The Government of India (GoI) has appointed UIDAI CEO & GSTN Chairman Ajay Bhushan Pandey as new Secretary of Revenue in place of Hasmukh Adhia, who is set to superannuate on November 30. Pandey, who is 1984 batch Maharashtra-cadre IAS officer will continue to hold additional charge of CEO of UIDAI and also Chairman of GST Network. Interestingly, the government also appointed Sanjay Kumar Mishra, a 1984 batch IRS Officer, as Director of Enforcement Directorate (ED) for two years. Similarly, Gujarat cadre IAS Girish Chandra Murmu will be new Secretary of Expenditure and will take over from AN Jha who will superannuate in January 2019.

The World Toilet Day (WTD) is observed every year on 19th of November to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. The 2018 theme is “When Nature Calls”. Hence, this year’s campaign is based on the narrative: When nature calls, we need a toilet. But, billions of people don’t have one. This means human faeces, on a massive scale, are not being captured or treated – contaminating the water and soil that sustain human life. We are turning our environment into an open sewer. We must build toilets and sanitation systems that work in harmony with ecosystems. Therefore, the Nature-based sanitation solutions (NBS) harness the power of ecosystems to help treat human waste before it returns to the environment. Most NBS essentially involve the protection and management of vegetation, soils and/or wetlands, including rivers and lakes.

The Third Wife’, directed by Vietnamese director Ash Mayfair, movies has won the Best Film award at the 24th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF-2018). Mayfair and her compatriot producer Tran Thi Bich Ngoc collected the ‘Royal Bengal Tiger’ trophy and Rs 51 lakh cheque. Similarly, Egyptian director Abu Bakr Shawky won the Best Director award for his film ‘Judgement Day’ (Yomeddine). In Indian Language category, Indian director Praveen Morchhale’s film ‘Widow of Silence’ grabbed the Hiralal Sen Memorial Award for Best Film and Arijit Biswas won the Best Director award for his film Surjo Prithibir Chardike Ghore (Sun goes round the Earth).

On 18th of November 2018, the Ministry of Ayush celebrated its first Naturopathy Day across the country with the aim of promoting the drug-less system of medicine to prevent diseases by altering the diet and lifestyle. The Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy organised health camps, workshops and exhibitions in association with local naturopathy centres and hospitals. More than 1,000 Naturopathy specialist doctors from all over the country participated in the event, which was organised by International Naturopathy Organisation (INO) in association with Ministry of Ayush.

8th Asian Shotgun Championship held from 3rd November to 11th November in Kuwait. Angad Vir Singh Bajwa has become the first Indian skeet shooter to win a gold. He set a world record with a shot of perfect 60 out of 60 in final round. He defeated China’s Di Jin who shot 58 in the final round.Saeed Al Maktoum of UAE won the bronze medal with a score of 46. China Topped the Medal Tally by winning 19Medals,Kazakhstan followed it by winning 14 Medals.India won a Single gold medal in the event.

On November 18, 2018, the Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) unveiled its Online Open Learning training platform named- KOOL. It will be enable training to teachers, students and the general public and the first batch will commence from December 2018. It will be used under a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) model, which will enable the state’s schools to go Hi-Tech. This will help Kerala to become India’s first complete digital state in Education. The state government is yet to approve KOOL Certificate acceptable for declaring the probation of teachers.

On 16th November 2018,Eminent breast cancer surgeon Raghu Ram who is also the director of KIMS Ushalakshmi centre for breast diseases has been elected the President of Association of Surgeons of India (ASI) by defeating Tamonas Chaudhuri from Kolkata. The result was declared at ASI Headquarter in Chennai by Mr. Arvind Kumar who acted as the chief election officer. Raghu Ram is a recipient of Padma Shri award and B.C. Roy National Award. ASI regarded as “Voice of Surgery” in India is the largest surgical Association of Asia Pacific Region.Americal College of Surgeons is the largest surgical association of the world.

The state cabinet of Maharashtra on November 18, 2018 passed the Maratha Reservation Bill, approving reservation for the Maratha community. The state government made the decision based on the recommendations of the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission. The move follows months of massive protests by members of the community demanding reservation in education and jobs.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on November 17, 2018 appointed Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey as the new revenue secretary. He will succeed current Finance and Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, who is retiring on November 30.

