NCDEX ties up with NSE Indices to launch AGRIDEX, India's first agri index

NATIONAL NEWS

NCDEX ties up with NSE Indices to launch AGRIDEX, India's first agri index

• The National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) has launched India’s first agri index — ‘NCDEX Agridex’, for easy reference to price variations in agricultural commodities.
• Launched with a composition of 10 leading liquid contracts on the NCDEX platform at present, the index is now available as ‘indicative’.
• It will be made tradable after being approved from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
• NCDEX has already applied for a formal approval from SEBI, which, according to trade sources, is likely to be cleared soon.

India-ASEAN Summit 2019

• The 16th ASEAN-India Summit was held in Bangkok, Thailand on November 3, 2019. The summit was attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• While speaking at the ASEAN-India Summit, PM Narendra Modi welcomed the mutual coordination of the Indo-Pacific Outlook between India and ASEAN.
• PM Modi stated that India's Act East Policy is an important part of its Indo-Pacific vision and ASEAN is the core of the Act East Policy.
• He stated that an integrated, organized and economically developing ASEAN will immensely benefit India.

Two-day International Conference on Yoga for Heart care to be organised at Mysuru, Karnataka

• Ministry of AYUSH is organizing the International Conference on Yoga on 15-16 November 2019 at Mysuru, Karnataka. The Chief Minister of Karnataka Shri B.S. Yediyurappa will inaugurate the two-day conference on 15th November, 2019 in the presence of Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for AYUSH and Defence, Shri Shripad Yesso Naik. The theme of the conference is ‘Yoga for Heart Care’.
• More than 700 national and international delegates are expected to participate in the conference spread over ten technical sessions involving fifty resource persons & experts.
• On the first day of the conference, technical sessions on ‘Yoga for heart care; emerging trends and researches’, ‘role of Yoga in preventive cardiology’, ‘Role of Yoga in the management of Hypertension’ and ‘Yoga for coronary artery disease’ will be delivered.
• During the second day of the conference, technical session on ‘physiology and integrative cardiology’, ‘Yoga for Cardiovascular health’ will be organized.
• A Symposium on ‘need for promotion of Yogasana as sports’ and presentation of research papers on ‘Yoga for heart care; emerging trends and researches’ will also be organised.

DEFENCE

Indo-American disaster relief exercise begins

• The first India-US joint tri-services Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Exercise, called ‘Tiger Triumph’, began here and will go on till November 21.
• Indian Navy ships Jalashwa, Airavat and Sandhayak, troops from 19 Madras and 7 Guards, Indian Air Force’s MI-17 helicopters, and the Rapid Action Medical Team (RAMT) are participating in the exercise.
• The US Navy ship Germantown and troops from the Third Marine Division are participating.
• The exercise is aimed at developing interoperability for conducting HADR operations. The harbour phase is scheduled at Visakhapatnam from November 13-16.

ITDC appoints Kamala Vardhana Rao as its new Chairman and Managing Director

• India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) has appointed G Kamala Vardhana Rao as the new Chairman and Managing Director.
• Prior to this, Rao, an IAS officer 1990 batch from Kerala Cadre, was the Principal Secretary, Kerala government. He has also served as the Secretary of Kerala Tourism in 2014-15.
• In a span of close to three decades, Rao has served multiple positions including Chairman of Indian Tobacco Board, Director of Fisheries Department, Director, Department of Tourism and Culture, Andhra Pradesh government.

APPOINTMENT

Unilever appoints Nils Andersen as new Chairman

• Unilever named non-executive director Nils Andersen as its new chairman, to utilise his deep experience across consumer goods and logistics industries to help the Dove soap maker navigate a dip in emerging market sales growth and fix its foods business.
• Andersen will replace Marijn Dekkers, who is standing down after more than three years as chairman, to focus on his responsibilities as founder and chairman of investment and advisory firm Novalis LifeSciences, the company said in a statement.

Justice Muhammad Raffiq takes oath as Chief Justice of Meghalaya HC

• Justice Muhammad Raffiq took oath as Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court. Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy administered the oath of office and secrecy at Raj Bhavan in Shillong.
• Mr. Raffiq succeeds Ajay Kumar Mittal who is now the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court.
• He will be the eighth Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court. Justice Rafiq started his law practice in 1984.
• He practised exclusively in Rajasthan High Court in almost all branches of law.
• He has been recognized as an expert on the Indian Constitution, service, land acquisition, tax and company law cases. In 2008,
• he was appointed as Justice at the Rajasthan High Court. He also served as acting Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court twice.

FACTS

Meghalaya Chief Minister-Conrad Kongkal Sangma

Governor-Tathagata Roy

Prakash Javadekar takes charge as Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises

• Prakash Javadekar took charge as the Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, two days after Shiv Sena leader Arvind Sawant resigned from the Union Cabinet.
• Javadekar also holds information & broadcasting, and environment, forest and climate change portfolios.