PURCHASING MANAGERS INDEX

India’s manufacturing activity slipped to 55.5 in October as compared to 57.5 in September.Hiring activity faded and business confidence slipped to a five-month low.

It is a survey-based measure that asks the respondents about changes in their perception about key business variables as compared with the previous month.
The purpose of the PMI is to provide information about current and future business conditions to company decision makers, analysts, and investors.
It is calculated separately for the manufacturing and services sectors and then a composite index is also constructed.
The PMI is a number from 0 to 100.
A reading above 50 means expansion, while a score below that denotes contraction.
A reading at 50 indicates no change.
If PMI of the previous month is higher than the PMI of the current month, it represents that the economy is contracting.
It is usually released at the start of every month.
It is, therefore, considered a good leading indicator of economic activity.

2+2 DIALOGUE

S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin will travel to New Delhi for the ‘2+2’ meeting with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

American and Indian flag pair on desk over defocused background. Horizontal composition with copy space and selective focus.

The 2+2 dialogue is a format of meeting of the foreign and defence ministers of India and its allies on strategic and security issues.
It enables the partners to better understand and appreciate each other’s strategic concerns and sensitivities taking into account political factors on both sides, in order to build a stronger, more integrated strategic relationship in a rapidly changing global environment.
India has 2+2 dialogues with four key strategic partners: the US, Australia, Japan, Russia and UK.
The US is India’s oldest and most important 2+2 talks partner.
The first 2+2 dialogue between the two countries was held in 2018.

The Election Commission and the Ministry of Education signed a Memorandum of Understanding to bring electoral literacy to classrooms across the country.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) will both introduce and update textbooks to include content on electoral literacy and will advise State Education Boards and other Boards to follow suit.
The MoU is intended to integrate voter education and electoral literacy into the curricular framework, starting from classes 6 to 12 in all schools.
It is aimed at extending the ECI’s flagship Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) in schools and colleges.
The MoU underscores the development of an institutional framework that seeks to incorporate electoral literacy formally into the school and college education system.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin virtually inaugurated a statue of late freedom fighter Anjalai Ammal in Cuddalore.
The statue has been installed in the Gandhi Park maintained by the Cuddalore Corporation.

Anjalai Ammal was a social worker and reformer from Cuddalorer.
She started her political activism in 1921 with the Non-Cooperation Movement and later took part in the Neil Statue Satyagraha, Salt Satyagraha and Quit India Movement.
Mahatma Gandhi called her South India’s Jhansi Rani. When he came to Kadalur to meet Anjalai Ammal, the British government prohibited him their meet.
But Anjalai Ammal still managed to meet him by dressing up in a burqa.
She also encouraged her nine-year-old daughter to participate in the protests, who was named Leelavathy by Gandhi himself.

3rd November is celebrated as ‘The International Day for Biosphere Reserves’.
Biosphere Reserves is an international designation by (UNESCO) for representative parts of natural and cultural landscapes extending over large areas of terrestrial or coastal/marine ecosystems or a combination of both.
BR tries to balance economic and social development and maintenance of associated cultural values along with the preservation of nature.
BRs are nominated by national governments and remain under the sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they are located.
These are designated under the intergovernmental Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme by the Director-General of UNESCO.
India at present has 18 notified biosphere reserves spanning 60,000 sq km.
The first biosphere reserve in India was the blue mountains of the Nilgiris stretching over Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

Tamil Nadu Highways Department has come out with an app called “Namma Salai” for grievance redressal.
People can upload pics of damaged roads and the roads will be repaired within 72 hours of receiving the complaint.
It was launched in order to achieve the goal of an ‘accident-free’ Tamil Nadu and ensure pothole-free roads.