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• UNESCO has designated Mumbai as a member of UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) in the field of Film, and Hyderabad in the field of Gastronomy.
• UCCN, created in 2004, is a network of cities which are thriving, active centres of cultural activities in their respective countries.
• The UNESCO Creative Cities Network now counts a total of 246 cities. The member cities that form part of the network come from all continents and regions with different income levels and populations.
• The 7 categories for recognition under UCCN are: crafts and folk arts, design, film, gastronomy, music, media arts and literature.
• Three Indian cities have been earlier recognised as members of UCCN - Jaipur (Crafts and Folk Arts) in 2015, Varanasi (Creative city of Music) in 2015 and Chennai (Creative city of Music) in 2017. Culture ministry is the nodal ministry for all matters in UNESCO relating to culture.

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• UNESCO has designated Mumbai as a member of UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) in the field of Film, and Hyderabad in the field of Gastronomy.
• UCCN, created in 2004, is a network of cities which are thriving, active centres of cultural activities in their respective countries.
• The UNESCO Creative Cities Network now counts a total of 246 cities. The member cities that form part of the network come from all continents and regions with different income levels and populations.
• The 7 categories for recognition under UCCN are: crafts and folk arts, design, film, gastronomy, music, media arts and literature.
• Three Indian cities have been earlier recognised as members of UCCN - Jaipur (Crafts and Folk Arts) in 2015, Varanasi (Creative city of Music) in 2015 and Chennai (Creative city of Music) in 2017. Culture ministry is the nodal ministry for all matters in UNESCO relating to culture.

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• An AQI between 0-50 is considered 'good', 51-100 'satisfactory', 101-200 'moderate', 201-300 'poor', 301-400 'very poor' and 401-500 'severe'. Above 500 falls in the 'severe-plus emergency' category.
• If the air quality persists in the "severe plus" category for more than 48 hours, emergency measures such as odd-even car rationing scheme, banning entry of trucks, construction activities and shutting down schools are taken under the Graded Response Action Plan.

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• The city of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh held the title for the world’s most polluted city in the latest edition of Guinness World Records.
• The book, ‘Guinness World Records 2020’, lists thousands of new record titles and holders that will educate curious readers of all age groups. It is released annually by publisher Penguin Random House. This year, about 80 record breaking achievements by Indians that have made it to latest edition of book.
• A report by World Health Organization (WHO) analyzed that the most polluted city in the world is Kanpur in northern India, with an average PM2.5 level of 173 micrograms/m3 for the year 2016. This PM2.5 level is more than 17 times higher than WHO recommended maximum of 10 micrograms/m3.

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• Minister of Coal & Mines, Pralhad Joshi said that the Coal India Limited (CIL) will produce 750 million tonnes of coal by the Financial Year 2020-21 and would further produce one billion tonne of coal in the financial year 2023-24.
• The Minister announced this target during his address at the 45th Foundation Day of CIL in Kolkata. The CIL is currently given the target of producing 660 million tonnes of coal amounting to 82% of the country's coal output.
• The CIL is also likely to offer around ten thousand new jobs to boost employment. He directed CIL to take necessary steps to achieve this goal in light of growing energy requirements of the nation and assured CIL of all possible help from the Ministry of Coal in this regard.

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• World Bank will provide USD 6 billion annual lending target for India to support infrastructure development and alleviate poverty.
• As many as 97 projects are being currently executed with loan assistance from the World Bank.

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• The second edition of the annual joint military exercise, named as Dharma Guardian between Indian and Japanese Army ended at Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS) Vairengte in Mizoram.
• The primary focus of this fortnight-long joint military exercise was to train and equip the contingents in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations in mountainous terrain.

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• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) fixed phone call ring time at 30 seconds on mobiles and 60 seconds for landline phones, in case the call is neither answered nor rejected by the subscriber.
• Till now there was no such limit for calls within India.

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• India's unemployment rate in October rose to 8.5%, the highest since August 2016, and up from 7.2% in September, according to data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), reflecting the impact of a slowdown in the economy.
• India's infrastructure output fell 5.2% in September from a year earlier, the worst performance in years, while the industrial output shrank at its fastest rate in more than six years in August

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• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Uzbekistan counterpart Major General Bakhodir Nizamovich Kurbanov presided over the Curtain Raiser of the first-ever India-Uzbekistan Joint Exercise - Dustlik-2019.
• The joint military exercise focused on counter-terrorism.
• The exercise will enable sharing of best practices and experiences between the Armed Forces of the two countries and would lead to greater operational effectiveness.

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• India signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to launch the RuPay card in the country, making it the third nation in the West Asia to initiate India's digital payment system which will benefit not only the 2.6 million Indians in the Gulf Kingdom but also Haj and Umrah pilgrims.
• The RuPay card is a first-of-its-kind Indian domestic Debit and Credit Card payment network, with acceptance at ATMs, POS devices and e-commerce websites. It was launched in 2012 to fulfil the Reserve Bank of India's vision to have a domestic, open and multilateral system of payments.
• India has already launched the RuPay card in the UAE, Bahrain, Singapore and Bhutan. RuPay is a highly secure network that protects against cyberhacks and is India's version of Master Card and Visa.

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• Researchers at the IIIT Hyderabad said that the first ever Indian Brain Atlas (IBA) has been created.
• They stated that the next step is to prepare atlases for different age groups to study age related affects on brain anatomy.
• It was found that the Indian brain on average is smaller in height, width, and volume as compared to the western (MNI) as well as the eastern population (Chinese and Korean).
• The immediate implication of this finding can be seen in treatment outcomes of neurological problems or brain related ailments - like dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease etc.

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• The US Air Force's X-37B, the mysterious Boeing-made space plane has landed at Kennedy Space Center after 780 days in orbit, comfortably surpassing the earlier record of 717 days, 20 hours and 42 minutes.
• That's more than three times the 240 days originally expected from the reusable vehicle, which just finished its fifth mission.