Important Current Affairs 22nd October 2018 English

National News

Insolvency Law Committee submits its 2nd Report on Cross Border Insolvency 
 
The Insolvency Law Committee (ILC) constituted by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to recommend amendments to Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code of India, 2016, has submitted its 2nd Report to the Government, which deals with cross border insolvency.  
The ILC has recommended the adoption of the UNCITRAL Model Law of Cross Border Insolvency, 1997, as it provides for a comprehensive framework to deal with cross border insolvency issues.  
The Committee has also recommended a few carve outs to ensure that there is no inconsistency between the domestic insolvency framework and the proposed Cross Border Insolvency Framework.
Important:
The UNCITRAL Model Law has been adopted in as many as 44 countries and, therefore, forms part of international best practices in dealing with cross border insolvency issues.

Tejas wins Rs. 111 crore Indian Navy order
 
Tejas Networks, a maker of networking product, has received a Rs. 111 crore purchase order from Sterlite Technologies to implement Indian Navy’s country-wide next-generation digital communications network.
Tejas Networks will supply its terabit capacity Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) systems and high-performance layer-3 multi-gigabit ethernet switches for Navy's pan-India network, according to a company statement.

Women of India Organic Festival to be held at IGNCA, New Delhi
 
The Ministry of Women and Child Development is organizing the 5th edition of the Women of India Organic Festival from 26th October to 4th November, 2018 at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Janpath Road, New Delhi.
Aim:
This is aimed to boost organic culture and promote Women Organic Farmers and Entrepreneurs. Being the country's largest organic festival, it bears witness to the fact that women are the torchbearers of the nation's organic movement.
Important:
Ministry of Women and Child Development: Maneka Gandhi 

Ayushman Bharat has benefitted 100,000 within a month of its launch
 
Union Health Minister JP Nadda on October 21, 2018 announced that nearly a month after the roll out of the health insurance scheme ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY)’ (Ayushman Bharat), one lakh people have availed of the ambitious programme. 

The Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, considered as the world's largest health insurance programme, was launched pan-India by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Jharkhand on September 23, 2018.
Important:
Ayushman Bharat, the government-sponsored health insurance scheme, will provide free coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year in any government or even empanelled private hospitals all over India. 

The Ayushman Bharat programme will be funded with 60 percent contribution from the Centre and the remaining from the states.

President to inaugurate 'Vishwa Shanti Ahimsa Sammelan' in Maharashtra
 
President Ram Nath Kovind will inaugurate a three-day 'Vishwa Shanti Ahimsa Sammelan' at Mangi Tungi in Nashik district of Maharashtra on 22nd October.
The President will also give away the first international 'Bhagwan Rishabhdev Award' to Teerthanker Mahaveer University based in Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh.
The award, which carries a cash prize of  11 lakh rupees, a memento and a citation, will be given to the chancellor of the university, Suresh Jain.  
President Kovind will also release a book, titled 'Sarvoccha Digambar Jain Pratima', on the occasion.

PM Modi to attend fourth edition of NITI Lecture Series on artificial intelligence 
 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the fourth edition of NITI Lecture Series being organised at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. 
The keynote address will be delivered by Jensen Huang, President and Co-Founder of NVIDIA Corporation. 
This year's theme is 'Artificial Intelligence for All: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Inclusive Growth'.   
 

International News

NASA names gamma-ray constellations after Godzilla, Hulk
 
NASA scientists have devised a new set of 21 modern gamma-ray constellations and named them after fictional characters such as the Hulk and Godzilla. The constellations, constructed with sources visible through its gamma-ray telescope, were devised to celebrate the completion of 10 years of operations of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
Since July 2008, Fermi’s Large Area Telescope (LAT) has been scanning the entire sky each day, mapping and measuring sources of gamma rays, the highest-energy light in the universe.

China to ban polluting tourist vehicles near Mt Everest in Tibet
 
China is planning to ban polluting tourist vehicles at the Mount Everest base camp in Tibet from next year as part of its efforts to reduce pollution in the area that has a fragile environment.
Some 2.26 tons of human waste, one ton of mountaineering trash and 5.24 tons of household waste have been removed from the world’s highest peak since April. A further eight tons of trash was removed between 5,200 meters and 6,500 meters above the sea level.

Stephen Hawking wheelchair, thesis up for sale
 
The online sale announced by auctioneer Christie’s features 22 items from Hawking, including his doctoral thesis on the origins of the universe such as “Spectrum of Wormholes” and “Fundamental Breakdown of Physics in Gravitational Collapse.”
The auction includes one of five existing copies of Hawking’s 1965 Cambridge University Ph.D. thesis, “Properties of Expanding Universes,” which carries an estimated price of 100,000 pounds to 150,000 pounds ($130,000 to $195,000).
Stephen Hawking was a cosmic visionary, a figure of inspiration and a global celebrity.