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• On 31st October 2018, World Savings Day or World Thrift day was celebrated all over the world.


• On October 31, 1924, World Savings Day or World Thrift day, was established during the 1st International Savings Bank Congress (World Society of Savings Banks) in Milano, Italy.


• In India due to the death of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, this day is celebrated on 30th October.


• This day creates awareness among people about the importance of saving their money in a bank.

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• October 31 is celebrated as World Cities Day.


• The general theme of World Cities Day is Better City, Better Life.


• This theme was selected because cities need support to Become resilient and develop their capacity to absorb the impact of hazards, Protect and preserve human life and limit damage to and destruction of public and private assets while continuing to provide infrastructure and services after a crisis.


• It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly by its resolution 68/239.


• It promotes the international community’s interest in global urbanization, addressing challenges of urbanization, and contributing to sustainable urban development around the world.


• The main event of this years ‘World Cities Day’ was celebrated in Liverpool, UK.

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• On October 29, 2018, Republic of Seychelles launched the world’s first sovereign blue bond worth US$15 million to finance sustainable marine and fisheries projects.


• The bond was announced at the Our Ocean Conference in Bali by the Vice-President of the Republic of Seychelles, Vincent Meriton.


• Seychelles is the first nation to pioneer such a financing instrument.


• The World Bank assisted in developing the blue bond and reaching out to the three investors: Calvert Impact Capital, Nuveen, and U.S. Headquartered Prudential Financial, Inc. Standard Chartered acted as placement agent for the bond.


• The Seychelles blue bond is partially guaranteed by a US$5 million guarantee from the World Bank (IBRD) and further supported by a US$5 million concessional loan from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

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• On October 30, 2018, the Union Minister for Shipping , Road Transport and Highways, Mr. Nitin Gadkari and Kerala Chief Minister Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan laid foundation of India’s largest Dry Dock at Cochin Shipyard.


• The new Dry Dock is being constructed at a cost of Rs 1799 Crore and is expected to be completed by May 2021.


• It will be 310 m long, 75m wide, with a depth of 13 m and drought of 9.5m.


• It will be designed to handle both ship building and repairs, and bear a load up to 600 T/m.


• It will have a water treatment plant and Green Belt Development.


• It will be used to build specialized and technologically advanced large vessels like LNG Carriers, drill ships etc for the Indian Navy.

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• On 29th October 2018, Executive Committee (EC) of the National Mission for Clean Ganga approved 12 projects worth Rs. 929 Crore under the Namami Gange programme in its 16th meeting.


• Two Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) for Delhi for creating 340 MLD waste treatment capacity at a cost of Rs 580 Crore.


• Two projects for West Bengal at a cost of Rs 50 Crore.


• Many projects were sanctioned for Uttar Pradesh with total cost of Rs 128 Crore.


• Two more projects were sanctioned under CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) category which will be funded by corporate groups.


• INDORAMA Charitable Trust is funding the Ghat and Crematoria Work at Badrinath and Gangotri in Uttarakhand at a cost of Rs 26.33 Crore.


• Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) will be performing renovation and beautification of Ganga River Bank at Katwa, West Bengal at a cost of Rs 0.35 Crore.

• A seminar titled “Gandhian Thoughts and Sanitation” was organized by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation inWardha district, Maharashtra.


• The seminar was focused on the Gandhian ideology on sanitation and its implementation through Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM).


• Topics like appropriate technologies in rural sanitation, organic waste management, and preventive sanitation linked with Nai Talim and industrialization: Gandhi’s concept of Swachh evam Swawalambhi Sankul, were discussed.


• At the end of the seminar a visit to Sevagram was done, to experience and learn from Gandhiji’s time there.

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• On 30th October 2018, the 5th National Summit on Good and Replicable Practices and Innovations in Public Health Care Systems in India started at Kaziranga in Assam.


• The summit will be held for 3 days. The objective of the summit is to share and learn the good practices implemented by several states and organizations to improve the health sector.


• Senior officials, public health experts, and experts from academic institutions are taking part in the summit.

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• On 27th October 2018, India’s first gallery on robotic dinosaurs was opened to the public at the Pushpa Gujral Science City, in Kapurthala, Punjab.


• This gallery is a joint initiative of the Union and state governments. The Pushpa Gujral science city is the biggest project of its kind in northern India.


• It has been set up in 72 acres of land on Jalandhar-Kapurthala road in Punjab.


• The gallery was inaugurated by Deputy Commissioner of Kapurthala and the Director General of the science city, Mohd Tayyab.


• A total of 7 moving dinosaurs, made of steel and silica gel with motors, have been added to the existing 46 exhibits of dinosaurs.


• The new gallery will display the story of birth and evolution of dinosaurs in a unique way. It has both robotic dinosaurs and manually operated ones. It has been built at a cost of Rs. 1.50 crore.

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• On October 29, 2018, the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Dr Jitendra Singh laid the foundation stone of new Science Centre, the “Technology Facility Centre” (TFC) in Jorhat, Assam.


• This will be established in the premises of the CSIR-North East Institute of Science & Technology (NEIST).


• For setting up the new Science Centre, the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) had allocated Rs.40 crore for its construction.


• It would be institutionalized by Department of Science & Technology (S&T) and CSIR.


• This will work as a Center of Excellence for all the eight States of Northeast for promoting research as well as job creation.

