Daily Current Affairs, 20th November 2018

1) Africa Industrialization Day: 20 November

•The purpose of Africa Industrialization Day (AID), marked each year on 20 November, is to raise global awareness of the challenges faced by the continent with regard to industrialization. The theme for AID 2018 is “Promoting Regional Value Chains in Africa: A pathway for accelerating Africa’s structural transformation, industrialization and pharmaceutical production”. 

2) 49th India International Film Festival Begins in Goa

•The 49th edition of the International Film Festival of India opened with the gala opening ceremony at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium in Goa. The 9-day event will showcase 212 films from 68 countries. While The Aspern Papers is the opening film, Sealed Lips will be the closing movie. Chaitanya Prasad is the Director of Festival. 

•While Israel is the focus country, Jharkhand is the focus state this year. Ten Israeli films including The Other Story will be screened at the IFFI. Veteran Israeli filmmaker Dan Wolman will be given the Lifetime Achievement Award this year.

3) 14th edition of JashneBachpan Children’s Theatre Festival Held In New Delhi

•The 14th edition of JashneBachpan, a theatre festival for children, will see performances from Switzerland, Sri Lanka and Indonesia along with their Indian counterparts in New Delhi.

•The festival was organized by the National School of Drama’s (NSD) Theatre in Education (TIE) Company. The nine-day theatre festival for children saw 21 productions from India and three foreign groups including Sri Lanka (non-verbal), Switzerland (English) and Indonesia (Javanese).

4) India’s First Elephant Hospital Opens In Mathura

•India’s first specialized hospital for elephants has been opened by Agra Divisional Commissioner Anil Kumar at Farah block’s Churmura village, Mathura.

•The hospital is designed to treat injured, sick or geriatric elephants and is equipped with a medical hoist for lifting elephants, as also an elephant restraining device with a dedicated indoor treatment enclosure for long duration medical procedures.

5) Chennai Airport Awarded for 100% Grievance Redressal

•The Union Minister of Civil Aviation and Commerce & Industry, Suresh Prabhu, and Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Jayant Sinha has launched the upgraded version of AirSewa 2.0 web portal and mobile app in New Delhi.

•The Ministry of Civil Aviation launched AirSewa web portal and mobile app in November 2016 to address Air passengers’ issues. Suresh Prabhu and Jayant Sinha also gave away the champion award to Chennai airport which saw 100% timely closure of grievances in one year.

6) Indo-Japan Business Council’s Business Festival Held In Pune

•Indo-Japan Business Council’s Business Festival recently held in Pune. The Indo-Japan Business Council (IJBC), hosted KONNICHI WA PUNE – a first of its kind business festival in Pune. The festival was aimed to boost investment, promote businesses and cultural exchange between India and Japan.

7) Maldives Cabinet Approves To Rejoin Commonwealth

•The Maldives cabinet has approved to rejoin the Commonwealth, two years after withdrawing from the 53-nation grouping. The announcement was made by New President of Maldives Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. Now, the proposal will be sent to Parliament for ratification.

•The country left the Commonwealth during former President Abdulla Yameen’s administration in October 2016, amid mounting pressure over corruption and deteriorating human rights.

8) APEC Summit 2018 Held In Papua New Guinea

•The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit was held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinean capital. This is the first time Papua New Guinea (PNG), the poorest of the 21 countries in APEC, has hosted the summit.

9) India and World Bank Sign $310 million Loan Agreement For Jharkhand

•The Government of India, the Government of Jharkhand and the World Banksigned in New Delhi a $310 million Loan Agreement for Jharkhand Power System Improvement Project to provide reliable, quality, and affordable 24×7 electricity to the citizens of Jharkhand.

•The Jharkhand Power System Improvement Project will help build new power transmission infrastructure, as well as put in place systems to improve the technical efficiency and commercial performance of the state power sector utilities. The $310 Million Loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), has a 5-year grace period, and a final maturity of 25 years.