8th November, 2021 Current Affairs

NATIONAL

Draft Mediation Bill – Highlights

1. Indian government has issued a Draft Mediation Bill for Public Consultation that seeks to safeguard the interest of litigants to approach competent adjudicatory forums.
2. Draft Mediation Bill provides for pre-litigation mediation.
3. The bill safeguards the interest of litigants to approach competent adjudicatory forums and courts for urgent relief.
4. According to the bill, successful outcome of mediation has been made enforceable by law, in the form of Mediation Settlement Agreement.
5. Mediation Settlement Agreement is out of consensual agreement between the parties. Thus, challenge related to it has been permitted on limited grounds.
6. As per bill, mediation process safeguards the confidentiality of mediation undertaken. It also provides for immunity in certain cases against its disclosure.
7. According to the draft bill, registration of Mediation Settlement Agreement has been provided with the legal authorities in State, District and Taluk within 90 days for ensuring maintenance of authenticated records of the settlement.
8. Bill provides for the creating a Mediation Council of India.
9. The draft bill proposes to bring about a standalone law on Mediation regarding the issues of domestic andinternational mediation because India is a signatory to the Singapore Convention on Mediation.
10. It also takes international practice of using terms like ‘conciliation’ and ‘mediation’, into contemplation.
11. As an Alternate Dispute Redressal (ADR), mediation provides an informal, simple, non-adversarial approach for resolving several types of disputes like civil disputes, commercial disputes and family disputes etc. In such cases, parties are not able to start any negotiation and reach to the settlement on their own.

Meghalaya Cabinet approves creation of Eastern West Khasi Hills district

1. On November 5, 2021, Meghalaya Cabinet has approved a proposal to give “Mairang civil sub-division” the status of a full-fledged district.
2. Mairang civil sub-division will now be called as “Eastern West Khasi Hills” district.
3. It will be inaugurated on November 10, 2021.
4. This move will help in ensuring that administration will remain closer to the people. It will also ensure that implementation of several schemes is more effective.
5. Khasi Hills is a low mountain formation, located in the Shillong Plateau of Meghalaya. These hills are part of the Garo-Khasi-Jaintia range. They connect with the Purvanchal Range as well as larger Patkai Range towards further east. Khasi Hills are located in the Meghalaya subtropical forests ecoregion. Before 1970, Khasi Hills and entire Meghalaya state was part of Assam, administratively.

INTERNATIONAL

India, Bhutan to have 7 more Trade entry and exit points

1. India and Bhutan are set to have seven additional entry and exit points for trade in order to increase trade connectivity.
2. This decision was taken in a commerce secretary-level meeting that was held between the issue of trade and transit between both the countries.
3. Indian side was led by BVR Subrahmanyam, Secretary of Department of Commerce under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry while the Bhutanese side was led by Dasho Karma Tshering, Secretary of Ministry of Economic Affairs.
4. During the meeting, extensive discussions on the current trade and transit issues were discussed.
5. They also discussed issues of mutual interests and measures to strengthen the bilateral trade relations.
6. Discussions were held to increase trade connectivity between both the countries.
7. Both sides also formalized seven additional entry or exit points, through a Letters of Exchange.

What are seven entry or exit points?

Seven entry or exit points include-

1. Nagarkata Land Customs Station without commodity restriction
2. Agartala Land Customs Station
3. Pandu port at Guwahati Steamerghat. It is subject to cross border control at Dhubri
4. Jogighopa port. This port is also subject to cross border control at Dhubri.
5. Asian Highway 48 that connects Torsha Tea Garden in India with Ahllay in Bhutan. This highway acts as an additional route corresponding to the Land Customs Station at Kamardwisa, Jaigaon and Birpara.

China launches 3 new remote sensing satellites

1. China successfully launched three new remote sensing satellites on November 6, 2021 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre located in southwestern Sichuan province.
2. The satellites belong to the Yaogan-35 family.
3. They were launched by a Long March-2D carrier rocket and entered the planned orbit successfully.
4. This was the 396th mission for Long March series carrier rockets of China.
5. China’s Long March-3B rocket has completed its 300th launch in March 2019 successfully. It put a new communication satellite into orbit. This rocket is regarded as the main stay of Chinese space programmesince 1970.
6. Long March carrier rocket series has been developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. It is responsible for around 96.4 per cent of all the Chinese launch missions in China. Long March rockets took 37 years to complete first 100 launched. While, second 100 launched were completed in 7.5 years. It only took four years to accomplish the final 100 launches. The average number of launches per year increased from 2.7 to 13.3 and then to 23.5.

