The ASI recently discovers a 2000-year old trade centre near the banks of Swarnamukhi River, in the present state of Andhra Pradesh. The ASI team unearthed brick-built structures, four-armed sculptures of Lord Vishnu, broken terracotta pipes in its first round of excavation. The bricks were common in the Satavahana/Ikshvaku period of the Krishna valley while the sculpture of the deity belonged to the Pallava period as per the experts. The second round of excavation is going to begin in November-December, 2019.

Bill Gates (63) in full William Henry Gates III, an American business magnate, author, and Microsoft co-founder, has crowned the title of world’s richest man 2019 by beating Jeffrey Preston Bezos (55), the founder & CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of the legendary e-commerce American company Amazon.

The Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman has released a special commemorative coin on Paramahansa Yogananda. The coin has been released to mark Paramahansa Yogananda’s 125th birth anniversary.

Vice President Venkaiah Naidu introduced a 15 point charter to improve the functioning of Parliament. According to this, political parties should ensure at least 50% attendance of the members to overcome the issues of lack of quorum.

Argentine diplomat Rafael Grossi was appointed as the new director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He replaces the late Yukiya Amano. He is expected to assume office on 1 January 2020. Grossi has been appointed for a term of four years. He will be the sixth head of the IAEA.

Mercedes’ driver and 5-time world champion Lewis Hamilton clinched his 10th win of the season for Mercedes at the Mexican Grand Prix 2019.

Indian Army’s officer Lt. Col. Swaroop Singh Kuntal became the fastest Indian to complete Ironman Malaysia in a record timing of 12 hours and 14 minutes. Ironman event consists of sea swimming followed by cycling and running. The triathlon is required to be done in a cut- off time of 17 hours. During cycling, the maximum temperature reached 380C, and while running, it reached 350C.

ICICI Bank which had a 10% stake in GST Network, has sold its entire 10% stake to 13 state Governments. The stake sale is for aggregate cash consideration of Rs 1 crore. The bank will transfer a 0.14 percent stake to the Assam government and 0.81 percent stake to the Telangana government. Besides, it will transfer Goa, Kerala, Manipur, Tripura, West Bengal, Delhi, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Arunachal Pradesh governments 0.82 percent stake each.

In a move that may boost digital payments, businesses with an annual turnover of more than ₹50 crore will have to mandatorily offer electronic mode of payments to their customers from 1 November, the finance ministry said on Friday.

15 new PRAKHAR Multipurpose vans are launched by the Delhi Police to curb street crimes in addition to already operational 15 vans, launched in September 2019. These vans are equipped with the latest gadgets, Mobile Data Terminal (MDT) with inbuilt GPS

Lebanon’s PM Saad Hariri had to resign after mass protest against imposing tax on WhatsApp and Facebook in the country. On October 17, the government announced to impose tax on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger for sending messages and calls.

The Himachal Pradesh state government announced that a total of 2,209 panchayats out of the total 3,226 had been brought under the of natural farming under Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Kissan Yojana. The announcement was made by the Chief Secretary Shrikant Baldi on 29 October of the state-level Task Force for Promotion of Organic and Zero Budget Natural Farming.

India signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to launch the RuPay card in the country, making it the third nation in West Asia to initiate India’s digital payment system. It will benefit not only the 2.6 million Indians in the Gulf Kingdom but also Haj and Umrah pilgrims. The RuPay card is a first-of-its-kind Indian domestic Debit and Credit Card payment network.

Andhra Pradesh has launched an online portal named SMARTPORT for implementing the Ease of Doing Business Reforms related to trade and export promotion in all ports in the state. Andhra Pradesh is the first state in the country to launch such a portal for port-related services.

Two-day long manoeuvres by Sudarshan Chakra Vahini of Indian Army Started at Jaisalmer, field firing range in Rajasthan.

The event of ‘Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat Parv’ is organized by Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan under Ministry of HRD and will be held from 31 October to 3 November 2019. Promoting communication and artistic skills of students through various competitions is the key objective of the event. The Union Human Resource Development Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank will inaugurate the programme at the India Gate lawns No. 6 in New Delhi.

The ICC has imposed a two-year ban on Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan, with one year suspended, for failing to report a corrupt approach by a bookie.

Two digital applications (apps) developed by Indian undergraduate students from Delhi for women’s safety and to check air pollution in Delhi on smartphones won the Marconi Society annual awards for the good of humanity.

On October 24, 2019, According to the World Bank (WB), Kolkata and Bengaluru will be added to the list of World Bank’s ease of doing a business survey from the year 2020. The survey so far covered only Delhi and Mumbai. According to the 17th edition of the World Bank’s (WB) report, “Doing Business 2020-Comparing Business Regulation in 190 Economies”, released on October 23, 2019, India has ranked 63rd in the list with the score of 71.0. It has improved by 14 places among 190 nations as against 77th position in the 2018-19 list.

Ashok Malik has been appointed as the Policy Advisor in the External Affairs Ministry in the rank of Additional Secretary.

The International Animation Day is observed every year on October 28 to celebrate the art of animation and also recognise the artists, scientists and technicians behind animation. The day was created in 2002 by ASIFA, an International Animated Film Association, a member of UNESCO.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh would represent India at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) heads of state meeting in Uzbekistan. On the bilateral front, the first Army exercise between India and Uzbekistan is scheduled to begin next week.  He will represent Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the SCO heads of state meeting on November 2, 2019.

The mission of Modi government Digital India is gaining momentum rapidly as Transactions using India’s own domestic payments platform—Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as it has achieved the double milestone of 1 billion transactions as well as has crossed 100 million users in October 2019. With this, UPI has become the fastest-growing system. anywhere in the world.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will observe the Vigilance Awareness Week from 28th October to 2nd November, 2019. The week will be observed with the theme of “Integrity- a way of life”.

Delhi state government launched a free bus service for all women on October 29, on the occasion of Bhai Dooj. Under the scheme, ‘single journey free travel passes’ will be issued to women free of cost in all DTC and cluster buses including the AC ones.

TN state becomes the first state to enact the law on contract farming. President Ram Nath Kovind approved the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Produce and Livestock Contract Farming and Services (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2019. The Bill aims to set a policy framework and institutional mechanism on agricultural produce and livestock contract farming.