• Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Smt Harsimrat Kaur Badal inaugurated the first Mega Food Park in Gujarat. It is located at Village Shah and Vasravi, Taluka Mangrol, District Surat.

• India has donated three lakh Dollars for a peacekeeping initiative at the UN. The Indian government donated the amount for the ‘Pipeline to Peacekeeping Command Programme’ with a specific focus on issues of conduct and discipline over a period of three years.

• Michael D Higgins has been re-elected as the President of Ireland.

• Jair Bolsonaro won Presidential Election in Brazil.

• Miss Paraguay Clara Sosa won the Miss Grand International 2018 title at the 6th edition of the beauty pageant in Yangon, Myanmar. India’s, FBB Colors Femina Miss Grand India 2018 Meenakshi Chaudhary was named 1st runner-up.

• World number one Simona Halep has become the first recipient of the Chris Evert Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) World No.1 Trophy, named after WTA’s first-ever world number one, Chris Evert.

• The Vigilance Awareness Week was observed across the country from 29th October to 3 November to promote probity in public life and achieve a corruption-free society. The theme of the week this year is, ‘Eradicate Corruption – Build A New India’.  The week, in which 31st October, the birthday of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel falls, is observed as Vigilance Awareness Week every year.

• Indian golfer Khalin Joshi clinched the Panasonic Open India title at the Delhi Golf Club.

• In Men’s Hockey,India and Pakistan were declared joint winners of the Asian Champions Trophy at Muscat in Oman. The tournament director declared both teams as winners after the summit clash was called off due to heavy rain.

• The Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport & Highways, Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan laid the foundation for India’s largest Dry Dock at Cochin Shipyard in Kerala.

• The world’s largest airport terminal “under one roof”with a capacity to serve 90 million passengers has been officially opened on October 29 in Istanbul, which marks the Republic Day of Turkey.

• America’s IBM has acquired software company Red Hat in a $34 billion cash and debt deal, marking its biggest ever acquisition till date.

• Country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI)and payments solution provider Hitachi Payment Services India has entered into an agreement to form a joint venture for establishing a card acceptance and digital payment platform.

• WhatsApp has partnered with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to train small and medium enterprises (SMEs)and entrepreneurs on using the messaging platform to connect with customers and growing their businesses.

• PM Narendra Modi inaugurated Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s memorial on the leader’s 143rd birth anniversary in Gujarat’s Narmada district. Called the Statue of Unity, the bronze sculpture is the world’s tallest statue measuring 600 feet (182m) and overshadows China’s Spring Temple Buddha (153m) and USA’s Statue of Liberty (93m). The memorial was constructed in 33 months at Rs.2,989 crore.

• India’s first engine-less train, “Train 18”, developed by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) and seen as a successor to the prestigious Shatabdi Express, was unveiled by Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani. The Rs. 100-crore train is the first long-distance train, without a separate locomotive (engine).

• The Kingdom of Netherlands will be the Partner Country for 25th DST – CII Technology Summit to be organized in 2019, announced Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences, Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

• The Republic of Seychelles launched the world’s first Sovereign Blue Bond, a financial instrument designed to support sustainable marine and fisheries projects.

• National Unity day (also known as Rashtriya Ekta Diwas)was celebrated on 31st of October. It is celebrated to commemorate the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who unified the country. Rashtriya Ekta Diwas was introduced by the Government of India in 2014 with the aim of celebrating this event every year on 31st October.

• Malayalam film Olu will be the opening film at the 49th International Film Festival of India, IFFI 2018. The IFFI will be held in Goa in November 2018. The Non-Feature film Jury selected the Marathi film Kharvas directed by Aditya Suhas Jambhale as the Opening non-feature film.

• The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the renaming of Jharsuguda Airport, Odisha as “Veer Surendra Sai Airport, Jharsuguda”. Veer Surendra Sai is a well-known freedom fighter of Odisha.

• Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the Soura Jalanidhi scheme that aims to increase use of solar energy for helping farmers in irrigating their land. Under the scheme, 5,000 solar pumps will be given to Odisha farmers at a subsidy of 90% to irrigate 2,500 acres of land.

• India jumped 23 positions in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index 2019 and is now ranked 77 out of 190 countries in 2018. New Zealand topped the list. India has become the top-ranked country in South Asia for the first time and third among the BRICS. Note: The President of the World Bank is Jim Yong Kim. The World Bank Headquarters in Washington, D.C., United States.

• HDFC Bank had announced that the RBI had approved the re-appointment of Aditya Puri as MD and CEO of the bank for another two years. Puri has been with HDFC Bank since 1994, making him the longest-serving head of any private bank in the country.

