3rd January, 2022 Current Affairs

Sakshi Education

NATIONAL
PM Modi lays foundation stone of Major Dhyan Chand Sports University in Meerut

Prime Minister laid the foundation stone of Major Dhyan Chand Sports University in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.
Government has given top priority to the Indian players to get four tools - resources, modern facilities for training, international exposure and transparency in selection.
The Prime Minister stressed that for sports in the country to thrive, it is necessary that the youth should have faith in sports and should be encouraged to take up sports as a profession.
Schemes like Target Olympics Podium TOPS are providing all support to top sportspersons to compete at the highest level.
In the new National Education Policy, priority has been given to sports.
Sports have now been kept in the same category as science, commerce or other studies.
Major Dhyan Chand who was active in Meerut. Few months back, the central government had named the country's biggest sports award after the sporting icon.

PM transfers 10th instalment of PM Kisan scheme to the bank accounts of 10 crore farmers

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released the 10th instalment of financial benefit under the Pradhan MantriKisanSamman Nidhi Scheme through video conferencing.
More than 20,000 crore rupees were transferred to over ten crore farmer families.
More than 1,80,000 crore rupees have been transferred directly to the accounts of farmers. During the event, Prime Minister also interacted with FPOs.

INTERNATIONAL
India, Pakistan exchange list of nuclear installations and facilities

India and Pakistan exchanged the list of nuclear installations and facilities, covered under the Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear Installations and Facilities between India and Pakistan.
The Agreement provides that India and Pakistan inform each other of the nuclear installations and facilities to be covered under the Agreement on the first of January of every calendar year.
This is the 31st consecutive exchange of such lists between the two countries. The first one took place on January 01, 1992.

India, Pakistan exchange lists of civilian prisoners, fishermen in their custody

India and Pakistan exchanged the lists of civilian prisoners and fishermen in their custody.
This is in keeping with the provisions of the 2008 Agreement under which such lists are exchanged every year on 1st January and 1st July.
India handed over lists of 282 Pakistan civilian prisoners and 73 fishermen in India's custody to Pakistan. Pakistan has shared lists of 51 civilian prisoners and 577 fishermen in its custody who are Indians or are believed to be Indians.
India has called for early release and repatriation of civilian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats from Pakistan's custody.
Pakistan was asked to expedite the release and repatriation of 2 Indian civilian prisoners and 356 Indian fishermen to India whose nationality has been confirmed and conveyed to Pakistan.
Pakistan has been asked to provide immediate consular access to 182 Indian fishermen and 17 civilian prisoners who are in Pakistan's custody and are believed to be Indian.
India has also requested Pakistan to expedite the grant of visas to the members of the medical experts’ team and facilitate their visit to Pakistan.
The team would assess the mental condition of believed-to-be Indian prisoners of unsound mind lodged in different jails of Pakistan. It was also proposed to organise an early visit of the Joint Judicial Committee to Pakistan.
In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pakistan has been requested to ensure the safety, security and welfare of all Indian and believed-to-be Indian civil prisoners and fishermen.

Bangladesh asks US to reconsider sanctions against its top law enforcement officials

The government of Bangladesh has requested the United States to reconsider the sanctions imposed against the officials of its elite law enforcement agency Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
The Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Dr. A K Abdul Momen said that the US allegations against the RAB are baseless, reports the official news agency BSS.
Comparing cases of ‘disappeared people’ in US and Bangladesh, he said that in the last 10 years about 600 people have reportedly ‘gone missing’ in Bangladesh while more than 1 lakh people are ‘getting disappeared’ in US every year and more than 1000 are being killed by the police. However, no one raises questions against the US on this issue as these incidents are termed to have happened in the ‘line of duty’, said Dr.Momen. He said small things happening in Bangladesh are called ‘extra judicial killing and there is scope for reconsidering it.
Earlier, on December 10 US had imposed sanctions on six officials of RAB including the incumbent Director-General Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun and former DG Benazir Ahmed and other senior officials for ‘engaging in serious human rights abuse' relating to their tenure.
The US treasury department cited allegation by NGOs that RAB and other Bangladeshi law enforcement agencies are responsible for more than 600 disappearances since 2009, 600 extra judicial killings since 2018 and torture. The US government statement had said that some reports suggest that these incidents target opposition party members, journalists and human rights activists in Bangladesh.

South Africa parliament building in Cape Town catches fire

A large fire has severely damaged the Houses of Parliament in the city of Cape Town, South Africa.
A plume of black smoke filling the sky, with huge flames coming out from the roof of the building.
President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the scene and called it a terrible and devastating event.
The blaze, which began shortly after 06:00 local time (04:00 GMT), came the day after Archbishop Desmond Tutu's state funeral at St George's Cathedral, near parliament.

Anthony Blinken tells Taliban to reform their policies if they desire international recognition

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has said that Taliban need to reform their policies if they desire international recognition.
Afghanistan’s new rulers to uphold human rights, allow freedom of movement, halt reprisals and combat terrorism. He also promised to look at the options to put more liquidity into Afghanistan’s tattered economy.
Blinken added that while studying ways of injecting more liquidity into the Afghan economy, the US and its allies were looking to it that the funds did not directly benefit the Taliban.
US has issued multiple general licenses to ensure that other countries and institutions, felt free to move forward with their assistance to Afghanistan.

