Current affairs notes on October 16-21

 1.Saral Jeevan Bima: It is a standard individual term life insurance product unveiled recently by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI). It will be a non-linked, non-participating individual pure risk premium life insurance plan providing for payment of the sum assured in lump sum to the nominee in case of the insured’s death during the policy term.

2.India joins UK-led fight against encrypted online messages. The UK and India are joined by the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. It marks an expansion of the so-called “Five Eyes” group of nations, a global alliance on intelligence issues, to include India and Japan. The campaign is against end-to-end encryption of messages by social media giants such as Facebook, which they say hinder law enforcement by blocking all access to them.

3. Nandankanan Zoological Park (NZP), The zoo has revived its innovative ‘Adopt-An-Animal’ programme to mobilise resources for animals. Located in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Adjacent to Chandaka-Dampara Wildlife Sanctuary. It is the only zoological park in India to become an institutional member of World Association of Zoos and Aquarium (WAZA).

4. Mahila Kisan Diwas Observed on 15th October. The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare set aside this day to empower women in the field of agriculture. The UN also observes 15th October as the ‘International Day of Rural Women’.

5. Global Hunger Index 2020 released. The GHI ranks countries on a 100-point scale, with 0 being the best score (no hunger) and 100 being the worst. Values less than 10 reflect low hunger, values from 20 to 34.9 indicate serious hunger; values from 35 to 49.9 are alarming; and values of 50 or more are extremely alarming. India ranks 94 out of 107 countries in the Index, lower than her neighbours such as Bangladesh (75) and Pakistan (88).

6. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said it would conduct Open Market Operation (OMO) purchase of State Developments Loans as per its October 9 announcement. Open market operations is the sale and purchase of government securities and treasury bills by RBI or the central bank of the country.

The objective of OMO is to regulate the money supply in the economy.

7. Union Transport Ministry has launched the first blasting for construction-related work at the Zojila tunnel that will provide all-year connectivity between Srinagar valley and Leh. The Zojila is set to be Asia’s longest bi-directional tunnel.

8. Rashtriya Aajeevika Mission: Organizing the rural poor women into Self Help Groups (SHGs), and continuously nurturing and supporting them to take economic activities so that they come out of abject poverty.

9. Pakistan and Nepal were recently re-elected to the UN Human Rights Council, China won a seat by the smallest margin while Saudi Arabia was defeated in the elections. UNHRC was reconstituted from its predecessor organisation, the UN Commission on Human Rights to help overcome the “credibility deficit” of the previous organisation. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

10. SLINEX 20, It is a series of naval exercises between the Indian Navy and the Sri Lanka Navy.

11. As per government data, ‘Ghar Tak Fibre’ scheme is off to a slow start in Bihar, the first state that aims to connect all its 45,945 villages by March 31. To connect all villages by March 31, the state would need to dig trenches, lay cables, and provide connectivity to an average of 257 villages daily, or a monthly average of over 7,500 villages. he project will be jointly executed by the Department of Telecom (DoT), ministry of Electronics & Information Technology and Common Service Centres (CSC).

12. The first-ever multi-modal logistic park will be built in Assam. The park will provide direct connectivity to air, road, rail and waterways to the people.

13. Australia will join the Malabar 2020 naval exercise, consisting of India, Japan and the U.S., to be held next month.

14. Ayushman Sahakar: It is a scheme to assist cooperatives play an important role in creation of healthcare infrastructure in the country. National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), an autonomous development finance institution under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

15. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has held that environmental clearance (EC) to the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) was granted ex post facto. Originally called Pranahita-Chevella project in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, it was redesigned, extended and renamed as Kaleshwaram project in Telangana in 2014. It is aimed to make Telangana drought proof by harnessing the flood waters of the Godavari. When completed, it will be the world’s largest irrigation and drinking water system.