November Current Affairs Online Model Test

The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) conducted the regional level marine oil pollution response exercise ‘Clean Sea-2017’ at sea off Port Blair on November 29. The purpose of the exercise was to ascertain preparedness of the ICG, resource agencies and other stakeholders in responding to a major oil spill in line with the provisions of the National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan (NOS-DCP). The highlight of the exercise was participation of one ICG Pollution Control Vessel and integration of the Indian Coast Guard Dornier/Chetak aircraft into the Oil Spill Disaster Management System for aerial assessment/ delivery of Oil Spill Dispersant for mitigation of the spilled oil. The Indian Coast Guard has established three pollution response centres at Mumbai, Chennai and Port Blair. It is responsible for marine environment protection in the maritime zones of India and is the coordinating authority for response to oil spills in Indian waters.

The 7th International Military Sports Council (CISM) Military World Games will be hosted from Oct. 18 to 27, 2019 in Wuhan, capital city of central China’s Hubei Province. The games, which are top sporting gala for military personnel, consist of 329 competitions in 27 categories and are expected to attract around 8,000 participants from more than 100 countries and regions. It will be an international event with great significance and far-reaching influence and it will also be an opportunity for foreign military personnel to learn more about China and its military. The emblem consists of a dove, a star, ribbons and other elements and the mascot is called Bing Bing, the design of which is based on the Chinese sturgeon, a critically endangered fish known as the “panda in water”. The slogan is of the games is “Military glory, world peace”. The games, which were inaugurated in Rome in 1995, is a multi-sport event organized every four years by the CISM.

The first edition of the International Symposium to Promote Innovation & Research in Energy Efficiency (INSPIRE 2017) has started in Jaipur, Rajasthan on November 27, 2017. The 5-day symposium is being organized by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) in partnership with World Bank (WB) and Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE). INSPIRE 2017 is a global conference which aims to bring together various stakeholders like policymakers, innovators, financiers to showcase best practices in the sector. It is designed to provide global and national thought-leaders and implementers to expand perspectives on energy efficiency. Approx 350 participants from 13 countries across North America, Asia, Europe and Middle East are attending the event.

Indian men’s national Kabaddi team has won the gold medal at the 2017 Asian Kabaddi Championships after defeating Pakistan in the final by 36-22 under the captaincy of Ajay Thakur in Gorgan, Iran on November 26, 2017. Beside this, Indian women’s national team has also won gold medal at the Asian Kabaddi Champions 2017 by defeating South Korea in the final by 42-20.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President’s adviser Ivanka Trump jointly inaugurated the 8th edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES-2017) in Hyderabad on November 28, 2017. The 3-day event is co-hosted by India and the USA and for the first time it is held in South Asia. The NITI Ayog in partnership with the US State Department and other agencies and in coordination with the Telangana state Government is organising the prestigious event. This year’s theme “Women First, Prosperity for All” will demonstrate the commitment of the United States and Indian governments to the principle that when women are economically empowered, their communities and countries thrive. About 1500 delegates from over 150 countries are taking part in the three-day Summit. Ten countries are being represented by all women delegations.

India’s top cueist Pankaj Advani has won the 15-frame IBSF World Snooker Men Championship 2017 at the Al Arabi Sports Club in Doha on November 27, 2017. Advani defeated Amir Sarkhosh of Iran 8-2 (19-71, 79-53, 98-23, 69-62, 60-05, 0-134, 75-07, 103-4, 77-13, 67-47) in the final. It was his 18th world title.

Private sector lender Axis Bank has recently launched instant international payment services using Ripple’s enterprise blockchain technology solution for retail and corporate customers. The bank has launched a service for its retail customers in India to receive payments from RAKBANK in UAE and for its corporate customers in India to receive payments from Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore. Ripple makes international remittances faster and transparent for customers while ensuring security and improving efficiencies. The transactions reach their destination account in minutes, with the certainty of settlement, and with end-to-end visibility over the journey of the payment.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch the India’s first mission to the Sun “Aditya-L1 mission” from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on the PSLV- XL launch vehicle in 2019. The Aditya-1 mission was conceived as a 400kg class satellite carrying one payload, the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) and was planned to launch in 800 km low earth orbit. It will be launched into the halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system. This orbit has the advantage of allowing continuous monitoring of the sun. The main aim of the solar mission is to improve the understanding of dynamical processes of the sun and help resolve some outstanding questions in solar physics.

