Read from our blog

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• Union Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey unveiled plans to set up 14 Authorized World Skills India Training Centres across 9 cities for media and entertainment sector.
• The new institutes will be set up for advanced skill training of candidates in media and entertainment sector and to further develop skilling eco-system for training candidates for the international market.

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• The National Institute of Nutrition is an Indian Public health, Nutrition and Translational research center located in Hyderabad, India.
• The institute is one of the oldest research centers in India, and the largest center, under the Indian Council of Medical Research, located in the vicinity of Osmania University.

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• The National Institute of Nutrition is an Indian Public health, Nutrition and Translational research center located in Hyderabad, India.
• The institute is one of the oldest research centers in India, and the largest center, under the Indian Council of Medical Research, located in the vicinity of Osmania University.

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• The Indian Army has begun to digitize its official records under its new programme called “OASIS”-Officers Automated Structures Information System. Under the programme, the records of the army officers are to be digitized. The software is to be hosted in the Army’s intranet.
• The records were manually preserved by Manpower Planning Directorate before the launch of the software.
• The whole process of collecting the records, keeping track and checking the records were cumbersome. Though new to the Army, a similar programme is already functioning for the Army Jawans.

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• The Chenani-Nashri tunnel, the longest tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir, will be renamed after Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.
• The 9.2-kilometer-long tunnel was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2017. The bi-directional tunnel reduces the distances between Jammu and Srinagar by 30 km. It is also known as the Patnitop tunnel.
• The decision comes two months after India abrogated Article 370. Mukherjee was against according special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

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• Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying has released the 20th Livestock Census report recently. The release provides key results reflecting the aggregate counts of various species as well as its comparison with the previous census.
• The total Livestock population is 535.78 million in the country showing an increase of 4.6% over Livestock Census-2012.
• West Bengal observed the highest increase of 23%, followed by Telangana (22%). The total number of cattle in the country has shown an increase of 0.8 %.
• Uttar Pradesh has observed a maximum decrease in cattle population though the state has taken several steps to save cattle. West Bengal has seen the highest rise of 15% in cattle population.

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• Union Minister of Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda announced the second phase of programme GOAL (Going Online as Leaders) for tribal women.
• The programme GOAL aims at encouraging, inspiring and guiding tribal women from across India to become local level digitally literate leaders.
• Ministry of Tribal Affairs partners with Niti Aayog and Facebook are running GOAL for tribal women. The objective of this program is to digitally mentor 5000 young women in India’s tribal-dominated districts.
• The GOAL program will give technical support to the socially and economically marginalized women for their needs to succeed, using the technology they may otherwise have not had access to.

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• Facebook’s subsidiary Calibra will launch a digital privately owned cryptocurrency Libra to be launched by 2020.
• This currency will be launched by Libra Association, which includes companies from payment, technology, telecommunication, online marketplace and venture capital, and nonprofits.

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• The government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has recently announced the establishment of the world’s first graduate-level, research-based AI university.
• This university has named - Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI).
• This university will enable graduate students, governments and businesses to advance the artificial intelligence field.
• The university has been named after Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. It is believed that he has advocated for the UAE’s development of human capital through knowledge and scientific thinking to take the nation into the future.

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• Kais Saied has won free and fair presidential election after defeating Nabil Karoui.
• He is a retired constitutional law professor and also called as Robocop.

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• India handed over two more Mi-24V helicopters to Afghanistan's Air Force. The helicopters handed over during a ceremony held at the military airport in Kabul.
• These choppers are replacements for the four helicopters India gave to Afghanistan in 2015 and 2016.

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• In Sri Lanka, the Jaffna international airport located in Palay, Tamil-majority North and built with Indian assistance commenced its operations. 
• Jaffna airport was operational during 60s and 70s but was closed down following eruption of LTTE war. The airport has been developed afresh and runway length has been extended from 950 to 1400 metres to facilitate ATR 72 Aircraft carrying 70 passengers.

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• India has announced significant relaxations in its e-visa policy for Chinese nationals. From October 2019 onwards, Chinese nationals can apply for an e-Tourist visa (e-TV) of a 5-year validity with multiple entries. The visa fee for this 5-year multiple entry e-TV will be USD 80.
• Furthermore, it has been decided that the prospective tourists can avail of single-entry 30-day validity e-TV at a reduced visa fee of USD 25, while for a 30-day e-TV during the months of April to June, the visa fee will be only USD 10.
• The one-year multiple-entry e-TV will continue to be offered but at a reduced visa fee of USD 40.

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• The 10th edition of the joint military exercise 'Vajra Prahar' between India and the US will be held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Seattle, United States from October 13-28.
• 'Vajra Prahar' is a Special Forces joint training exercise conducted alternately in India and the US.

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• Joint Military Exercise DHARMA GUARDIAN-219 between India and Japan will be conducted at counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School, Vairengte, Mizoram from 19 Oct 2019 to 02 Nov 2019. Indian Army and Japanese Ground Self Defence Forces (JGSDF) comprising 25 soldiers each will participate in the exercise with an aim to share experience gained during various Counter Terrorism Operations in respective Countries.
• Exercise DHARMA GUARDIAN is an annual training event which is being conducted in India since 2018.