National
S&P maintains ‘BBB-/A-3’ rating on India with stable outlook:
i. International ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has maintained its ‘BBB-/A-3’ credit ratings for India with a stable outlook.
ii. The agency pegged the country’s current account deficit at 1.4% in 2016, as against 2.1% in 2015.
iii. Further, the agency said it expects India’s GDP to grow by 7.9% in 2016 and 8% on average during the 2016-18 period.
Kerala becomes 3rd Open Defecation Free state:
i. Kerala has become the third Open Defecation Free state in the country after Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) (Gramin).
ii. The announcement in this regard was made by the Drinking Water and Sanitation Secretary Parameswaran Iyer in New Delhi on the occasion foundation day of Kerala (1 November).
iii. With this Kerala becomes first high density populated state in the country to achieve Open Defecation Free status.
About Swachh Bharat Mission:
a) The Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) was launched in October 2014 to accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and to put focus on sanitation.
b) The mission aims to achieve Swachh Bharat or make India clean by 2019, as a fitting tribute to the 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
c) The SBM consists of two sub-missions Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin), implemented in rural areas, and Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), implemented in urban areas.
Odisha Government launches new Scheme on the name of Madhu Babu:
i. Odisha government has launched Madhubabu Aain Sahayata Sibir’ (MASS) scheme to provide legal assistance to deprived sections of the society at the grassroots level.
ii. The scheme has been named after great Odia lawyer Madhu Babu, who is considered as the first lawyer of Odisha.
iii. In this scheme state government will provide free legal consultations to deprived sections of the society by setting up legal assistance cells in all 6,812 gram panchayats across the state.
PM Modi felicitates Deepa Malik with ₹4 cr cash reward:
i. PM Narendra Modi felicitated Rio Paralympics silver medalist Deepa Malik with a ₹4 crore cash reward in Gurugram.
ii. Malik was the first Indian woman athlete to win a Paralympics medal in Rio, winning a silver in the women’s shot put event.
TRAI sets 512 kbps as minimum broadband speed in India:
i. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) doubled the minimum broadband speed and fixed it to 512 kbps from the previously mandated 256 kbps speed.
ii. Internet service providers will have to ensure that the speed of broadband connections does not go below 512 kbps in any circumstance, The government earlier wanted 2 mbps as the minimum broadband speed.
Prez Mukherjee 1st Indian state head to visit Nepal in 18yrs:
i. President Pranab Mukherjee arrived in Nepal on Wednesday on a three-day state visit, marking the first presidential visit from India in 18 years to the Himalayan nation.
ii. Nepal’s government has announced a public holiday in honour of the visiting Indian President.
S Nihal Singh to get Raja Ram Mohan Roy Award:
i. Veteran journalist S Nihal Singh has been chosen for the ‘Raja Ram Mohan Roy Award’ for his outstanding contribution to journalism which is presented by the Press Council of India (PCI).
ii. The award will be presented on Nov16 and carries a cash component of Rs 1 lakh. Raja Ram Mohan Roy Award is presented by the Press Council of India (PCI).
Business & Economy
RBI Opens 2nd Banking Ombudsman Office:
i. The RBI has opened a second office of the Banking Ombudsman in New Delhi, taking into account the significant increase of the banking network.
ii. The second office will have jurisdiction over Haryana except few districts & Ghaziabad & Gautam Buddha Nagar districts of U.P.
iii. The first office of the Banking Ombudsman at RBI,New Delhi, will have the jurisdiction over Delhi & J&K.
NIIT signs MoUs for two strategtic tie-ups in China:
i. Skills and talent development company NIIT has entered into two strategic tie-ups with Yinchuan City Economic and Technology Development Zone and Ningxia University to develop a pool of IT professionals in China.
ii. According to the MoU, NIIT will establish a training base in public-private partnership model to conduct IT training in Digital Transformation technologies.
Short News
I. Russia has invited India to join in developing next-generation nuclear reactors and to participate in its fast-reactor research project. The multipurpose fast research reactor project known by Russian acronym MBIR is coming up as the International Research Centre (IRC) in Dimitrovgrad located in the Ulyanovsk region.
II. India has been ranked 133rd out of 183 countries in the 2016 Global Youth Development Index (YDI) compiled by the Commonwealth Secretariate. Top 5 countries in 2016 YDI: Germany (1), Denmark (2), Australia (3), Switzerland (4), UK (5), Netherlands.
III. The tenth edition of Indo-Nepal joint military exercise Surya Kiran commenced at Army Battle School, Saljhandi in Nepal. Its emphasis will be on counter terrorism in mountainous terrain.
IV. Senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Sushil Chandra took over as chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). He succeed Rani Singh Nair who retired from service.
V. Delhi HC celebrated its 50th anniversary on Oct 31. PM Modi attended the function. The theme of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations has been fixed as “Justice for all”
VI. South Korea’s president Park Geun-hye has named a new prime minister and finance minister.
VII. Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn is to be confirmed as the new king of Thailand on 1 December.
VIII. Veteran singer SP Balasubrahmanyam will be honoured with Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the year at the 47th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.
IX. Twitter India head Rishi Jaitly has quit the company after spending four years at the popular microblogging website.
X. Michel Aoun, the former Lebanese army chief, has been elected president of Lebanon, ending more than two years of deadlock surrounding the vacancy.
XI. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Japan on November 11 and 12 for the annual Indo Japan Summit.