Ritu Phogat has clinched the silver medal in Under-23 Senior World Wrestling Championship at Poland. She lost against Turkish Wrestler Demirhan in the gold medal bout of women’s 48 kilogram category. In Semifinal, Ritu defeated Chinese Wrestler Jiang Zhu 4-3 points to reach the finals. Ritu had won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship in 2016.

The Chandoli National Park (CNP) is a natural World Heritage Site and is spread over Satara, Kolhapur and Sangli Districts of Maharashtra. It covers an area of 317.67 square kilometres. The historical places of the park include the 17th century Shivaji’s Forts, Prachitgad and Bhairavgad, of the Maratha kings Shivaji and his son Sambhaji. It is home to Bengal tigers, Indian leopards, Indian bison, leopard cats, sloth bears, etc.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched Umang mobile application, an integrated platform for government to citizen services, on November 23, 2017. The acronym of Umang stands for ” Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance”, which has been developed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY). Currently, the app will host around 162 services from 33 government departments of central and state governments. The app provides all pan India e-Gov services ranging from central to local government bodies and other citizen-centric services like Aadhaar and Digilocker on one single platform. Citizen can download UMANG by giving missed call on 9718397183 and also access it on ‘www.umang.gov.in’.

IKEA, the Swedish furnishing retailer, has launched its first experiential centre “IKEA Hej (Hello) HOME’ in India at Hyderabad. The Hej Home, designed and set up over a six-month duration, highlights what the retailer stands for and what to expect from an IKEA store. It is an exhibition of IKEA products and solutions which its future customers can actually buy it from its store (in Hyderabad) in spring 2018. The display includes the bedroom, living area, kitchen and dining, play area among others. After the Hyderabad store, the second store will open in Mumbai during 2019, followed by Bengaluru and Delhi NCR.

Emmerson Mnangagwa, the former Vice President, will be sworn in as the President of the Zimbabwe on November 24, 2017 after the resignation of Robert Mugabe following a military intervention. The ruling ZANU-PF party has nominated him to fill the vacancy left by Mr Robert Mugabe. Mr Mugabe stepped down on November 21 after 37 years ruling the country. Mr Mnangagwa’s dismissal from the Vice President post led the ruling party and the military to intervene and forced Mr Mugabe to resign.

Indian railways has installed Asia’s largest Solid State Interlocking (SSI) system at Kharagpur in West Bengal, which will enable station masters to set 800 different routes for trains in a matter of minutes. Interlocking is a railway signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements of trains through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. The cutting-edge technology is installed at a cost of Rs 39 crore, which replaces the pre-1989 route relay system that only allowed operators to set maximum 423 routes, ensures that no cross-movement takes place. The SSI software will also detect the routes a particular train can take and inform the station masters working at the panel, bringing down the operation time and the possibility of human error. It will reduce the possibility of accidents.

Pondicherry University library has bagged the Highest Profile Registration category award for effective utilisation of the J-Gate@eShodhSindhu platform. University librarian R. Samyuktha received the award at the first J-Gate@eShodhSindhu Forum and Information and Library Network Centers (INFLIBNET) meet jointly organised by INFLIBNET and Informatics Publishing Ltd, held at Gandhi Nagar recently. Pondicherry University is a member of the consortia of leading universities in the country for access to e-resources including electronic journals and electronic databases for major publishers.

The Universal Children’s Day (UCD) is observed every year on November 20 throughout the world to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide and improving children’s welfare. The 2017 theme is ‘Kids Take Over’. The day was established in 1954, offers each of us an inspirational entry-point to advocate, promote and celebrate children’s rights, translating into dialogues and actions that will build a better world for Children

The 8th edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit-2017 will be held at Hyderabad from November 28th. The summit is being co-hosted by India and the USA and for the first time it is being held in South Asia. This year the theme of the Summit is “Women First, Prosperity for All”. The event will focus on supporting women entrepreneurs and fostering economic growth globally. It will focus on four areas- Energy and Infrastructure, Digital Economy and Financial Technology, Health and Life Sciences and Media and Entertainment. In it, women will represent 52.5% of entrepreneurs, investors and ecosystem supporters at the Summit. The summit will have participation from 150 countries and women from 127 countries are participating.

