Important Current Affairs 24th October 2019

National Affairs

-Kartarpur Corridor agreement signed, pilgrims can carry Rs 11000 and a 7kg bag

Kartarpur Corridor will go operational on November 8 as scheduled as India and Pakistan today signed an agreement to this effect. Those who wish to visit the holy shrine need to register with the home ministry.

-Humbled to have got people’s support yet again in Maharashtra: PM Modi

After over 9 hours of heated poll battle that we witnessed today on vote counting day for the Maharashtra assembly elections 2019, the results are now looking clear. With Aaditya Thackeray emerging as the winner from Worli, his electoral debut constituency, and the party winning 33 seats and leading in 24 constituencies, Shiv Sena looks to draw a hard bargain with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

-SC allows Centre’s plea to recover adjusted gross revenue of Rs 92k crore from telecom companies

-In an affidavit filed in the top court, DoT said that as per calculations, Airtel owes Rs 21,682.13 crore as licence fee to the government.

-Dues from Vodafone totalled Rs 19,823.71 crore while Reliance Communications owed a total of Rs 16,456.47 crore, DoT said.

-The BSNL owed Rs 2,098.72 crore while MTNL owed Rs 2,537.48 crore, it said.

-The total amount, which has to be recovered from all the telecom firms, accrues to Rs 92,641.61 crore as on date.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

-Iran executes children in violation of human rights law

The UN special investigator on human rights in Iran, expressed deep concern at the overall use of the death penalty in the Islamic Republic, saying its execution rate ‘remains one of the highest in the world’ even after a drop from 507 in 2017 to 253 in 2018.

-Journalists urge action against Google over EU copyright dispute

Hundreds of journalists called Wednesday for European officials to take action against Google over its refusal to pay media companies for displaying their content in defiance of a strict new EU copyright law. But Google said last month that articles, pictures and videos would be shown in search results only if media firms consent to let the tech giant use it for free.

-Sikh leader Jagmeet Singh emerges as pillar of new Canadian govt

Indian-origin Canadian Jagmeet Singh-led New Democratic Party (NDP), which won 24 seats in the general election, is likely to emerge as the "kingmaker" where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party held onto power in a nail-biting poll, albeit as a weakened minority government.

SPORTS AFFAIRS

Virat Kohli rested, no MS Dhoni for T20I series vs Bangladesh

•           Virat Kohli has been rested for the T20I series vs Bangladesh

•           Sanju Samson has returned to the India squad after more than 4 years

•           Shahbaz Nadeem who took 4 wickets in his debut Test doesn't find a place in the Test squad

-MS Dhoni endorses our view of backing younsters: MSK Prasad on Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson's selection

•           Selectors picked Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson as the two wicketkeepers for the T20s vs Bangladesh

•           It is yet not clear whether MS Dhoni made himself available for selection or not

•           Dhoni has not played any form of cricket since India's exit from the semi-finals of 2019 World Cup.

-FIFA unanimously appoints China as host of new Club World Cup 2021

•           FIFA announced it would revamp the tournament to feature 24 teams from 2021

•           FIFA president Gianni Infantino said the competition would take place in June-July of 2021

•           Infantino did not give an exact breakdown of slots but said there would be eight teams from Europe

-It's going to be thrilling: Yuvraj Singh on joining Maratha Arabians in Abu Dhabi T10 league

•           Yuvraj Singh is the latest signing by Maratha Arabians

•           Former England head coach Andy Flower is the new Maratha Arabians head coach

•           Former West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo will continue to lead the franchise like in the previous edition

TECH AFFAIRS

-Airtel goes for high data benefits: Popular plan of Rs 558 is for power users

•           Airtel last month also launched Rs 599 premium plan that comes with data and calling benefits.

•           Airtel's Rs 558 plan also competes with Jio's Rs 509 plan.

•           Airtel takes a lead here as it offers data benefit for a longer validity than Jio.

IMPORTANT DATES

-2008 "Bloody Friday" saw many of the world's stock exchanges experienced the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices.

-1929 "Black Thursday", start of stock market crash, Dow Jones down 12.8%

-1593 Alleged teleportation of Spanish soldier Gil Perez from the Philippines to Mexico

-1596 -26] Battle at Kerestes: Ottoman beat Austria-Hungary & Germany.

Awards

-National Panchayat Award 2019

Union Minister of Panchayati Raj Narendra Singh Tomar conferred the National Panchayat Awards 2019 at a function in New Delhi. The Minister also launched a Spatial Planning Application called ‘Gram Manchitra’ which is a Geo Spatial based decision support system for panchayats.

-Most Eminent Senior Citizen Award 2019

-The Vice President Shri Venkaiyah Naidu presented the “Most Eminent Senior Citizen Award” to scholar, legal luminary and former Attorney General of India Shri K Parasaran. He was honored with the award on the occasion of Elder’s Day celebration organized by Age Care India.