. NEWS BULLETIN―35 Week-1, Oct 2019

NATIONAL

The National Security Guard

(NSG), responsible for conducting

counter-terrorist and counter-

hijack operations, has proposed to

create a regional hub at

Amritsar to “bolster reaction

capability” in North India.

―According to the proposal, the

prevalent security environment

coupled with vast geographical

spread of the country necessitated

enhanced footprints of NSG to execute its assigned tasks.

― The Khalistani movement may lead to a Terrorist Initiated

Incident requiring immediate response.

―The revered holy site of Golden Temple presents a lucrative

target for anti-national elements to reap disproportional

dividends from any terrorist incident on the premises.

―The location also provides ideal conditions for execution of

NSG operations owing to presence of an operational

international airport (to enable airlift) and adequate lines of

communication in the close proximity.

―Amritsar International Airport is one of the 12 designated

airports for hijack situation in the country,” the document further

states.

―Amritsar is a major Cantt township of Punjab in close

proximity of international boundary and home to several field

formations of Indian Army and certain units of IAF.

―Around 140 acres of land will be needed for creating thee hub.

―The hub will have manpower similar to that of existing

regional hubs of NSG.

―The new hub will have equipment according to existing

policy. Specific projections for weapon, equipment and vehicles

would be mentioned in a detailed proposal. These components

would be based on the Regional Hub Gandhinagar (Gujarat)

Model.

―Additional expenditure would also be made towards setting

up of infrastructure and manpower increment of a training centre

at Manesar.

According to a new

climate report by

Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate Change (IPCC), the occurrence of

extreme El Nino and La

Nina events in the Pacific

Ocean will increase in

future which could result

in more intense wet or dry

periods in India.

― The report, The Special Report on the Ocean and

Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, is the culmination of the

series of three reports on climate change prepared by the IPCC.

―The report highlights the effect of climate change on oceans

and snow-covered land areas.

―As per the report, global average sea-level rose by 16 cm

between 1902 and 2015; in the later period the rate of increase

doubled.

―Between 2006 and 2015, global average sea level rose 3.6 mm

annually, more than double of 1.4 mm annually recorded in the

first 90-year.

―Between 2006 and 2015, Greenland lost ice-mass at an

average rate of 278 billion tonnes annually, resulting in a sea-

level rise of 0.8 mm annually.

―Between 2006 and 2015, Antarctica lost ice-mass of 155

billion tonnes on an average annually.

―Glaciers in the Himalayas lost an average of 220 billion

tonnes of ice annually.

―Sea-level rise is not uniform and differs regionally. Regional

variations, within 30 per cent of global mean sea-level rise,

result from land ice loss and variations in ocean warming and

circulation.

―Shrinking has led to negative impacts on food security, water

resources, water quality, livelihoods, health and well-being,

infrastructure, transportation, tourism and recreation, as well as

culture of human societies, particularly for Indigenous peoples.

―El Nino is a phenomenon of abnormal sea-surface warming

in certain areas of equatorial Pacific Ocean, La Nina is the

opposite phenomenon, an abnormal cooling of sea-surface.

The National

Commission for Women

(NCW) carried out

inspections at

rehabilitative homes for

women and found them

lacking in security, good

hygienic living conditions

and skill development

programmes.

―The NCW carried out inspections in 35 ‘Swadhar Grehs’

that give temporary shelter to women needing institutional

support for rehabilitation.

―The NCW visited the ‘Swadhar Grehs’ in Karnataka, Madhya

Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal

and submitted its report to the Women and Child Development

Ministry. The Commission found that

--Girls below 18 years, women over 60 years and mentally

challenged women were all kept together and they did not have

separate facilities.

--The Swadhar Grehs lacked provision for counselling, legal

aid, skill development or vocational training, hygienic living

condition, proper security etc.

―The NCW has observed that the entire ‘Swadhar Greh’

scheme needs to be “relooked and remodelled” and the

credibility of the NGOs taking care of these homes also needs

cross-checked.

The Union Home Ministry has announced that for the first

time in Indian history, the data for the Census (Census 2021)

will be collected through mobile apps.

All copyrights to this material vests with IMS Learning Resources Pvt Ltd. No part of this material either in part or as a whole shall be copied,

reprinted, reproduced, sold, distributed or transmitted in any form in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

recording or otherwise, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without the permission of IMS Learning Resources Pvt Ltd., and any

such violation would entail initiation of suitable legal proceedings.

―According to the announcement, individuals collecting door-

to-door data from people will be encouraged to use their own

mobile phones and the mobile app. ―Along with 2021 census data,

the data for the preparation of the

National Population Register (NPR) will also be collected.

―National Population Register is

a version of the National Register

of Citizens (NRC) being prepared

by Assam.

―More than 33 lakh enumerators

are expected to go door-to-door

for collecting census data.

―The data collection for 2021 Census will be done in 16

languages.

―Census 2021 will cost exchequers an amount of Rs 12,000

crores.

―Census 2021 will be the 16th Census of India (8th census of

independent India). ―The first Indian census was done in 1865.

―The Census 2021 will be conducted in two phases.

LAW

European Union’s Highest Court, the Court of Justice

has held that Google need not apply for the “Right to the

forgotten law” globally.

―The Court of Justice has said that there was no obligation on

Google to ensure that the de-referencing under question (i.e.

removal of the data links to personal data) is carried out on all

versions of its search results.

―For Google this comes as a reprieve, as the giant will only

have to remove the data links to personal information only in its

European version of search results, rather than throughout the

world.

―Google had been uncomfortable with EU overreaching i.e. go

beyond its jurisdiction.

―French Administrative Regulatory Body Commission

Nationale de l'informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) had filed an

1,00,000 Euro case against Google claiming that Google was not

de-listing sensitive information globally.

―The sensitive information in question included:

--Satirical photo montage involving a female politician.

--Articles related to the public relations officers of the Church

of Scientology.

―Google approached the European Court of Justice and argued

that the scope of European “Right to be forgotten” Act cannot

be extended beyond the European borders.

―The “Right to be Forgotten” was enacted by the European

Court, general public could request the search engines like

Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. to remove sensitive information

regarding them.

―Since 2014, Google alone has received more than 8,45,501

million removal requests and it has accepted almost 45% of

these requests.

Currently, India has 389 districts which have more than 100

pending child abuse cases each.

―The Union Law Ministry has proposed establishing of a Fast

Track Special Court (FTSC) in each of these districts for

dealing with the child abuse cases.

―The central Government has planned to establish a total of

1,023 fast-track special courts across India for expeditious trial

of over 1.66 lakh pending cases of crime against women and

children.

―389 of these 1,023 special courts will be established

exclusively for handling cases under the Protection of Children

from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, as directed by the

Supreme Court of India

―The rest of the 634 special courts will either deal with rape

cases or with both rape and POSCO Act cases, as per the need.

―The Law Ministry expects each of the fast track special court

to dispose a minimum of 165 such cases annually.

―The establishment of these courts is expected to start from

October 2.

The Supreme Court of India has recently ruled that “the

right of minority institutions is not absolute, and is amenable to

regulation”.

―The ruling has come in a case challenging the rules framed by

the Andhra Pradesh government for:

--Making SSC/Transfer Certificate the basis for a candidate’s

claim of minority status for admission to BEd courses.

--Requiting minority institutions to allot vacant seats under

management quota to non-minority students on merit.

―The petitioners were challenging these rules claiming them to

be violative of rights of minority educational institutions under

Article 30(1) of the Constitution.

―The Supreme Court held that the criteria rule was only for the

purpose of determining the minority status of the candidates for

admission to the B. Ed Course and did not restrict an

individual’s choice of religion.

STATES

A team of researchers from Harvard University and World

Bank will study the impact of the Delhi government’s scheme

to provide free travel to women in public transport buses. The

Harvard University in collaboration with the Dialogue and

Development Commission (DDC) of Delhi will study the

impact of the scheme.

―The plan of allowing free travel to women in over 5,500

public transport buses in Delhi will come into force from

October 29. ― As per the research team, this is a unique and large-scale

policy and hence a valuable opportunity to better understand

factors that improve mobility and safety for women.

―This is a first of its kind policy experiment in the world and

could have implications for Indian cities as well as other

countries.

― The research design will use primary data collected from a

sample of approximately 800 women living across Delhi.

― The data will include a travel diary and questions on observed

and experienced incidents related to women safety in public

transport.

The Gujarat High Court has rejected former IPS officer

Sanjiv Bhatt and retired police officer Pravinsinh Zala’s applications, seeking suspension of their sentence in a 1990

custodial death case. ― A Jamnagar sessions court sentenced

the two to life imprisonment under charges of murder (IPC

Section 302), in June this year.

― Bhatt as an additional superintendent of police of Jamnagar

district arrested 133 persons for allegedly indulging in rioting

during a nationwide bandh by the Bharatiya Janata Party

(BJP) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).

― Prabhudas (40) and his youngest brother Rameshchandra,

among the arrested, were admitted to hospital following renal

problems and old Prabhudas died on November 18, 1990. The

Jamnagar court convicted Bhatt on the basis of evidence that

said renal failure and cardiac arrest were caused as a result of

internal injuries sustained due to “police torture”.

― Bhatt’s lawyer contended in the court that there was no

medical evidence connecting the death to injury. He said, “The

trial was vitiated and the court failed in its duty to find out the

truth.”

― The lawyer also said that the investigating officers who

recorded statements of witnesses at the time were not examined

by the prosecution.

The Andhra Pradesh government will give monetary

support to landless and tenant farmers under the YSR Rythu

Bharosa scheme to be launched on October 15.

― Under the scheme, 15.36 lakh tenant farmers will each

receive Rs 12,500 per annum as farm investment support.

―The Government will include tenant farmers in scheme as

they are excluded from the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman

Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme.

―47.7 lakh farmers, who own five acres or less will get Rs

6,500 as farm investment support from the government. It will

add to Rs 6000 received from the central government to make it

Rs. 12000. Narendra Modi will launch the scheme at Amaravati.

―The scheme is modelled on Telangana’s ‘Rythu Bandhu’

scheme which provides landowners Rs 10,000 per acre.

―64.06 farmers in Andhra Pradesh, both landowners and

tenants, are eligible for the YSR Rythu Bharosa scheme.

― The Andhra Pradesh government has set aside Rs 8,750 crore

for the scheme.

― The government will also bear the expenses of crop insurance

premiums for nearly 60 lakh farmers for which an allocation of

Rs 2,163 crore has been announced.

Gujarat has become the first Indian State to launch the

‘Emissions Trading Scheme’.

―The Gujarat government claims it to be the first trading

scheme in the world for Particulate Matter (PM) emissions.

―According to the Gujarat government, emission trading

schemes exist in many countries of the world, but none of them

covers PM. The ‘Emissions Trading Scheme’ was launched at

Surat, Gujrat.

―Emissions Trading Schemes are schemes used for controlling

pollution in particular regions. In these schemes:

Overall pollution limits are fixed region, area, industry and/or

facility wise.

Different entities under the scheme are allowed to trade these

limits i.e. Company X has a quota of 10 tons CO2 emissions.

It uses 5 tonne and sell the rest to Company Y. The company

Y which had a quota of 10 tons can now release up to 15 tons

of CO2 in the atmosphere.

―Under the scheme the Gujarat Pollution Control Board

(GPCB) has set emission limits for all the industries in the

country.

―The different industries in the state will be able to conduct

trade in these limits.

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

The government will appoint international consultants to

help in the sale of excess land holdings held by state-run

enterprises.

― Niti Aayog will carry out the process with the help of the

Finance Ministry’s Department of Investment and Public

Asset Management (DIPAM) and it will be a big source of

revenue in the next two years.

― The Niti Aayog will prepare a list of excess land or non-crore

holdings held by the enterprises consulting the administrative

ministry under which the company falls, the DIPAM and also

the state government under which the land falls.

― The land parcels will be grouped into three categories – clear

title, one with non-clarity and also facing hurdles like litigations.

The task force on direct tax code (DTC) has recommended to

do away with dividend distribution tax (DDT) in order to

promote investment.

―The dividend distribution tax hinders foreign direct

investment inflows, sources said.

―Dividends paid by a domestic company are taxable at 15 per

cent of the aggregate dividend declared, distributed or paid. The

effective rate is 20.35 per cent, including a 12 per cent surcharge

and a 3 per cent education cess.

―The task force has also suggested reducing personal income

tax rates to provide relief to the middle class. The task force on

the new Direct Tax Code, which seeks to replace the existing

Income Tax Act, submitted its report last month.

―In the biggest reduction in 28

years, the government recently

slashed corporate tax by almost

10 percentage points.

The Government of India has

approved proposals worth Rs

4,998 crores under the Prime

Minister Awas Yojana (Urban).

―These projects will lead to construction of 1.23 lakh houses.

These proposals have been submitted by ten participating states.

―Out of these states, West Bengal has the largest proposal for

construction of 27,746 houses. West Bengal is followed by

Tamil Nadu with 26,709 houses and Gujarat with 20,903.

―Other states whose projects under the scheme have been

cleared include Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya

Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand

―The Government set a target of constructing 1.12 crore houses

during 2015-22. The Government has sanctioned around 90

lakhs under the scheme till now. The Government has completed

the construction of 27 lakh houses till now.

―The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

(MoHUA) has reiterated that the Government is making all the

required efforts to ensure the completion of the “Housing for

All” scheme by 2022.

DEFENCE & SECURITY

The Punjab Police has recovered a Pakistani drone in

Mahawa village near the Attari border.

―The drone was being used for airdropping arms and

ammunition in border areas of Punjab.

―This is the second incident of a drone being captured within a

week. Balwant Singh alias Nihang, Akashdeep Singh alias

Akash Randhawa, Harbhajan Singh and Balbir Singh were

arrested from near Chohla Sahib village in Tarn Taran.

―The information regarding the drone was given by one of

these four. These four are allegedly part of the terrorist module

of the revived Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF).

―KZF is allegedly getting support from Pakistan and Germany

based terror groups. The police have recovered arms and

ammunitions from these four arrested individuals

An Indian Army helicopter crashed near the Yonphula

Airport in Bhutan. Two pilots of the helicopter are reported

dead. The Cheetah Helicopter of the Indian Military Training

Team (IMTRAT) was being piloted by one Indian and one

Royal Bhutanese Army pilots. Foggy weather is the most likely

reason for the crash.

―The crashed helicopter was going from Khrimu, Arunachal

Pradesh to Yonphula, Bhutan.

The Indian Coast Guard offshore patrol vessel ‘Varsha’

has been commissioned.

―The commissioning was done by the Indian Defence Minister

Rajnath Singh at the Chennai Post Trust.

VARSHA - the offshore patrol vessel of Indian Coast Guard

―Varsha has been placed under the administrative and

operational control of the Commander Coast Guard region

(west).

―Varsha will be based at the New Mangalore and will patrol

the area from New Mangalore to Kanyamumari.

―Varsha is expected to help Indian Coast Guards in better

responding to threats like terrorism, smuggling, maritime

enforcement etc.

―The other details of Varsha are as under:

Varsha is the fourth of the seven 90-m Offshore Patrol Vessels

being constructed for the Indian Coast Guards.

Varsha was designed and build by Larsen & Toubro (L&T)

at its Katupalli ship building yard in North Chennai.

Varsha can carry one twin engine helicopter

Varsha can carry maximum of 4 high speed boats.

Varsha will be equipped with a 33-millimetre and a 12.7-

millimetre gun.

Varsha is equipped with Automated Power Management

System and a Halo Traversing System.

POLICY AND GOVT. INITIATIVES

The Union Home Ministry has launched the ‘Private

Security Agency Licensing Portal’. This portal will provide

single-window services to help private security agencies in

obtaining licensing.

―The portal has been developed to make licensing process

under the Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act, 2005

easy. Within a period of three months, the portal will be made

available in 22 languages of India. The portal will make the

licensing process and details transparent. The portal will make

it easy for the registered agencies to operate in more than one

state. All the police stations in India are online. This means that

the portal will make the verification of the criminal records of

the security guards very easy. Getting licences will help private

security agencies in gaining credibility.

The Union Ministry for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare

has launched the ‘Krishi Kisan’ mobile app.

―The Krishi Kisan app will help provide farmers with the

following information:

Information related to demonstrations of new farm

technologies.

Information related to seed hubs

Information related to weather (weather advisories).

―This app will also help in geo-fencing and geo-tagging of

crop. App will also try to provide farm level weather advisory

on pilot basis to the

following four districts of

India:

Bhopal (Madhya

Pradesh)

Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh)

Rajkot (Gujarat)

Nanded (Maharashtra)

―The mobile app is

available on Android

phones and can be

downloaded for the Google Play store.

SPORTS

Sumit Nagal (India) clinched

the ATP Buenos Aires

Challanger 2019 deafeating

Facundo Bagnis (Argentina)

[6―4, 6―2] on Sep 29, 2019.

