1. France to deploy its largest warship to tackle IS in Syria and Iraq
(i) In November 2015, France decided to send its largest warship to fight terror outfit Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq.
(ii) The involvement of warship in the operations is expected to shorten the time taken by the French jets to carry out air strikes.
(iii) France has been targeting IS in Iraq as part of the US-led coalition since September 2014.
2. China ratifies the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)
(i) China ratified the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) agreement. The multilateral development institution is tasked with funding infrastructure construction across Asia.
(ii) The approval will set out legal framework for the $100 billion-bank, of which India and 56 other countries are founder members.
(iii) The AIIB is likely to be a rival to internal financial institutions such as the World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), as regards infrastructure project funding in Asia.
3. Tanzania gets its first woman Vice President
(i) Samia Suluhu was sworn in as the first female Vice President of Tanzania on November 5th, along with the newly elected President John Magufuli at the country’s financial capital Dar es Salaam.
(ii) Tanzania recently concluded its presidential elections wherein Magufuli emerged victorious after winning about 58% of the votes.
4. Microsoft to fund India’s Smart Cities start ups
(i) Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently announced that the firm will fund scores of new generation entrepreneurs in India’s ‘smart cities’ space.
(ii) The tech giant will offer a special cloud initiative for start-ups aligned to smart cities, and make available flagship devices such as the Microsoft Lumia 950 and 950 XL, Microsoft Surface Pro 4, among others.
(iii) Microsoft said that the initiative is expected to impact over 50 smart cities in the next year through a catalogue of over 50 start-ups and ISV solutions.
(iv) Nadella informed that 2 pilot projects are already underway in Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
5. Rebooting India: Realizing a Billion Aspirations book released
(i) The book titled Rebooting India: Realizing a Billion Aspirations has been authored by Nandan Nilekani and Viral Shah.
(ii) The book that was released recently deals with demographic dividend of India, which is expected to be the world’s youngest country by 2020.
(iii) The book further elaborates that India can become a true global power only by helping the young generation achieve their aspirations through the use of technology, by radically reimagining the government and by eliminating discriminations in the society.
6. Belgium tops the FIFA world ranking for first time ever
(i) As per the recently released FIFA world ranking list, Belgium has topped the list for the first time, overtaking Argentina and world champions Germany.
(ii) Chile has moved up four places to be in the fifth spot and India has slipped six ranking points after losing to Turkmenistan and now stands at 172nd place.
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