Notes:
The Government of India (GoI) has recently notified that the State Bank of India (SBI) has been authorised to issue and encash Electoral Bonds through its 29 Authorised Branches from November 1 to 10, 2018. The bonds will be issued in multiples of Rs. 1,000, Rs. 10,000, Rs. 1 lakh, Rs. 10 lakh and Rs. 1 crore. As per provisions of the Electoral Bond Scheme 2018, Electoral Bonds may be purchased by a person who is a citizen of India or incorporated or established in India. Only the Political Parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (43 of 1951) and which secured not less than 1% of the votes polled in the most recent Lok Sabha or State election , shall be eligible to receive the Electoral Bonds. Donors can donate the bonds to their party of choice which can then be cashed in via the party’s verified account within 15 days. It must be noted that an electoral bond is designed to be a bearer instrument like a Promissory Note — in effect, it will be similar to a bank note that is payable to the bearer on demand and free of interest.

Notes:
Madan Lal Khurana (83), the former Delhi Chief Minister, has passed awayin New Delhi on October 27, 2018. He was a member of Rashtriya Swayansevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In addition to holding posts including national vice-president and Delhi president within the BJP, Mr. Khurana also served as Governor of Rajasthan in 2004. He was the Union Minister of Parliamentary affairs and Tourism in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

Notes:
The researchers at the University of Michigan in the US have developed a web-based tool to help monitor the prevalence of fake news on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. The tool uses a Platform Health Metric called the Iffy Quotient, which draws data from two external entities: NewsWhip and Media Bias/Fact Checker. NewsWhip, a social media engagement tracking firm, collects URLs on hundreds of thousands of sites every day and then gathers information on which of those sites have engagements on Facebook and Twitter. The Iffy Quotient queries NewsWhip for the top 5,000 most popular URLs on the two social media platforms. Then, the tool checks to see if those domain names have been flagged by Media Bias/Fact Check, an independent site that classifies various sources based on their reliability and bias.

Notes:
India’s Sourav Kothari defeated Peter Gilchrist of Singapore 1134-944 to clinch the 2018 World Billiards Championship title at Leeds in UK. The former national and Asian Billiards champion Kothari was pipped at the post for the coveted World Billiards crown on two occasions in the last two years, including a loss to Gilchrist in the 2016 final in Bengaluru.

Notes:
Sanjay Kumar Mishra, a 1984-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer of the Income Tax cadre, has been appointed as the principal special director in the central probe agency and entrusted with the “additional” charge of Enforcement Directorate (ED) director for three months. Mishra succeeded Karnal Singh. The post of ED director is an additional secretary rank post in the Union government. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is a law enforcement agency and economic intelligence agency responsible for enforcing economic laws and fighting economic crime in India. It is part of the Department of Revenue under Ministry of Finance. The ED enforces two major laws in the country to check black money– the criminal Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

Notes:
Indian table tennis player Ayhika Mukherjee has won a silver medal in the under-21 women’s singles category of the ITTF Challenge Belgium Open. She lost 1-3 to Korea’s Youjin Kim in the final. In the semifinals, Ayhika had defeated Hong Kong’s Chengzhu Zhu 3-1 to enter the finals. Her compatriots Anthony Amalraj and Sanil Shetty too fought their way into the medals’ bracket, bagging a bronze in the men’s doubles.

Notes:
The researchers at IIT-Madras have designed and booted up India’s first indigenously developed microprocessor that can be used in mobile computing devices, embedded low power wireless systems and networking systems besides reducing reliance on imported microprocessors in communications and defence sectors. The ‘Shakti’ family of processors was fabricated at Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL) of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Chandigarh. Hence, it is claimed that the launch would help reduce reliance on import of microprocessors. The SCL is an autonomous body engaged in research and development in microelectronics to meet strategic needs of the country.

Notes:
IIT Kharagpur has recently organised a science and technology competition ‘Young Innovators Programme YIP 2018’ for students of class 8 to 10 to make the younger generation more oriented towards scientific and technological innovations. The competition was attended by many schools in the country and also from Singapore. The students of different participating teams came up with solutions to problem statements in the areas of Clean Energy, Health and cleanliness, Resource management, Hardware Modelling, Product Designing and Disaster Management in the YIP 2018. The competition was topped by Kaanger Valley Academy of Raipur (Chattisgarh) for devising a low-cost home-made herbal mask to help breathe in a polluted environment. The first runner-up was The Crossword School from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh which developed an electronic device for instantly fixing potholes for smooth and safe surface transport which they named ‘Pothole Warrior’.

Notes:
The Government of India (GoI) has recently donated $300,000 for a peacekeeping initiative at the United Nations (UN) that will focus on issues of conduct along with sexual exploitation and abuse and help develop the capacity of future commanders and managers to lead by example. The programme will, over a period of three years, help develop the capacity of future commanders and managers to lead by example and raise awareness of UN standards of conduct among their personnel. The programme will equip future commanders and managers to respond to allegations of misconduct including through collaborating with the various stakeholders in mission settings during the investigation and disciplinary process. India is also noted as the first contributor to the Trust Fund in Support of Victims of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. The country is also a signatory to the Voluntary Compact on Eliminating Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and a member of the Circle of Leadership of the Secretary-General on the prevention and response to sexual exploitation and abuse.

Notes:
On October 30, the Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will lay the foundation of India’s largest Dry Dock at Cochin Shipyard in Kerala. The new Dry Dock is being constructed at a cost of Rs 1799 Crore. It will be 310 m long, 75m wide, with a depth of 13 m and drought of 9.5m. The dock will be designed to handle both ship building and repairs, and bear a load up to 600 T/m. It will be equipped with international safety standards. The dock will also have a water treatment plant and Green Belt Development. The project is expected to be completed by May 2021 and generate employment opportunities for about 2000 people. The Dry Dock will give an impetus to “Make in India” initiative under Sagarmala and raise India’s share in global shipbuilding to 2%. With this, Cochin Shipyard will be able to build specialized and technologically advanced large vessels.