30th March, 2022 Current Affairs

Sakshi Education

NATIONAL

India will provide financial assistance of 1 million dollars to increase operational budget of Secretariat: PM Modi at BIMSTEC Summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a clarion call of making Bay of Bengal the bridge of connectivity, prosperity, and security and stressed that regional cooperation has become a greater priority in the present scenario.
The Prime Minister said recent developments in Europe have raised questions about the stability of the international order. It has become important to make BIMSTEC regional cooperation more active. He pointed out that the region has not remained untouched by today's challenging global scenario.
BIMSTEC charter is being adopted to develop institution architecture for BIMSTEC group. This is the 25th year of the establishment of BIMSTEC. The outcome of this landmark summit will write a golden chapter in the history of BIMSTEC.
The importance of enhancing the capacity of the Secretariat for BIMSTEC to meet everyone's expectations. He suggested that a roadmap should be made to achieve this goal. He said India will provide financial assistance of one million dollars to increase the operational budget of the Secretariat.

Museum of all former Prime Ministers of India inaugurates soon

A museum of all former Prime Ministers, Pradhan Mantri Sangrahalaya (the Museum of Prime Ministers), has been built at Teen Murti Estate, in Delhi.
The Rs. 270 crore project will be inaugurated on April 14, 2022, at the Teen Murti Bhavan complex which was the residence of ex-PM Jawaharlal Nehru.
The Museum will showcase the life, times and contribution of all 14 Prime Ministers of India so far, except for the collections and works on Jawaharlal Nehru, who has a separate Nehru Memorial Museum, which was also his residence.
The PMs Museum project was approved in 2018, and the deadline for its completion was October 2020 but faced delays due to pandemic-related lockdowns, as well as civil works and content-curation issues.

INTERNATIONAL
US announces USD 152 million for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

The US has announced an assistance of USD 152 million which is nearly Taka 1322 crore in new humanitarian assistance for close to one million Rohingya refugees and Bangladesh host communities, said a press release of the US embassy in Dhaka. This brings the total US assistance to the Rohingya refugee related work for Bangladesh to US 1.7 billion since 2017.
The announcement came after the visit of US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas to Cox’s Bazar where the majority of the Rohingya refugees are housed.

Democratic Republic of Congo set to join East African Community

The Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC is all set to be admitted as the seventh member of the East African Community (EAC). The EAC secretariat has said all arrangements are in place for the Extraordinary Heads of State Summit today when DR Congo will be formally received in a virtual session.
Dr. Kevit Desai, Kenyan Principal Secretary, EAC and Regional Affairs said DRC comes into the bloc with a huge market of 90 million people and the potential to contribute to an expanded market and investment opportunities.
Trade-in eastern Africa is set for a boost after officially welcoming its seventh member into EAC.
In addition to trade, political and security cooperation, the DRC will gain access to the two main ports in the region-Mombasa and Dar es Salaam allowing goods to be imported and exported at a much faster pace. Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda are the other members.

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir declassifies files on civil war

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has issued a directive to declassify intelligence reports on how the country's long-running civil war began.
President Kiir said all those found culpable of offences by the released materials will be granted presidential pardon.
The declassification is expected to help in the process of national reconciliation and healing. It is the first time the president has issued such a directive.

Russian, Ukrainian negotiators begin face-to-face talks in Istanbul

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators began face-to-face talks in Istanbul. The face-to-face talks at the Dolmabahce palace in Istanbul are aimed at trying to end the war that has killed an estimated 20,000 people and forced more than 10 million from their homes.
Quoting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the official Turkish news agency said, that the President urged them to put an end to this catastrophic war.
President Erdogan said the two parties have legitimate concerns. It's possible to reach a solution acceptable to the international community. The whole world is waiting for good news.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was also due to meet the Ukrainian and Russian delegations.

Russia says, it will reduce military activities near Kyiv, after face-to-face talks with Ukraine

Russia will drastically reduce its military activity in northern Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, after meaningful talks in Istanbul, Moscow's negotiators said.
Russia's deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin said that the talks on the preparation of an agreement on the neutrality and non-nuclear status of Ukraine have moved into a practical field.
Chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said there had been a meaningful discussion at the talks and that Ukrainian proposals would be put to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin could meet Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
Medinsky added, after today's meaningful discussion they have agreed to propose a solution, according to which the meeting of the heads of state is possible simultaneously with the foreign ministers reaching a treaty,
On the condition of quick work on the agreement and finding the required compromise, the possibility to make peace will become much close

AWARDS

India’s Namit Malhotra on Oscars win for Dune

This year’s Oscar was named to Dune as the Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya starrer sci-fi thriller bagged six wins. Dune was nominated in 10 categories and it won in 6 of them. This win was a proud moment for India as Namit Malhotra, the CEO and Chairman of Double Negative (DNEG), the studio that did the VFX for the film, brought home this honor.
DNEG won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, beating Free Guy, Shang-Chi, Spider-Man: No Way Home and No Time to Die. Interestingly, this is DNEG’s seventh win at the Academy Awards, with the studio winning big for Inception (2011), Ex Machina (2016), First Man (2019), Tenet (2021), Interstellar (2015) and Blade Runner 2049 (2018).

President Kovind Confers National Water Awards 2022

The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind has presented the 3rd National Water Awards in New Delhi. National Water Awards is given for exemplary work in the field of water resource management.
The first National Water Award was launched in 2018, by the Jal Shakti Ministry. A total of 57 National Water Awards for 2022 have been conferred to states, organizations and others in 11 different categories.
Uttar Pradesh has been awarded first prize, followed by Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.

APPOINTMENTS

Himanta Biswa Sarma re-elected as President of Badminton Association of India

The incumbent president of the Badminton Association of India (BAI), Himanta Biswa Sarma has been re-elected unopposed for a second four years term, from 2022 to 2026. He was elected during the General Body Meeting of BAI in Guwahati on March 25, 2022. He is also the current Chief Minister of Assam. He was first elected as BAI chief in 2017.
Apart from this, Sarma also serves as Vice President of Badminton Asia and a member of the Badminton World Federation Executive Council.

REPORTS

HURUN Global U40 Self-Made Billionaires 2022: India ranks 4th

Hurun Research Institute has released the Hurun Global Forty and Under Self-Made Billionaires 2022, which ranks the self-made billionaires in the world (in terms of US dollars) aged forty years and under.
The Hurun Report 2022 lists 87 Self-Made Billionaires in the world aged 40 and under, which is up by 8 from last year.
The USA leads the list with 37 self-made billionaires. China is second with 25 billionaires, followed by the United Kingdom (8), India (6) and Sweden (3) respectively in the top five.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the world’s richest self-made billionaire aged 40 and under with a total wealth of $76 billion. He is followed by ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, respectively.

Published date : 30 Mar 2022 06:30PM