Current affairs on 18 October 2020

 Current affairs on 18 October 2020

• BepiColombo Spacecraft crossed Venus

  The BepiColombo SpaceCraft has crossed the Venus in its journey towards Mercury.

• Indo-Pacific: Japan and Vietnam sign Agreements

  Japan and Vietnam signed agreements to ensure "free and open Indo-Pacific". Also, the agreement will allow Japan to export its defence equipment to Vietnam. Recently, the QUAD grouping held in Tokyo, reaffirmed the significance of "free and open Indo-Pacific" and raised concerns over increasing Chinese influence in the region.

• India-Sri Lanka to hold SLINEX military exercise

  India and Sri Lanka are to begin a three-day military exercise "SLINEX". The eighth edition of the exercise is to be held off coast of Trincomalee. It is to be conducted in non-contact at-sea only format. This strategy has been adopted due to COVID-19 pandemic.

• DRDO test fires Naval Version of BRAHMOS missile successfully

  The Defence Research Development Organization test fired the naval version BRAHMOS missile from INS Chennai successfully. The missile was test fired from an indigenously built stealth destroyer INS Chennai. The missile hit a target in Arabian Sea

• Veteran Bengali Vocal Artiste Pradip Ghosh passes away

  Noted Bengali elocutionist, Pradip Ghosh passed away. Ghosh was a prominent recitor and renowned vocal artist, who was well-known for his inimitable style of recitation. His most notable works included his recitation of Tagore's poems, especially those for children.

• Rajkiran Rai becomes new chairman of IBA

  The Managing Director and CEO of Union Bank of India, Rajkiran Rai G has been elected as the Chairman of Indian Banks' Association (IBA) for the term 2020-21. He succeeds Rajnish Kumar as the IBA Chairman after Kumar recently retired as SBI Chief.

• Pakistan's fast Bowler Umar Gul announces retirement

  Pakistani pace bowler, Umar Gul has announced that he will retire from all forms of cricket. The 36-year-old Gul, who played his last match for Pakistan an ODI in 2016, featured for Balochistan team in the National T20 Cup.

• Aishwarya Sridhar wins Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award

  A 23-year-old, Mumbai based girl, Aishwarya Sridhar became the first Indian woman to win the 2020 Wildlife Photographer of the Year award. It is the 56th year of the prestigious award. Her image titled 'Lights of passion', won among 50,000 entries from over 80 countries across the world.

• Jacinda Ardern wins 2nd term as New Zealand's PM

  The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, won a landslide victory in the country's general election, to be elected as the PM for the second consecutive three-year term. In the battle against Covid, Ardern was alone among her western peers in pursuing an explicit elimination strategy and imposed one of the strictest nationwide lockdowns in the world.

• an style="color: #0000ff;">New Zealand Capital: Wellington.

  New Zealand New Zealand dollar

• India conducts successful night trial of nuclear-capable Prithvi-2 missile

  India has successfully conducted the night trial of its nuclear-capable Prithvi-2 missile from Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur near Balasore, off Odisha coast. The user flight trial was carried out by the Strategic Forces Command of the armed force under the watch of DRDO scientists as part of a training exercise.

• Nozomi Okuhara clinches Women's Singles title at Denmark Open

  In Badminton, former World Champion Nozomi Okuhara clinched the Denmark Open title beating three-time world champion Carolina Marin in women's singles.