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• On October 12, 2018, the governments of Germany and the UK, with support from the World Bank launched a new Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF).


• To support vulnerable countries to climate and disaster shocks.


• This fund will consist of an initial corpus of $150 million.


• It will primarily focus on climate and disaster risk but eventually the financing will be extended to projects and instruments to help wider crises and in humanitarian emergencies.


• It will be implemented by the World Bank, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) and select implementing partners such as regional development banks.

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• On October 11, 2018, Malaysia’s Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad decided to abolish the death penalty.


• This would save more than 1,200 people on death row convicted of various crimes like murder, kidnapping, drug trafficking etc.


• According to Amnesty International, China is believed to be the “world’s top executioner” with other nations like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan in the list.


• In Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand have death penalty laws.

Source: Cick Here

• On October 13, 2018, according to World Bank’s Human Capital Index (HCI), India stands at 115th position out of 157 countries.


• It was released at the October 2018 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and The World Bank Group in Bali, Indonesia.


• According to the HCI, a child born in India today will be only 44 per cent as productive. Girls fared slightly better at 0.45 than boys, who scored 0.43.


• A child who starts school at age of 4 can expect to complete 10.2 years of school by her 18th birthday.


• Probability of Survival to Age 5 is 96 out of 100 children born in India.


• Students in India score 355 on a scale where 625 represents advanced attainment and 300 represents minimum attainment.


• Factoring in what children actually learn, expected years of school is only 5.8 years.


• About Adult Survival Rate: Across India, 83 percent of 15-year olds will survive until age 60.


• 62 out of 100 children are not stunted& 38 out of 100 children are stunted.


• In 2017, India’s HCI is lower than the average for its region and income group.


• Among other countries, Singapore topped the poll followed by South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Finland as the top 5.


• The bottom 5 are: Liberia, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Chad (157th).

• On October 13, 2018, according to the RTI rating by Access Info Europe and the Centre for Law and Democracy, India ranked at 6th position out of 123 countries, after a downfall of 4 positions from the previous year.


• The survey was carried by Transparency International India.


• India got a score of 128 out of 150.


• India performed worst under the section “Sanctions and Protections”, scoring just above 60 percent points.


• It scored just above 80% failing in 5 sections namely- Scope of the RTI Act, requesting procedures, exceptions and refusals and measures taken to promote the Act.


• It shows that India doesn’t provide protection for whistleblowers.


• It further stated that the Indian legal framework also does not allow access to information held by private entities which perform a public function, and several of the law’s exclusions, including for information received in confidence from a foreign government, cabinet papers and parliamentary privilege, are also problematic.


• Among other countries, Afghanistan topped the chart with a score of 139 out of 150 whereas, Austria scored lowest with just 33 points.


• In India, total RTIs filed in 2017 were: 66.6 lakh, out of which, 4.8 lakh were rejected. Total number of second appeals were 18.5 lakh and total penalty imposed by CIC is 1.9 crore.


• The top 5 are: Afghanistan, Mexico, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Slovenia.

Source: Cick Here

• On October 10, 2018, the 2018 Global Hunger Index (GHI) prepared jointly by global NGOs namely, Concern Worldwide (Ireland) and Welthungerhilfe (Germany) was published.


• According to the report, India was ranked 103rd out of 119 qualifying countries.


• The survey was carried in the regional, national and sub-national levels.


• At the regional level, South Asia and Africa have serious levels of hunger, Latin America and Carribean islands including Haiti show alarming or extremely alarming levels.


• 27 countries show moderate levels of hunger and 40 countries show low levels of hunger Stunting and wasting in children is high for the South Asian region.


• Zimbabwe, Somalia and CAR have highest values of undernourishment and countries like Djibouti, India and South Sudan, wasting is prevalent.


• Highest under-five mortality rates are in Somalia, Chad and CAR.


• In the countries included in the GHI, the share of the undernourished population stood at 12.3 percent in 2015–2017, down from 17.6 percent in 1999–2001.


• 27.9 percent children under five years of age were stunted based on data from 2013–2017, down from 37.1 percent in 1998–2002.


• 9.3 percent children under-5 years were wasted, slightly down from 9.7 percent in 1998–2002.


• The under-five mortality rate was 4.2 percent as of 2016, down from 8.1 percent in 2000.


• The level of hunger and undernutrition worldwide fell to 20.9, down from 29.2 in the year 2000.

Source: Cick Here

• On October 12, 2018, the World Bank announced concessional loan worth USD 195 million to Nepal to reform the country’s financial and energy sectors.


• It was announced during the ongoing annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) at Bali in Indonesia.


