Weekly Current Affairs 15th To 21st October 2019

International News

IMF downgrades India’s Growth Projection to 6.1%

• In the IMF’s World Economic Outlook report released on 15th October 2019, IMF has downgraded India’s growth projection by 1.2% from its April projections.
• India suffered the sharpest cut, next only to Saudi Arabia, which saw a cut of 1.7 percentage points in the growth rate.

International Jury of 50th International Film Festival of India (IFFI)

• John Bailey, Cinematographer will chair the International Jury of 50th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Golden Jubilee edition.
• Malayalam film Jallikattu directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery and Marathi film Mai Ghat: Crime No. 103/2005 directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan are the two Indian films competing at 50th IFFI (Golden Peacock Award).

UP Govt Organized First Training Programme

• The Culture Department of Uttar Pradesh government has organized the first training programme of KHON (खोन) Ramlila in collaboration with the Thailand government.
• KHON Ramlila of Thailand is included in the list of UNESCO’s Intangible cultural heritage.

National News

Air India: 1st Airline to use Taxibot

• The taxi bot was used on an A-320 aircraft with passengers on board.
• The bot was flagged off by Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani, at Terminal 3 of the Delhi Airport - to Mumbai.

2nd Phase of LOTUS-HR Launched

• LOTUS-HR is a water laboratory that aims to produce clean water through a holistic waste-water management approach that can be reused for various purposes.
• The LOTUS-HR initiative is jointly supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research and the Department of Biotechnology, the Ministry of Science and Technology.

CBIC launched programme to attract Investments into India

• Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has launched a revamped programme to attract investments into India.
• CBIC has launched a dedicated microsite https://www.investindia.gov.in/bonded-manufacturing in collaboration with Invest India to provide information about the scheme.

RIL became 1st Indian Company to hit Rs 9 lakh crore m-cap mark

• The RIL shares rose nearly 2% in Friday trading session to hit Rs1,423 whereas, India’s benchmark Sensex Index rose 0.5% or 200 points to hit 39,252 points.
• According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch RIL can become the first Indian company to achieve a market capitalisation of $200 billion in the next two years.

91st Interpol General Assembly

• The International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) is an international police cooperation organisation, based in Lyon, France. It has 194 member states and 100 years of experience of international cooperation in policing.
• Rishi Kumar Shukla, the director of the CBI is the representative of Interpol in India.

PM Modi meets the delegation of USISPF

• PM Modi meets the delegation of US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) on 21st October 2019 in New Delhi.
• The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) was established in 2017 with the objective of creating meaningful opportunities of entrepreneurship, employment-creation, and innovation for the citizens of both the countries and to strengthen their economic and commercial ties.

Zomato tie up with BioD

• The partnership is for the purpose of collecting the used cooking oil from restaurants around the country and convert it into biodiesel.
• This a step in the direction of environment-friendly measure with the aim to collect 1,000 tonnes of used cooking oil per month.

Banking

RBI guidelines on 'on tap' Authorisation on Payment Systems

• Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit (BBPOU) - Entities who are desirous to operate or provide platforms for BBPOU, should have a 100 crore rupees net worth and should be maintained at all times.
• Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) - the minimum paid-up equity capital should be 25 crore rupees.

No MDR on Digital Payment to Large Firms

• The government has said that banks or system providers will not impose Merchant Discount Rates (MDR) on customers/merchants on digital payment to large firms having a turnover in excess of Rs 50 crore.
• Amendments have been made into the Income Tax Act as well as the Payment and Settlement System Act 2007 to enact the new provisions.

SEBI norms dealing with Auditor Resignation

• The Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has tightened the disclosure norms dealing with resignations of statutory auditors in listed companies.
• As per the new norm, if the auditor resigns within 45days from the end of the quarter in a Financial Year, the auditor has to issue the audit report for such a quarter before the resignation.

Index and Ranking

India Innovation Index 2019

• The index aims to benchmark the performance of 29 state and 7 Union territories with each other through a holistic tool to identify challenges in the economic growth and promote competitive federalism.
• Among the category of major states, Maharashtra performs the best in the dimension of Enablers. Sikkim took the top spots among the northeastern & hill states, and Delhi among the union territories/city-states/small states.

Appointments

Name of the Person	Designation
J.P.S. Chawla	New Controller General of Accounts (CGA)
Amit Khare	Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy
Anup Kumar Singh	Director-General of the National Security Guard (NSG)

Awards and Honours

Award	Awardee
Booker Prize 2019	Bernardine Evaristo and Margaret Atwood
Nobel Prize for Economics 2019	Michael Kremer of the United States, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo

Important Days

Date	Day	Theme
16th October 2019	World Food Day	--

MoU’s Signed

India-Netherlands bilateral Ties

• India and the Netherlands have a bilateral trade turnover of USD 12.87 billion (2018-2019).
• The Netherlands is India’s 4th largest trading partner in the European Union with a cumulative investment of $ 23 billion for the period 2000 to 2017 (Dec).

Science and Technology

DNA Technology Regulation Bill

• The bill has been referred to the Standing Committee on Science and Technology and Environment and Forests.
• The bill seeks to control the use and application of the Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) technology for establishing the identity of missing persons, suspects, offenders, victims and under-trials.

First all-Female pairing to Spacewalk

• Jessica Meir is a marine biologist has now become the 15th Women and 228th person in the world to conduct a spacewalk.
• This was Christina Koch’s 4th spacewalk, who is an electrical engineer.

Defence

Joint Exercise EX-EASTERN BRIDGE-V

• EX-EASTERN BRIDGE-V, the joint exercise between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO), has started from 17th October till 26th October 2019.
• From India, MiG-29 fighter aircraft will participate in the exercise and this is the first time it is participating in an International Exercise outside India.

DAC approved Indigenous Military Equipment Procurement

• The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the procurement of indigenously developed military equipment worth Rs 3300 crore for the armed forces.
• The third-generation Anti-Tank Guided Missiles would provide Fire and Forget and Top Attack capabilities to the troops.

Sports

Bahrain International Series 2019

• Priyanshu Rajawat clinched the men's singles title at the Bahrain International Series Badminton.
• He has defeated Jason Anthony Ho-Shue from Canada in the finals from 16-21, 21-7, 21-12.
• Indian mixed double pair of Juhi Dewangan and Venkat Gaurav Prasad also finished with the gold.

Kiran Uniyal created Individual Guinness World Records

• She has so far achieved 15 World Records, including 10 Guinness World Records in Martial Arts, Social Work and Fitness.
• Kiran Uniyal created her 1st Individual Guinness World Record for “The most full contact elbow strikes (466 strikes) (one hand) in 3 minutes.

Kuhoo Garg-Dhruv Rawat won Egypt International Mixed Doubles Title

• The match was held in Cairo, Egypt on 20th October 2019.
• The two played against Ahmed Salah and Hadia Hosny of Egypt, the second seed in the all-Indian final.
• It was 16-21 21-19 19-21 to third seeds Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker. 

Summits and Conferences

G20 Okayama Health Ministers’ Meeting

• The G20 Okayama Health Ministers’ Meeting was held under the Presidency of Japan in Okayama City, Japan on 19th-20th October 2019.
• The G20 Health Ministers meeting concluded by adopting the “Okayama Declaration of the G 20 Health Ministers”. The declaration endorses the Commitment of G20 countries to address the major global health issues, towards an inclusive and sustainable world.