He became the first Indian to

win a tournament in South

America.

―Sumit Nagal is 2015

Wimbledon boy’s doubles title

winner and was only the 6th

Indian tennis player to win a

junior Grand Slam title.

―He had another claim to

fame in 2019, when he

qualified in US Open 2019 and played against Roger Federer in

the first round. In that match, he won the first set but lost the

game but impressed against Federer. Federer won in 4 sets

[4―6, 6―1, 6―2, 6―4].

The 2019 IAAF

World Athletics

Championships is the

seventeenth edition of

the biennial, global

athletics competition

organized by the

International

Association of Athletics Federations. It is held between 27

September and 6 October 2019 in Doha, Qatar at the renovated

multi-purpose Khalifa International Stadium.

―Team India participated in the following events:

Men:

Track and Road Events―1500m, Marathon, 400m hurdles,

3000m steeplechase, 20km walk and 4 x 400m relay.

Field Events―Javelin thorw; Long jump; and Shot put.

Women:

Track and Road Events―100m, 200 m, 400 m, 1500m, and 4 x

400 m relay.

Field Events―Javelin thorw

Mixed:

Track and Road Events―4 x 400 m relay.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

The Russia has formally accepted the 2015 Paris agreement

on Climate Change.

―This acceptance means that now Russia will allocate finance

to developing countries for preventing climate change and for

preparing them for adoption to climate change.

Krishi Kisan Mobile App launched by Government of India

Sumit Nagal wins ATP Buenos Aires 2019

―Russia was one of the signees of the Paris Agreement in 2016,

but it had not accepted the obligations under the Paris

Agreement.

―As of now there are 11 countries which have not yet signed or

formally rectified the Paris Agreement. These Countries are:

Iran Oman Yemen

Angola Iraq Kyrgyzstan

Lebanon Libya South Sudan

Suriname Eritrea.

―The Paris Agreement was originally signed in 2016.

―The Paris Agreement was signed under the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

―The Paris Agreement mainly deals with three aspects:

The mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.

Adapting to Climate Change

Finance related to mitigation and adaption to Climate Change.

―Russia is the fourth largest emitter of the greenhouse gases in

the world. The British Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, has

ruled that the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has broken

law by suspending the British Parliament.

―The court said that the suspension of Parliament was not taken

place formally, and as such the Parliament could resume its

functioning.

―The court also held that Boris provided improper advice to the

Queen Elizabeth II when he sought her permission to shutter

Parliament for five weeks.

―The court said that based on the evidence produced before it,

it could not find any reason for the suspension of the Parliament.

―Boris and the Parliament are opposing each other. Boris wants

Britain to exit European Union on October 31, even if there is

absence of a divorce deal.

―The Parliament on the other hand has passed a law asking for

extension if there is absence of a divorce deal.

Prime Minister of

Bangladesh Sheikh

Hasina has been

conferred with

prestigious ‘Vaccine

Hero’ award of Global

Alliance for

Vaccination and Immunisations (GAVI).

―Sheikh Hasina has been given this award in recognition of

Bangladesh’s outstanding success in vaccination to immunise

children.

―The Award was conferred on Sheikh Hasina at United

Nations Headquarters in New York on the side lines of 74th

session of UN General Assembly (UNGA).

―Bangladesh has set a target of ‘vaccination for all’ by 2030.

―Bangladesh has received GAVI Alliance awards previously

in 2009 and 2012 for its outstanding performance in improving

child immunization status.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Facebook has announced its decision to acquire CTRL –

Labs. The valuation of the deal is expected to be something

between USD 500 million to USD 1 billion.

―CTRL–Labs is a technological company founded by Patrick

Kaifosh (Neuro Scientist) and Thomas Reardon (Internet

Explorer). CTRL–Labs is a start-up exploring methods of

guiding computers without using hands. CTRL–Labs has

created wrist bands for this purpose.

―These bands capture the electrical signals from the brain and

send them to the computers in digital formats.

―This acquisition is part of Facebook’s Building 8 initiative.

―Building 8 initiative is a secretive research group of Facebook

which is working on non-invasive sensors for helping people to

communicate.

―Building 8 has target of allowing users to type 100 words per

minute without using hands.

SUMMITS & ORGANIZATIONS

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the United Nation’s

General Secretary Antonio Guterres and other World Leaders

inaugurated the Gandhi Peace Garden at the UN headquarters

in New York.

―The Gandhi Peace Garden was inaugurated during a special

commemorative event marking the 150th birth anniversary of

Mahatma Gandhi.

―Gandhi Peace Garden is an initiative for planting 150 trees

garden in an open site within 600 acres campus of the State

University of New York.

―Under the crowdsourced initiative, people will adopt trees

in the memory of their loved ones.

―The initiative is a collaboration between Consulate General of

India (New York), Shanti Fund (a Long Island-based NGO) and

State University of New York- Old Westbury.

―The garden is dedicated to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi

and seeks to underline that his principles act as a moral compass

as world grapples with challenges of climate change, terrorism

and corruption.

ENVIRONMENT & ECOLOGY

#FridaysforFuture and #ClimateStrike movements held

demonstrations in more than 2,000 cities across the globe from

20th September to 27th September.

―The #FridaysforFuture and #ClimateStrike movements are

parallel movements.

―The #FridaysforFuture movement is a student movement also

known as Youth Strike for climate.

―The #ClimateStrike movement is an adults-based movement.

―The #FridaysforFuture movement was started by Greta

Thunberg in August 2018.

―Greta skipped school every day for a period of three weeks

and sat outside the Swedish Parliament protesting inaction

towards the climate change.

―In September 2018, Greta called for a strike every Friday until

the policies on climate change were revised in Sweden.

―Slowly adults and students from across the world joined these

demonstrations in front of Parliaments and local city halls.

―In India, the strikes were scheduled for cities like New Delhi,

Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Pune (Maharashtra) and Mumbai

(Maharashtra), Phagwara (Punjab), Nagercoil (Tamil Nadu),

Kishangarh (Rajasthan), Solapur (Maharashtra), Aluva

(Kerala), Honnali (Karnataka), Gauriganj (Uttar Pradesh),

Ambikapur (Chhattisgarh), East Khasi Hills (Meghalaya) and

Mangaldoi (Assam) etc.

―Greta has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2019,

the winners of which will be announced in October.

BASIC GK ASPECTS

Books and Authors

99 Nights in Logar―by Jamil Jan Kochai

The Far Field―by Madhuri Vijay,

Tell Her Everything―by Mirza Waheed

Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest―by

Hanif Abdurraqib

The Yellow House―by Sarah M Broom

What You Have Heard is True: A Memoir of Witness and

Resistance―by Carolyn Forché

Cow and Company―by Parashar Kulkarni

The Economists’ Hour: How the False Prophets of Free

Markets Fractured Our Society―by Binyamin Appelbaum

Caste Matters―by Suraj Yengde

Awards and Honours

The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony was held on

22 September 2019, at the Microsoft Theatre in Downtown Los

Angeles, California, US.

―The Primetime Emmy Awards honour the best US Prime

Time TV Programs.

―The Awardees for these awards are selected by the Academy

of Television Arts & Sciences. ―These awards are awarded in four categories.

The awardees in the Comedy Series included

Outstanding Lead Actor: Bill Hader for Barry

Outstanding Lead Actress: Phoebe Waller-Bridge for

Fleabag

Outstanding Comedy Series: Fleabag

The awardees in the Limited Series or Movies included

Outstanding Lead Actor: Jharrel Jerome for When They

See Us

Outstanding Lead Actress: Michelle Williams for

Fosse/Verdon

Outstanding Television Movie: Black Mirror:

Bandersnatch

Outstanding Limited Series: Chernobyl

The awardees in the Variety Series included

Outstanding Variety Talk Series: Last Week Tonight

with John Oliver

Outstanding Variety Sketch Series: Saturday Night Live

The awardees in the Drama Series included

Outstanding Lead Actor: Billy Porter for Pose

Outstanding Lead Actress: Jodie Comer for Killing Eve

Outstanding Drama Series: Game of Thrones

Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan has been selected

as a recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year

2018.

―Amitabh is being honoured with this prestigious award for his

outstanding contribution for the growth and development of

Indian cinema.

―Incidentally, Amitabh will be celebrating his 50 years

(Golden Jubilee) in Indian Cinema this year.

―Amitabh started his film career in 1969 with ‘Saat

Hindustani’.

―Amitabh has been one of the most

influential personalities of Bollywood.

―Honours received by Amitabh till date

include:

Padma Shri (1984)

Padma Bhushan (2001)

Padma Vibhushan (2015)

16 filmfare awards

French Government’s highest

civilian honour the Knight of the

Legion of Honour

―Dadasaheb Phalke Award is given for honouring Dhundiraj

Govind Phalke, popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke and as

the father of the Indian cinema.

―Dadasaheb Phalke directed the first Indian feature film Raja

Harischandra in 1913.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was

conferred with the prestigious

Goalkeepers Global Goals Award

from the Bill & Melinda Gates

Foundation (BMGF) on 25th

September, 2019.

―Goalkeepers is a campaign of Bill &

Melinda Gates Foundation for

accelerating progress toward s

achievement of United Nations

Sustainable Development Goals.

―Prime Minister Modi is been awarded for the India

Government’s initiatives on sanitations in general and Swachh

Bharat Abhiyan in specific.

―The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was launched on October 2,

2014 as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.

Appointments

The Bulgarian Economist Kristalina

Ivanova Georgieva-Kinova has been

appointed as the new Chief Executive

Officer of the International Monetary

Fund (IMF).

―Before this appointment Kristalina

has served as th e:

Chief Executive Officer of the

World Bank. Other leadership positions in the

World Bank.

Vice-President of the European

Commission.

―The major honours received by Georgieva include:

European of the year award in 2010.

EU Commissioner of the year for her handling of

humanitarian crisis in Pakistan and Haiti.

―The Chief Executive officer of the IMF is appointed by the

24-member Executive board of the Fund.

―This appointment is a merit-based appointment on the criteria

like managerial skills, diplomatic skills, professional skills etc.

Indian Government has appointed present Vice Chief of Air

Staff Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria as the next Chief of

Air Staff. ―Rakesh Bhadauria took over from the out-going Air Chief

Marshal BS Dhanoa who retired on September 30, 2019

Amitabh Bachchan

Narendra Modi - Prime Minister of India

Kristalina Georgiva - New CEO of the IMF

―Rakesh Bhadauria is second senior most officer in the Indian

Air Force.

―Rakesh was commissioned into

Fighter Stream of Indian Air Force

(IAF) in June 1980.

―Rakesh was appointed as the Vice

Chief of the Indian Air Force in May

2019.

―Rakesh has more than 4,250 hours

of flying experience on 26 different

types of fighters and transport

aircraft,

―Rakesh also enjoys a distinction of being an Experimental

Test Pilot, a category ‘A’ Qualified Flying Instructor and a Pilot

Attack Instructor.

Must Know

DDC: Dialogue and Development Commission

DDT: Dividend Distribution Tax

DIPAM: Department of Investment and Public Asset

Management

DTC: Direct Tax Code

FIFA: Fédération Internationale de Football Association

GAVI: Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunizations

GPCB: Gujarat Pollution Control Board

IAF: Indian Air Force

IDSL: International Day of Sign Languages

IMF: International Monetary Funds

IMTRAT: Indian Military Training Team

IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

KZF: Khalistan Zindabad Force

MHA: Ministry of Home Affairs

MoAFW: Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare

MoHUA: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

MWCD: Ministry of Women and Child Development

NCW: National Commission for Women

NPR: National Population Register

NSG: National Security Guards

PM: Particulate Matter

UNFCC: UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

UNGA: United Nations General Assembly

Days/Anniversaries

The International Day of

Sign Languages (IDSL) is

observed across the globe on

23 September every year.

―The International Day of

Sign Languages is part of the

International Week of the

Deaf, which is observed from

24-30 September every year.

―The day is observed for

raising awareness of

importance of sign language

in full realization of human

rights of people who are deaf

―The 2019 International Day of Sign Languages was observed

with the theme, “Sign Language Rights for All”.

―This day was proclaimed by the United Nation General

Assembly (UNGA) ON 19 December 2017.

―The first IDSL was celebrated on 23 September 2018.

Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Bhadauria

. NEWS BULLETIN―36 Week-2, Oct 2019

NATIONAL

The Union

Ministry of Health

and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has

organized India’s first

National Nutrition

Surveywith the help of

UNICEF.

―This is the first time that MoHFW has conducted a survey on

malnutrition in India. ―For this survey, the Ministry collected urine and blood

samples from more than 1,20,000 children and adolescents

throughout India.

―The survey covered both rural and urban areas.

―The survey collected different information including

information regarding:

macro and micro nutrient deficiencies

hypertension and diabetics

cholesterol

kidney functions

―The key findings of the survey are:

approximately 10 percent of children between the age of 5

to 19 years are pre-diabetic.

approximately 5 percent of children between the age of 5

to 19 years are overweight.

approximately 5 percent of children between 5 to 19 years

suffer from hypertension.

Obesity and under nutrition exist side by side in India.

twenty percent of the children from the age of 5 to 9 years

are stunted.

State wise, Tamil Nadu and Goa have the highest number

of obese or overweight adolescents.

―United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates

that 14.5 percent of the total Indian population is

undernourished.

Between March 2018 and October 2019, India has more than

doubled the number of LED street lights.

―In March 2018 India had 49 lakh LED street lights.

―In October 2019, the number of street lights in India crossed

1 crore.

― LED street lights are much more efficient than the

conventional street lights.

―The one crore LED street lights are expected to:

help in saving 6.7 billion units per annum.

help in avoiding 1,119.40 MW of peak power demand

annually.

help in reducing the Green House Gasses (GHG)

emissions by 4.63 million tonnes annually.

― Indian Government had originally set a target of replacing

1.34 crore conventional street lights with LED lights by March

2019.

―Later on, this deadline was postponed to March 2020.

―India has installed these

street lights under the

Street Light National

Programme (SLNP). ―The implementation of

the SLNP was done by the

state-owned Energy

Efficiency Services Ltd

(EESL).

―The project has been implemented as Pay-As-You-Save

model.

―Under the Pay-As-You-Save model:

EESL has entered into seven years contact with local

bodies across India.

Under the contact, EESL replaces conventional lights with

LED lights free of cost.

EESL maintains and carries out the replacement of LED

lights when needed.

EESL guarantees minimum energy saving of usually 50

percent.

The local bodies pay EESL out of the savings on energy

and maintenance cost over a period of seven years.

The Union Tourism Ministry has decided to ban all single

use plastics within 100 metres periphery of all Archaeological

Survey of India (ASI) protected monuments in India.

―The Indian Tourism Ministry and ASI is taking steps to ensure

phasing out of single-use plastic.

― Indian Government had previously decided to bring in a law

banning single-use plastic in India on the 150th birth

anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

―The plan was later cancelled due to stressed industry facing

economic recession.

Quality Council of India (QCI) recently conducted a

cleanliness survey of the Indian railway and metro stations.

―The parameters used for ranking in the survey included:

presence of different forms of waste in different areas of

the station. frequency of cleaning in the areas frequented by

customers.

The status of uniform, equipment, protection gear etc. of

the cleaning staff.

―According to the survey, in 2019:

Jaipur – with a score of 931.75 out of 1000 – has the

cleanest station(s) in India.

Jodhpur – with a score of 927.19 out of 1000 – has the

second cleanest station(s) in India.

All copyrights to this material vests with IMS Learning Resources Pvt Ltd. No part of this material either in part or as a whole shall be copied,

reprinted, reproduced, sold, distributed or transmitted in any form in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

recording or otherwise, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without the permission of IMS Learning Resources Pvt Ltd., and any

such violation would entail initiation of suitable legal proceedings.

North Western Railway zone was the cleanest railway

zone in India.

Durgapura, Jammu Tawi, Gandhinagar, Suratgarh,

Vijayawada, Udaipur, Ajmer and Haridwar have some of

the cleanest railways station(s) in India.

Government of India declared India Open Defecation Free

on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

―The Indian Prime Minister Modi while making the

announcement claimed that India has build more than 110

million toilets in the last 60 months for providing sanitation

access to 600 million individuals. ― Indian Government launched the Clean India campaign on

2nd October, 2014 with the main objective of making India Open

Defecation Free

by 2019.

―The other

targets of the

Clean India

Campaign

included:

ensuring

clean streets

building solid waste management plants

making provisions for door to door waste collection

adopting better sanitation practices.

―Open Defecation refers to the use of forest, open water bodies

etc. for the purpose of defecation.

LAW

The Karnataka High Court has held that a father is not

bound to pay monthly maintenance amount to a daughter, who

is gainfully employed.

