• October 15 is marked as Global Handwashing Day, with the aim of increasing awareness and understanding about the importance of handwashing with soap as an effective and affordable way to prevent diseases and save lives. The world has leveraged the lessons from the last two years since the coronavirus outbreak took a toll on everyone.
• As the world moves beyond COVID-19 to a new normal, it is time to accelerate hand hygiene progress to prevent any kind of infection, and it requires a collective effort to enact real change.
• Additionally, the day is an opportunity to encourage people to maintain personal hygiene, including washing their hands, using hand sanitizers, and other appropriate toiletries. The day also observes government efforts in designing and replicating the hygiene message among its citizens.
• The day was founded by the Global Handwashing Partnership, a coalition of international stakeholders who work explicitly to promote handwashing with soap. The first Global Handwashing Day was held in 2008, when over 120 million children around the world washed their hands with soap in more than 70 countries. Since then, Global Handwashing Day has continued to grow.
• This year’s theme, “Unite for Universal Hand Hygiene”, calls on all of society to work together to scale up hand hygiene.

• India-Africa Defence Dialogue will be held on the sidelines of DefExpo 2022 in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
• The dialogue will explore new areas of convergence for mutual engagement, including in areas like capacity building, training, cyber security, maritime security and counter-terrorism.
• The broad theme of the dialogue is India-Africa: Adopting Strategy for Synergising and Strengthening Defence and Security Cooperation. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will host the Defence Ministers of African Nations.
• India and Africa share close and historical ties. India’s approach towards Africa is guided by the Kampala Principles enunciated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018.
• The first-ever India-Africa Defence Ministers Conclave was held in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh in conjunction with DefExpo in 2020.

• India is hosting the 90th General Assembly of the International Criminal Police Organization, INTERPOL from 18th to 21st of October in New Delhi.
• The General Assembly is INTERPOL’s supreme governing body, comprising representatives from each of 195 member countries. It meets once a year.
• India is one of the oldest members of Interpol and joined the organization in 1949.
• All member countries of INTERPOL have agreed to ensure and promote the widest possible assistance between all criminal police authorities in the prevention and suppression of ordinary law crimes.
• The role of INTERPOL is to enable police around the world to work together to make the world a safer place.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the PM Kisan Samman Sammelan 2022 at Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi.
• More than 13 thousand farmers from across the country and around one thousand five hundred Agri Startups will participate in the conference.
• More than one crore farmers, from various institutions are also expected to attend the event virtually. The conference will also witness participation of researchers, policy makers and other stakeholders.
• The Prime Minister will also release the 12th installment amount of 16 thousand crore rupees under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi through Direct Benefit Transfer.
• Under the scheme, eligible farmer families are provided a benefit of six thousand rupees per year in three equal installments of two thousand rupees each. So far, eligible farmer families have received benefits of more than two lakh crore rupees under PM-KISAN.
• Prime Minister will also inaugurate the Agri Startup Conclave and Exhibition. About three hundred startups will showcase their innovation related to Precision Farming, Post-Harvest and Value Add Solutions, Allied Agriculture and Supply Chain Management among others.
• Prime Minister will inaugurate six hundred Pradan Mantri Kisan Samruddhi Kendras. Under it the fertilizer retail shops in the country will be converted into Pradan Mantri Kisan Samruddhi Kendras in a phased manner.
• The Kendras will cater to a wide variety of needs of the farmers and provide agri-inputs, testing facilities for soil, seeds, fertilizers and generate awareness among farmers. More than three lakh 30 thousand retail fertilizer shops are planned to be converted into Pradan Mantri Kisan Samruddhi Kendras.
• During the event, Mr Modi will also launch Bharat Urea Bags, India’s biggest move in fertilizers-One Nation One Fertilizer Scheme for Farmers.
• The government is making it mandatory for fertilizer companies to market their goods under the brand name Bharat to standardize fertilizer brands across the nation.

• Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw inaugurated India’s First Aluminum Freight Rake at Bhubaneswar Railway Station in Odisha.
• The indigenously built rake will reduce carbon footprint due to lower consumption of fuel.
• A single rake can reduce 14,500 tonnes Carbon dioxide emissions during its lifetime, said the Minister.
• Union Minister MR Vaishnaw who is also the minister for Communications and Electronics & Information has said that high-speed 5G internet service will be rolled out in a few cities of Odisha by March 2023.
• In the first phase of rollout, 200 cities of India will be connected with the 5G network.
• In this phase, all big cities of Odisha will also receive a 5G network by the end of March 2023.
• By the end of 2023, under phase II, around 80 percent of the State will be covered under the high-speed internet service, the minister revealed.
• All the big cities will be covered in phase -1 and the service will be subsequently extended to semi-urban areas and then, rural areas.

• The 5th Assembly of International Solar Alliance (ISA) will begin in New Delhi under India’s presidentship.
• Participants from 109 countries will be sharing their experiences towards a low-carbon economy through promotion of solar energy at the 4-day event.
• The Assembly is the apex decision-making body of International Solar Alliance makes decisions concerning the implementation of the ISA’s Framework Agreement.
• The Assembly meets annually at the ministerial level at the ISA’s seat.
• Talking to AIR, ISA Director General Ajay Mathur outlined the priorities and focus areas of the global meet.
• He said one of the key focus areas of the meeting is streamlining the solar sector investments in the countries where investments are not flowing at present.
• He said the assembly will also deliberate on creating a Risk Mitigation Facility for solar projects with a Payment Guarantee Mechanism.
• Dr Ajay Mathur spoke about the ramifications of One Sun One World One Grid initiative. He also highlighted the benefits of solar mini-grids.

• Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Dr. L Murugan has said that the ministry has taken several steps to improve fish production, export and infrastructure development in the last eight years.
• Speaking at the valedictory of Inland Fisheries Summit in Bengaluru, he said, India stands third in the world in terms of fish production.
• Making specific reference to Karnataka, the Union Minister said that 734.77 crore rupees was allocated to the state under the flagship scheme of Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) from 2020-21 till date for the development of infrastructure facilities.
• Under PMMSY, over 53 crore rupees was given to complete phase three expansion of Mangalore fishing harbour, phase two of Gangolli fishing harbour, Alvekodi and Thenginagundi fish landing centres.
• In principle, approval is given for the development of state of an art fishing harbour at Majali in Uttara Kannada district at a total cost of 250 crore rupees.
• Under PMMSY, approval is given to acquire 114 new deep-sea fishing vessels at a total cost of 136 crore rupees for traditional fishermen in the state.
• A total of 1000 communication and tracking devices and 781 safety kits were also distributed to traditional and motorized fishing vessels at a total cost of 11.31 crore rupees.
• Under PMMSY, 62 new Ice plants or cold storage facilities, 799 fish transport vehicles, one fish retail market, 84 fish kiosks and three value-added enterprises were supported with an investment of 133.15 crore rupees.
• The minister informed the fish production in Karnataka has increased from 6.80 lakh tonnes in 2019-20 to 10.74 lakh tonnes during 2021-22 which is about 76 percent growth.
• PMMSY has helped create 1.4 lakh direct and indirect job opportunities in this sector in the state.

 Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY):

• The vision is to bring about Blue Revolution through sustainable and responsible development of fisheries sector.
• The main motto of PMMSY is ‘Reform, Perform and Transform’ in the fisheries sector.
• Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying is the implementing agency.
• The PMMSY is an umbrella scheme with two separate components – Central Sector Scheme and Centrally Sponsored Scheme.

• Shimla Municipal Corporation’s former Mayor Sanjay Chauhan and Deputy Mayor Tikender Panwar have approached World Bank’s Country Head for India, alleging irregularities in the implementation of the Shimla Water Supply and Sewerage Services project. In a letter to the World Bank official, the former MC officials have urged him to intervene and cancel the recent award of tender for the continuous high pressure water supply in the city.
• Challenging the award of tender to Suez India for Rs 683 crore, the former MC officials alleged that the lowest bid, including Capex (capital expenditure) and operation and maintenance costs was nearly 33 per cent higher than the department’s estimate of the project value.
• The two alleged that estimated value of the project, excluding operation and maintenance, was Rs 442 crore in a tender published by the SJPNL on July 27, 2022, but the project cost would balloon up to around Rs 786 crore after the quoted cost.
• SJPNL MD Pankaj Lalit, however, refuted their claims saying that the tender process has been done in a fair and transparent manner. “The tender floated on July 27 was only for capital expenditure to be incurred on the project, but the tender awarded to Suez India for Rs 683 crore also included operation and maintenance cost of the project for 15 years,” said Lalit, explaining the gap in the estimated and quoted cost.
• The complainants, however, claim that the SJPNL’s overall estimate including capital expenditure and operation and maintenance was Rs 592 crore, but the eventual cost would exceed it by around Rs 200 crore, which would be a straight loss to the exchequer.
• In another alleged irregularity, the complainants said that that since the tender for the project was floated the first time, it should have been floated again as per the law as only two bids had been received. SJPNL MD, however, asserted that the tender was floated for the fourth time and hence they were not obliged to float it again.
• “The tender for the project was first floated in 2019, second time in 2020 and third time in 2022. For some reasons, the process could not be completed in earlier occasions. So, this was the fourth time and we awarded it to the lowest bidder,” said Lalit.

• The Governor has approved the appointment of a sitting judge of the High Court, Justice Chander Bhusan Barowalia, as Lokayukta of Himachal Pradesh.
• The post of Lokayukta had been lying vacant for the last about eight years after the term of Justice LS Panta, a retired Supreme Court Judge, got over during the previous Congress regime.
• As per the notification issued by the state government, Justice Barowalia will take oath of office after his resignation is accepted.
• Justice Barowalia was due to retire from the post of Judge on March 15, 2023.
• In December 2021, the HP Assembly passed an amendment to the HP Lokayukta Act, 2014, making a provision to appoint a High Court Judge as the Lokayukta. Prior to that, under the provision of the Act, only a retired Supreme Court Judge or Chief Justice of High Courts were eligible for the office of Lokayukta.

About Chander Bhusan Barowalia:

• Justice Barowalia was born on March 15, 1961. He obtained an LLB degree from Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla.
• He practised as an advocate from November 1, 1984, in the High Court and other courts in Shimla.
• Thereafter, he was appointed Additional District and Sessions Judge on January 10, 2003. Thereafter, he was designated as District & Sessions Judge on October 26, 2005, and worked as District & Sessions Judge for Kinnaur, Una, Solan and Mandi. Before his elevation as Judge, he was posted as the Registrar General in the Himachal Pradesh High Court.
• Thereafter, he was elevated as Additional Judge of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh on April 12, 2016, and then took oath as Judge of the High Court on January 8, 2018.

• The state government notified ‘Kadavur slender loris sanctuary’ under Section 26 (A)(1)(b) of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

About Slender Loris:

• Slender Loris is a small nocturnal mammal that spends most of its life on trees.
• They are native to India and Sri Lanka and are also amongst the world’s top 25 endangered primates.
• They are listed under endangered species as per the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• They are also protected under Schedule 1 of the Indian legislation of the Wildlife (Protection) Act (WPA), 1972.
• They act as biological predators of pests that harm agricultural crops and help farmers.
• As per reports, there are 14,000 Slender Loris in the Dindigul and Karur forests in Tamil Nadu.