Current Affairs - November 5, 2020 Current Affairs

As a part of Mission Sagar-II, the Indian Naval Ship (INS) Airavat has reached Sudan with 100 tonnes of food aid. Under Mission Sagar-II, INS Airavat will deliver food aid to Sudan, South Sudan, Djibouti and Eritrea amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The government of India has launched this initiative to provide assistance to friendly foreign countries to overcome natural calamities and COVID-19 pandemic.

Former Chief Minister and Socialist of Bihar, Satish Prasad Singh passed away. He was born on January 1, 1936, in Korchakka(now known as Satish Nagar) Village, Khagaria district, Bihar.

The US State Department approved the sale of four sophisticated armed drones to Taiwan on November 3, 2020. This is the latest approval in a series of arms transfer to the island nation.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the acquisition of General Insurance Business of Bharti AXA General Insurance Company Limited (Bharti AXA) by ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited (ICICI Lombard) under Section 31(1) of the Competition Act, 2002.

Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. (IREDA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India setting key targets for the year 2020-21. The MOU was signed by Shri Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi, Secretary, MNRE and Shri Pradip Kumar Das, Chairman & Managing Director, IREDA today in the presence of senior officials from MNRE & IREDA.

Ganga Utsav-2020 has been organised by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) jointly with the Ministry of Jal Shakti. The three-day-long Ganga Utsav-2020 has been organised from 02 to 04 November 2020, virtually amidst COVID-19 precautions.

Nearly a third of the 100 cities in the world susceptible to 'water risk' - defined as losses from battling droughts to flooding - are in India, according to the WWF Water Risk Filter. This is an online tool, co-developed by the World-wide Fund for Nature that helps evaluate the severity of risk places faced by graphically illustrating various factors that can contribute to water risk.

The Chief Minister of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal has laid the foundation stone of Indo-Israeli Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Vegetables Protected Cultivation at Khetri on the outskirts of Guwahati. The Indo-Israeli Centre of Excellence for Vegetables Protected Cultivation is estimated to be set up at an investment of Rs 10.33 Crore.

The Navies of India, the US, Japan and Australia began the four-day-long phase first of the Malabar naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal. From the Indian side, destroyer Ranvijay, frigate Shivalik, off-shore patrol vessel Sukanya, fleet support ship Shakti and submarine Sindhuraj will be part of the drill. US Navy Ship USS John S McCain (Guided-missile destroyer), Australian Navy Ship HMAS Ballarat (long-range frigate) and Japan Maritime Self Defence Ship (JMSDF) Ship JS Onami (destroyer) are participating along with Indian Navy units.

HDFC Bank Ltd. has been voted 'Most Outstanding Company - Financial Sector' in India, in a poll conducted by the well-known publication Asiamoney. Over 824 fund managers, buy-side analysts, bankers and research analysts voted across 12 markets in Asia. More than 4,000 votes were received for publicly listed companies. Asiamoney asks participants in the poll to consider the company's overall performance including its financials, management team, IR activities and CSR initiatives.

The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) on October 28 announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with trusted global non-profit education platform edX in order to offer its Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

The Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde and Justice DY Chandrachud of the Supreme Court, jointly inaugurated India's first-ever E-resource centre and the virtual court called "Nyay Kaushal" at Judicial Officers Training Institute in Nagpur.

As part of 'Mission Sagar-II', Indian Naval Ship Airavat carrying a consignment of 100 Tonnes of food aid arrived in Sudan today. Under the mission, the Indian government is providing assistance to friendly foreign countries to overcome natural calamities and the coronavirus pandemic.

Portugal MP, Duarte Pacheco has won the elections for the post the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). The term of the Duarte Pacheco will be from 2020-2023. He will be the 30th President of the IPU and will succeed Mexican MP Gabriela Cuevas Barron who completed the tenure in October 2020.

Noted actor, filmmaker and voiceover artiste, Ashish Kakkad, has passed away. He was one of the most prominent artists from the Gujarati film industry. As a filmmaker, Ashish was known for his Gujarati projects namely Better Half (2010) and Mission Mummy (2016).

Indian-origin New Zealand politician, Priyanca Radhakrishnan has created history by becoming the first Indian-Kiwi woman to become a minister in New Zealand. Radhakrishnan was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

West Indies batsman, Marlon Samuels has announced his retirement from professional cricket. The 39-year-old had informed Cricket West Indies (CWI) about his retirement in June this year, having last played for his country in December 2018 against Bangladesh. He has played 71 Tests, 207 ODIs, and 67 T20s at the international level, has scored 11,134 international runs including 17 centuries across all formats. He also has 152 international wickets to his name.

Maharashtra government on Monday inked MoUs worth around Rs 35,000 crore with 15 companies even as Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray called for attracting over Rs 1 lakh crore investments this year to the state. Thackeray made the remarks during the Magnetic Maharashtra 2.0 event, which seeks to mobilise investments in the state, held here.The MoUs worth Rs 34,850 crore were signed between the state-run Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and the 15 companies and they are expected to create 23,182 jobs, a statement said.

Noted violin maestro and Padma awardee, TN Krishnan passed away. His full name was Tripunithura Narayanaiyer Krishnan. He was born on 6 October 1928, in Tripunithura, Kerala and later around 1942, he settled in Chennai. He was conferred with many prestigious awards such as the Padma Shri (1973), the Padma Bhushan (1992) and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1974) among others.

Aegon Life Insurance has announced the launch of 'Life + 36 critical illness Insurance' on Flipkart at the starting premium of just Rs. 153 for a life cover of Rs 1 lakh plus Critical Illness cover of Rs.10,000. This means that the policyholder gets the benefit of life protection along with a lump sum pay-out on the diagnosis of any of the 36 critical illnesses. This plan provides one with comprehensive insurance cover against COVID-19, that can be availed on the Flipkart app instantly along with the base life insurance plan.