26th October, 2021 Current Affairs

Sakshi Education

NATIONAL
IAC Vikrant begins Second Phase of Sea Trials

First Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) of India, named Vikrant, started its second phase of sea trials on October 24, 2022, in the backdrop of its planned induction into the Indian Navy by August 2022.
INS Vikrant is a 40,000-tonne aircraft carrier.
It is the largest and most complex warship that is built in India.
It completed a five-day maiden sea voyage in August 2021, successfully.
The warship has been constructed at a cost of Rs. 23,000 crores.
With its construction, India joined the select group of countries that have capabilities to build the state-of-the-art aircraft carriers.
IAC Vikrant has been constructed at a cost of Rs. 23000 crores. It is a 40000-tonne aircraft carrier. It will operate MH-60R multi-role helicopters, MiG-29K fighter jets and MKamov-31 helicopters. It comprises of more than 2300 compartments and has been designed for a crew of 1700 people. It also comprises of specialized cabins to accommodate women officers. The aircraft carrier has a top speed of 28 knots & a cruising speed is of 18 knots. It is having an endurance of around 7,500 nautical miles. Construction of 262 meters long & 62 meters wide carrier was started in 2009. Its height is 59 meters.

Government sign SPA with Tata Sons for strategic disinvestment of Air India

The Government signed the Share Purchase Agreement with Tata Sons for strategic disinvestment of Air India. On the 11th of this month, a Letter of Intent was issued to the successful bidder Tata Sons in the strategic disinvestment transaction of Air India.
The government had approved the winning bid of M/s Tata Sons’ Special Purpose Vehicle M/s Talace Private Limited for Air India disinvestment at an enterprise value of 18 thousand crore rupees on 8th October.

Ministry of Textiles approves Pilot Project on skilling of Design and Commissioning technical personnel

Ministry of Textiles has approved the Pilot Project on skilling of Design and Commissioning technical personnel associated with the application of geotextiles in infrastructure projects.
The project will be conducted concurrently by the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee.
The coordinating faculty of the concerned fields of Engineering will look after the implementation of the special courses in consultation with the other concerned centers.
Ministry of Textiles will coordinate for all matters related to conducting these Courses. A batch will consist of a minimum of 75 to a maximum of 100 candidates and during the pilot phase, two batches are scheduled for each of these three Institutes.

Standing Committee on IT to examine media ethics

The Standing Committee on Information Technology has decided to review ethical standards in the media coverage.
The standing committee also examines issues related to Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Committee took this decision after looking at several public complaints in functioning of media.
It will also study the impact of suspension of telecom services and Internet over the last five years in States like Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi in the aftermath of protests against the governments.
Functioning of the PrasarBharati Organization will also be reviewed.
Committee would also take up the issue of “challenges facing Indian film industry”.
Functioning and outreach of Doordarshan Channels and Bureau of Outreach & Communication (BOC) would also be looked upon by the committee.
Committee will also study the growth and opportunities of community radio stations.
The reconstituted panel us headed by veteran Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.

INTERNATIONAL

Australia: In-principal support for net zero by 2050

Australian Cabinet is set to consider conditions that junior coalition partner of government has placed on committing to the target of zero net carbon emissions by 2050.
In-principal support of the Nationals party for the target was agreed at a meeting on October 24, 2021.
This support is significant for Australia as the Prime Minister Scott Morrison wants to take a more ambitious plan for reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, in the backdrop of UN summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
Reducing emissions in Australia is a politically fraught issue. Australia is among world’s largest exporters of coal andliquified natural gas. It is also one of the world’s worst greenhouse gas emitters per capita due to its heavy reliance on coal-fired power.
Australia has not moved from its 2015 pledge at Paris climate summit, to reduce emissions by 26%-28% by 2030, well below 2005 levels.
The Glasgow Summit is also known as COP26. The summit is due held from October 31, 2021, to November 12, 2021. The summit will assess progress made by countries in accordance with the Paris climate deal to limit warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius.
This summit is the third meeting of the parties to Paris Agreement (CMA2) and 26th Conference of the Parties (COP)” to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

MEA asserts, India played a proactive role in building capacities of BIMSTEC Member States across various sectors of regional cooperation

India remains strongly committed to further building the momentum towards deepening of regional cooperation under the BIMSTEC framework and assiduously working towards making the organization stronger, more vibrant, more effective and result-oriented.
The origins of BIMSTEC and India’s journey as one of its founding members have a contextual rationale. He said, Neighbourhood First and Act East both of which are relevant for BIMSTEC, are the cornerstones of India’s foreign policy.
India has played a proactive role in building capacities of BIMSTEC Member States across various sectors of regional cooperation.
At the last Summit in 2018 in Kathmandu, the Prime Minister of India had announced several initiatives to strengthen BIMSTEC cooperation and capacity-building in different areas.

