National:
- The first ever India-Russia webinar was organized under the aegis of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation. Webinar was based on the use of natural gas as motor fuel. It included two Technical sessions, on LNG as Transport Fuel and CNG as Transport Fuel.
- Swachhta Pakhwada of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj was inaugurated by Shri Sunil Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj on 1st October 2020 & it is being observed during 1st October-15th October 2020.
Swachhta Pakhwada being observed with special focus on undertaking special cleanliness drive, promoting behavioural changes, improving hygiene & sanitation practices and spreading the message of Swachhta, which has assumed renewed significance to contain the spread of the corona virus in current times. - Data Governance Quality Index (DGQI) is a Survey conducted by Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO), Niti Ayog to assess different Ministries /Departments’ performance on the implementation of Central Sector Schemes (CS) and Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS).
In Data Governance Quality Index (DGQI) survey, Department of Fertilizers under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers has been ranked 2nd amongst the 16 Economic Ministries / Departments and 3rd out of the 65 Ministries / Departments. Department of Fertilizers under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers scored 4.11 on a scale of 5.
In this survey, an online questionnaire was prepared under six major themes of DGQI: Data Generation; Data Quality; Use of Technology; Data Analysis, Use and Dissemination; Data Security and HR Capacity and Case Studies.
Award:
Nobel Prize in Physics 2020
Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 was announced by Professor Goran K Hansson, Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, on 6 October 2020. Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 jointly given to:
Roger Penrose from University of Oxford, UK
Reinhard Genzel from Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany and University of California, Berkeley, USA
Andrea Ghez form University of California, Los Angeles, USA
One half of the award share to Roger Penrose: “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity.”
The other half award jointly shared to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez: “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.”
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020 announced by Professor Thomas Perlmann, Secretary-General for the Nobel Assembly and the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, on 5 October 2020.
The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice “for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus”.
Harvey J Alter from National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA; Michael Houghton from University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada; Charles M Rice from Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA equally shared the prize.
Business & Technology:
- Vodafone Group lenders have approved the merger of Indus Towers Ltd and Bharti Infratel Ltd, the UK-based company on 05 October 2020.
Vodafone’s stake in Indus Towers Ltd will reduce from 42% to 28.2% while Bharti Infratel Ltd will now own 68.6%. - On 05th October, 2020, Paytm launches “Paytm Mini App Store”. It will empower young Indian developers to leverage reach and payments to build new innovative services. It will support Mini Apps, which are custom based mobile web apps based on open source technologies like HTML, JavaScript.
- Google Cloud announced Google Workspace on 06th October, 2020. Workspace is a new brand identity that reflects a new deeply integrated product experience, plus new editions to purchase tailored to customers’ needs.
New features include in Google Workspace:
Linked previews; Smart chips in Docs, Sheets, and Slides; Doc creation in rooms; Meet picture-in-picture across Docs, Sheets and Slides
Important Day:
- The Indian Air Force will celebrate the 88th Indian Air Force Day on October 8.
Others:
- Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched a mega anti-air pollution campaign named “Yudh Pradushan ke Virudh” in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, on 05th October, 2020.
A “Green Delhi” app is being developed which will be launched before the end of this month. This app will be used to lodge photo-based complaints by Delhi citizens, to take action against & redress specific pollution activities.