18th January, 2023 Current Affairs

Sakshi Education

NATIONAL
Mineral production in the country increases by 9.7 percent for November 2022

Mineral production in the country has gone up by 9.7 percent for the month of November last year as compared to the same month in 2021.
The index of mineral production of the mining and quarrying sector stood at 105.8 for November 2022. The Mines Ministry has informed that the cumulative growth for the period April-November, 2022-23 over the corresponding period of the previous year is 4.7 percent.

LS Speaker Om Birla holds discussion with Kenya's President; assures India's cooperation in sharing expertise with Kenya

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said that innovation and research is the currency of information age and therefore it is important to collaborate with like-minded nations facing similar challenges.
Mr Birla held a discussion with Kenya's President Dr. William Samoei Ruto at the Kenyan State House today and extended best wishes to Dr Ruto on his election as the President.
The speaker expressed hope that India-Kenya bilateral relations will reach new heights of cooperation and prosperity and will also expand to new avenues like innovation, ICT, and health. He also assured India's cooperation in sharing its expertise and experience with Kenya in this direction.
Both sides also expressed the desire for exploring new areas of economic cooperation in order to further enhance trade and investment between the two countries.

INTERNATIONAL
India and South Korea hold 5th Foreign Policy and Security Dialogue in Seoul

The 5th Foreign Policy and Security Dialogue between India and South Korea was held in Seoul. During the two-day dialogue which concluded yesterday, both sides agreed to deepen cooperation in areas including trade and investment, security and defense, science and technology, as well as cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
India and South Korea have agreed to work to make global supply chains more resilient and robust. They also noted that bilateral trade was at an all-time high of 28 billion US dollars and agreed to take concrete steps to realize the vision of taking it to 50 billion US dollars by 2030.
The two sides also discussed opportunities for cooperation in new and emerging technologies.
Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs, Saurabh Kumar informed the Korean side about the opportunities India offers to Korean companies for investments in manufacturing, infrastructure and other sectors.

Vietnam President Nguyen Xuan Phuc announces his resignation following corruption scandals

In Vietnam, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has announced his resignation amid the ongoing anti-corruption drive. The anti-corruption drive has led to several ministers being fired in Vietnam. Earlier, two deputy prime ministers who served under President Phuc had quit.
Phuc, a former prime minister, held the post of president since 2021. The 69-year-old had served as prime minister of Vietnam from 2016 until April 2021, when he was elected president.
The Communist Party praised Phuc's leadership in a statement maintained that he was politically responsible for violations and the wrongdoing of numerous officials under him. The two former deputy prime ministers, two ministers and other officials are facing criminal charges in the country.
According to reports, the party's hard-line General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong appears to be consolidating his authority by ousting senior officials seen as more pro-Western and pro-business. Trong was given an unprecedented third term last year.

Sri Lanka Cabinet approves President's proposal to provide 10 kg rice to 2 million low-income families

Sri Lanka’s Cabinet has approved the proposal of President Ranil Wickremasinghe to provide 10 kilograms of rice per month to 2 million low-income families. The decision has been taken to ensure food security for 2 months. This move will also cover beneficiaries of the island’s national development programme for poverty alleviation, Samurdhi. The total estimated cost is 8,040 million rupees which includes 6,200 million rupees for the purchase of 61,000 MT of paddy.
The programme will be implemented by District Secretaries and Divisional Secretaries with the assistance of small and medium-scale paddy mills. Rice will be distributed among the identified Samurdhi beneficiaries including low-income earners using the existing system. Ministry of Women, Child Affairs, and Social Empowerment will coordinate the District Secretaries and issue necessary instructions to them.

India-Bangladesh Friendship pipeline to start supplying diesel to Bangladesh from June

The India-Bangladesh Friendship pipeline (IBFPL) will start supplying diesel to Bangladesh on an experimental basis for June this year.
About 131.5 kilometre long pipeline has been constructed for importing diesel from India. Out of this, 126.5 kilometre pipeline is in Bangladesh and 5 kilometre is in India. He said that the pre-commissioning of diesel imports through this pipeline is underway, reports the news agency UNB.
The international pipeline will carry diesel from the Siliguri based marketing terminal of the Numaligarh Refinery Limited to Parbatipur depot of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC).
The groundbreaking ceremony for the IBFPL was held in September 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina through video conferencing.
The pipeline has a capacity of one million metric tonne per annum (MMTPA). The project is being built under grant assistance from the government of India.

ECONOMY
States’ gross fiscal deficit set to fall in 2022-23: RBI

The Gross fiscal deficit (GFD) of states is budgeted to narrow to 3.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022-23 from 4.1 per cent in 2020-21, helped by broad-based economic recovery and higher revenue collections, as per a Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) report released report
While states’ debt is budgeted to ease to 29.5 per cent of GDP in 2022-23 as against 31.1 per cent in 2020-21, it is still higher than the 20 per cent recommended by the FRBM Review Committee, 2018, warranting prioritisation of debt consolidation, the report – State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2022-23 – showed.
The report added that a glide path also needs to be set, keeping in view the need for rebuilding fiscal space to deal with future shocks. The report said that states have budgeted for higher revenue receipts in 2022-23, driven primarily by state goods and services tax (SGST), excise duties, and sales tax collections.
States’ non-tax revenue is also expected to increase, driven by industry and general services. Tax devolution is budgeted to rise on expectations of higher revenue collections by the Centre.
In the current fiscal, states have budgeted higher capital outlay than in 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22.Going forward, increased allocations for sectors like health, education, infrastructure and green energy transition can help expand productive capacities if states mainstream capital planning rather than treating them as residuals and first stops for cutbacks to meet budgetary targets.
States’ capital outlay-GDP ratio is likely to improve from 2.3 per cent in 2021-22 (provisional account) to 2.9 per cent in 2022-23 (budget estimate).

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Indian scientists make unique discovery on Mars

Indian scientists have found the first evidence of solitary electromagnetic waves. Scientists from the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG) used data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) to establish the findings.
Scientists have identified the solitary waves in the Martian magnetosphere using high-resolution electric field data from MAVEN’s recorded by Langmuir Probe and Waves instruments.
The solitary waves are pulses in the Martian magnetosphere. These fluctuations control other particle functions like particle energisation, plasma loss, and transport through wave-particle interactions. Unlike Earth, which has a strong magnetic field to protect it against ionising solar winds from the Sun, Mars only has a weak magnetic field from its crustal magnetic sources. This allows the solar winds to interact with the Martian atmosphere and create solitary flows. While scientists had theorised that these solitary flows and waves could be observed, teams had been unable to detect these waves before.

SPORTS
Australian Open: Novak Djokovic beat Roberto Carballes Baena at Rod Laver Arena

Andy Murray recorded his 50th Australian Open match-win with a pulsating 6-3 6-3 4-6 6-7 (7-9) 7-6 (10-6) victory against Italian Matteo Berrettini at the Australian Open.
Dan Evans beat Argentina's Facundo Bagnis 6-4 4-6 6-4 6-4 in his first-round match that was delayed for three hours because of extreme heat in Melbourne.
Novak Djokovic beat world number 75 Roberto Carballes Baena in straight sets at Rod Laver Arena.
While Alexander Zverev claimed his first singles win since tearing several knee ligaments with a five-set victory over lucky loser Juan Pablo Varillas.

Published date : 18 Jan 2023 05:35PM