Daily GA Updates United Kingdom Prime Minister orders lockdown until Dec 2 In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered the nation back into a one-month lockdown. Essential shops, schools, and universities will remain open, Johnson said. All non- essential retail will close. Johnson’s imposition of stricter curbs came after scientists warned that action was needed to halt the spread of the virus if families were to have any hope of gathering at Christmas. The United Kingdom has the world’s fifth largest official death toll and reports more than 20,000 new coronavirus cases a day, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. Philippines evacuates a million people ahead of super typhoon In the Philippines, about a million people were evacuated before super typhoon Goni hits the nation. Philippines’ disaster risk-monitoring agency said 8 lakh people fled their homes in Albay province in the main Luzon island and 2 lakh more were evacuated in nearby provinces. The Philippines weather bureau said that Super Typhoon Goni is expected to make landfall over Catanduanes. Daily GA Updates Gilgit-Baltistan a part of India, says MEA India slammed Pakistan for its attempt to accord provincial status to Gilgit-Baltistan, saying it is intended to camouflage the "illegal" occupation of the region by Islamabad. Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Anurag Srivastava said India firmly rejects the attempt by Pakistan to bring material changes to a part of Indian territory which is under Islamabad's "illegal and forcible occupation" and asked the neighbouring country to immediately vacate such areas. National Jal Jeevan Mission to organise virtual conference with ministers in-charge of rural water supply of all States and UTs National Jal Jeevan Mission is organizing a conference with ministers in-charge of rural water supply of all States and Union Territories through video conference on November 3. The conference has been organized to discuss various issues to implement the mission with speed, scale and skill. The goal of Jal Jeevan Mission is to ensure that every household has assured drinking water supply in an adequate quantity of prescribed quality on a long-term basis. During this conference, Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will interact with Ministers on planning and implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission with special emphasis on the 100-day campaign, which was launched to provide piped water supply in anganwadi centres and schools in rural areas. Daily GA Updates AYUSH Ministry and Invest India to jointly set up “Strategic Policy & Facilitation Bureau" for planned and systematic growth of Ayush sector The Ministry of AYUSH and M/s Invest India will form a collaboration to set up a “Strategic Policy & Facilitation Bureau" to facilitate planned and systematic growth of the Ayush sector. This Bureau will support the Ministry in strategic and policy making initiatives that shall help pave the way to reach the full potential of the Sector and stimulate growth and investment. As a partner in the project, M/S Invest India would collaborate extensively with the Ministry to frame the work plan of the Bureau and define its short-and long-term targets. Invest India would deploy highly trained and expert resources to implement and execute the plans of the Ministry of AYUSH. Three new Rafale jets to fly non-stop from France to India Three Rafale fighter jets of the Indian Air Force are scheduled to arrive on November 4 flying non- stop from France. With this, the IAF will have eight of the 36 Rafale jets in service. The first batch of five Rafale jets were formally inducted into the No.17 ‘Golden Arrows’ squadron of the IAF on September 10 at the Ambala Air Force station. India has contracted 36 Rafale omni-role fighter jets from France in fly-away condition with 13 India Specific Enhancements (ISE) under a €7.87-billion Inter-Governmental Agreement signed in September 2016. Daily GA Updates Govt all set to procure a record 742 Lakh metric tonnes of paddy in ongoing Kharif season Union Minister Piyush Goyal has said that Food Corporation of India and state agencies are all set to procure a record quantity of 742 Lakh Metric tonnes of paddy during the ongoing Kharif season as against 627 Lakh Metric Tonnes last year. Mr Goyal said, the number of purchase centres for Kharif 2020-21 have also been increased from 30 thousand 7 hundred nine to 39 thousand 1 hundred 22. He said, the procurement season was advanced to 26th September in view of the early arrival of paddy in the market. Banks told to pay back interest on interest, says RBI Banks, financial and non-banking financial institutions have been asked to take necessary actions to credit into the accounts of eligible borrowers by November 5 the difference between compound and simple interest collected on loans of up to Rs 2 crore during the moratorium scheme, RBI has told the Supreme Court. