1. October 2, 2018—Barham Salih was elected as President of Iraq on October 2, 2018.
2. October 3, 2018—Justice Mr. Ranjan Gogoi took oath as the new Chief Justice of India (CJI) on October 3, 2018. He succeeded CJI Mr. Dipak Misra, Justice Mr. Gogoi has become the first Supreme Court Judge from the north-east to be appointed as Chief Justice of India. He is the most senior Judge of the Supreme Court after Chief Justice Mr. Misra. Chief Justice Mr. Gogoi will have a term of over 13 months, as he is scheduled to retire on November 17, 2019.
3. October 6, 2018— Pankaj Sharma was appointed as the Ambassador and India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on October 6, 2018. Mr. Sharma has been serving as the Joint Secretary (Disarmament and International Security Division) in the Ministry of External Affairs. He replaces Mr. Amandeep Gill.
4. October 3, 2018— Indian-born Ms. Gita Gopinath was appointed as the Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on October 3, 2018, becoming the first woman to hold the position. Ms. Gopinath would be succeeding Mr. Maurice Obstfeld, who is to retire at the end of 2018. She will be assuming the post of Economic Counsellor and Director of the IMF's Research Department.
Practice MCQ Question on Current Affairs 2018
5. October 7, 2018—India won the Under-19 Asia Cup 2018 for the 6th time, defeating Sri Lanka at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Bangladesh on October 7, 2018.
6. October 9, 2018—International Monetary Fund (IMF) released the latest World Economic Outlook report on October 9, 2018. According to the report, India's growth rate is predicted to increase to 7.3% in 2018-19 and 7.4% in 2019-20. In 2017-18, India had recorded a growth rate of 6.7%. The latest growth prediction for India, however, is slightly lower than what was predicted in April 2018 World Economic Outlook for 2019 due to the recent increase in oil prices and tightening of global financial conditions.
7. October 10, 2018— Tushar Mehta was appointed as the Solicitor General of India on October 10, 2018 with effect from the date of assumption of charge of the office for a period till June 30, 2020 or until further orders. Mr. Mehta had been serving as the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) of India since 2014. The post had been lying vacant for the last 11 months after Senior Advocate Mr. Ranjith Kumar resigned on October 20, 2017. The Solicitor General is the second ighest ranking law officer of the Union Government after the Attorney General.
8. October 12, 2018—Ms. Maryse Conde, one of the Caribbean's most renowned authors, won the New Academy Prize in Literature, an award created to replace the Nobel Prize for literature 2018, on October 12, 2018. The Nobel Prize for Literature was suspended after a crisis over its handling of allegations against Frenchman Mr. Jean-Claude Arnault, the husband of one of the academy's members. The New Academy is a provisional self-organised group of over 100 volunteers that emerged to provide an alternative global literature prize in 2018.
9. October 13, 2018—Shekhar Mande was appointed as the Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) by the Union Government on October 13, 2018. A fellow of all three major science academies, the 56-year-old Mr. Mande is a recipient of the coveted S.S. Bhatnagar Prize, most prestigious science honour in the country, in 2005. The position of the DG of CSIR fell vacant with its previous chief Mr. Girish Sahni superannuating on August 31, 2018.
10. October 18, 2018—Maeen Abdulmalik was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Yemen on October 18, 2018. Mr. Maeen was appointed by President of Yemen Mr. Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
11. October 22, 2018—Eminent jurist Mr. Fali S. Nariman (89) was awarded 19th Lai Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration. The award was presented by Vice-President Mr. M. Venkaiah Naidu at a function held in New Delhi on October 22, 2018. Mr. Fali S. Nariman is one of the most distinguished constitutional lawyers of India. He was the senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India since 1971 and has remained President of Bar Association of India since 1991.
12. October 23, 2018—Nguyen Phu Trong was elected as President of Vietnam on October 23, 2018. Mr. Trong will hold the post until 2021. Vice President Mr. Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh had been acting President since then. Mr. Phu Trong has been a member of the PCV Central Committee's Political Bureau since 1997 and served as the Chairman of the National Assembly from 2007 to 2011.
13. October 24, 2018—The Supreme Court ruled on October 24, 2018 that no Bharat Stage-IV vehicles shall be sold across the country with effect from April 1, 2020. The Bharat Stage VI (BS-VI) emission norm would come into force from April 1, 2020 across the country. The ruling was given by a three-judge bench headed by Justice Mr. Madan B. Lokur. The bench clarified that only BS-VI-compliant vehicles will be sold in India from April 1, 2020.
