Notes:
Indian mountaineer Satyarup Siddhanta from Bengal has become the first Indian to climb Mt Giluwe – the second highest mountain in Papua New Guinea. He reached the summit of the mountain which is at an elevation of 4,367m on November 11, 2018. With this, Satya has scaled 5 of the 7 volcanic summits. In a few days, he will now set out to summit Mt Wilhelm – the highest mountain of Papua New Guinea. Once successful, Satya will be the first from India to scale these two mountains. In September 2018, Satyarup Siddhanta and Mousumi Khatua created history by climbing Asia’s highest volcanic peak Mount Damavand and became the first Bengalis to do so. Mt Damavand is the highest peak in Iran and also a potentially active volcano.

Notes:
On November 12, The 17th ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Council Meeting was held in Singapore as part of the 33rd ASEAN Summit and Related Summit Meetings. Apart from taking stock of regional economic integration efforts during the year, it also reiterated ASEAN’s commitment to free and open trade by deepening the integration of its economies and realising the AEC Blueprint 2025. The blueprint seeks sustained and long-term growth for the ASEAN region. The meeting was attended by the ASEAN Economic Ministers and AEC Ministers. They signed the ASEAN Agreement on e-Commerce, Concluded the ASEAN Trade in Services Agreement (ATISA) and Finalised the 4th Protocol to Amend the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement (ACIA).

Notes:
Young writer-critic Dr Debabhuson Borah has been honoured with the prestigious Munin Barkotoki Literary Award 2018 in Assam for his book on literary criticism titled ‘Nirbochon’ The annual award, which carries a cash prize of Rs 50,000 along with a citation and a plaque, was instituted in the memory of renowned writer, critic and journalist Munin Barkotoki to encourage young and promising authors writing in Assamese. The Awards for the years 2017 and 2018 will be given away at a function to be held here in February 2019. It must be noted that Short-story writer Dalim Das has been selected for the 2017 award for his collection ‘Hari Jadu Madhu’.

Notes:
On November 12, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) signed MoU with the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) to explore the possibility of storing ADNOC crude oil at Padur Underground Facility in Udupi district of Karnataka, which has a 2.5 million tonne (~17 million barrels) capacity. So far, ADNOC is the only foreign oil & gas company to invest by way of crude oil in India’s strategic petroleum reserves program. ISPRL is an Indian government-owned company mandated to store crude oil for emergency needs and its headquarters is located at Noida. ISPRL has already built 5.33 million tonnes of underground storage capacity at three locations – Visakhapatnam (1.33 million tonnes), Mangalore (1.5 million tonnes) and Padur (2.5 million tonnes), that can meet around 9.5 days of the country’s oil needs as per consumption data of last financial year.

Notes:
On November 14, the 38th India International Trade Fair (IITF) has started at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi with theme – Rural Enterprises in India. The 14-day annual event will continue till 27th of this month. Afghanistan is the Partner Country, while Nepal will be the Focus Country. Jharkhand is participating as a Partner State in the event. Around 800 participants from States and Government Departments, domestic and International companies are taking part to showcase their product. For the general public, the trade fair will open from 18th to 27th of November. During a public holiday, the price of the ticket will be Rs.120 for adult and Rs. 60 for the child. While during working days, the ticket charges will be Rs. 60 for adult and 40 rupees for the child.

Notes:
The World Diabetes Day (WDD) is observed every year on November 14 to raise awareness among families to discover, prevent and manage diabetes. It is the primary global awareness campaign focusing on diabetes mellitus The theme for WDD 2018 – 2019 is “The Family and Diabetes – diabetes concerns every family”. It focuses on the fact that families need to work together in adopting a healthy lifestyle in order to prevent and manage diabetes.

Notes:
On November 11, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s first multi-modal terminal on the Ganga river in his parliamentary constituency in Varanasi and received the country’s first container cargo transported on inland waterways from Kolkata. This is the first of the four multi-modal terminals being constructed on the National Waterway-1 (River Ganga) as part of the World Bank-aided ‘Jal Marg Vikas Project’ of the Inland Waterways Authority of India. The total estimated cost of the project is Rs 5,369.18 crore, which will be equally shared between the Government of India and the World Bank. The aim of the Centre’s Jal Marg Vikas Project is to develope the stretch of the river between Varanasi and Haldia for navigation of large vessels weighing up to 1,500 tonnes to 2,000 tonnes. Its objective is to promote inland waterways as a cheap and an environment-friendly means of transportation, especially for cargo movement. The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is the project implementing agency.

Notes:
On November 14, the conference on Global Digital Content Market (GDCM) 2018 has started in New Delhi with focus on ‘Asia Pacific region’. The 2-day conference will feature sessions on music, film, broadcasting and publishing, as well as collective management, emerging models and the implications for the market and policy makers. It is being organized by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce and Industry. India has been chosen as a host nation for the conference byWorld Intellectual Property Organization(WIPO) due to the strong creative industry in the country in films, music and media. GDCM 2018 is the second edition of the conference. The aim of GDCM 2018 is to give industry stakeholders a platform to come together and discuss new avenues in the films, music, gaming and creative industry along with points of challenge that is presented due to the changing creative landscape because of the disruption brought about by digital technologies.

Notes:
The regional meeting of the World Customs Organisation has started in Jaipur, Rajasthan with representatives of 33 member countries of Asia attending it. The meeting is slated to deliberate upon various issues including the steps required for the capacity building and reforms in customs.The participants would also discuss and deliberate upon the amended Kyoto protocol, digital customs, e-commerce among other issues. The meeting is being jointly chaired by WCO Deputy Secretary General Ricardo Travino and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs Chairman S Ramesh.

Notes:
The 9th edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019 is scheduled to be held in Gandhinagar from 18th to 20th January with theme `Shaping of a New India’. The `Youth Connect Forums’. The summit will provide a forum for discussion on global, national and state-level agendas with a sharp focus on all round economic development for a ‘New India’. United Arab Emirates (UAE) will participate in the summit as a partner country for the second consecutive year.