Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) appealed for a day-long worldwide hunger

strike against chronic hunger. According to FAO statistics, 1.02 billion people live in
chronic hunger. The FAO has also launched an online anti-hunger petition on
www.1billionhungry.org Hunger Summit will be held at Rome, Italy from 16th to 18th
November, 2009.

The National University of Defence Technology (NUDT) unveiled Chinas fastest

supercomputer. The supercomputer named Tianhe, meaning Milky Way, will do more
than 1 quadrillion calculations per second (one petaflop) at peak speed.

China offered billions of dollars of concessional loans to Africa and pledged to

contribute significantly to the continents skilled human resources base.

A meeting of G20 Finance Ministers was held in Scotland. They failed to reach an
agreement on funding climate change.

The U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) has launched a campaign in the
Kenyan capital Nairobi to mobilise people around the world to take part in a drive to stop
the pandemic of violence suffered by women.

National

The Union Public Service Commission has recommended to the government that a Civil
Services Aptitude test replace the existing Civil Services (Preliminary) examination.

Cyclone Phyan has hit Maharashtra and caused massive damage to the coastal districts.

The Shipping Ministry has decided to set up a broad-based committee, comprising

various agencies, for sharing information on traffic, port and issues related to ship and
coastal security. The Committee will comprise the Ministry of Shipping, the Navy, Coast
Guard, State police, Customs, members of State maritime boards and the maritime State
concerned.

The Union Cabinet has directed the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry to make it
mandatory for all oil marketing companies to sell petrol mixed with 5 per cent of
ethanol.

India announced that issuance of paper visas stapled to passports by the Embassy of
China and its consulates in India would not be considered valid for travel out of the
country.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released a report revealing that

telephone users reached 50.93crore by the end of September 30th. Broadband users
reached 7.7million, telephone users were 43.50% and Mobile phone users were 40.31%.

Home Ministry banned the use of prepaid mobile connections in Jammu and Kashmir on
security grounds.

India has 25lakh cancer patients and one million new cases are diagnosed across the
country every year. In Andhra Pradesh alone, nearly 3 lakh people suffer from the many
forms of the disease. These figures were disclosed at a programme to mark National
Cancer Awareness Day.

The government will introduce Hib (Haemophilus influenza type b) pentavalent (five-inone) vaccine in the routine immunisation programme from next year. It will replace the
DPT and Hepatitis B vaccines. The Hib vaccine will initially be introduced in 10 States
that have an immunisation coverage of more than 80 per cent

A special postage stamp in recognition of the contribution of Apollo Hospitals towards

Indian healthcare was released by Union Minister of Communications and Information
Technology A. Raja.

Twenty-one judges of the Supreme Court, including Chief Justice of India K.G.
Balakrishnan, have declared their assets, giving details of movable and immovable
property owned by them and their spouses in the Supreme Court website.

Actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been appointed first Goodwill Ambassador of the
Smile Train, an international charity that provides free cleft lip and palate surgery to
children in need.

Sports

Australia had won the ODI series against India at 4-2. Watson was named Man-of-theSeries.

Viswanath Anand has won Rapid Chess Championship by defeating Karpov.

Sachin Tendulkar scored 17, 000 runs in 435 ODIs. He is the highest scorer in ODIs.
Sanat Jayasurya and Rickey Ponting are 2nd and 3rd highest scorers.

Italy has won Federation cup tennis title.

Sowmya Swaminathan has won the World Junior Girls Chess Championship held in
Argentina. She is the third to win the title after Hampi and Harika.

China has won Asia Women Hockey cup by defeating India in the final.

Serena Williams has won WTA womens championship after defeating her sister Venus
in the final.