Current Affairs October, 2020
National
1. October 1 is observed as the International Day
of Older Persons annually all across the world.
The day is observed by the United Nations and
several other organizations. 2020 edition of the
day marks its 30th anniversary. 2020 edition seeks
to promote "Decade of Healthy Ageing" (2020-
2030).
2. The family of Chittipeddi Kotaiah is going to
apply for Geographical Indications Registry’s
(GIR) tag for ‘Kakinada kaja’. A geographical
indication (GI) is a name or sign used on some
specific products. There products corresponds to a
specific geographical location or origin. The use
of a geographical indication acts as a certification
for the product having certain qualities or is made
as per the traditional using traditional methods or
the product enjoys a good reputation because of its
geographical origin.
3. The National Crime Record Bureau have
recently released a report titled "Crime in India",
2019. As per the report, crimes against members
of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled
Tribes (STs) reported an increase of over 7% and
26% in 2019 respectively as compared with the
2018 figure.
4. The International Day of Non-Violence is
observed on October 2 to commemorate the birth
anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. United Nations
General Assembly started the observance of the
day in 2007. The day spreads the message of non-
violence. This year the day is being celebrated
under the Theme- Shaping Peace Together.
5. The Supreme Court (SC) of India struck down
the Gujarat government’s decision to exempt
industries from paying overtime wages to workers
under the Factories Act, 1948. The judgement,
pronounced by a bench headed by Justice DY
Chandrachud, has also put down the decision of
fixed working hours amid the coronavirus
pandemic.
6. A Survey was conducted by the Development
Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO), NITI
Ayog in order to assess performance of different
Ministries or Departments’ on the implementation
of Central Sector Schemes (CS) and Centrally
Sponsored Schemes (CSS).
7. World Day for Farmed Animals was celebrated
on October 2, 2020 by the International animals’
welfare organization, World Animal Protection
along with the Asia for Animals coalition in order
to bring the focus on the need to treat farm
animals as sentient beings.
8. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the
Atal Tunnel which is the world longest high-
altitude tunnel at Rohtang. It has been named after
late former PM shree Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The
tunnel is located above the altitude of 10,000 feet
(3,000 feet).
9. NSS report- ‘Time Use Survey’, which was a
first of its kind, was recently conducted by the
Ministry of Statistics and Programme
Implementation (MoSPI). The survey was
conducted between January 2019 and December
2019. 1.39 lakh households comprising 4.47 lakh
persons over the age of six were listed.
10. Reliance Life Sciences has developed an real-
time reverse transcription-polymerase chain
reaction (RT-PCR) kit. It claims to diagnose
COVID-19 infection in about 2 hours. Presently,
COVID-19 RT-PCR test takes up to 24 hours to
give a diagnosis. The kit can detect the presence
of E-gene, R-gene, RdRp gene of SARS COV2
virus with Actin as an internal control. According
to the ICMR results, the kit is 98.7 % sensitive
and 98.8 % specific. The diagnosis time of the kit
is approximately 2 hours.
11. The World Habitat Day is observed on the first
Monday of October month every year. The United
Nations General Assembly had declared in 1985
the first Monday in October as World Habitat
Day. The day is celebrated to recognise the basic
right of all humanity to have a adequate shelter
and to encourage grassroots action in order to end
poverty housing. The day is being celebrated
under the theme- Housing for All-A better Urban
Future.
12. The central government has extended the
deadline of the TREM Stage-IV emission norms.
These norms for tractors were scheduled to be
applicable from October 2020. Now, the
government of India has extended the deadline to
October 1, 2021. The ministry of road transport
and highways has amended the Central Motor
Vehicles Rules, 1989 on September 30, 2020 in
order to accommodate the extension.
13. A team of Europe-based scientists, in their
journal Nature Communications, have published
that about 40% of the Amazon risks changing
from rainforest to savanna. They have stated that,
the forest is not getting enough rainfall to sustain
its ecosystem because of greenhouse gas
emissions.
14. The Gujarat State Government launched the
"Digital Seva Setu Programme" for rural areas on
October 6, 2020. It was launched under the Bharat
Net Project of the Central government. The
programme comply with the India’s Digital India
Mission. The villages will be connected with the
100 MBps optical fibre network with an aim to
make every village a mini Sachivalay. The
programme connects the village panchayats.
15. My Ganga My Dolphin campaign was
launched today on the occasion of Ganga River
Dolphin Day. This campaign was launched by the
National Mission for Clean Ganga, the Wildlife
Institute of India and the Forest Department. The
campaign has been lunched for sustainable
tourism. It also links with the livelihood through
Dolphin Conservation for ecotourism along the
Ganga river. The campaign have been launched in
the 250 km stretch of the river. The campaign will
also conduct a census under the stretch.
16. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal
announced on October 6, 2020 that the Delhi
Government will be doing the Bio-Decomposer
spraying from October 11, 2020 in order to
counter the stubble burning issue. Bio-
Decomposer spraying have been prepared by the
scientists at the Indian Agricultural Research
Institute, PUSA. It is a low-cost and an effective
way to deal with the stubble burning issue.
17. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organisation (CSIRO) which is an
Australia science agency have studied that 14
million tonnes of harmful microplastics are
present in the bottom of the world’s deep oceans.
The accumulation of this chunk of plastic is the
result of pervasive use of plastic.
18. The Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE) has
won a prestigious UN award for its efforts to
combat climate change amid the Covid-19
pandemic. The organisation is among the winners
of the 2020 UN Global Climate Action Award.
GHE is world’s first organisations that is using
tourism and technology to bring solar energy to
remote communities as recognised by the World
Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and the
United Nations World Tourism Organisation
(UNWTO).
19. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath
inaugurated on October 8, 2020 a new cryogenic
oxygen plant that has been commissioned by
INOX Air Products (INOX AP). This is the
biggest plant in the state and will help to supply
oxygens in hospitals.
20. The International Day of the Girl Child is
celebrated every year on October 11. This year the
day was celebrated under the theme "My voice,
our equal future". The day is celebrated with an
objective to empower women. The day seeks to
help women to get their rights in order to make
them strong for the challenges they face in the
world. The day is observed in order to curb the
challenges that girls face.
21. The Delhi government passed a new tree
transplantation policy on October 9, 2020. Under
the policy, 80% of the trees that are uprooted for
any construction or development project will be
transplanted elsewhere. The local committees in
collaboration with the RWA members and
residents have been tasked with the monitoring
task for the transported trees.
22. The Delhi Government Transport Minister
Kailash Gahlot has announced that the Delhi
Government has decided to exempt road tax on
the battery-operated vehicles under its new
Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy. For the purpose, a
notification was issued on October 10, 2020. This
decision has been taken by the Lieutenant
Governor of Delhi , Shri Anil Baijal, with an
immediate effect.
23. Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and the
Botanical Survey of India (BSI) have published
their Animal discoveries 2019 and Plant
discoveries 2019 that have listed 364 new species
of animals and 180 species of plants. These
animals and plants were discovered during the last
year.
24. On the occasion of World Migratory Bird Day
celebrations, experts from Mumbai discussed the
ways to protect lesser flamingos and wetland birds
who are the migratory birds. They have reported
that these birds are getting vulnerable as the
spaces for them in India is shrinking.
25. The Delhi government passed a new tree
transplantation policy on October 9, 2020. Under
the policy, 80% of the trees that are uprooted for
any construction or development project will be
transplanted elsewhere. The local committees in
collaboration with the RWA members and
residents have been tasked with the monitoring
task for the transported trees.
26. The eight beaches including the Shivrajpur in
Gujarat, Golden Beach in Odisha, Kasarkod and
padubidri in Karnataka, Goghla in Daman and
Diu, Radha Nagar beach in Andaman and Nicobar
Islands, Kappad in Kerala and Rushikonda in
Andhra Pradesh have been given the Blue Flag
Certification.
27. The Delhi Government Transport Minister
Kailash Gahlot has announced that the Delhi
Government has decided to exempt road tax on
the battery-operated vehicles under its new
Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy. For the purpose, a
notification was issued on October 10, 2020. This
decision has been taken by the Lieutenant
Governor of Delhi , Shri Anil Baijal, with an
immediate effect.
28. Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and the
Botanical Survey of India (BSI) have published
their Animal discoveries 2019 and Plant
discoveries 2019 that have listed 364 new species
of animals and 180 species of plants. These
animals and plants were discovered during the last
year.
29. The Third edition of the Oxfam’s 2020
Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) Index
report was released recently. As per the report,
India just spent 4% of its budget on the health in
the ongoing pandemic situation. The spending by
India stands at the fourth lowest in the world. In
the line, India has been ranked 129 out of 158
countries.
30. Kerala has become the first state in the country
that have made the public education completely
digital. Kerala achieved this milestone within two
years of the launch of the initiative. Total
expenditure on the initiative was Rs. 42.36 crores.
The project was implemented by Kerala
Infrastructure and Technology for Education.
31. On the inaugural session of "all.ai 2020
Virtual Summit" on October 13, 2020 the Intel
India announced the launch of an applied artificial
intelligence (AI) research (INAI) center in
Hyderabad. The research center would be launch
in collaboration with the Telangana government,
International Institute of Information Technology,
Hyderabad (IIIT-H) and Public Health Foundation
of India (PHFI) which is the founding healthcare
partner in the initiative.
32. The Uttarakhand Forest Department will soon
start a plantation drive in Uttar Pradesh’s
Bundelkhand region and parts of Rajasthan. This
has been decided by the forest department in order
to clear the backlog for compensatory
afforestation for next two years.
33. The Union Minister for AYUSH, Shri Shripad
Yesso Naik and Minister of State for Defence
launched the Regional Raw Drug Repository
(RRDR) for ASU&H Medicine on September 13,
2020 at Chennai. RRDRs are the important
components of Centrally Sponsored Scheme
called AYUSH Mission. AYUSH mission plays
an important role in medicinal plants cultivation.
As a step forward in medicinal plants cultivation
Ministry of AYUSH initiated the establishment of
National Raw Drug Repository and Regional Raw
Drug Repositories, through the National
Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB).