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• On October 30, 2018, the Finance ministry announced the issuance of the 6th tranche of Electoral bonds that will take place from November 1-10, 2018.


• State Bank of India (SBI), has been authorised to issue and encash electoral bonds through its 29 authorised branches with effect from November 1 to 10.


• The 29 specified SBI branches are in cities like New Delhi, Gandhinagar, Chandigarh, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Mumbai, Jaipur, Lucknow, Chennai, Kolkata and Guwahati.

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• On October 30, 2018, the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement body has set up a panel to look into the India-US export-subsidy dispute.


• This was established on the request of the US to examine the allegations on India’s export incentive measures.


• The US has challenged India’s export subsidy programmes such as Merchandise Exports from India Scheme in the WTO, asserting that these initiatives were harming its companies.


• According to US, all WTO members, including India, are required to provide subsidies consistent with provisions of the WTO’s Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.

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• On 29th October 2018, Elina Svitolina won the WTA Finals in Singapore.


• Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina defeated Romania’s Sloane Stephens 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 and won the season-ending WTA Finals.


• This is the biggest title in Elina Svitolina’s career. She is the first player to go through the WTA Finals undefeated after Serena Williams in 2013.

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• On 28th October 2018, Lewis Hamilton won his 5th drivers’ world championship and equaled Juan Manuel Fangio’s Formula One record. Max Verstappen won the Mexican Grand Prix, in Mexico.


• Lewis Hamilton finished in the 4th position in the Mexican Grand Prix. This is the 3rd time he has won the drivers’ world championship title without finishing on the race podium.


• He has already won the drivers’ world championship in 2008, 2014, 2015 and 2017.

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• India’s Vishal Rajveer Shah won gold and Raegan Alburquerque won silver in the 2018 Egypt Junior & Cadet Open table tennis tournament, held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, from 24th to 28th October 2018.


• India’s Vishal Rajveer Shah defeated Mostafa 11-6, 11-6, 11-7 and bagged gold medal and won the mini cadet boys singles’ title.


• India’s Raegan Alburquerque, was defeated by China’s Ding Shixian 11-8, 10-12, 13-11, 11-9, 13-11 in the Junior Boys singles category. Raegan Alburquerque won a silver medal with a cash prize of $150.

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• From 20th October to 28th October 2018, the 2018 Isle of Man Chess Tournament was held at the Villa Marina, Douglas, in Isle of Man.


• Grandmaster B Adhiban from India beat Michael Adams of England in the ninth and final round, and finished tied third with 6.5 points. He was the best performing Indian at the tournament.


• He was tied in the third spot with Vladimir Kramnik and Alexander Grischuk of Russia, Hikaru Nakamura and Jeffery Xiong of United States, Gawain Jones of England and Wang Hao of China.


• Poland’s Radoslav Wojtaszek is the winner of the event. Total prize money of the tournament was 133000 Pounds Sterling.


• India’s Vishwanathan Anand ended the final round with a draw against Wang Hao and finished with 6 points.

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• From 24th to 29th October 2018, the 1st edition of North East Olympic Games 2018 was held at Main Stadium Khuman Lampak Sports Complex, in Imphal, Manipur.


• The North East Olympic Games 2018 was organized by Manipur Olympic Association (MOA) under the administration of the North East Olympic Association.


• It was inaugurated by Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh. 236 participants from Arunachal, 246 from Assam, 134 from Mizoram, 165 from Meghalaya, 224 from Nagaland, 128 from Tripura, 179 from Sikkim and 248 from Manipur, participated.


• The games included 12 disciplines: Athletics, Archery, Badminton, Boxing, Football, Judo, Karate-Do, Shooting, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Weightlifting and Wushu.


• Manipur was crowned as the overall champions. Manipur won 159 medals: 80 Gold, 48 Silver and 31 Bronze.


• Assam came second with 140 medals: 46 Gold, 53 Silver and 41 Bronze. Arunachal Pradesh finished third with 76 medals: 18 Gold, 20 Silver and 38 Bronze.


• The 2nd edition of North East Olympic Games will be held in Arunachal Pradesh in 2019.

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• On 29th October 2018, Jair Bolsonaro was elected the president of Brazil.


• Jair Bolsonaro won 55.2% of the votes surpassing his rival Fernando Haddad of Workers’ Party, who had secured 44.8% in the presidential election.


• Jair Bolsonaro will assume office as President of Brazil, on 1st January 2019. He will replace Michel Temer.


• Jair Bolsonaro is 63 years old. He is a former Army captain. He leads the Social Liberal Party (PSL).

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• On 30th October 2018, senior composer and lyricist Yashwant Dev died in Mumbai.


• Yashwant Dev was 92 years old. He had composed and written many popular Marathi songs.


• He had received several awards like: Gan-samradni Lata Mangeshkar Award and Gadima puraskar. He had also worked in Music section of All India Radio, Mumbai.

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• On 27th October 2018, African American playwright Ntozake Shange, passed away, in the United States.
  
• Ntozake Shange was 70 years old. She had addressed sensitive issues related to racism.


• Her original name was Paulette Linda Williams. Some of her important works are: Daddy Says (1989), From Okra to Greens/A Different Kinda Love Story (1983), Mother Courage and Her Children (1980), For Coloured Girls, etc.