• MOU was signed between Chief of International Economic Cooperation Coordination Division (IECCD) at the Ministry of Finance, Krishna Nepal and the World Bank’s Country Director for Nepal, Qimiao Fan.

Source: Cick Here

• On 11th October 2018, former India captain Anil Kumble’s technology start-up Spektacom Technologies launched the “Power Bat”.


• Star India is the broadcasting partner The Power Bat has been powered by Microsoft’s Azure Cloud platform and its Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) services.


• Power Bat will provide real-time data on a player’s performance based on parameters like speed of the ball on impact, twist on impact and quality of the shot.


• A light weight sticker is stuck on the shoulder of the bat. In a live match, when the batsman hits the ball, data is captured in a new unit of measurement called Power Speks.


• It is processed by Microsoft’s Azure Sphere operating system. Real-time insights are displayed through the broadcaster. It can also be viewed on a mobile app during practice.

• The government exempted 10% of Long term capital gains (LTCG) tax on IPOs, ESOPs, bonus. Etc.


• This concession would be eligible even if the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) has not been prepaid while acquiring the equities.


• This is applicable for exceeding Rs. 1 lakh from sale of shares.


• This has been re-introduced in the budget after a gap of 14 years.


• Also the off-market transactions undertaken by non-residents in line with FDI guidelines, venture capitalists etc too could avail this offer.

Source: Cick Here

• Turtle ‘Olly’ has been declared as the official mascot for the Odisha Men’s Hockey World Cup, which will be held at the Kalinga Stadium in Odisha from November 28 to December 16, 2018.


• ‘Olly’ represents the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles that travel thousands of miles in the ocean and arrive in millions on Rushikulya and Gahirmatha beaches of Odisha every year for their annual nesting.


• ‘Olly’ was also the mascot for Asian Athletics Championships held at the Kalinga Stadium in Odisha in 2017.

Source: Cick Here

• India has secured 5th rank in the latest International Cricket Council (ICC) global Women’s T20I Team Rankings released on 12th October 2018.


• Australia has topped the ICC global Women’s T20I Team Rankings which lists 46 teams.


• ICC has launched the women’s T20I rankings to award international status to all T20 matches between member countries.


• All women’s T20 matches between members have international status since the Asia Cup in June 2018.

Source: Cick Here

• Bajrang Punia has become the first Indian wrestler to get seeded at the World Championship that will be held in Budapest, Hungary from October 20 to 28, 2018.


• In the 65kg category of men’s freestyle event, Bajrang Punia has been seeded third, with 45 points in the ranking list released by United World Wrestling.


• Turkey’s Selahattin Kilicsallayan is seeded first with 50 points in the 65 kg category. He is followed by Russia’s Ilias Bekbulatov in 2nd spot.


• United World Wrestling has launched the seeding system for the first time in the World Championship.


• It is based on the pre-championship performance ranking points. This follows the new ranking series announced at the 2017 World Championship in Paris.


• Bajrang Punia has won gold medals in Commonwealth Games and Asian Games in 2018. He had won a bronze medal at the 2013 World Championship.

Source: Cick Here

• On 11th October 2018, Arun Kumar Rath took charge as the new CEO of Bhilai Steel plant.


• Arun Kumar Rath was the CEO of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL)’s Durgapur Steel Plant.


• He has replaced M Ravi who was removed from the position two days after a major fire accident at the Bhilai plant in Durg district of Chhattisgarh.


• Following the explosion, the Centre has announced a compensation of Rs 3.3 million each to the families of workers who lost their lives.

Source: Cick Here

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Voyager 2 probe is on its way outside the influence of the Sun and it could be close to interstellar space.


• Voyager 2 was launched on August 21, 1977. It has crossed the Kuiper Belt, an interstellar space beyond Pluto.


• Voyager 2 could be the second space probe to reach interstellar space after Voyager 1 which crossed into interstellar space in 2014.


• So far, Voyager 2 has reached a distance of 11.03 billion miles away from Earth and 11.04 billion miles away from Sun.


• Voyager 2 probe is the only man-made probe to have crossed past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. It used the gravitational pull of the four planets, on its way to interstellar space.


• In August 30, 2007, it reached the heliosheath, the zone outside the Solar system, and the outermost zone of influence of the Sun. Voyager 2 will be in service till 2020.

Source: Cick Here

• On 13th October 2018, eminent Hindustani Classical Musician Annapurna Devi, passed away due to age related ailments, at Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai.


• Annapurna Devi was 92 years old. She was born in Maihar town of Madhya Pradesh.


• She had received the Padma Bhushan award. She was fondly addressed as ‘Ma’.


• She had learnt music from her father, legendary maestro Ustad Alauddin Khan. She played Sitar and Surbahar.