Current Affairs - October 26, 2020 Current Affairs

International Artist's Day on October 25th honors artists and all the contributions they make. The day also celebrates one of the most famous artists, Pablo Picasso. The Spanish artist was born on October 25th, 1881.

The policy think tank NITI Aayog has constituted a 14-member advisory committee to look into introducing reforms in the urban planning education system. The panel will be headed by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar.

The payments technology company MasterCard has partnered with Atlantis, a Singapore-based financial technology company, for the expansion of its Digital First Program in India. Under the Digital First Program, users will be able to use their cards/accounts for digital transactions within minutes of application, without the need to wait to receive a physical card.

Gujarat government has decided to set up the world's biggest zinc smelter project in Dosawada in Tapi district of Gujarat.

The 20th amendment of the Sri Lankan Constitution has expanded the powers of the President and also have increased the immunity of the President. Under the 20th amendment, the President gets the power to dissolve the parliament after two years and six months after being elected. It has weakened the powers of the prime minister.

In a first, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully touched on Bennu asteroid's surface to collect dust and pebbles on October 20, 2020. The collected particles will reach Earth by 2023.

On October 23, 2020, an Indian Army war memorial called the Joginder War Memorial was inaugurated at Bum La, Arunachal Pradesh. It was inaugurated by the Joginder Singh's daughter. He was awarded Param Vir Chakra posthumously. He joined the British Indian army in 1936. He served the first battalion of Sikh regiment. During the 1962 Sino Indian War, he was a commanding officer. He led his outnumbered Troops against the Chinese and defended his post till he was wounded and captured. He died in Chinese custody. He was honoured with the Param Vir Chakra for his bravery of handling 50 Chinese men alone.

In a major push imbued by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi's clarion call for the building of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, the Canteen Stores Department (CSD) which operates canteen facilities for the defence forces is set to ban all 'directly imported' items.

Israel and Sudan agreed on Friday to take steps to normalize relations in a deal brokered with the help of the United States, making Khartoum the third Arab government to set aside hostilities with Israel in the last two months.

The PM will launch the 'Kisan Suryodaya Yojana' for the Gujarat's farmers, inaugurate the Paediatric Heart Hospital attached with UN Mehta Institute of Cardiology and Research Centre and a mobile application for tele-cardiology at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.

Delhi Capitals (DC) batsman Shikhar Dhawan on October 20, 2020, became the first cricketer in the history of the Indian Premier League to score back-to-back centuries.

A Pakistan Army quadcopter was shot down along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir's Keran sector on Saturday. The Indian Army troops shot down the Pakistan Army quadcopter around 8 am along the Line of Control in the Keran sector.

India has been ranked 131 out of 138 countries in the global mobile internet speed rankings by Ookla, the US based company behind testing the speed and performance of the internet connection of a country. India was at 121 rank in 2019. The Ookla Speedtest Global Index shows the data as of September 2020.

Karnataka High Court has restrained Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund from winding up some of its debt funds without obtaining the consent of investors.

The ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has found that Mars is losing its atmosphere to outer space at faster rate as compared to that of the earth. The report comes based on the study conducted by MOM and the MAVEN orbiter of the US.