20th January, 2022 Current Affairs

Sakshi Education

NATIONAL
Cabinet approves infusion of Rs. 1500 Cr in IREDA

The Union Cabinet today approved infusion of one thousand 500 crore rupees in Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited, IREDA.
It will enable IREDA to lend 12 thousand crore rupees to the renewable energy sector. He said, this will enhance its net worth which will help it in additional Renewable Energy financing.
It will also improve the capital-to-risk weighted assets ratio to facilitate its lending and borrowing operations. The decision will generate employment over ten thousand jobs every year.

Extension of tenure of National Commission for SafaiKaramcharis for 3-years

The Cabinet approved extension of tenure of the National Commission for SafaiKaramcharis, NCSK for three years beyond 31st March 2022. The total implication of the extension for three years will be approximately 43.68 crore rupees.
The major beneficiaries will be the SafaiKaramcharis and identified manual scavengers in the country.
The number of Manual Scavengers identified under the Manual Scavengers Act Survey is over Rs. 5,80,000.
The NCSK was established in 1993. It has been giving its recommendations to the Government regarding specific programmes for welfare of SafaiKaramcharis, study and evaluate the existing welfare programmes for SafaiKaramcharis and investigate cases of specific grievances.
The Cabinet has also cleared the Scheme for grant of ex-gratia payment of difference between compound interest and simple interest for six months to borrowers in specified loan accounts.
It has approved the payment of ex-gratia amount of over 973 crore rupees pertaining to remaining claims submitted by Lending Institutions under the Scheme. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scheme for grant of ex-gratia payment was approved by the Cabinet in October, 2020.

INTERNATIONAL

PM Modi and Mauritius PM Jugnauth to jointly inaugurate India-assisted Housing project tomorrow

Prime Minister NarendraModi and Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Kumar Jugnauth will jointly inaugurate the India-assisted Social Housing Units project in Mauritius virtually.
They will also launch the Civil Service College and 8MW Solar PV Farm projects in Mauritius that are being undertaken under India’s development support.
An Agreement on extending a 190 million US dollar Line of Credit from India to Mauritius for the Metro Express Project and other infrastructure projects will be exchanged.
MoU on the implementation of Small Development Projects will also be exchanged.

Experts deliberate on widening scope of India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund

Experts from India and Israel have deliberated on widening the scope of India-Israel Industrial Research and Development and Technological Innovation Fund (I4F) at its 8th Governing Body meeting.
During the meeting held virtually, they approved three joint Research and Development projects worth 5.5 million US dollar and suggested measures to create a broader India-Israel collaborative ecosystem.
The projects include ‘Centrally Monitored Internet of Things, IoT Nanosensors for Molecular Diagnostics in Healthcare and Screening Applications’, ‘NoMoreMos- a mosquito control biological solution’ and ‘IoT enabled satellite communication for real-time collection of agriculture and environment data across India’.
I4F programme has a lot of potentials.
India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund is a cooperation between the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, and the Israel Innovation Authority, Government of Israel to promote, facilitate and support joint industrial R&D projects between companies from both the countries to address the challenges in the agreed ‘Focus Sectors’.

Blinken arrives in Ukraine amid Russian invasion fears

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Ukraine amid mounting fears that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could be imminent.
Russia has repeatedly denied planning to invade neighbouring Ukraine. But senior US officials say Moscow could attack at "any point".
An estimated 100,000 Russian troops have been deployed near Ukraine's borders and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told the build-up had created extremely dangerous situation.
No option was off the table and that Mr. Blinken would highlight very clearly there is a diplomatic path forward.

Sierra Leone's President sacks Justice Minister

Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio has sacked the attorney general who is also the justice minister.
No reasons have been given by the presidency. Local media have linked the sacking to the pardoning of prisoners on New Year's Day and photos of the attorney general with one of the freed inmates.
Anthony YeiwohBrewah has been replaced by Mohamed Lamin Tarawalley.
The attorney general was then pictured at his house with BaimbaMoi Foray - who had been convicted of the murder of a DJ - which sparked outrage. Foray's pardoning has since been revoked.
Mr. Brewah has not commented about the photos or his sacking.