―The decision was taken by the Bench of the High Court

hearing the plea by a daughter of the man seeking relief by way

of maintenance expenses till she is married along with marriage

expensed in the event of fixing of her marriage.

―The Court held that there was justification and need for

awarding maintenance to the plaintiff at the initial stages. This

justification cannot continue when the plaintiff has secured a

respectable job in a good company that provides an earning of

Rs.20,000 to Rs.25,000 per month.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has issued a press release

expressing its disproval of the Higher Education Commission

of India (Repeal of University Grants Commission) Bill,

2019. ―The said Bill will be placed before the cabinet during the

Winter Session of the Parliament.

―The BCI claims that the bill will abrogate the powers which

were conferred on the Council by the Advocates Act, 1961.

―Section 5 and 7 of the Advocates Act, place the responsibility

on promoting and establishing standards of Legal Education

in India on the BCI.

―The Bill in question transfers the power of regulating the

Legal Education to the proposed Higher Education

Commission.

―The BCI has unanimously held the Bill to be an "attack and

invasion" on the authority and independence of BCI.

―BCI’s position is that the Legal Education cannot be regulated

by outsiders, even if they are social workers or teachers.

―BCI has decided to send a five-member delegation to the PM

and other concerned Union Ministers.

―BCI has also decided to observe one day abstention of the

Courts across India on October 21, if its delegation does not

receive positive response.

Justice Ravindra Bhat has become the latest judge to recuse

himself from hearing the petition filed by Gautam Navlakha

challenging the September 13 judgment of Bombay High Court

that refused to quash the FIR registered against Gautam.

―The Pune Police has registered the FIR against Gautam

alleging his involvement in inciting the violence at Koregaon

Bhima in Pune on January 1, 2018.

―The divisional bench of the Bombay High Court has observed

that there was prima facie material against the 65-year-old

activist referring to the document submitted in a sealed envelope

by Additional Public Prosecutor Aruna Pai.

―The Police is claiming that they have evidence linking

Navlakha with Maoist conspiracy.

―Justice Bhat is the fifth judge who has recused himself from

hearing the petition within a period of three days.

―Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices N.V.

Ramana, R.Subhash Reddy and B.R. Gavai have earlier

recused themselves from hearing the petition.

―These judges have not stated any reason for recusing

themselves.

The Supreme Court has recalled its earlier decision diluting

the provisions of arrest under the Scheduled Castes and

Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

―On March 20, 2019 a bench of the Supreme Court had held

that no arrests under the Act could be made without prior

permission from the appointing authority in case of public

servants, and from the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) for

others,

— and a preliminary enquiry should be conducted before

registration of FIR.

―The current bench of the Supreme Court has held that if the

earlier orders of the Court were held valid then, “the very

purpose of the Act is likely to be frustrated. Various

complications may arise. Investigation cannot be completed

within the specified time, nor trial can be completed as

envisaged and delay would be adding to the further plight of the

downtrodden class”.

―The Supreme Court also observed that there was no provision

in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) or SC/ST Act for

a preliminary enquiry and issuing such an order would lead to a

situation in which the FIR would not be registered until the

primary enquiry is held, even in complaints on cognizable

offence.

STATES

The Directorate of

Health Services (DHS),

Maharashtra has stopped

the use of a drug

Ranitidine in all the

government hospitals in

the state.

―This step was taken by

DHS after the US Food

and Drug

Administration (FDA) issued a warning on 13th September that Ranitidine contained

low levels of carcinogenic impurities.

Following the order of US FDA, the Drug Controller General of

India (DCGI) issued a notice to state FDAs to test Ranitidine in

India.

―US FDA has found low levels of nitrosamine impurity N-

nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in Ranitidine.

―NDMA has been classified as probably carcinogenic in

humans.

―Ranitidine is used for treating stomach ulcers and gastric

problems.

―Ranitidine and agents used for making Ranitidine are

produced by number of companies in India like Dr Reddy’s Lab,

SMS Lifesciences, Saraca Laboratories Orchid Pharma Pvt Ltd

etc.

―At the international level, many manufacturers have stopped

producing Ranitidine.

―Bangladesh has temporarily banned the use of Ranitidine in

the country.

Government of Karnataka is considering introducing the

National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state.

―Karnataka is collecting information on the issue and will

share and discuss it with the Union Home Ministry before going

ahead.

―The state government is concerned about the foreigners who

have come and settled in Bengaluru and other big cities of the

state.

― Union Home Minister Amit Shah has also reiterated that the

Indian Government will roll out NRC across India.

―Till now Assam is the only state of India in which the

updation work on NRC has been done.

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

According to World Bank’s International Debt Statistics

Report, total foreign debts of the developing nations have

crossed the USD 7.8 trillion.

―This increase is in large part due to 15 percent increase in

Chinese debt.

―The report states that the debt burden is increasing in many

countries of the world.

―According to the report, loans from multilateral lenders have

increased by 86 percent, mainly due to the International

Monetary Fund’s record aid to crisis-battered Argentina.

―Other key highlights of the report are:

excluding the debt of top 10 borrowers, the foreign debt

increased by four percent.

the debt levels in the sub-Saharan Africa have increased

by eight percent.

GST collection in September 2019 touched a 19-month

low of Rs 91,916 crore.

― GST revenue in September 2019 declined by 2.67 percent

from the September 2018 levels.

― GST collection in August 2019 was Rs 98,202 crore.

―The Centre Government has projected a 14% increase in GST

revenue for the current fiscal.

―This reduction in GST collections is being attributed to:

decline in nominal GDP growth

increasing inability of the government to check tax

evasion.

The Centre Government is thinking about introducing a

credit rating system for small and medium enterprises

(SME). ―The move is being considered for helping the SME to obtain

credit easily.

―The growth of Indian economy has slowed down in recent

months and the Central Government is looking for ways to

revive the economy.

―Central Government is considering reducing credit cost for

SME industry.

Central Board of Direct

Taxes (CBDT) has

launched a computer-

generated Document

Identification Number (DIN).

―From October 1, 2019,

all the CBDT communication will contain DIN.

―The communications without DIN will be treated as invalid

and will be deemed to have been never issued.

―All communications with DIN will be verifiable at the e-filing

portal.

―Manually issued communications without DIN will have to

be uploaded and regularised on the portal within 15 days of their

issue.

―On October 1 itself, almost 17,500 communications were

generated using DIN.

―This initiative has been implemented for increasing the

transparency and accountability of the tax administration.

―The taxpayers will be able to use this system for detecting

false notices and letters.

DEFENCE & SECURITY

The 23rd Malabar Exercise was held from 28th September,

2019 to October 4, 2019 off the coast of Japan.

―The Malabar exercise is held among the navies of India,

Japan and United States.

―The participating Indian ships and aircrafts included:

indigenously built INS Sahyadri (multi-purpose guided-

missile frigate)

indigenously built INS Kiltan (anti-submarine warfare

corvette)

Poseidon Eight India (P8I) Long range Maritime Patrol

Aircraft

The participating American ships and aircrafts included:

US McCampbell DDG-85 (Los Angeles-Class Attack

Submarine)

‘P8A ‘Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft

―The participating Japanese ships and aircrafts included:

JS Kaga (Izumo class helicopter destroyer)

JS Samidare (guided-missile destroyer)

JS Choukai (guided-missile destroyer)

‘P1’ Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft.

―Malabar series of exercises are conducted to strengthen the

cooperation and to increase interoperability of Indian, Japanese

and US navies.

―The Malabar 2019 included:

Maritime Interdiction Operations (MIO)

Anti-submarine warfare (ASW)

Anti-air and anti-surface firings

Visit Board Search and Seizure (VBSS) --Tactical

scenario-based exercise at sea

Joint military exercise

KAZIND 2019 are

scheduled to be held from

3rd October to 15th

October, 2019 in

Pithoragarh district of

Uttarkhand. ―KAZIND exercises are held between the armies of India and

Kazakhstan.

―KAZIND 2019 will see participation of 100 (approx.) soldiers

from both the countries.

―KAZIND 2019 focused on counter terrorism operations in

mountainous terrains.

―These exercises will include aspects of:

Global Terrorism

Hybrid warfare

Sharing of experience of counter terrorism operations.

―KAZIND 2019 were the fourth edition of the annual exercises

that are conducted alternatively in India and Kazakhstan.

India has successfully conducted test firing of the

BrahaMos Supersonic Cruise Missile.

―The test was conducted jointly by Defence Research and

Development Organisation (DRDO) and BrahMos

Aerospace.

―The missile was test fired from the Integrated Test Range

(ITR), Chandipur, Odisha.

―The tested BrahMos reached its full strike range of 290

kilometre.

―BrahMos missiles can be fired from both land and sea-based

platforms.

―BrahMos missiles have been developed with the help of

Russia.

―BrahMos missiles have been operationalised by all the three

Indian Defence Forces.

―There is also an extended version of BrahMos missile which

is capable of striking targets at the range of 450 kilometres.

POLICY AND GOVT. INITIATIVES

IRCTC has taken a

decision to compensate

passengers of the new

Lucknow-Delhi Tejas

Express in cases of delays

in train running. ― IRCTC will pay a

compensation of Rs 100

in case there is a delay of

more than an hour and Rs 200 for delays of more than two hours.

― IRCTC has also decided to offer free insurance worth Rs 25

lakh to passengers of the train.

―Many train companies across the world provide monetary and

non-monetary compensations to passengers for delays. But this

is the first time that Indian Railways have taken such a step.

―The first Lucknow-Delhi Tejas Express was flagged off on 4th

October, 2019.

―Tejas are the semi-high speed fully air-conditioned trains of

Indian Railways.

The Union Consumer Affairs Ministry has launched a

mobile app called ‘Consumer App’.

―‘Consumer App’ will allow consumers across India to:

register grievances

provide suggestions

―Grievances registered by customers will be forwarded to

concerned department/forum/companies.

―Currently, the App provides facility for registering

complaints regarding nearly 42 sectors of the economy like

consumer durables, e-commerce, real estate etc.

―The App provides the facility of registering complaints for

almost 250 categories of products and services.

―The App will also allow the consumer to check the status of

his or her complaints.

― Registered grievances will be monitored on daily basis and

will be redressed within a period of 60 days.

―Grievances made through the App will only be closed when

the consumers submit that the issue have been resolved or that

they have been satisfied.

―The App is available in both English and Hindi.

―The App is available for both Android and iOS platforms.

―The App has been developed by the National Informatics

Centre.

―The App has been launched as part of the Digital India

Initiative.

Government of India has released special commemorative

coins of Rs 150 on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma

Gandhi.

―The coins were released by the honourable Prime Minister

Narendra Modi at an event at Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad,

Gujarat.

―The United Nations has also released special postal stamps

to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

―This year the Government has released commemorative coin

of Rs 350 to mark the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh.

―Last year, the Government had released the commemorative

coin of Rs 100 to mark the birth anniversary of former prime

minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

―The first commemorative coin was issued by government of

India in 1964 to mark the birth anniversary of first Prime

Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru.

―The first commemorative coin in India had the image of

Jawaharlal Nehru.

―The commemorative coins are released to mark birth

anniversaries of historical figures or to mark specific events.

―Commemorative coins are issued both as collectibles and as

regular currency.

―In India, commemorative coins are not legal tenders unless

specifically notified as such.

SPORTS

India’s Annu Rani has achieved eighth rank in the women’s

javelin throw final at the IAAF World Athletics

Championships in Doha.

―Rani is the first Indian women to reach the finals of javelin

throw at the IAAF World Athletics Championships.

Former Indian captain Kapil Dev has resigned from the

Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC).

―The resignation was tendered after Board of Control for

Cricket in India issued notice to the certain panel members on

conflict of interest charges pressed against them.

―The charges were made by Sanjeev Gupta (Member of the

Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association).

―BCCI Constitution bars members from holding multiple

positions on its Board.

―Kapil Dev was one of the three members of the ad-hoc

Cricket Advisory Committee specifically created for

appointing the head coach of men’s cricket team.

India has won the SAFF Under-18 football Championship

by defeating Bangladesh 2-1 in the finals at Kathmandu, Nepal.

―This is India’s first SAFF U-18 trophy.

―Nepal won the 2015 and 2017 editions of the game.

―Nepal did not qualify for the semi-finals in this edition of the

game.

―India was a runner up and on third position respectively in the

2015 and 2017 edition of the game.

―SAFF U-18 Championship is a football competition of male

players aged 18 and less.

―The SAFF U-18 Championship is organised by the South

Asian Football Federation.

―The first edition of the SAFF U-18 Championship was held

in August 2015 in Nepal.

Tejas Express: Lucknow-Delhi

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

According to the UN nuclear watchdog, the International

Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has increased its uranium

stockpile with advanced centrifuges and increased plans to

install more advanced machines than were allowed under its

nuclear deal with other major countries.

―The nuclear deal restricted the nuclear capacity of Iran. In

2018, USA pulled out of the deal and imposed sanctions against

Iran. Iran in turn started exceeding the limits of its nuclear

capacity in May, 2019. On 7th September, Iran announced that it

was capable of increasing uranium enrichment beyond the 20

percent limit.

The United Nations

Security Council’s (UNSC)

1267 Committee has

approved Pakistan’s request

to allow Hafiz Saeed to use

his bank account for meeting

“basic expenses”.

―The decision was taken by

the 1267 Committee in

August, 2019 but it has come

to light only recently. ―The statement released by

the 1267 Committee states that there were “no objections” from

the committee members or any other UN members to Pakistan’s

request to let Saeed access his bank account within the deadline

set by the committee.

―Indian Government has not yet issued any official statement

regarding the issue or the reason for not objecting to the decision

in UNSC. UNSC’s 1267 Committee is responsible for

overseeing the sanctions against terrorists.

―Hafiz Saeed is the chief of the terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Hafiz Saeed is also accused to be the master mind behind the

Mumbai 26/11 attacks. Pakistan had charged Hafiz with terror

financing activities in May, 2019, and arrested him on July 17.

―Currently Hafiz is at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail. India has

been putting pressure on Pakistan to handover Hafiz to India.

―US Government has set an award of USD 10 million on Hafiz.

The Kingdom of Saudi

Arabia has made a historical

decision to offer tourist visas.

―Initially Saudi Arabia will

start accepting applications for

online tourist visa from the

citizens of 48 countries. Saudi

Arabia will also ease the dress

restrictions for foreign women as

part of the initiative.

―Foreign women will no longer be required to wear body-

shrouding abaya robe. Body-shrouding abaya robe will remain

mandatory for Saudi women appearing in public places. The

decision has been taken as part of Saudi Arabia’s initiative to

diversify economy away from oil.

―This decision is part of Vision 2030 reform programs of

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Vision 2030

programme deals with preparing Saudi Arabia for the post-oil

era. The decision was taken after one of the worst terrorist

attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities. Saudi Arabia has five of

the UNESCO World Heritage sites.

―In 2017, Saudi Arabia took a decision to turn 50 islands and

pristine sites on Red Sea into luxury resorts.

―In 2018, Saudi Arabia started issuing visas for individuals

attending cultural and sporting events.

SUMMITS & ORGANIZATIONS

Indian Economic Summit was held on October 3 and 4th at

New Delhi. This summit was

organised by the World

Economic Forum (WEF) in

collaboration with the

Confederation of Indian

Industry (CII). The theme of

the summit was Innovating

India: Strengthening South

Asia, Impacting the World. ―The summit saw participation of more than 800 leaders from

40 countries of the world. The objective of the summit included

acceleration of the fourth Industrial Revolution.

―The summit focused on collaborations with South Asian and

ASEAN countries. Other key points on the agenda included:

Economy of South Asia

Emerging technologies

Environmental reforms

Startups

Education

Gender Parity.

―World Economic Forum is an international organization

which was established in 1971.

―World Economic Forum is headquartered at Geneva,

Switzerland.

ENVIRONMENT & ECOLOGY

According to the Indian

Meteorological Department (IMD), in 2019, India received 10%

above average monsoon rains. ―According to IMD, this was the

highest amount of rain received by

India in last 25 years.

―Maharashtra, Rajasthan and

Karnataka received 35 percent

more rainfall than normal.

―Maharashtra, Rajasthan and

Karnataka received the highest

recorded rains in the history of

these states.

―The rains caused heavy damage to crops like pulses, soybean

and cotton that were close to harvest.

―The monsoons normally start in June and end by September,

but this year their retreat was delayed.

―Many experts blame climate change for this change.

BASIC GK ASPECTS

Books and Authors

The Netherlands: Past, Present and Future―by Venu

Rajamony

Fleishman Is in Trouble―by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Trust Exercise―by Susan Choi

Black Leopard, Red Wolf―by Marlon James

The Nickel Boys―by Colson Whitehead.

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee―by David Treuer.

