 The World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meetings kicked off on a somber note, with the IMF downgrading global growth in 2019 to 3%, the slowest since the global financial crisis. India’s growth projections have also been downgraded to 6.1% and 7.0% in 2019 and 2020 respectively, down by 1.2 percentage points and 0.5 percentage points relative to April projections, owing to weaker than expected domestic demand. India’s growth rate in the April-June quarter had hit 5%, the lowest in six years, as per government data. Consumption, investment and exports were down. The IMF projected the U.S. would grow at 2.4% and 2.1% in 2019 and 2020 respectively. For China, growth was projected to grow at 6.1% and 5.8% in 2019 and 2020. |
| Source: The Hindu |
 Zimbabwe and Nepal were re-admitted as ICC members in a meeting held in Dubai. Zimbabwe will now be able to take up their place in the ICC Men’s U19 Cricket World Cup in January and the ICC Super League later in 2020. Zimbabwe Cricket had been suspended from membership of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with immediate effect in July this year. Nepal had been banned in 2016 for “governmental interference” as well. |
| Source: The Indian Express |
 Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas (Finland) won the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix held at the Suzuka International Racing Course in Suzuka in Mie Prefecture, Japan. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel (Germany) and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton (Britain) were ranked at the 2nd and 3rd places respectively. |
| Source: The News18 |
 Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan launched Food Safety Mitra Scheme, Eat Right Jacket and Eat Right Jhola. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has introduced the scheme of Food Safety Mitra (FSM) through which it plans to engage motivated individuals with the food safety ecosystem at ground level. A Food Safety Mitra Scheme is an individual professional certified by FSSAI who assists in compliances related to FSS Act, Rules & Regulations with three avatars- Digital Mitra, Trainer Mitra and Hygiene Mitra depending upon their respective roles and responsibilities. During the event, the Minister also launched Eat Right Jhola which is a reusable, washable and bio-degradable bag. Eat Right Smart Jacket has been introduced to giving an identity to FSSAI staff to ensure transparent inspection. It’s embedded with an RFID tag and QR code. |
| Source: The News on AIR |
 Indian Railways (IR) has announced that it will become a net-zero carbon emitter by 2030. The move will be a part of India’s strategy to combat climate change. The announcement was made by railways and commerce minister Piyush Goyal at the India Energy Forum by CERAWEEK in New Delhi. India is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after the US and China, and is among countries most vulnerable to climate change. Indian railways is the world’s largest railway network. It has a rail network of around 1,25,000km under single management. IR is to go green by setting up solar power generation capacities in its large tracts of land along its network. |
| Source: The Livemint |
 Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs has launched a revamped and streamlined programme to attract investments into India and strengthen Make in India through manufacture and other operations under the bond scheme, of Customs Act, 1962. The Section enables conduct of manufacture and other operations in a customs bonded warehouse. The scheme has been modernized with clear and transparent procedures, simplified compliance requirements ICT-based documentation and account keeping, by the issue of Manufacture and Other Operations in Warehouse Regulations 2019. CBIC has collaborated with Invest India to launch a dedicated microsite for providing information and promoting the scheme and for the facilitation of investors. The site can be accessed at www.investindia.gov.in/bonded-manufacturing. |
| Source: The News on AIR |
 Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo have jointly won the 2019 Booker Prize after judges flout the rules by declaring a tie. The Booker rules say the prize must not be divided, but the judges insisted they could not separate Atwood’s – ‘The Testament’ and ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ by Evaristo, who is the first black woman to win the prestigious award since its creation in 1969. British Indian novelist Salman Rushdie’s tragicomic ‘Quichotte’ was among the six books shortlisted for the prize. This was the fifth time that the Mumbai-born novelist was shortlisted, including the 1981 win where he bagged the award for “Midnight’s Children”. |
| Source: The News on AIR |
 Union Road Transport & Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated a conference on ‘One Nation One Tag – FASTag’ in New Delhi to roll out the process for having a unified electronic system across the country. Under this system the same FASTag affixed on the windscreen of a vehicle can be used to pay toll across all toll plazas in the country. |
| Source: The DD News |
 The first National Hindi Science writers conference 2019 started in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh with an aim to promote the use of Hindi and other Vernacular languages in science writing. The conference is organised at Dr Shakuntala Mishra National rehabilitation university was inaugurated by the speaker of the state assembly Hriday Narayain Dixit. A dedicated website WWW.VIGYANLEKHAN.COM has been prepared for this event. |
| Source: The News on AIR |
 IIT Madras will collaborate with ExxonMobil on Research in Energy and Biofuels. The 5-year joint-research agreement focuses on biofuels, data analytics, gas conversion and transport, and is intended towards finding low-emission solutions. ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company (EMRE) for research on energy and biofuels is the research and engineering arm of ExxonMobil Corporation, a leading global oil, natural gas, and petrochemicals company. ExxonMobil works with over 80 universities around the world. India is the 3rd highest producer of agro-residues globally with the surplus potential of over 230 million tonnes per year after China and Brazil. India’s huge biofuel potential is expected to get realized shortly with the ‘new biofuel policy’ of Government of India, which targets to convert the country’s biofuel industry into a $15.6 billion economy. |
| Source: The Hindu |
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