Current Affairs of October 2024

Here you will be able to find the compilation of monthly current affairs of Assam, India, International events etc. for the month of October, 2024. We covering important national, international, economic, environmental, and sports events. The current affairs compilation will help you for preparation APSC Exam, ADRE Exam and various other Assam Govt. competitive recruitment exams.

As the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 approaches its 20th anniversary in 2025, it is crucial to reflect on its impact and the challenges it faces
- It was enacted in June 2005 and came into force in October 2005.
- Coordinating agency: Department of Personnel and Training under Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (MoPPG&P).
- ‘Raj Narayan v/s Uttar Pradesh Government’: Supreme Court established the Right to information as a fundamental right under the Article 19 of Indian Constitution.
INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION (ITU):
- ITU’s World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA) 2024 held in New Delhi.
Prime Minister (PM) of India participated in the 21st ASEAN-INDIA Summit in Vientiane, Lao PDR.
ASEAN is India’s 4th largest trading partner and accounts for 11% of India’s global trade.
16h BRICS Summit, and the First Summit with expanded BRICS membership was held in Kazan (Russia).
- 5 new members (BRICS+): Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
- 45% of the world’s population.
- 3% of world GDP (compared to EU’s 14.5 % and the G7’s 29.3%)
COMMITTEE OF TEN (C-10) GROUP:
- Indian External Affairs Minister participated in the first-ever Joint Ministerial Meeting of the C-10 and L.69 groupings.
- Committee of Ten African Ministers of Finance and Central Bank Governors (C-10) was created in 2008.
NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS:
- The 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson for their research on “how institutions are formed and their impact on prosperity”.
PM GATISHAKTI NATIONAL MASTER PLAN:
- The PM GatiShakti National Master Plan, launched in 2021, has completed three years.
- The approach is driven by 7 engines – Railways, Roads, Ports, Waterways, Airports, Mass Transport, and Logistics Infrastructure.
- It provides comprehensive database of the ongoing & future projects of various Ministries. E.g., Bharatmala, Sagarmala, inland waterways, dry/land ports, and UDAN.
10 YEARS OF MAKE IN INDIA:
- Launched on September 25, 2014, the “Make in India” initiative has recently completed 10 years.
- Aim: The ‘Vocal for Local’ initiative was devised to transform India into a global design and manufacturing hub.
GLOBAL INNOVATION INDEX 2024 AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP:
- India ranked 39th among 133 nations, improving ranking by one position from 40th in 2023 with a score of 38.3
INPUT TAX CREDIT:
- It is a mechanism to avoid cascading of taxes, i.e, ‘tax on tax’.
UPI 123 AND UPI LITE[UPI available from August, 2016]:
- UPI123Pay: Started in March 2022 to enable feature-phone users to use UPI.
- UPI Lite: It allows users to make low-value transactions without entering a UPI PIN.
  - RBI enhanced per-transaction limit to ₹1,000 from ₹500 and overall wallet limit to ₹5,000 from ₹2000.
- HUMSAFAR POLICY:
  - Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways launched the Humsafar Policy.
  - Aim: To provide a comprehensive framework to ensure that the commuters have access to standardized, well maintained, and hygienic facilities along National Highways and Expressways.
- CRUISE BHARAT MISSION (CBM) LAUNCHED:
  - To excel in India’s vision to become a global hub for cruise tourism and promote the country as the leading global cruise destination. It also aims to.
- Z-Morh Project:
  - It is a 6.4-km tunnel on the Srinagar-Sonamarg highway at an altitude of 8,500 feet aimed at all weather connectivity to Sonamarg, a famous tourist destination.
  - t has acquired its name from presence of a Z-shaped road stretch at the construction location.
  - It is part of the Zojila tunnel project that aims to provide all weather connectivity from Srinagar to Ladakh throughout the year.
- ABHED (ADVANCED BALLISTICS FOR HIGH ENERGY DEFEAT):
- Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), along with researchers of IIT Delhi has developed ABHED.