The Hyderabad based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in association with the Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR) has developed Improved Samba Masuri (ISM) variety rice with low Glycemic Index. Rice with low Glycemic Index is considered suitable for people with diabetics. The new variety is also resistant to bacteria blight. The ISM has lowest Glycemic Index of 50.99 against the normal 53 to 70 in several rice varieties. It has shown better yield and fine grain type enhancing its market potential and profit for farmers. The scientists stated that the new variety is not a transgenic one and they did molecular breeding in CCMB and traditional rice breeding at the rice research institute. The ISM has been grown in 1.3 lakh hectares in 7 states including Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The IIRR is a rice research institute located at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad.

At the 8th edition of the Tata Literature festival-2017, the book “Age of Anger: A History of the Present” has won the Book of the Year Award 2017 in the Non–Fiction category. The book was authored by Pankaj Mishra. Apart from this, the fiction top honour was bagged by Easterine Kire’s ‘Son of the Thundercloud’. Tata Trusts’ Big Little Book Awards’ for Author in Bengali Children’s Literature, went to Nabaneeta Dev Sen. Actor-playwright Girish Karnad was conferred with Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contribution in the field of theatre at the Tata Literature Live in Mumbai on November 20, 2017.

The 42nd World Congress of the International Committee of Military Medicine (ICMM) has started in New Delhi on November 19, 2017. The 5-day event is organised for the first time in India, and is the largest medical conference ever organised by the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS). The theme of this 42nd World Congress is “Military Medicine in Transition: Looking Ahead”. The ICMM is an international inter-governmental organisation created in 1921 with its secretariat at Brussels in Belgium and currently has 112 nations as members. Approx350-400 foreign delegates from 80 countries are participating in the event.

As per Ek Bharat-Shreshtha Bharat scheme, the Madhya Pradesh Government has partnered with Nagaland and Manipur to strengthen cultural relations between them. For this, the MP Govt has made its Higher Education Department as a nodal department to execute the scheme. The team of MP will participate in Sangai Mahotsav which is being organized in Manipur. Similarly, teams of Manipur and Nagaland will take part in Lok Rang and Bal Rang programmes to present their cultural programmes and to apprise people with their culture. The scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 31, 2015 with the prime objective to celebrate the unity in diversity culture of the country and to embolden the sentimental bonds between the people of different states.

The first-ever Namami Barak festival has started at Police Parade ground in Silchar, Assam on November 18, 2017. The 3-day river festival is an attempt to pay tribute to the River Barak and to showcase of Barak’s potential & possibilities to emerge as a hub of trade and commerce. The cultural heritage of the valley together with its cuisine, fauna and flora, socio-economic and civic splendor will be showcased before the global audience during the festival. The event is being organised at 3 locations in Barak Valley also known as Southern Assam. Silchar will be the main event area while other two locations are Hailakandi and Karimganj district.

Pandit Jagdish Mohan (87), the renowned Hindustani vocalist of Kirana Gharana, has passed away in New Delhi on November 14, 2017. He hailed from Uttarakhand’s Haridwar and was born on March 4, 1930. Pt Mohan was honoured with the Sangeet Sartaj award by Pracheen Kala Kendra, Chandigarh for his vast contribution to Indian classical music. He was a regular performer at the All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan.

International rating agency Moody’s Investors Service has recently upgraded the Government of India (GoI)’s local and foreign currency issuer ratings to Baa2 from its lowest investment grade (Baa3) and changed the outlook on the rating to stable from positive. Moody’s has also upgraded India’s local currency senior unsecured rating to Baa2 from Baa3 and its short-term local currency rating to P-2 from P-3. The decision to upgrade the ratings is underpinned by Moody’s expectation that continued progress on economic and institutional reforms will enhance India’s high growth potential. Though, the global ratings agency cautioned that high debt burden remains a constraint on the country’s credit profile. Moody’s has revised the sovereign rating of India a notch above investment grade after a long gap of 14 years. Interestingly, the last time the global rating has revised the rating was when the BJP government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in power.