34. The Agnibaaz Division which is a formation
of Southern Command of the Indian Army
organised a joint exercise for both Indian Army
and Maharashtra Police at Lullanagar Pune on
October 9, 2020. The Agnibaaz division has been
headquartered at Pune and is also known as the 41
Artillery Division.
35. The President of India, Ramnath Kovind, gave
assent to the Gujarat Distributed Area act
(Amendment) Bill 2019. This new act will amend
the prohibition of transfer of immovable property
and provision for protection of tenants from
eviction from premises in disturbed areas act
1991. The act was first introduced in Ahmedabad
in 1986 because of large scale and continuous
riots in the City.
36. This list has been released by the IIFL Wealth
and Hurun India. This has enlisted the cumulative
wealth of India’s wealthiest self-made
entrepreneurs under 40. It shows that wealth under
this category has rose by 59% in 2020. The list
provides for ranking of self-made entrepreneurs
aged 40 and under having wealth of ₹1,000 crore.
aged forty years and under from India.
37. The World Students Day is observed every
year on the occasion of birth anniversary of Dr
APJ Abdul Kalam on October 15. The 2020
version of the day is being celebrated under the
Theme: Learning for people, prosperity and peace.
The United Nations had declared his birth
anniversary to be celebrated as World Students
Day in 2010.
38. The 2020 State of Climate Services report was
released on the occasion of International Day for
Disaster Risk Reduction on October 13, 2020 by
the UN World Meteorological Organization
(WMO). The 2020 State of Climate Services
report comprises of 16 different case studies on
successful early warning systems for hazards such
as tropical cyclones, floods, droughts, hurricanes,
heatwaves, forest fires, desert locusts, dust and
sand storms, severe winters and glacial lake
outbursts.
39. Heavy rainfall have hit the Telangana and
Andhra Pradesh region. At least 30 people have
lost their lives across Telangana out of which 19
deaths occurred in Hyderabad alone. The
extremely heavy rainfall have caused a deluge in
the region and has caused flooding in the region.
The heavy and incessant rains occurred due to
depression in the Bay of Bengal. Such type of rain
are called as the Torrential Rain.
40. The Intellectual Property India annual report
was released by the Government of India. Along
with that, annual rankings the year 2018-19 was
also decided by Office of Controller General of
Patents, Designs and Trademarks, Government of
India. Chandigarh University Gharuan top the list
among all university in India. It topped for filing
the highest number of patents in a year counting
336.
41. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has
released the World Economic Outlook (WEO) on
October 13, 2020. As per the report, India will to
slip below Bangladesh in terms of per capita GDP
in 2020. The latest report Highlights that
Bangladesh is likely to expand by 4% in 2020. It
stated that, Indian Economy is facing contractions
because of coronavirus lockdown.
42. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath
launched the "hath dhona, roke corona" campaign
on October 15, 2020. This campaign was launched
while emphasising upon the sanitation practices
on the occasion of Global Handwashing Day. The
Chief Minister stressed that common habits of
personal hygiene including washing hands can
protect from coronavirus infection.
43. The World Food Day is observed on October
16 every year. The theme for World Food Day
2020 is "Grow, Nourish, Sustain. Together" . This
year’s World Food Day is highlighting the
significance of food and agriculture in COVID-19
response. The day is observed to mark the
foundation of Food and Agriculture Organisation
(FAO) of the United Nations. FAO was
established on October 15, 1945. The day was
observed as a day for action against hunger in
1979 for the first time.
44. Chief Minister (CM) of Kerala , Pinarayi
Vijayan , inaugurated the operations of the first
phase of the International Institute of Advanced
Virology at the Life Science Park at Thonakkal on
October 15, 2020. The CM while inaugurating the
operations said that the robust public health care
system in Kerala has helped to prevent Nipah and
contain the COVID-19 pandemic to an extent. He
further stated that, the the inaugurated institute
would become an institution of world-class
standards in health research.
45. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has
recently released the Global Tuberculosis Report,
2020. The report Highlights the impact of
COVID-19 on Tuberculosis (TB) related deaths. It
says that COVID-19 might increase the TB deaths
by 0.2 to 0.4 million worldwide.
46. The Lancet medical journal has published its
new report. In the report, Lancet has highlighted
that India has gained in the life expectancy since
1990. Currently, India is going through the
COVID-19 pandemic. Total cases stands at
around 73 lakh. Out of these 8,04,528 are active
cases and 64,53,780 cases have been cured. India
also reported some 1,13,000 deaths as of today
(October 17, 2020). However, the largest
contributors of the increasing health loss were
non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as
COPD, diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and a group
of musculoskeletal disorders over the last 30 years
in India.
47. The Global hunger index was launched on
October 16 2020. It has been jointly prepared by
Welhunger life and Concern Worldwide. This
year, India has been ranked 94th Out of 107
countries. In 2018 was India ranked 103 while in
2019 India was ranked 102.
48. Ministry of Culture (Performing Arts Bureau)
implemented various schemes under its Kala
Sanskriti Vikas Yojana (KSVY). Under the
scheme, grants are approved for holding programs
and activities involving large audience. The
performances with a limited audience have been
allowed, in the aftermath of the COVID-19
pandemic. These performances would be held
virtually.
49. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the
Indian government have signed an agreement for a
loan of $177 million on October 19, 2020. The
loan has been approved to upgrade 450 kilometers
of state highways and major district roads in
Maharashtra. This project will improve
connectivity between rural areas and urban centres
in Maharashtra.
50. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) stated on
October 20, 2020 that environmental clearance
granted to the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project
in Telangana, having a retrospective effect, is in
violation of legal requirement. The NGT have also
formed a committee to assess the extent of
damage that the project has caused and to identify
the restoration measures.
51. The Ministry of Tourism has released the
Indian Tourist Statistics. As per the report, Uttar
Pradesh attracted the highest number of domestic
tourists in year 2019. Taj Mahal in Uttar Pradesh
and Gateway of India in Mumbai were the top
spots of domestic tourism. Uttar Pradesh attracted
the maximum number of tourists in 2019. 53.6
crore domestic tourists ( 23.1% ) visited Uttar
Pradesh. The state has also stands at third position
in attracting foreign tourists. The other states that
fetch the higher number of tourists include Kerala,
Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir. Around 5
million tourist visa were applied, in 2019 alone.
The highest e-tourist visa were applied from UK,
US and China.
52. The Police Commemoration Day is celebrated
on October 21 every year. The day is observed to
honour the martyrs who sacrifice their lives in this
service to the nation. This year, the day was
observed to honour the police officers from across
the country who have been working day and night
to ensure COVID-19 norms are followed properly.
They are the frontline workers who have been
risking their lives in order to contain the spread of
the virus. Home Minister, Chief Minister, Cabinet
Ministers, Members of Parliament (MPs), MLAs,
MLCs and top police personnel will be reviewing
the parade and pay tributes to martyrs.
53. The residents of Assam and Mizoram have
clashed twice over territory recently. The recent
clash was in the backdrop of the long-standing
inter-state boundary issues between the two states.
The states have deployed security personnel in the
areas near the Vairengte village, Mizoram and
Lailapur, Assam.
54. The Tamil Nadu (TN) State government have
implemented the smart blackboard scheme in
more than 80,000 Government schools to provide
a better teaching environment. The scheme is
aimed at using the audio visual teaching material
in the schools. It can also be integrated with
digital classrooms and smart classroom schemes.
The smart boards will create materials that can be
fed into computer screens using pen drives.
55. The World Economic Forum (WEF) have
recently released the third edition of the future of
jobs report 2020. As per the report, the covid-19
will disrupt more than 85 million jobs by 2025.
The report has been prepared by the WEF on the
basis of the projections of Senior Business leaders
of more than 300 Global firms.
56. World Bank Group and UN Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) recently published ‘Global Estimate of
Children in Monetary Poverty : An Update’
analysis. The analysis estimated one in six
children or 356 million children globally were
living in extreme poverty before the COVID-19
pandemic. The situation is going to worsen
significantly the analysis says.
57. The Peruvian archaeologists have discovered a
37 metre long cat drawing on the famous Nazca
lines of Peru. The Nazca lines of Peru is an
UNESCO Heritage site. Nazca lines are a group of
Geoglyphs. These have been made on the ground
using elements of landscape including the gravel,
stones dirt or lumber. It was discovered in 1927
and declared the UNESCO Heritage site in 1994.
58. The Mizoram government is all set to take
stringent measures against the rising covid-19
cases. The state will adopt "COVID-19 : No
Tolerance Fortnight" from October 26. By this,
the government aims to break the chain of local
transmission in Mizoram State.
59. European Union (EU) Environment Ministers
signed a deal in Luxembourg on October 23,
2020. The deal has made EU’s 2050 net-zero
emissions target legally binding on the states. The
EU has aimed at becoming climate-neutral by
2050 by bringing the net greenhouse gas emission
to zero. This objective of the EU is the central
portion of the European Green Deal. The aim also
comply with the EU’s commitment to global
climate action under the Paris Agreement.
60. The Zoological Survey of India in its recent
study and report on Himalayan Brown Bear states
that the suitable habitat for the brown bear in the
biological corridors are declining. The Himalayan
Brown Bear is the largest carnivore in the
highlands of Himalayas. The brown bear is found
in 23 protected areas including Himachal Pradesh,
Uttaranchal and Jammu and Kashmir. They have
been categorised as "Critically Endangered" in the
UCN Red list of Threatened Species in Himalayas
and Hindukush. However, for rest of the world, it
has been categorised into "Least Concern"
category. International trade of brown bear has
been prohibited under wildlife Protection Act of
1972.
61. The World Polio Day is observed on October
24, 2020 every year. The day is observed in order
to make countries to stay focused and vigilant to
fight against Polio. World Polio Day was
established by Rotary International. It was
established in order to commemorate the birth of
Jonas Salk. Jonas Salk was the person who led the
first team that developed the vaccine against this
disease.
62. International Snow Leopard Day is observed
on October 23 every year since 2013. The primary
aim of the day is to raise awareness on
conservation and protection of the snow leopards.
