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• The Council of Scientific Industrial Research-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) recently launched the country’s first interactive online repository named as IndAIR (Indian Air quality Studies Interactive Repository).
• The aim of the project is to make air quality research available to everyone.
• It presents these studies in an easily accessible web format for the media, researchers, and academics.
• It is the first comprehensive effort to enlist existing Indian research and analysis on air pollution, its causes and effects.

• The Union Cabinet has approved the establishment of a 'Special Window' fund to provide priority debt financing for the completion of stalled housing projects that are in the Affordable and Middle-Income Housing sector.
• For the purposes of the fund, the government shall act as the Sponsor and the total commitment to be infused by the Government would be upto INR 10,000 crore.
• The fund will be set up as a Category-11 AIF (Alternate Investment Fund) debt fund registered with SEBI and would be professionally run.
• For the first AIF under the Special Window, it is proposed that SBICAP Ventures Limited shall be engaged to be the Investment Manager.
• This fund would in turn would provide relief to developers that require funding to complete a set of unfinished projects and consequently ensure delivery of homes to the home-buyers.

• Gujarat Government has given its nod to the world’s first CNG port terminal at Bhavnagar.
• The U.K. based Foresight group and Mumbai based Padmanabh Mafatlal group joint venture will invest Rs.1900 crore to set up a CNG portterminal at Bhavnagar port.
• Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board- GIDB under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has also approved this proposal.
• The proposed CNG port terminal will have annual capacity of 6 million matric tone, which will increased the total handling capacity of the port to 9 million matric tones.

• Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi had visited All India Radio on 12 November 1947 to address to displaced people, who had temporarily settled at Kurukshetra in Haryana after partition.
• That was Bapu's first and the only visit to All India Radio. Public Service Broadcasting Day is celebrated every year on this to commemorate this visit of Bapu.

• The IOCL had submitted a proposal seeking environment clearance for its proposed 100 KLPD Ligno-Cellulosic 2G ethanol plant at Baholi in Panipat district of Haryana.
• This project not only promotes use of environment friendly fuel but also aids in fulfilment of government's goal of doubling farmers' income. The estimated investment in setting up the plant is Rs 766 crore.

• The five-year ban imposed by the Centre on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been confirmed by a tribunal set up by the NarendraModi government to examine whether the prohibitions on the terror organisation should continue.
• The tribunal headed by Justice SangitaDhingraSehgal confirmed the ban.
• The tribunal, set up under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), had held hearings in Delhi and Chennai after it was constituted on May 27.
• India had banned the LTTE after the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. Since then, the ban imposed on the group has been extended every five years. The terror organisation had suffered a military defeat in May 2009 in Sri Lanka.

• The Supreme Court ruled that the office of the Chief Justice of India is a public authority under the Right to Information Act.
• The order was passed by a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi. Other members of the bench are Justices NV Ramana, DY Chandrachud, Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.
• A five-judge constitution bench had on April 4 reserved its verdict on the appeals filed in 2010 by the Supreme Court secretary general and its central public information officer against the high court and the central information commission's (CIC's) orders.
• In a landmark verdict on January 10, 2010, the Delhi High Court had held that the office of the chief justice of India comes within the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) law, saying judicial independence was not a judge's privilege, but a responsibility cast upon him.

• Uttar Pradesh government has launched a dedicated web portal and a mobile application, e-Ganna App, for sugarcane farmers of the state.
• The app ad portal will have entire information about the issue of cane supply slips to the farmers for the whole cane crushing season from November to May.
• The web portal and e-Ganna app will help in eradicating the cane mafia and middleman and strengthen the cane development societies.

• President Ram NathKovind has approved a proclamation imposing President’s Rule in Maharashtra under Article 356(1) of the Constitution, following a recommendation from Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
• In his report to the President, the governor said a situation had arisen in which it was impossible to constitute or form a stable government in the State, and the government could not be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
• Article 356 of the Constitution of India gives President of India the power to suspend state government and impose President’s rule of any state in the country if “if he is satisfied that a situation has arisen in which the government of the state cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution”.
• Upon the imposition of this rule, there would be no Council of Ministers. The VidhanSabha is either dissolved or prorogued.
• The state will fall under the direct control of the Union government, and the Governor will continue to be head the proceedings, representing the President of India – who is the Head of the State. The imposition of the President’s rule requires the sanction of both the houses of Parliament.

• In a major relief for the government, the Supreme Court dismissed a review petition seeking a court-monitored criminal probe in Rafale fighter jet deal between the Indian government and France's Dassault Aviation.
• The three-judge bench of the top court comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) RanjanGogoi and Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph dismissed the review pleas in a unanimous judgment.
• The development comes as a huge relief for the government, which received a lot of flak over the deal after some leaked documents related to the deal surfaced earlier.
• While the top court had earlier rejected pleas seeking court-monitored investigation into the controversial Rafale deal in December last year, it again initiated hearing a review petition in February this year.
• Advocate PrashantBhushan and former Union minister Yashwant Sinha and ArunShourie filed review pleas in February 2019, demanding the court to reverse its verdict and initiate a probe into the dealings to acquire the 36 Rafale fighter jets.

• World Diabetes Day is held on 14 November each year. It seeks to raise awareness on diabetes. The awareness campaign is led by International Diabetes Federation
• The theme for diabetes awareness month and World Diabetes Day 2019 is Family and Diabetes.

• International Diabetes Federation (IDF) has launched the latest edition of the IDF Diabetes Atlas to mark World Diabetes Day on 14 November.
• The Worldwide prevalence of diabetes estimated at 463 million adults in 20-79 age group.
• The number of people with diabetes is predicted to rise to 578 million by 2030 and to 700 million by 2045.
• China has the highest number of adults with diabetes- 116 million adults in 20-79 age group India continues to be home to the second-largest number of adults with diabetes worldwide- 77 million in the 20-79 years age group.
• India was the largest contributor to diabetes mortality with more than 1 million estimated deaths attributable to diabetes and related complications, in the larger South East Asian region.

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• Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy launched the 'Nadu-Nedu' programme to introduce English medium from classes 1 to 6 in state-run

• The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that globally, pneumonia claimed the lives of more than 800,000 children under the age of five last year--or one child every 39 seconds.
• Most deaths occurred among children under the age of two, and almost 153,000 within the first month of life.
• The report said just five countries were responsible for more than half of child pneumonia deaths: Nigeria (162,000), India (127,000), Pakistan (58,000), the Democratic Republic of Congo (40,000) and Ethiopia (32,000).
• India had the second-highest number of deaths of children under the age of five in 2018 due to pneumonia, a curable and preventable disease that claimed the life of one child every 39 seconds globally.