India-Sri Lanka joint military exercise Mitra Shakti 2016 begins 
- The fourth edition of the India-Sri Lanka Joint Military Exercise ‘MITRA SHAKTI 2016’ began at Sinha Regimental Centre in Ambepussa, Sri Lanka.
- The main focus of this edition of joint exercise is to enhance inter-operability while carrying out Counter Terrorism (CT) and Counter Insurgency (CI) operations under the UN Mandate.
- Under this mandate the comprehensive training programme spanning fourteen days (24 October to 06 November 2016) has been drawn up.
- In this edition of exercise, India is being represented by a platoon from the RAJPUTANA RIFLES Regiment and Sri Lankan Army is represented by a platoon from the Sinha Regiment.
- The bilateral military exercise will be conducted in two stages in which both armies will get familiar each other’s respective methodology of such operations, arms and equipment and the command and control systems.
- It will also graduate towards tactical understanding to enhance inter-operability while carrying out Counter Terrorism (CT)/ Counter Insurgency (CI) operations.
India ranks 130th in World Bank’s ease of doing business Index
- India has moved a place up but is still 130th in the World Bank’s ease of doing the business ranking for 2017.
- The marginal improvement came on the back of slight improvement in four indicators (getting electricity, enforcing contracts, trading across borders and registering property).
- The report examines regulations that enhance or constrain business activity, assesses 190 countries and ranks them according to the impacts of their regulatory environment on business.
- New Zealand has been ranked the top country in the world (up one place).
India ranks 130th in 2017 Ease of Doing Business index
- India has been placed at 130th position among the 190 countries in the recently released World Bank’s ease of doing business index for the year 2017.
- The index was released as part of the World Bank’s annual report Doing Business 2017: Equal Opportunity for All.
- This report had revised India’s rank to 131 from earlier 130th for the year 2016. Thus, India has improved its place by one spot in the 2017 index and its place remained unchanged from the previous original ranking of 130 in the year 2016.
- The ease of doing business index is annually released by World Bank in its Ease of Doing Business Report. It was introduced in 2004.
- In this index, ranking of country is based on index averages the country’s percentile rankings on 10 indicators each having equal weightage.
- A higher ranking of country in this list means that its regulatory environment is more conducive and favourable for the starting and operation of firms.
Top 10 Countries: - New Zealand (1st)
- Singapore (2nd),
- Denmark (3rd)
- Hong Kong (4th)
- South Korea (5th)
- Norway (6th),
- UK (7th),
- US (8th),
- Sweden
- (9th) and
- Macedonia (10th).
BIRCS Nations: - India ranks lowest in Doing Business among the BRICS nations.
- Russia (40),
- South Africa (74),
- China (78),
- Brazil (123)
- and India (130).
India’s Neighbours: - Bhutan (73),
- China (78),
- Nepal (107),
- Sri Lanka (110),
- Pakistan (144) and
- Bangladesh (176).
PM Narendra Modi inaugurates first National Tribal Carnival
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first National Tribal Carnival in New Delhi to promote a sense of inclusiveness among the tribals.
- The main purpose of this four-day carnival is to promote a sense of inclusiveness among the tribals. It will also showcase and promote various facets of tribal culture on a large scale.
- In this carnival around 1,600 tribal artists and around 8,000 tribal delegates from across the country are taking part.
Uttarakhand High court bans sale of whitener
- The Uttarakhand High Court ordered state government to completely ban on the sale of whitener in the state following the death of a teenager from sniffing an excess of it.
- The High Court issued the order by taking suo motu cognisance of the death of the 14-year-old boy due to sniffing excess whitener for a kick. Besides, the high court also ordered that items such as Feviquick, Iodex should not be sold to children below 18 years of age in view of prevalent abuse of these among teenagers. Whiteners are mainly used for erasing ink on paper and as shoe whitener. It contains volatile aliphatic petroleum hydrocarbons such toluene and trychloroethane which are intoxicating chemicals.
Paul Beatty wins 2016 Man Booker Prize
- Paul Beatty has won the 2016 Man Booker Prize. With this he becomes the first US author to win this prestigious literary award.
- He was bestowed with this award for his racial satirical novel ‘The Sellout’ at a ceremony held in London’s Guildhall.
- His novel tells the story of a young black man who tries to reinstate slavery and racial segregation in a suburb of Los Angeles.
Uranus may have two more moons: Study
- According to study conducted by researchers from University of Idaho, US Uranus may have two tiny, previously undiscovered moons orbiting near two of the planet’s rings.
- These two moons were detected by researchers after analysing decades-old images of Uranus’ icy rings taken by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft which had flown by the planet 30 years ago.
- Scientists have found that the pattern in Uranus’ rings was similar to moon-related structures in Saturn’s rings called moonlet wakes.
- They have estimate the hypothesised moonlets in Uranus’ rings may be four to 14 kilometres in diameter.
- It means they are as small as some identified moons of Saturn.