India’s longest expressway from Agra to Lucknow will soon provide free Wi-Fi services on the entire 302-kilometre stretch. As per officials, the UP government has offered to provide space to lay an optical fiber cable (OFC) along the expressway. The plan is to earn revenue to maintain the expressway and gain from the agreement with the private firm by leasing rights to lay the OFCs to offer free WiFi along the entire stretch. this will also help the state to have a world-class advanced traffic management system (ATMS) for convenience and safety. Safety will be assured by the usage of traffic monitoring and event detection along with speed enforcement through a network of CCTV cameras and phone helplines at every two kilometers.

RBI Governor Urjit Patel has been appointed as advisory board member of the Financial Stability Institute (FSI) of the Bank of International Settlement (BIS). The FSI assists financial sector authorities worldwide in strengthening their financial systems. The FSI was jointly created in 1998 by the BIS and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Among other mandates, the FSI seeks to promote cross-sectoral and cross-border supervisory contacts and cooperation. The BIS is an international financial organisation owned by 60 member central banks across the world.

China has launched the world’s first all-electric ship in Guangzhou in South China’s Guangdong Province, which can travel up to 80km with 2000-tonnes cargo after a two-hour charge. The vessel, manufactured by the Guangzhou Shipyard International Company Ltd, is powered by a 26-tonne lithium battery. It can cruise at the top speed of 12.8 km per hour. As the ship do not use fossil fuels, it has zero emission, including carbon, sulphur and PM2.5 and it could be used as a passenger liner or a working ship.

Aditi Ashok has become the first Indian golfer to qualify for the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship-2017 on the LPGA Tour and will head to Florida to take part in the prestigious event. Apart from Aditi, Nicole Broch Larsen, Peiyun Chien, Nelly Korda , Olafia Kristensdottir, Sung Hyun Park, Madelene Sagstrom and Angel Yin are the other rookies in the field. It will be an extremely competitive field, with each of the Top 10 players taking part and 18 out of the top 20 in the world rankings participating. The $250,000 competition starts on November 16 and will played over four rounds, ending on November 19.

The 34th annual conference of the Asian Bankers Association (ABA) will be held in Mumbai, Maharashtra from November 16-17, 2017. The 2017 summit will be hosted by State Bank with theme ‘Asia’s turn to transform’. This year, summit will discuss the impact of the ongoing global downturn on the outlook of the Asian economies; economic consequences of the Brexit in March 2019 on Asia, the America-first policy of the Trump administration; implications of fintech on banks, among others. Approx 80 members from 25 countries will participate in the conference.

The Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) is located inside the Buxa National Park in Alipurduar district of West Bengal and covers an area of 760-square-kilometre. It is home to tiger, civet, elephant, gaur (Indian bison), Indian boar, red jungle fowl, etc. The Endangered species found in the reserve are Indian tiger, Asian elephant, leopard cat, Bengal florican, regal python, Chinese pangolin, hispid hare, etc.

Veteran cyclist Ashok Khale (64), who was recently injured in the suspected hit-and-run case on the Sion-Panvel highway, has passed away in the Bombay hospital during treatment on November 12, 2017. He won several medals for cycle-riding in state and national-level championships. He had represented India in Giro d’Italia event and was also called as the King of the Ghats. He was also the recipient of the Shiv Chhatrapati award.

The 4th India-Canada Annual Ministerial Dialogue has started in New Delhi on November 13, 2017. The Indian delegation is led by the Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu and the Canadian International Trade Minister, François-Philippe Champagne is leading the Canadian delegation. As per official release, India and Canada will focus on some of the key commercial drivers to enhance the India-Canada partnership in the current round of the Ministerial Dialogue. The efforts would be made to work towards the expeditious conclusion of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement for a progressive, balanced, and mutually beneficial agreement covering both goods and services. The trade ministers of both countries are likely to discuss issues to explore ways of expediting the early conclusion of the CEPA and the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement.

K Chandrashekar Rao, the Chief Minister of Telangana, has declared Urdu as the state’s second official language. Every office in the state will now have an Urdu speaking officer. As per reports, the state government will appoint Urdu officers in all the offices over the next 60 days to receive petitions from public and reply them in Urdu. Apart from this, all competitive examinations will also be conducted in Urdu.

The Mahavir Harina Vanasthali National Park (MHVNP) is located at Vanasthalipuram in Hyderabad, Telangana and covers an area of 3,758 acres. The park was named after Tirthankar Mahavir Swami, a Jain saint, in commemoration of his 2500th nirvana anniversary in the year 1975. It is home to blackbucks (the state animal of Andhra Pradesh), porcupines, water monitors, short-toed eagles, Indian pond herons, egrets, kingfishers, cormorants and several other bird species.