Myanmar skips ASEAN summit to protest general's exclusion

Southeast Asian leaders began a virtual summit with Myanmar skipping the annual meeting in protest after its top general was shut out for refusing to cooperate in defusing the crisis in his country since the military takeover.
The exclusion of Senior General Min Aung Hlaingwas an embarrassment for Myanmar’s military and the harshest rebuke by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and took over the government February 1st.
Brunei, who is this year’s chair of the 10-member bloc, invited Myanmar’s highest-ranking veteran diplomat, Chan Aye, as a “non-political” representative but she didn’t attend the meeting.
ASEAN on October 15 decided to exclude junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, who ousted a civilian government on Feb 1, over his failure to implement a peace process he agreed with ASEAN in April towards ending the country's bloody crisis.
Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry yesterday vowed to challenge ASEAN’s unprecedented move to downgrade its participation in the three-day summit, which is being held by video due to coronavirus concerns.
It said it has informed Brunei that it can only accept participation by the general, who now heads Myanmar’s government and ruling military council, or a ministerial-level representative.

Developed Countries push 100 billion Dollar climate finance goal target deadline to 2023

A week ahead of the COP26 summit, UK which holds the Presidency of the summit published a Climate Finance Delivery Planto provide clarity on when and how developed countries will meet the 100 billion Dollar climate finance goal.
The new outlook states that the goal will be met from 2023. This is three years later than what was committed to by the Developed Countries at the Paris Summit in 2015. Developed countries committed to a goal of mobilizing jointly 100 billion Dollars a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries, in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation.
The Parties committed to continue delivering on this goal through 2025 at Paris conference. The Climate Finance Delivery Plan calls upon those developed countries who have not yet made a pledge should come forward with an ambitious climate finance commitment as soon as possible.

Bangladesh Navy Chief on official visit to India

The Chief of Naval Staff of Bangladesh Navy Admiral M Shaheen Iqbal is on a 7-day official visit to India between October 23 and29. He will interact with the Chief of Naval Staff of Indian Navy as well as the Chief of Defence Staffand other high ranking officials of the government of India during his visit.
He will hold bilateral interactions on issues relating to the joint cooperative efforts like the Co-ordinated patrol along international maritime boundary line, bilateral exercise Bongosagar, conduct of naval training and reciprocal visits of delegations.
The Bangladesh Navy Chief is scheduled to visit Mumbai after concluding his engagements at Delhi. In Mumbai he will have a meeting with Vice Admiral R Hari Kumar, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command. He will also visit the Flagship of the Western Naval Command. He will next proceed to Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), Wellington to witness training activities and interact with Commandant, DSSC, said an official press release.
India and Bangladesh are jointly celebrating Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Victory in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War this year.
A host of joint activities have been conducted which include reciprocal ship visits by both Navies and participation in Republic Day Parade 2021 at New Delhi by Bangladesh Armed Forces Contingent and gifting of war memorabilia.

Uzbek president secures second term in landslide victory

Uzbek President ShavkatMirziyoyev has been re-elected for a second five-year term, winning 80.1% of the vote in Sunday's poll which Western observers said was not truly competitive despite improvements brought by recent reforms.
Mirziyoyev's widely expected victory will allow him to deepen his reform campaign and likely lead to Uzbekistan opening up further to foreign trade and investment - while retaining a highly centralized political system.

ECONOMY

RBI caps NBFC IPO Funding

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a scale-based regulation of non-banking finance companies on October 22, 2021.
RBI’s regulation also comprises of a ceiling on IPO funding per borrower and changes in minimum net owned fund, capital requirements and classification of non-performing assets.
Under the new framework, RBI has kept a ceiling of Rs. 1 crore per borrower to finance subscription of an initial public offering (IPO).
Overall guidelines will be effective from October 1, 2022, while the instructions related to the ceiling on IPO funding will come into effect from April 1, 2022.
Under the new framework, regulatory structure of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) will comprise of four layers based on the size, activity, and perceived riskiness namely top layer, upper layer, middle layer, and base layer.

SEBI declares state-owned PEC as ‘not fit & proper’

For the first time, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has declared a government-owned company called “PEC Ltd” as ‘not fit & proper’.
PEC Ltd is a 100 per cent government-owned company.
It has been declared ‘as not fit and proper’ as it acted as a broker and carried out illegal trades on NSEL’s spot exchange platform in between 2010 and 2013.
To give this tag, SEBI studied the role of its management, board, and promoters.
In the past, SEBI has declared entities in high-profile cases involving Sahara India and Financial Technologies (63 Moons Technologies) as ‘not fit and proper’.
SEBI is the regulatory body for securities & commodity market that works under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Finance. It was first established in the year 1988 as a non-statutory body to regulate the securities market. It became an autonomous body & given statutory powers on January 30, 1992, by SEBI Act, 1992.