Internation Snow Leopard Day was started being
observed on October 23, 2013. The day was
adopted after 12 countries including- India, Nepal,
Bhutan, China, Mongolia, Russia, Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan,
and Uzbekistan agreed with the Bishkek
Declaration on the conservation of snow leopards.
63. The central government on October 26, 2020
has decided to create a permanent body through
legislation to tackle the air pollution and the
stubble burning problem in Delhi and NCR states.
The new body will replace the Environment
Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority
(EPCA) led by Bhure Lal. Following this, one-
member committee of retired Supreme Court
judge Justice Madan B Lokur was suspended.
64. New prime minister of Japan, Yoshihide Suga,
has committed to his country on October 27, 2020
to reach a target of zero emissions of greenhouse
gases. He also committed to achieve a carbon-
neutral society by 2050 by a fundamental shift in
policy on coal use.
65. The Himalayan or the Indus Suture Zone (ISZ)
in the Ladakh region has been found to be
tectonically active. Suture zone is the zone where
the Indian and Asian Plates join each other. Until
now, it was supposed to be a locked zone. This
new study would have major implications on the
earthquake study, prediction, understanding the
seismic structure of the mountain chains and its
evolution.
66. The recent research, published on October 24,
2020, highlighted about the danger of Vicious
Circle and stated that the loss of billions of tonnes
of ice from Earth’s frozen spaces might increase
the global temperatures by 0.4 degrees Celsius. As
per the report, Arctic summer sea ice levels is
being declined by 10% each decade since 1970s.
67. According to a study published in the journal
Cardiovascular Research on October 27, 2020
about 15 percent of deaths worldwide from
COVID-19 are linked to long-term exposure to air
pollution. Researchers from Max Planck Institute
for Chemistry, Germany, have found that the
proportion of COVID-19 deaths linked to air
pollution was about 19 per cent in Europe.
68. The Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal,
launched the Green Delhi mobile application on
October 29, 2020. This app will be used by
citizens to bring into government’s notice the
pollution causing activities. The application can
be downloaded from the google play store. The
Environment Minister of Delhi, Gopal Rai , had a
review meeting on October 27, 2020. The meeting
held discussions among the concerned officials
from different departments on the grievance
redressal process related to the Green Delhi app.
The meeting was attended by Revenue
Department, Public Works Department, Delhi Fire
Service, Nodal officers of Environment
Department, Municipal Corporation of Delhi,
New Delhi Municipal Council, Delhi Police,
Nodal officers of Delhi Development Authority
and National Highways Authority of India.
69. Prime Minister will participate in the Ekta
Diwas celebrations which will be held on October
31 in Kevadia, Guajrat. Ekta Diwas or the
National Unity Day is celebrated on October 31
every year. This year Ekta Diwas will be
celebrated to commemorate 145th birth
anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The
celebrations would be participated by the central
reserve armed forces, police forces of Gujarat
state, Indo Tibetan Border Police force, Central
industrial security forces and National Security
Guard.
 International
1. Armenia and Azerbaijan have involved in
fighting again and a fresh clashes have erupted on
the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. It is threatening
to push for a war again 26 years after a ceasefire
was reached. Armenia is a Christian majority
country and Azerbaijan is a Muslim majority
country. Both of them are a part of South
Caucasia. The border dispute between them have
erupted over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
2. The 19th round of Foreign Office Consultations
between India and Myanmar was held on October
1, 2020 in virtual mode. Foreign Secretary Harsh
Vardhan Shringla led the Indian delegation while
the Myanmar delegation was led by Permanent
Secretary, U Soe Han.
3. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will hold
talks with the president of the European
Commission, Ursula von der Leyen in order to
discuss the current post-Brexit negotiations and
steps that needs to be taken forward. The fight is
over a post-Brexit trade deal Bill that UK has
passed. According to UK, the controversial
legislation will ensure a barrier-free trade between
the United Kingdom’s four constituent nations
while EU is accusing the UK of breaching the
"good faith" of the withdrawal agreement. This
controversy has arisen when the UK and the EU
are in the final round of negotiations on a post-
Brexit trade deal.
4. India’s new Ambassador to Bahrain, Piyush
Srivastava and Bahrain’s Minister of Finance and
National Economy Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al
Khalifa hold meeting on October 4, 2020 and
discussed bilateral cooperation between the two
Nations. They discussed several ways to
strengthen India-Bahrain cooperation in the
financial and business sectors. Both the countries
reviewed the economic partnership and ways of
strenghten it in order to provide to provide more
promising investment opportunities. They also
had a discussion on issues of common interest and
the latest global economic developments.
5. The Indian Army has build up a memorial in
the honour of twenty soldiers who lost their lives
in the Galwan Clash between Indian Army and
Chinese Army in June 2020 in the Shyok-Daulat
Beg Oldi road. The memorial contain the names
of the soldiers and they have been mentioned as
"Gallants of Galwan".
6. India and South Africa have asked for a waiver
on certain provisions of the international
agreements regulating the intellectual property
rights in the World Trade Organization (WTO).
This step has been taken in order to speed up
efforts that prevent, treat and contain the COVID-
19 pandemic.
7. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with his
Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on
October 6, 2020 and India – Israel agreed to
continue and advance bilateral cooperation in
order to fight against the coronavirus in the fields
of research, field trials of diagnostic tools and
vaccine development. Emphasis were given on
technological cooperation and tests. Both sides
agreed to hold a digital conference on innovation
in the field of solar energy. This will jointly
achieve inexpensive solutions that will eventually
benefit the economies of both countries and the
world.
8. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will
meet the foreign ministers of the Australia-India-
Japan-United States Quadrilateral or Quad in
Tokyo today, on October 6, 2020. The meeting
will be a significant turning point for the QUAD
grouping. The meeting would be led by growing
concerns over China’s aggression in the region.
9. Ministry of External Affairs have notified that
India and Myanmar have agreed to operationalise
the Sittwe port in the Rakhine state by first quarter
of 2021. This decision was taken after a two day
long visit of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General
M M Naravane and Foreign Secretary Harsh
Vardhan Shringla to Myanmar on October 4 to 5,
2020.
10. Russia has test-fired the Hypersonic Cruise
missile called TSIRKON (Zircon) successfully in
the White Sea on October 7, 2020. The test fire
was conducted on the occasion of the birthday of
the former Russian President Vladimir Putin. The
White Sea is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea. It
is located on the northwest coast of Russia. He sea
is bordered by Karelia to the west, Kola Peninsula
to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the
northeast. The White Sea is under Russian
sovereignty and are considered to be part of the
internal waters of Russia.
11. The Government of India has approved a
memorandum of cooperation (MoC) in the field of
cyber-security between India and Japan. India
launched the National Cyber Security Policy in
2013. India just comes among the few countries of
the world to have such policy. The digital
economy of India stands at 14 – 15 % of the total
economy that India aims to increase up to 20% by
2024. But with the boost in digital economy, there
comes the threat of data theft, cyber attacks,
Malware attacks such as Ransomware. In 2016,
the data related to debit cards of some 3.2 million
were leaked because of lack of security in cyber
space. Thus, it becomes important for India to
upgrade its cyber security and infrastructure. This
can be achieved through joint cooperation with
other countries.
12. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has
announced that it will hold its Annual Meeting in
Lucerne-Burgenstock, Switzerland from May 18
to 21, 2021. The Annual Meeting in Lucerne-
Burgenstock will be organised under theme "The
Great Reset". It will focus on the solutions that are
required to address the world’s most pressing
challenges. In the meeting, global leaders would
come together to formulate a common recovery
path and to prepare "The Great Reset" after the
COVID-19 era ends. The meeting also seeks to
rebuild a cohesive and sustainable society.
13. Johnson & Johnson have temporarily stopped
its Covid-19 vaccine trial. The trial was stopped in
the backdrop of one of its participants became sick
during the trial. Johnson & Johnson had
announced the launch of its large-scale, pivotal,
multi-country Phase 3 trial (ENSEMBLE) for its
COVID-19 vaccine candidate on September 23,
2020. The initiation of the ENSEMBLE trial
followed the positive interim results from the
Company’s Phase 1 and 2 clinical study. The
phase 1 and phase 2 trials had demonstrated that
the safety profile and immunogenicity were
supportive of further development after single
dose. ENSEMBLE then enrolled up to 60,000
volunteers across more than 200 sites in the US
and other continents. Apart From US, countries
like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru,
Colombia and South Africa are involved in the
trial.
14. Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Asia
Pacific group has kept Pakistan in its ‘Enhanced
Follow Up’ list. The organisation had downgraded
Pakistan status from "regular follow-up" to
"enhanced follow up". The Asia-pacific group of
FATF submitted its report called "Follow up
report on mutual evaluation of Pakistan". In the
report, it was highlighted that the progress of
Pakistan to combat the Financing of terror system
and anti-money laundering made by the Financial
Action Task Force has remained unchanged in
2020 as compared to that of 2019.
15. The United States at the recent India-US
forum has called for the expansion of QUAD
grouping. US stated that like-minded countries
and groupings should come together and join
hands to protect and ensure a free and open Indo-
Pacific ocean. US Deputy Secretary arrived in
New Delhi on October 12, 2020. The 3 day visit
was planed to finalise the groundwork for the third
edition of two-plus-two dialogue between India
and the US. During the meet, both side had an
extensive talks on bilateral, regional and key
global issues. They also discussed the need of
focusing the common vision of the two nations for
the Indo-Pacific region. Earlier, all the foreign
ministers of the Quad grouping had also met in
Tokyo on October 6, 2020 and they discussed the
plan to deepen cooperation in the Indo-Pacific
region.
16. Bangladesh Cabinet approved a draft law to
include death penalty as the highest punishment
for rape. This will be done by amending the
Prevention of Women and Children Repression
Act-2000. This decision was taken after the
Cabinet meeting which was Chaired by Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka on October 12,
2020.
