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• On October 17, 2018, the Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu commenced his visit to Belgium to attend the two-day 12th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Brussels, Belgium. The theme of this years’ ASEM Summit is “Global Partners for Global Challenges”.


• Vice President of India, Shri Venkaiah Naidu called on His Majesty King Philippe of the Belgians at the Royal City Palace.


• Prime Minister Tsipras invited India as the “Honored Country” at the Thessaloniki International Fair in 2019.

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• On October 21, 2018, India, Japan and the U.S. announced participation in the bilateral ‘Cope India’ air exercise to a trilateral format on December 2018.


• The final planning conference will held in Kalaikunda, West Bengal.


• This will be the first time Japan would be invited to participate in the exercise.


• Japan would send observers and for the next round that would be hosted by Indian Air Force.


• This trilateral exercise was proposed by the U.S. at the annual defence minister meeting in August 2018.

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• On Oct.19 2018 According to Brand Finance’s annual Nation Brands 2018 report,India lost one spot and ranked 9th in the 10 most valuable nation brands in the world for the year 2018.India was ranked 8th in the last year 2017.


• Eventhough India’s brand value has increased to $2,159 billion in 2018 from the value of $2,046 billion in 2017,it slipped one spot.


• U.S has topped the list with a brand value of $25,899 billion which rose by 23% from last year.China ranked 2nd with a brand value of $12,779 billion and Germany was ranked 3rd with $5,147 billion which increased by 28% from the last year.


• Brand Finance measures the strength and value of the brands using a method based on the royalty relief mechanism employed to value the world’s largest companies. It looks into nation brand strength, royalty rate, revenues, weighted average cost of capital (WACC) or discount rate and brand valuation.

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• On October 20, 2018, 4 Himalayan peaks near Gangotri have been named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.


• This was done during an expedition conducted by Nehru Institute of Mountaineering and the tourism department.


• The expedition was flagged off from Dehradun on October 4 by Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Trivendra Singh Rawat.


• They climed the peaks located at 6,557, 6,566, 6,160 and 6,100 metres on the right flank of Gangotri glacier, and named them Atal-1, 2, 3 and 4, while hoisting the national flag.


• The peaks are located near Sudarshan and Saifi peaks in Raktvan valley.

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• On October 20, 2018, to develop Cruise Tourism in the country, India’s first ever passenger cruise ship was launched between Mumbai and Goa.


• It was launched by Union Shipping, Ports and Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari in Mumbai.


• It is a joint venture between Mumbai Port Trust and Angriya Sea Eagle Pvt Ltd.


• The cruise ship Angriya has been named after first Maratha Navy Admiral Kanhoji Angre and the great Angria bank coral reef near Vijaydurg, Maharashtra.

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• On October 21, 2018, it was announced that India’s longest river bridge will be built across the Brahmaputra, connecting Dhubri in Assamto Phulbari in Meghalaya, by 2026-27.


• It will be a 19.3 km, four-lane bridge that will cut road travel by 203 km.


• The new bridge will complete the missing link of NH127B from Assam to Meghalaya.


• The bridge will also improve connectivity from West Bengal to Assam.


• For the project, the National Highways and Industrial Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), recently reached out to global players in France.


• The Japanese funding agency Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has approved a loan for this project as a part of a road infrastructure improvement package in the North East.

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• On October 19, 2018, Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju and Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu distributed the cheques to the villagers of West Kameng district in Arunachal Pradesh.


• He distributed nearly Rs 37.73 crore as compensation to the villagers of the state, more than 56 years after India’s war with China.


• It was for the land acquired by the Army to set up its bases, bunkers and barracks.


• Earlier, In April 2017, Rs 54 crore was distributed among 152 families of three villages of West Kameng district. In September that year, another installment of Rs 158 crore was distributed among the villagers for the private land taken over by the Army.


• And in February 2018, Rs 40.80 crore was handed over to 31 families in Tawang district.

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• On October 17, 2018, in a first-of-its-kind move, the Uttar Pradesh government made the man-animal conflict a ‘State Declared Disaster’. To help reduce retaliatory killings.


