Events of National and International Importance -
Modi arrives in Brisbane for G20
summit –
1.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Brisbane
for G20 summit.
2.
He is the first Prime Minister to visit
Australia since Rajiv Gandhi in 1986.
3.
Mr Modi arrived here from Myanmar, where he
attended the ASEAN – India and East Asia Summit.
4.
While addressing East Asia Summit in the Myanmar’s
capital Nay Pyi Taw, he said ‘look east’ policy now turned into “act east” policy.
5.
“Look
east “was introduced in the early 1990s when PV Narasimha Rao was prime
minister.
6.
It was indorsed by former prime ministers Atal
Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh.
7.
ASEAN comprises
of 10 countries Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Economy -
RBI
to invite applications for payment banks by November-end
1.
The RBI will invite applications for setting up of small and
payment banks – aimed to cater to small businesses and low income households.
2. Addressing micro-financiers at a
Nabard function, Rajan said that
microfinance borrowers should be protected from arbitrary loan pricing.
3.
There should be a reasonable ceiling on interest rate on loans
from microfinance lenders for consumer protection.
4.
Following the October 2010 crisis in the then undivided Andhra
Pradesh that crippled the MFI sector, RBI-appointed Malegam panel had suggested 26 per cent monthly cap on interest
rates for the sector.
5.
This cap was notified by the central bank in April 2012.
IR & Diplomacy -
India-US reach agreement on WTO -
1.
The Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) had
fallen through last August after India refused to endorse it at the World Trade
Organization meet in Geneva in August.
2.
The main cause
was of lack of progress on the agreement on Public Stockholding for Food
Security Purposes, meant to protect the food security of the poor.
3.
Both these
agreements were part of the package finalised at the Indonesian resort of Bali
in 2013.
4.
When India
refused to sign the deal in August because of its food security concerns
Western nations, including the US, had portrayed India as a deal breaker.
5.
US has appreciated
and openly supported India’s concerns on public stockholding in WTO.
6.
The WTO has 160
member nations and deals with rules of trade between nations to facilitate
business.
7.
This will end
the impasse at the WTO and also open the way for implementation of TFA.
8.
In July, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi had announced India would not implement TFA as per the
Bali declaration, terming it as emotive issue for rural poor in a country of
1.25 billion populations.
9.
In Bali, WTO
agreed to allow India to continue with public stockpiling of food grains under
a “peace clause” extending for four years that would act as a security net for the
millions of poor people. India later demanded indefinite extension of this
peace clause.
India and the United Kingdom Agree
to Further Strengthen the Cooperation in Education –
1.
The Sixth India-UK Education
Forum Meeting took place in New Delhi.
2.
Both the
countries discussed the existing bilateral cooperation initiatives in education
and also agreed to further strengthen it by taking up several new initiatives.
3.
Both sides also
acknowledged the cooperation mechanism through joint UK-India Education
and Research Initiative (UKIERI).
4.
Both sides also
discussed the Chevening Scholarships for Indian students; two-way student
mobility.
5.
Generation
UK-India programme which will support up to 25,000 young people from the UK to
come to India over the next 5 years and initiatives supported by DFID.
6.
The UK
delegation confirmed that they will put in four times more resources for the
Chevening scholarships for Indian students and make it the largest Chevening
Programme in the World.
Bilateral Cooperation between India
and Norway in hydrocarbon explorations
1.
The Ambassador
of Norway Mr Elvind S Homme along with a business
delegation of Norwegian companies related to oil & gas sector called on the
MOS(I/c) Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan.
2.
They discussed
bilateral relationship between the two countries in the field of oil and
natural gas.
3.
There is need
to take this forward as Norway has the best of technology in the field of
safety management and hydrocarbon exploration especially in deep see drilling.
Environment & Ecology -
Australia to ban waste
dumping on Great Barrier Reef
1. Australia said on Thursday that it will ban the
dumping of dredging waste on most of the Great Barrier Reef as environmentalists
called for the government to go further and commit to a total halt.
2. Conservationists say that dumping waste in reef
waters will hasten its demise, with dredging smothering corals and seagrasses
and exposing them to poisons and elevated levels of nutrients.
3. The plan, announced by environment minister Greg
Hunt at the once-a-decade World Parks Congress in Sydney.
Science & Technology -
European Space agency releases first
picture from comet -
1. The European Space Agency published the first image taken
from the surface of a comet and said that its Philae lander is still “stable”
despite a failure to latch on properly to the rocky terrain.
2. The lander scored a historic first on (14th November),
touching down on comet
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after a decade-long,
6.4 billion-kilometer (4 billion-mile) journey through space aboard its mother ship Rosetta.
3.
Scientists’ jubilation was slightly dampened
because the harpoons which were meant to anchor the lander to the surface
failed to deploy.
4.
Causing it to bounce twice before it came
to rest on the comet’s 4 kilometer-wide body, or nucleus; Now Philae is stable, sitting on the nucleus and is
producing data.
5.
Philae and Rosetta will use 21 instruments to
analyze the comet over the coming months. Scientists hope the 1.3 billion ($1.6
billion) project will help them better understand comets and other celestial
objects, as well as possibly answer questions about the origins of life on
Earth.
6.
To know more about Rosetta mission you can follow this link (http://www.thehindu.com/scitech/science/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-rosetta-mission/article6593680.ece?ref=sliderNews)
Events/Anniversary/New
release
Govt.
to launch Bal Swachhta Mission on Nehru's 125th birth anniversary
1. The government will launch a nationwide
mission called Bal Swachhta Mission to mark the 125th birth anniversary of the
country's first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru.
2.
The mission which will be launched by Women and Child Development Minister
Maneka Gandhi.
Editorial -
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