The Far Field―by Madhuri Vijay

A Lonely Harvest―by Perumal Murugan

Half the Night is Gone―by Amitav Bagchi

Indian Meteorological Department (IMD)

Awards and Honours

The National Tourism Awards 2017-18 were presented by

the Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu on occasion of

World Tourism Day

A total of 76 National Tourism Awards were presented in

different categories.

The key winners of the awards include:

Best State for Comprehensive Development of

Tourism: Andhra Pradesh

Joint winners in Adventure Tourism category: Goa and

Madhya Pradesh

Best Film Promotion Friendly State: Uttarakhand

Best State in Innovative use of IT: Telangana.

Thanu Padmanabhan has been

honoured with the prestigious M P Birla

Memorial Award 2019 for his

contributions to the world of cosmology. Padmanabhan is 62 years old professor of

Inter-university Centre for Astronomy

and Astrophysics in Pune, Maharashtra.

―Padmanabhan is a recipient of the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar and Padma

Shri.

―The MP Birla Memorial Awards were instituted in 1993 for

recognising the excellence in research in space science,

astrophysics, astronomy etc.

―Famous personalities like APJ Abdul Kalam, Dr GM Nair,

Prof. KD Ahayankar etc. have won these awards in the past.

―The Awardees of the MP Birla Memorial Awards are

presented with a citation, trophy and cheque of Rs 2,51,000

Sachin Tendulkar has been

honoured with the most effective

Swachhata Ambassador award at the

Safaigiri 2019.

―Sachin Tendulkar was honoured

because he leveraged his fame and

popularity as a cricket legend to

encourage others to work towards the

Swachh Bharat initiative.

―Sachin was selected as an

Ambassador of the Swachh Bharat in

2014.

―Safaigiri is an initiative of the India Today group.

―Safaigiri acknowledges the contribution of and celebrates the

champions of the Clean India Campaign.

Appointments

Suresh Chitturi, Vice Chairman and

Managing Director of Srinivasa Farms,

has been appointed as chairman of the

International Egg Commission (IEC). ―This is the first time that an Asian will

chair the International Egg Commission.

Chitturi will hold the chair of the

commission for a period of two years.

―Srinivasa Farms has been one of the

industry leaders in the Indian Poultry

sector for last 50 years.

―International Egg Commission is an organisation dedicated

for developing and improving the global egg industry.

―International Egg Commission was established in 1964.

―International Egg Commission has members from more than

80 countries of the world.

Surjit S Bhalla has been appointed as the

Executive Director for India on board of

International Monetary Fund (IMF). ―The appointment has been cleared by the

Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC).

―Bhalla will serve on the Board of IMF for

a period of three years or until further

orders.

―Bhalla will replace former RBI deputy governor Subir

Gokarn who was representing India at IMF.

―Surjit S Bhalla holds a PhD in Economics from Princeton

University, a Masters in Public and International Affairs (PIA)

from Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, and a

BSEE (Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering) degree

from Purdue University.

Must Know

MoHDW: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

GHG: Green House Gasses

LED: Light Emitting diode

QCI: Quality Council of India

ASI: Archaeological Survey of India

EESL: Energy Efficiency Services Ltd.

SLNP: Street Light National Programme

ODF: Open Defection Free

DHS: Directorate Health Services

DCGIL: Drugs Controller General of India

NRC: National Register of Citizens

SME: Small and Medium Enterprises

CBDT; Central Board of Direct Taxes

DIN: Document Identification Number

INS: Indian Navy Ships

DRDO: Defence Research and Development Organisation

ITR: Integrated Test Range

NIC: National Informatics Centre

IAAF: International Association of Athletics Federations

BCCI: Board of Control for Cricket

SAFF: South Asian Football Federation

IAEA: International Atomic Energy Agency

UNSC: United Nations Security Council

WEF: World Economic Forum

CII: Confederation of India Industry

ASEAN: Association of Southeast Asian Nations

UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organization

IMD: Indian Meteorological Department

ACC: Appointments Committee of Cabinet

IEC: International Egg Commission

IMF: International Monetary Fund

Days/Anniversaries

The World Heart

Day is observed all over

the world on the 29th

September every year.

―The observation of

this day was started by

the World Heart

Federation for raising awareness regarding Cardio Vascular

Diseases. Cardio Vascular Diseases are a leading cause of death

across the world.

Cardio Vascular Diseases are responsible for approximately 18

million deaths annually.

Thanu Padmanabhan

Sachin Tendulkar

Suresh Chitturi

Surjit S Bhalla

. NEWS BULLETIN―37 Week-3, Oct 2019

NATIONAL

The Union Ministry of

Health and Family

Welfare has recently

released data related to

the Pradhan Mantri Jan

Arogya Yojana or

PMJAY. ―PMJAY is the Central

Government scheme for

providing health cover to 10 crore economically vulnerable

families in India.

―One of the main focuses of the PMJAY scheme includes

tackling cancer cases.

―The PMJAY has established Health and Wellness Centres for

oral, breast and cervical cancers.

―According to the released data:

Approximately 11.56 lakh individuals are diagnosed with

cancer every year.

Approximately 7.84 lakh individuals die due to cancer

every year.

Approximately 22.5 lakh individuals are suffering from

cancer at any given point of time.

The top five states with cancer patients are:

Tamil Nadu with 40,056 cases.

Kerala with 22,000 cases

Madhya Pradesh with 19,445 cases

Chhattisgarh with 15,997 cases

Gujarat with 14,380 cases

The PMJAY funded 90,000 cancer patients during 2018-19.

Under PMJAY, Rs 321 crores have been sanctioned for

cancer till now.

The Government of India has constituted a High Level, inter-

ministerial committee for checking money laundering

activities in India.

―This 19 member Inter Ministerial Coordination

Committee (IMCC) will be chaired by the Revenue Secretary.

―The IMCC will help in coordination among different

departments and law enforcement agencies.

―The IMCC will also work towards developing and

implementing policies on anti-money laundering and on

countering the financing of terrorism.

India has been ranked 68th in the recently released Global

Competitiveness Index.

―This is a drop of 10 places year to year.

―This is one of the lowest ranking among the BRICS nations.

Only Brazil has done worse with the rank of 71.

―South Africa, Turkey and Colombia have improved their

ranking and left India behind.

―This time, Singapore has replaced United States as the most

competitive global economy.

―United States has received 2nd rank this year.

―Hong Kong, Netherlands and Switzerland have been ranked

as the 3rd, 4th and 5th most competitive global economies.

―China has been ranked 28th.

―Region wise, Asia Pacific has emerged as the most

competitive region of the world.

―Asia Pacific is followed by Europe and ―North America in

the Global Competitive Index.

―World Economic Forum compiles the Global Competitive

Index on the basis of 103 indicators from 141 countries.

The Government of India has

penalised 14 states for not

meeting various health

parameters under the National

Health Mission (NHM).

―This penalty has been

imposed based on the Health

System Strengthening

Conditionality Report of

states 2018 – 19, released by the Union Ministry of Health and

Family Welfare.

―The report did the assessment of Indian states based on the

following parameters: The immunization status of states,

The Health and Wellness Centres (HWC),

The provisioning of mental health services at the district

headquarters in the state,

The performance of district hospitals.

―The report did not assess Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim and

Arunachal Pradesh as these states have not been able to achieve

75 percent immunisation status.

―According to the report:

The top performing states of India under the NHM were

Punjab, Haryana, Kerala and Assam

The worst performing states of India under the NHM were

Uttarakhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Nagar Haveli, Mizoram,

J&K and Himachal Pradesh.

―The NHM is a central sponsored scheme in which the

Government of India contributed 80 percent and the respective

state governments contribute the remaining 20 percent.

―The Government releases funds under the NHM based on the

results. The penalised states will lose part of this funding.

―The worst performing states of India will only receive 80% of

their funding under the scheme.

Shivinder Singh, Sunil Godhwani,

Kavi Arora and Anil Saxena have

been arrested by the Economic

Offence Wing for the alleged

misappropriation of funds of the

Religare Finvest Limited (RFL) to

the tune of Rs 2,397 crore. ―Shivinder Singh is the former

promoter of Religare Enterprises.

―Sunil Godhwani is the former

Chairman and Managing Director of

Religare Enterprises Limited (REL).

―Kavi Arora and Anil Saxena have occupied important

positions in the RFL and REL.

―RFL is a subsidiary of the REL.

All copyrights to this material vests with IMS Learning Resources Pvt Ltd. No part of this material either in part or as a whole shall be copied,

reprinted, reproduced, sold, distributed or transmitted in any form in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

recording or otherwise, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without the permission of IMS Learning Resources Pvt Ltd., and any

such violation would entail initiation of suitable legal proceedings.

Shivinder Singh

LAW

The Bombay High Court has delivered an important

judgement ruling that the Goods and Services Tax (GST)

cannot be levied on the Duty-Free Shop (DFS) at Mumbai

airport for goods sold to passengers leaving India.

―The Court has also held that such shops are entitled to refund

of input tax credit even though they cannot charge GST

―The Court has held that the duty free shops at the airport are

within the limits of customs area and the supply of goods to the

passengers leaving India falls within the definition of exports.

―The section 16(1) of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax

(IGST) Act, regards exports as zero-rated supply.

―The Court made this judgement while hearing the plea of

Flemingo Travel Retail Ltd, which runs duty-free shop (DFS)

at Mumbai International Airport.

―The Flemingo Travel were denied refund of input tax credit.

―In an earlier judgement, the Allahabad High Court had also

held that the duty free shops are exempted from payment of

GST.

In a recent ruling the National Company Law Tribunal

(NCLT) has held that Sole Proprietary concern cannot initiate

insolvency proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy

Code 2016.

―The NCLT said that a 'Sole Proprietary' concern is not a

person under section 3(23) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy

Code, 2016

―Section 3(23) states that a 'person', includes an individual, a

Hindu Undivided Family, a company, a trust, a partnership, a

limited liability partnership, any other entity established under a

statute, and also includes a person residing outside India.

―The ruling was made when a petitioner RG Steels approached

the Tribunal seeking for the initiation of corporate insolvency

resolution process against its Corporate Debtor (CD) M/s

Berrys Auto Ancillaries Pvt. Ltd, by way of a section 9

application under the Code.

―The NCLT Bench held that the definition of person under

section 3(23) of the Code included individuals, but this could

not be stretched to include the sole proprietary concern.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has ruled that the plea of

violation of privacy was not tenable in the cases of matrimonial

dispute, if gender of one of the parties is questioned by the other

party.

―The ruling was made by the High Court while hearing a

petition by Surbhi Trivedi under Article 227 of the

Constitution.

―Surbhi had filed the petition challenging the order of the

Family Court which had directed Surbhi to get her gender

verified by a Government lady doctor.

―Surbhi claimed that the Court cannot order for femininity

determined by way of the medical examination as the same was

in violation of Articles 20(3) and 21 of the Constitution.

―The Court said that in a matrimonial dispute, if gender of

one of the parties is questioned by the other party, it assumes

importance and the party raising such issue also has a right to

adduce the evidence in this behalf and the other party, to rebut

the same.

―Surbhi had moved an application for restitution of conjugal

rights before the Family Court.

―In answer, her husband Gaurav Trivedi moved an application

under Section 151 of Civil Code Procedures praying that the

Petitioner be examined medically as she lacked womanly

attributes and was a transgender.

STATES

The Jammu and Kashmir administration has withdrawn

the August 2 order of the Home Department asking Amarnath

yatris and other tourists to leave the valley.

―The withdrawal of the order became effective from October

10.

―This is the first time that the tourists have been allowed to

enter the state since the abrogation of the Article 370 of the

Indian Constitution.

Delhi Government has formally

launched the ‘Farishte Dilli Ke’

initiative.

―Under the initiative, the

Government of Delhi is honouring

good Samaritans in the state i.e.

individuals who have taken initiative

to take the accident victims to the

hospital. ―The scheme was first implemented

in February 2018 on the pilot basis.

―The scheme is making a difference

as Delhi government bears all the treatment cost of accident

victims and the police acts cordial to the good Samaritans.

―The scheme has helped around 3,000 hospitals in the state till

now.

Chhattisgarh Government has formally launched the

following 5 new schemes in the state:

Mukhyamantri Suposhan Abhiyan

Mukhyamantri Haat Bazaar Clinic Yojana

Mukhyamatri Shahariya Slum Swasthya Yojana

Universal PDS Scheme

Mukhyamantri Ward Karyalaya

―Mukhyamantri Suposhan Abhiyan was started in June 2019

for providing food to children and anaemic women.

―Muhyamantri Sahariya Slum Swasthya Yojana provides for

mobile medical teams for meeting the health needs of different

groups of people.

―Mukhyamantri Haat Bazaar Clinic Yojana also provides for a

mobile medical teams for meeting the needs of tribal and forest

people.

―Mukhyamantri Ward Karyalayas is a scheme for providing

citizen services and facilities.

―Universal PDS (Public Distribution System) scheme deals

with providing food grains to eligible families.

The Andhra Pradesh

Government has launched the

YSR Vahana Mitra scheme.

―YSR Vahana Mitra

scheme provides for an

annual allowance of Rs

10,000 for a period of five

years to the self-employed

drivers in the state.

―This amount is being

provided for taking care of

recurring expenses like insurance premium, licence fee,

maintenance cost etc.

―The amount will be directly transferred to the bank accounts

of the beneficiaries.

―The Andhra Pradesh Government has set aside a sum of Rs

400 crore for implementation of the scheme.

―Out of the Rs 400 crore, sums of Rs 68 crore and 20 crore

have been set aside for the SCs and STs respectively.

―Providing of this allowance was one of the poll promises of

Andhra Pradesh CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal at the launch of 'Frishte

Dilli Ke'

Andhra Pradesh CM Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy at the launch

of 'YSR Vahana Mitra Scheme'

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will address the C-40

Climate Change Summit through a video conference in the

session “breathe deeply, city solutions for clean air”.

―The Chief Minister will also address the joint press

conference along with the mayors of six other major world

cities.

―These decision to address the Summit through a video

conference was taken after the Ministry of External Affairs

denied permission to Arvind Kejriwal to attend the C40

Summit citing “political angle”.

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

Indian Government has received the first tranche of Swiss

Bank Account details under the Automatic Information

Exchange Pact between India and Switzerland.

―The data received by India will help in prosecuting Indians

who have hidden black money abroad.

―The second tranche of Swiss Bank Account details will be

received by India in September 2020.

―India is one of the 75 countries with which the Switzerland

Federal Tax Administration (SFTA) has exchanged

information.

―The Automatic Information Exchange Pact between India

and Switzerland was signed in 2017.

―The objective of signing the pact is to make tax invasion

difficult.

The Reserve Bank of India has

released the results of RBI

Consumer Confidence Survey. The key findings of the survey are:

The consumer confidence has

touched a 6-year low.

The Current Situation Index fell

from 95.7 in July 2019 to 89.4 in

September.

The Current Situation Index touched 88 in 2013.

The fall in consumer confidence is due to the fall in

employment, income and discretionary spending.

The perception and expectation of employment deceased

from ―13.1 in July 2019 to ―24.5 in September 2019.

47.9% of the respondents of the survey felt that the

economic conditions of the country have worsened.

5% of the respondents felt that the employment

opportunities have reduced.

Majority of the respondent believe that the prices of

essential commodities will increase further.

The respondents feel that the economic condition of the

country will further worsen in the coming days.

Private consumption has started to slow down.

The performance of large employment generating sectors

like automobile and real estate have been unsatisfactory.

Bank credit growth has slowed down.

Funds flow to the commercial sector has reduced.

―The survey was conducted by RBI in 13 cities involving more

than 5,000 households.

―RBI has also recently revised the economic growth forecast

for the fiscal year from 6.9% to 6.1%.

In the recent notifications, the Securities and Exchange

Board of India (SEBI) has notified that only Foreign Portfolio

Investors (FPIs) located in the countries under Financial

Action Task Force (FATF) jurisdiction or managed by an

enterprise based under FATF jurisdiction can deal in

Participatory Notes.

―India receives 15 to 20 per cent of FPI from Mauritius and

Cayman Islands. They are not FATF members.

―The entities based in Mauritius and Cayman Islands will no

longer be able to invest in the Indian markets through issuing or

subscribing to Participatory Notes.

―Participatory Notes are financial instruments that allow

investors to invest in Indian Stock markets without getting

registered with the SEBI.

―This notification has been brought on the basis of the

recommendations of the HR Khan Committee.

―The Financial Action Task Force is an agency established for

monitoring money laundering and terrorist funding across the

world.

India has introduced National E-assessment system to

improve income tax assessment system in India.

―The National E-assessment system will directly inform tax

payers regarding issues with the income tax assessment.

―This system will eliminate middle men between tax payers

and Income tax officers.

―The system will use machine learning and Artificial

Intelligence based tools for risk management.

