Daily Current Affairs – October 20 2018

2018-10-20

IMPORTANT DAYS

October 20 – World Statistics Day

World Statistics Day on October 20 aims to show that good data and statistics are indispensable for informed decision-making by all actors in society. The United Nations event is celebrated every 5 years. The resolution was adopted by the UN General Assembly on June 3, 2015. This is the second World Statistics Day.

Theme: Better Data, Better Lives

INTERNATIONAL

New government in Bhutan

Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa to form new government in Bhutan. The party has won 30 seats in 47 member National Assembly, the lower house of the parliament.

World’s longest sea bridge between China-Hong Kong

The world’s longest sea bridge Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will be thrown open for traffic on October 24.

China-built world’s largest amphibious plane

China’s indigenously designed and built amphibious aircraft AG600, touted as the world’s largest, successfully carried out its first take-off and landing tests.

SCIENCE

Superflares from young stars may imperil planets: NASA

Violent flares from the host star may make planets orbiting it uninhabitable by affecting their atmospheres, scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found.
Hubble is observing such stars through a large programme called HAZMAT — Habitable Zones and M dwarf Activity across Time

IIT Guwahati fabricates superior scaffold for cartilage repair

Researchers from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati have addressed this shortcoming by fabricating a silk scaffold where the junction between the cartilage and bone scaffold is continuous and seamless and hence less prone to damage under load-bearing environment of the joint.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

RBI opposes move for independent Payments Regulatory Board

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has opposed the move to have an independent Payments Regulatory Board (PRB) as envisaged by the draft proposal for amendments to the Payment & Settlement Systems Act, 2007.

SUMMITS & CONFERENCES

ASEM Summit

The 12th Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit concluded in the Belgian capital Brussels.

12th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM)

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman holds bilateral talks with her US, ASEAN counterparts in Singapore.

DEFENCE

India, Japan, U.S. plan joint air exercise

India, Japan and the U.S. are set to elevate the bilateral ‘Cope India’ air exercise to a trilateral format. The three countries already conduct naval war games under the expanded Malabar naval exercise.

SPORTS

Wimbledon Tennis 2019

Vijay Hazare trophy

World Wrestling Championships

Denmark Open Badminton

In Badminton, Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal have stormed into the semi-finals of Denmark Open at Odense.