• An ATM for deposit and withdrawal of money for cryptocurrencies has been installed in Bengaluru’s Kemp Fort Mall by virtual currency exchange Unocoin.

• The government launched a national campaign ‘Swasth Bharat Yatra’ on the World Food Day (16th October)under which a pan-India cycle rally was organized to propagate a powerful message ‘Eat Right India’.

• Shahi Litchi of Muzaffarpur, Bihar has got official recognition as it receives the geographical indication (GI) tag.Note: The first product to get a GI tag in India was the Darjeeling tea in 2004. Alphonso Mango of Maharashtra has recently got the Geographical Indication (GI) Tag.

• Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries made it official that it is entering a strategic investment partnership with Den Networks Limited and Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited. This partnership will accelerate Jio GigaFiber rollout to 50 million homes across 1,100 cities.

• TCS displaced Accenture as largest pure-play information technology (IT) and consulting firm servicing megabanks and insurers. Note: N. Chandrasekaran is the present Chairman of  TCS.

• Social Entrepreneur Suheil F. Tandon has won the International Olympic Committee’s Sport and Active Society Commission’s Grant Award for his contribution for sports development.

• National Award winning music director Mohammed Zahur Khayyam Hashmi,famous as ‘Khayyam’, has been named for this year’s Hridaynath Award for Lifetime Achievement.

• The World Economic Forum released the Global Competitiveness Report 2018. According to the report, India has jumped five spots to become the 58th most competitive economy on the Global Competitiveness Index 2018. The United States ranked number one.

• Former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, N D Tiwari,passed away.

• To promote Military cooperation, India and Japan are all set to hold the first-ever joint military exercise ‘DHARMA GUARDIAN-2018’involving the Indian Army and Japan Ground Self Defence Force in Mizoram, India. Note: Japan Capital: Tokyo, Currency: Japanese yen, Prime Minister: Shinzo Abe.

• Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi unfurled India’s highest tricolour on the terrace of the majestic Haj House in Mumbai. The national flag measured 20×30 feet and stood 350 feet above the ground level.

• Dutch photographer Marsel van Oosten,has been awarded one of the most prestigious prizes in photography, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2018, for the image, called “The Golden Couple”, captured by him.

• Stephen Hawking’s final work “Brief Answers to the Big Questions” was launched. It tackles various issues including the existence of God, potential time travel and human intelligence during the next 100 years.

• Professional Boxer Canelo Alvarez has signed the largest contract in the history of sports, agreeing a five-year, 11-fight deal worth at least $365 million with streaming service DAZN.

• Union Minister Piyush Goyal will receive the prestigious Carnot Prize from the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania in recognition of his work for rural electrification while he held the power and renewable energy portfolios.

• World Wrestling Championship began in Budapest, Hungary.

• Angriya, India’s first luxury cruise ship,has been inaugurated at Mumbai.

• A parliamentary panel will examine the functioning of retirement fund body Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), its coverage and recovery of arrears. The panel will be headed by BJP MP Kirit Somaiya.

• India, Japan and the U.S.are set to elevate the bilateral ‘Cope India’ air exercise to a trilateral format. The three countries already conduct naval war games under the expanded Malabar naval exercise.

• Four Himalayan peaks near Gangotri glacier of Uttarkashi district have been named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.  Located near Sudarshan and Saifi peaks in Raktvan valley, the peaks have been named Atal-1, 2, 3 and 4. Note: Sabarmati Ghat, Gujrat has been renamed as ‘Atal Ghat’. The new capital of Chhattisgarh, Naya Raipur, has been renamed as ‘Atal Nagar’.

• India has secured ninth rank out of top 50 valuable national brands, according to a report titled ‘Nation Brands 2018’released by Brand Finance, a leading brand valuation and strategy consultancy.  The US topped the list.

• Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro is the only domestic firm to feature among the top 25 companies in the Forbes’ global 2000 best employers list that is led by Google parent Alphabet. The Top 3 companies in the List are:  Alphabet, 2. Microsoft, 3. Apple.

• Mumbai has defeated Delhi by four wickets to win their third Vijay Hazare Trophy title at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.

• Japanese-born Marine biologist Osamu Shimomura, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, has died.

• Environment Ministry has launched Harit Diwali, Swasth Diwali  This campaign was initiated in 2017-18 wherein a large number of school children participated and took a pledge to minimize bursting of crackers.

• China has opened the longest sea-crossing bridge ever built. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge connects Hong Kong and Macau to the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai.  The $20-billion bridge spans 55 kilometers.

• The ‘Invest India’ initiative of the Union Government won the top United Nations Investment Promotion Award in recognition of its efforts to boost investments in the renewable energy sector in India.

• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the only Indian company among top 10 firms to get foreign labour certification for the H-1B visas for the fiscal year 2018,according to data from the US Department of Labour.