―The system will have its head office at New Delhi

―The Government will establish E-Regional Assessment

centres at Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad

and Pune.

DEFENCE & SECURITY

The Goa Maritime

Conclave was held on 4th

and 5th October, 2019. ―The theme of this

conclave was ‘Common

Maritime Priorities in

Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and need for

Regional Maritime

Strategy’.

―Majority of the world sea trade passes though the Indian

Ocean Region.

―US has deployed many assets in this region to protect its oil.

―France has large number of naval presences in this area.

―Almost 70 percent of Indian oil imports pass through this

region.

―India has a number of listening posts in this region, for

example, Seychelles, Mauritius etc.

―India has co-opted Maldives as part of the Southern

Command of the Indian Navy.

―Indian Ocean is rich in number of mineral resources including

gold, uranium, cobalt, nickel, cadmium, aluminium etc.

POLICY AND GOVT. INITIATIVES

The Union Ministry of Health and Family welfare has under

the National Oral Health Program (NOHP) launched the

eDant Seva initiative from 7th October, 2019.

Goa Maritime Conclave 2019

―The main objective of the initiative is to increase awareness

regarding the importance of oral health.

―Under the initiative, information regarding oral health and

oral health service facilities will be provided to people.

Government of India launched Gagan Enabled Mariner’s

Instrument for Navigation and Information (GEMINI)

device to provide disaster warnings to fishermen.

―GEMINI provides following information to fishermen:

emergency situations

disaster warnings

potential fishing zones

weather forecasts

―GEMINI has a range of 10 to 12 km from the coast.

―GAGAN is a GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation

system.

―GAGAN has been designed to replace foreign based

navigation system in India.

Government of India has announced a one-time payment

package of Rs 5.5 lakh for the families from the Pakistan

Occupied Kashmir who initially settled outside Jammu and

Kashmir but later of relocated to the state.

―According to the official records there are around 5,300 such

families.

―In 2016, Government of India had announced a resettlement

package for families from the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir

settled in Jammu and Kashmir after the partition.

―In the 2016 package, families that came from Pakistan

Occupied Kashmir but settled outside Jammu and Kashmir were

left out.

―The current package has been announced for the benefit of

those left out families.

SPORTS

Nikita Nagornyy has created history

by winning the first men’s team

gymnastics world title for Russia.

―Russia had last time won men’s team

gymnastics world title in 1991 during the

soviet era. ―Previously, Nagornyy has won silver

medals at the 2016 Olympics and 2018

World Championships.

―At both 2016 Olympics and 2018

World Championships, China won the Gold medals.

―China has won the seven of the last eight world

championships.

―In the current game, China finished second with 0.997 less

points than Russia.

―Japan finished third and United States finished fourth in the

games.

The Committee of

Administrators (CoA) of the

Board of Control for

Cricket in India (BCCI) has

barred state cricket

associations of Tamil Nadu,

Haryana and Maharashtra

from attending/voting at the

BCCI’s General Body

Meeting scheduled for

October 23, 2019. ―The decision to bar these

three cricket associations has been taken because these

associations have not complied with the reforms suggested by

Lodha Committee.

Boxer MC Mary Kom has once

again created history by surpassing her

own record. ―She has become the first women to

win eight medals in Women’s World

Championship. Mary has also broken

the record of most successful boxer in

men’s event; Felix Savon of Cuba.

―Felix has won seven medals in

World Championships: Six gold and

one silver. MC Mary Kom has six won

six world titles till now.

―In addition, she has won:

Olympic Bronze Medal,

Five Asian titles.

Gold Medals at the Asian Games,

Gold Medals at the Commonwealth games.

World Athletics Championship were held from September

27 to October 6, 2019 at Doha, Qatar.

―These games saw participation from 209

countries of the world.

―This was the first championship held after

the name of the event was changed from the

World Championship in Athletics to the

World Athletics Championship.

―The key highlights of the games were:

Noah Lyles became the yo ungest gold

medallist in 200m race.

Niklas Kaul became the youngest gold

medallist in Decathlon.

United States won the maximum number

of gold medals at the games.

India was ranked 7th in 100 metres; 8th

rank in 200 metres; 6th rank in 400 metres,

and 8th rank in 1500 metres events.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Ecuador has taken a decision to withdraw from the

Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

―Ecuador has taken the decision due to internal financial

problems faced by it.

―OPEC fixes output quota for its member countries. Ecuador

is trying to deal with its financial problems by increasing its

crude oil exports.

―Ecuador has in past failed the quota limit imposed by OPEC

on multiple occasions.

―Ecuador has announced that its leaving OPEC will not

hamper its efforts to stabilise the world oil markets. This

decision will become effective from 1st January 2020.

―Ecuador has had an on and off relationship with OPEC. It

joined OPEC in 1973 and withdrew from the group in 1992 and

re-joined OPEC in 2007.

Nikita Nagornyy

MC Mary Kom

Noah Lyles

Niklas Kaul

The United States has test fired an

unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental

ballistic missile. ―The missile was test fired from the

California base and it travelled 6,750

kilometres to the Kwajalein Atoll in

Marshall Islands.

―The test was done after the testing of a

ballistic missile by North Korea.

The United States has taken a decision

of imposing tariffs on European exports

worth USD 7.5 billion.

―These tariffs will mostly impact exports

from France, Germany, Spain and the

United Kingdom.

―This is the latest chapter of a 15 years old battle regarding

subsidies to Airbus and Boeing.

―In 2004, United States took EU to the WTO claiming that

cheap loans provided to Airbus amounted to illegal state

subsidies.

―The WTO ruled in favour of the USA. Subsequently USA

complained that some EU countries were not complying with

the WTO ruling.

―The imposition of the current tariffs was done after the WTO

ruled that the United States could impose the tariffs as the

European Countries have not complied with the WTO ruling on

subsidies to Airbus.

―The WTO ruling on subsidies given by United States to the

Boeing is expected to come sometime next year.

―The trade wars between USA and China, and now between

USA and EU are increasing uncertainty in the market and

negatively affecting the economies across the world.

The Asia Pacific Group of Financial Action Task Force

(FATF) has recently released a report on Money Laundering and

Terror Financing in Pakistan.

―According to the report, Pakistan has failed to take adequate

actions against the terror groups

operating in the country.

―The report also states that

Pakistan has not implemented the

United Nations Security

Council (UNSC) resolutions against Hafiz Saeed, Jaish – e –

Mohammed (JeT) and Lashkar – e

– Taiba (LeT).

―The report has observed that

institu tions like Securities and

Exchange Commission of Pakistan and State Bank of Pakistan

have no understanding or very limited understanding of the

terror financing in the country.

―The FATF has warned Pakistan that it can face black listing

unless it takes action against the financing of the terrorist groups

within the country.

China’s Education Ministry has authorised 45 of the local

medical colleges to teach MBBS courses in English.

―China has also clarified that the Chinese Universities are not

allowed to teach MBBS course under bilingual

(Chinese/English) format.

―This decision has been taken in light of the enrolment of

record breaking number of Indian students (21,000) for

doing their MBBS in the country.

―Currently 23,000 Indian students and 28,000 Pakistani

students are studying in China.

―21,000 of these 23,000 are enrolled in MBBS course.

―China is currently hosting around five lakh foreign students.

―China is an attractive destination for foreign students from

India and other Asian countries due to cheaper education cost

(compared to US, UK and Australia).

The United Nations is facing one of the “severest liquidity

crisis” in its history.

―The UN deficit has touched ten years high.

―The UN Secretary General

Antonio Guterres has warned that

UN will not have enough cash by

next month to cover salary

payments. ―There are 34 United Nations

member states which regularly pay

their dues to the UN.

―India is one of these 34 countries

which have cleared its budget dues

in full and on time.

―India paid an amount of 23.25 million to United Nations by

January 31, 2019

―As on October 8, 2019, the United Nations had received USD

1.99 billion towards the 2019 regular budget assessment with

USD 1.386 billion remaining pending.

―As on October 8, 2019, 129 member countries of the United

Nations had paid regular budget dues in full.

―As on October 8, 2019 there were 64 member countries of the

United Nations who were defaulting in the payment of the

regular budget dues.

―The defaulting countries included Afghanistan, Bangladesh,

Brazil, Central African Republic, North Korea, Iran, Israel,

Mexico, Oman, the Philippines, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sri

Lanka, US, Venezuela etc..

SUMMITS & ORGANIZATIONS

The 14th C40 Summit was held from 9th October, 2019 to 12th

October 2019 at Copenhagen.

―The 14th edition of the summit was specifically aimed at

uniting cities, citizens and business for addressing climate

change across the globe.

―C40 Summit connects more than 94 cities of the world that

have committed to the goals of the Paris Agreement.

ENVIRONMENT & ECOLOGY

India celebrated Wildlife Week from 2nd October to 8th

October, 2019.

―The week was celebrated with the aim of preserving animal

life in India. The theme of the week was Life Below Water: For

people and planet.

―The first Wildlife Week was held in India in 1972.

BASIC GK ASPECTS

Books and Authors

First, They Erased Our Name — A Rohingya Speaks―by

Habiburahman with Sophie Ansel

An Examined Life―by Karan Singh

LGM-30 Minuteman III Missile

UN Secretary General Antonio Gutterres

Ninth House―by Leigh Bardugo

The Costliest Pearl – China’s Struggle for India’s

Ocean―by Bertil Lintner,

Indian Muslim(s) after Liberalization―by Maidul Islam

The Bells of Old Tokyo: Travels in Japanese Time―by Anna

Sherman

Visible Muslim, Invisible Citizen―by Salman Khurshid

Awards and Honours

NOBEL PRIZES 2019

The Nobel Prize winners for

2019 have been announced.

―Physiology or Medicine

The 2019 Nobel Medicine

Prize was awarded to

Britain’s Peter Ratcliffe

and William Kaelin and

Gregg Semenza of US.

The 2019 Nobel Medicine

Prize was awarded to them for their contribution towards

research on how cells sense and adapt to oxygen

availability.

Kaelin works with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute,

US.

Semenza is the director of Vascular Research program at

Hopkins Institute of Cell Engineering.

Ratcliffe is the director of Francis Crick Institute in London.

―Physics

Nobel prize for Physics was awarded to Swiss Scientists

Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz and Canadian – American

physicist James Peebles.

Peebles won the prize for his contribution towards

“Theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology”. Mayor

and Queloz won the prize for their “Discovery of an

exoplanet orbiting a star similar to the sun”.

―Chemistry

The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to

John B Goodenough, M Stanley Whittingham and Akira

Yoshino. The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded

to them for their contributions towards development of

lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium ion batteries are indispensable for the wireless and

fossil fuel free society.

―Literature

The 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Olga

Tokarczuk.

The 2019 Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Peter

Handke.

Olga Tokarczuk is a Polish author.

Peter Handke is an Australian author.

The Nobel Prize for Literature was not awarded during

2018 due to the sexual harassment scandal.

―Peace

The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize was

awarded to Abiy Ahmed Ali. He is the Prime Minister of the Federal

Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

The prize was presented for his efforts

to achieve peace and international

cooperation, and in particular for his

decisive initiative to resolve the border

conflict with neighbouring Eritrea.

―Economic Sciences or the

Sveriges Riksbank Prize in

Economic Sciences in

memory of Alfred Nobel

The prize is equally

distributed between

Abhijit Banerjee, Esther

Duflo and Michael

Kremer.

Abhijit Banerjee was

born on 21 Feb 1961,

Mumbai, India

Affiliation at the time of the award: Massachusetts Institute

of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA

He was presented the Nobel Prize for their experimental

approach to alleviating global poverty.

Esther Duflo, was born on 25 Oct 1972, Paris, France. She

is wife of Abhijit Banerjee.

She also works in the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA

Michael Kremer, was born in 1964, and is with the

Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

The three economists were awarded for their experimental

approach to alleviating global poverty.

Appointments

The Government of India has recently appointed Chief

Justices of seven High Courts in India.

Name HC in which appointed

Lingappa Narayana Swamy Himachal Pradesh High Court

Ravi ShankerJha Punjab & Haryana High Court

IndrajitMohanty Rajasthan High Court

Arup K. Goswami Sikkim High Court

AjaiLamba Gauhati High Court

J.K. Maheshwari Andhra Pradesh High Court

S. Manikumar Kerala High Court

―Justice Ravi Shankar Jha, acting chief justice of the Madhya

Pradesh High Court, has been appointed as Chief Justice of the

Punjab and Haryana High Court.

―Justice Ajai Lamba, a judge of the Allahabad High Court,

has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High

Court.

―Justice Indrajit Mahanty, a judge of the Bombay High

Court, has been appointed as Chief Justice of Rajasthan High

Court.

―Justice A Mani Kumar, a judge of the Madras High Court,

has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the Kerala High

Court.

―Justice LN Swamy, a judge in the Karnataka High Court, has

been appointed as Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High

Court.

―Justice JK Maheshwari, a judge of the Madhya Pradesh High

Court, has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the Andhra

Pradesh HC.

―Justice AK Goswami, a judge in the Gauhati High Court, has

been appointed as Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court.

―These appointments were made in the light of the elevation of

the Chief Justices of the high courts of Himachal Pradesh

(Justice V Ramasubramanian), Punjab and Haryana (Justice

Krishna Murari), Rajasthan (Justice S Ravindra Bhat), and

Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo

Abiy Ahmed Ali

Kerala (Justice Hrishikesh Roy) as the Judges of the Supreme

Court.

―The appointment has been made by exercising the powers

conferred under clause (1) of Article 217 of the Constitution of

India.

Must Know

BCCI: Board of Control for Cricket in India

BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India China and South Africa

FATF: Financial Action Task Force

FPI: Foreign Portfolio Investors

GAGAN: GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation

GEMINI: Gagan Enabled Mariner’s Instrument for Navigation

and Information

HWC: Health and Welfare Centres

IMCC: Inter Ministerial Coordination Committee

IOR: Indian Ocean Region

NHM: National Health Mission

NOHP: National Oral Health Program

OPEC: Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries

PDS: Public Distribution System

PMJAY: Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

PoK: Pakistan Occupied Kashmir

SDG: Sustainable Development Goal

SEBI: Securities and Exchange Board of India

SFTA: Switzerland Federal Tax Administration

UNSC: United Nations Security Council

WEF: World Economic Forum

WTO: World Trade Organisation

Days/Anniversaries

The World Teachers Day is observed every year on October

6 across the world.

The Sustainable Development Goal 4 recognise the role of

teachers for fulfilling the Education Agenda 2030.

―There is need of more than 69 million teachers for achieving

the SDG 4.

―The theme of the World Teachers Day 2019 was “Young

Teachers: The Future of the Profession”.

―This theme was selected because young professionals are not

showing interest in joining the teaching stream.

―The observation of this day was started by UNESCO in 1994.

The World Space Week is observed across the world from

October 4 to October 10.

―More than 80 countries participated in the World Space Week

2019.

―The World Space Week 2019 was observed with the theme of

“The Moon: Gateway to the stars”.

―This theme was selected for highlighting the value of moon

in the future space exploration dreams of human beings.

―The observation of the World Space Week was started with

the launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957.

―Sputnik 1 was the first man made satellite launched by human

beings.

The World Habitat Day is observed across the world on the

first Monday of every October.

―The World Habitat Day 2019 was observed with the theme

“Frontier Technologies as an innovative tool to transform

waste to wealth”.

―This theme was chosen for promoting the contributions of the

Frontier Technologies in achieving the Sustainable

Development Goal 11 of building inclusive, safe, resilient and

sustainable cities.

―The observation of the World Habitat Day was adopted by the

United Nations in 1985.

. NEWS BULLETIN―38 Week-4, Oct 2019

NATIONAL

UNICEF has released its first

child nutrition report in 20 years.

The report is titled State of the

World’s Children Report 2019.

According to the report,

Around the globe,

approximately 200 million

children under the age of 5 are

either under nourished or

overweight.

Globally, one in every three children aged five years or less is

either under nourished or overweight.

Every second child in India suffers from some form of

malnutrition. 35% of Indian children are stunting.

17% of India children are wasting.

33% of Indian children are underweight.

2% of Indian children are overweight.

In South Asia, India is the worst performing country with

54% of children under five years of age suffering from some

form of malnutrition.

In 2018, around 8 lakh under five children died in India.

39% of Indian children, adolescents and mothers do not

consume dairy products even once a week.

60% of Indian children, adolescents and mothers do not

consume fruits even once a week.

One in five children in India suffers from a vitamin A

deficiency.

One is two women in India are anaemic

40.5% of children in India are anaemic.

One is ten children in India are pre-diabetic.

Poverty, urbanisation and climate change are three major

causes of poor diet given to children in India.

One in ten children are pre-diabetic. Indian children are being

diagnosed with adult diseases such as hypertension, chronic

kidney disease and diabetes.

