1) World Tsunami Awareness Day: 5 November
•The World Tsunami Awareness Day was observed across the world on 5 November. The day is celebrated to spread awareness among people across the world in matters related to the dangers of tsunami. In December 2015, the UN General Assembly designated 5 November as World Tsunami Awareness Day. In 2019, World Tsunami Awareness Day promotes Target of the “Sendai Seven Campaign,” which focuses on reducing disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services.
•World Tsunami Awareness Day was the brainchild of Japan, which due to it’s repeated, bitter experience has over the years built up major expertise in areas such as tsunami early warning, public action and building back better after a disaster to reduce future impacts.
2) First-ever movement of container cargo on Brahmaputra
•The first-ever containerised cargo movement via Indo-Bangladesh protocol route and Brahmaputra river will start from West Bengal’s Haldia. The vessel MV Maheshwari, carrying 53 containers of petrochemicals, edible oil and beverage will take 12-15 days to reach the IWAI terminal at Pandu in Assam’s Guwahati. National Waterway 2 (NW-2) is a section of the Brahmaputra River having a length of 891 km between the Bangladesh border near Dhubri and Sadiya in Assam.
3) Amarinder Singh launches first of its kind ‘Punjab job helpline’for job seekers
•The Punjab Chief Minister(CM) Amarinder Singh has launched a first of its kind job helpline number 76260-76260 for the unemployed youth of the state under ‘Ghar Ghar Rozgar’ programme. The objective of this helpline is to reach every house in Punjab and it can be contacted on 75 thousand mobile numbers daily. In this process, a 110-seat call centre of Punjab Job Helpline has also been created for the data to be prepared.
4) Guyana to be fastest growing country in the world next year at 86%
•According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Guyana’s GDP is expected to be more at 86% in 2020 after expanding 4.4% in 2019. This growth expectation had done after Exxon Mobil Corp.’s discovery of oil at Guyana. Guyana’s economy will grow more than three times within five years.
•Guyana’ GDP is to get fourteen times as fast as China’s GDP in 2020. Guyana is projecting $300 million in petroleum revenue in 2020. It is a country of South America with 7,80,000 population and neighbour countries are brazil & Venezuela. The oil sector will represent about 40% of the economy within five years. It crosses $4billion annual Gross domestic product (GDP) and also it will expand to about $15 billion by 2024.
5) IFFCO introduces India’s first nanotechnology-based products for on-field trials
•The world’s largest fertilizer cooperative Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) introduced India’s 1st nanotechnology-based product range by introducing Nano Nitrogen, Nano Zinc, Nano Copper for on-field trials at an event held at its Kalol unit in Gujarat.
•The products were produced at IFFCO’s Nano Biotechnology Research Centre (NBRC) in Kalol unit. The first phase of the launch was tested with support from Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK)/Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). These nanostructured formulations effectively deliver nutrients to the plants. Other benefits of these Nano-products include a reduction in the requirement of conventional chemical fertilizer by 50%, up to 15-30% increase in crop production, improvement in soil health, reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases.
6) Finance Minister launches two IT initiatives ICEDASH and ATITHI
•Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled two new IT Initiatives – ICEDASH and ATITHI for improved monitoring and pace of customs clearance of imported goods and facilitating arriving international passengers.
•ICEDASH is an Ease of Doing Business monitoring dashboard of the Indian Customs helping the public see the daily Customs clearance times of import cargo at various ports and airports. The ATITHI app will facilitate hassle-free and faster clearance by Customs at the airports and enhance the experience of international tourists and other visitors at the airports.
7) Madhuri Vijay’s debut novel ‘The Far Field’ wins 2019 JCB prize for Literature
•U.S. based-Indian author Madhuri Vijay’s debut novel, “The Far Field” bagged this year’s JCB prize for Literature, the most expensive Indian award for writing. The novel, published by Fourth estate India , sets a complex personal story against the backdrop of the conflict in the 1990s in Kashmir. She also received the Rs 25 lakh as the prize money, a sculpture by Delhi artist duo Thukral & Tagra entitled Mirror Melting.
•JCB prize is an annual Indian literary award instituted in 2018. It is awarded to a distinguished work of fiction by an Indian writer working in English or to a translated fiction by an Indian writer. The award is funded by English construction manufacturing group JCB, which established the JCB Literature Foundation to maintain this award. In 2018, the JCB Prize for Literature was awarded to Jasmine Days by Benyamin, translated from Malayalam by Shahnaz Habib.
8) Aditya Mishra appointed as chairman of Land Ports Authority of India
•Senior IPS officer Aditya Mishra was appointed as the chairman of the Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI). He is a 1989 batch IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Mishra as the chairman of the LPAI on the recommendations of a search-cum-selection panel. He has been appointed for a period of five years from the date of assumption of the charge.
•LPAI develops, sanitises and manage the facilities for cross-border movement of passengers and goods at designated points along the international borders of India.
9) IndusInd Bank appointed Sumant Kathpalia as new MD & CEO
•A private sector lender, IndusInd Bank has appointed its consumer banking head Suman Kathpalia, as its new Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He will replace Romesh Sobti, who will be retired in March 2020. Before joining IndusInd Bank, Sumant Kathpalia headed consumer loans vertical at ABN Amro Bank and joined IndusInd Bank in 2008.
10) Sri Lanka hosts biennial Commonwealth Law Ministers Conference
•The biennial Commonwealth Law Ministers’ Conference is being held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 4-7 November 2019. India will be represented at the conference by Union Minister for Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad. The theme for the 2019 CLM Conference is ‘Equal Access to Justice and the Rule of Law’. The Conference seeks to address challenges faced by millions of people seeking to resolve legal disputes. These include barriers such as poverty, lack of legal aid, distrust of the justice system and corruption.
