ASSAM

First-ever movement of container cargo on Brahmaputra (National Waterway -2)

In line with Government’s focus on improving connectivity to the North Eastern Region (NER), a landmark container cargo consignment will sail on inland waterways from Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) to the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) terminal at Pandu in Guwahati.

Shri Gopal Krishna, Secretary (Shipping) will flag off the inland vessel MV Maheshwari carrying 53 TEUs (containers) of petrochemicals, edible oil and beverage etc.

The 12-15 days voyage will be an integrated IWT movement via National Waterway-1 (River Ganga), NW-97 (Sunderbans), Indo-Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route and NW-2 (river Brahmaputra).

This is the first-ever containerised cargo movement on this Inland Water Transport (IWT) route.

National Waterway 2 (NW-2) is a section of the Brahmaputra River having a length of 891 km between the Bangladesh border near Dhubri and Sadiya in Assam.

INTERNATIONAL

35th ASEAN Summit begins in Bangkok

The 35th ASEAN Summit began in Bangkok.

Thailand Prime Minister Prayut Chan -O-Cha inaugurated this summit at IMPACT convention complex.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend this summit on November 3rd and 4th.

Theme : Advancing Partnership for sustainability

During five days summit East Asia Summit (EAS) and Regional, Comprehensive Economic Summit ( RCEP) will be also held.

Apart from leaders of the 10 ASEAN countries head of Eight dialogue partner countries including India, USA, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand are also participating in the summit.

· Spain to host COP25 Climate conference

The Spanish governmentconfirmed that it made its bid to host the COP25 climate summit on the scheduled dates of 2-13 December 2019. The move comes after Chile withdrew its plans to host the summit due to deadly anti-government protests. The COP25 summit is aimed to bring out details of the implementation of the Paris Agreement climate pact.
The 25th annual Climate Change Conference will feature the25th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 25)to the UNFCCC and the meetings of the UNFCCC subsidiary bodies.

Eritrea, Saint Kittis & Nevis sign ISA Framework Agreement

Two new countries Eritrea and Saint Kittis and Nevis have signed the International Solar Alliance’s (ISA) Framework Agreement at its second Assembly held in New Delhi.

With this 83 countries have so far signed the ISA framework agreement.

At the United Nations Climate Action Summit 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to increase renewable energy capacity to 175 GigaWatt by 2022 and committed for further increasing it to 450 GigaWatt.

NATIONAL

· G C Murmu was sworn in as first Lt Governor of UT JK

G C Murmuwas sworn in as first Lt Governor of the union territory of J&Kafter the bifurcation of the state into two union territories of J&K and Ladakh. The oath of office to Murmu was administered by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Justice Gita Mittal at Raj Bhawan at the foothills of the Zaberwan range, J&K on 31 October.

· Radha Krishna Mathur appointed as the first Lt. Governor of Ladakh

Ex-IAS Officer Radha Krishna Mathur took oath as the first Lieutenant Governor of theUnion Territory (UT) of Ladakh. The UT of Ladakh came into being on 30 October after the centre’s decision to end special status to J&K and split it into two union territories.

· Centre to set up Bamboo Technology Parks in JK and Ladakh UTs

Centre has announced that it is to set upBamboo Technology Parkswould be set up in the two new Union Territories (UTs) of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. The decision was drawn in a meeting chaired by Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) with officials of the Ministry and the North Eastern Council (NEC).

The Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre (CBTC) project will be implemented under NEC. The project to set up three new Bamboo Technology Parks in Jammu, Srinagar and Leh will be in association with the National Bamboo Mission (NBM).
Apart from the planned CBTC project in J&K, Centre has already approved a Bamboo Industrial Park to be set up in the Dima Hasao district of Assam.

· Centre forms panel to suggest measures to mitigate financial stress

The Central government has formed a panel to suggest measuresto mitigate financial stress in the sector.The move comes after the Supreme Court ordered telecom companies to pay1.42 trillion in past statutory dues.

The Committee of Secretaries (COS)under the Cabinet Secretary will suggest ways to tackle the financial stress in the telecom sector.
♦ The terms of reference of the committee are not explicitly mentioned in the Supreme Court ruling of 24 October but to look at the suggestions for deferring of payments for spectrum.

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