Current Affairs 19th October 2018

Current Affairs 19th October 2018 - Important Points

• Irish Author Anna Burns wins Man Booker Prize 2018 for her novel - Milkman
• US tops; India ranked 58th in WEF’s Global Competitiveness Index 2018 on - 16th October 2018
• Not a single mobile phone faces disconnect threat- Department of Telecommunications

Current Affairs 19th October 2018 - Details

Irish Author Anna Burns wins Man Booker Prize 2018 for her novel - Milkman

Irish Author Anna Burns on October 16th, 2018 secured the Britain's famous Man Booker Prize 2018 for her 3rd novel Milkman. Burns received the award from Prince Charles' wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, and 50000 pounds as the prize money.
With this, Burns became the 1st writer from Northern Ireland to secure the Booker Prize. The earlier Irish winners were John Banville, Anne Enright and Roddy Doyle. She is also the 1st woman to secure the award since 2013, when Eleanor Catton took the award for ‘The Luminaries’.
The judges of the yearly award applauded Anna Burns work as absolutely distinctive. Burns was born in the Northern Irish capital Belfast in 1962 and now living in southern England. She had formerly authored 2 novels including No Bones and Little Constructions.
More about Milkman

• Milkman is an exploration of Northern Ireland's 3 decades of violence expressed over the voice of a young woman. 
• The novel accounts the struggles of a middle sister in a family as she opposes rumour, social pressures and politics amid violent sectarian divisions in her community.
• Milkman is a story of brutality, sexual encroachment and resistance negotiated with astringent humour.
• In an interview published by the Booker Prize foundation, Anna Burns informed that the Milkman was enthused by her own experience. She grew-up in a place that was prevalent with violence, distrust and paranoia, and peopled by entities trying to navigate and endure in that world as best as they could.
  Man Booker Prize
• Recognized in 1969, the Man Booker Prize establishes the judges choice of "the best original novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom.
• Primarily, Man Booker Prize was only open to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth
  countries until it started allowing authors from other English-speaking nations in 2014. 
• Past year’s Booker Prize was given to “Lincoln in the Bardo,” by American writer George Saunders.

US tops; India ranked 58th in WEF’s Global Competitiveness Index 2018 on - 16th October 2018

The World Economic Forum on October 16th, 2018 published the Global Competitiveness Report 2018. The report issues the Global Competitiveness Index, ranking 140 nations on the basis of 98 indicators arranged into 12 pillars.
These 12 pillars are Institutions, Infrastructure, ICT adoption, Macroeconomic constancy, Health, Skills,
Product market, Labour market, Financial system, Market size, Business dynamism, and Innovation
competence.
Key Highlights

• The report explains that the global economy is predictable to grow nearly 4% in 2018 and 2019.
• On the list of 140 economies, the ‘USA’ topped the list with a points of 85.6, followed by Singapore and Germany at the 2nd and the 3rd place respectively.
• Other nations in the top 10 consist Switzerland at 4th, Japan at 5th, Netherlands at 6th, Hong Kong at 7th, UK at 8th, Sweden at 9th and Denmark at tenth.
• In Europe, Sweden is positioned the highest among the Nordic economies at 9th position, while France at 17th is among the top 20. Nations such as Germany and Switzerland set the global morals for innovation.
• Chile at 33rd leads the Latin America and the Caribbean area by a wide margin, ahead of Mexico at 46th and Uruguay at 53rd. Uncertainty and weak institutions are 2 of the biggest challenges for most nations in the region.
• Competitiveness performance in the Middle East and North Africa leftovers diverse, with Israel at 20th and the UAE at 27th, leading the way in their respective regions.
• India continued the South Asia's main driving force with 58th position.
• Among the BRICS economies, China surpassed the list at 28th place with points of 72.6, followed by Russia, India, South Africa and Brazil correspondingly.

Not a single mobile phone faces disconnect threat- Department of Telecommunications

The Department of Telecommunications and UIDAI on October 18th, 2018 elucidated in a joint statement that a few news reports explaining that 50 crore mobile numbers are at the danger of disconnection are completely untrue and fantasy. 
These news reports attempt to create unnecessary panic among mobile handlers by claiming that there
are chances of disconnection, if SIM cards obtained on the grounds of Aadhaar verification are not
supported by a fresh identification.
The Clarification

• The joint statement elucidates that the Supreme Court in its judgement in Aadhaar case has nowhere instructed that the mobile number which has been released via Aadhaar eKYC has to be disconnected.
• Therefore, there is no reason for panic or fear at all. 
• The Court has also not asked to remove all the eKYC information of telecom subscribers after six months.
• However, the Supreme Court has asked that Unique Identification Authority of India should not retain authentication data for above six months. The restriction is on Unique Identification Authority of India and not on the telecom firms.
• The Apex Court banned the release of fresh SIM cards via Aadhaar eKYC authentication process.
• There are no guidelines to disconnect the old mobile phones.
  Digital process for issuing new SIM cards
• The DOT and Unique Identification Authority of India are in a development to bring out a totally hassle-free and digital process for allotting fresh SIM cards via mobile App which will be completely compliant of the Supreme Court judgement in Aadhaar Case.
• In the fresh digital process, live photo of the user with latitude, longitude, and time stamp will be taken.
• The photo of ID such as Aadhaar card, voter ID, and many more, will also be captured.
• The SIM card agent will be authorised via One Time Password, and then the SIM card will be alloted.