Current Affairs 31 October, 2019

1. Jammu and Kashmir bifurcated: India has one less state, gets two new Union Territories in J&K, Ladakh

• On the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel today, the state of Jammu and Kashmir has formally transitioned into two Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
• With this change, India now has 28 states and 9 Union Territories. The process of transition begins with the swearing-in of the two newly-appointed Lieutenant-Governors in Srinagar and Leh.
• Among the first changes, the radio stations in Jammu, Srinagar and Leh have been renamed as All India Radio, Jammu; All India Radio, Srinagar; and All India Radio Leh. "Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are taking a step towards a new future

Foot Notes:
1. Governor of Jammu and Kashmir: GC Murmu
2. Governor of Ladakh: RK Mathur

2. National Unity Day to be celebrated on Oct 31

• National Unity Day commemorates the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. In 2019, the 144th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is celebrated. He played an important role in uniting India. He is also famous as an Iron Man of India and one of the founding leaders of the Republic of India.
• In 2014, the Government of India introduced Rashtriya Ekta Diwas or National Unity Day with an aim to pay tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on his birth anniversary. He is always remembered for his extraordinary works for the country and no doubt, he worked hard in keeping India united.
• Rashtriya Ekta Diwas was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, by paying tribute to the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's statue and flagging of a program which was known as 'Run For Unity' in New Delhi. Run for unity was held to spread awareness about Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's contribution to Indian history.

3. UNESCO celebrates World Cities Day, 31 October

• The United Nations General Assembly has designated the 31st October as World Cities Day.
• The Day is expected to greatly promote the international community’s interest in global urbanization, push forward cooperation among countries in meeting opportunities and addressing challenges of urbanization, and contributing to sustainable urban development around the world.
• This year, the United Nations has selected the theme “Changing the world: innovations and better life for future generations” to discuss how urbanization can be used to achieve sustainable development.

Foot Notes:
About UNESCO
1. Headquarters: Paris, France
2. Head: Audrey Azoulay
3. Founded: 16 November 1945, London, United Kingdom
4. Formation: 4 November 1945

4. The Overseas Citizens of India will now be eligible to apply for National Pension System

• OCI will now be eligible to apply for NPS at par with NRIs. The permission to permit OCI to enroll in NPS was given by Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority. The decision is one of the endeavours of PFRDA towards promoting and developing NPS and increasing pension coverage in country.
• As per a notification issued by Finance Ministry, now, any Indian citizen, resident or non-resident and OCIs are eligible to join NPS till age of 65 years.
• It was initially notified for Central government employees joining service on or after 1 January 2004. The NPS was subsequently adopted by almost all State Governments for its employees and was later extended to all citizens of India (on a voluntary basis) from May 2009, to corporate in December 2011 and to Non-Resident Indians (NRI) in October 2015.

Foot Notes:
1. About PFRDA
2. Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority
3. Founded: 23 August 2003
4. Sector: Pension
5. Headquarters: New Delhi

5. Twitter to ban all political advertising

• Twitter has decided to ban all political advertising across the globe, saying that political message reach should be earned, not bought. The decision was announced by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on October 30, 2019 through a series of tweets.
• In his tweets, Jack Dorsey highlighted that a political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet and paying for a reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people.
• Dorsey felt that this decision should not be compromised by money.

Foot Notes:
About Twitter
1. Founders: Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, Evan Williams
2. Founded: 21 March 2006, San Francisco, California, United States
3. Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States

6. IIIT Hyderabad researchers create first ever Indian Brain atlas

• Researchers including those from IIIT Hyderabad developed the first Indian human brain atlas which revealed that India has some of the smallest brains in the world.
• The study found that there is a significant difference in the shape and size of the brain between Indians, Chinese, Koreans and Caucasians. In fact, the brain size of Indians is smaller in height, width, and volume in comparison with the western and other eastern populations.

Foot Notes:
About Study of Brain
1. Study of brain: Neurologists

7. Shiva Thapa, Pooja Rani end India campaign on a high at Olympic Test event

• Indian boxer Shiva Thapa and Pooja Rani clinched gold medals in Olympic Test Event for Boxing in Tokyo, Japan. While Ashish settled for a silver, ending India’s brilliant campaign at the Olympic Test Event.
• Four-time Asian medallist Thapa outpunched Kazakhstan’s national champion and Asian bronze-winner Sanatali Toltayev 5-0 to claim the top honours in the 63-kilogram category. Former Asian Games bronze-medallist Pooja Rani edged past Australia’s Caitlin Parker in 75-kilogram category to ensure that the Indian women’s contingent also had gold in its kitty.
• In 69 kilogram category, Ashish, however, lost to Japan’s Sewon Okazawa to sign off with a silver medal.

8. Alberto Fernandez won the Argentina’s presidential elections

• Gurudas Dasgupta, veteran CPI leader passed away in Kolkata on October 31, 2019. He was 83. The parliamentarian was suffering from heart and kidney-related ailments.
• A powerful voice of the Left parties in the Parliament for nearly three decades since the mid-80s, the Communist leader was considered to be a spokesperson of the downtrodden and a champion of the working-class movement. He was also a fierce advocate of the public sector.

9. Odisha to partner Nobel laureates’ J-PAL

• Odisha Government is all set to partner Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), co-founded by Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, for targeted intervention in a set of social sectors including poorest of the poor through policy formulation and evaluations based on experimental research.
• This is the first comprehensive partnership J-PAL would have with an Indian State after the Banerjee-Duflo duo was conferred the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel, simply known as the Nobel Prize for Economics.

Foot Notes:
About Odisha
1. Capital: Bhubaneswar
2. Governor: Ganeshi Lal
3. Chief Minister: Naveen Patnaik

10. Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Datta Padsalgikar appointed as Deputy NSA

• Former Mumbai Police Commissioner and Maharashtra DGP Datta Padsalgikar has been appointed as Deputy National Security Advisor (NSA). The 1982-batch IPS officer had earlier served in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) for 26 years before he was picked as the Mumbai Police Commissioner in 2016.
• He retired as the Director General of Police (DGP) in 2018. Among other assignments, Padsalgikar had also served as DCP (Detection) in crime branch, and in EOW (Economic Offences Wing). His last posting was deputy Lokayukta for Maharashtra.
• He had worked with current National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval during his stint in the IB. Padsalgikar told the reporters that he would take the new charge soon. His colleagues in Maharashtra Police hail the role played by Padsalgikar in nailing Pakistan's involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

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