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• On 11th November 2018, National education day was celebrated across India.


• In 2008, Central Government declared November 11 as National education day.


• This day commemorates the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, freedom fighter, educationist and the first Education Minister of independent India from 1947 to 1958.


• This day recalls the contribution of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad to education in India. On this day, various programmes are organized in schools throughout India.

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• From November 7 to 9, 2018, the 5th World Internet Conference (WIC), also known as the Wuzhen Summit, was held in Wuzhen, China.


• The conference aimed to bring out exchanges, mutual learning, cooperation and sharing in the digital fields and stressed on peace and development of the global cyberspace.


• Top 15 of the latest scientific and technological achievements in the global internet industry were unveiled.


• They were selected from more than 400 candidate projects and programs, aimed at reaching faster Internet speed, more digital profit, and better web security.


• Two reports were released on Internet development in China and the world. More than 20 themed forums and discussions were conducted.

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• On November 10, 2018, Palau became the first country in the world to impose a ban on sunscreens toxic to coral reefs.


• The laws passed by the Western Pacific nation will go into effect in 2020.


• According to the law, retailers will be fined $1,000 for selling sunscreens that contain 10 chemicals deemed harmed for coral and marine life.


• This is part of a larger push to reduce the impact of tourism on the archipelago.


• Other than Palau, Hawaii also passed a reef-harming sunscreen ban which will come into effect in 2021.


• Additionally, Thailand also announced in October that it would have to close Maya Bay indefinitely.

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• On November 10, 2018, the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) signed an agreement with US-based Research Institute for Fragrant Materials (RIFM) for improving quality of fragnant oils.


• It was signed by Anil Kumar Tripathi, Director CSIR-CIMAP and Jim Romane, President of the RIFM at the conclusion of the two-day annual conference of the International Fragrance Association in Paris.


• This MOU will help in standardizing the fragrant material produced in India and bringing it to an international level.

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• China has involved India as a digital partner, as part of Beijing’s drive to cyber-connect with Eurasia, its new frontier for trade and investments.


• At a conference on defining common international standards for two-dimensional (2D) barcodes, Chinese officials announced that India is already on board in this global exercise.


• In November 2017, Zheng Chao, Executive Director of the Global Unified Two-Dimensional Code Registration Management Center (UTC), based in Beijing, signed a strategic cooperation agreement on 2D coding with his Indian counterpart.


• This resulted in the formation of UTC (India). Tian Furong is the director of the India Universal Two-dimensional code registration center.

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• On November 10, 2018, the 25th edition of SIMBEX, an acronym for “Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise” started off of Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal.


• The 2018 edition marks the Silver Jubilee of SIMBEX and will continue till November 21, 2018.


• The sea phase of this year’s edition is being conducted under the Command of Rear Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, NM, Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet.


• SIMBEX 2018 will be the largest edition since 1994 in terms of scale and complexity.


• The Silver Jubilee Commemoration Ceremony will be undertaken during the phases consisting of: various professional and training interactions, 10 Km ‘Friendship Run’ during the Annual Vizag-Navy Marathon, joint cultural programmes.


• The number of missiles and torpedo firings being undertaken will be the largest the Indian Navy has undertaken with any foreign Navy till date.


• It will also witness the highest numbers and variety of platforms fielded by both sides.

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• On 6th November 2018, state-owned NBCC (formerly National Buildings Construction Corporation Limited) signed an agreement with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to acquire Hospital Services Consultancy Corporation (HSCC).


• Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and NBCC (India) Ltd signed the share purchase agreement for the transfer of 100 % share holding of HSCC to NBCC.


• In September 2018, NBCC had announced that, it will buy the government’s stake in HSCC for Rs 285 crore.


• HSCC functions under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It offers consultancy services in healthcare and other social sectors in India and other countries.

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• On November 6, 2018, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio launched GPS Mapping of Government Schools and Personnel Location System in Kohima.


• This would help in computerization and digitization of records of all the government schools.


• This is a first in the country initiative and was under taken by the School Education Department of the state.

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• On November 9, 2018, Indian Army officials and Chinese PLA troops organized a high-level meeting at Bumla, near Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh.


• The two sides reaffirmed their resolve to strengthen friendship and maintain peace along the 4057-km-long Line of Actual Control separates India from China.


• India was by led by Major General PGK Menon and the Chinese side had Major General Li Xi Zhong.


• This was the first time major generals of the two countries took part in a border personnel meeting (BPM), since its initiation in 1990.

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• Supreme Court has approved a separate High Court for Andhra Pradesh and it will start functioning from 1st January 2019.


• This will be the 25th High Court in India. It will temporarily function from a makeshift building. A permanent structure is built in the Justice City complex in Andhra Pradesh’s de-facto capital Amaravati.


• At present, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have a common High Court at Hyderabad. This court will be known as the Telangana High Court from 2019.


• The temporary building for Andhra Pradesh High Court would be ready by December 15, 2018.


• The government would be hiring villas for residences of judges at Amaravati as a temporary arrangement till the Justice City gets completely constructed.

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• Election Commission has set up ‘Sangwari’ polling booths in various constituencies of Chhattisgarh to encourage women voters to vote in the Assembly elections.


• ‘Sangwari’ means friend, in Chhattisgarhi dialect. These women friendly booths will be manned by all-female staff like presiding officers, supervisors and security personnel.


• Chief Electoral Officer of Chhattisgarh, Subrat Sahoo announced that, 5 Sangwari Polling Centres have been set up for women in every assembly segments.

