Source: Cick Here

• On 19th November 2018, World Toilet Day was observed all over the world.


• World Toilet Organization founded World Toilet Day on 19 November 2001. In 2013, United Nations (UN) General Assembly, declared World Toilet Day as official UN day to be observed every year on November 19.


• This day creates awareness about the need for toilet and sanitation. It highlights Sustainable Development Goal 6 that aims to achieve sanitation for all and end open defecation.


• Theme For World Toilet Day 2018 is “When Nature Calls”.

Source: Cick Here

• 3 Educational institutions which are built with Indian assistance of 126.60 million Nepali rupees have been inaugurated in Kaski district of Nepal.


• As per Development Partnership programme, India government is providing assistance to institutions of all level starting from Primary school to universities of Nepal.


• Rabindra Adhikari, Nepal’s Minister for culture, tourism and civil aviation inaugurated Shree Saraswati Tika Higher School, Lekhnath in Pokhra.


• Dr. Ajay Kumar, Deputy Chief of Mission, Indian Embassy inaugurated Shree Laxmi Adarsha Multiple campus, Lekhnath and Shree Gupteshwor Mahadev Multiple Campus, Pokhara.

Source: Cick Here

• On November 18, 2018, 2-day APEC Summit 2018 concluded in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.


• It was hosted by Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Peter O’Neill.


• All 21 member countries of APEC participated in the Summit.


• It is the 1st such summit which in its 25-year history failed to agree on a formal joint statement.

Source: Cick Here

• On November 17, 2018, the 9-day 14th edition of Jashne Bachpan, a theatre festival for children, commenced at the Sammukh, Abhimanch, Abhikalp and Little Theatre Group (LTG) auditorium in New Delhi.


• The theatrical event will conclude on November 25, 2018. To bring theatre into prominence.


• The festival has been organized by National School of Drama’s (NSD) Theatre in Education (TIE) Company.


• It will witness 21 productions from India and 3 foreign groups including Sri Lanka (non-verbal), Switzerland (English) and Indonesia (Javanese).


• The plays will be performed in vernacular languages like Bengali, Marathi, Assamese, and Malayalam besides non-verbal, English, Hindi and other foreign languages.


• The plays during the festival have been divided into four categories. They are By children, by children and adults, by adults for children and puppetry performances.


• This concept will encourage children to incorporate art and culture along with entertainment.

Source: Cick Here

• On November 19, 2018, Maharashtra government led by CM Devendra Fadnavis passed the Maratha Reservation Bill.


• As per the bill, Maharashtra will create a new category called SEBC (socially and economically backward) in order to give reservation to Marathas.


• This has been passed for reservation by citing ‘extraordinary circumstance’ as rights of neither OBCs nor Marathas.


• This move has been recommended by Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission headed by Justice N G Gaikwad (retired).

Source: Cick Here

• On November 19, 2018, the central government announced setting up of Animation, Gaming and Visual effects Institute in Mumbai.


• This was announced by Information and Broadcasting Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore.


• This will encourage the youth participation in the field of film and cinematography.

Source: Cick Here

• On November 18, 2018, the 2-day 1st Indo-Japan Business Council- KONNICHI WA PUNE concluded in Pune, Maharashtra.


• It was organized by the Indo-Japan Business Council (IJBC).


• The festival aimed to boost investment, promote businesses and cultural exchange between India and Japan.


• Maharashtra has emerged as one of the top destinations for the Japanese companies operating 750 out of the total 1309 Japanese firms in the country.

Source: Cick Here

• Punjab becomes 3rd Indian state after Maharashtra and Gujarat to permanently ban Hookah bars or lounges. The ban was announced after President Ram Nath Kovind has given assent to a bill passed by Punjab state assembly.


• Punjab state assembly has passed the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of advertisement and Regulation of trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and distribution) (Punjab Amendment) Bill 2018 in March this year.


• Smoking of hookah increases the health risks such as exposure to toxic chemicals that are not filtered out be water and tuberculosis which is an infectious disease resulting from sharing of hookah.

Source: Cick Here

• On November 19, 2018, SBICAP Ventures (SVL), an alternative asset manager and a wholly owned subsidiary of SBI Capital Markets, launched twofunds for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and affordable housing sectors.


• The 2 funds are Small and Medium Enterprises: to raise a corpus of Rs 4 billion and Affordable Housing Fund to raise a corpus of Rs 3.5 billion.


• It will be an equity fund and there will be two anchor investors – SBI and SBI CAP/SVL putting in 10 per cent and 10-12 per cent respectively.


• Both funds are targeting closure of fund in the second half of next financial year (2019-20).


• They will focus on broad-based fund covering manufacturing and services sector.


• In the initial phase, the affordable housing fund will focus on 8 cities – Mumbai Metropolitan Region, National Capital Region, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune.


• The funds will be deployed in at least seven to eight projects, approximately Rs 35-50 crore in each project.

Source: Cick Here

• On November 18, 2018, Housing finance firm HDFC disbursed over Rs 1,100 crore subsidy to over 51,000 customers under the government’s flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).


• It had provided loans of over Rs 9,800 crore under PMAY-Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) to the EWS (Economically Weaker Section), LIG (Low Income Group) and Middle Income Group (MIG) category.


