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• Col Chewang Rinchen Setu was inaugurated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and is India's highest altitude all-weather permanent bridge.
• It is located in eastern Ladakh at nearly 45 km from the country's border with China.
• It is a 1400-ft -long bridge on Shyok River, and is situated at 14,650 ft and named after 'Lion of Ladakh' Col Chewang Rinchen.

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• A collaboration between researchers from the UK and India has resulted in a new robot which encourages children to wash their hands.
• The robot, named Pepe, was recently used by pupils at a primary school in Kerala as a fresh approach to hygiene.
• Pepe was mounted to the wall above a hand washing station at the Wayanad Government Primary School, which has around 100 pupils aged between five and 10.

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• The Assam Cabinet decided that no government jobs will be given to persons having more than two children after January 1, 2021.
• A communique from the Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal’s public relations cell stated that those having more than two children will not be considered for government jobs with effect from January 1, 2021 as per the small family norm.
• In September 2017, the Assam Assembly had passed the ‘Population and Women Empowerment Policy of Assam’ that specified that job candidates with two children only would be eligible for government employment and the existing government staff were to strictly follow the two children family norm.

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• In a bid to help students make the right career choices, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) have launched an online aptitude test called as ‘Tamanna’ (Try And Measure Aptitude And Natural Abilities).
• Tamanna is an aptitude test that aims at helping students of Class 9 and 10 make a better choice of subjects, eventually helping them in making an informed decision while choosing subjects in Class 11 and 12.
• In short, the CBSE (Know your aptitude) KYA exam will assess a student's weaknesses and strengths in academics.

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• The Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath launched the government’s flagship scheme 'Mukhya Mantri Kanya Sumangala Yojana' on October 25, 2019.
• Kanya Sumangala yojana will provide a fund worth Rs 15000 to every family where a girl child is born. The amount will be released to the family in a phased manner.
• Kanya Sumangala scheme has been designed in a way that the parents will have to take proper care of the girl child with respect to her health and education and other aspects, in order to get the benefit.
• The funds under the scheme will be released in various installments when the girl child completes various milestones such as at the time of birth, vaccination, admission to Class 1, 5, 9 and graduation.

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• Chandigarh became the first city to become kerosene free. Government has been making plans since 2016 to reduce the usage of kerosene all over the country.
• The subsidies to kerosene will be completely removed by 2020. By 2018, over 8 states and Union Territories in the country became kerosene free namely Puducherry, Daman-Diu, Dadra Nagar Haveli, Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab.

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• Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a book titled ‘Bridgital Nation: Solving Technology’s People Problem’ in New Delhi on 20 October 2019.
• He presented books’ first copy to eminent industrialist and philanthropist Ratan Tata.
• The book has been authored by N Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Sons and Roopa Purushothaman.

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• UN Environment Programme (UNEP) member states recently adopted the “Colombo Declaration” which calls for tackling global nitrogen challenge.
• The Colombo Declaration has been developed with the technical support of the International Nitrogen Management System (INMS), a joint activity of the UNEP and the International Nitrogen Initiative supported by the Global.
• The aim is to halve nitrogen waste by 2030.
• A campaign on sustainable nitrogen management called “Nitrogen for Life” is to be launched.
• It stems from the Sustainable Nitrogen Management Resolution which was adopted during the fourth session of the UN Environment Assembly held from 11 – 15 March 2019 at the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

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• The Ministry of Personnel notified the Right to Information Rules, 2019.
• The rules have reduced the tenure of Information Commissioners from five years to three.
• It give the government the discretion to decide on “conditions of service” for which no express provisions are made in the rules.
• The Chief Information Commissioner’s salary has been fixed at ?2.5 lakh and an Information Commissioner’s at ?2.25 lakh.

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• The Pentagon has awarded Microsoft a $10 billion cloud computing contract called JEDI. The contentious bidding process for the contract pitted Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle, among others, against one another.
• The resulting system will store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the US military to use artificial intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities.
• The Department of Defence emphasized in an announcement that the process was fair and followed procurement guidelines.

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• The opening ceremony of the second edition of 'India Myanmar Naval Exercise' IMNEX-2019 was conducted onboard INS Ranvijay in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
• Myanmar naval ships UMS Sin Phyu Shin (F-14) and UMS Tabinshweti (773) arrived at Visakhapatnam and would engage in professional interaction with Indian Navy personnel for sharing of expertise on various maritime issues between both the navies.
• The harbour phase of IMNEX-19 scheduled till October 20 includes visits to Indian Naval units, training and maintenance facility at Visakhapatnam.
• During Sea Phase scheduled from October 20 to 22, INS Ranvijay, a guided-missile destroyer and INS Kuthar, a missile corvette will be carrying out a joint exercise with Myanmar ships UMS Sin Phyu Shin, a frigate and UMS Tabinshweti, a corvette in the Bay of Bengal.

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• The Indian Army (IA) is to conduct exercise codenamed “Sindhu Sudarshan” for the year 2019 in the deserts of Rajasthan from November 29 to December 4, 2019.
• The aim of this exercise is to evaluate the capability of the defence services in an integrated air-land battle.
• In the Sindhu Sudarshan exercise, operational efficiency of the Strike Corps fighting in the desert terrain will be assessed and the Indian Air Force(IAF) will provide support in terms of destruction of targets and airlifting troops.

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• 'Shakti-2019', a bilateral exercise will be conducted between Indian and French Army troops at the Foreign Training Node at Mahajan Field Firing Ranges in Rajasthan from October 31 to November 13.
• The French Army troops have arrived in India on October 26 for training with Indian troops.

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• Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has been sworn into office for his second and final five-year term amid a string of fresh challenges around security, corruption and economic slowdown.
• Widodo, a former furniture salesman popularly known as Jokowi, took oath at a ceremony in the capital, Jakarta, attended by politicians and foreign dignitaries.
• Re-elected in polls that took place in April, the 58-year-old was sworn into office along with 76-year-old vice president Maruf Amin, who replaces Widodo's vice president in his first term, Jusuf Kalla.