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The World Bank (WB) has recently released its first-ever Human Capital Index (HCI), which ranked 157 economies on parameters like child mortality, health and education. India is ranked at 115th position in the index with its score of 0.44 on a scale of 0 to 1 coming even below the average score for South Asia. Though, Government of India (GoI) has rejected the findings of the index. India’s neighbours Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka were better placed at 106th, 102nd and 74th position, respectively. Singapore topped the poll after it was highly rated for its universal healthcare system, education exams results and life expectancy figures. It is followed by South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Finland.

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The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has recently signed pact with the Uttarakhand government to provide access to capital to MSMEs, which will fuel growth of such entities in the state. The bourse will play an active role in nurturing the SMEs and start-ups by increasing awareness along with the government on the opportunities to raise capital, SME exchange guidelines, listing processes, compliances with listing agreement among others. As part of the pact, the exchange will support the efforts of the government in enhancing the financing opportunities for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the state, through listing on NSE’s SME platform– Emerge. On its part, the government will facilitate MSMEs to get listed on the NSE Emerge, by supporting such entities financially or otherwise, in bearing the expenses related to listing.

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The World Egg Day (WED) is celebrated every year on the second Friday in October and was first celebrated in 1996. The day helps to raise awareness of the benefits of eggs and their importance in human nutrition. Eggs are one of nature’s highest quality sources of protein, and indeed contain many of the key ingredients for life. The proteins contained within eggs are highly important in the development of the brain and muscles, have a key role to play in disease prevention and contribute to general well being. The 2018 theme is “Protein for Life”.

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Maryse Conde, a French (Guadeloupean) author of historical fiction, has won the 2018 New Academy Prize in Literature, which is formed in protest to the Nobel Literature Prize. Conde will win about £87,000 raised from crowdfunding and donations, and will receive the prize at a ceremony on 9 December, one day before the Nobel banquet. In 2018, the Nobel Prize in Literature was postponed for the first time since 1949 because of a sexual misconduct scandal that came to light as part of the #MeToo movement.

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India and China have launched their first joint programme for Afghanistan to train its diplomats from October 15-26 under the aegis of the Trilateral Cooperation between India, China and Afghanistan. The joint training programme is being held after an understanding for such a cooperation was reached during an informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held in April 2018 at China’s Wuhan city. This will be a first such project in the war-torn country where China while trying to expand its influence has tacitly backed Pakistan, which has been accused by Afghanistan and the US of backing the Taliban and its most violent attacks in the country destabilising any attempts to restore peace.

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Novak Djokovic, a Serbian professional tennis player. has recently won the 2018 Shanghai Masters Tennis tournament in Shanghai, China. In the final, he beat Croatia’s Borna Coric by 6-3, 6-4 to claim his fourth Shanghai title and second Masters title of the year. Djokovic now has 18 consecutive wins. With this win, he overtook Roger Federer and returned to the #2 ranking for the first time since the 2017 French Open.

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On 16th October 2018, China has successfully tested the world’s largest unmanned transport drone “Feihong-98 (FH-98)”, which can carry a payload of 1.5 tonnes, at Baotou test site in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region. The Feihong-98 has a maximum takeoff weight of 5.25 tonnes, a flight height of 4,500m, a cruising speed of 180 km/hr and a maximum range of 1,200 kms. The FH-98 was adapted from the prototype of the Shifei Y5B, a China-developed transport plane. It is developed and modified by the China Academy of Aerospace Electronics Technology (CAAET).

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As per clause (2) of Article 75 of the Constitution, President Ram Nath Kovind has recently accepted the resignation of M J Akbar from the Union council of ministers on the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He resgined from the post of Minister of State for External Affairs due to allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him by several women journalists.

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The first-ever Indo-Japan joint military exercise “Dharma Guardian- 2018” will be conducted at Counter Insurgency Warfare School, Vairengte from 01 November to 14 November. During the 14 day long exercise, due emphasis will be laid on increasing interoperability between forces from both countries. Both sides will jointly train, plan and execute a series of well developed tactical drills for neutralisation of likely threats that may be encountered in urban warfare scenario. Experts from both sides will also hold detailed discussions to share their expertise on varied operational aspects. The exercise will contribute immensely in developing mutual understanding and respect for each other’s militaries and also facilitate tracking the worldwide phenomenon of terrorism.

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The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nokia Solutions and Networks India Pvt Ltd to leverage Industry 4.0 for manufacturing excellence at Nokia’s Chennai factory. The project also marks India’s first ‘real-world’ application of Industry 4.0 at the Nokia Conscious Factory in Chennai. The Industry 4.0 relies on low-latency, high reliability networks and capabilities in robotics and AI to drive new levels of automation and data exchange in manufacturing industries. This results in improved operational efficiency and reduces costs. In Industry 4.0, machines become smart, share data and includes Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and others.