- AKASHTEER SYSTEMS: Indian Army has completed the acquisition of 100 Akashteer Air Defence Systems.
- VSHORADS: DRDO successfully conducted flight-tests of the 4th Generation, technically-advanced miniaturised Very Short Range Air Defence System (VSHORADS) at Pokhran Range, Rajasthan.
- PM YASASVI:
  - Streamline educational support for socially and economically disadvantaged students.
  - It is an umbrella scheme that aims to provide quality education to students from Other Backward Classes, Economically Backward Classes (EBCs), and Denotified Tribes (DNTs).
- NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY 2024:
  - The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to David Baker for computational protein design and jointly to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper for protein structure prediction.
- NOBEL PRIZE IN MEDICINE 2024:
  - Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2024 has been awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional Gene Regulation.
- NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS 2024:
  - Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 has been awarded to John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable Machine Learning (ML) with Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs).
- BHARATGEN PROGRAMME:
  - BharatGen is a Multimodal Large Language Model (LLM) project focused on creating Generative AI systems that can generate high-quality text and multimodal content (audio and imagery) in various Indian languages.
- SPACE DOCKING EXPERIMENT (SPADEX)
- LUPEX MISSION:
  - National Space Panel Clears India’s 5th Lunar Mission ‘Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX)’.
  - LUPEX will be a precursor to the country’s lunar sample return mission and for sending the first Indian to the moon by 2040.
- CLASSICAL LANGUAGE:
  - The classification of “classical languages” was created in 2004, initially awarded to Tamil.
  - The Union Cabinet approved classical language status for Assamese, Marathi, Pali, Prakrit and Bengali.
  - Recently, Union Cabinet has approved Classical Language status to Marathi (Maharashtra), Pali and Prakrit (Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh), Assamese (Assam) and Bengali (West Bengal) languages.
  - In 2004, the Government of India, for the first time, created a new category of languages known as Classical Languages.
  - Linguistic Experts Committee (LEC) was constituted by Ministry of Culture under Sahitya Akademi in 2004 to examine the proposed languages for the status of Classical Language.
  - Earlier, six Indian languages namely Tamil (2004), Sanskrit (2005), Telugu & Kannada (2008), Malayalam (2013) and Odia (2014) were accorded the status of Classical Language.
  - All these Classical Languages are listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
  - Bengali & Assamese: Both these languages can find their origin in Magadhi Prakrit, a form of Prakrit popular in East India, and the official language of Magadha court.
    - Tamil (declared in 2004)
    - Sanskrit (2005)
    - Kannada (2008)
    - Telugu (2008)
    - Malayalam (2013
    - Odia (2014)
  - NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE:
    - South Korean author Han Kang gets Nobel Prize in Literature for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes fragility of human life.
  - NOBEL PEACE PRIZE:
    - Nobel Peace Prize 2024 has been awarded to Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.
  - GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS TAG TO 8 ASSAM PRODUCTS:
    - Traditionally fermented rice-based alcoholic beverage (3): Bodo Jou Gwran, Bodo Jou Gishi & Maibra Jou Bidwi.
    - Traditional Dishes (4):
      - Bodo Napham: Dish of fermented fish.
      - Bodo Ondla: A rice powder curry.
      - Bodo Gwkha: Locally also known as ‘Gwka Gwkhi’, prepared during the Bwisagu festival.
      - Bodo Narzi: a semi-fermented food prepared with jute leaves.
    - Bodo Aronai: a traditional shawl or scarf.
  - PM RASHTRIYA KRISHI VIKAS YOJANA (PM-RKVY):
    - Recently, Cabinet approved consolidating Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) operating under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s into two umbrella programs i.e PM-RKVY (cafeteria scheme) to promote sustainable agriculture and Krishonnati Yojana (KY) to address food security & agricultural self-sufficiency.
  - Currency Swap agreement with Maldives
  - Shanghai Cooperation Organization: SCO is a permanent intergovernmental organisation
    - Members: Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, Iran and Belarus.
