• Eminent Malayalam poet Akkitham has been chosen for the 55th Jnanpith Award, according to an announcement by the Jnanpith Selection Board. “The board has announced the recipient of the 55th Jnanpith Award for the year 2019 in a meeting. It went to Shri Akkitham, eminent Indian poet writing in Malayalam.
• Born in 1926, Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri, popularly known as Akkitham is one of the most revered names in Malayalam poetry.
• Apart from poetry, his literary excellence has footprints in genre like drama, reminiscence, critical essays, children literature, short stories and translations.

Foot Notes:

• India's GDP growth rate slowed down to 4.5 per cent in the July-September quarter of this fiscal, data by National Statistical Office. Despite all government efforts to arrest slowdown, this is the slowest growth rate Indian economy has registered in six and a half years.
• The decline in economic growth came on the back of dwindling consumer demand, slowing private investment and global slowdown. Matters have worsened since the June quarter when GDP growth slowed to 5 per cent, lowest in six years and a quarter.

• Yasuhiro Nakasone, one of Japan’s longest-reigning prime ministers and known for his friendship with Ronald Reagan, has died at the age of 101. Nakasone, prime minister from 1982 to 1987, shared the world stage with Reagan and Margaret Thatcher while battling with bureaucrats over domestic reforms.
• Known for his “Ron and Yasu” friendship with Reagan, Nakasone made headlines after taking office when he said that in event of a war, he would make Japan an unsinkable “aircraft carrier” for US forces and bottle up the Soviet navy.
  Foot Notes:
  About Japan
  Prime minister: Shinzō Abe
  Capital: Tokyo
  Currency: Japanese yen

• Joint military exercise ‘SURYA KIRAN – XIV’ between India and Nepal will be conducted at Salijhandi, Rupendehi district of Nepal from 03 to 16 December 2019.
• The exercise will comprise of 300 soldiers from both Indian and Nepal Army who would be sharing their experience in conduct of various counter insurgency and counter terrorism operations as also various humanitarian assistance missions by both the Armies.
• Notably, in the series of military training exercises undertaken by India with various countries, exercise SURYA KIRAN with Nepal is an important exercise in terms of the security challenges faced by both the nations in the realm of changing facets of global terrorism.

• ISRO has transferred its indigenous technology to produce space-grade Li-Ion cells to Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). In March 2018, BHEL signed the Technology Transfer Agreement with ISRO for acquiring the Li-Ion Cell production technology.
• This production facility is primarily targeting to meet Li-Ion Cell requirements for ISRO and other strategic sectors. BHEL can also produce and sell Li-Ion cells for meeting other national/commercial applications by suitably modifying the space-grade cell which can lead to cost reduction.
• BHEL is in the process of establishing the Li-Ion production facility near Bangalore in Karnataka.

• Mukesh Ambani became the 9th richest person in the world according to the list released by Forbes. Ambani reached the 9th position after Reliance Industries Limited reached a Market Capital (m-cap) of Rs.10 lakh crore and net worth of 60.5 billion Dollars.
• Jeff Bezos owner of Amazon, Bernard Arnault and family, CEO (LVMH) and Bill Gates, co-founder and former head of Microsoft take the top three places with a net worth of 113, 107.9 and 107.4 billion Dollars respectively.
• Ambani is in advance to both the Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Larry Page and Sergey Brin had a net worth of 59.6 and 57.5 billion Dollars and hold the 10th and 11th place of The World’s Richest Person respectively.

• A world-renowned rock climber, US national Brad Gobright, fell to his death while climbing a sheer rock face in northern Mexico.
• He was known for his gravity-defying solo ascents with no ropes.

• In 1977, the General Assembly called for the annual observance of 29 November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. On that day, in 1947, the Assembly adopted the resolution on the partition of Palestine.
• This date, which was chosen because of its meaning and significance to the Palestinian people, is based on the call by the United Nations General Assembly for an annual observance of the resolution on the partition of Palestine.
• The International Day of Solidarity traditionally provides an opportunity for the international community to focus its attention on the fact that the question of Palestine remains unresolved and that the Palestinian people have yet to attain their inalienable rights as defined by the General Assembly, namely, the right to self-determination without external interference, the right to national independence and sovereignty, and the right to return to their homes and property, from which they have been displaced.

• The government is to organize a two-day Conference on Ek Bharat Shreshta Bharat form 30 November- 1 December 2019 at Jammu.
• It will be inaugurated by Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (Independent charge) of the Ministry of DONER, Minister of State for PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions; Atomic Energy & Space along with Shri G.C. Murmu, Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, Shri R.B. Udhayakumar, Minister for Revenue & Disaster Management, Government of Tamil Nadu and Shri R.K. Mathur Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Ladakh.
• The conference is organized by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) under Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions in collaboration with State government of Tamil Nadu and Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

• Minister of State for Home Affairs, inaugurated the 1st International Conference on “Landslides Risk Reduction and Resilience” in New Delhi.
• The Conference called for developing technology to anticipate disasters like landslides and develop infrastructure to quickly respond to minimize the damage.
• The landslides have attracted global attention as they may cause huge havoc on communities, livestock, environment leading to huge loss of lives. This conference will go a long way in finding long term solutions to natural disasters.