14. October 24, 2018—The 2018 Seoul Peace Prize was conferred on Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi on October 24, 2018 by the Seoul Peace Prize Committee for his contribution to world peace through his economic vision, 'Modinomics'. The Committee recognised Mr. Modi's contributions to the growth of the Indian and global economies, crediting 'Modinomics' for reducing social and economic disparity between the rich and the poor. With this, Mr. Modi became the 14th recipient of this coveted award. The award will be presented by the Seoul Peace Prize Foundation at a mutually convenient time.
15. October 25, 2018—Union Minister of Human Resource Development Mr. Prakash Javadekar launched a web portal named SPARC (Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration) in New Delhi on October 25, 2018. The SPARC aims at improving the research ecosystem of India's higher educational institutions by facilitating academic and research collaborations between Indian institutions and the best institutions from 28 selected nations to jointly solve the problems of national and international relevance. The 28 selected nations are (1) Australia, (2) Austria, (3) Belgium, (4) Brazil, (5) Canada, (6) China, (7) Denmark, (8) Finland, (9) France, (10) Germany, (11) Hong Kong, (12) Israel, (13) Italy, (14) Japan, (15) Netherlands, (16) New Zealand, (17) Norway, (18) Portugal, (19) Russia, (20) Singapore, (21) South Africa, (22) South Korea, (23) Spain, (24) Sweden, (25) Switzerland, (26) Taiwan, (27) UK and (28) US.
16. October 25, 2018—Sahle-Work Zewde was appointed as the first female President of Ethiopia on October 25, 2018 through a unanimous vote. She is expected to serve two six-year terms as President. The position of the President is largely ceremonial in the nation.
17. October 26, 2018—Professor M.S. Swaminathan, founder of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), was awarded the first World Agriculture Prize at the 11th Global Agriculture Leadership Summit in New Delhi on October 26, 2018. He received the Award from Vice-President Mr. M. Venkaiah Naidu at the event hosted by the Indian Council of Food and Agriculture. The M.S. Swaminathan Junior Research Fellowship, to be awarded from 2019 onwards, was also instituted on the occasion.
18. October 26, 2018— Renowned National Award winning music Director Mohammed Zahur Khayyam Hashmi, better known as "Khayyam", was conferred the prestigious Hridaynath Award for Lifetime Achievement in Mumbai on October 26, 2018. Chief Minister of Maharashtra Mr. Devendra Fadnavis gave away the award, comprising a cash prize of Rs. 1,00,000 and a memento, named after the famous Hridaynath Mangeshkar on his 81st birthday.
19. October 29, 2018—The Supreme Court prohibited the plying of 15-year-old petrol and 10-year-old diesel vehicles in the Delhi-NCR region on October 29, 2018 in a move to deal with the prevailing "very critical" and "horrible" pollution situation in Delhi-NCR. A bench of Justices Mr. Madan B. Lokur, Mr. S. Abdul Nazeer and Mr. Deepak Gupta also clarified that such vehicles would be seized, if found on roads in Delhi-NCR. The apex court directed that a list of 15-year-old petrol and 10-year-old diesel vehicles will be published on the website of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and transport departments of the NCR area.
20. October 31, 2018—Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi unveiled the Statue of Unity in Kevadiya in Narmada district of Gujarat on October 31, 2018. Built at a cost of about Rs 3,000 crore, and standing at a height of 182 metres, Vallabhbhai Patel’s statue is the tallest in the world and has surpassed the Spring Temple Buddha (128 metres) of China. Mr. Modi dedicated the statue to the nation on the 143rd birth anniversary of the country's first Home Minister. Sardar Patel played a major role in integrating the princely states into the Indian Union after Partition in 1947. Air jets flew over the statue, helicopters showered flowers on it with fireworks in the green, orange and white colours as PM Mr. Modi dedicated it to the nation. The statue has been designed by Padma Bhushan-winning sculptor Mr. Ram V. Sutar and has been built by Larsen and Toubro and the state-run Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd. It took about 250 engineers and 3,400 labourers to construct the statue in 33 months. The statue has a viewing gallery which can accommodate 200 visitors at a time. The gallery offers a view of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, its reservoir, and the Satpura and Vindhya mountain ranges.
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