1) World Kindness Day: 13 November
•November 13 is celebrated as the World Kindness Day. World Kindness Day is to highlight good deeds in the community focusing on the positive power and the common thread of kindness which binds us. Kindness is a fundamental part of the human circumstances which bridges the divides of race religion, politics, gender and zip codes. The Theme of 2019 for this World Kindness Day 2019 is empathy, encouraging people across the globe to better understand “the pains of others” and touch their lives “positively”.
•World Kindness Day was first introduced in 1998 by The World Kindness Movement, an organisation formed at a 1997 Tokyo conference by the like-minded kindness organisations from around the world. In 2019, the organization was registered as an official NGO under Swiss law. There are currently over 28 nations involved in The World Kindness Movement which is not affiliated with any religion or political movement.
2) Chief Justice’s office comes under RTI, rules Supreme Court
•The Supreme Court ruled that the office of Chief Justice comes under the transparency law, the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The decision by the five-judge bench of the Supreme Court, led Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who retires on November 17, comes on a petition filed by Central Public Information Officer of the Supreme Court against a Delhi high court ruling of 2010 that held the office of the CJI was a public authority and directed the secretary-general of the top court to disclose details of the assets of judges sought by RTI activist SC Agarwal.
3) 39th India International Trade Fair 2019
•39th India International Trade Fair 2019 begins in New Delhi. The theme for the 39th edition of the fair is ‘Ease of Doing Business’ inspired by India’s unique achievement of rising to 63rd rank on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index from 142nd rank in the year 2014. The fair will be inaugurated by Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Nitin Gadkari. This year the status of ‘Partner Country’ has been accorded to ‘The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan’ and ‘The Republic of Korea’ will be the ‘Focus Country’. Bihar and Jharkhand will be the focus states in this edition of the fair.
4) Swachh-Nirmal Tat Abhiyaan
•Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is undertaking a mass cleanliness-cum-awareness drive in 50 identified beaches under the programme called ‘Swachh- Nirmal Tat Abhiyaan’, from 11 -17 November 2019.
•The Objective of Swachh-Nirmal Tat Abhiyaan to strive to make coastal areas across the country clean and to create awareness amongst citizens about the importance of coastal ecosystems so as to save marine creatures from plastic waste, industrial effluents and other harmful substances.
5) Sishu Suraksha APP to be launched in Assam
•The Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights is going to launch a mobile app Sishu Suraksha on the occasion of Children’s Day. The purpose of the app is to empower citizens to take moral responsibility for protecting future generations. The app can be used by anyone in the state to lodge a complaint which will be directly registered at Commission.
6) Dr Harsh Vardhan inaugurates exhibition of Technologies in Food Processing
•Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan inaugurated an exhibition of Technologies in Food Processing developed by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. The exhibition organized in New Delhi showcases CSIR technologies in the food sector to the industries and MSMEs. It also highlights the latest research and development being done in the food processing sector in the country. The products developed through these technologies and innovations are cost-effective and healthier for people.
7) Pravind Jugnauth sworn in as Mauritius PM
•Mauritius’s incumbent Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth was sworn in for a five-year term after elections in which his coalition consolidated its grip on parliament. Jugnauth took over from his father in 2017 without going through a vote, and the decisive victory of his centre-right Morisian Alliance in the November 7 elections have strengthened his legitimacy. Since attaining independence from Britain in 1968, Mauritius has become one of the most stable democracies in Africa.
8) Iran discovers new oil field with 53 Bn barrels of reserves
•Iran has discovered a new oilfield with 53 billion barrels of crude oil in Khuzestan province, home to Iran’s Khuzestan’s crucial oil industry. The announcement, however, did not reveal how much oil could be produced from the reservoir but the find could boost the country’s battered economy amid stringent US sanctions. The new oil field discovered is 2,400 square kilometres (925 square miles), with the deposit some 80 metres (260 feet) deep.
9) India to host 19th council of heads of government of SCO 2020
•India will host the 19th council of heads of government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation 2020. The first such high-level meeting of the 8-member grouping to be organised by New Delhi after its admission into the grouping in 2017.
•The SCO is a China-led eight-member economic and security bloc in which India and Pakistan were admitted as full members in 2017. Its founding members included China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The latest Summit of heads of government was held in Tashkent in November 2019. It was proposed in Tashkent Summit that India would take the initiative to hold the 2020 meetings of the Heads of Government.
10) Mohammad Imran appointed Bangladesh High Commissioner to India
•Mohammad Imran has been appointed as the new High Commissioner of Bangladesh to India. He is currently Bangladesh’s Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. He succeeds Syed Muazzem Ali. The announcement was made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh.
11) SBI’s economic research team revised India’s FY20 GDP forecast to 5%
•The economic research team from the State Bank of India (SBI) has revised India’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP) to 5% from its earlier estimate of 6.1% for the Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20). This downgrade was due to global slowdown in the index of industrial production (IIP). The SBI economic research team group has projected the second quarter (July-September) GDP growth at 4.2% in their report titled “EcoWrap”. It expects the growth rate to pick up in FY2021 to 6.2%.
12) FICCI signed MoU with Singapore Fintech Association
•Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) signed a memorandum of understanding with Singapore Fintech Association (SFA) as part of the growing Singapore-India fintech ecosystems. The MoU was signed during the Fourth edition of Singapore Fintech Festival, the world’s largest financial technology platform along with Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology conducted from November 11-13, 2019.
13) Air Chief to inaugurate ISAM Conference in Bengaluru
•Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria will inaugurate the 58th Indian Society of Aerospace Medicine (ISAM) Annual Conference. The aims of the conference to address contemporary issues and applications in the subject of aerospace medicine. The theme for this year’s conference is ‘Changing Paradigms in Aerospace Healthcare’. The event will take place at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Indian Air Force, Bengaluru from November 14-16.