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in an affidavit filed referred to the October 23 additional response of the Ministry of Finance and said the federal bank has also acted in pursuance of that by issuing a notification to banks and FIs recently on refund of extra money to the borrowers. Daily GA Updates Equity mutual funds log Rs 7,200-cr outflow in Sept quarter on profit-booking Investors pulled out over ₹7,200 crore from equity-oriented mutual funds during the July-September quarter this year as expensive valuation diverted them towards profit-booking. In comparison, such schemes had witnessed a hefty inflow of ₹23,874 crore in the same quarter last fiscal, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India showed. Of ₹7,214 crore outflows, the schemes witnessed a pull out of ₹2,480 crore in July, which was the first withdrawal in four years, ₹4,000 crore in August and ₹734 crore in September. SEBI extends deadline for 14,720 entities to settle unfair trading case With few takers for SEBI’s settlement scheme on unfair trading in illiquid derivative options, the regulator has extended its deadline for the same till December 2021. SEBI has accused 14,720 entities of making unfair gains by trading in illiquid options in BSE’s derivatives. But the regulator found it tedious to adjudicate all the entities and hence offered a one-time settlement scheme. There are not many takers for it as they fear huge income tax liabilities as an outcome of settlement with SEBI. Daily GA Updates Indian VSF exports rise nearly 40 per cent in Q2 Led by a rise in global sourcing, exports of Viscose Staple Fibre (VSF) rose 40 per cent to 23 KT during the second quarter of the financial year from 16.5 KT recorded during the fourth quarter of previous fiscal. The rise in exports mirrors an increase in production, a recent shift in the sourcing of textiles away from China and increased adoption of VSF-based garments globally due to awareness of the environment-friendly fibre. VSF-based garment exports have grown over 11 per cent per annum during the five years between FY14 and FY19. ICICI Bank to levy fee of Rs 50 for cash deposits by customers in cash recyclers during non-business hours and bank holidays ICICI Bank will levy charges of Rs 50 as convenience fee on customers doing cash deposits at ATMs during non-business hours and bank holidays. Customers will be charged for every such transaction done on bank holidays and between 6:00 pm and 8:00 am on working days. If the cash deposit in the cash acceptor/recycler machines is more than Rs 10,000 per month either as a single transaction or multiple transactions, the bank will also levy a convenience fee. Daily GA Updates IPL: Kolkata Knight Riders beat Rajasthan Royals by 60 runs Kolkata Knight Riders eliminated Rajasthan Royals from the tournament after thrashing them by 60 runs, keeping their play-off hopes alive. Put into bat first, Kolkata posted a formidable total of 191 for seven in 20 overs riding on Eoin Morgan's unbeaten 68 off 35 balls. In reply, Rajasthan only managed 131 for 9 in 20 overs with Pat Cummins grabbing 4 wickets for 34 in four overs. BCCI announces Jio as title sponsor of Women's T20 Challenge 2020 Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced Reliance Jio as the title sponsor of the Women's T20 Challenge 2020. This is the first time a sponsor is partnering with the BCCI exclusively for the women's counterpart to the IPL. The Board announced the development in a post on the IPL T20 website. The women's T20 challenge is scheduled to run from November 4-9 in Sharjah. Daily GA Updates Lifetime award for Shantha Rangaswamy Shantha Rangaswamy, the first India women’s team Test captain and a recipient of Arjuna Award, will be conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2019 by the Karnataka state government on November 2. In her illustrious career, Rangaswamy has featured in 16 Tests and 16 ODIs between 1976 and 1991. She captained 12 out of the 16 Tests she played in since making her debut in October 1976. Cricketers Mayank Agarwal and Veda Krishnamurthy were among eight sportspersons chosen for the 2019 Ekalavya awards. Pakistan wins series Spinner Iftikhar Ahmed grabbed a maiden five-wicket haul while Babar Azam notched up a half- century as Pakistan beat Zimbabwe by six wickets to win the second ODI and take a 2-0 lead in the three-match series. Ahmed spun a web around Zimbabwe's batsmen with figures of 5/40 to wreck them for a paltry 206 before Azam knocked an attractive 74-ball 77 not out to chase down the target in 35.2 overs.