NATIONAL NEWS
Centre approves merger of MTNL with BSNLThe Union Cabinet approved merger of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). The centre approved a package of nearly Rs 70,000 crore for the two financially stressed entities.
Indian Railways install Electronic Interlocking System on Grand Chord route
Indian Railways has installed the most advanced Electronic Interlocking System on the Grand Chord route. The measure is expected to help Indian Railways speed up trains and achieve the objective of reducing the travel time between Delhi and Howrah to about 12 hours from the existing 17 to 19 hours.
- Grand Chord is part of the Howrah-Gaya-Delhi line and Howrah-Allahabad-Mumbai line.
- The new Electronic system has replaced outdated 65-year old mechanical signalling system at Tundla Junction in Uttar Pradesh on the route.
The Assam Cabinet decided that no government jobs will be given to persons having more than two children after January 1, 2021 as per the small family norm.
- The move comes two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged the issue of “population explosion” in his Independence Day speech.
The annual Crime in India Report 2017 was released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). 3,59,849 cases of crime against women were reported in India. Uttar Pradesh topped the list of states with the most number of crimes against women with 56,011 cases. It was followed by Maharashtra with 31,979 cases and West Bengal with 30,002 cases.
1st MeitY Start-up Summit held in New Delhi
Union Minister of Law & Justice, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad unveiled a series of new initiatives by Ministry of Electronics & Information (MeitY) in the first MeitY Start-up Summit held in New Delhi.
- He gave the mantra of “Reform, Perform, Transform” as the key focus areas for the Government. In India’s journey of transformation, technology is playing a big role.
The 1st India-Bangladesh Stakeholders’ meet was held in Guwahati, Assam. The idea of the meet is to put Assam at the focus point of India’s trade expansion with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as well as Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal.
TechSagar, national repository of India’s cyber tech capabilities launched
The National Cyber Security Coordinator's office in partnership with Data Security Council (DSCI) of India launched TechSagar – a platform to discover India’s technological capability through a portal. The portal will list business and research entities from the IT industry, startups, academia, and individual researchers.
- TechSagar is a consolidated and comprehensive repository of India’s cyber tech capabilities which provides actionable insights about capabilities of the Indian Industry, academia and research across 25 technology areas like internet of things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), blockchain, cloud & virtualisation, robotics & automation, ar/vr, wireless & networking, and more.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Japan: Kovind lays foundation stone of Sri Sathya Sai Sanathana Samskruti ProjectPresident Ram Nath Kovind, who is on a three-day visit to Japan laid the foundation stone for Sri Sathya Sai Sanathana Samskruti Project at Sai no Sato, Kakegawa in Japan.
- Sai no Sato will be developed as a temple on the lines of Akshardham and Swaminarayan Temple to promote Indian traditional culture.
BUSINESS & ECONOMY
India's revenue growth in banking sector dropped from 22% to 10.3%: ReportThe McKinsey's Global Banking Annual Review launched said Indian revenue growth within India's banking sector has dropped from 22 per cent (2002-07) to 10.3 per cent (2010-18).
- The report warned that the bottom third of banks need to rapidly reinvent their business models in the face of continued threat posed by fintechs and big technology companies that are taking stakes in banking businesses.
Pine Labs,an Indian merchant platform company has joined hands with Indian multinational, public sector bank, State Bank of India (SBI) to offer EMIs (equated monthly instalments) for debit card transactions.
SPORTS
Bengal Warriors beats Dabang Delhi, lifts maiden Pro Kabaddi titleA clinical Bengal Warriors clinched their maiden Pro Kabaddi League title by defeating Dabang Delhi 39-34 in a pulsating summit clash.
Aneesh Kumar Surendran Pillai bags third gold for India at World Military Games
Aneesh Kumar Surendran Pillai bagged the third gold medal for India in the ongoing World Military Games at Wuhan, China.
- He won the gold in disabled men's shotput IT1 event and he finished with a score of 12.76.
Former cricketer Sourav Ganguly took over as the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). He will succeed interim chief C K Khanna.
- Ganguly was the only candidate to file his nomination for the post and was elected unopposed.
Paris has unveiled a gold-medal-shaped emblem for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympic Games that incorporates the Olympic flame and the lips of Marianne.
- The logo has been created as a combination of three symbols connected to the Olympics and France. It takes its shape and colour from a gold medal – awarded to the winners of each event during the Games.
- Cut out of this gold circle is a white flame-shape to represent the Olympic flame, which burns throughout the event, while a pair of golden lips represent Marianne – a representation of the Goddess of Liberty that is often used as a symbol of the French Republic.
APPOINTMENTS
Pankaj Kumar appointed CEO of UIDAIThe government appointed Pankaj Kumar, a 1987-batch IAS officer, as the new Chief Executive Officer of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), as part of a major reshuffle in the top bureaucracy that saw the appointments of new secretaries in crucial ministries.
- Kumar, the new UIDAI CEO, has been serving as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Ashok Malik has been appointed as the Policy Advisor in the External Affairs Ministry in the rank of Additional Secretary.
AWARDS
Delhi college students win Marconi Awards for apps on women safety and checking air pollutionTwo digital applications (apps) developed by Indian undergraduate students from Delhi for women's safety and to check air pollution in Delhi on smartphones won the Marconi Society annual awards for the good of humanity.
- The Android application named 'Rakshak' detects speech patterns through an audio microphone of any user's smartphone.
- The second Android application named VisionAir uses photos of the horizon taken from a smartphone to estimate air quality.
BharatPe, India's largest merchant fin-tech company has won the DigiDhan Mission Fin-tech Award 2018-2019 for 'Innovation in Digital Payments through Emerging Technology' at the MeitY Start-up Summit 2019 held in Delhi.
QS India University Rankings 2020: IIT Bombay tops for second consecutive year
According to the annual university rankings 2020 published by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), IIT Bombay, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore and IIT Delhi were ranked as the top three educational institutes in India.
- These rankings are based on several indicators such as academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, staff with a PhD, papers per faculty, citations per paper, international faculty, and international students.
- The institute published a separate ranking for India for the first time in 2019 and IIT Bombay had topped the India list even then.
IMPORTANT DAYS
International Stuttering Awareness DayOctober 22 was designated International Stuttering Awareness Day (ISAD) in 1998. The day is intended to raise public awareness of the millions of people – one percent of the world's population – who have the speech disorder of stuttering.
- This year;s theme is 'Growth Through Speaking'.
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