The Nordic-Baltic embassies will host the first-ever Nordic-Baltic Youth Film Festival in collaboration with the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi from November 13-18, 2017. The festival will offer a diverse mix of some of the most celebrated and Oscar nominated movies from the Nordic-Baltic region. This platform offers a great opportunity for Nordic-Baltic countries to reflect on the similarities and appreciate their differences. It will also prove to be a platform to enhance people-to-people relations and share the thrill, excitement and experience of watching films together. The Nordic-Baltic countries — Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden, or NB8 — are tied together geographically and historically through trade, culture and many common yet diverse value systems.

The IDFC Bank has entered into a strategic alliance with mobile wallet major MobiKwik to launch a co-branded virtual Visa prepaid card for customers of MobiKwik. The customers of MobiKwik can generate a 16-digit Visa virtual card through the app and use it for e-commerce and online transactions. In it, one need not be a customer of IDFC Bank to use the co-branded pre-paid card. This pre-paid card will now allow MobiKwik users to shop from Amazon or Flipkart where currently MobiKwik wallet use is not allowed. This Visa pre-paid card is replica of the wallet and can be used anywhere.

Apollo Munich Health Insurance Company has won the ” 2017 General Insurance Company of the Year” award at the 21st Asia Insurance Industry Awards. The Health Insurance Company is a joint venture between Apollo Hospitals Group and the Munich Re Group The award recognises Apollo Munich’s contribution in demonstrating market leadership during the qualifying period via innovation in products, services, practices, responsiveness to end-users and intermediaries, initiatives in boosting the image of insurance in society, narrowing the protection gap, and showcasing exceptional business growth through professionalism and sound management.

The Union Environment ministry has constituted a 7-member committee to continuously monitor the short-term and long-term solutions to air pollution. It will be headed by C.K Mishra, the Secretary of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). The committee will meet at regular, short intervals to draw up a plan and ensure enforcement.

The Maharashtra government will soon set up village climate resilient committees for adopting different agricultural practices in over 5,000 villages of 15 districts in the state. A 13-member committee will be set up in all these villages to stress on adopting new agricultural practices, judicious use of water and soil testing to keep a check on its health. As per a Government Resolution (GR) issued on November 7, 2017, under the Nanaji Deshmukh Krushi Sanjivanee Project, Village Climate Resilient Agriculture Management Committees (VCRMCs) would be set up at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore. The project would be funded by the World Bank. The project recommends use of seed technology, precision farming along with diversification of agriculture to coarse grains.

The Mathikettan Shola National Park (MSNS) is located in Poopara village of Udumbanchola taluk in Idukki district of Kerala and covers an area of 12.82 square kilometres. It is notified as a national park to protect the wildlife and rich biodiversity of the area. It is home to beautiful and rare animals like panthers, wild elephants, spotted deer, Nilgiri tahrs and giant grizzled squirrels, etc. Among reptiles, species like rat snakes, crocodiles, vipers, cobras, turtles, lizards and pythons inhabit the park.

The 2nd edition of India International Cherry Blossom festival, which is the World’s only autumn cherry blossom festival, has started on November 8, 2017 in Shillong, Meghalaya. The 4-day festival is being organized by Government of Meghalaya, Institute of Bio-resources and Sustainable Development with support from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations. According to Meghalaya government, such festivals will not only boost tourism but also protect and preserve the forest and wildlife biodiversity. The festival has successfully attracted a large number of tourists from different parts of the country and abroad. The festival will also have guided night walks under illuminated cherry blossoms, live music, and stalls showcasing the cuisine, wine, arts and craft of the region. In it, the state government has also released the special cover of the 2nd India International Cherry Blossom Festival Postage Stamp.