Australia: Rover on the Moon Project

1. Private companies in Australia and Canada are developing a moon mission, in association with the University of Technology Sydney.
2. Under this mission, Australian technology will be sent to the moon by mid-2024, to hunt water on it.
3. If the plan is successful, it will be the first rover made up of Australia components, to make on Moon.
4. Earlier, Australian Space Agency had announced in October 2021, its plan to send an Australian-made rover to the Moon by 2026.
5. Australian-made rover is part of a deal of Australian Space Agency with NASA.
6. The rover will collect lunar soil containing oxygen. This soil will be used to support human life in space.
7. The Rover is ten-kilogram in weight and having the dimension of 60x60x50cm.
8. It will be launched on board the Hakuto lander, which is made by lunar robotic exploration company of Japan called ispace.
9. The rover is also built byispace. It will comprise of an integrated robotic arm, made by private companies called Stardust Technologies (Canada) and Australia’s EXPLOR Space Technology.

Landsat 9 satellite sends 1st photos of Earth

1. NASA and US Geological Survey led Landsat 9 mission collected and sent its first light images of the Earth.
2. Images highlight the remote coastal islands and inlets of Kimberley region of Western Australia, Lake Erie, white sands of Pensacola Beach and Glaciers high in the Himalayas.
3. All the acquired images provide a preview of how this mission will help people in managing vital natural resources and understanding the impacts of climate change.
4. Landsat 9 is an Earth observation satellite. It was launched from Space Launch Complex-3E at Vandenberg Space Force Base on September 27, 2021. The mission was launched through an Atlas V 401 launch vehicle. This is a joint mission of NASA and US Geological Survey (USGS). NASA looks after building, launching, and testing the satellite on the other hand, USGS operates this satellite, and manages & distributes the data archive.

ECONOMY

RBI: Commitment to Support Greening India’s Financial System

1. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) published its ‘Statement of Commitment to Support Greening India’s Financial System – NGFS’ on November 3, 2021 in order to contribute towards global response for meeting the climate goals.
2. RBI broadly supports the NGFS (Network for Greening the Financial System) declaration.
3. It also praised the co-ordination efforts of NGFS in defining, promoting, and contributing towards the development of best practices in climate finance by sharing experiences and best practices.
4. RBI joined the Central Banks & Supervisors NGFS on April 23, 2021; as member. This will help RBI in learning from and contributing to global efforts on climate change.
5. NGFS is a network of 83 central banks and financial supervisors. The network aims to accelerate the scaling up of green finance. It also seeks to develop recommendations for role of central banks for climate change. This network was established in 2017. NGFS’s secretariat is hosted by the Banque de France. Dutch central banker Frank Eldersonis the current chair of NGFS. Centralbanking.com had awarded NGFS as the best green initiative of the year 2020.
6. The NGFS was announced in the year 2017, at the Paris “One Planet Summit”. It was launched by 8 founding central banks.

SPORTS

Eminent Cricket Coach Tarak Sinha passes away

1. Eminent Cricket Coach and Dronacharya Awardee Tarak Sinha passed away in New Delhi after a prolonged illness. He was 71. Tarak Sinha was battling lung cancer for a while.
2. He was a father figure in coaching and produced some of the country's finest cricketers who ruled domestic and international cricket.Tarak Sinha trained stalwarts including ManojPrabhakar, Raman Lamba, Ajay Sharma, AtulWassan, Surinder Khanna, Sanjiv Sharma, Aakash Chopra, Anjum Chopra, RumeliDhar, Ashish Nehra, ShikharDhawan and Rishabh Pant.
3. Sports Commentator Ghaus Mohammad said, demise of Tarak Sinha is a big loss for Indian cricket. Sinha had a great eye to spot talents and nurture them.