Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu sworn in as Himachal CM, Agnihotri as his deputy

Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu sworn in as Himachal CM, Agnihotri as his deputy

• Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, the son of a bus driver and a four-time Congress MLA, was Sunday sworn in as the 15th Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. 
• His oath-taking ceremony, held in state capital Shimla, was attended by senior party leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Mallikarjun Kharge.
• Known for his organisational work and clean image, Sukhu, 58, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, with his mother, wife and daughters watching on.
• Former journalist and MLA from Haroli Mukesh Agnihotri were sworn in as Deputy CM.

KCR Launches Bharat Rashtra Samithi Party After ECI Approval

• The Election Commission informed TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao that it has accepted the name change of his party from Telangana Rashtra Samithi to Bharat Rashtra Samithi. In a letter to TRS, the EC cited a letter that the party sent to the poll body on October 5 requesting its name change.
• Telangana’s ruling TRS on October 5 changed its name to ‘BRS’, heralding the party’s foray into ‘national politics.’ A resolution to this effect was passed at the party’s general body meeting here.
• It was on October 5, on the auspicious occasion of Dasara, that TRS President and Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao announced the new national political entity, 21 years after the TRS was launched in April 2001 to achieve the separate State of Telangana.
• The TRS, which was formed to fight for separate Statehood and to end the decades of discrimination meted out to the people of Telangana in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, led to a surge in the momentum in the movement and saw the party, in an alliance with the Congress, winning 26 assembly and five Lok Sabha seats in the 2004 elections, thereby making its mark on the political firmament.

Nirmala Sitharaman, Falguni Nayar in ‘World’s 100 Most Powerful Women’ list

• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Biocon Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Nykaa founder Falguni Nayar are among six Indians who have made it to the Forbes’ annual list of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women”. 
• Ranked at number 36, Nirmala Sitharaman has made it to the list for the fourth time in a row. In 2021, the 63-year-old minister was ranked at number 37 in the list, while she was in the 41st spot in 2020 and 34th in 2019.
• For her leadership during the Ukraine war, as well as her handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen sits atop the 19th annual Forbes list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.
• While European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is placed at 2nd position, US Vice President Kamala Harris ranked 3rd in the list.
• At rank 100, Iran’s Jina “Mahsa” Amini has posthumously made it to the influential list. Her death in September sparked an unprecedented women-led revolution for their rights in the Islamic nation.

PM Modi opens Phase 1 of Mopa International Airport in Goa

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated the first phase of the green field international airport at Mopa in north Goa. He said the airport would be named Manohar International Airport after former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. 
• He targeted the previous governments, saying they had adopted avote bank approach for decades instead of finding what people needed in terms of public amenities. 
• The Mopa airport is the second international airport in Goa, which is operated as a city enclave from the naval air station INS Hansa.