17. The European Union have agreed to put
sanctions on Russia for poisoning the opposition
leader Alexei Navalny and on Belarus officials,
including President Alexander Lukashenko, for
the repression of protesters. Alexei Navalny was
an anti-corruption investigator and a major
political opponent of the Russian President
Vladimir Putin. He fell ill during a domestic flight
in August 2020. He was taken to Germany for his
treatment which is still undergoing. During the
treatment a test was conducted by the organisation
for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. They
confirm that he become a victim of the novichok
nerve agent.
18. The 5th meeting of India Mexico bilateral
high-level group on trade, investment and
cooperation was held virtually on October 13,
2020. Both the countries reviewed their
commercial and bilateral trade relations. Both the
sides discussed their bilateral investment treaty
and audio-visual co-production.
19. Pakistan has been re-elected to the United
Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) . It was
selected on the basis of votes of member
countries. It secured 169 votes out of 193 votes of
the member of UN General Assembly. Pakistan
has secured the highest number of votes among
the five candidates from the Asia-Pacific region. 5
candidates were seeking for four seats in elections
in New York.
20. India along with six other countries will back a
UK-led campaign against end-to-end encryption
of messages by social media giants such as
Facebook. They have claimed that this feature
hinders the law enforcement against the illegal
activities by blocking all access to them. Further,
the system also prevents law enforcement
investigating and prosecuting against online child
sexual abuse, grooming and terrorist content.
21. The World Health Organization (WHO) chief
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus have appreciated
India’s COVID-19 contact tracing app named
‘Aarogya Setu’. The chief said that it is one of the
technological tools that have successfully helped
public health departments to identify clusters of
virus and to expand the testing.
22. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (US-
FDA) has approved the first Ebola Virus treatment
drug named Inmazeb on October 14, 2020. It is a
mixture of three monoclonal antibodies namely-
atoltivimab, maftivimab, and odesivimab-ebgn.
This is the first FDA-approved treatment for Zaire
ebolavirus (Ebola virus) infection in adult and
pediatric patients.
23. Russia has approved the second Covid-19
vaccine called the ‘EpiVacCorona’ after early-
stage trials. This new vaccine comes has been
approved two months after the Russia’s first
vaccine Sputnik V. This second Russian vaccine
has been developed by the Vector State Research
Centre of Virology and Biotechnology. The
vaccine was tested on100 volunteers in early-
stage. It was a placebo-controlled human trials
that lasted more than two months. The volunteers
were aged between 18 and 60 years old.
24. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
has announced that India has been re-elected as
President of International Solar Alliance (ISA).
Along with India, France has also been re-elected
as the Co-President of the alliance in the ISA’s
Third Assembly. The tenure for both the countries
would be of two years.
25. India has contributed one million dollars to the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency
(UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in Near East
region. This will support the UNRWA’s
programmes and services including the education,
health care, relief and social services. India’s
support to the Palestine is an integral part of the
India’s foreign policy.
26. The unicameral parliament of Israel, the
Knesset, approved the historic normalization deal
or the peace deal called as the Abraham Accord.
with the United Arab Emirates on October 15,
2020. It was initially signed in Washington on
September 15, 2020.
27. Scientists at Oxford University have
developed a new testing method called to be as
New Rapid Antigen Test to detect the COVID-19
virus. The new test makes use of artificial
intelligence in order to locate single intact virus
particles. The entire process will take less than
five minutes to show the end results.
28. India have decided to transfer one of its kilo-
class submarines named INS Sindhuvir to the
Myanmar Navy. This is a significant step as
Myanmar Navy would be getting its first ever
submarine. It is a class of diesel-electric attack
submarines that was designed and built in the
Soviet Union for the Soviet Navy. The first kilo-
class submarine was brought into service in 1980
in to the Soviet Navy. Apart from that, the Soviet
Union exported around 40 kilo-class submarines
to countries including Russia, India, China,
Poland, Algeria, Iran, Romania, and Vietnam.
29. A webinar was held on October 15, 2020
between India and Kazakhstan under the theme
"Make In India For The World, India –
Kazakhstan Defence Cooperation: Webinar and
Expo". The webinar was organized by the
Department of Defence Production, Ministry of
Defence through FICCI.
30. The BepiColombo Space Craft has crossed the
Venus in its journey towards Mercury. The
spacecraft was launched jointly by Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency and European
Space Agency to explore planet Mercury.
BepiColombo was launched on the Ariane 5
rocket and will arrive Mercury in 2025. This
Mission is a part of the Horizon 2000+
Programme by the European Space Agency. This
was the last spacecraft of the programme. The
BepiColombo spacecraft consists of two satellites
launched namely, Mercury Planetary Orbiter and
Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter. These two
satellites were launched together. They will
separate once they arrive Mercury.
31. India and Chile held their first joint
commission meeting on October 16, 2020. Chile
is India’s gateway to Latin America and to the
Pacific Alliance. Chile has established an embassy
in New Delhi and India has established an
embassy in Santiago. Both of these countries are
members of the G20. India and Chile are also the
partners in International Solar Alliance. In 2019,
India-Chile commemorated the 70th anniversary
of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations
between them.
32. The Seventh Meeting of Ministers of Justice
of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)
Member States was hosted on October 16, 2020. It
was hosted by Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister
of Law & Justice, Communication and Electronics
& Information Technology. The minister
highlighted the initiatives taken by the Indian
Government under the leadership of Hon’ble
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for providing
affordable and easy access to justice for all.
33. The Philippine government has decided to
resume oil exploration in the disputed South
China Sea. This decision of Philippines was taken
without consulting China. The moratorium on oil
exploration was imposed in 2014. It was imposed
in the light of tensions between the Philippines
and China because of their overlapping territorial
claims in the South China Sea.
34. Bangladesh has invited Prime Minister
Narendra Modi to join the celebrations of the 50
years of the country’s independence. The country
will complete its 50 years of Independence on
March 26, 2021. The Independence Day of
Bangladesh is observed on 26 March every year.
The day commemorates the Bangladesh’s
declaration of independence from Pakistan.
35. Israel and Bahrain signed an agreement at
Manama on October 18, 2020 to establish
diplomatic ties. The agreement called as the "joint
communique on establishing peaceful and
diplomatic relations" is an comprehensive peace
treaty. The agreement will open up the way for
these two countries to open embassies and sign
more cooperation agreements.
36. Japanese Prime Minister (PM) Yoshihide
Suga, agreed on October 19, 2020 with the
Vietnamese counterpart to step up defence and
security cooperation. This is first overseas summit
of Japanese PM after taking his office. The
agreement has been signed in the light of China’s
increasing influence in the region.
37. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the
Indian government have signed an agreement for a
loan of $177 million on October 19, 2020. The
loan has been approved to upgrade 450 kilometers
of state highways and major district roads in
Maharashtra. This project will improve
connectivity between rural areas and urban centres
in Maharashtra.
38. The first-ever Shanghai Cooperation
Organization (SCO) Start up Forum will be
launched on 27th October 2020 before of the SCO
trade ministers meeting on 28th October. Further,
SCO or the Shanghai Pact Heads of Government
meeting will be hosted by India on 30th
November 2020.
39. The Development of North East Region
(DoNER) minister, Dr. Jitendra Singh has invited
the United Kingdom (UK) government and the
private sector to explore business opportunities in
North-East India. Dr. Jitendra Singh highlighted
that India and UK are two democracies that share
the mutually rewarding business relationships. So,
both of these countries can work jointly in
exploiting and exploring new opportunities in the
North East region.
40. The UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights (UNHCHR), Michelle Bachelet, has
expressed her concern on October 20, 2020 over
the imposed restrictions on foreign funding for the
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in
India and the arrest of activists in the country.
41. The North Atlantic Treaty organisation
(NATO) will setup a new Space Centre in
Ramstein, Germany. The centre will serve as a co-
ordination Centre for space observation. It will
gather information regarding the possible threats
that satellites might face. The centre will be
developed as a command centre for defensive
measures in future. This centre is being setup
under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty
organisation.
42. The India Vietnam Business Forum was
organised virtually on October 20, 2020. On the
occasion, both side reaffirmed the growing
bilateral trade and investment ties between India
and Vietnam. The Cultural and economic ties
between India and Vietnam dates back to the 2nd
century. While in the modern time, India
supported Vietnam’s unification and
independence from France. India also opposed
American involvement in the Vietnam War. The
diplomatic relation between both the countries
started in 1972 and both the countries maintain the
friendly relations since then.
43. Microsoft is joining hands with the SpaceX
that is led by the billionaire entrepreneur Elon
Musk. This is being done to target the space
customers. Partnership with SpaceX Starlink will
provide high-speed and low latency satellite
broadband for Microsoft’s Azure Modular
Datacenter. With this partnership, the Microsoft
aims to make the Azure a platform and ecosystem
of choice. Microsoft wants the platform to be
looked upon for the mission needs of the space
community.
44. The Union Cabinet have approved the
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between
the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
and the National Space Research and
Development agency of Nigeria on October 21,
2020. The MoU between India and Nigeria were
signed in June 2020 at Bengaluru and in August
2020 at Abuja Nigeria.
45. The Union Cabinet has approved the
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between
the Institute of Chartered Accounts of India
(ICAI) and the Certified Practising Accountants,
Papua New Guinea (CPA PNG). They would be
working together in capacity building and to
strengthen the Accounting, Financial and Audit
Knowledge base in Papua New Guinea.
46. The Peruvian archaeologists have discovered a
37 metre long cat drawing on the famous Nazca
lines of Peru. The Nazca lines of Peru is an
UNESCO Heritage site. Nazca lines are a group of
Geoglyphs. These have been made on the ground
using elements of landscape including the gravel,
stones dirt or lumber. It was discovered in 1927
and declared the UNESCO Heritage site in 1994.
47. Union Minister Jitendra Singh addressed the
first ministerial meeting of G-20 anti-corruption
working group on October 22, 2020. Saudi Arabia
became the first country to host the first ever
meeting. The G-20 countries had agreed on the
Anti-Corruption plan for 2019-2021 at Buenos
Aires in 2018. The G-20 members planned to look
forward to develop targeted actions in promoting
the international efforts to combat the corruption.
48. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) have
voted to keep Pakistan under its Grey List. The
decision by the FATF was taken because Pakistan
failed to comply with the 27 parameters set by the
FATF and has completed only 21. The Asia-
Pacific Group of FATF had also submitted a
report called "Follow up report on mutual
evaluation of Pakistan" and suggested to put
Pakistan under grey list. The decision of the FATF
is based on this report only.
49. Sudan recognized the Israel on October 23,
2020. It has became the third country to recognize
Israel after UAE and Bahrain. The United States
(US) recently made Israel, UAE and Bahrain to
sign as agreement. Under the US-led agreement,
UAE and Bahrain agreed to recognise Israel as an
independent state. To comply with the agreement
UAE, Bahrain and Israel signed the first peace
agreement called as the Abraham accord in
September 2020. This is the first agreement in last
26 years.
50. The Sri Lankan Parliament recently passed the
20th Amendment of Sri Lankan constitution. The
amendment rolled back the 19th constitutional
amendment. The 20th amendment has been passed
to over-rule the 19th amendment that has
weakened the powers of the President expanded
by the 18th amendment.
51. European Union (EU) Environment Ministers
signed a deal in Luxembourg on October 23,
2020. The deal has made EU’s 2050 net-zero
emissions target legally binding on the states. The
EU has aimed at becoming climate-neutral by
2050 by bringing the net greenhouse gas emission
to zero. This objective of the EU is the central
portion of the European Green Deal. The aim also
comply with the EU’s commitment to global
climate action under the Paris Agreement.
52. The Bangladesh government has launched the
‘no mask, no service’ policy on October 26, 2020.
Government has decided that no service will be
provided to people who don’t wear masks. The
decision was taken during a cabinet meeting
Chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. It was
decided that no one will be allowed to enter
offices without the mask. It also notified that all
offices must install notice boards saying ‘no mask,
no service’ so as to control the spread of COVID
19 virus in the country.
53. Typhoon Molave made landfall in Philippines
while crossing provinces on the southern part of
the main Luzon island on October 25, 2020. It has
brought heavy rain and strong winds along with it
and has also made around 9000 people to flee
their homes in the Philippines.
54. North Korean authorities have warned its
citizens to remain indoors so that they avoid
contact with ‘yellow dust’. This mysterious cloud
of yellow dust is blowing in from China. North
Korea warns that the dust might carry in Covid-19
with it. A cloud of yellow dust was blow in from
China and descend on the North Korea. Following
that, a nationwide ban on outdoor construction
work was announced. Citizens were urged to
remain indoors and to keep the windows tightly
closed.
55. The United Nations have announced that 50
countries have ratified an international Treaty on
the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) to
ban nuclear weapons. The historic text would
enter into force in January 2021. India abstained
itself from voting for the treaty. India states that it
recognises only the Geneva based Conference on
Disarmament as the powerful multilateral
disarmament forum for negotiation.
56. The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) will
organise a two-day hackathon on circular
economy, ‘India–Australia Circular Economy
Hackathon (I-ACE)’ in association with CSIRO
on 7th and 8th December 2020. The idea of I-ACE
was put forward during a virtual summit between
the Indian and Australian prime ministers on June
4, 2020. This was decided in order to explore
innovative ways to boost circular economy in
India and Australia.
57. India and the United States will sign the Basic
Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-
Spatial Cooperation on October 27, 2020 during
the third round of 2+2 Ministerial dialogue. The
announcement has been made after a meeting
between Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh
and his US Counterpart Mark Esper who is
visiting India for the India-US 2+2 dialogue.
58. The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar
(NISAR) satellite is scheduled to be launched by
2022. This was scheduled after India and the US
decided to share Space Situational Awareness
Information with each other. This would catalyse
efforts in order to create the conditions for a safe
and sustainable space environment.
59. India-UAE held a webinar under the theme of
"Indian Defence Industry Global Outreach for
Collaborative Partnership: Webinar and Expo
India – UAE Defence Cooperation" on October
27, 2020. The webinar was held in order to boost
defence exports between India and UAE.
60. India announced to extend USD 1 billion line
of credit for priority developmental projects in
central Asian countries on October 28, 2020. India
also vow to further expand cooperation with the
resource-rich region including confrontation of the
common challenges of terrorism and extremism.
61. The United States of America has offered its
F-18 naval fighter jets for Indian Navy aircraft
carriers in order to strenghten its ties with India.
This announcement came after the 2+2
ministerial-level talks that happened on October
27, 2020.
Defence
1. The Indian Coast guard Vessel Karnaklata
Barua was commissioned at Kolkata on
September 30, 2020 through video conferencing.
The ICGS Kanaklata Barua is one among the five
Fast Patrol Vessels (FPVs). It has been built by
Kolkata based Garden Reach Shipbuilders and
Engineers (GRSE).
2. The Defence Ministry have placed orders with a
private firm for the supply of 10 lakh hand
grenades. It is first of its kind order. Until now,
these products were either imported or made by
the Ordnance factories. The grenades will be
replacing the vintage design grenades that are
used currently.
3. The second edition of Indian Navy (IN) –
Bangladesh Navy (BN) Bilateral Exercise
Bongosagar will commence in Northern Bay of
62. The Union Cabinet approved the
Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) that was
signed between India and Japan on Cooperation in
the field of Information and Communication
Technologies on October 29, 2020. The MoC
seeks to strengthen cooperation between India and
Japan in the field of communications. This will
also help to boost the cooperation in the field of
telecom security, submarine cable, 5G, utilization
of latest wireless technologies, Disaster relief,
spectrum management, block chain, standard
certification of communication equipment and
cooperation on multilateral platforms.
63. The "Doing Business in India Report, 2020"
was released by the UK India Business Council
(UKIBC). As per the report the business
environment in India is improving and thus there
is a greater opportunity for UK India collaboration
in the business field.
64. India- Mexico held their 8th Joint Commission
Meeting on 29 October 2020. The Meeting was
co-chaired by Dr. S. Jaishankar, External Affairs
Minister of Republic of India (EAM) and H. E.
Marcelo Ebrard, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the
United Mexican States.
Bengal on 3rd October 2020. in the exercise
Bongosagar, ships from both the navies will
participate in surface warfare drills, seamanship
evolutions and helicopter operations.
4. India successfully test-fired a new version of
nuclear-capable Shaurya missile on October 3,
2020 from the coast of Odisha. The missile can
strike targets at around 800 kms. This has been
launched amid the ongoing tensions at India-
China Border. The new version of the missile
would be inducted in the strategic forces in order
to complement the existing missiles in the same
class.
5. The Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO) has successfully flight-
tested the Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of
Torpedo (SMART). The flight was successfully
tested today on October 5, 2020 from the Wheeler
Island from the coast of Odisha. This launch is
significant to establish the anti-submarine warfare
capabilities and is a significant step that comply
with the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
6. The Indian Coast Guard have launched a 98-
metre offshore patrol vessel ‘Vigraha’ at a private
shipyard in Kattupalli, Chennai on October 7,
2020. The vessel is the one among the series of
seven vessels that were designed and built for the
Coast Guard. These vessels have been built and
designed by Larsen and Toubro Shipbuilding
under the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
7. Russia has test-fired the Hypersonic Cruise
missile called TSIRKON (Zircon) successfully in
the white Sea on October 7, 2020. The test fire
was conducted on the occasion of the birthday of
the former Russian President Vladimir Putin. Test
fire was conducted from the Frigate Admiral
Gorshkov Vessel in the white Sea.
8. The Indian Air Force (IAF) is celebrating its
88th anniversary on October 8, 2020. The IAF
was established on October 8, 1932. The hallmark
of the event was air display by various aircraft.
The air display started with the sky divers of the
AKASH GANGA. The Team was dropping out of
an AN-32 aircraft with their colourful canopies.
9. India has successfully test-fired the Rudram –
an Anti-Radiation Missile on October 9, 2020. It
has been developed by Defence Research and
Development Organisation (DRDO). The missile
was test fired from its primary test platform
Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft off the east coast.
10. The Agnibaaz Division which is a formation
of Southern Command of the Indian Army
organised a joint exercise for both Indian Army
and Maharashtra Police at Lullanagar Pune on
October 9, 2020. The Agnibaaz division has been
headquartered at Pune and is also known as the 41
Artillery Division.
11. India have decided to transfer one of its kilo-
class submarines named INS Sindhuvir to the
Myanmar Navy. This is a significant step as
Myanmar Navy would be getting its first ever
submarine. The decision was taken to take
forward the India’s commitment to building
capacities and self-reliance in the neighbouring
countries.
12. The 8th annual joint exercise between Indian
and Sri Lankan navies – SLINEX-20 will begin
on October 19, 2020 off the Trincomalee coast. It
is a 3 day exercise and will end on October 21,
2020. Sri Lanka Navy would be represented by
SLN Ships Sayura and Gajabahu. Both the ships
would be led by Rear Admiral Bandara
Jayathilaka who is the Flag Officer Commanding
Naval Fleet in Sri Lanka Navy.
13. The Naval version of the BrahMos supersonic
cruise missile was successfully test-fired on
October 18, 2020. It was test-fired from an
indigenously built stealth destroyer of the Indian
Navy in the Arabian Sea. The missile was fired
from INS Chennai which is a stealth destroyer.
Missile hit the target with pin-point accuracy after
performing "extremely complex" manoeuvres.
14. The Indian Ministry of Defense issued a
release on October 19, 2020 updating about the
upcoming trilateral India-U.S.-Japan Malabar
exercises. The release noted that this year’s
exercise would be participated by Australia. This
was doe in the backdrop of India seeking to
increase cooperation with other countries in the
maritime security domain and increasing defence
cooperation with Australia. The Malabar exercise
will be organised in the Indian Ocean.
15. India successfully test fired the Stand-Off
Anti-Tank Missile named as SANT on October
19, 2020. It will be inducted in the Indian Air
Force. The missile has been developed by the
Defence Research and Development Organization
(DRDO). The missile was test fired from the
Chandipur test range. The SANT missile has the
capability of lock-on before launch and lock-on
after launch.
