-art device, still they can detect phase shifts that are 30 times smaller than those systems. A gyroscope is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. The new gyroscope has better performance due to a new technique called "reciprocal sensitivity enhancement".

According to the 7th edition 'Word Cooperative Monitor' report 2018, fertilizer major IFFCO has been ranked as the biggest cooperative in the world. It was published by: The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises (Euricse). IFFCO has been ranked based on the ratio of turnover over gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. In FY 2017-18, IFFCO a turnover of nearly USD 3 billion with a strength of nearly 36,000 member co-operatives.

M Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences announced collaboration between India and UK for research on different aspects of the Ganga delta region and the Bay of Bengal. This was announced on the sidelines of a programme launched by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The two countries are also collaborating in several areas of earth sciences and weather, like the monsoon. The studies includes; 1. The Ganga delta: Effects of the region on population, agriculture and environment. 2. The Bay of Bengal: Its effect on India in terms of resources and also has an impact on the Southwest Monsoon.

A United States Navy (USN) P-8A Poseidon, with 21 members, along with the Indian Navy's P-8i airplane participated in 2-day anti-submarine conflict exercises at INS Hansa at Panaji, Goa. This is the maiden visit of the P-8A Poseidon to INS Hansa. Both the P-8l and P-8A maritime reconnaissance airplane had been manufactured through Boeing. The maritime airplane have a range of 8300 kilometers and pace in excess of 900 kmph and are important for the Indian Navy to monitor the presence of submarines within the neighboring waters.

The 13th Annual Summit between India and Japan was held in presence of PM Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in Tokyo, Japan. Issues of mutual interest, including forging ties in newer areas were discussed during the talks. The areas include health, digital technologies, agriculture and food processing and disaster risk reduction. The two sides also reviewed the existing defence and security ties besides the ongoing infrastructure projects in India with Japanese involvement.

The Vigilance Awareness Week will be observed across the country from 29th October to 3 November to promote probity in public life and achieve a corruption-free society. The theme of the week this year is, 'Eradicate Corruption - Build A New India'. The observance of the week will commence with pledge taking by public servants in the Ministries, Departments, PSUs, Banks and all other Organisations. During the week, several functions will be organized to create awareness against corrupt practices.

World Day for Audiovisual Heritage was celebrated all over the world on 27th October. In 2005, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) General Conference declared October 27 as World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. This day creates awareness on the importance of audiovisual documents and the need to take urgent measures to transfer them to digital format to prevent their loss. The for World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2018 is "Your Story is Moving".