The Indo-Bangladesh joint military exercise “Sampriti-7” has started in its northeastern states of Meghalaya and Mizoram from November 6, 2017. This is the 7th edition of the joint training exercise, which will end on November 18. The 13-day exercise will be conducted at India’s Jungle Warfare School at Vairengte in Mizoram and at the Joint Training Node at Umroi in Meghalaya. The purpose of the exercise is to enhance interoperability between the two nations and enrich from each other’s experience while carrying out counter-insurgency or counter-terrorism operations.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully conducted a flight test of its indigenously designed and developed long-range sub-sonic cruise missile ‘Nirbhay’, which can carry warheads of up to 300 kg. The state-of-the-art missile was successfully test-fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur, Odisha. The missile has the capability to cruise at the speed of 0.7 Mach and loiter at altitudes as low as 100 m. Powered by a solid rocket motor booster, Nirbhay missile with a turbo-fan engine is guided by a highly advanced inertial navigation system. The missile is capable of carrying 24 kinds of war weapons, the missile is able to target multiple places simultaneously. Nirbhay is very manoeuvrable and can fly at tree-top level, making it difficult to detect on radar, and strikes targets of 1,000 km away carrying nuclear warheads, giving India the capability to strike deep into enemy territory.

The 20th International Children’s Film Festival of India (ICFFI) has started in Hyderabad on November 8, 2017 with New India- as the main theme this time. The Telangana government and Children’s Film Society, India (CFSI) are jointly organizing the biennial children’s event. 317 films from over hundred countries will be screened in about 40 theatres in Hyderabad and also at the district head quarters across the state. Of them, over hundred films will be screened in competition sections. Some of the popular international award-winning children’s films are also brought for the festival this time. They include – Sweeden film ‘SIV Sleeps Astray’ Russian film Pitch’, Netherlands film ‘Sky’, film from Germany Nelly’s Adventure, Canada film ‘Anthems: A Journey Around The World’, film from Egypt-Wintry Spring.

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia has been designated as the new Finance Secretary of India. Adhia is a 1981 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre. The post was vacant after former Finance and Expenditure Secretary Ashok Lavasa retired on October 31, 2017. As per the convention, the senior most Secretary in the Finance Ministry is designated as the Finance Secretary. Adhia’s appointment comes ahead of the 10 November GST Council meeting in Guwahati that is likely to see a revision in the tax rates for some common use items and easier GST returns filing norms for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

A theme based India-Nepal Folk Crafts Festival has started at Kathmandu, Nepal on November 7, 2017. The 5-day festival is organised by South Asia Foundation (SAF) in association with Council of Handicrafts Development Corporations (COHANDS), Embassy of India in Kathmandu, Embassy of Nepal in New Delhi and BP Koirala India-Nepal Foundation. The Ministry of Textiles, Government of India (GoI), is sponsoring the event. The basic objective of the festival is to promote bilateral relations through crafts and strengthen the relationship between artisans of India and Nepal. Around 50 artisans will showcase their crafts during the event. A Khadi- fashion show will also be organized at India House, Embassy of India in Kathmandu on Nov 10 as part of the festival.

Shiv Kapur from India has won the 2017 Panasonic Open (India) Golf tournament at the Delhi Golf Club in New Delhi on November 5, 2017. It is second Asian Tour title of the season for Kapur, who fired five birdies against one bogey to stay three strokes clear off a pack of fellow Indians, including Ajeetesh Sandhu (65), Sudhir Sharma (69) and Chirag Kumar (64).

Kenneth Juster, a top economic expert on India, has been appointed as the new US Ambassador to India, which is unanimously confirmed by US Senate on November 3, 2017. He will replace Indian-American Richard Verma as the top American diplomat to India. The position has been lying vacant since January 20 after Mr. Verma resigned from the post after the swearing-in of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the U.S.

Recently, the Department of Biotechnology has signed a trilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nobel Media AB and the Goa government to host the Nobel Prize Series – India during February 1-2, 2018 in Goa. It will address the core issues of knowledge, education, science, infrastructure and jobs. With interactions scheduled between school students and Nobel laureates, it will drive a passion for science. The Nobel Prize Series aims to stimulate creative thinking by bringing together Nobel laureates, other experts and learners. It would involve exhibitions, conferences, lectures, roundtables, etc. and inspire engagement in science, literature and peace. The first edition of Nobel Prize Series-India was held in Gujarat in January 2017.

The 14-day joint training exercise “PRABAL DOSTYK – 2017” has started between the Indian Army and the Kazakhstan Army at Bakloh, Himachal Pradesh. The purpose of the joint exercise is to enhance the military ties between the two countries as also at achieving interoperability between the two armies. The training contingents comprise of platoon strength from the 11th Gorkha Rifles of the Indian Army and a similar strength of the Kazakhstan Army.