16. The Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh, has
released the new Defence Research Development
Organization (DRDO) Procurement Manual, 2020
on October 20, 2020. This has been released with
an objective to encourage Micro Small and
Medium Enterprises (MSME) to do Research and
Development.
17. The Indian Naval Ship Kavaratti has been
commissioned into the Indian Navy on October
22, 2020 in Visakhapatnam. The INS Kavaratti is
one among the four indigenously built anti-
submarine Warfare stealth corvettes under the
Kamorta class Corvettes or project 28.
Business, Economy & Banking
1. NITI Aayog, The New and Renewable Energy
Ministry, and Invest India will organise a global
symposium virtually ‘India PV EDGE 2020’ on
October 6. The solar deployment is a flagship
green growth story of the last decade. In the line,
the summit would act as an instrument to
accelerate the growth and build a climate-resilient
world.
2. The 42nd GST Council met on October 5, 2020
under the Chairmanship of Union Finance &
Corporate Affairs Minister Smt Nirmala
Sitharaman. It is a governing body of GST with
33 members. Two members are from centre and
31 members are from 28 state and 3 Union
territories with legislation. Union Finance
Minister is the chairperson of council. Other
members include- Union Minister of States in
charge of revenue or finance , ministers of states
in charge of finance or taxation and other
ministers as nominated by each states government.
The council modify, reconcile and procure any
law or regulation in the context of goods and
services tax (GST).
3. Government of India have appointed
economists Jayant R Varma, Shashank Bhide and
Ashima Goyal as the new members of Monetary
Policy Committee (MPC) which was set up in
2016. The appointments were made after the
decision was cleared by the Appointment
Committee of the Cabinet chaired by PM Modi.
4. Prasar Bharati and Indian Farmers Fertilizer
Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) signed a MoU on
October 6, 2020 in order to broadcast and promote
new agriculture technology and innovations.
IFFCO has prepared an alternative of Urea that
were launched Kalol, Gujarat by Union Chemicals
18. The Indian Navy deployed its first batch of
women pilots on Dornier Aircraft at Kochi on
October 22, 2020. The deployment was done by
the Southern Naval Command of Indian Navy.
The first batch include three women pilots –
Lieutenant Divya Sharma, Lieutenant Shivangi
and Lieutenant Shubhangi Swaroop.
and Fertilisers Minister Sadananda Gowda in
November 2019. The alternative is
nanotechnology based and will help farmers
achieve the target of doubling their income by
2022. The ‘nano-technology’ based products
include- nano nitrogen, nano zinc and nano
copper.
5. Under the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s
AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme,
Shri Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary of Ministry
of Housing Urban Affairs, had launched the
Application Programming Interface (API)
integration between the PM SVANidhi Portal and
the State Bank of India (SBI) portal on October 7,
2020.
6. Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani launched the
first ever Brand and Logo for Indian Cotton on
Second World Cotton Day on October 7, 2020.
Cotton is a soft and fluffy staple fiber. It grows in
a protective case around the seeds of the cotton
plants. This fiber is almost pure cellulose. The
cotton plant is a shrub. It is native to tropical and
subtropical regions including the America, Egypt,
Africa, and India. The biggest diversity of wild
cotton species is found in Mexico which us
followed by Australia and Africa.
7. The Government of India (GoI) has appointed
M. Rajeshwar Rao as the new Deputy Governor of
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on October 7, 2020.
The post of deputy governor was vacant since
March 2020 after the former Deputy Governor N
R Vishwanathan resigned due to health issues.
8. The Advanced Manufacturing Hub (AMHUB)
which is first of its kind in the country will be
jointly set up by World Economic Forum and
Guidance in Tamil Nadu. AMHUB is one among
the nineteen platforms that has been designed by
the World Economic Forum (WEF). Tamil Nadu’s
nodal investment promotion agency called as
Guidance will also be joining hands with WEF.
9. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said to the
industry body for venture capital and private
equity funds that finance companies can not be set
up with foreign direct investment (FDI) from
Mauritius. It has also banned FDI from such
similar jurisdictions that do not comply with the
benchmarks of the Financial Action Task Force.
10. The New Development Bank, which is also
known as BRICS Bank, has approved
infrastructure projects worth 741 million dollars in
India. A loan of USD 500 million has been
approved for the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut
Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) Project
and a loan of USD 241 million has been approved
for Mumbai Metro Rail II (Line 6) Project.
11. Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals India
Ltd has launched an indigenous variety of calcium
nitrate and boronated calcium nitrate on October
9, 2020. Calcium nitrate is also called as
Norgessalpeter. It is an inorganic compound
having chemical formula Ca(NO3)2. It is a
colorless salt that absorbs moisture from the air.
Calcium nitrate is a water-soluble fertilizer.
Though, it is mainly used as a component in
fertilizers but has other applications such as in
agriculture, wastewater treatment and to increase
the strength of cement concrete. Its tetrahydrate is
sometimes used in regenerable cold packs.
12. A sustainable Municipal Solid Waste
Processing Facility has been developed by the
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR) – Central Mechanical Engineering
Research Institute (CMERI). The residue from the
facility would be rich in carbon. It can be used in
agriculture as fertilizer and to make bricks for
construction purpose.
13. The Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research Institute of Himalayan bioresource
Technology (CSIR-IHBT) has planted the Heeng
in the Lahaul valley of Himachal Pradesh. The
institute plans to cover 750 hectares under the
Heeng cultivation. India consumes 40 per cent of
the world’s heeng. India imports nearly 1,200
tonnes of ferula heeng that costs to nearly US
$130 million every year.
14. The government has notified the Natural Gas
Marketing Reforms on October 15, 2020. The
guidelines have banned the natural gas and coal-
bed methane (CBM) producers from buying their
own produce in the newly notified gas marketing
freedom guidelines.
15. India and Indonesia will be holding the fifth
joint working group on coal meeting virtually on
November 5, 2020. The meeting will throw light
on Indian Coal policy reforms including the coal
exploration, commercial coal mining, research and
development.
16. The Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya
announced that government has amended the
existing norms related to the ships built in India.
Under the new norms, first priority in chartering
of the vessels would be given to ships built,
flagged and owned by Indians. This decision align
with the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
17. Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar released
the new series of Consumer Price Index for
industrial workers (CPI-IW) on October 22, 2020.
It was launched with 2016 as Base Year. Earlier
the base year for the CPI-IW was 2001. CPI
measures the changes in the price level of a basket
of consumer goods and services that are bought by
households. It is a numerical estimation which is
calculated using the rates of a sample objects. The
prices of the sample objects are collected
periodically. It collects the changes in price level
at the consumer level. At the producer level,
changes in prices are calculated by the Wholesale
Price Index (WPI).
18. IIT Kharagpur and TCS have jointly
developed a novel Industry 4.0 technology. The
new innovation is aimed at stimulating
innovations in advanced manufacturing in order to
boost capital goods sector. This technology will
control the factory operations remotely. It will
also provide real-time quality correction during
industrial production in order to deliver quality
output at low costs. Thus, it will help in achieving
the standardised production quality goals,
reducing batch rejections and lowering costs.
19. The Reserve Bank of India has all the lending
institutions to implement the waiver of interest on
interest schemes for loans up to Rs. 2 crore. The
lending institutions also including non-banking
financial companies. The RBI has urged the banks
to implement the interest waiver for a moratorium
period of six months. The lending institutions
have now been mandated to grant ex-gratia
payment for certain categories of borrowers by
crediting the difference between simple interest
and compound interest in between March 1-
August 31, 2020. The centre, on October 23, had
announced a scheme that granted ex-gratia
payment of difference between compound interest
and simple interest for six months for borrowers
for specified loan accounts.
20. The SBI has published its Ecowrap report. The
report highlights that the pandemic has led to 60%
increase in opening up of new Jan Dhan accounts.
PMJDY scheme was launched in August 2014
under the National Mission for Financial
Inclusion. It provides universal access to banking
facilities that provides – one basic banking
account for every adult, access to credit, financial
literacy, insurance and pension. Use of PMJDY is
also causing the change in individual behavior
across all states. As per the latest data total
number of PMJDY accounts stands at 41.05 crore
as of October 14, 2020.
21. Government of India has extended the
deadline for making payment under the Vivad se
Vishwas scheme till March 31, 2021. This
deadline extension is being done for the third time
in the series under the direct tax dispute settlement
scheme. The last date to make declaration under
the scheme has been extended to December 31
2020. This steps are being taken by the
government in order to provide relief to the
taxpayers.
22. The Centre took a decision to assess the
institute with eminence tag on the basis of
parameters used in top international ranking such
as QS and Times rankings. The prestigious
‘institute of eminence’ (IoE) tag are provided to
20 higher education institutes to assess the
progress.
23. Ministry of Skill Development &
Entrepreneurship (MSDE) in collaboration with
National Council for Vocational Education and
Training (NCVET) have unveiled robust set of
guidelines for Awarding Bodies (AB) and
Assessment Agencies (AA) over a digital
conference on October 28, 2020. This was issued
in line with Prime Minister Modi’s vision of
making India the skill capital of the world.
24. The Chhattisgarh assembly has approved the
Chhattisgarh Krishi Upaj Mandi (Amendment)
Bill 2020 on October 27, 2020. The government
declared that the entire state will act as a market
for selling agriculture produce. This decision was
taken in order to negate the Centre’s farm laws
which had allowed private players to directly buy
produce from farmers.
25. The NITI Aayog has released the "Electricity
access in India and benchmarking distribution
utilities" report on October 28, 2020. The report
states that, India is one of the key leaders in
providing electricity access. The electricity access
rate has doubled in the past 20 years. The
percentage of households connected to the
electricity grid has increased from 59.4% to
100%. However, India still faces the challenge of
providing reliable and affordable electricity
supply.
26. Indian Railways has launched an initiative
called "Meri Saheli" on October 29, 2020. The
initiative focuses on action of the security of
women across all zones. The primary objective of
the initiative is to provide safety and security to
lady passengers travelling by trains for their entire
journey from source station to destination station.
