Notes:
HSBC Holdings Plc has executed India’s first trade financial transaction using blockchain for a deal involving an export by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to US-based Tricon Energy. The blockchain-enabled letter of credit (LC) reduces transaction timeline from 7-10 days to less than a day. The Letter of Credit (LC) was issued by ING Bank for Tricon Energy USA (importer) with HSBC India as the advisory and negotiation bank for RIL. The blockchain platform was integrated with the electronic bill of lading (eBL) platform to issue and manage an electronic bill of lading. This allows a digital transfer of the title of goods from the seller to the buyer in the underlying trade. It is claimed that the blockchain solution is a major improvement for any organisation involved in buying and selling goods internationally, as it brings together all parties onto one platform. It is a distributed database that maintains a continuously-growing list of ordered records called blocks and is deemed to be very transparent as all the stakeholders can view progress real time.

Notes:
The tenure of the Lok Sabha Secretary General, Snehlata Shrivastava, has been extended by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for one year. Snehlata, who is 1982-batch retired IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, was appointed last year in rank and status of a Cabinet Secretary. She was scheduled to retire on the 30th of this month. Her extension will be effective from the 1st of December 2018 to the 30th of November 2019. She is the first woman Secretary General of the Lok Sabha.

Notes:
In the 8th Asian Shotgun Championship 2018 in Kuwait, Angad Vir Singh Bajwa has won the men’s skeet gold with a perfect score of 60 — a World record — in the final on November 7. With this, he became the first Indian skeet shooter to win a continental or world level event. Angad shot a perfect 60 out of 60 in the final round to claim top spot ahead of China’s Di Jin who shot 58. UAE’s Saeed Al Maktoum won bronze with a score of 46. In the concurrently held 11th Asian Air Gun championship, Indian team of Elavenil Valarivan and Hriday Hazarika won the mixed air rifle gold with a world junior record of 502.1. The other Indian team of Mehuli Ghosh and Arjun Babuta bagged the bronze.

Notes:
In New Delhi, the Global IT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities 2018 is organised by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment during 9-11 November, 2018. India is hosting the event in collaboration with Government of Korea and Rehabilitation International (RI), and their associated partner LG Electronics. The purpose of the 3-day event is to leverage IT skills among youth with disabilities and also to spread awareness about the application of Information and Computer Technology (ICT) in enhancing the quality of life of persons with disabilities especially in Asia-Pacific region. Around 100 youth with disabilities (visual disability, hearing disability, locomotor disability and intellectual disability/developmental disorder) from 18 countries namely, India, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Korea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, UK and UAE are participating in this event.

Notes:
The Republic of Palau, an archipelago found in the western Pacific Ocean, has become the world’s first nation to ban the use of sunscreens that have been deemed harmful to coral reefs and ocean life. The ban, which will come into force by 2020, has been signed into law by the Palau government. These sunscreens are made from “reef-toxic” chemicals such as oxybenzone, octinoxate and triclosan. These chemicals causes corals to bleach at lower temperatures, and it reduces their resilience to climate change. Palau is home to just 21,000 people but has a booming tourism and fishing industry. It contains approximately 340 islands, forming the western chain of the Caroline Islands in Micronesia, and has an area of 466 square km.

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:
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 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.

Notes:
India and United Kingdom (UK) have recently signed a pact on India-UK Cancer Research Initiative for affordable approaches to Cancer. It is a British Pounds 10 million (current value of Rs 93 crore) collaborative research programme that will address issues of affordability, prevention and care of cancer by bringing together Indian and UK experts across clinical research. The five year initiative will be funded by India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and UK’s Cancer Research UK (CRUK) programme. DBT and CRUK will invest equally at UK Pounds 5 million each. The initiative will provide an opportunity to tackle the global epidemic of cancer by opening new pathways for international knowledge exchange and research base. The research outcomes of this initiative will aid cancer prevention, control and management in the long term.