Myanmar Visit of India’s Foreign Secretary and Army Chief
In October 2020, Foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and army chief Gen. M.M. Naravane made a two-day visit to Myanmar in which they met Myanmar’s State Counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi and the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services, Senior General, Min Aung Hlaing,...
Protests in Thailand: Various Aspects
On October 15, 2020 jeering protesters obstructed Queen Suthida’s motorcade and thousands of them gathered at Government House to demand the removal of the prime minister, Prayuth. Consequently, the government banned gatherings of more than five people in Bangkok,...
China Setting up Cloud Computing Centre in Tibet
As published by media on October 29, 2020, the Xinhua report said China is setting up a cloud computing centre in a high-tech zone in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). Tibet has a long and disputed boundary with India, which will become...
Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan Devoid of Atma
As reported on October 19, 2020, two renowned professors of Economy, Shoumitro Chatterjee and Arvind Subramanian, at Pennsylvania State University and Ashoka University, respectively, have expressed their concern over the ‘Atmanirbhar’ policy of the Government of...
Google Doodle Commemorates 101st Birth Aniversary of P.L. Deshpande
On November 08, 2020, Google commemorated the 101st birth anniversary of P.L. Deshpande, a writer, playwright, musician, composer, actor, director, philanthropist, and a joyful humourist and satirist, with a doodle by a Mumbai-based artist, Sameer Kulavoor. Born in...
Covid-19 Deaths are Linked to Air Pollution: Study
On October 26, 2020, a report was published in the journal Cardiovascular Research, based on epidemiological data from previous studies, conducted in the United States and China on air pollution, Covid-19, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2003...
Religious Conversion for Marriage Unacceptable: HC
On September 23, 2020, a single judge bench of Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi of Allahabad High Court dismissed a couple’s writ petition that sought a direction from the court that their relatives would not interfere in their married life by ‘adopting coercive...
Space Travellers Trio Safely Returned to Earth
On October 22, 2020, a trio of space travellers comprising one American and two Russian who lived on space station for six months returned safely to Earth. The Soyuz MS-16 capsule carrying NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, and Roscosmos' Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner...
Guinness Record on completing ‘Earth Walk’
Vinod Bajaj, a 70-year-old man, who has been living in Limerick, Ireland for over 40 years, hopes for a Guinness World Record as he claims that he has completed an ‘Earth Walk’. It means that he has covered over 40,075 kms (approx. value of the Earth’s circumference)...
Delhi’s Campaign to fight Pollution—‘Yudh Pradushan ke Virudh’
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on October 05, 2020, announced a campaign, namely, ‘Yuddh Pradushan ke Virudh’ or war against pollution with a seven-point action plan ranging from measures to control dust and mitigate hotspots to a mobile application for complaints to...
IMF Report Predicts Bangladesh’s per capita GDP to Surpass India’s
According to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) report, in October 2020, Bangladesh is all set to overtake India in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020. India’s per capita GDP is expected to decline by 10.5 per...
US Scientists develop two molecules
As reported on October 17, 2020 that scientists from the College of Texas Well being Science Heart at San Antonio (UT Well being San Antonio) in the USA have developed two molecules that inhibit the molecular ‘scissor’ enzym77release of proteins that are essential for...
China Wins UN Rights Council Election Despite Opposition
On October 13, 2020, China, Russia, and Cuba won seats on the UN’s human rights council despite opposition from activist groups over their abysmal human rights records. However, Saudi Arabia lost. Russia and Cuba were running unopposed, but China and Saudi Arabia were...
Eight States Make Artemis Pact for Moon’s Surface
As per the announcement made by NASA on October 13, 2020, an international pact for Moon exploration, namely, ‘The Artemis Accords’ has been signed by eight countries—the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Luxembourg, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United...
Solidarity Trials Show Drugs Ineffective on Covid-19 patients
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and its partners have organised an international initiative, named, ‘Solidarity’ for conducting clinical trials for finding a potential cure for Covid-19. The Solidarity Therapeutics Trials is the world’s largest randomised control...
Why interest waiver on loans is a bad idea
In October 2020, Manish Sabharwal of Teamlease Services made the case that a court-ordered interest waiver on loans hurts the common man, has nothing to do with economic justice defined as the greatest good for the greatest number, and is hardly what our constitution...
Court ordered Google, FB to remove objectionable pictures of woman posted without consent
The Delhi High Court, on October 22, 2020, directed Facebook and Google to remove ‘objectionable photos’ of a woman, which were initially uploaded by one of her former schoolmates in 2012 and subsequently circulated by multiple users without her consent. The woman,...
NHRC Advisory on Sex Workers
On October 7, 2020, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) gave recognition to sex workers as informal workers in their advisory on ‘Human Rights of Women in the context of Covid-19’. However, Sunitha Krishnan, a social activist and founder of an organisation,...
Myanmar Slum-dwellers Hunt Food in Open Drains
As per a media report on October 23, 2020 with more than 40,000 cases and 1,000 deaths, Myanmar is facing one of South-East Asia’s worst pandemics, and the Covid-19 lockdown in Yangon has left hundreds of thousands of people without work. Poverty in the developing...
Masks that Reduce COVID-19 ‘Cough Clouds’
A study by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay states that surgical and N-95 masks can reduce the volume of a Covid-19-laden cough-cloud by 7 and 23 times, respectively. The study was published by the American Institute of Physics in the journal Physics of...