• These incidents would be under the ambit of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).


• According to the provisions of the order, a compensatory amount of Rs.5 lakh would be given to family of deceased if the victim of the animal attack dies.


• The disbursement of compensation for injury would be in accordance to SDRF guidelines.


• It also states that the amount of Rs 1 lakh per death would be arranged by the state forest department from its own budget to the Revenue Department.


• It ensures that the amount must be paid within 24 hours of the incident RTGS and the production of the post-mortem examination report of the victim would be made available.


• It urges creating awareness, police support in conflict prone areas.

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• On October 21, 2018, on Police Commemoration Day, the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, dedicated the National Police Memorial to the nation.


• He also announced an annual award in the name of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, to honour the police and paramilitary personnel, involved in disaster response operations.


• He also inaugurated the Museum of National Police memorial.


• He urged the police forces to adopt technology and innovation in their daily discharge of duties.


• This is why, he mentioned about the Modernization of Police Forces Scheme (MPF), which modernized the police forces through technology, modern communication systems and modern weapons.

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• On October 20,2018 State Bank of India has launched “SBI Wealth Hub”.SBI is the first bank to introduce wealth business services for its customers.


• The wealth hub was launched by SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar. The bank has also launched Wealth Business services for NRIs and is in the process of setting of a state-of-the-art global e-Wealth centre at Kochi.

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• On October 21 2018 Spain’s Marc Marquez won MotoGP world champion for the fifth time in six years in the Japanese MotoGP.


• Honda factory rider becomes the youngest rider to win five premier class titles.


• Marquez’s Repsol Honda teammate Cal Crutchlow of Britain finished second.

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• Larsen & Toubro is the only Indian firm to be featured among the top 25 companies in the Forbes’ global 2000 best employers list.


• L&T has secured 22nd rank in the list. Google’s parent company Alphabet tops the list. Second position is occupied by Microsoft.


• There are only 24 Indian companies in the overall list and only 4 Indian companies in the top 100 list.


• This list is based on Forbes’ 2018 global 2000 rankings. It includes publicly traded companies from 60 countries.

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• On October 21, 2018, Facebook has hired former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to lead its global affairs and communications team.


• The appointment makes Clegg the most senior European politician ever in a leadership role in Silicon Valley.


• Clegg, 51, would succeed Elliot Schrage.

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• Indian JSW Steel CMD Sajjan Jindal was elected as treasurer by World Steel Association at the worldsteel General Assembly in Toyko, Japan.


• Tata Steel MD T V Narendran and ArcelorMittal Chief L N Mittal also appointed as members of the association.Andre Johannpeter, Executive VC of Gerdau S A elected as Chairman of the body.

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• On October 21 2018 a material has been developed by scientist that able to harvest the electricity from Sun’s heat which will be generating cheaper solar power on cloudy days and at nighttime.


• Solar energy can be stored as heat to produce the electricity which will be cheaper than storing energy via batteries.

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• On October 21, 2018, Veteran commentator and cricket statistician Vijayan Bala launched his new book “Indian Sports: Conversations and Reflections”.


• It is a compilation of interviews of eminent sportspersons he has conducted since 1971.


• He has interviewed Olympians like Balbir Singh Senior, Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar, Sakshi Malik, Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and others.


• Among the cricketers, he has interviewed MAK Pataudi, GR Viswanath, Eknath Solkar while Gautam Gambhir, Unmukt Chand etc.


• He has been a member of BCCI’s Statistical Committee apart from being an English teacher.


• Earlier, he had published a book on Statistics called ‘Indian Test Cricket back in 1974’.


• In 2016, he authored a second book “The Complete Indian Sports Quiz” inaugurated by sports minister Rathore.

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• On October 21, 2018, Karnataka’s popular Lingayat seer Siddalinga Swami passed away at Gadag at the age of 69.


• He was active in various people’s movement against blind beliefs, environmental and other issues.


• He was known as ‘Kannadada Jagadguru’ (Seer of Kannada).