• UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme included Panna in India and Fuvahmulah and Addu Atoll in the Maldives, to UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves. For India it is the twelfth entry, whereas for Maldives second and third after Baa Atoll. 
• In total 25 new sites were added, one of them transboundary, in 18 countries to the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, which now numbers 714 biosphere reserves in 129 countries around the globe.  The International Co-ordinating Council of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB-ICC) meeting online from 27 to 28 October approved these additions along with the extension or re-zoning of five existing biosphere reserves, which in most cases also led to a change in their official names.

• Goni, the world's strongest storm so far this year, made landfall in the southern Bicol region, with sustained winds of 140mph (225kph) and gusts of 174mph (280kph).
• The victims included one person who was reportedly hit by a tree and a five-year-old who was washed away after a river overflowed in Albay province.
• The storm largely spared Manila, the capital and most densely populated city, showering it with rain as it churned toward the West Philippine Sea.

• The 206th Session of the Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, IPU will be held from 1st to 4th November this year. It will be an Extraordinary Virtual Session, which is being organised in place of a full-fledged in-person Statutory Assembly of IPU due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.
• The agenda of the Virtual Session includes the election of the new President of IPU through remote electronic secret ballot since the outgoing President of IPU Ms. Gabriela Cuevas Barron (MP, Mexico) had completed her term on 19th of this month. The term of the new President of IPU will be from 2020 to 2023.
• An Indian Parliamentary Delegation led by LokSabha Speaker Om Birla and consisting of LokSabha MP Poonamben Maadam and Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta will participate in the Virtual Session and cast their votes.

• In Kerala, the State Health Department has decided to set up post-Covid treatment clinics across the state soon. The decision was taken as the number of people who have other health problems after recovering from COVID is increasing as nearly 10 percent of the recovered patients are reporting serious health issues.
• The post-COVID clinics will be opened in hospitals ranging from primary health centres to medical colleges. The COVID recovered people should have a check-up in the clinics every month.

• World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that he had been identified as a contact of someone who tested positive for COVID-19, but added that he was feeling well and did not have any symptoms.
• “I have been identified as a contact of someone who has tested positive for #COVID19. I am well and without symptoms but will self-quarantine over the coming days, in line with @WHO protocols, and work from home,” Mr.Tedros said in a tweet.

• India slammed Pakistan for its attempt to accord provincial status to the “so-called Gilgit- Baltistan”, saying it is intended to camouflage the “illegal occupation” of the region by Islamabad.
• The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said India “firmly rejects” the attempt by Pakistan to bring material changes to a part of Indian territory which is under Islamabad’s “illegal and forcible occupation” and asked the neighbouring country to immediately vacate such areas.

• Haryana was formed on 1 November 1966 as a separate state with seven districts from the parts of East Punjab. It was formed on the recommendations of the Sardar Hukam Singh Parliamentary Committee.
• This year 54th Haryana day has been celebrated across the state.

• Delhi Book Fair 2020 was organised virtually by the Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP) in a two-day online event on 30 October and 31 October.
• Delhi Book Fair 2020 was the 26th edition of Delhi Book Fair and was organized in partnership with Pragati-E, which is an Online Virtual Exhibition Platform for organizing events digitally.
• Publications Division of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has kept three virtual stalls in the book fair.

• Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has won the presidential election, the National Electoral Commission said, a contest dismissed by the opposition as a “travesty” because of widespread irregularities.
• Magufuli received 12.5 million votes in Wednesday’s election – or 85 percent – while his main challenger, Tundu Lissu of the Chadema party, got 1.9 million votes, or 13 percent, the electoral commission said.

• Tamil Nadu Agriculture Minister R Doraikkannu, who had tested positive for the coronavirus, died at a private hospital in Chennai. He was 72.
• He was elected as an MLA from Papanasam in Thanjavur district in 2006, 2011, and 2016. He also served as a Cabinet minister in 2016, under former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s term.
• Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit, who had tested positive in August, paid tributes to the minister. “He was known for his simplicity, humbleness, straightforwardness, governance skills and commitment towards the welfare of farming community,” he said. “He handled Ministry of Agriculture with full dedication and engraved his strong mark.”

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