26th November, 2024 Current Affairs

NATIONAL
Japan and Wales to Partner with Nagaland for Hornbill Festival 2024

• Japan has been announced as the official partner country for the 25th edition of Nagaland’s renowned Hornbill Festival, alongside Wales, which was confirmed earlier. This strategic partnership, forged through meetings between Nagaland’s Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and Japanese Embassy representatives, including Takashi Ariyoshi and Mayumi Tsubakimoto, marks a significant moment in the state’s cultural calendar.
• The festival, scheduled from December 1-10 at Kisama near Kohima, will feature Japan’s contribution in areas like cultural performances, capacity building, and workshops focusing on handicrafts and bamboo products, with renowned Japanese artists and experts leading these sessions.
• The Hornbill Festival, known as the “Festival of Festivals,” is Nagaland’s premier cultural event, showcasing the state’s rich heritage and vibrant traditions. It attracts a large number of tourists every year and highlights various ethnic communities of Nagaland, their music, dance, and crafts.

INTERNATIONAL
India signs the Final Act of the Riyadh Design Law Treaty

• After nearly two decades of negotiations, the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) adopted the landmark Design Law Treaty (DLT).By signing the Final Act of the Riyadh Design Law Treaty, India builds on its progress and reaffirms its commitment to fostering inclusive growth and ensuring equitable access to intellectual property protection.
• The treaty seeks to harmonize the procedural frameworks for industrial design protection, improving the efficiency and accessibility of registration processes across multiple jurisdictions. By standardizing procedural requirements, the DLT reduces administrative burdens, thereby promoting global creativity in design. Its goal is to ensure that the benefits of streamlined design protection are accessible to all stakeholders, with particular emphasis on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), startups, and independent designers.
• The DLT introduces several key provisions aimed at benefiting design applicants, including relaxed time limits, the reinstatement of lost rights, the option to correct or add priority claims, simplified procedures for recording assignments and licenses, and the option to file multiple designs in a single application. These changes provide greater flexibility for design applicants. Furthermore, the treaty encourages contracting parties to work towards implementing electronic industrial design systems and facilitating the electronic exchange of priority documents. When combined with initiatives like the Startup India program and the Startups Intellectual Property Protection (SIPP) scheme, these provisions will help empower startups and SMEs to secure design rights globally, boosting their competitiveness and supporting market growth.
• India, with its rich heritage of creativity and craftsmanship, has long recognized the crucial role of design in driving sustainable economic development. The country’s policy emphasis on design protection as a catalyst for innovation has delivered impressive results. Over the past decade, design registrations in India have tripled, with domestic filings increasing by 120% in the last two years alone. Notably, design applications grew by 25% last year.

ECONOMY
Cabinet Approves PAN 2.0: Digital Transformation of Taxpayer Services

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the PAN 2.0 Project, an upgrade of the current PAN/TAN system, with a financial outlay of ₹1,435 crore. The project aims to streamline and digitize the PAN services, enhancing taxpayer registration and service delivery.
• PAN 2.0 is a part of the government’s Digital India vision, which focuses on improving the digital infrastructure and making the PAN a common identifier across various government systems.
• The digital transformation ensures quicker processing, increased security, and better integration across various government services, making the PAN a unified digital business identifier.

Published date : 27 Nov 2024 01:49PM