―According to the Indian Government data:

Between 2016 and 2018 there was 3.7% reduction in the

number of stunting and wasting children.

Between 2016 and 2018 there was 2.2% reduction in the

number of underweight children.

The Indian Telecom Ministry

has announced that the auction of

5G spectrum will take place at the

end of 2019 or during early 2020. ―Government of India is planning

to sell around 8,293 MHz of

spectrum through 5G auction.

―The base price of the total

spectrum to be sold has been set at

Rs 5.86 lakh crore.

―The previous spectrum sale was conducted in 2016 and it

involved sale of 4G spectrum.

―The 5G technology allows for faster data transfers (around 20

Giga Bytes per second) than existing technologies.

The Global Hunger Index 2019 has been released.

―India’s ranking has fallen from 103 out of 119 countries in

2018 to 102 out of 117 countries in 2019.

―In 2000, India was ranked 83 out of 113 countries.

―The key highlights of the report are:

India has received a GHI score of 30.1

There are 117 countries which have performed better than

India.

Nepal, Sri Lanka, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc. have

performed better than India.

One in every five Indian children is wasted. This is highest

among all the countries included in the report.

The number of children wasting has increased from 16.5% in

2008-12 to 20.8% in 2014-2018.

90.4% of children between 6 and 23 months of age do not

receive the minimum acceptable diet in India.

―Global Hunger Index is

compiled by Irish aid

agency Concern

Worldwide and German

organisation Welt

Hunger Hilfe.

―The Global Hunger

Index is calculated on the

basis of four parameters:

Undernourishment

Child Wasting

Child Stunting

Child Mortality

The Government of India has made a number of relaxations

for Chinese nationals trying to visit India.

―These relaxations were taken after the second informal

summit between the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and

Chinese Premier Xi Jinping at Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu.

The relaxations announced include:

Five years multiple entry e-Tourist visa (a long standing

demand of China) with a visa fee of $80.

Reduction in the fee of single entry 30 days e-Tourist visa to

$25.

Reduction in the fee of single entry 30 days e-Tourist visa

From April to June to $10.

Reduction in the fee of multiple entry one year e-Tourist visa

to $40.

―These steps are expected to increase cultural exchange

between the people of both the countries.

―These measures will also encourage more Chinese tourists to

choose India as a destination.

The Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying,

Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying has

recently released the 20th Livestock Census report

―The key highlights of this census are:

Indian Livestock population is 535.78 million.

This is an increase of 4.6% over Livestock Census 2012.

All copyrights to this material vests with IMS Learning Resources Pvt Ltd. No part of this material either in part or as a whole shall be copied,

reprinted, reproduced, sold, distributed or transmitted in any form in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

recording or otherwise, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without the permission of IMS Learning Resources Pvt Ltd., and any

such violation would entail initiation of suitable legal proceedings.

Total Bovine population of India is estimated at 302.79

million.

This is a one% increase over Livestock Census, 2012.

In 2019, Indian cattle population touched 192.49 million.

In 2019, total cow population touched 146.12 million. This is

an 18% increase over 2012 figures.

In 2019, there were 109.85 million buffaloes in India.

The total number of sheep in India is estimated at 74.26

million. This is an increase of 14.1% over 2012 figures.

The Goat population in India increased by 10.1% to touch

148.88 million.

The pig population declined by 12.03% to touch 9.06 million.

The poultry in India increased by 16.8% to touch 851.81

million.

―India has been conducting regular periodical Livestock

Census since 1919-20.

―All the domesticated animals are included in the Livestock

Census.

―The 20th Livestock Census used tablets and a special app

developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

―More than 80,000 individuals worked in the field for

conducting this Census.

The NITI Aayog has released the India Innovation Index

(III), 2019.

―The key highlights of the Index are:

Karnataka is the Most Innovative Major State of India.

The top five innovative states in India are Karnataka, Tamil

Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana and Haryana in sequence.

Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat and Andhra

Pradesh have been ranked sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and

tenth respectively.

The top three positions in the North Eastern & Hill States

category were achieved by Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and

Uttarakhand.

―This index has been developed for promoting competitiveness

among the states and for finding out the reasons behind

innovations in states.

―The India Innovation Index is prepared by the NITI Aayog

with the help of Institute for Competitiveness.

―The India Innovation Index has taken inspiration from the

Global Innovation Index.

The Chief Justice of

India, Ranjan Gogoi, has

recommended the name of

Justice Sharad Arvind

Bobde for the next Chief

Justice of India. ―Justice Bobde is currently

serving as a judge of the

Supreme Court.

―Justice Bobde is a former

Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh high Court.

―Justice Bobde is due to retire on 23rd April 2021.

―Some of the prominent judgements made by Justice Bobde

include:

Judgement clarifying that the Indian citizen cannot be

deprived of basic services and government subsidies because

they do not have an Aadhaar card.

A judgement banning a book by Mate Mahadevi because it

outraged religious feelings of the followers of Lord

Basavanna

A judgement suspending the sales of fire crackers because

they caused extreme pollution.

―Justice Gogoi is the 46th Chief Justice of India.

―Justice Gogoi took over the office of the Chief Justice of India

on October 3, 2019 and is due to retire on November 17, 2019.

―The senior most judge of the Supreme Court is appointed as

the Chief Justice of India.

―The Chief Justice of India recommends the name of his

successor to the law minister who sends it to the Prime Minister

who in turn advices the President on the issue.

LAW

The Bombay High Court, in a recent judgement, has ruled

that the Indian court can have jurisdiction over a complaint

under Section 498-A IPC for domestic violence committed

abroad.

―The judgement was passed while hearing a writ petition for

quashing of an order passed by the Metropolitan Magistrate.

―The details of the case are as follow:

The petitioner married his wife in December 2008 and they

moved to USA in 2009. They have one six years old son.

In August 2014, the petitioner’s wife moved to her brother’s

home in USA.

In September 2014, she filed for a divorce and child custody.

In January 2015, the petitioner’s wife moved to India and

started residing here.

In May 2015, the petitioner granted her divorce.

―In March 2017, the petitioner wife filed a case under Section

12 of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act,

2005 before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court and the court

passed the maintenance order.

―The petitioner argued that:

--The maintenance order was not maintainable as it was filed

after a delay of two years.

--The Indian Courts do not have jurisdiction to pass the order

because the alleged domestic violence did not take place in

India.

―The High Court held that the wife can file the case in the court

which has jurisdiction over the place where the wife seeks

shelter after leaving or being driven away from the matrimonial

home on account of acts of cruelty committed by the husband or

his relatives.

The Kerala High Court in its recent judgement has held that

the Banks:

cannot claim any amount on account of the disputed

transactions have to restore the amount withdrawn from the account of the

customers in case of online frauds

―The judgement was made by the High Court while hearing a

writ petition.

―The High Court looked into the question if the Bank can plead

assumed liability for proceeding against customers in cases

where the actual transaction itself is challenged on the grounds

of fraud.

―The High Court said that the powers under SARFAESI Act

cannot be used for recovering the money lost due to online fraud.

In cases of fraud, the claim is against the person who committed

the fraud.

―For the purpose, the High Court said that relaxation cannot be

given in case of every transaction which is challenged on the

grounds of fraud but only transactions that are disputed i.e. the

transactions that are pima facie tainted by fraud.

The Madras High Court in its recent judgement has

reiterated that caste of a person is determined on the basis of

birth and it cannot be changed by mere virtue of marriage.

―The Petitioner was allegedly a victim of offences punishable

under Sections 294(b), 324 and 506 of IPC r/w 3 (1) (s) of the

Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of

Atrocities) Act, 2014.

Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde

―The petitioner was seeking compensation of a sum of

Rs.1,50,000/- under Rule 12(4) of the Rules, 2016 but her

representation was not considered by the Collector.

―The police submitted that she was not entitled to the

compensation on the grounds that she was born to the Scheduled

Caste Community and now she was converted to Christianity

as her husband had converted to Christianity.

―The Court dismissed the argument claiming that change of

religion by husband does not amount to change of religion of the

wife.

STATES

The Ministry for Road Transport and Highways has

declared the road connecting Kapurthala and Taran Taran in

Punjab as the National Highway 703AA.

―This highway, connecting Gobindwal Sahib, has been named

as ‘Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji Marg’, after the first Sikh guru.

―The decision has been taken to mark the 550th Birth

Anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.

―The naming and declaration will become operational from

November 2019.

The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council has

officially been abolished after a period of 62 years.

―The official order of the same has been issued under the

Section 57 of J&K Reorganization Act, 2019.

―The staff of the Legislative Council has been asked to report

to the General Administration Department.

―All the vehicles purchased by the State Legislative Council

have been transferred to the state motor garages.

―The orders have also been issued for opening of a new

administrative secretariat in Ladakh.

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

The World Bank

has recently released its

South Asia Economic

Focus, titled “Exports

Wanted”.

―The key highlights of

the report are: Both Bangladesh and Nepal are growing faster than India.

The export potential of the whole South Asian Region is

underutilised.

India’s growth for 2019 has been downgraded to 6%.

India’s growth has been projected at 6.9 and 7.2 in 2021 and

2022 respectively.

South Asia is the fastest growing region of the world

The growth of imports in the region has dropped.

The Foreign Exchange reserves in this region are declining.

The growth rate of Nepal is expected to be 6.5% on account

of construction, tourism and public spending.

The growth rate of Afghanistan is expected to touch 3% on

account of improvement in farming and expectation of

political stability.

The growth rate of Sri Lanka is expected to fall to 2.7%.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has officially

authorised United States to impose retaliation tariffs on

European Union products.

―This decision has been taken by the WTO as a result of a 15

years old battle between USA and EU concerning the illegal

subsidies provided to Airbus.

―WTO has found both United State and EU guilty of providing

illegal subsidies to Boeing and Airbus respectively.

―The WTO ruling on the illegal subsidies provided to Boeing

is still awaited.

―United States says that it will impose 10% tariffs on Airbus

planes and 25% tariff on various products. But EU officials are

trying to negotiate an agreement for avoiding increase in trade

tensions.

The International Monetary Fund has reduced India’s

GDP growth rate to 6.1 per cent from 7.3 per cent given earlier.

―World Bank has earlier revised India’s GDP growth

projections from 7.5% to 6%.

― China’s growth rate is also expected to slow down to 6.1% in

2019 and 5.8% in 2020.

The Government of India has constituted a committee of

12 central and state officers for reviewing GST rate and other

issues related to GST.

―This step has been taken because GST revenue collection is

not meeting the expectation of the Government.

―During September 2019, GST collection did not even touch

Rs 92,000 mark. This was the lowest GST collecting in the 19

months period and second lowest since the implementation of

GST.

―The reasons for the low collection include:

Slowing down of the economy.

Various rate cuts announced by the government.

―The Centre Government is also looking into the use of fake

GST invoices.

―Fraudulent Input Tax Credit claims of Rs 11,251 crore

were detected during FY 2018-19 alone.

―Fake GST invoices are used for obtaining fraudulent Input

Tax Credit (ITC).

DEFENCE & SECURITY

A joint military training exercise “Vajra Prahar” started in

Seattle, USA from October 13, 2019

―Vajra Prahar 2019 will end on October 28.

―The Special Force team of the Indian Armed Forces and the

Special Forces of the United States are participating in this

exercise.

―The Special Forces are a special unit of the Indian Army

which support special operations.

―The Indian Special Forces were instituted in 1965 during the

Indo-Pak war.

―The Parachute Regiment holds the distinction of being the

first Special Operation unit in the Indian Army.

―The Special Forces units of the Indian Army have been used

in various operations like Blue Star, Pawan, and Cactus etc.

Indian army has completed the induction of US made

precision-guided Excalibur artillery ammunition and

indigenous Dhanush howitzer.

―Excalibur Artillery Ammunition has been specially designed

to hit targets within 50 kilometres range with an error margin of

2 metres or less.

―These ammunitions are made by an American company.

Dhanush Howitzer

―The Government of India has used fast track procedure for

acquiring these ammunitions.

―Dhanush Howitzer is a 155 mm towed howitzer designed

specifically for Indian Army.

―Dhanush Howitzer has been designed on the Bofors Haubits

FH77.

The Dharma Guarding 2019 started at Counter-

Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in Vairengte,

Mizoram from 19th October, 2019.

―Indian Army and Japanese Ground Self Defence Forces

(JGSDF) sent 25 soldiers each to these exercises.

―These joint defence exercise between India and Japan will end

on 2nd November 2019.

―This is the second edition of these exercises.

―The first edition of these annual exercises was held in 2018.

―These exercises are expected to increase the interoperability

between the forces of both the countries.

―These exercises are expected to increase the capability of both

the nations to counter terrorism operations.

―The 2019 exercise will focus on jungle and urban operations.

The bilateral joint defence exercises Ex-Eastern Bridge V

started from October 17, 2019.

―These exercises between the Royal Air Force of Oman

(RAFO) and the Indian Air Force will end on October 26, 2019.

―The Indian Contingent to the exercises includes:

MiG-29 UPG combat aircraft

C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.

―The Oman Contingent to the exercises included:

Eurofighter Typhoon

F-16s

Hawk 200 Combat aircraft.

―This is the first time that Indian MiG 29 fighters have

participated in the International defence exercises outside India.

―The 2017 edition of the exercises was held at Jamnagar,

Gujarat.

The Indian Army has started the process of digitalising its

official records under the new Office Automated Structures

Information System (OASIS) programme.

―The whole process is expected to take around six months.

―The key features of the system are:

Uploading of the records of the army officers on the Army’s

intranet.

Uploading of photographs of the army officers for checking

fake dependent cards.

On retirement, the data from OASIS will be transferred to the

Retired Officers Digital Records Archive (RODRA). OASIS will allow officers the facility to check details like

salary slips instantly.

―Till now, the Manpower Planning Directorate was preserving

all these records manually.

―The Indian Army has already digitalised the records related to

the Indian Army Jawans under a similar program.

POLICY AND GOVT. INITIATIVES

Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has launched

Food Safety Mitra Scheme on World Food Day on October

2019. ―The scheme

has been

launched to

increase the

reach of Eat

Right

Movement.

―The Food Safety Mitra scheme has been designed to support

small and medium scale food businesses.

―Under the scheme, the Food Safety Mitra will be trained and

be certified by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India

(FSSAI).

―Under the scheme, periodic checks will be conducted to

ensure that various regulations are followed by the trained Mitra.

―The Ministry also launched Eat Right Jacket and Eat Right

Jhola along with the scheme

―The Eat Right Jackets will be used by the field staff. These

jackets are specially designed for holding a smart phone, RFID

tag and a QR code. The idea is to increase efficiency and

transparency of the food safety administration.

―The Eat Right Jhola is a reusable cloth bag which has been

designed to replace plastic bags.

The National Council of

Educational Research and

Training (NCERT) has decided

to revise National Curriculum

Framework for bringing it in

compliance with the new

National Education Policy (NEP). ―This will be the fourth

revision of the framework. The

framework was first revised in

1975 and last revised in 2005.

―A new committee will be set up for performing the revision.

―NCERT is currently conducting a survey of the primary

education across the country for doing this revision.

―The current education policy was framed in 1986 and revised

in 1992.

―The newly drafted National Education policy will only

concentrate on essential core materials in each subject.

The Department of

Personnel and Training (DoPT) has released a draft

of new rules concerning the

offices of the Chief

Information

Commissioner (CIC) and

the Information

Commissioners (IC). ―Under the newly drafted

rules:

The term of the Chief

Information Commissioner will be made equivalent to the

term of the Cabinet Secretary.

The terms of the Information Commissioners will be made

equivalent to the terms of the Secretaries to the Government

of India.

The perks of the Chief Information Commissioner and the

Information Commissioners will also be made equivalent to

those of the Cabinet Secretary and Secretaries to the

Government of India.

―Currently the perks and terms are decided as per the Right to

Information (RTI) Act, 2005.

―The RTI Act makes the perks and terms equivalent to that of

Chief Election Commissioners and Election Commissioners.

―The RTI Act was amended in 2019 to provide the

Government of India the power of laying down the terms of

services for these officials.

―The Government of India is of the view that these jobs are

becoming plump jobs for a few favoured individuals and as such

it is looking at downgrading their status.

SPORTS

The AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championship 2019

came to an end on October 13.

―This was the 11th edition of this prestigious championship.

This championship was hosted by Ulan-Ude, Russia

―The Championship saw participation of around 224

competitors from 57 countries of the world.

―Manju Rani in the 48Kg

category created history by

becoming the first Indian

women to enter the finals of

the World Boxing

Championship in her

maiden appearance.

―Manju rani obtained a

silver medal after losing to

the Russia’s Ekaterinal

Paltceva, ―MC Mary Kom won a

bronze medal after losing

the semi-finals to Busenaz

Cakiroglu of Turkey. ―Jamuna Boro won a

bronze medal after losing to

the Huang Hsiao-Wen of

Chinese Taipei.

