Current Affairs - November 1, 2018 Current Affairs

The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) of India had acquired IDFC Infrastructure Finance Limited (IDFC-IFL). IDFC-IFL is a non-banking finance company registered with the Reserve Bank of India as an infrastructure debt fund. The government had set up the NIIF in 2015 as an investment vehicle for funding greenfield, brownfield and stalled infrastructure projects.

Nineteen-time world champion Pankaj Advani has won the second leg of the Asian Snooker Tour in Jinan, China. Advani delivered a power-packed performance to outclass China's Ju Reti 6-1 in the final and become the first Indian to win an Asian Snooker Tour event.

China has launched an 'Oceanography Satellite' on 29th October 2018. The 'China-France Oceanography Satellite' (CFOSAT) is the first satellite jointly built by China and France. The satellite will help scientists to predict dangerous cyclones and climate change by monitoring ocean surface winds and waves.

The two frigates of the Project 11356 class will be bought directly from Russia and 2 more will be built in an Indian Shipyard. The two ships to be brought from Russia are expected to be delivered by 2022 and have been designed to work with Ukraine-made gas turbines. These are under a '2+2' scheme which was under the works since 2015.

The 1st edition of North East Olympic Games 2018 was held at Main Stadium Khuman Lampak Sports Complex, in Imphal, Manipur. Manipur was crowned as the overall champions. Manipur won 159 medals: 80 Gold, 48 Silver and 31 Bronze. Assam came second with 140 medals: 46 Gold, 53 Silver and 41 Bronze. Arunachal Pradesh finished third with 76 medals: 18 Gold, 20 Silver and 38 Bronze. The games included 12 disciplines: Athletics, Archery, Badminton, Boxing, Football, Judo, Karate-Do, Shooting, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Weightlifting and Wushu.

October 31 is celebrated as World Cities Day. The theme for World Cities Day 31 October 2018 is Building Sustainable and Resilient Cities and the Global Observation will be celebrated in Liverpool, United Kingdom.

National women's emergency helpline facility is to be launched in India. Women in distress can call helpline 181. Women can get assistance for any situations such as police, medical, legal, psycho-social or rescue shelter emergency. In Tamil Nadu, the 1091 helpline is functioning in providing assistance for women. It provides police assistance to women in distress. However, for 24x7 service, 181 helplines, under the Department of Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal Programme, will provide all types of assistance and information to women. The helpline will function from the Amma Call Centre premises in Ambattur.

The main aim is to increase the use of solar energy for helping farmers in irrigation. It is a dug well based solar pump irrigation system in convergence mode. The total cost of the scheme allocated by the state government is Rs. 27.18 crore in the 2018-19 financial year. Under this scheme, 5,000 solar pumps will be provided to farmers at a subsidy of 90 percent to irrigate 2,500 acres of land. The Chief Minister distributed four go-ahead orders for installation of solar pump to the farmers.

The 'Food Value Chain' will be developed by: UP government and Japan's agriculture, forestry and fisheries department.

India's Vishal Rajveer Shah won gold and Raegan Alburquerque won silver in the 2018 Egypt Junior & Cadet Open table tennis tournament, held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, from 24th to 28th October 2018. India's Vishal Rajveer Shah defeated Mostafa 11-6, 11-6, 11-7 and bagged gold medal and won the mini cadet boys singles' title.

Lewis Hamilton won the Formula One drivers' world championship 2018. This is his 5th driver's world championship and he equaled Juan Manuel Fangio's Formula One record. Max Verstappen won the Mexican Grand Prix, in Mexico. Lewis Hamilton finished in the 4th position in the Mexican Grand Prix. This is the 3rd time he has won the drivers' world championship title without finishing on the race podium. He has already won the drivers' world championship in 2008, 2014, 2015 and 2017.

Entrepreneurship scheme Samruddhi launched in Karnataka. The main objective is to impart skill development and benefit aspiring, young citizens from rural and tier II cities. The scheme, targeted at socially marginalized communities to provide them with skill development and alternate means of employment has a total cost of Rs.800 crore. For this, the government is partnering with private enterprises to train the youth from backward communities. The training will include retail management, taxation policies, and GST, inventory management, soft skills, and logistics. To create industry owned private enterprise, the State government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with 30 retail companies.

India improved its ranking on the World Bank's 'ease of doing business' report for the second straight year, jumping 23 places to the 77th position on the back of reforms related to insolvency, taxation and other areas. New Zealand tops the list of 190 countries in ease of doing business, followed by Singapore, Denmark, and Hong Kong. The United States is placed eight and China has been ranked 46th. Neighbouring Pakistan is placed at 136.

In Men's Hockey, India and Pakistan were declared joint winners of the 5th edition of Asian Champions Trophy 2018 at Muscat in Oman on October 28, after the final was abandoned due to bad weather conditions. Meanwhile, Malaysia finished at the 3rd place after defeating Japan 3-2 in the penalty shootouts in the bronze medal match. India remained the only undefeated team in the tournament. Before this edition, both India and Pakistan had won the tournament twice each. Faizal Saari from Malaysia was the top scorer of the tournament with 8 Goals. From India, Akashdeep Singh and P. R. Sreejesh were declared the Best Player and Best Goal Keeper of the tournament, respectively.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved the re-appointment of Aditya Puri as Managing Director of the HDFC bank for another two years. Aditya Puri has been with the bank since 1994, making him the longest-serving head of any private bank in the country. Shareholders had already approved his appointment in 2015 for five years subject to the RBI's approval.

The 2018 Isle of Man Chess Tournament was held at the Villa Marina, Douglas, in Isle of Man. Grandmaster B Adhiban from India beat Michael Adams of England in the ninth and final round, and finished tied third with 6.5 points. He was the best performing Indian at the tournament. Poland's Radoslav Wojtaszek is the winner of the event. Total prize money of the tournament was 133000 Pounds Sterling. India's Vishwanathan Anand ended the final round with a draw against Wang Hao and finished with 6 points.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe has become the closest spacecraft to Sun, on 29th October 2018. The spacecraft passed the current record of 26.55 million miles from the Sun's surface on October 29, as calculated by the Parker Solar Probe team. The previous record for closest solar approach was set by the German-American Helios 2 spacecraft in April 1976.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the renaming of Jharsuguda Airport, Odisha as "Veer Surendra Sai Airport, Jharsuguda". Veer Surendra Sai is a well-known freedom fighter of Odisha. Renaming of the Jharsuguda airport in his name will fulfill the long-pending demand of the Odisha Government, which reflects the sentiments of the local public of the respective area.