26th October 2019 Current affairs

Current affairs

1. Under the supervision of Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) have launched an online aptitude test ‘Tamanna’ (Try and Measure Aptitude and Natural Abilities) to help students make right career choices. It is an aptitude test for Class 9 and Class 10 students to enable them to make a better choice of subjects in Class 11 and 12.
2. A loan agreement of 165 million USD has been signed between the Government of Odisha and the World Bank. The aim of the loan is to implement “Integrated Irrigation Project for Climate Resilient Agriculture” and strengthen the resilience of the smallholder farmers against adverse climate.
3. India signed the agreement with Pakistan for the operationalization of the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor at Zero Point international Boundary on October 24, 2019. The 4.2 km corridor connects the Dera Baba Nanak in the Indian side with the Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara in Pakistan.
4. October 24 is celebrated as The World Development Information Day (WDID) every year. This day is celebrated to let the world know about development problems and the necessity of strengthening international cooperation to solve them.
5. According to Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Report, 2019, China has overtaken the United States (US) in 2019 to become ‘the country with most people in the top 10% of global wealth distribution’. The report states that India, along with China and Vietnam as best examples of how wealth can be raised by pushing for higher economic growth as a multiple of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by addressing institutional as well as financial-sector deficiencies.
6. Among 190 countries India has been ranked 63rd as per latest Doing Business Report (DBR, 2020) of World Bank (WB). As per the report, the World Bank (WB) has recognized India as one of the top 10 improvers for the third consecutive year.
7. Braj Raj Sharma, a 1984-batch IAS officer of J&K cadre, has been appointed as chairman of Staff Selection Commission (SSC). He succeeded Pankaj Kumar, who recently became the new CEO of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
8. Homen Borgohain, an Assamese writer and journalist, was bestowed with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sadin-Pratidin Achievers Award 2019 on 23 October. This was the 6th edition of Sadin-Pratidin Achievers Award 2019.
9. The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) India University Rankings 2020 has been topped by IIT Bombay. The ranking was done on the basis eight parameters of academic reputation (30%), employer reputation (20%), faculty-student ratio (20%), staff with PhD (10%), papers per faculty (10%), citation per paper (5%), international faculty (2.5%) and international students (2.5%). The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangaluru has been ranked second followed by the IITs in Delhi, Madras, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Roorkee, and Guwahati.
10. The Chinese scientists are constructing a huge cosmic ray observation station that is equivalent to 200 soccer fields in Sichuan province. The observatory is located 4,400 meters above sea level.