NATIONAL NEWS

India’s first flex-fuel car -Toyota Corolla Altis

• The Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari launched India’s first flex-fuel car, “Toyota Corolla Altis”.
• The launch event was held in Delhi.
• In an attempt to further explore the alternatives to combustion-engined vehicles, recently Toyota Kirloskar Motor launched a pilot project on Flexi-Fuel Strong Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technology in Delhi.
• The Indian government has started the production of flex-fuel vehicles called E85, E90, and E95 according to the ratio of petrol to ethanol.
• Toyota Corolla Altis is a first-of-its-kind pilot project vehicle that is based on Flex-Fuel Strong Hybrid Electric Vehicles (FFV-SHEV) technology.
• Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited is an Indian joint venture between Toyota Motor Corporation and Kirloskar Group, for the manufacture and sales of Toyota cars in India.

Bangladeshi Civil Servants to be Trained at NCGG

• The 53rd Capacity Building Program for Civil Servants of Bangladesh was inaugurated at the National Center for Good Governance (NCGG) in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand.

• Under this, 1,800 Bangladeshi civil servants will be trained by India under a capacity building program by 2025.
• It is the only institute in the country which has trained around 1,700 field level officers of Bangladesh Civil Service including Assistant Commissioners, SDMs and Additional Deputy Commissioners.
• It was set up in 2014 by the Government of India as an apex institution in the country.
• It is governed by a governing body headed by the Cabinet Secretary.

World Ayurveda Congress and Arogya Expo

• Union Minister of AYUSH Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurated the Curtain Raiser, a small event that happens before a bigger one and is a preparation for the 9th World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) and Arogya Expo in Panaji.
• The event is supported by the Central Government and State Governments as well as the Union Ministry of AYUSH.
• The four-day event will see participation from over 5000 Ayurveda stakeholders – industry stalwarts, practitioners, traditional healers, academics, students, drug makers, medicinal plant growers as well as marketing strategists from across the globe.
• All India Institute of Ayurveda, New Delhi is the nodal agency for the implementation of this programme.

India’s First Sanctuary for Endangered Slender Loris

• The Tamil Nadu government has notified the Kadavur Slender Loris Sanctuary, the first Indian sanctuary for the endangered Slender Loris in Karur and Dindigul districts.
• According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Slender Loris is listed as an endangered species.
• A total of 11,806 hectares in the forest areas of the Karur (5,700 ha) and Dindigul (6,106 ha) districts will be merged to form the Kadavur Slender Loris Sanctuary.
• The sanctuary is to cover Vedasandur, Dindigul East,and Natham taluks in the Dindigul district and Kadavur taluk in the Karur district.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

World’s Largest Drone Fund to Invest in India

• Japan’s Largest drone manufacturer Autonomous Control Systems Laboratory Ltd (ACSL) has partnered with an Indian Company Aerodyne India.

• The US$ 170 million Drone Fund (DF), one of the largest venture capital funds located in Japan that specializes in supporting the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) ecosystem, intends to invest up to US$ 40 million in Indian companies operating in the sector.

• It is to invest in agro drones to enhance crop pages using approaches that science can help facilitate.

• Currently, Drone Fund has a manufacturing unit in Tamil Nadu.

BANKING

RBL Bank Partners with BookMyShow

• RBL Bank has partnered with BookMyShow to launch a new credit card ‘Play’.
• The card will be available to select customers on BookMyShow and give them access to offers on transactions across movies and live entertainment offerings (online and offline).
• Customers can enjoy a joining benefit of credits in the form of BMS Cash worth Rs 200 if onboarded through the video Know Your Customer (KYC)
• The consumers will be able to track the entire journey from application to delivery of the ‘Play’ credit card on BookMyShow, with real-time updates enabled within the platform.

Paytm Partners with Jana Small Finance Bank

• One97 Communications Limited (OCL), which owns the brand Paytm has partnered with Jana Small Finance Bank to deploy card machines to further drive digitisation among merchants across India.

• The partnership will enable Jana Small Finance Bank bank to extend Paytm’s All-in-one Electronic Data Capture (EDC) machines to its existing and potential customers, providing a one-stop solution for all their digital payment needs.

• Paytm’s card machine provides multilingual support to its merchant partners to accept payments through UPI, credit/debit cards, net banking, international cards, Paytm Postpaid, Paytm Wallet and EMI.

Dvara E-Dairy and Jana SFB Jointly Launched Cattle Loan Service

• Dvara E-Dairy Solutions Private Limited partnered with Jana Small Finance Bank to launch Dvara Surabhi Loan, a cattle loan.

• It is offered digitally by leveraging new-age technologies to create scalable access to finance for unbanked and underbanked small dairy farmers in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

• The loan offers loan products for dairy farmers for cattle purchase and maintenance.

• The loan is provided depending on a combination of the ‘Surabhi Score’, a comprehensive score based on the digital assessment of the cattle management under various factors, as well as the farmers’ credit score.

• This helps mitigate the risk and helps identify the ‘right borrower’ for the loan.
• The loan amount varies between Rs.30,000 to Rs. 150,000.

APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNATIONS

New President of Iraq

• Lawmakers in Iraq elected Kurdish politician Abdul Latif Rashid as the country's new president.

• He will replace Barham Saleh.

• After two rounds of voting, 160 votes were cast in favor of Rashid, while Saleh got 99 votes.
• Rashid is an engineer and was Iraqi Water Resources Minister from 2003 to 2010.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

‘PARAM KAMRUPA’ Supercomputer Facility

• President of India, Droupadi Murmu, inaugurated ‘PARAM KAMRUPA’ Supercomputer facility and a high-power active and passive component laboratory at Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati on 13 October, 2022.

• PARAM KAMRUP, a one of its kind supercomputers in the North East region, has been set up under the National Supercomputing Mission.

• National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

• It will provide advanced computing, healthcare techniques along with solutions for many issues to this region.
• The program was also addressed by Assam Governor Professor Jagdish Mukhi, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Praveen Pawar.

IMPORTANT DAYS

World Standards Day

• World Standards Day is observed every year on 14 October.

• The opportunity to deepen understanding of the value of standardization and to increase awareness of it is provided by World Standards Day in 2022.
• The theme for the year 2022 is ‘Shared Vision for a Better World’
• The first World Standards Day was celebrated in 1946 in London, and the same year the International Organization for Standardization was founded.