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• World Teachers’ Day is celebrated globally on 5th October.


• The WTD 2018 will mark the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) that recognizes education as a key fundamental right and establishes an entitlement to free compulsory education, ensuring inclusive and equitable access for all children.


• The theme for this year's WTD is “The right to education means the right to a qualified teacher”.

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• On October 5, 2018, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman completed her 3-day visit to Astana, Kazakhstan. She visited Kazakhstan at the invitation of Minister of Defence of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mr. Nurlan Yermekbayev.


• She held bilateral talks with her Kazakh counterpart and Minister of Defence and Aerospace Industry Mr. Beibut Atamkulov.


• She inspected a Tri-Services Guard of Honour at the Ministry of Defence.


• She visited the National Defence University to witness the Indian Military Art Room (IMAR) made with Indian assistance.


• She invited the Minister of Defence, Mr. Nurlan Yermekbayev and Minister of Defence and Aerospace Industry, Mr Beibut Atamkulov to visit India and to attend Aero India 2019 to be held in Bengaluru in February 2019.

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• On October 5, 2018, according to a report called – “Best 100 Global Brands 2018” by global brand consultancy Interbrand, Apple topped the chart as the best brand of 2018.


• Apple is valued at $1 trillion and is followed by Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Coca Cola.


• Samsung ranked 6th and Facebook was ranked 9th.


• Spotify and Subaru made it to the global top 100 brand list for the first time.


• Tesla couldn’t get a spot despite being there in top 100 in the previous list of 2017.

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• On October 5, 2018, Alphonso from Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Palghar, Thane and Raigad districts of Maharashtra, got registered as Geographical Indication (GI).


• The king of mangoes, Alphonso, better known as ‘Hapus’ in Maharashtra.


• It is one of the world’s most popular fruit and is exported to various countries including Japan, Korea and Europe.


• Other similar GI tagged products include: Darjeeling Tea, Mahabaleshwar Strawberry, Blue Pottery of Jaipur, Banarasi Sarees and Tirupati Laddus.

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• On October 5, 2018, he Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation, Shri Suresh Prabhu released “Digi Yatra”, a policy on Biometric based digital processing of passengers at airports.


• DigiYatra Central Platform will be operational by end of February, 2019.


• Bangalore & Hyderabad International Airports are the first 2 to implement it by the end of February 2019.


• Airport Authority of India (AAI) will roll out the programme initially at Kolkata, Varanasi, Pune & Vijayawada by April, 2019.

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• On October 5, 2018, Government of India and Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $110 million loan for development projects in Madhya Pradesh.


• It aims to upgrade 2,800 kilometers all-weather rural roads in the State of Madhya Pradesh under the Prime Minister’s Rural Roads Program (PMGSY).


• It is the 2nd tranche loan and is a part of the $500 million Second Rural Connectivity investment Program for India. It was approved in 2017.


• Under the Second Rural Connectivity investment Program for India, improvements of 12,000 kilometers rural roads across the states of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal will take place.


• Tranche 1 loan of $250 million is currently under implementation in the 5 project states, upgrading over 6,000 km of rural roads.

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• On October 5, 2018, CRISIL upgraded AU Small Finance Bank’s Long Term Debt Instruments Rating to CRISIL AA– with Stable Outlook from previousCRISIL A+.


• Thus, AU Bank’s long-term instruments have got a rating of AA- from all four rating agencies including CARE Ratings, India Ratings and ICRA Ratings.


• The short term ratings on its deposits programme were reaffirmed at CRISIL A1+.


• It was due to the recent capital infusion by Temasek Holdings that has supported the bank’s scale of operations and the sustainable above average asset quality over the past few years.

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• On October 5, 2018, Reserve Bank of India, the central bank of India, released its 4th bi-monthly monetary policy.


• The next meeting of the MPC is scheduled from December 3 to 5, 2018.


• The Repo rate has been kept unchanged at 6.5%.


• The Reverse Repo rate is 6.25%, Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) and Bank rate is 6.75% also remaining unchanged.


• CRR remains at 4% and SLR at 19.5%.

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• On October 5, 2018, PayPal announced launch of its first merchant-focused App in India called PayPal for Business.


• This will help small/medium merchants and freelancers conduct their domestic and cross border business.


• It will allow merchants to track sales insights, invoicing, multi -currency balance and will also allow them to issue instant refunds.


• PayPal aims to tackle the entire backend of small businesses through technology.

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• On October 5, 2018, IRDAI approved Reliance Health Insurance, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Capital, to begin operations.


• It will commence operations by December 2018.


• Ravi Viswanath has been designated as the CEO of the firm.


• Health insurance in India has been amongst the Fastest-growing insurance sectors, rising at 20 per cent annually and is expected to double to over Rs 1,00,000 crore by 2021.

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• On October 5, 2018, 35-year-old Former England batsman Compton announced his retirement from cricket. He made his first-class debut for Middlesex in 2004.


• He was a part of the series win in 2012 against India which made England win for the first time in 28 years.


• He has played 16 Tests for England, scoring two hundred.


• He is the grandson of cricket player Denis Compton.

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• The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict”.


• Denis Mukwege is the helper who has devoted his life to defending the victims. Nadia Murad is the witness who tells of the abuses perpetrated against herself and others.

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• Swachh Survekshan Grameen Awards 2018 (SSG 2018) were awarded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Uma Bharti, in New Delhi.


• Awards were presented to top ranked states, districts and states & districts with maximum citizen participation based on the National Swachh Survekshan Grameen 2018 commissioned by Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.


• An independent survey agency developed ranking of all districts in India based on quantitative and qualitative sanitation (Swachhata) parameters.


• 6786 villages in 685 Districts were covered and 182,531 citizens were interviewed for the survey.

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• On 4th October 2018, Vineet Nayyar has been appointed as the Vice-chairman and Managing Director (MD) of the Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS).


• Nand Kishore was appointed as the chairman of the audit committee and GC Chaturvedi as the chairperson of the Remuneration Committee.


• The appointments were made by the new board of IL&FS that was formed on 1st October 2018, following allegations on the IL&FS group regarding defaults in loan payment and corporate governance issues.


• The control of IL&FS was given to the six-member board headed by Uday Kotak as non-executive chairman of IL&FS.

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• On 4th October 2018, government re designated RN Ravi as Deputy National Security Advisor (internal affairs) from his post as the chief of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC).


• R N Ravi will also continue to be the central government’s interlocutor for Nagaland.


• He is a 1976-batch Indian Police Service officer (retired) of the Kerala cadre. In August 2018, he was given an extension as the government’s representative for the talks with National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM).


• In 2012, he retired as the Special Director in the Intelligence Bureau. In September 2014, he was appointed as the chairman of the JIC which functions under the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS).

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• Flight trials of Astra Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVR-AAM) were conducted successfully by the Indian Air Force (IAF) between September 26 and October 3, 2018, at Integrated Test Range (ITR), Balasore, Odisha.


• The trials included complex tests for engagement of pilot less target in various modes of manoeuvring, off-boresight, medium and long ranges.


• Astra has been tested 6 times under various launch conditions and ranges as part of the final development trial.


• It had active participation from IAF. Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed the missile and integrated the weapon on Su-30 and other air platforms.


• Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Nasik, played a major role in modifying Su-30 aircrafts for Astra weapon integration and support during trials.


• Over 50 private and public sector industries are involved in the development of sub-systems of the missile. The missile would be inducted into IAF in 2019.