NATIONAL NEWS

7th 'India Water Week'

• President Droupadi Murmu will inaugurate the 7th India Water Week in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh on 01 November 2022.

• Denmark, Singapore and Finland will be the partner countries for this event.

• The 7th India Water Week is being organised by the Union Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation from 01-05 November 2022 to raise awareness, conserve and use water resources in an integrated manner.

• The theme of the 7th India Water Week 2022 is Water Security for Sustainable Development and Equity.
• It will address the issues of sustainability of water resources development and management in the line with sustainable development goals.

Yudh Abhyas in Uttarakhand

• India and the US will conduct a fortnight-long mega-military exercise Yudh Abhyas in Uttarakhand’s Auli in October 2022.
• The 18th edition of the exercise is scheduled to take place from 14 October to 31 October 2022.
• The main objective is to enhance understanding, cooperation, and interoperability between the armies of India and the US with several complex drills being planned
• The last edition of the exercise took place in October 2021 in Alaska in the US.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference

• Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri attended the Opening Ceremony of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference (ADIPEC-2022) on 31 October 2022 at Abu Dhabi.
• The event was hosted by ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company), ADIPEC is one the world's leading events of the energy industry.
• It aims to provide insights on the latest trends affecting an evolving global energy system including the global economy, energy supply as well as next generation of energy solutions.
• The Minister also inaugurated the India Pavilion, set up jointly by Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

BANKING

Digital Rupee in the Wholesale segment

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has on 31 October 2022 announced that it will begin a pilot launch of the Digital Rupee (e₹) for specific use cases.

• The first pilot project of the Digital Rupee will be launched in the Wholesale segment (e₹-W) on 01 November 2022.

• The digital rupee will be used for settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities.

• According to the RBI, nine banks including State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, IDFC First Bank and HSBC will participate in the pilot project.

RBI Lifts Ban on New Branches by Tamilnad Mercantile Bank

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lifted its 3-year ban on 101-year-old Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) on opening new branches

• This comes in the backdrop of the bank’s shares getting listed in the Indian Stock Exchanges on 15 September 2022.

• At present, it has 509 branches – 106 rural, 247 semi-urban, 80 urban and 76 metropolitans.

NAREDCO Sets up NFC to Help Builders in Getting Funds

• National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO), under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has formed a Finance Committee (NFC) on the sidelines of NAREDCO 24th Annual General Meeting to enable developers’ easy access to funds based on merit and viability of the projects.

• The Committee will operate as one-stop-shop aggregating financing options from multiple large financial institutions.

• Merchant bankers, Resurgent India Limited will be actively associated with the NFC.

• The NFC will also support large-scale projects to access funds through financial institutions and educate members to enhance their credit ratings.

• NAREDCO members can submit their applications online for further processing with minimum documentation.
• The Committee and NAREDCO have partnered with financial institutions to limit the processing and in-principle approval time to 15-30 days for an application.

Dhanlaxmi Bank Under Monitoring

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had placed Thrissur (Kerala)-based private bank Dhanlaxmi Bank under tight monitoring with its financial position coming under greater public scrutiny.

• The Bank’s capital-to-risk weighted assets or capital adequacy ratio (CRAR) fell to around 13% at the end of March 2022, down from 14.5% a year earlier, prompting the RBI to assess the bank’s financial health.

• Earlier, Dhanlaxmi Bank’s capital adequacy has fallen below the required levels and it has even been placed under the RBI’s prompt corrective action framework (PCA) to deal with serious deteriorations in its financial position.

SPORTS

Football4Schools Initiative in India

• Union Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, on behalf of the Ministry of Education signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with world football governing body FIFA and All India Football Federation (AIFF) for the ‘Football4Schools’ initiative in India at Mumbai on 30 October 2022.

• The MoU was signed at the sidelines of the final of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022 being held in Mumbai, which was won by Spain.

• The Football4 School initiative has been launched by FIFA with a $100 million budget in 2018.

• The initiative targets to reach over 700 million children across the world with special emphasis on reaching out to all the tribal communities of the world.
• Of the targeted children at least 50% of them will be girls.

AWARDS & PRIZES

Best International Film at the Saturn Awards 2022

• The film RRR directed by SS Rajamouli and recently released in Japan has won its first major international award.

• The film took home the award for ‘Best International Film’ at the Saturn Awards 2022, which were held in Los Angeles.

• RRR is a period drama starring Jr NTR and Ram Charan as parallel leads.

• RRR, which earned nearly Rs 1,200 crore at the worldwide box office has received its first major international award.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

A Book by Shri Hardeep Singh Puri

• Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Housing and Urban Affairs in the Government of India (GOI) has written a new book titled “DELHI UNIVERSITY: Celebrating 100 Glorious Years.”

• Rupa Publications India is the publisher of the book.

• The book’s foreword was written by Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan.

• This book highlights the perspectives of 15 contributors, including some of the university’s most distinguished alumni and faculty.

IMPORTANT DAYS

World Savings Day

• World Savings Day is observed every year on 31 October.

• The theme for the year 2022 is set by the International Savings Bank Congress is ‘Saving prepares you for a better future’.

• World Savings Day also called World Thrift Day, was first established in the year 1924 during the first International Savings Bank Congress.

• The Congress started on October 24.

• On the last day of Congress exactly on October 30, the Congress decided to celebrate World Savings day every year to insist on the importance of saving money and also to insist on the method of saving money through banks and other modes.

• But in India, it is celebrated on October 30 since the former Prime Minister Mrs. Indhra Gandhi died on 31 October.

Halloween Day

• Halloween Day 2022 is observed every year on the 31 October.

• The theme for the year 2022 is ‘Carving of Pumpkin.’

• On this Day People set a campfire on the hilltop to show that bad evils are burnt and the people wear different kinds of masks to show that ghosts will go back from their place after seeing them.

• People who died on the day of the Samhain festival believed that their souls returned to their homes.