• Steel manufacturing giant Tata Steel was announced as an official partner of the men’s hockey World Cup 2018 to be staged at the Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar from November 28 to December 16.

• Nineteen-time world champion Pankaj Advani has won the second leg of the Asian Snooker Tour in Jinan, China. Advani became the first Indian to win an Asian Snooker Tour event.

• Qatar will host the 23rd edition of the World Corporate Games 2019. The Games will provide an opportunity for corporations around the world to showcase their competitive prowess through sports.

• Olympic bronze medalist and five-time World Champion, MC Mary Kom has been named as the brand ambassador of the 10th edition of the Women’s World Championship in New Delhi.

• Armies of India and Japan began their first-ever joint military exercise ‘Dharma Guardian- 2018’ at a jungle warfare school in Mizoram’s Vairengte with a focus on strengthening counter-terror cooperation. Note: General Bipin Rawat is the present Chief of Army Staff.

• The Maharashtra Cabinet has approved the conversion of decommissioned carrier INS Viraat into a floating museum.

• The Ministry of Railways launched the‘Unreserved Mobile Ticketing’ facility (UTS on Mobile) to enable seamless booking of unreserved tickets all over Indian Railways, wiping out the need for passengers to wait in queues for purchasing the tickets. Note. Piyush Goyal is the present Railways Minister of India. John Mathai was the 1st railways Minister of Independent India.

• The Indian Institute of Technology Madras has designed and booted up ‘Shakti’,which can be used for wireless and networking systems, as well as mobile computing. ‘Shakti’ is India’s first indigenous microprocessor. Bluespec, an open-source high-level synthesis language, was used in making the chips.

• The First WHO Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health took place at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Note: WHO Director-General: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.

• Atul Kumar Goel assumed charge as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (UCO) of UCO Bank.

• The Kirloskar group had announced that it has received licence from the Reserve Bank to launch a non-banking finance company (NBFC), Kirloskar Capital, which will be headed by Vimal Bhandari.

• Ministry of AYUSH observes Ayurveda Day every year on Dhanawantari Jayanti (Dhanteras). The theme of 2018 Ayurveda Day was:  “Ayurveda for Public health”. This year Ayurveda Day is being observed on 5th November 2018.

• In Badminton, Subhankar Dey has won the SaarLorLux Openat Saarbrucken in Germany.

• Simone Biles made history by picking up her record 13th career gold medal at the world gymnastics championships in Doha, Qatar. Simone Biles became the first ever gymnast to win 13 world championship gold medals. She hails from the USA.

• Reliance received India’s 1st LC Payment via Blockchain. In a first for India, HSBC Holdings Plc has executed a trade finance transaction using blockchain for an export by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to US-based Tricon Energy.

• Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated Delhi’s Signature Bridge,the first asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge in India. The 675-metre bridge aims to reduce travel time and traffic congestion between the north-eastern and northern parts of Delhi.

• INS Arihant, India’s first nuclear ballistic missile submarine,has completed its first “deterrence patrol”.

• Uzbekistan’s businessman Gafur Rakhimov was elected president of the International Boxing Association (AIBA).

• The Reserve Bank of India has initiated the process to set up a digital Public Credit Registry (PCR) to capture all the details of borrowers, including wilful defaulters and also the pending legal suits in order to check financial delinquencies, and to enable the banks and financial institutions to get a 360-degree profile of existing and prospective borrowers on a real-time basis.

• India has been elected as a member of the International Telecommunications Union-ITU Council for another four-year term from 2019 to 2022. The ITU has 193 member states who elect representatives to the Council.

• The newly-built Ekana International Stadium of Lucknow was renamed after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The stadium will now be known as ‘Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee International Cricket Stadium’.

• Odisha government has launched a new initiative named ‘Mo Bus’ services in the Bhubaneshwar ahead of the Men’s Hockey World Cup. The buses will operate daily for 15 hours from 7 AM to 10 PM on 9 routes according to the network plan finalised earlier. Following the launch, buses will be available in 10-12 min duration for commuters.

• The Central and Andhra Pradesh governments and the World Bank have signed the loan agreement for a $172.20 million project to enhance agricultural productivity, profitability, and climate resilience of poor and marginalized farmers in Andhra Pradesh. The Andhra Pradesh Integrated Irrigation and Agriculture Transformation Project (APIIATP) will be implemented in rural areas largely dependent upon rain-fed agriculture.

• Veteran actor Anupam Kher was honoured as a ‘Distinguished Fellow’ by IndiaGlobal- a leading US think-tank that works on issues concerning non-resident Indians.