October 2020 Current Affairs

The Ministry of Jal Shakti is observing the Swachh Bharat Diwas, 2020 on 2nd October to mark six years of the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM).

4th India Energy Forum:
 Theme of this edition is “India’s Energy Future in a World of Change”

 This event organized by NITI Aayog and Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. And inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi.

 The objective behind the meeting is to deliver a global platform to understand best-practices, discuss reforms, and inform strategies for accelerating investments into the Indian Oil and Gas value chain

Atal Tunnel:
 Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Atal Tunnel, the world’s longest highway tunnel at Rohtang on October 3, 2020.
 The 9.02 kilometres long tunnel, built at an altitude of 3000 meters, will connect Manali in Himachal Pradesh to Lahaul-Spiti valley throughout the year.
 it will greatly assist in the movement of armed forces.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics on 6th October 2020. One half of the award has been given to Roger Penrose for black hole discovery; and the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez.

October 7: World Cotton Day
 On the second World Cotton Day, Union Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani launched the first-ever brand for India’s premium cotton called “Kasturi Cotton”. The brand logo was also announced on the occasion.
 India produces 6 million tonnes of cotton every year. This is about 23% of world cotton. Also, 51% of world organic cotton is produced in India.

2+2 Ministerial dialogue:
 On 27th October, 2020 India and US held the 3rd bilateral two plus two Ministerial Dialogue in New Delhi.
 India and US signed the landmark defence pact BECA (Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement) for Geo-Spatial Cooperation, to expand geospatial information sharing between armed forces of the two countries.
 BECA is significant as it allows India to use global geospatial maps of the United States for accuracy of stand-off weapons like cruise and ballistic missiles.
 The two sides will continue to work together to strengthen engagement in defence security and other areas.

Global Hunger Index 2020:
 India has been ranked 94 out of 107 countries and is put in the serious hunger category.

19th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO):
 India hosted the 19th Meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Ministers of Foreign Economy and Foreign Trade.
 The virtual meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Union Minister of Commerce and Industry of India Shri Piyush Goyal.
 This virtual meeting was attended by the Secretary General of SCO and Ministers from, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

France, India’s foremost strategic partner in Europe, will be taking part in ISRO’s mission to Venus, scheduled to launch in 2025, expanding decades-old cooperation in the space sector.

Quad Meeting:
 The second meeting of the Quadrilateral Strategic Dialogue of Foreign Ministers was held in Tokyo
 The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or the ‘Quad’ is an informal setup of Australia-India-Japan-United States.
 It aims to strengthen the defence and security cooperation amongst the four countries.
 The idea was originally conceived in 2007 by the former Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzō Abe.
 It was proposed to check China’s growing influence and assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.

 India has assumed the chairmanship of International Labour Organization after 35 years.
 The current Labour Secretary Apurva Chandra has been elected as the chairperson of the Governing Body of ILO.
 The ILO was created in 1919 by the Versailles Peace Treaty.
 Its secretariat is in Geneva, Switzerland.
 It has 187 of the 193 UN member states.

India will soon sign a military pact with the United States to get access to satellite data for better accuracy of missiles and drones. The deal will be signed during the India-US 2+2 dialogue.

Anemia Mukt Bharat Index:
 The Anemia Mukt Bharat, an initiative of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has been launched to reduce the prevalence of Anemia all over India.

 In a recently released scorecard of the Anemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) Index, Haryana was ranked at the top slot with an AMB Index of 46.7.

Assam

The Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar, has launched farmer friendly mobile application ‘Kisan Rath’ with tagline “Kisan ka apna Vahan” to facilitate the movement of crops. The app has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and will connect 5 lakh trucks & 20,000 tractors for transporting farm produce.