  - Mukhyamantrir Atmanirbhar Assam Abhiyan:
    - Youth with technical degrees: Unemployed degree holders in engineering, MBBS, BDS, agriculture, animal husbandry, fishery etc will be kept in the first category and given Rs 5 lakh (Rs 2.5 Lakhs grant + Rs 2.5 lakhs loan).
    - Youth with general degree or below graduation: Unemployed post-graduates, general graduates, ITI, and polytechnic pass-outs will be kept in the second category for government assistance of Rs 2 lakh (Rs 1 Lakh grant + Rs 1 lakh loan).
  - Co-districts for better administration in Assam:
    - In Assam, the state government has recently initiated a significant administrative reform by renaming newly created sub-districts as codistricts.
    - A total of 39 co-districts have been created across 21 districts.
  - Abhinandan Scheme:
    - The Abhinandan Education Loan Subsidy Scheme is an initiative by the Government of Assam aimed at providing financial relief to students pursuing higher education through education loans.
    - The scheme offers a one-time subsidy of ₹50,000 to eligible students who have taken education loans from recognized commercial and regional rural banks in Assam.
  - Wetland conservation programme in Assam:
    - The state government of Assam aims to rejuvenate 129 wetlands (locally called beels), covering 3,800 hectares, to support local livelihoods through fishing and agriculture. It is 796-crore ADB-aided project.
  - Supreme Court’s verdict on Sec 6A of Citizenship act:
    - Section 6A was a special provision inserted into the Citizenship Act, 1955 as a result of amendment.
    - It was inserted in furtherance of a Memorandum of Settlement called the ‘Assam Accord’ signed on August 15, 1985.
  - Mission Basundhara 3.0:
    - Mission Basundhara 1.0
      - Started on 8th May 2022
      - Delivered 10 land-related services to the people.
      - Disposed eight lakh land related cases
    - Mission Basundhara 2.0
      - Started on 14th November 2022
      - Launched mainly to address the needs of the indigenous people.
      - 6 lakh beneficiaries who were given ‘Offer of Settlement’ belonged to ST, SC, OBC and MOBC.
      - ‘Offer of Settlement’ or land rights, for people living for the last three generations in the State were considered.
    - Mission Basundhara 3.0
      - In Mission Basundhara 3.0, the ‘definition of three generations’ will be waived for the tea and Adivasi community people.
      - For the people of Gorkha community, a similar system like tea and Adivasi community will be applicable.
      - Similarly, people belonging to ST and SC communities will not have to submit certificate of three generations of habitation to get land rights
      - People living in the Sunsali area of Guwahati and Tea Garden Grant areas of Dibrugarh will be given an one-time opportunity under Mission Basundhara 3.0 to apply for land pattas.
      - Mission Basundhara 3.0 will be more comprehensive in terms of land management and ensuring reservation of the revenue villages with 100 percent habitation of ST and SC communities.
    - Pact to boost Biogas sector in Assam:
      - The Assam State Cabinet has approved an initiative to promote the compressed biogas sector by signing a memorandum of understanding between the Assam government and Reliance Bio-Energy Limited.
    - Dada Saheb Phalke Award:
      - Mithun Chakraborty named for Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2022.
    - e-Migrate portal and mobile app:
      - Government of India launched a revamped eMigrate portal and mobile app on October 14 to ensure safe and legal overseas travel for Indian citizens, particularly for Indian laborers.
      - The initiative aims to improve the mobility of Indian labor while safeguarding their safety and well-being abroad.
    - Mera Hou Chongba festival:
      - Festival of Manipur.
      - Cultural dance and songs.
      - Manipur’s traditional Mera Hou Chongba festival symbolizes brotherhood and unity among indigenous communities settled in both hill and valley of State.
    - Harry Messel Award for rhino conservation:
      - Assam’s eminent conservation scientist Bibhab Kumar Talukdar was awarded ‘The Harry Messel Award’ for Conservation Leadership by the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).