Rishi Sunak becomes Britain’s first nonwhite Prime Minister

• United Kingdom got its first ever non-white Prime Minister in Rishi Sunak , the former Chancellor of the Exchequer and Britain’s youngest Prime Minister in recent times.
• Sunak, 42, is of Indian descent  and was born to parents who migrated to Britain from East Africa.
• The former investment banker and hedge fund manager will have the daunting task of trying to get the British economy back on the rails while attempting to unite the Conservative Party which has produced three Prime Ministers in under two months.
• Sunak is married to an Indian citizen, Akshata Murty,  who is the daughter of Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, and they have two daughters.
• He was chosen by his fellow Conservative MPs to lead the party and country, following former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s announcement last Thursday that she was resigning, having lost the support of her fellow MPs after a failed ‘mini budget’ that deeply rattled markets.

Cleanest air in Delhi a day after Deepavali in 8 yrs

• The national capital on Tuesday breathed the cleanest post-Deepavali air in eight years, according to Central Pollution Control Board data.
• Though violations of the ban imposed on bursting crackers were reported from across the city on Monday leading to a spike in PM2.5 levels (particulate matter 2.5), experts said the air quality improved with time due to favourable meteorological conditions.
• They also attributed better air quality to the festival occurring earlier this year when conditions are warmer and windier, aiding in the dispersion of the pollutants.

About Air Quality Index

The Air Quality Index is acquired by measuring emissions of eight major pollutants present in the air:

1. Particulate matter (PM2. 5),
2. Particulate matter (PM10),
3. Ozone (O3),
4. Carbon Monoxide (CO),
5. Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2),
6. Sulphur Dioxide (SO2),
7. Lead (Pb)
8. Ammonia (NH3) emissions

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) fines Google ₹936.44 crore for its Play Store policies

• The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Tuesday imposed a penalty of ₹936.44 crore on Google for “abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies”, in the second such penalty on the internet giant within a week.
• The CCI has also issued a cease-and-desist order and directed Google to modify its conduct within three months.
• The antitrust regulator had on October 20 slapped a fine of ₹1,337.76 crore on Google for abusing its dominant position in multiple markets in the Android mobile device ecosystem.
• The regulator noted that Play Store is by far the largest app marketplace connecting app developers with users on Android ecosystem and Google’s control over Play Store, the critical gateway between app developers and users, gives it the power to dictate terms to app developers, and compel them to mandatorily use its own payment system.

About Competition Commission of India (CCI)

• Competition Commission of India (CCI) is a statutory body of the Government of India responsible for enforcing the Competition Act, 2002, it was duly constituted in March 2009.
• The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969 (MRTP Act) was repealed and replaced by the Competition Act, 2002, on the recommendations of the Raghavan committee.

Composition:

• The Commission consists of one Chairperson and six Members who shall be appointed by the Central Government.
• The commission is a quasi-judicial body which gives opinions to statutory authorities and also deals with other cases. The Chairperson and other Members shall be whole-time Members.

Eligibility criteria of members of CCI:

• The Chairperson and every other Member shall be a person of ability, integrity and standing and who, has been, or is qualified to be a judge of a High Court, or, has special knowledge of, and professional experience of not less than fifteen years in international trade, economics, business, commerce, law, finance, accountancy, management, industry, public affairs, administration or in any other matter which, in the opinion of the Central Government, may be useful to the Commission.

50% Ram temple construction work completed shrine will open in Jan. 2024

• Around 50% construction work of the Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya has been completed and it will be opened to devotees in January 2024 after the installation of idols of the deity, people familiar with the development said on Tuesday.
• Champat Rai, general secretary of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Khestra — the trust overseeing the construction work of the grand temple — said: “Around 15% work related with the sanctum sanctorum of the Ram Mandir has been completed.”
• The trust has set December 2023 as the deadline for completion of the ground floor of the Ram temple after which devotees will be allowed entry.
• “Grand celebrations for opening of Ram Mandir will start in December this year and will continue till Makar Sankranti on January 14, 2024,”
• Rai told reporters. “Idols of Ram Lalla will be installed in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple on Makar Sankranti in 2024.
• The main temple is being constructed on a space of 350 feet by 250 feet area and it will have 12 gates made up of teak wood, he said. A total of 166 pillars will installed be on the ground floor, 144 on the first floor and 82 pillars on the second floor of the temple.