The Odisha government has announced a new Biotechnology Policy 2018 to attract investments in the sector at the concluding day of the Make in Odisha Conclave, held in its capital city Bhubaneswar. The state government aims to make the state a top biotech investment destination in the country.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI have inaugurated Morocco’s first high-speed rail line, the first ever such line in Africa. Known as the LGV, it will connect the economic hubs of Tangier and Casablanca in 2 hours 10 minutes at a speed of up to 320 kph (199 mph) instead of almost 5 hours on a regular train. The $2 billion project was launched in September 2011 by the king and Nicolas Sarkozy, then president of France. France financed 51 percent of the project, Morocco 28 percent and the remaining 21 percent was provided by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Morocco bought 12 high speed trains from French train manufacturer Alstom.

‘Aadi Mahotsav’, a National Tribal Festival is being organised from 16th to 30th November 2018 in New Delhi by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

• President Ram Nath Kovind will inaugurate the ‘CII Agro Tech 2018’ in Chandigarh on 1 December 2018.
• CII Agro Tech 2018 is a biennial four-day agro technology and business fair.
• It is organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
• The theme for the 2018 is ‘Technology in Agriculture: Increasing Farmer’s Income’.

The National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) is a statutory Corporation set up to promote and provide financial assistance to cooperatives. Its headquarters is located at New Delhi. Recently, NCDC’s new youth-friendly scheme ‘Yuva Sahakar-Cooperative Enterprise Support and Innovation Scheme’ has been launched to attract youth to cooperative business ventures. It was launched by Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Radha Mohan Singh. The scheme will be linked to Rs 1000 crore ‘Cooperative Start-up and Innovation Fund (CSIF)’ created by the NCDC. It would have more incentives for cooperatives of North Eastern region, Aspirational Districts and cooperatives with women or SC or ST or PwD members. The funding for the project will be up to 80% of the project cost for these special categories as against 70% for others. The scheme envisages 2% less than the applicable rate of interest on term loan for the project cost up to Rs 3 crore including 2 years moratorium on payment of principal. All types of cooperatives in operation for at least one year are eligible.

The World Pneumonia Day (WPD) is observed every year on 12th of November to promote interventions to protect against, prevent, and treat pneumonia and to highlight proven approaches and solutions in need of additional resources and attention. Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of deaths in children under five years old despite being easily preventable and treatable. Although vaccines and other preventative efforts are decreasing the burden of the disease, much more work is still required. Those living in poor communities are at highest risk of pneumonia. Every child, regardless of where they are born, deserves access to lifesaving vaccines and medicines. The 2018 theme is ‘Stop Pneumonia: Invest in Child Health’.

On November 15, 2018, Oxford Dictionary announced ‘Toxic’ as the Word of the year 2018. The sheer scope of its application that has made it the standout choice as there has been a 45% increase in the number of times people have looked up the word on its website. The word of the year is chosen from a shortlist “drawn from evidence gathered by (its) extensive language research programmer from 150 millio nwords of current English from web-based publications each month. In 2017, the word was “youthquake” and in 2016 it was “post-truth”.

Indian-American Thomas Kurian, former Oracle President of product development and technologist, will become the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Google Cloud in early 2019. Thomas Kurian will replace Diane Greene. Thomas Kurian will join Google Cloud on 26th November 2018. Diane Greene will continue as CEO till January 2019 and help Thomas Kurian transition into the leadership role. Thomas Kurian resigned from Oracle in September 2018. He had worked in Oracle for 22 years. He had been a member of Oracle’s Executive Committee for 13 years. He hails from Bengaluru.

On November 17, 2018, India’s first specialized hospital for elephants was unveiled at Churmura village in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. It is located close to the elephant conservation and care centre of Wildlife SOS. The medical centre offers the following: wireless digital X-ray, laser treatment, dental X-ray, thermal imaging, ultrasonography, hydrotherapy and quarantine facilities, medical hoist for lifting elephants. It also has an observation deck which will allow veterinary students to observe elephant’s behavior.

On November 13, 2018, a 4-day Regional meeting of the World Customs Organisation was held in Jaipur, Rajasthan. It was attended by representatives of 33 member countries of Asia. The meeting is being jointly chaired by:

• WCO Deputy Secretary General Ricardo Travino Chapaand
• Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs Chairman S Ramesh.