27. The Department for Promotion of Industry and
Internal Trade (DPIIT) has released the quality
control norms on October 27, 2020. The norms
has been released for different leather footwear
including anti-riot shoes. The new norms would
also contain imports and production of sub-
standard products in the country. As per these
norms, the products will have to comply with the
specified standards and bear the standard mark
under a license from the Bureau of Indian
Standards (BIS). The norms says, items cannot be
produced, sold or traded, imported and stocked
without the BIS mark.The BIS has been
authorized to certify and enforce the goods.
28. The "Doing Business in India Report, 2020"
was released by the UK India Business Council
(UKIBC). As per the report the business
environment in India is improving and thus there
is a greater opportunity for UK India collaboration
in the business field.
Science & Technology
1. The French Space Agency CNES announced on
September 30, 2020 that it going to participate in
ISRO’s Venus Mission which has been named
SHUKRAYAAN. The mission is going to be
launched in 2025. ISRO have also selected The
VIRAL (Venus Infrared Atmospheric Gases
Linker) instrument that has been co-developed
with the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos
and the LATMOS atmospheres, environments and
space observations laboratory attached to the
French national scientific research centre CNRS.
2. Origin Space, which is a private company, in
Beijing, China is all ready to send out the world’s
first asteroid mining robot into space in November
2020. The robot is named as ‘asteroid mining
robot’ by the space start-up in China. A Chinese
Long March series rocket will launch the asteroid
mining robot into space. The mission will be a
milestone for the space resources industry.
3. The ministry of electronics and information
technology said that Prime Minister Narendra
Modi will inaugurate a global virtual summit on
Artificial Intelligence (AI) named RAISE 2020 –
‘Responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020’
on October 5. Responsible AI for Social
Empowerment (RAISE) 2020 is a virtual global
summit on Artificial Intelligence (AI). To keep
with the theme of "Responsible AI for Social
Empowerment", RAISE 2020 will host an exciting
line-up of leaders, policy designers, innovators
and other stakeholders, who contribute on the
potential of artificial intelligence in order to
29. NITI Aayog and Quality Council of India
launched the ‘National Program and Project
Management Policy Framework’ (NPMPF). The
framework aims to bring radical reforms in the
way infrastructure projects are executed in India.
Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways
and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Nitin
Gadkari unveiled the Indian Infrastructure Body
of Knoledge (InBoK) on the occasion.
promote public good across domains including the
health, education, mobility and agriculture.
4. The Indian Council of Medical Research in
collaboration with the Hyderabad based
biopharmaceutical company Biological E ltd has
developed "Purified Antisera". It has been
prepared by injecting inactivated SARS-CoV2 in
horses which can be used as a prophylaxis and
could be a potential treatment for COVID-19.
5. Reliance Life Sciences has developed an real-
time reverse transcription-polymerase chain
reaction (RT-PCR) kit. It claims to diagnose
COVID-19 infection in about 2 hours. Presently,
COVID-19 RT-PCR test takes up to 24 hours to
give a diagnosis. The kit can detect the presence
of E-gene, R-gene, RdRp gene of SARS COV2
virus with Actin as an internal control. According
to the ICMR results, the kit is 98.7 % sensitive
and 98.8 % specific. The diagnosis time of the kit
is approximately 2 hours.
6. Northrop Grumman has launched their next
Cygnus vehicle named as S.S. Kalpana Chawla
and a Antares rocket for the NG-14 mission to the
International Space Station (ISS) on October 2,
2020 from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional
Spaceport in Virginia. This capsule will deliver
thousands kilograms/pounds of equipment, crew
supplies, and science to the ISS.
7. Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae is commonly
known as Xoo infection. It is an bacterial leaf
blight disease in rice. It causes huge yield losses to
rice cultivation in both temperate and tropical
regions especially in Asia. It is an enzyme that
converts the cellulose into glucose or a
disaccharide. The cellulase protein that the group
has obtained is secreted by Xoo. It has the features
of a typical vaccine since it is a potent elicitor of
rice immune responses. If the rice plants are pre-
treated with this protein, It provides resistance to
rice against subsequent Xoo infection.
8. The Centre for Development of Advanced
Computing (C-DAC) will commission the India’s
largest High Performance Computing and
Artificial Intelligence (HPC-AI) supercomputer,
‘PARAM Siddhi – AI’. This would put India into
top countries in the field of global AI
supercomputing research and innovation.
9. Heavy rainfall have hit the Telangana and
Andhra Pradesh region. At least 30 people have
lost their lives across Telangana out of which 19
deaths occurred in Hyderabad alone. The
extremely heavy rainfall have caused a deluge in
the region and has caused flooding in the region.
The heavy and incessant rains occurred due to
depression in the Bay of Bengal. Such type of rain
are called as the Torrential Rain.
10. The Ministry of MSME has launched the
artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning
(ML) tools in order to provide effective assistance
and solutions to the issues of micro, small and
medium enterprises (MSMEs). These tools have
been started on its Single Window System called
the ‘Champions’ portal. These tools would be
strengthening the portal.
11. The Leather Sector Skill Council (LSSC) has
recently announced the launch of the Skill
Certification Assessment for Leather Employees
(SCALE) India android app in order to provide a
single platform to integrate quality assurance
across all of its services.
12. Scientists at Oxford University have
developed a new testing method called to be as
New Rapid Antigen Test to detect the COVID-19
virus. The test does not require any complex steps
such as amplification that are used in RT-PCR
testing. RT PCR is the Reverse transcription
polymerases chain reaction. The PCR technique
was invented by the American biochemist named
Kary. He was presented the Nobel Prize for
Chemistry in 1993. Under this technique, copies
of a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) are created
using a Polymerase enzyme. The ‘chain reaction’
is carried out to signify how the DNA fragments
have been copied. A fluorescent DNA binding dye
"probe" is added to the DNA that shows the
presence of the virus on a fluorometer. The
coronavirus is made of ribonucleic acid (RNA).
So, to detect coronavirus, RNA is first converted
into DNA by a technique called reverse
transcription. After that, Copies of the DNA are
made and amplified.
13. NITI Aayog announced the establishment of
first of its kind the Frontier Technologies Cloud
Innovation Centre (CIC) on October 19, 2020.
This is being developed in order to address
societal challenges through digital innovation. For
developing the system, NITI Aayog is
collaborating with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
This also align with the Prime Minister’s vision of
Atmanirbhar Bharat and NOTI Aayog’s Atal
Innovation Mission.
14. The United States based National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA)had launched
the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft to the Asteroid Bennu
in 2016. The Spacecraft has now touched the
Asteroid After two years of circling. This mission
is aimed at studying the Asteroid Bennu and
return with at least 60 grams of the sample The
spacecraft comprises three bottles of nitrogen that
can make the spacecraft to touch down the
asteroid thrice.
15. The Indian Council of Medical Research
(ICMR) have approved a low cost covid-19 test
called COVIRAP. This diagnostic machine has
been developed by IIT Kharagpur. The kit
provides close test results similar to RT-PCR. The
test gives the results in less than an hour. It does
not require air conditioned laboratory. So, the
testing labs can be set up even in an open field.
16. The Department of Science and Technology
has announced on October 21, 2020 that the third
phase of National Supercomputing Mission will
commence in January 2021. The third phase of the
mission will increase the computing speed to 45
petaflops.
17. India’s indigenous COVID-19 vaccine
candidate, COVAXIN, has received the nod for
Phase-3 clinical trials in the country on October
23, 2020. The vaccine has been developed by
Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian
Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
18. NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for
Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed the
presence of water on the sunlit surface of the
Moon. This indicates that water is not only limited
to cold shadowed place but could be distributed
across the lunar surface.
19. The researchers from IIT Guwahati have
developed a low-cost technology that will produce
anti-ageing compounds. It has been developed
Government Schemes
1. Union Minister for Social Justice and
Empowerment Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot e-
launched the "Ambedkar Social Innovation and
Incubation Mission (ASIIM) under Venture
Capital Fund for SCs on September 30, 2020. The
mission seeks to promote innovation and
enterprise among SC students who are studying in
higher educational institutions.
2. The Union Minister of Science and Technology
Dr Harsh Vardhan launched the Council of
Scientific and Industrial Research Technologies
for rural development on September 30, 2020. It is
a joint initiative of IIT-Delhi, CSIR, Unnat Bharat
Abhiyan and Vijnana Bharti (VIBHA). The
initiative was launched on the occasion of 40th
foundation day of CSIR- National Institute of
Science, Technology and Development Studies
(NISTAD).
3. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs will
celebrate six years of Swachh Bharat Mission on
the occasion of birth anniversary of Mahatma
Gandhi on October 2. The Swachh Bharat mission
was launched from Rajghat on October 2, 2014 in
order to achieve the aim of Clean India by
from agricultural resources including pulses, tea,
orange peels, onion, berries, sea buckthorn and
parsley. This product does not use any organic
solvents as are included in other products by the
commercial industry. Since the product does not
contain any organic solvents, it is of low cost.
20. The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar
(NISAR) satellite is scheduled to be launched by
2022. This was scheduled after India and the US
decided to share Space Situational Awareness
Information with each other. This would catalyse
efforts in order to create the conditions for a safe
and sustainable space environment.
21. Indian Army launched a secured messaging
application platform called ‘Secure Application
for the Internet’ (SAI) on October 29, 2020. The
application was launched In line with PM Modi’s
‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat Mission’.
October 2, 2019 which was celebrated as 150th
birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
4. Shri Arjun Munda, Union Minister for Tribal
Affairs will virtually launch India’s largest
handicraft and organic products marketplace,
Tribes India E-Marketplace
(market.tribesindia.com) on the occasion of
Gandhi Jayanti on October 2, 2020. This e-
marketplace in line with the vision of the Prime
Minister of making India Aatmanirbhar and self-
reliant.
5. A high level meeting chaired by Vd. Rajesh
Kotech Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH recently
endorsed the operational integration of Ayush
Grid with the National Digital Health Mission
(NDHM). Ayush grid is the emerging IT
backbone for AYUSH Sector. This integration
will be beneficial to the public for availing many
options for their health needs. The integration will
also accelerate mainstreaming the Ayush
disciplines of healthcare.