A partial solar eclipse was observed in India

• On October 25, a day after Diwali (October 24), a partial Solar Eclipse or Surya Grahan occured in some parts of the world.
• It was visible in the region covering Europe, the Middle East, north-eastern parts of Africa, western Asia, the North Atlantic Ocean, and the North Indian Ocean.
• Most parts of India was able to witness the phenomenon, except a few states in the northeast region.
• There are three phases of a partial Solar Eclipse – the beginning, the maximum point, and the end. According to PTI, the eclipse will begin in Iceland at around 02:29 pm IST and end at around 06:32 pm (IST) over the Arabian Sea.
• It was seen at its maximum from Russia at 04:30 pm (IST). In India, the Solar Eclipse will visible from 04:29 pm and will end with the sunset at 05:42 pm. The maximum eclipse time will be at 05:30 pm.
• The partial Solar Eclipse on October 25 last 1 hour and 45 minutes in India.
• It was visible for the longest in Gujarat’s Dwarka and for the shortest time in West Bengal’s Kolkata for only 12 minutes.
• A few other cities that witnessed the Surya Grahan longer than an hour are New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Jaipur, Indore, Thane, Bhopal, Ludhiana, Agra, Chandigarh, Ujjain, Mathura, Porbandar, Gandhinagar, Silvasa, Surat, and Panaji.
• The states where the eclipse was visible for less than an hour are Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Lucknow, Kanpur, Nagpur, Visakhapatnam, Patna, Mangaluru, Coimbatore, Ooty, Varanasi, and Thiruvananthapuram. However, the eclipse will not be visible from Aizawl, Dibrugarh, Imphal, Itanagar, Kohima, Silchar, and Andaman & Nicobar Island.

About Solar Eclipse

• Also known as the eclipse of the sun
• it occurs when the moon comes in between the sun and the earth. As a result, the moon blocks the light of the sun from reaching the earth’s surface and casts a shadow on it.
• This occurs on a new moon phase.
• We can observe up to 5 solar eclipses per year.
• Depending on the distance of the moon from the earth during the event, different types of solar concealment can be observed. They can be categorized as:

• Partial: When the moon does not align completely with the sun and so only a portion of the sunlight is blocked from reaching the earth.
• Annular: When the moon covers the sun but the sun can be seen around the edges of the moon giving an impression of the sun is a bright ring surrounding the dark disc of the moon.
• Total: When the sun is completely covered by the moon. The sky becomes so dark that it appears to be night. Only a small area on the earth can witness it.

Indian envoy meets Kenyan President over ‘abduction’ of two men

• Days after a close aide of the Kenyan President claimed that former media executive Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan, missing in Kenya since July, had been killed along with another Indian national, the Indian High Commissioner in Nairobi met President William Ruto to convey “deep concern” and requested “expediting of investigations” into the matter
• The Ministry of External Affairs said Monday night that the specific circumstances “surrounding the abduction and subsequent lack of information” was “very disturbing”, and expected that the case would be thoroughly investigated

About Kenya

• Kenya is located in East Africa. Its terrain rises from a low coastal plain on the Indian Ocean to mountains and plateaus at its center. Most Kenyans live in the highlands, where Nairobi, the capital, sits at an altitude of 5,500 feet (1,700 meters).

On Krishna river government approved the 1st cable-cum-suspension bridge

With Fintech Association of Japan, GIFT city has signed an MoU for innovation in fintech

Disarmament Week being celebrated from 24^th to 30th October

Shiv Nadar topped the EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2022

 Source : THE HINDU