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The Ministry of Railways has been declared the best department for its contribution to “Swachchta Pakhwada” under the “Swachchta Hi Seva” category of awards in an inter-ministry initiative organised by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation to promote cleanliness in government offices and health facilities. The award was presented to the Railway Ministry on the 4th anniversary of the Swachh Bharat Mission. The ‘Swachchta Hi Seva’ campaign was launched in 2017 to spur the public to donate their time for building toilets and cleaning public places.

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On October 3, the Government of India (GoI) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed $240 million loan for providing safe and sustainable drinking water to about 1.65 million people in three districts of the state of West Bengal affected by arsenic, fluoride, and salinity. The purpose of the project is to mitigate these risks through provision of continuous potable water through metered connections to about 390,000 individual households in three districts – Bankura, North 24 Parganas, and Purba Medinipur. The project is supported by a grant of $3 million from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, financed by the Government of Japan, and a $2 million grant from ADB’s Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund (UCCRTF). This will support the state government in strengthening its smart water management system, improve flood-related early warning and response, and provide training on operation and maintenance as well as climate change and disaster resilience.

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The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister, Prakash Javadekar has recently announced the “Swachh Campus rankings 2018” under different categories. In it, Haryana’s Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) has been declared the cleanest government varsity by the HRD Ministry, followed by Guru Nanak Dev University in Punjab’s Amritsar. The rankings were decided on the basis of a survey under the ‘Swachhta Hi Sewa’ campaign. The Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) in the national capital has been ranked third among the government institutions followed by Algappa University in Tamil Nadu’s Karaikudi and Acharya Nagarjuna University in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur. The universities were assessed for toilets adequacy and maintenance, garbage clearance system, hostel kitchen hygiene and sophistication of equipment, water purity, storage, distribution facility, campus greenery and rainwater harvesting, use of solar systems and villages or neighbourhood adoption for hygiene.

Notes:
On the 149th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has launched a National Level Entrepreneurship Awareness Campaign – Udyam Abhilasha, in 115 aspirational districts identified by NITI Aayog in 28 States. The purpose of the campaign is to inspire rural youth in aspirational districts to be entrepreneurs by assisting them to set up their own enterprise. The 6-day campaign would run parallel from 3rd October across India. It would create and strengthen cadre of more than 800 trainers to provide entrepreneurship training to the aspiring youths, encouraging them to enter the admired segment of entrepreneurs. The SIDBI has partnered with Common service centres, e-Governance Services India Limited, a Special Purpose Vehicle, set up by the Ministry of Electronics and IT for implementing the campaign. SIDBI is the principal financial institution for the promotion, financing and development of the MSME sector.

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The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018 with one half to Frances H. Arnold “for the directed evolution of enzymes” and the other half jointly to George P. Smith and British scientist Sir Gregory P. Winter “for the phage display of peptides and antibodies”. Dr. Arnold and Dr. Smith are American scientists. Now, Dr. Arnold is only the fifth woman to be awarded the prize for chemistry. The methods developed by the laureates have been put to work to create new enzymes and antibodies used in promoting a greener chemicals industry, mitigating disease and saving lives. The prize highlights the narrowing of the gap between biology and some fields of chemistry as chemists turn to nature for inspiration.

Notes:
The World Habitat Day (WHD) is observed every year on first Monday in October across the world to raise awareness about need for affordable housing for all in urban areas, cities and towns. The purpose of day is to reflect on the state of our towns and cities, and on the basic right of all to adequate shelter. The day is also intended to remind the world that we all have the power and the responsibility to shape the future of our cities and towns. On 1st October 2018, the day is celebrated with ‘Municipal Solid Waste Management’ & slogan ‘Waste-wise cities’ to highlight the issue of municipal solid waste management challenge as global issue that affects everyone.

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Barham Ahmed Salih, the veteran Kurdistan politician, has been elected as the new President of Iraq on 2nd October 2018. He received 219 votes and defeated Fuad Hussein, who secured 22 votes. Salih is a former prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government and a former deputy prime minister of the Iraqi federal government. The new president will have 15 days to task the nominee of the largest parliamentary bloc with forming a new government. However, President Saleh has named veteran Shia Islamist politician Adel Abdul Mahdi as prime minister-designate & ended months of deadlock. Now, Mr. Mahdi will have to oversee the reconstruction of Iraq following the four-year battle against the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), which left tens of thousands of homes and business destroyed and displaced more than three million people. Under a de facto power-sharing deal agreed in Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein, the Iraq’s presidency is held by a Kurd, while the prime minister is Shia and the speaker of parliament is Sunni.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first-ever General Assembly of International Solar Alliance (ISA) at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi from 2nd October 2018. He pitched for “one-world, one-sun, one-grid”, to harness the energy potential offered by the sun. Beside this, PM Modi also announced the “universalization” of membership for the first treaty-based international government organization headquartered in India that will help provide a platform for climate justice. The same event also marked the inauguration of the 2nd IORA Renewable Energy Ministerial Meeting, and the 2nd Global RE-Invest (Renewable Energy Investors’ Meet and Expo). Over 150 speakers including 55 international speakers from 15 countries will take part in it. The India and France-led ISA is an inter-governmental treaty-based organisation of countries between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn to promote solar energy in the member nations.

Notes:
The 31st All India Railways Chess tournament 2018 has started at Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu on October 3. The 4-day tournament has formally inaugurated by General Manager of Southern Railway, SM Kulshreshta. The event is being conducted in Swiss League Format at both team and individual levels. Around 87 players including five grandmasters and 18 international masters from 14 Zonal Railways and seven Production Units from across Indian Railways are participating in the event. The successful players from this tournament will represent Indian Railways in the National Chess Championship to be held in November 2018.

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On the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the world’s largest dome at the Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT)’s World Peace University (MIT-WPU) campus at Loni Kalbhor, Pune. The dome is 160 ft in diameter and 263 ft tall. It is larger in area than the dome at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City (which is 136 ft. in diameter and 448 ft. in height). The prayer hall can accommodate about 3,500 people and is embellished with more than 50 statues of saints, philosophers, scientists and statesmen from India and the world. Each of the statues, created by the noted artist ‘Ram V. Sutar’, is 4m in tall and weighs up to two tonnes. The dome will be home to teachings of saints, spiritual leaders, philosophers and scientists from around the world as it will profess humanity and world peace. It will house India’s first library called Saint Dnyaneshwara World Peace Library which will have books sourced from over 100 countries across the globe.