6. The Union Minister of Jal Shakti Gajendra
Singh has launched the 100-days campaign. The
campaign seeks to provide piped water supply to
schools and Anganwadi centres. This mission was
launched on the occasion of 151st birth
anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
7. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has
signed a Memorandum of Understanding with
Swiggy on October 5, 2020 in order to take the
street food vendors online under the PM Svanidhi
Scheme. The Ministry of Housing and Urban
Affairs will run the programme by including the
250 vendors on board from the five cities. These
vendors will be provided with FSSAI registration,
PAN registration, partner app usage, hygiene
packing, training on technology and menu
digitization. The programme will be expanded to
other parts of the country after the first stage is
successful.
8. The Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan
launched the Ayush Standard Treatment Protocol
at an event held on October 6, 2020 via video
conference. The protocol comprises the self-care
guidelines on preventive health measures that will
help in protecting against COVID-19 pandemic.
9. The Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
will launch an e-learning hub and library as a pilot
project for villagers in Mavoor. Mavoor village is
one of the five villages that has been adopted by
the institute under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA).
IIM Kozhikode institute has been a pioneer in
spearheading social development at community
levels webinar, and programmes such as the UBA.
It is also a partner institute of UBA that fortify
institutional capacity and give training to national
needs especially in rural India.
10. The Gujarat State Government launched the
"Digital Seva Setu Programme" for rural areas on
October 6, 2020. It was launched under the Bharat
Net Project of the Central government. The
programme comply with the India’s Digital India
Mission. The villages will be connected with the
100 MBps optical fibre network with an aim to
make every village a mini Sachivalay. The
programme connects the village panchayats. It
will provide twenty pro-people services including
the delivery of ration cards at door steps.
11. Under the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s
AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme,
Shri Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary of Ministry
of Housing Urban Affairs, had launched the
Application Programming Interface (API)
integration between the PM SVANidhi Portal and
the State Bank of India (SBI) portal on October 7,
2020.
12. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to
launch the physical distribution of property cards
under the ‘SVAMITVA’ (ownership) scheme on
October 11, 2020. This will be a historic move to
transform the rural India. The move will provide
villagers a way to use property as a financial asset.
13. The Rashtriya Kamadhenu Aayog (RKA) has
began the nation wide campaign called
"Kamadhenu Deepawali Abhiyan" on October 12,
2020. The initiative would generate business
opportunities for the cow based entrepreneurs and
farmers by promoting use of cow-dung. This way,
the initiative would help in making the Gaushalas
"Atma Nirbhar".
14. The eSanjeevani telemedicine initiative by the
Union Health Ministry recently recorded the
completion of 5 lakh teleconsultations. The
government have stated that last one lakh tele
consultations have been completed just 17 days.
Top 3 states with highest teleconsultations are
Tamil Nadu (1,69,977) Uttar Pradesh (1,34,992)
and Himachal Pradesh (39,326).
15. "Tech For Tribals" initiative was e-launched
by TRIFED, Ministry of Tribal Affairs in
association with Chhattisgarh MFP Federation and
IIT Kanpur on September 13, 2020. The training
would be a 6 weeks long programe from 13th
October to 7th November 2020. Under it, Van
Dhan beneficiaries across all districts of
Chhattisgarh will be trained for micro-enterprise
creation, management and functioning. The
training module has been developed by IIT-
Kanpur.
16. Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog,
and CGI India has signed a Statement of Intent
(SOI) on October 13, 2020. The SOI was signed
in order to boost the innovation across the schools.
This partnership was a part of continuous support
to AIM’s Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) initiative.
They would be working towards creating a
successful and innovative workforce.
17. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath
launched the "hath dhona, roke corona" campaign
on October 15, 2020. This campaign was launched
while emphasising upon the sanitation practices
on the occasion of Global Handwashing Day. The
Chief Minister stressed that common habits of
personal hygiene including washing hands can
protect from coronavirus infection.
18. The Union Minister for Agriculture and
Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar,
Food Processing Industries, Rural Development
and Panchayati Raj virtually inaugurated the 14th
session of the India – International Food Agri
Week 2020 on October 16, 2020. The Food and
Agri week is being organised from October 16 to
October 22, 2020.
19. The Union Agriculture Minister Narendra
Singh Tomar has launched the AYUSHMAN
SAHAKAR scheme on October 19, 2020. The
scheme has been formulated by the National
Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC)
which is the apex autonomous development
finance institution under the Ministry of
Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
20. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will lay down
the foundation stone for India’s first multi-modal
logistics park in Assam on October 20, 2020. This
multi-modal logistics park have an estimated
budget of ₹694 crore. This multi-modal logistic
park will be developed under the Bharatmala
Pariyojna. The project would provide direct
connectivity through air, road, rail and waterways
to the people.
21. Haryana State emerged as the best state in the
Anemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) Index among all the
29 states in the country. It an initiative of the
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and
UNICEF. The scheme has been launched in order
to reduce the prevalence of Anemia across India.
Anaemia Mukt Bharat strategy focuses on to
benefit six target beneficiary groups, through six
interventions and six institutional mechanisms.
The programme is aimed at achieving the target of
anaemia reduction under the POSHAN Abhiyaan.
22. The Tamil Nadu (TN) State government have
implemented the smart blackboard scheme in
more than 80,000 Government schools to provide
a better teaching environment. The scheme is
aimed at using the audio visual teaching material
in the schools. It can also be integrated with
digital classrooms and smart classroom schemes.
The smart boards will create materials that can be
fed into computer screens using pen drives.
23. Union Minister of State for Culture and
Tourism (I/C) Shri Prahlad Singh Patel launched
the "Life in Miniature" project on October 22,
2020. The project is a collaboration between the
National Museum, New Delhi; Ministry of
Culture and Google Arts Culture. The partnership
between the trio began in 2011.
24. Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh has
bagged the first position among 30 districts of the
country for successfully implementing the
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). It
is a nationwide scheme that aims to provide all-
weather road connectivity to the unconnected
villages. The scheme was launched in 2000 by
Late Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The PMGSY is
being implemented under the Ministry of Rural
Development. It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
In November 2015, it was decided that the project
will be funded by both the central government
(60%) and states (40%) on the recommendations
of 14th Finance Commission. PMGSY connect
habitations having population of more than 250 in
the hilly states and above 500 in the plains.
25. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the
Kisan Suryoday Yojana in Gujarat on October 24,
2020. The primary aim of the scheme is to provide
day time power supply for irrigation in the region.
Along with Kisan Suryoday scheme, PM Modi
also launched two other projects namely, a
ropeway at the Girnar in Junagadh district and the
UN Mehta Heart Research Institute.
26. Government eMarketplace (GeM) has been
integrated with the Central Public Procurement
Portal (CPPP) for the creation of a Unified
Procurement System. The integrated system with
consolidate the entire public buying of goods and
services onto a single platform.
27. Uttar Pradesh government has secured the first
rank in central government’s PM Atmanirbhar
Nidhi Scheme (SVANidhi Scheme) by approving
the highest number of loans under the scheme.
The central government launched the scheme on
June 1, 2020. It was launched in order to help the
street vendors to resume their livelihood activities
that were impacted COVID-19 lockdown.
28. Union Minister of Tribal Affairs, Shri Arjun
Munda will launch two Centers of Excellence for
Tribal Welfare. It will be launched in a
collaboration between Ministry of Tribal Affairs
and Art of Living (AoL). This initiative will be
launched in 5 districts. It will cover 30 Gram
Panchayats and 150 villages of Jharkhand. The
initiative would help in creating awareness among
elected representatives of PRI.
Awards & Honours
1. The Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh
Skekhawat presented the Swachh Bharat Awards,
2020 on October 2, 2020. The awards were
presented under the cleanliness and drinking water
categories. The key three categories of the awards
were: Swachh Sundar Samudayik Shouchalaya,
Gandagi Mukth Bharat and Samudayik
Shouchalaya Abhiyan.
2. Two women named Emmanuelle Charpentier of
France, and American Jennifer Doudna have been
award with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Charpentier and Doudna were working to develop
the technology of genome editing. Their genome
editing technique has also been awarded with
"Break through Prize in Life Sciences in 2015"
and the "Wolf Prize in Medicine, 2020".
29. The Andhra Pradesh government released the
second installment of Rs. 1,115 crore under the
Rythu Bharosa scheme. This fund was released by
Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh YS Jagan
Mohan Reddy on October 28, 2020. The fund
released under the scheme would benefit 50 lakh
farmers across the state.
30. Union Minister for Science Technology, Earth
Sciences and Health Family Welfare, Dr Harsh
Vardhan, launched a Scheme called "SERB-
POWER (Promoting Opportunities for Women in
Exploratory Research)" on October 29, 2020. The
initiative is exclusively meant for women
scientists on an e-platform.
31. Prime Minister Modi inaugurated "Arogya
Van" in Kevadia, Gujarat on October 30, 2020.
This was launched in the after month of Ekta
Diwas celebrations which is being observed on
October 31, 2020. The prime minister is on a two
day visit to the state and also participated in the
Ekta Diwas celebration.
3. The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 has been awarded
to the United nation’s World Food Programme
(WFP). The programme has been awarded the
prize for its efforts to fight the hunger specially in
the war zones and conflict affected areas. The
Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to award
the prize to the WEP.
4. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released
a commemorative coin of 100 rupees in honour of
Vijaya Raje Scindia on October 12, 2020. The
coin is being released on the occasion of birth
centenary of Vijaya Raje Scindia. She was one
among the Founding members of the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP). The special commemorated
coin was minted by the Finance ministry.
 Sport
1. Rafael Nadal has won the French Open, 2020 2. The Japanese Former World Champion Nozomi
beating Novak Djokovic on October 11, 2020. Okuhara has won the Denmark Open title in
With this, Rafael has won his 13th French open Badminton. She got the title by beating three-time
men’s singles title. This is also his 20th Grand world champion Carolina Marin in women’s
Slam. Iga Swiatek won the French Open female’s singles.
single title. She marked the record of being the
first player from Poland to win a Grand Slam.

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