Current Affairs - November 3, 2019 Current Affairs

Google has bought Fitbit, a company that makes fitness bands and smart watches. The company has paid $2.1 billion for the smart watch maker.

Six-time world champion Mary Kom has been announced to be included in the Ambassador Group at the Olympics 2020. Mary Kom will represent the Asian bloc in the group.

For the first time in India, a team of International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad has prepared an Indian Brain Atlas. It has been found that the brain size of Indian people is smaller than the people of western countries.

Russia has successfully test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile from its latest nuclear-powered submarine, the country's defence ministry says. The Bulava ICBM can be armed with six to ten warheads per missile and has a range of some 8,300 km. It is specifically designed to evade western anti-missile defences.

66 cities were designated by UNESCO as Creative Cities. The cities are named creative based on their mission to place creativity and creative economy at the core of their urban development to make their city safe, inclusive, resilient and sustainable in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goal from India, Hyderabad and Mumbai were included in the list of Creative Cities this year.

Sanjeev Nandan Sahai has assumed charge as Secretary of the Ministry of Power. He is a UT cadre IAS officer of 1986 batch. He has also served as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Power from May 2018 to July 2019.

ICICI Lombard has entered into a strategic tie-up with Karur Vysya Bank for selling insurance products. Through this collaboration, ICICI Lombard aims to offer innovative insurance solutions to 8 million customers of the bank spread across its 779 branches.

Indian actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui has been awarded the prestigious Golden Dragon Award for his works in Hindi cinema at the Cardiff International Film Festival (CIFF) 2019.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi is collaborating with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to set up a space technology cell at the campus. The cell will work for carrying out focused research projects in the space technology domain with specific deliverables.

GST collection rose to Rs 95,380 crore in October against Rs 91,916 crore in September, but it was still 5.29 per cent less in comparison to Rs 1 lakh crore collected in the same month last year. Tax Collection in October (Rs Crore) is as follows:
CGST: 17,582
SGST: 23,674
IGST: 46,517
Cess: 7,607

New technology, blockchain-based carbon trading exchange has been launched in Singapore. This will enable airlines and other corporate buyers to buy and sell tokens approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization and supported by carbon offset credits.

Telecom regulator TRAI fixes phone call ring time at 30 sec for mobiles and 60 sec for landline phones. TRAI has mandated the terminating network to disconnect the incoming call after the minimum ring span and simultaneously inform the originating network.

Arif Mohammad Khan is an Indian politician. He is a former cabinet minister in the union of India and is currently serving as the Governor of Kerala. He has held several portfolios ranging from energy to civil aviation.

India will conduct its first ever military exercise with Uzbekistan in a 10-day session on counter terrorism tactics. The exercise will be held at Chirchiq Training Area, Uzbekistan between November 4 and November 13, 2019.

A public health emergency has been declared in Delhi as exceptionally high levels of air pollution choked the city for a third consecutive day, leading authorities to close all schools until 5 November. The overall air quality index was shocking 484.

The 1st phase of excavation by a team of Archaeological Survey of India's Excavation Branch - VI, Bangalore at Gottiprolu near Naidupeta in Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh has discovered the remains of a huge settlement surrounded by a massive brick .

EPFO launched a facility for formal sector workers to obtain universal account number online without depending on employers. Any worker can obtain UAN directly on EPFO website which enrolls them for PF, pension and life insurance benefits and a worker will not have to depend on his or her employer for getting the UAN.

Veteran leader of Communist Party of India (CPI) and former MP Gurudas Dasgupta passed away at the age of 83. He was elected as a member of Rajya Sabha three times and as a MP twice in his political career.

The Election Commission announced that Assembly elections in Jharkhand will be held in five phases, beginning November 30, and the results will be announced on December 23.