RAJASTHAN

• Vedanta to invest $850 mn to raise Rajasthan oilfields output

ð Vedanta Ltd announced a USD 850 million investment for raising oil and gas production from its Rajasthan oilfields by about 100,000 barrels a day.

ð In a regulatory announcement, the company said its board of directors has approved brownfield growth projects.

ð The fields were previously operated by Cairn India, which has now merged with Vedanta Ltd.

ð The company currently produces less than 160,000 boepd from Rajasthan.

ð Polymer injections were used in the enhanced oil recovery (EO) project at Mangala.

ð To recover tight oil and gas, the company said it will deploy “latest fracking technologies to recover oil and gas from tighter reservoir formations through execution of Raageshwari Deep Gas (RDG) and Aishwariya Barmer Hill (ABH)”.

INTERNATIONAL

• APEC 2017 summit to be held in Vietnam

• APEC 2017 is the year-long hosting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting to be held in Vietnam.

• It will culminate with the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Da Nang to be hosted at InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort.

• It marks the second time Vietnam will be playing host to the APEC, having hosted the event previously in 2006.

• It is scheduled on 10-11 November.

·       UNHCR to get Mother Teresa Award 2017 for social justice

• The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been named as the recipient of the Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice, 2017as an acknowledgement of its exceptional work worldwide.
• The Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice, which is instituted in 2005, will be presented to the UNHCR on December 10, 2017.

NATIONAL 

·       India became the first country to partner with Facebook on disaster response

• India is the first country to partner with social networking site Facebook on disaster response, Union minister Kiren Rijijuannounced at the inaugural meeting of the ‘India Disaster Response Summit’, organised jointly by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and Facebook.
• The programme will be piloted in two disaster-prone states – Assam and Uttarakhand.

• Cabinet approves Creation of National Testing Agency

• The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved creation of National Testing Agency (NTA) as a Society registered under the Indian Societies Registration Act, 1860, and as an autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organization to conduct entrance examinations for higher educational institutions.

• The NTA would initially conduct those entrance examinations which are currently being conducted by the CBSE.

• Other examinations will be taken up gradually after NTA is fully geared up.

• The entrance examinations will be conducted in online mode at least twice a year, thereby giving adequate opportunity to candidates to bring out their best.

• In order to serve the requirements of the rural students, it would locate the centres at sub-district/district level and as far as possible would undertake hands-on training to the students.

• GST Council cuts tax slab for 178 items from 28% to 18%

• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley that out of 228 items in the 28% tax bracket, 178 have been put into the lower tax category of 18%. It will be applicable from 15th of this month.

• Tax rate will be 5% uniform for all AC or non-AC restaurants, except those in hotels with tariffs of more than Rs. 7,500, which will continue to be taxed at 18%. Outdoor catering will be taxed at 18% with ITC.

• 23rd meeting of GST council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, was held in Guwahati.

·       The 2nd edition of National Entrepreneurship Awards hosted by MSDE

• The Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) awarded the National Entrepreneurship Awards 2017 marking the completion of three years of its inception.
• This year 15 winners across various categories were awarded.
• Winners were given a cash award of Rs 5 lakh(enterprises and individuals) and  10 lakhs(organizations/institutes) along with a certificate and trophy recognizing their efforts of being the change agents in India’s development.

·       Government to give proxy voting rights to over 25 million Non Resident Indians

• The government has decided to give proxy voting rights to over 25 millionnon-resident Indians (NRIs) spread across the world, Attorney generalKK Venugopal told the Supreme Court.
• The Election Commission of India had already recommended that the government take necessary steps to amend the law for NRI voters. It had prepared a report titled ‘Exploring Feasibility of Alternative Options for Voting by Overseas Electors’ and presented it to the court in October 2014.

·       Telangana Government Declares Urdu as Second Official Language

• Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao declared Urdu as the state’s second official language.
• Every office in the state has an Urdu speaking officer.
• The demand to make Urdu a second language had been there for a long time.