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• On November 9, 2018, the Reserve Bank of India cancelled the certificate of registrations of as many as 31 non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) for unspecified reasons.


• A majority 27 of the 31 companies which lost their licences are from Bengal.


• Bengal is followed by Uttar Pradesh, which has seen four NBFC licence cancellations.


• A majority of voluntary application for licence cancellation are also from Bengal.


• This can be seen from the fact that it also cancelled the certificate of registrations of 17 NBFCs following a request by them for the same.

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• On November 9, 2018, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) flagged the RBI about the activities of a Karnataka-based firm charging it with running a ponzi scheme “in the name of Islamic banking or halal investment”.


• It collected Rs 950 crore funds from gullible investors till now.


• The name of the firm is Ms Ambidant Marketing Private Limited, which is run by one S Fareed Ahmed and S Afaq Ahmed.


• Islamic banking or halal investment is illegal in India.

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• On November 9, 2018, according to a report by research firm Canalys, India overtook US as the 2nd largest smartphone market after China.


• China saw a shipment of 100.6 million smartphones in the 3rd quarter followed by India which saw 40.4 million units during the same period.


• US was at 40 million units in the July-September 2018 period.


• Worldwide smartphone shipments fell by 7.2 per cent year-on-year to 348.9 million units during July-September 2018, a fourth consecutive quarter of decline.


• This was also the worst third quarter performance since 2015.


• 3 markets (among the top 10) that registered growth were Indonesia, Russia and Germany.


• Samsung led the vendor tally with 20.4 per cent share in the said quarter, followed by Huawei, Apple, Xiaomi and Oppo.

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• Saurabh Netravalkar, a former Mumbai medium pacer and India U-19 cricketer, has been appointed captain of the United States national cricket team.


• Saurabh Netravalkar is a 27-year-old software engineer. He had left to United States from India, to study computer science in Cornell University.


• He was India’s highest wicket-taker in the 2010 U-19 World Cup. He also played Ranji Trophy for a season.

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• On 8th November 2018, Swati Chaturvedi, an Indian freelance journalist, won the 2018 London Press Freedom Award for Courage.


• She received the award at the 1st award ceremony organised by the United Kingdom chapter of Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) or Reporters Without Borders in London.


• She was one among the four worldwide winners who received awards at the ceremony.


• She is the author of the book ‘I am a Troll: Inside the Secret World of the BJP’s Digital Army’.

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• On November 9, 2018, Jawahar Lal Sarin was conferred with France’s highest civilian honour ‘Knight of the Legion of Honour’.


• It was given by French Ambassador to India Alexandre Ziegler.


• He received the honor due to his outstanding contribution to enhancing Indo-French cultural cooperation and promoting the French language.


• He is currently the president of the governing body of Alliance Franaise.

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• On November 10, 2018, the Central government cleared the appointment of Chief Justices of 4 High Courts namely: Allahabad, Patna, Madhya Pradesh and Tripura.


• The most senior judge of the Rajasthan High Court, Justice Govind Mathur, was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court.


• The most senior judge of the Allahabad HC, Justice A P Sahi, was appointed the Chief Justice of Patna HC.


• The senior-most judge of the Madhya Pradesh HC, Justice S K Seth, was appointed as the Chief Justice of the MP High Court.


• The most senior judge of Himachal HC, Justice Sanjay Karol, was appointed as the Chief Justice of Tripura HC.


• Also, Justice M R Shah, who has been the CJ of Patna HC has been elevated as a Supreme Court judge.

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• On 9th November 2018, Abhay Kumar was appointed the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Madagascar.


• He is an Indian Foreign Service Officer (IFS) of the 2003 batch. At present he is Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) at the Indian Embassy of Brasilia.


• He has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Madagascar. He will replace Subir Dutta. He will take up this assignment soon.

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• On November 9, 2018, former IAS officer Ashok Kumar Gupta was appointed the chairperson of the Competition Commission of India (CCI).


• This wa done by the Corporate Affairs Ministry.


• The appointment would be till October 25, 2022 — the date when he attains the age of 65 years — or until further orders, whichever is the earliest.


• He replaced acting chairperson Mr. Sudhir Mittal.

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• NASA’s Ralph, a space instrument, will travel with the Lucy mission to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, in 2021.


• The Lucy spacecraft carries a near-twin of Ralph named L’Ralph. L’Ralph will investigate Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids.


• Lucy will fly by 6 Trojans and 1 Main Belt asteroid, which is more than any other previous asteroid mission.


• L’Ralph will detect the chemical fingerprints of Trojan asteroids. These data would be helpful in finding how organic molecules form in primitive bodies, a process that might have led to the emergence of life on Earth.

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• Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, have developed fluorescent carbon nanodots for simultaneous detection and destruction of cancer cells.


• The nanosized (10-9 metre) carbon materials would serve as therapeutic and diagnostic agents for cancer. They have been extracted from the leaves of the rosy periwinkle plant.


• The research team is led by P Gopinath. The research is supported by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Union Ministry of Science and Technology.

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• On 9th November 2018, theatre and Marathi film actor Lalan Sarang passed away due to age-related ailments in Pune, Maharashtra.


• She was 79 years old. She was born on December 26, 1938 in Mumbai.


• She had received ‘Grahini Sachiv Award’ of Ga Di Ma Pratishthan. She had also written few books: “Natakanmagil Natya”, “Mi ani Majhya Bhumika” and “Bahardar Kisse”.