ECONOMY

Vietnam criticizes China’s border controls under ‘Zero COVID’ policy as ‘overkill’ disrupting supply chain, bilateral trade

Vietnam has criticized China’s zero-Covid policies as excessive after tight border controls by Guanxi provincial authorities caused a backlog of thousands of trucks and disrupted trade.
Vietnam’s trade ministry urged China to take urgent measures to ease congestion at border crossings, including starting a pilot programme to allow fully vaccinated workers to alleviate manpower shortages by loading and unloading the trucks held up at Chinese border crossings.
According to state-owned Vietnam News Agency, Vietnam’s trade ministry after a video call with officials from the southwestern Chinese region on Friday said, “Pandemic prevention measures that Guangxi is applying under the ‘zero Covid’ policy, such as stopping border gate operations or stopping the import of some types of fruit, are overkill.” “This disrupted the supply chain, negatively impacted the development of bilateral trade and caused great losses to businesses and people on both sides,” it said.
The two sides agreed to stay in close communication to resolve the problem as reported in Chinese media quoting a Vietnam News Agency report.
Trade between China and Vietnam, particularly overland, has been suffering after thousands of trucks were held up at the border following reports that imported Covid-19 cases had been detected in Pingxiang, a border city in Guangxi. Since then, China has stepped up its border controls with its neighbour.
China is the largest trading partner with Vietnam, and the biggest market for its fruit and vegetables. Vietnamese media reports say many exporters are now forced to sell the fruit at a lower price in domestic markets as they could not export their consignment to China.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen urges China to resolve differences peacefully

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has urged China to resolve its differences peacefully.
In her New Year address at the presidential office in Taipei, she said Beijing should curb the spread of military adventurism. Tsai strongly protested against China’s military incursions and said these are of no benefit to the preservation of regional peace and stability. Reiterating Taiwan’s position, she told that it was consistent and that it will neither bow to pressure nor act rashly when it has the support.
President Tsai said Chinese authorities should not misjudge the situation, and that they should stop the spread of military adventurism. Tsai added that the use of military means is absolutely not an option for resolving the differences between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
She warned that military clashes would deal a blow to economic stability.
Further, Tsai also brought up the recent arrests of people in Hong Kong in connection with an online media outlet known for its critical stance against the Hong Kong government.
Tsai said the pursuit of democracy and freedom is not a crime, and that Taiwan’s position in support of Hong Kong will not change. She made it clear that Taiwan will cherish its own hard-earned freedom and democracy even more deeply.

Kim Jong-un says North Korea to focus on economy in 2022

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has said that the faltering economy will be the national priority this year as the country faces a great life-and-death struggle. He was speaking at the end of a key ruling party meeting, which coincides with him being in power for 10 years.
A self-imposed Coronavirus blockade has left North Korea struggling with food shortages.
There was no direct mention of the United States or South Korea in his speech. Mr Kim said, increasing development and improving people's living standards was the main task. He acknowledged the harsh situation in 2021 and set an important task for making radical progress in solving the food, clothing and housing problem for the people, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
Battling the pandemic was one of the main goals for the coming year.
Emergency epidemic prevention work should be made a top priority in the state work. But, he also said, Pyongyang would continue to strengthen its defence capabilities because of an increasingly unstable military environment on the Korean peninsula.

APPOINTMENTS

U.S. appoints 2 women diplomats to represent Washington in Afghanistan

The U.S. has appointed two women diplomats to senior posts representing Washington in Afghanistan.
Rina Amiri has been appointed as a special envoy for Afghan women, girls, and human rights. She has spent two decades advising governments, the UN, and think tanks on issues related to Afghanistan. Under former US President Barack Obama, she served as a senior adviser to the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Stephenie Foster, from the US State Department, will be the new senior adviser for women and girls to US operations to evacuate and resettle Afghans at risk.
The move comes close on the heels of Taliban imposing fresh restrictions on women in Afghanistan.
Taliban has curbed the rights of women and girls. Most of them have been banned from working. The majority have been banned even from attending schools. In yet another move, Taliban officials issued an edict prohibiting women from traveling more than 75km by road unless they are accompanied by a close male relative.

ENVIRONMENT

Area and volume of glaciers in Himalayan region is declining: Reports

In Nepal, the latest report on climate change has revealed that the area and volume of glaciers in the Himalayan region is declining.
Transparency International Nepal in collaboration with other organizations conducted the research and the report was made public in Kathmandu.
The researchers looked into the impact of climate change on water resources in Nepal's mountainous region and in the lower coastal regions. The latest study has revealed the findings of an earlier study report that the area of glaciers in Nepal decreased by about 24 percent from 1977 to 2010. It also revealed that the height of the Imja and Lhotse glaciers in the Khumbu region of Nepal decreased from 1970 to 2007.
The risk of flooding caused by glacial bursting has also increased. The study has also brought out the fact that 35 glaciers have burst from the Nepal mountain range so far.

Germany shuts down three of its six nuclear power plants

Germany has shut down three of its six nuclear power plants, as part of the country's phase-out of nuclear energy and turned its focus to renewables.
The government decided to speed up the phasing out of nuclear power following Japan's Fukushima reactor meltdown in 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the coastal plant in the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
The plants in Brokdorf in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, Grohnde in Lower Saxony and Unit C at Gundremmingen in Bavaria in the south shut down after three and half decades in operation.
Preussen Elektra, which runs the Brokdorf and Grohnde plants, said in a statement today that the two plants had been shut down. The decommissioning process will take two decades and cost 1.25 billion US dollars per plant.
The last three nuclear power plants - Isar-2, Emsland and Neckarwestheim-II - will be turned off by the end of 2022.
The six nuclear power plants contributed to around 12 per cent of electricity production in Germany in 2021.
The share of renewable energy was almost 41 per cent, with coal generating just under 28 per cent and gas around 15 per cent.
Germany aims to make renewables meet 80 per cent of power demand by 2030 by expanding wind and solar power infrastructure. The closures take place as Europe faces one of its worst-ever energy crises and as nuclear power is, once again, gaining support as it produces significantly less carbon dioxide.