• Paytm has launched a QR-based smartphone payment settlement (‘PayPay’ Mobile Wallet) service in  It is a smartphone-based settlement service that allows users to store money from a bank account in their “PayPay” wallet and make payments with it. Note: Paytm Founder: Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been conferred with the Seoul Peace Prize for 2018 for his contribution to international cooperation and fostering global economic growth.

• Fino Payments Bank,one of India’s first payments banks, has been allowed to open new accounts by RBI after it submitted a compliance report. It had been barred by the central bank from adding new customers since the end of  Note: Airtel Payments Bank were also barred from onboarding new customers earlier.  In July, the RBI had lifted the ban on Airtel Payments Bank. Currently, there are five payment banks operating in the country – Paytm, Airtel, Fino, and Aditya Birla-Idea Payments Bank and India Post Payments Bank.

• The United Nations Day was celebrated on 24th of October.

• World Development Information Day was observed on 24 October to draw the attention of the world to development problems and the need to strengthen international cooperation to solve them.

• The Union Government has sent CBI Director Alok Verma on leave. The decision was taken by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC). The committee also issued an order appointing M Nageshwar Rao as Interim Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

• India captain Virat Kohli has become the fastest batsman to score 10,000 runs in the history of ODI cricket, achieving the feat in his 205th innings, against Windies. The 29-year-old overtook Sachin Tendulkar, who had reached 10,000 ODI runs in his 259th innings.

• The Union Government constituted a four-member Group of Ministers (GoM) to examine and strengthen the existing legal and institutional frameworks for dealing with matters of sexual harassment of women at the workplace. The Group of Ministers will be headed by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

• The Supreme Court ruled that no Bharat Stage-IV vehicle shall be sold across the country with effect from April 1, 2020. The ruling was made by a three-judge bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur. The bench clarified that only BS-VI compliant vehicle will be sold in India from April 1, 2020. Note: Ranjan Gogoi is the present Chief Justice of India.

• The Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony for the years 2014, 2015 & 2016 was conferred on the doyen of Manipuri dance Sh. Rajkumar Singhajit Singh (For 2014); Chhayanaut (a cultural organization of Bangladesh, for 2015) and on one of India’s greatest sculptors,  Ram Vanji Sutar (for 2016). The chairman of the Jury was Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the jury comprised of the Chief Justice of India, Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

• Paytm Payments Bank has appointed veteran banker  Satish Kumar Gupta as its new Managing Director and CEO.

• Life insurer PNB Metlife has unveiled an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered customer service app ‘Khushi’.

• India and Bangladesh signed several agreements for enhancing inland and coastal waterways connectivity between the two countries for trade and cruise movements. The two countries have signed an agreement to use Chattogram and Mongla Ports in Bangladesh for movement of goods to and from India. An addendum to ‘Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade between the two countries’ has also been signed for the inclusion of Dhubri in India and Pangaon in Bangladesh as the new Ports.

• Ethiopia appointed Sahle-Work Zewde as its first-ever female President. Note: Ethiopia Capital: Addis Ababa, Currency: Ethiopian birr.

• Most of the international migrants in 2017 were from India, followed by China and Bangladesh, according to an Asian Development Bank (ADB)report titled ‘Asian Economic Integration Report 2018’. Note: Takehiko Nakao is Present President of the Asian Development Bank.

• India installed 4.9 GW of solar power,consolidating its position as the second largest solar market in the world, during the first half of the calendar year 2018, according to a report by Mercom Communications India. China has topped the list.

• India has won the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (CAPAM) Award, 2018. The awards were announced at the Annual General Members Meet held at Georgetown, Guyana.

• Prof Ashis Mukherjee,a senior faculty member of the prestigious Tezpur University was awarded the prestigious Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Teachers Award (2018).

• IDFC Bank proposed to change its name to ‘IDFC First Bank Ltd’ in the wake of its amalgamation with the non-banking financial company Capital First.

• The second edition of the Guwahati International Film Festival (GIFF 2018) began in Assam. The theme of GIFF 2018 is: ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’. The opening film of GIFF 2018, was ‘Bhoga Khiriki’ (Broken Window) by filmmaker Jahnu Barua.

 

• Former President Mahinda Rajapakse was sworn in as the new Prime minister of Sri Lanka.

• Roopam Sharma,a 23-year old Indian scientist, won the World Health Summit Startup award, 2018 for his invention, Manovue – the world’s first intelligent personal assisting system for the visually impaired.

• MS Swaminathan,chief architect of India’s Green Revolution was awarded the World Agriculture Prize for 2018.

• Fertiliser major IFFCO (Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative) announced that it has been ranked as the biggest cooperative in the world by ‘Word Cooperative Monitor’ report 2018.

• World Day for Audiovisual Heritage is celebrated all over the world on 27th of October. The theme for World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2018 is “Your Story is Moving”.

• India’s Sourav Kothari defeated Peter Gilchrist of Singapore to clinch the 2018 WBL World Billiards Championship