Ten relevant news updates from across the world, useful for examinations
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Headlines - 19 - 06 - 2021
- Infrastructure - Tamil Nadu industrial corridor - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India signed a $484 million loan to improve transport connectivity and facilitate industrial development in the Chennai–Kanyakumari Industrial Corridor (CKIC) in Tamil Nadu. CKIC is part of India’s East Coast Economic Corridor (ECEC). It stretches from West Bengal to Tamil Nadu, and connects India to the production networks of South, Southeast, and East Asia. ADB is the lead partner of the Government of India in developing ECEC. The project shall provide (i) seamless road connectivity across industrial clusters, transport gateways and consumption centers, (ii) help reduce logistics and production costs. The goal is to accelerate industrial transformation by providing essential transport, energy and urban infrastructure. It emphasises sustainability, climate change resilience, and road safety elements.
- World Politics - India extends $100 mn loan to Sri Lanka for solar energy - India signed an agreement extending a USD 100 million Line of Credit (LOC) to Sri Lanka for solar energy projects. The LOC is for a period of 20 years, with an interest of 1.75%. It was signed between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of India. The EXIM Bank is a specialized financial institution, wholly owned by the Government of India. This LOC will help Financing various projects in Sri Lanka’s solar energy sector. India has taken the international initiative for global cooperation in solar energy, in the form of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), launched by the Indian Prime Minister and the French President in 2015. The ISA’ vision is "To enable One World, One Sun, One Grid (OSOWOG)".
- Science and Technology - Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) - Indian Railways has approved Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), an indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System. Purpose - TCAS will help in avoiding train collisions thereby reducing accidents and ensuring passenger safety. It will increase the line capacity to accommodate more trains using the existing infrastructure. Also, it will attract multinational industries to set up manufacturing units to fulfil the ‘Make in India’ mission and generate employment. LTE - The Cabinet has approved allotment of 5 MHz LTE spectrum in 700 MHz band to Indian Railways. It would provide secure and reliable voice, video and data communication services for operational, safety and security applications. It will be used for modern signalling and train protection systems and ensure seamless communication between loco pilots and guards. Spectrum charges may be levied based on formula prescribed by Dept of Telecommunications for Royalty Charges and License Fee for Captive use as recommended by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
- Social Issues - Birth and death registrations in India, 2019 - The level of registration of births and deaths in the country improved in 2019, according to the “Vital Statistics of India Based on The Civil Registration System” report. Some States and Union Territories were, however, lagging behind. The level of birth registration increased from 87.8% in 2018 to 92.7% in 2019; and death registrations went up from 84.6% to 92% during the period. While 14 States/Union Territories achieved 100% level of birth registrations, 19 States/Union Territories achieved the same level in cases of death. Mizoram and Tripura reported 100% registration of both births and deaths. Meghalaya had 100% registration of births and 97.6% registration of deaths, while Assam reported 100% registration of births and 74% registration of deaths. Sex ratio at birth (SRB) - The highest sex ratio at birth (SRB) based on registered events was reported by Arunachal Pradesh (1,024), followed by Nagaland (1,001) Mizoram (975) and Andaman & Nicobar Islands (965). The lowest SRB was reported by Gujarat (901), Assam (903) and Madhya Pradesh (905), followed by Jammu & Kashmir (909).
- People and Personalities - Milkha Singh passes away aged 91 - Legendary sprinter Milkha Singh has passed away at the age of 91, a month after contracting COVID-19. The three-time Olympian and 1958 Commonwealth Games gold medallist breathed his last at PGI in Chandigarh, two days after being shifted out of COVID-19 ICU. His wife and ex-captain of Indian women's volleyball team Nirmal Kaur had died after battling COVID-19, recently. Captain Milkha Singh was also known as "The Flying Sikh". He is the only athlete to win gold in 400 metres race at the Asian Games as well the Commonwealth Games, and also won gold medals in the 1958 and 1962 Asian Games. He represented India in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour, in recognition of his sporting achievements.
- Indian Economy - Helpline 155260 - To provide a safe and secure digital payments eco-system, the Union Home Ministry has operationalised the national Helpline 155260 and Reporting Platform for preventing financial loss due to cyber fraud. The National Helpline and Reporting Platform provides a mechanism for persons cheated in cyber frauds to report such cases to prevent loss of their hard earned money. As of now, the Helpline covers seven States and Union Territories (Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh) covering more than 35 per cent of the country’s population. The hotline is manned and operated by the concerned State Police. The Helpline 155260 and its Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System has been developed and made operational by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It is supported by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as well as all major banks, Payment Banks, Wallets and Online Merchants.
- Environment and Ecology - Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India - On the occasion of the Desertification and Drought day, India's ministry of environment released the latest version of “Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India. It has been published by Space Application Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad, and provides state-wise area of degraded lands for the time frame 2018-19. It also provides the change analysis for the duration of 15 years, from 2003-05 to 2018-19. India is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD), and is committed to combat desertification and land degradation. It intends to achieve land degradation neutral status by 2030. The MoEF&CC is the nodal Ministry for the implementation of the UNCCD.
- World Economy - Crytocurrency updates - (a) Landon Cassill will be the first NASCAR driver paid entirely in cryptocurrency in a sponsorship deal with Voyager. Cassill and his racing team JD Motorsports have signed a 19-race deal with Voyager. The firm will pay Cassill entirely in cryptocurrencies, most of which will be Litecoin and Voyager Token. (b) Cryptocurrency billionaire Michael Saylor said that Bitcoin is the highest and most dominant digital property network. Saylor's firm MicroStrategy owns more than 92,000 Bitcoins. (c) A patch of land in the virtual world Decentraland has sold for Rs.6.7 cr ($913,228.20) worth of MANA, Decentraland's own cryptocurrency. Republic Realm, a digital real estate investment fund, acquired the NFT. (d) Billionaire investor Mark Cuban said he was "hit" by the crash of DeFi token TITAN as it fell 100% from $60 to $0 in one day. The TITAN crashed after large "whale" crypto accounts dumped their holdings, triggering panic-selling.
- Energy - India's largest solar carport inaugurated at Tata Motors' Pune plant - Tata Motors and Tata Power jointly inaugurated India's largest grid-synchronised, behind-the-metre solar carport at the Tata Motors car plant at Chikhali, Pune. The 6.2 MWp solar carport deployed by Tata Power will generate 86.4 lakh kWh of electricity per year. Moreover, it's estimated to reduce 7,000 tonnes of carbon emissions annually and 1.6 lakh tonnes over its lifecycle. A solar carport is a ground-mounted canopy construction that stretches out over the car parking spaces. The canopy roof area is slightly tilted – offering a perfect platform for solar panels to be seamlessly mounted, which also adds to the aesthetics of the structure.
- Indian Politics - Covid Update - (a) India saw a dip in new COVID-19 cases for second day in a row as 60,753 people tested positive in the last 24 hours, and reported 1,647 deaths in 24 hours. India has reported 3,85,137 COVID-19 deaths so far, while 2,86,78,390 people have been discharged. (b) With a rise in mucormycosis or black fungus cases in Jharkhand, the state government has directed the health machinery to be on high alert and extend all possible care to the affected people (79 confirmed and 53 suspected cases reported to date). (c) The WHO is urgently trying to work with AstraZeneca, Serum Institute of India (SII) as well as the Indian government to restart shipments of COVID-19 vaccines to countries that had to suspend vaccinations.
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