9th November, 2021 Current Affairs

9th November, 2021 Current Affairs

NATIONAL

Srinagar joins UNESCO Creative Cities Network 2021 under crafts, folk arts category

• UNESCO has included Srinagar city of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in its coveted list of Creative Cities Network (UCCN). The announcement was made on Monday by UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulaythrough a press release describing the list of 49 cities selected "in recognition of their commitment to placing the culture and creativity at the heart of their development and to sharing knowledge and good practices".
• The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) is a project of UNESCO launched in 2004 to promote cooperation among cities which recognized creativity as a major factor in their urban development. As of 2017, there are 180 cities from 72 countries in the network.
• The network aims to foster mutual international cooperation with and between member cities committed to invest in creativity as a driver for sustainable urban development, social inclusion and cultural vibrancy. The Network recognizes the following creative fields.

Centre amends Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules 2011 for enhanced protection of Consumer Rights

• Centre has amended the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules 2011 for enhanced protection of Consumer Rights. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has omitted the Rule 5 defining the Schedule II prescribing the pack sizes of various types of commodities.
• A new provision has been introduced to indicate the unit sale price on pre-packed commodities, which will allow easier comparison of the prices of the commodities at the time of purchase. The amendments will come into effect from 1st April next year. 
• The declaration of date of manufacture on the pre-packed commodities is made mandatory for pre packed commodities under the revised rules.
• The provisions of declarations of MRP has been simplified by removing illustration and providing for making the mandatory declaration of MRP in Indian currency inclusive of all taxes. This has allowed the manufacturer to declare the MRP on the pre-packed commodities in a simplified manner.

Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab emerge as top performers in LEADS 2021

• The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal  said that the inputs given by Logistics Ease Across Different States Report 2021 can lead the way to bring down logistics cost by 5% over the next 5 years.
• The report ranks the states on the basis of their logistics ecosystem, highlights the key logistics related challenges faced by the stakeholders and includes suggestive recommendations.
• The LEADS 2021 exercise has gone one-step ahead in analyzing domestic and EXIM logistics ecosystem of the state. Specifically, two improvements have been done in the overall assessment framework. Firstly, objective parameters have been used along with the perception-based indicators for index formulation.
• The objective parameters in the LEADS 2021 Index have been introduced by way of an objective survey instrument administered to the States/UTs and by the inclusion of secondary datasets on logistics across the State/UT level. Secondly, the statistical methodologies to build the index has been updated to get more robust results, given change in the overall framework.
• Alternatively, a total of 21 perception and objective variables have been statistically analyzed to prepare a composite index basis upon which the states have been ranked.
• The perception survey was administered to the four different categories of logistics stakeholders, viz. traders/ shippers, transport service providers, terminal operators, and logistics service providers.
• The States’ objective survey collected binary responses in the context of the areas related to policy, institutional framework, current enforcement mechanism, warehousing approvals and processes, smart enforcement, city logistics, drivers’ empowerment, etc. to understand the initiatives taken by the different state governments towards improving the logistics environment in their respective States.
• The secondary dataset was compiled with the assistance of the central government ministries, department and associated agencies.
• The LEADS survey 2021 was conducted over the period from May to August 2021 in a challenging environment when the COVID crisis was being fought across multiple fronts.

SPORTS

President’s Cup shooting championship: Manu Bhaker and JavadForoughi win air pistol mixed team gold

• Manu Bhaker in partnership with Olympic champion JavadForoughi of Iran won the mixed air pistol gold in the President’s Cup shooting championship in Wroclaw, Poland.
• The Indo-Iranian team beat Mathilde Lamolle of France and ArtemChernousov of Russia 16-8 in the match for the gold. Earlier, Manu and Javad had pipped Anna Korakaki of Greece and DamirMikec of Serbia in the shoot-off after the two teams had tied on 31 in the semifinals. The French-Russian combination had topped the other semifinals.
• Three other Indians in the fray, Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma and Yashaswini Singh Deswal with different partners could not win the medals. In the individual women’s air pistol, Manu Bhaker topped qualification with 585, two points ahead of Anna Korakaki.
• In men’s air pistol, Saurabh Chaudhary with 581points and Abhishek Verma with 580 marks qualified in the third and fourth spots behind Christian Reitz with 586 points while JavadForoughi remained on 584.

 AWARDS
Padma Vibhushan Awards
Centre has announced the Padma Vibhushan Awards (Posthumous). The awardees are George Fernandes (Posthumous), ArunJaitley (Posthumous), PanditChannulal Mishra and Sushma Swaraj (Posthumous).

Published date : 09 Nov 2021 06:06PM