―Lovlina Borgohain won

bronze after losing in semi-finals to Yang Liu of China

The World Youth Chess

Championship recently came to an

end in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

―In under 18 open categories, the

gold medal was won by

Praggnanandhaa R. of India. The

silver and bronze were won by

Shant Sargsyan of Armenia and

Artur Davtyan of Armenia

respectively.

―In Under 18 Girls category, the

gold medal was won by Polina Shuvalova of Russia. The silver

and bronze were won by Vantika Agrawal of India and

Alexandra Obolentseva of Russia respectively.

―In Under 16 Open category, the gold was won by Rudik

Makarian of Russia. The silver and bronze were won by Stefan

Pogosyan of Russia and Aronyak Ghosh of India respectively.

―In Under 16 Girls category, Leya Garifullina of Russia

emerged as the winner. Nurgali Nazerke of Kazakhstan and

Anousha Mahdian of IRI had to satisfy themselves with the

second and third position respectively.

―In Under 14 Open category, Aydin Suleymanli of

Azerbaijan won the gold. The silver and bronze were awarded

to Srihari LR and Sreeshwan Maralakshikari of India

respectively.

―In Under 15 Girls category, Meruert

Kamalidenova of Kazakhstan won the

gold. Divya Deshmukh of India won the

silver and Rakshitta Ravi also of India

won the bronze.

Barcelona Football Club captain

Leonel Messi has been honoured with the

prestigious Golden Shoe for the 2018/19

season. He achieved this distinction by

being the top scorer in the European

Leagues. During 2018/19, Messi scored 36 goals in 34 games.

This is the sixth Golden Shoe won by Messi in his career.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

United States Government has decided to impose sanctions

on Turkish Government agencies.

―United States has put on hold the negotiations on USD 100

billion trade deal.

―United States has also doubled the tariffs on import of Turkish

steel.

―These steps have been taken by the USA following Turkey’s

incursion into Syria.

―The US sanctions have effectively cut the following Turkey

Ministries from the global financial system:

Ministry of National Defence

Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.

Ministry of Interior

―The Untied States Treasury Department has warned Turkey

of additional sanctions if Turkey does not change its stance on

Syria.

The World Bank has recently released a report on ‘South

Asia Economic Focus, Making (De)Centralization Work’.

According to the report:

The economy of the South Asia will decline to 5.9% in 2019.

The GDP of both Bangladesh and Nepal will grow faster than

the GDP of India during 2019.

The GDP growth rate of Pakistan is expected to decline to 2.4

in 2019

The domestic demand of South Asia region has declined

Imports have substantially declined in South Asia. Pakistan

and Sri Lanka have seen import declines of 15 to 20%

The growth in private consumption in India during the last

quarter dropped to 3.1% from 7.3% a year ago.

The manufacturing growth in India during the last quarter

dropped to below 1% from 10% a year ago.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced the

establishment of first graduate-level, research-based Artificial

Intelligence (AI) university in the world.

―The University named Mohamed bin Zayed University of

Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) will provide access to some

of the world’s most advanced Artificial Intelligence Systems in

the world.

―MBZUAI will provide 100% scholarship to all admitted

students in addition to health insurance, allowances,

accommodation etc.

SUMMITS & ORGANIZATIONS

Second Indo-French Knowledge Summit was held on 17

and 18th October, 2019 at the University of Lyon, France.

―The summit was

dedicated to higher

education, research and

innovation. More than 300

individuals participated in

the summit.

―This summit was

organised by the Embassy of France in India in association with

Union Ministry of Science and Technology and Union

Human Resource Development (HRD).

―The summit is expected to boost Indo-French collaborations

in education and research.

Praggnanandhaa R.

Leonel Messi

Indo-French Knowledge Summit 2019

Manju Rani and MC Mary Kom

Jamuna Boro and Lovlina Borgohain

BASIC GK ASPECTS

Books and Authors

One Hell of a Lover by―Unni R

The Battle For Pakistan: The Bitter US Friendship and a

Tough Neighbourhood By―Shuja Nawaz

China's Strategic Deterrence by―Anshuman Narang

Continuing Dilemmas – Understanding Social

Consciousness by―Sudhir Chandra

Awards and Honours

Environmentalist Chandi Prasad

Bhatt has been honoured with the

Indira Gandhi Award for National

Integration for the years 2017 and

2018. ―Bhatt has received this honour for

his contributions towards protecting

and promoting national integration in

India.

―Bhatt is the founder of Dasholi

Gram Swarajya Sangh (DGSS), the

mother organisation of Chipko

Movement.

―Bhatt is one of the pioneers of the Chipko Movement.

―Awards and honours received by Bhatt include:

Ramon Magsaysay Award (in 1982) for community

leadership

Padma Bhushan (2005)

Gandhi Peace Prize.

―The Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration is awarded

in the memory of the former Indian Prime Minister Indira

Gandhi.

―The honour is presented on 31st October, the day on which

Indira Gandhi was killed.

The 2019 Booker Prize has been

awarded to Margaret Atwood and

Bernardine Evaristo jointly. ―This is the first time in the history

that this prize has been awarded jointly.

The judges went against the established

rules for making this possible,

―Margaret Atwood won the award for

her work ‘The Testament’

―Bernardine Evaristo won the award

for her work ‘Girl, Woman, Other’

―Bernardine is the first black woman

to be honoured with this award.

―The shortlisted entries for the award

included:

Lucy Ellmann for ‘Ducks,

Newburyport’

Chigozie Obioma for ‘An Orchestra

of Minorities‘

Elif Shafak for ’10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange

World’

British Indian novelist Salman Rushdie’s ‘Quichotte’.

Four Indian sites have been awarded the UNESCO Asia-

Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.

―UNESCO has selected 16 sites from 5 countries (India,

Bhutan, China, New Zealand and Australia) for the awards.

―The winners of these awards include:

Award of Distinction: Vikram Sarabhai Library, Indian

Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad.

Award of Merit: Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue (Mumbai), a

Jewish Synagogue and Our Lady of Glory Church (Mumbai)

Honourable Mention: Flora Fountain (Mumbai).

Award of Excellence: historic Tai Kwun – Centre for

Heritage and Arts, Hong Kong.

Appointments

Sajjan Jindal, Chairman and

Managing Director, JSW Steel has been

appointed as the Vice-Chairman of World

Steel Association (Worldsteel).

―This appointment has been made for a

period of one year. World Steel

Association is an international trade body

for iron and steel industry. World Steel

Association is one of the largest industry

representations in the world.

Must Know

CIC: Chief Information Commissioner

CJI: Chief Justice of India

DoPT: Department of Personnel and Training

FAO: Food and Agriculture Organisation

FSSAI: Food Safety and Standards Authority of India

GDP: Gross Domestic Product

GHI: Global Huger Index

III: India Innovation Index

IMF: International Monetary Fund

ITC: Input Tax Credit

JGSDF: Japanese Ground Self Defence Forces

MBZUAI: Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial

Intelligence

NCERT: National Council of Educational Research and

Training

NEP: National Education Policy

NITI: National Institution for Transforming India

OASIS: Office Automated Structures Information System

RAFO: Royal Air Force of Oman

RODRA: Retired Officers Digital Records Archive

RTI: Right to Information

UAE: United Arab Emirates

WFD: World Food Day

WSA: World Steel Association

WTO: World Trade Organisation

Days/Anniversaries

The World Food Day (WFD) is observed on 16th October

every year. The United Nations Food and Agriculture

Organisation (FAO) was created on this day in 1945. The 2019

World Food Day was celebrated with a theme of ‘Our Actions

are our Future Healthy Diets for a Zero Hunger World’

In recognition of the contributions of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam,

the United Nations has decided to declare his birthday on

October 15 as the World Students Day.

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is

observed annually on October 17 across the world.

―The theme of the International Day for the Eradication of

Poverty in 2019 was ‘Acting together to Empower Children,

their families and Communities to End Poverty’

―The decision to observe this day was adopted by the United

Nations in 1992.

Chandi Prasad Bhat

Margret Atwood

Bernardine Evaristo

Sajjan Jindal

. NEWS BULLETIN―40 Week-5, Oct 2019

NATIONAL

⚫ India and Pakistan have signed an agreement for

operationalising the Kartarpur corridor.

―This agreement will remain valid for a period of five years,

after which it will be reviewed.

―Under the agreement

✓ Pilgrims will be allowed to carry up to Rs 11,000 in cash.

✓ Pilgrims will be allowed to carry one bag weighting 7 kg or

less.

✓ Pilgrims will not be allowed excess to any area beyond the

shrine.

✓ Pilgrims will be allowed to travel to the shrine in morning and

they would have to return to India on the same day.

✓ India will have to provide the list of pilgrims to Pakistan 10

days in advance.

✓ Children below 13 years and persons of about 75 years and

above will have to travel in groups.

✓ Eco-friendly material, preferably cloth bags, should be used

during the pilgrimage

✓ Pilgrims would be allowed to carry kirpans (dagger),

◼ Smoking, drinking and use of tobacco are not allowed inside

the PTB complex at Dera Baba Nanak.

✓ A fee of $20 per pilgrim would have to be paid to Pakistan.

✓ Persons of Indian Origin holding the Oversees Citizenship of

India (OCI) card will be allowed to use the Corridor.

✓ A maximum of 5,000 pilgrims will be allowed to use the

corridor daily. With an option of increase on special occasions.

✓ The Corridor will remain operational seven days a week, 12

months a year.

―A 10-member panel – Kartarpur Sahib Corridor Executive

Committee (KSCEC) – has been constituted under the

chairmanship of the deputy commissioner-cum-chief

administrator, Dera Baba Nanak (DBN) Development

Authority.

―KSCEC will be responsible for coordinating and facilitating

the day-to-day aspects of the Kartarpur Corridor.

―The purpose of the Kartarpur Corridor is to facilitate pilgrims

who want to visit the Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan

from India.

―The Kartarpur Corridor connects Dera Baba Nanak in

Gurdaspur, Punjab, India with the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in

Kartarpur, Pakistan.

―Gurudwara Darbar Sahib is the final resting place of the

founder and the first Guru of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev Ji.

⚫ World Bank has released the Ease of Doing Business

Ranking 2019.

―India has been ranked at the 63rd position in the ranking.

―This is a significant gain of 14 places compared to the 2018

ranking.

―This improvement in ranking has come at a time when India’s

GDP growth estimates have been revised downwards.

―India has also been

included in the top 10

performing countries

for a third time in a

row.

―The other top

performing countries

of 2019 are:

✓ Saudi Arabia (62)

✓ Jordan (75)

✓ Togo (97)

✓ Bahrain (43)

✓ Tajikistan (106)

✓ Pakistan (108)

✓ Kuwait (83)

✓ China (31)

✓ Nigeria (131).

―World Bank has

commended the

reform efforts undertaken in India keeping in mind the size of

Indian Economy.

⚫ The National

Crime Records Bureau

(NCRB) has recently

released data for the

crime situation in the

country.

―The release of this

data has been delayed for

more than a year.

―The released data do

not include details under

the following sub-heads:

✓ Death due to mob

lynching

✓ Murder by influential people

✓ Killing ordered by khap panchayat

✓ Murder committed for religious reason

―These details were collected, but a decision was made not to

release this. ―This is one of the reasons for delay in the release

of the report.

All copyrights to this material vests with IMS Learning Resources Pvt Ltd. No part of this material either in part or as a whole shall be copied,

reprinted, reproduced, sold, distributed or transmitted in any form in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

recording or otherwise, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without the permission of IMS Learning Resources Pvt Ltd., and any

such violation would entail initiation of suitable legal proceedings.

Kartarpur Corridor - India & Pakistan border

―The current report has added two new categories of cyber

crimes and offences against the state to the 2016 report.

―According to the report:

✓ In 2016 there were 6,986 cases offences against the state.

These increased to 9,013 in 2017.

✓ This is a 30 percent increase.

✓ Haryana has maximum number of offences against the State

at 2,576.

✓ Haryana is followed by Uttar Pradesh with 2,055 offences.

✓ Under Anti-National Elements category, 652, 421 and 371

offences were committed by the Left Wing Extremists (LWE),

North East insurgents and Terrorists (Jihadi and others)

respectively.

✓ Similarly, maximum number of deaths under Anti-National

Elements was by LWE (82 deaths).

✓ LWE was followed by terrorists and North East Insurgents

with 36 and 10 deaths respectively.

✓ A total of 50,07,044 cognizable crimes were registered during

2017. This is a 3.6 per cent increase over the 2016 figures.

✓ A total of 30,62,579 cognizable crimes were registered under

Indian Penal Code (IPC) during 2017.

✓ A total of 19,44,465 cognizable crimes were registered under

Special & Local Laws (SLL) in 2017

✓ The number of registered murder cases declined from 30,450

in 2016 to 28,653 cases in 2017. This is a decrease of 5.9

percent.

✓ Highest number of these murder cases – 7,989 – was due to

Disputes.

✓ Disputes were followed by Personal vendetta or enmity and

Gain in 4,660 and 2,103 cases respectively.

✓ In the crime against women category, 33.2 percent cases were

due to Cruelty by Husband or his Relatives.

✓ This was followed by Assault on Women with Intent to

Outrage her Modesty and Kidnapping & Abduction of women

with 27.3 percent and 21 percent of cases respectively.

✓ Rape was responsible for 10.3 percent of the cases under the

crime against women category.

✓ 42 percent of all Crimes Against Children dealt with

kidnapping and abduction.

✓ 25.3 percent of all Crimes Against Children were related to

the cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences

Act, 2012 (25.3 per cent) including child rape.

✓ Three states of Delhi, Assam and Kerala saw the highest

increase in the IPC crimes.

LAW

⚫ The Kerala High Court has directed the Government and

Local Self Government Institutions to repair and maintain all

roads to make them motoroble 'immediately'.

―The Kerala High Court has said that the direction should be

complied with before 31st January 2020.

―The Court while giving the direction said that dealing with

extraordinary situations can many timed means using

extraordinary remedies.

―The directive was issued by the Court while hearing a writ

petition filed in 2008 regarding the conditions of roads in

Kerala.

―During the final hearing the petitioners claimed that the

situation of the roads rather than improving had further

worsened.

―The Court issued the following directives in this case:

--The Court set the deadline of 31st December 2019 for making

all PWD roads in the State motorable with at least the minimum

necessary standards.

--The Court set the deadline of 31st January 2020 for making all

the roads under the Local Self Government institutions

motorable with at least the minimum necessary standards.

--The Court said that the repair and maintenance work should be

carried out by following due procedure.

--The concerned staff will have to face consequences under the

Service Regulations and the Indian Penal Code in case of failure

to conduct repairs or for delays in the work.

--The Court has specifically said that any citizen or Resident

Associations will be allowed to bring to the notice of the

concerned department or institution any disrepairs of any road

or information regarding formation of pot holes and craters.

―The Court held that any amount of excuse or reasons cannot

be allowed to justify loss of life or even injury solely due to the

bad conditions of the roads.

⚫ Bombay High Court has reiterated that individuals right to

privacy and held that the tapping of phones by government

officials is unlawful unless it meets certain minimum eligibility

conditions.

―The ruling was given by the Court while hearing a case in

which the CBI was tapping a phone of the certain Mumbai

businessman on suspicion that he was bribing bank officials for

getting loans.

―The businessman approached the court and requested the

destruction of the records contending the tapping of his phone

was illegal.

―The Court quoted the PUCL case in which the Supreme Court

has held that the right to hold a telephone conversation in the

privacy of one’s home or office without interference in a right

to privacy. ―This is protected under Article 21 of the

Constitution and it cannot be violated unless specifically

permitted under the procedure established by law.

⚫ The Supreme Court has refused to accept the contention that

‘flight risk’ of economic offenders is a national phenomenon

simply because several industrialists have escaped India.

―The Supreme Court contended that there cannot be a single

‘straight jacket formula’ for denying bail to an accused because

other offenders have acted in a particular manner.

―The Supreme Court said this while hearing a bail plea of the

senior Congress leader and former finance minister P.

Chidambaram in the INX Media Corruption Case.

―The CBI was arguing that the Congress leader was a ‘flight

risk’ because many economic offenders were fleeing India.

―Chidambaram is presently in ED’s custody in connection with

the money laundering case.

STATES

Bali Jatra, one of the biggest trade fairs of Odisha will be held

from 12 November to 20 November, 2019.

―Bali Jatra 2019 is being organised jointly by Cuttack District

Administration, Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) and

District Cultural Council.

―Bali Jatra or Boita Bandana is an annual festival which

means ‘A Voyage of Bali’.

―Bali Jatra is celebrated in Cuttack, Odhisa at the Gadagadia

Ghata of Mahanadi river.

