1. NTPC to build Indias biggest solar park in Gujarat

• India's largest energy conglomerate NTPC Ltd. has unveiled its plans to set up a 5 gigawatt (GW) solar park in Gujarat. This solar park is expected to be the biggest in the country. The move of the company is toward cleaner energy.
• NTPC has located a spot in Gujarat for the project. The estimated cost for the project is Rs.250 billion. The project will begin in the year 2024. It is also expected that the company might invite bids from developers to set up projects in the park.
• Recently, the Central government has laid regulations to cap emissions from coal-fired power plants. This have also triggered the NTPC to turn to green energy for growth.

Foot Notes:
About Gujarat
1. Capital: Gandhinagar
2. Governor: Acharya Devvrat
3. Chief minister: Vijay Rupani

2.  Google partners with BSNL to bring public WiFi to villages

• The search engine giant Google has signed a partnership agreement with the state-owned operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL). The partnership aims to bring public WiFi to villages in states namely Gujarat, Bihar, and Maharashtra. The agreement will focus on villages that had no Wi-Fi connection previously.
• The announcement comes after the 5th edition of Google for India event which took place in New Delhi on 19th September.
• In July 2019 Google collaborated with Cisco for its gStation to provide free and high-speed WiFi at public locations across India.

Foot Notes:
About Google
1. CEO: Sundar Pichai
2. Subsidiaries: YouTube, DoubleClick, Google AdMob, Google Nest
3. Founders: Larry Page, Sergey Brin

3. DRDO successfully test flighted Astra

• Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight tested Astra, the Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM). It was launched from Sukhoi Su-30 MKI platform off the coast of Chandipur, Odisha. Indian Air Force (IAF) has completed the user trial phase of the weapon system of Astra successfully.
• The state-of-the-art BVRAAM was built by DRDO along with IAF. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has modified the aircraft for weapon integration.
• Apart from this, more than 50 public and private industries have contributed to building the Astra weapon system.

About DRDO
1. Headquarters location: New Delhi
2. Motto: बलस्य मूलं विज्ञानम्; "Strength's Origin is in Science" (Sanskrit)
3. Founded: 1958
4. Minister responsible: Rajnath Singh, Minister of Defence

4. Taiwan loses second ally in a week as Kiribati switches to China

• Taiwan has lost its second diplomatic ally in less than a week after the Pacific nation of Kiribati moved to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan and establish foreign relations with China.
• The decision comes after the Solomon Islands announced it was breaking away from Taiwan, and means that in just a week the number of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies has dropped from 17 to 15.
• Taiwan’s foreign minister Joseph Wu announced that the country was cutting diplomatic ties with Kiribati and immediately closing its embassy in the country.

Foot Notes:
About Taiwan
1. Capital: Taipei
2. Currency: New Taiwan dollar

5. Andhra Pradesh State to ban the private practice by govt. doctors

• The Andhra Pradesh State government has announced that it is to ban the private practice by doctors working in government hospitals. The announcement was made by Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy after consulting with the committee on reforms in the health sector.
• Also, as compensation, the govt. has announced to increase their salaries in accordance with the recommendations made by the experts committee on reforms in the health sector headed by former Union Health Secretary K. Sujatha Rao.
• The committee members have been asked to prepare proposals for an increase in doctors’ salaries.

6. Centre to launch NEAT AI learning scheme to boost higher education

• The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has announced a new National Educational Alliance for Technology (NEAT) Artificial Intelligence (AI) scheme.
• MHRD will start awareness programmes to create awareness of the NEAT solutions to teachers and students. The NEAT AI scheme will be launched and made operationalized in early November 2019.
• The scheme aims to boost better learning outcomes in Higher Education. The scheme will ensure to use Artificial Intelligence which will make learning more personalized and customized as per the requirements of the learner.

7. Uttarakhand school children to learn Sanskrit poems sung by teachers

• The children studying in government schools would now learn Sanskrit poems of their curriculum sung by their teachers as per an effort by the state education department to make the ancient language an easy learning process for them, said officials.
• The initiative is for the school children studying in classes 3-8 of the government schools in state. Chief Minister (CM) Trivendra Singh Rawat launched the CD comprising the Sanskrit poems in the form of songs along with some written content, added officials.

About Uttarakhand
1. Capital: Dehradun
2. Chief minister: Trivendra Singh Rawat

8. PM jointly unveiled the Buddha Statue in Mongolia

• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mongolian President H.E. Mr. Khaltmaagiin Battulga jointly unveiled a statue of Lord Buddha and his two disciples. The statue was installed at the historic Gandan Tegchenling Monastery in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
• In 2015, during his visit to Mongolia, Prime Minister had announced to gift a statue of Lord Buddha to the monastery. The gift was announced to honour the common Buddhist heritage and civilizational links between the two countries and peoples.
• The 3rd edition of SAMVAAD dialogue which was held from 6 September to 7 September 2019 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The SAMVAAD dialogue brought together Buddhist religious leaders, experts, and scholars from different countries. The dialogue focused on contemporary issues related to Buddhism.

9. India’s first central police university to come up in Greater Noida

• The country’s first central police university will be set up by the Union home ministry off the Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida.
• The Centre had given in-principle approval for the university and a 100-acre plot has been identified in Sector Techzone.
• The government wants to set up an institution to tackle modern-day policing challenges. The national university for policing will help in improving police personnel training, skills, research and also policymaking with regard to policing in India.

Foot Notes:
1. Uttar Pradesh
2. Union Minister of Home Affairs: Amit Shah.
3. CM: Yogi Adityanath
4. Governor: Anandiben Patel.

10.Tata Communications partners with Cisco

• Tata Communications has partnered with Cisco to offer enterprises a secure, fully-managed, multi-channel, intelligent and cloud-based Cisco Webex Contact Center solution.
• This joint offering is an end-to-end managed solution and gives contact centre users a seamless user experience across up to 150 countries on the back of Tata Communications’ global network.
• The solution will allow for simplified licensing; pre-deployed hardware and software with integrations to workforce optimisation.