National & International Appointments
1. Justice Magrey sworn-in as Chief Justice of J-K and Ladakh High court
- Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey has been sworn in as the new Chief Justice of the High Court of J&K and Ladakh.
- J&K LG, Manoj Sinha has administered the oath of office to Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey.
- He has replaced Justice, Pankaj Mithal, who has been transferred to the Rajasthan high Court.
- He started his career as an advocate after completing his law degree from Kashmir University in 1984.
- He became a permanent judge of the J&K high court in March 2013.
Science & Technology
2. President Droupadi Murmu inaugurates Supercomputer facility at IIT Guwahati
- The President of India, Droupadi Murmu has inaugurated ‘PARAM KAMRUPA’ Supercomputer facility at IIT, Guwahati.
- This facility will be provided to conduct advanced research in various scientific fields such as weather and climate, bioinformatics, computational, AI, etc.
- This is a state-of-the-art supercomputer, set up under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM).
- She has also inaugurated a high-power active and passive component laboratory of SAMEER.
Science & Technology
3. CERT-In and Power-CSIRTs conduct Cyber Security Exercise “PowerEX-2022”
- Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) in association with Power-CSIRTs (Computer Security Incident Response Teams in Power sector) have conducted Cyber Security Exercise named “PowerEX” for 193 power sector utilities.
- Aim: To recognize, analyze & respond to Cyber Incident in IT & OT Systems
- 2022 Theme: Defending Cyber induced disruption in IT & OT infrastructure
- This exercise was hosted by CERT-In on its exercise simulation platform.
Agreement
4. Indo-US Vaccine Action Programme Joint Statement extended till 2027
- The present five-year Indo-US Vaccine Action Programme (VAP) Joint Statement has been extended till 2027.
- It is a unique bilateral programme.
- It is implementing by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), India, and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA since July 1987.
- Aim: To improvise the current knowledge of vaccine science to strengthen the scientific basis for future vaccine design.
Defense
5. Eastern Naval Command conducts offshore security exercise ‘Prasthan’
- The Eastern Naval Command has conducted an offshore security exercise, ‘Prasthan’ in the Krishna Godavari Basin Offshore Development Area (ODA) on October 11 and 12.
- The exercise is conducted every six months.
- It aims to integrate the efforts of all maritime stakeholders involved in offshore defence.
- The exercise resulted in refining the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and response actions to several contingencies in the Offshore Defence Area, off Kakinada.
State Affairs
6. India’s first slender loris sanctuary in Tamil Nadu
- The TN govt will set up the first Indian sanctuary for Slender Loris in Karur and Dindigul districts.
- The forest areas (11,806 hectares) of these two districts will be merged to create the Kadavur Slender Loris Sanctuary.
- They will be protected under Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
- Slender Loris:
- Endangered species
- Survival: Depends on its habitat improvement
- Use: Biological predators of pests that harm agricultural crops and help farmers.
Important Dates
7. International E-Waste Day 2022: 14 October
- The International E-Waste Day is held on 14 October to raise awareness about the impacts of e-waste.
- This day was first observed in 2018 by the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment recycling (WEEE) Forum.
- 2022 Slogan: Recycle it all, no matter how small!
- UN had estimated that in 2019, over 22 million tonnes small e-waste were produced worldwide.
- If the quantity of these small items keeps on increasing at the same rate, it will reach 29 million tonnes by 2030.
National & International Organizations
8. IISc Bangalore retains its spot in the 2023 THE ranking
- The IISc has topped the 2023 Times Higher Education (THE) rankings among Indian institute.
- IISc Bengaluru is the only Indian university in the top 300 list.
- India has become the 6th most represented country in the list, with featuring 75 institutes in THE's 2023 ranking.
- Other Indian Institute: IIT Ropar (501-600), IIT Indore (601-800), IIT Gandhinagar ((801-1000)
- The University of Oxford is topped the ranking in the world (seventh consecutive year).
Agreement
9. CIL signs MoUs with BHEL, IOCL and GAIL for Coal Gasificiation Projects
- Coal India Ltd (CIL) has signed MoUs with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and GAIL (India).
- Reason: For setting up four Surface Coal Gasification (SCG) projects
- Aim: To convert coal converted into syngas that can be subsequently processed for downstream production of value added chemicals.
- Aggregated estimated cost: Rs.35,000 crores
- The SCG projects are planned to be set up in WB, Odisha, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra and TN.
Sports
10. J&K LG, Manoj Sinha inaugurates 6th Senior Asian Pencak Silat Championship
- J&K LG, Manoj Sinha has inaugurated 6th Senior Asian Pencak Silat Championship that is being held in Srinagar.
- Pencak Silat is relatively new to India and was introduced in 2014.
- The event brings together over 150 athletes from different countries.
- Pencak silat: It is an umbrella term for a class of related Indonesian martial arts.
- Pencak silat was recognized as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity from Indonesia by UNESCO in 2019.
Agreement
11. NTPC, Siemens inks MoU for demonstrating hydrogen co-firing
- NTPC and Siemens have signed an MoU to demonstrate the feasibility for hydrogen co-firing blended with natural gas in Siemens V94.2 gas turbines installed at NTPC Faridabad gas power plant.
- The total installed capacity of Faridabad gas power plant is 432 MW with two V94.2 gas turbines.
- Aim: To explore the pathways to reduce CO2 emissions from Faridabad gas power plant
- NTPC is India’s largest energy conglomerate.
- As on 30 June 2022, the govt of India holds 51.10% in NTPC
Banking & Finance
12. State Bank of India home loan AUM crosses Rs 6 trillion
- State Bank of India (SBI) has become the first bank in the country to achieve Rs 6-trillion Assets Under Management (AUM) in the home loan segment.
- SBI has offered a concession of up to 0.25% on Home Loans, 0.15% on Top Up Loans, and 0.30% on Loan Against Property.
- The bank has also waived off the processing fees on home loans up to January 31.
- As per the Crisil, the share of bank in the home loan segment has risen to around 62% as of March 2022.
Schemes
13. Himachal Pradesh govt launched “HIMCAD” scheme to help farmers
- The Himachal Pradesh government has launched a new scheme named ‘HIMCAD’ to provide irrigation facilities to farmers.
- As per the data, about 80% of the agricultural area of Himachal Pradesh is rain-fed.
- This scheme will provide end-to-end connectivity of farmers’ fields for better water conservation, crop diversification and integrated farming.
- It is planned to provide command area development activities to 23,344 hectares of cultivable command area by March 2024.
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