―Bali Jatra was celebrated to mark the sailing of ancient Odia

Mariners to the lands of Bali, Java, Sumatra etc. to expand trade.

⚫ In Haryana Assembly elections BJP has won 40 seats out

of 90.

―Congress has won 31 seats out of 90.

―Dushyant Chautala’s JJP was able to secure 10 seats.

―Seven seats were won by independents.

― BJP, which had set a target of 75 seats, was not able to reach

even the midway mark.

―Compared to Lok Sabha polls, the vote share of BJP reduced

from 58 percent to 36.5 percent.

⚫ In Maharashtra Assembly Elections, BJP was able to win

105 of the 288 seats.

―BJP’s allay Shiv Sena was able to secure an additional 56

seats bringing the total to 161 seats, crossing the 144 mark

required for forming government.

―Congress was able to secure 44 seats only.

―Nationalist Congress Party won 54 seats.

⚫ IIT Delhi has announced setting of an Endowment Fund.

―The institution is planning to raise to the tune of USD 1 billion

for this fund from its alumni, bankers and industrialists.

―An Endowment Fund is a type of fund in which the capital

will be left untouched and the income earned from the fund will

be used by the organisation for meeting its expenses.

―The capital is generally invested in different income

generating instruments or sources like debt instruments, mutual

funds, equity markets, bullion markets etc.

―Universities across the globe use Endowment Funds for

meeting their finance requirements. Harvard and Stanford

University have endowment funds of USD 39 billion and USD

27 billion respectively.

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

⚫ India and ASEAN group have agreed to review the

existing bilateral Free Trade Agreement in Goods category.

―The update on the review will be submitted at the next

ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) – India Consultations.

―India wants to review the FTA for making it simpler and more

user friendly.

―Indian exporters are not optimally utilising the FTA route due

to multiple reasons.

―Since January 2010 (the time when the free trade agreement

became operational), India’s trade deficit with ASEAN

countries increased from USD 5 billion to USD 10 billion in

2017.

―The trade between the ASEAN countries and India increased

from USD 73.6 billion in 2017 to USD 80.8 billion in 2018.

⚫ The Union Ministry of Electronics and Information

Technology (MeitY) has announced the MeitY Startup Hub

(MSH). ―The Ministry

wants to use MSH

platform for

promoting

technological

innovations and

creation of

Intellectual

properties.

―The MeitY wants to use this platform for boosting

technological innovations and for increasing Intellectual

property in the country. ―MSH platform is a comprehensive collaborative platform.

― MSH platform will help connect startups with mentors.

― MSH platform will facilitate the process from idea stage to

the marketplace stage.

― MSH platform was announced at the MeitY Startup Summit

2019.

⚫ Government of India has

cleared the revival plan for

Bharat Sanchar Nigam

Limited (BSNL). ―The Sanchar Nigam

Executives’ Association

(SNEA), an employees’ union of

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd

(BSNL) has welcomed the

revival plans while having

reservations on the Voluntary

Retirement Scheme (VRS)

announced along with revival package.

―According to the revival plan cleared by the Government:

✓ The ex-gratia payment will be made by the Government and

not by BSNL. This is a saving of approximately Rs 14,800

crores.

✓ The Government has decided to honour a long-term demand

of BSNL for 4G spectrum. Delay in the allocation of 4G

spectrum has almost ended BSNL while all the other operators

have already upgraded to 4G services.

✓ The 18 percent GST (approximately Rs 2,806 crore) on 4G

spectrum allotment will also be paid by the Government instead

of BSNL.

✓ The revival plan will allow BSNL to raise up to Rs 15,000

crore for capex and opex operations through sovereign bonds.

✓ The revival plan calls for the merger of BSNL with MTNL.

―The entire revival package is expected to cost approximately

Rs 70,000 crores.

DEFENCE & SECURITY

⚫ The India Myanmar Naval Exercise IMNEX-2019 was

held in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh from October 19 to

October 22.

―The following Myanmar Naval ships participated in the

exercise:

✓ UMS Sin Phyu Shin (F-14)

✓ UMS Tabinshweti (773)

―The following Indian Navy Ships participated in the exercise:

✓ INS Kuthar (missile corvette)

✓ INS Ranvijay (guided-missile destroyer)

―IMNEX 2019 was conducted in two phases:

✓ The harbour phase which included visiting Indian Naval Units

and visiting training & maintenance facilities at Visakhapatnam.

✓ The sea phase which involved joint exercise in the Bay of

Bengal.

―This was the second edition of IMNEX.

⚫ Ekuverin, the joint defence exercise between the Indian

Army and the Maldives National Defence Force were held

from October 7 to October 20 at the Aundh Military Station,

Pune, Maharashtra.

―These exercises are conducted to increase the interoperability

of the defence forces of these two countries.

―The idea is to increase the capability of counter terrorism

operations.

―Ekuverin exercises are held alternatively in India and

Maldives.

―India and Maldives started conducting Ekuverin in 2009.

Ekuverin 2019 were the 10th edition of the exercises.

⚫ The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has cleared the

Capital Procurement to the tune of Rs 3,300 crore for the

defence forces.

―These procurements will focus on indigenously designed and

developed equipment.

―The three projects cleared by DAC are:

✓ Third Generation Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM)

✓ Auxiliary Power Units (APUs) for T-72 and T-90 series of

Tanks.

✓ Discrete Electronic Warfare (EW) systems

―The ATGM and APUs are being developed under the ‘Make-

II Category’.

―This is the first time that the Defence Ministry has allowed

Indian Private sector organisations to design, develop and

manufacture complex military equipment.

―The third generation ATGMs are Fire and Forget missiles.

―The APUs will upgrade the existing Fire Control Systems and

Night Fighting Capabilities of the T-72 and T-90 Tanks.

Electronic Warfare Systems will be developed for the Mountain

and High Altitude terrain.

―Electronic Warfare System will be designed and developed

by DRDO and manufactured with the help of an Indian Private

Sector partner.

⚫ Union Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani,

Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) and the

Ministry of Defence have signed a Memorandum of

Understanding (MoU). ―This MoU provides for integration of AYUSH with the

Defence Health Establishments of Directorate General of

Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS).

―The MoU will allow the Defence Establishments to provide

traditional medical series.

―The idea is to use both Ayurveda and Yoga to help the soldiers

to improve physical health, mental health and endurance.

⚫ The Defence Research and

Development Organization (DRDO)

is working on producing hypersonic

missiles.

―Hypersonic missiles are capable of

travelling at five times the speed of

sound.

―These missiles can carry both

conventional and nuclear warheads.

―The speed of these missiles allows

them to bypass the current missile defence systems.

―China has already tested hypersonic weapons. France is

working on developing them. US and Russia are silent about

their hypersonic weapon capabilities.

POLICY AND GOVT. INITIATIVES

⚫ The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology

(MeitY) has launched BHIM 2.0 application.

―BHIM is a Unified Payments Interface (UPI) based payment

interface developed by the National Payment Corporation of

India.

―BHIM allows for real time funds

transfers.

―This app was released in December

2016.

―The new features included in

BHIM 2.0 app are:

✓ Donation Gateway ✓ Higher Transaction Limits

✓ Linkage with multiple bank

accounts

✓ IPO purchases

✓ Gifting

✓ Support for Konkani, Bhojpuri and Haryanvi.

―The BHIM 2.0 application has been released during the

MeitY Startup Summit.

―The MeitY has also released an Indian Software registry. This

registry is in form of a single window portal for collating Indian

Software product database.

⚫ The Indian Railways is testing

a project of transporting e-

commerce consignments during

non-peak hours on pilot basis.

―Period from 11:00 to 16:00

hours will be regarded as non-peak

hours. ―The agreement for the

consignment has been signed

between Indian Railways and

Amazon Group for a period of three months.

―The consignments will be allowed only in the vendor

compartment. This is being done for ensuring that the decision

does not lead to disruptions.

―Both Indian Railways and E-commerce companies will be

benefitted from this decision.

✓ Indian Railways will be able to earn revenue without affecting

its existing services.

✓ The E-commerce companies will be able to take advantage of

this for reducing their transit times.

―Earlier, the Eastern Railways had allowed the EMU locals in

suburban services to carry Amazon Consignments.

SPORTS

⚫ The CISM

Military World

Games 2019 were

held in Wuhan,

China from

October 18 to

October 27, 2019.

―This is the first

time that China hosted an international military multi-sport

event. The games saw participation of more than 10,000 athletes

from over 140 countries. The games involved 329 events in

more than 27 sports.

―Indian contingent at the games was made of 100 military

personnel.

―This is the first time that table tennis, badminton, tennis,

men’s gymnastics and women’s boxing were included at the

World Military Games.

―These games were organised by Military Sports

Commission of China, Ministry of National Defense of

People’s Republic of China (PRC) and military commands

(Army).

―CISM Military World Games are the top multi-sport event for

military personnel in the world.

―This is the seventh edition of these games.

―These games are also known as Olympic Games for military.

⚫ Great Britain has defeated India’s junior men hockey team

with 2-1 in the final of 9th men’s Sultan of Johor Cup hockey

tournament held at Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

―2018 winner, Great Britain reached the finals with 8 goals in

favour and 5 goals against them.

―India, on the other hand reached finals with 24 goals in favour

and 12 goals against them.

―India’s Shilanand Lakra with 5 goals was the highest scorer

of the tournament.

Japan’s Kosei Kawabe was recognised as the best player of the

tournament.

―Sultan of Johor Cup is an international men’s under–21 field

hockey tournament.

―The Sultan of Johor Cup tournament was held for the first

time in 2011.

―Out of the nine tournaments till date England has won three

times (2015, 2018 and 2019.

―Out of the nine tournaments till date both India and Australia

have won the tournament two times.

⚫ Praveen Kumar has created history by becoming the first

Indian man to win a gold m edal

at the Wushu World

Championships 2019.

―Parveen achieved this honour

by defeating Russel Diaz of

Philippines in the 48kg category.

―In 2017, Indian Pooja Kadian

created history by becoming the

first India to be

crowned world champion in

wushu after she defeated Evgeniya Stepanova of Russia in the

women’s 75 kg sanda event.

―Wushu sanda is a martial art which combines full-contact

kickboxing, including close range punches and kicks, with

wrestling, takedowns, throws, sweeps and kick catches.

―The 15th World Wushu Championships were held in

Shanghai, China.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

⚫ The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has removed Sri

Lanka from its ‘Grey List’.

―The decision to the effect was taken due to the new measures

taken by Sri Lanka to check the Money Laundering and

Financing of Terrorist Organisations in the country.

―FATF place countries on the Grey List when they have

significant deficiencies in their Anti-Money Laundering and

Countering the Financing of Terrorism efforts.

―Sri Lanka was placed in the FATF’s blacklist for the first time

in 2011.

―Sri Lanka was identified as a dangerous country with zero

commitment to Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of

Terrorism Efforts in 2012.

―In 2016, Sri Lanka started efforts for improving the financial

security of the country. In the same year FATF declared Sri

Lanka as a cooperating state.

―In 2017, the FATF moved Sri Lanka from the Black List to

the Grey List due to their efforts in enhancing Financial

Security.

―FATF is a Paris based inter-governmental organisation

established in 1989 for combating terrorist financing and money

laundering throughout the world.

⚫ Chile has declared a state of emergency in its capital

Santiago.

―This emergency has been imposed for ensuring public order

and peace in the city.

―This emergency will provide Chile’s military the power for

ensuring public order and peace in the city.

―The emergency has been initially imposed for a period of 15

days. There has been no imposition of curfew as of now.

―The declaration has been made after one of the worst episodes

of violence in the city in recent years.

―The recent violence started with protests over the increase in

the price of metro tickets and was followed by blockage of

railway system and attacks on the subway system.

―During the violence, there were multiple clashes between the

riot police and the protestors throughout the city.

SUMMITS & ORGANIZATIONS

⚫ India has been

selected for hosting

the 91st Interpol

General Assembly

in 2022. ―This decision was

taken during the

2019’s congregation of Interpol Member Countries held at

Santinago, Chile on 19th October, 2019.

⚫ The NAM Summit was held at Baku, Azerbaijan on 25 to 26

October 2019.

―Vice President, M. Venkaiah Naidu lead the Indian

delegation at 18th Summit of Heads of State and Government of

Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

―The Summit discussed issues related to:

✓ Terrorism

✓ UN reform

✓ Threats to peace and security

✓ Sustainable development

✓ Climate change

✓ South-south cooperation

✓ Economic governance.

―The theme for the 2019 NAM Summit was ‘Upholding the

Bandung Principles to ensure concerted and adequate response

to the challenges of the contemporary world’.

Praveen Kumar

―Bandung Principles is a set of ten political statements related

to world peace and corporation.

―Bandung Principles were formulated at the Asian-African

Conference of 1955.

―The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120

developing world states that are not formally aligned with or

against any major power bloc.

―After United Nations (UN), NAM is the largest grouping of

states globally.

NAM was established in 1961 in Belgrade, Serbia with 29

members.

BASIC GK ASPECTS

Books and Authors

Fear of Lions―by Amita Kanekar,

Prelude to a Riot―by Annie Zaidi and Aleph

Operation X: The Untold Story of India’s Covert Naval War

in East Pakistan―by Captain M.N.R. Samant and Sandeep

Unnithan,

Malevolent Republic: A Short History of the New India―by

K.S. Komireddi,

The Pataala Prophecy: The Mists of Brahma―by

Christopher C Doyle

She Said―by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

21 Lessons for the 21st Century―by Yuval Noah Harari

This Land Is Our Land―by Suketu Mehta

Awards and Honours

⚫ Former Attorney General of India

Shri K Parasaran has been honoured

with the “Most Eminent Senior Citizen

Award” 2019. ―K. Parasaran acted as the Advocate

General of Tamil Nadu in 1976.

―K. Parasaran acted as the Attorney

General of India during the Prime

Ministership of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv

Gandhi.

―K. Parasaran was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 2003 and

Padma Vibhushan in 2011.

Appointments

⚫ The Appointments Committee of

Cabinet (ACC) has approved the

appointment of senior IAS officer

Sanjeev Nandan Sahai as the new

power secretary.

―Sahai is a 1986-batch IAS officer of

union territories (UT) cadre.

―Sahai is currently serving as the

special secretary in the power ministry.

―Sahai will assume the office of the

power secretary after the retirement of the current power

secretary Subhash Chander Garg.

―Garg will superannuate on 31 October 2019.

―Garg has taken voluntary retirement. He was originally due

for retirement in 2020.

⚫ B R Sharma has been appointed as the Chairman, Staff

Selection Commission. ―B R Sharma is an IAS officer from the Jammu and Kashmir

cadre.

―B R Sharma was serving as the

Secretary in Border Roads Organisation

(BRO) under the Home Ministry before

this appointment.

―Nagendra Nath Sinha has been

appointed as the Chairman of National

Highway Authority of India.

―Sinha is a 1987 batch IAS officer.

⚫ Senior IPS officer of Gujarat cadre

Anup Kumar Singh has been appointed

as director-general of the National

Security Guard (NSG).

―This appointment has been approved by

the Appointments Committee of the

Cabinet (ACC). ―This post was lying vacant since the

retirement of previous director general

Sudeep Lakhtakia.

―The National Security Guards are a

special commandos force raised in 1984

specifically for handling counter terrorists and hijack like

situations.

―The National Security Guards are also involved in providing

security to high Profile VVIPs in India.

People in News ⚫ Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo

has taken the oath for the second five-year

term. ―Joko was re-elected as the president in

the April 2019, Presidential Elections with

55.5 percent votes.

―Joko’s plan is to lay down the

foundation for making Indonesia one of

the top 5 economies of the World by 2045.

―Joko reign was marked with security issues, corruption and

economic slowdown of the country,

―This will be the final term for Joko.

Must Know

ACC: Appointments Committee of Cabinet

AFMS: Armed Forces Medical Services

APU: Auxiliary Power Units

ASEAN: Association of Southeast Asian Nations

ATGM: Anti Tank Guided Missiles

AYUSH: Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa

Rigpa and Homeopathy

BRO: Border Roads Organisation

BSNL: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited

DAC: Defence Acquisition Council

DRDO: Defence Research and Development Organisation

FATF: Financial Action Task Force

FTA: Free Trade Agreement

IPC: Indian Penal Code

KSCEC: Kartarpur Sahib Corridor Executive Committee

LWE: Left Wing Extremists

MeitY: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology

MTNL: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited

NAM: Non-Aligned Movement

NCRB: National Crime Records Bureau

NSG: National Security Guard

OCI: Oversees Citizenship of India

UPI: Unified Payments Interface

VRS: Voluntary Retirement Scheme

Sanjeev Nandan Sahai

BR Sharma

Anup Kumar Singh

K Parasaran

Joko Widodo