India, Denmark agree to initiate joint research & development on green fuels including green hydrogen

India and Denmark have agreed to initiate joint research and development on green fuels including green hydrogen.
During the Joint Science and Technology Committee meeting on 14th of this month, they discussed national strategic priorities and developments in Science, Technology, and Innovation of both countries.
The committee emphasised on development of bilateral collaboration on mission-driven research, innovation, and technology development, including climate and green transition, energy.

Afghan acting PM calls for Muslim Nations to officially recognise Taliban

The Taliban's acting Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund on Muslim nations to be the first to officially recognise the administration that seized power in Afghanistan in August.
No country has yet recognised the Taliban as a government, with nations watching to see how the terrorist group -- notorious for human rights abuses during their first stint in power between 1996 and 2001 -- will rule this time around.
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were the only three countries to recognise the previous Taliban government.
Although the group has promised a softer brand of governance, women are largely excluded from government employment, and secondary schools for girls have mostly remained shuttered.
Aid-dependent Afghanistan is in the grip of a humanitarian disaster, worsened by the Taliban takeover in August -- when Western countries froze international aid and access to assets held abroad.
Jobs have dried up, and many government workers have not been paid for months in a country that was almost entirely dependent on foreign aid under the previous US-backed government.
The United Nations has warned that half the population is threatened with food shortages.
Nations face the delicate task of channelling aid to the stricken economy without propping up the regime, with many members of what the Taliban call their interim government -- including Akhund -- on an international sanctions list.
Last month, a special meeting of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) declined to formally recognise the government, and the new regime's acting Foreign Minister was excluded from the official photograph taken during the event.
The OIC did, however, pledge to work with the United Nations to try to unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen Afghan assets. It also urged Afghanistan's rulers to abide by international obligations regarding the rights of women.

ENVIRONMENT

UN confirms 2021 among seven hottest years on record

The past seven years have been the hottest on record, the United Nations confirmed, adding that 2021 temperatures remained high despite the cooling effect of the La Nina weather phenomenon.
The warmest seven years have all been since 2015, the UN's World Meteorological Organization said in a statement. And despite the fact that two consecutive La Nina events captured global attention for large portions of the year, 2021 still ranked among the seven warmest years on record, the WMO said.
Back-to-back La Nina events mean that 2021 warming was relatively less pronounced compared to recent years. Even so, 2021 was still warmer than previous years influenced by La Nina, WMO chief Petteri Taalas said in the statement.
This, he said, shows that "the overall long-term warming as a result of greenhouse gas increases is now far larger than the year-to-year variability in global average temperatures caused by naturally occurring climate drivers.
La Nina refers to the large-scale cooling of surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, with widespread impacts on weather around the world.
The phenomenon, which typically has the opposite impacts as the warming El Nino phenomenon, usually occurs every two to seven years, but has now hit twice since 2020.

ECONOMY

NIF Incubation Council ties up with Amazon India to boost Grass-root Innovation

National Innovation Foundation’s Incubation and Entrepreneurship Council and Amazon India have signed MoU for online distribution of product of grassroots innovations, student innovations, and outstanding traditional knowledge-based products.
The MoU will make innovations from rural parts of India available universally. Science and Technology Ministry said that since these innovations have their genesis in addressing an unmet need in a particular locality, it can initiate a journey towards providing inclusive innovations to the world at large.
Amazon will also create a storefront to boost the discoverability of these rural innovations among customers.
Through this MoU capacity building of grassroots innovators by engaging industry and subject matter experts would be ensured.
This MoU follows just couple of days after the declaration of 16th January 2022 as the National Start-up Day by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the announcement that the current decade would be the ‘techade’ of India to take the start-up culture to the far-flung areas of the country.

Published date : 20 Jan 2022 05:54PM