1) World Arthritis Day: 12 October
•World Arthritis Day is observed globally on 12th October every year. The day is celebrated to raise awareness about arthritis, an inflammatory condition which causes pain and stiffness in joints which can worsen with age.
2) International Day of the Girl Child: 11 October
•International Day of the Girl Child is observed globally on 11 October every year since 2012. The International Day of the Girl Child focuses attention on the need to address the challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfilment of their human rights.
•The theme for 2020 International Day of the Girl Child is “My voice, our equal future”.
3) Goa becomes first ‘Har Ghar Jal’ State across the nation
•According to the data provided by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Goa has become the first “Har Ghar Jal” State in the country by providing tap water connection to every rural household. The state provided tap water connection to 2 lakh 30 thousand rural households in all the 191 Gram Panchayats of the state.
•North Goa with 1,65,000 rural households and South Goa with 98,000 rural households are fully saturated with assured piped water supply through tap connections. Goa’s achievement is an example for other States to emulate and ensure every rural home gets tap connection and especially in these times of Covid-19 pandemic.
4) SVAMITVA Scheme: PM Modi launches physical distribution of Property Cards
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the programme of physical distribution of Property Cards under the SVAMITVA scheme through video conferencing. The Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas (SVAMITVA) is a Central Sector Scheme, which was launched in April 2020 to provide the ‘record of rights to document the residential properties’ to village household owners in rural areas and issue Property Cards.
5) Andhra Pradesh CM launches “Jagananna Vidya Kanuka” scheme
•Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has launched a new scheme named the ‘Jagananna Vidya Kanuka’ scheme to distribute school kits among the poor children of the state. The state shall spend around Rs 650 crore towards the scheme. 42,34,322 kits will be distributed across the state under the scheme.
•Under this scheme, the government school students from classes 1 to 10 across the state will set the school kits or Vidya Kanuka, which will contain three pairs of uniform, one pair of shoes, two pairs of socks, a belt, one set of textbooks and notebooks and one school bag.
6) Aava Murto becomes Finland’s PM post for a day
•As part of the United Nations International Day of Girl Child (11th October 2020), a 16-year old Aava Murto assumed the post of Finland’s Prime Minister for one day on 7th October 2020 to raise awareness about gender equality. It was done as part of the “Girls Takeover” Program. Murto hails from the small village of Vaaksy in Southern Finland.
7) Delhi govt approves tree transplantation policy
•Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal has passed a first-of-its-kind in India ‘Tree Transplantation Policy’ to preserve trees for clean and green Delhi. As per this policy, the trees which needs be felled due to any circumstances, like for constructions and other development projects, would not be cut but instead uprooted and transplanted somewhere else.
8) Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2020 announced
•The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden’s central bank) Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2020 to Paul R. Milgrom and Robert B. Wilson “for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats”.
9) FM Nirmala Sitharaman announced LTC cash voucher scheme
•Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced leave travel concession (LTC) cash voucher scheme and special festival advance scheme for government employees with an aim to increase consumer spending. She announced proposals regarding consumer spending and capital expenditure. Under consumer spending, she announced proposals within two components: LTC cash voucher scheme and special festival advance scheme.