• It had also approved 37 per cent of home loans in volume terms and 18 per cent in value terms to customers from the EWS and LIG segment as on September 30, 2018.

Source: Cick Here

• German Player Alexandar Zverev beat Serbian player Novak Djokovic by a margin of 6-4 and 6-3 to win the ATP World Tour Finals in London.


• Alexander Zverev is now the first German to win ATP Singles title since Boris Becker did it in 1995.


• Alexander Zverev had defeated Switzerland Player Roger Federer in the semifinals.


• 2018 ATP World Tour is organized by Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

Source: Cick Here

• On 18th November 2018, Team Abu Dhabi’s Shaun Torrente won the UIM (Union Internationale Motonautique) F1H2O Grand Prix of India held in Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh.


• This is Shaun Torrente’s 7th career-victory. He has climbed to the top of the championship standings.


• Second place was secured by Emirates Racing’s Marit Stromoy, the only woman racer who participated in the race.


• Third position was occupied by Team Abu Dhabi’ Erik Stark. This was the first-ever F1H20 Grand Prix hosted by India. 9 teams and 19 drivers from all over the world participated.


• Team Amaravati’s Erik Edin finished in the sixth place. The winners were felicitated by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and Andhra Pradesh Tourism Minister Bhuma Akhila Priya.

• On 13th November 2018, UASG (Universal Acceptance Steering Group) conferred “Universal Acceptance Thought Leader award” on Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for providing Rajmail email service for citizens of Rajasthan in local script.


• UASG has recognised the work of Vasundhara Raje and IT Department for Rajmail project that offers access to email address to people in Rajasthan in Indic script.


• The technology for Rajmail was developed by Data XGen Technologies, a Rajasthan based firm.


• Vasundhara Raje was also awarded the ‘Chief Minister of the Year’ award in 2018.

Source: Cick Here

• On November 19, 2018, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi named 1985-batch IAS from West Bengal cadre Sumanta Chaudhuri as the new Coal Secretary.


• He replaced Inder Jit Singh.


• Prior to this appointment, he was the Managing Director of Small Farmers Agri Business Consortium.


• ACC also appointed Director of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Upma Chowdhry, was appointed Secretary, Department of Youth Affairs.


• IAS officer Jalaj Srivastava, currently Additional Secretary in the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, was appointed thenew chairman of Inland Waterways Authority of India.


• Chairman and Managing Director of Food Corporation of India Yogendra Tripathy (1985-batch IAS) was appointed the new Tourism Secretary.

Source: Cick Here

• On November 18, 2018, Israel’s Cabinet approved Amir Yaron as the next governor of the Bank of Israel for 5 years.


• He replaced Karnit Flug, who became the first woman to hold the post when she took over in 2013.


• Prior to this, he was the a finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Source: Cick Here

• Jalal Srivastava, a 1984 batch IAS Officer, has been appointed the chairman of Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI).


• IWAI comes under the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways headed by Nitin Gadkari.


• Jalal Srivastava had also served as Chairman of New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and Principal Secretary of Department of VAT, Delhi Government.


• Srivastava is known for launching of “Shakti Cab” and “URJA” project for women.


• Srivastava has written a crime thriller novel “The Perfect Suicide”.

Source: Cick Here

• On November 18, 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi headed Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) appointed IRS officer Sanjay Kumar Mishra as the full-time chief of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for 2 years.


• Earlier in October 27, 2018, he was appointed as the principal special director in the central probe agency and was entrusted with the “additional” charge of ED director for three months.


• Prior to this appointment, he was posted as the chief commissioner of the Income Tax Department in Delhi.


• He replaced IRS officer Karnal Singh who retired after three year tenure as the ED director.

Source: Cick Here

• National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) launched a mobile app NSE goBID and web based platform for retail investors to buy government securities.


• Ajay Tyagi, Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India(SEBI) launched the NSE goBID App.


• This platform will allow investors to invest in treasury bills (T-Bills) of 91, 182 and 364 days and government bonds from one year to almost 40 years.


• The NSE goBID app will be available to all registered retail investors.

Source: Cick Here

• On 19th November 2018, China completed the deployment of its indigenously developed BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) constellation with the successful launch of 2 more satellites.


• The two satellites were launched into space on a Long March-3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan Province, China.


• The satellites entered a medium earth orbit over 3 hours after the launch. They will work with 17 other BDS-3 satellites already in space.


• BDS competes with the United States’ Global Positioning System (GPS). It will start providing services to countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative by December 2018.


• Following full deployment, BDS will be the fourth global satellite navigation system after the GPS, Russia’s GLONASS and the European Union’s Galileo.


• BDS will become global in 2020 with over 30 satellites. It will offer high-precision, reliable positioning, navigation and timing services anywhere in the world by the end of 2020.


• BeiDou has been named after the Chinese term for the Big Dipper constellation.


• India is also building its navigational system called Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), with an operational name of NAVIC.

Source: Cick Here

• On November 19, 2018, Padma Shri awardee and revered saint Narayan Das Maharaj passed away in Jaipur, Rajasthan.


• He was awarded the Padam Shri in January 2018 for social service.