Current Affairs 2nd November 2018

Current Affairs 2nd November 2018 - Important Points

• World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2019 on - 31st October 2018
• Who has been selected by Harvard University  for 2018 Gleitsman Award for promoting girls’ education ? - Malala Yousafzai
• Who has approved India-Morocco agreement on legal assistance in criminal matters ? - Union Cabinet 
• Air Marshal Pradeep Padmakar Bapat VSM takes over as the Air Officer-in-Charge Administration of IAF on - 31st October 2018
• Odisha government declared drought in 9 districts in the - State

 Current Affairs 2nd November 2018 - Details

World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2019 on - 31st October 2018

The World Bank released the Doing Business Report 2019 with title as ‘Doing Business 2019: Training for Reform’, assessing and ranking countries on the basis of ease of doing business in the year 2018 on 31st October 2018.

As per the 2019 Report, India has jumped 23 places on the Ease of Doing Business Index to 77th rank, up from 100th rank in 2017. This year, India’s Distance to Frontier score is improved to 67.23 from 60.76 in the previous year.

The Doing Business assesses 190 economies and covers 10 indicators which span the lifecycle of a business too. It majorly ranks countries on the basis of DTF (Distance to Frontier), a score showing the gap of an economy to the global best practice.

Who has been selected by Harvard University  for 2018 Gleitsman Award for promoting girls’ education ? - Malala Yousafzai

Harvard University has nominated 20 years old Nobel Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai for its 2018
Gleitsman Award in gratitude of her work encouraging girls’ education. She will be awarded with this
award at December 6th, 2018 ceremony. The Gleitsman Award delivers US $125,000 for activism that
has improved quality of life around the world.
More about Malala Yousafzai

• Malala was born on 12th July 1997 in Mingora city in Swat jurisdiction of Pakistan.
• At the age of eleven she had caught International attention as a woman education activist post writing for the BBC about life under the Taliban in Pakistan under pseudonym Gul Makai.
• Her campaign had resulted to Taliban assassination attempt near that leftward her harshly wounded after she was shot in head in 2012.
• Later she had originated non-profit Malala Fund to fund her work. Presently, she is a student at Oxford University, England.
• In 2014, at the age of seventeen, she was bestowed with Nobel peace prize, becoming youngest Nobel Laureate in the history of Nobel award. She had shared this award with Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi.
• She also has been bestowed with National Youth Peace Prize in 2011, Mother Teresa Awards for Social Justice in 2012, Simon de Beauvoir Prize in 2013, Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2013, Anna Politkovskaya Award in 2013.
• UN in her regard has acknowledged 12th July as ‘Malala Day’.

Who has approved India-Morocco agreement on legal assistance in criminal matters ? - Union Cabinet 

The Union Cabinet has sanctioned pact between India and Morocco on mutual legal assistance in criminal issues. The Union Cabinet was headed by PM Narendra Modi.
Important Facts

• The pact will deliver broad legal framework for bilateral assistance between India and Morocco in
  investigation and prosecution of crime, restraint, tracing, forfeiture/confiscation/proceeds and
  instruments of crime.
• It will also boost effectiveness in investigation and prosecution of crime and deliver essential peaceful ambience which is pre-requisite for development of society as a whole.
• It will further be also contributory in acquisition of better inputs and insights in modus operandi of terrorists and
  planned criminals, which in turn can be utilised to fine-tune policy decisions in the field of internal
  security.

Air Marshal Pradeep Padmakar Bapat VSM takes over as the Air Officer-in-Charge Administration of IAF on - 31st October 2018

Air Marshal Pradeep Padmakar Bapat VSM overcharged Air Marshal HN Bhagwat AVSM VM who retired from post on 31st October 2018.
Air Marshal PP Bapat was made to order in the Indian Air Force in the Administrative Branch on 28th May 1983. He was commissioned as a Fighter Controller.
Previously, he carried out the everyday tasks of Director General (Works & Ceremonials). He was bestowed ‘Vishisht Seva Medal’ by President of India in 2014. He epitomized MP twice in National Cycle Polo tournament.

Odisha government declared drought in 9 districts in the - State

The Odisha government announced drought in nine of the thirty districts in the State. The State has also
sanctioned the Collectors of the districts to undertake relief actions in the affected areas. 
The State government informed that a sum of 2,33,173.8 hectares of crop field in Bargarh, Balangir,
Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Sambalpur and Sundargarh have encountered
loss in crops by 33 percent and more than that.