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By admin: Nov. 3, 2022

Indonesia officially hands over G-20 Religious forum Presidency to India in Bali

Tags: place in news Summits

Indonesia on 3 November 2022 handed over the Presidency of the R20 summit, the religious grouping of the Group of 20 Forum, to India which New Delhi will host in 2023.

Indonesia, which is the host country of the 17th G- 20 summit 2022, introduced the R 20(Religion Forum) event as part of the G 20 meeting for the first time. Indonesia has the largest muslim population in the world.

It was held on 2 and 3 November 2022 at Bali to mobilize global leaders to help ensure that religion functions as an open and dynamic source of solutions, rather than problems, in the 21st century.

The R20 Summit was inaugurated by the Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

India will assume the Presidency of the Group of Twenty (or G20) for one year from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023.

Group of 20 or G-20 

 G-20 is a group of 19 countries as well as the European Union.  The member countries are ;Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, South Africa, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

Indonesia

It was earlier known as Dutch East Indies(Netherland East Indies) and it became Independent from the Netherlands on 17 August 1945.

It is the world's largest archipelago consisting of 17,500 islands.

Borneo island of Indonesia is the third largest island in the world after Greenland and New Guinea.

There are more than 100 active volcanoes in the country and the most famous being Krakatoa and Mount Merapi.

It has the world’s largest muslim population .

Capital : Jakarta 

Currency : Rupiah 

President : Joko Widodo

“Baji Rout National Football Tournament” inaugurated in Dhenkanal Odisha by Dharmendra Pradhan

Tags: place in news Sports State News

Union Minister for Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the “Baji Rout National Football Tournament in Dhenkanal, Odisha on 3 November 2022. 

Speaking on the occasion he said that to promote football in India the government with FIFA and All India Football Federation (AIFF)  has launched the 'Football 4 School' initiative.

The minister revealed that the programme has been targeted to rope in about two crore fifty lakh school students towards football. He said that ten lakh footballs will be distributed among the government and private schools in all the districts of the country through the Jawahar Navoday Vidyalaya. 

India Post Payment Bank launches India’s first Floating Financial Literacy Camp in Srinagar

Tags: place in news Economy/Finance

The Government of India owned India Post Payment Bank (IPPB) launched India’s first floating financial literacy camp around the world-famous Dal Lake of Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. The financial literacy camp was organised under the Niveshak Didi or female Dakiya initiative of the IPPB.

Niveshak Didi scheme 

Niveshak Didi '' or female dakiya,  is a joint initiative of Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority ( IEPFA),Ministry of Corporate Affairs with India Post Payment Bank. 

The aim of the scheme is to promote financial and investor education amongst the women.  

Trained women agents of the IPPB educate the general female population to develop adequate knowledge, skills, attitude and behaviour which are needed to manage their money better and plan for their future. This is also called as Financial Literacy.

Objectives of Financial Literacy 

To promote and strengthen financial inclusion in India, government of India and the four financial sector regulators Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) have launched National Strategy for Financial Education.

Currently the 2^nd National Strategy for Financial Education (2020-2025) is being implemented in India. It has laid down the following objective to create a financially aware and empowered India:

• Inculcate financial literacy concepts among the various sections of the population through financial education to make it an important life skill
• Encourage active savings behaviour
• Encourage participation in financial markets to meet financial goals and objectives
• Develop credit discipline and encourage availing credit from formal financial institutions as per requirement
• Improve usage of digital financial services in a safe and secure manner
• Manage risk at various life stages through relevant and suitable insurance cover
• Plan for old age and retirement through coverage of suitable pension products
• Knowledge about rights, duties and avenues for grievance redressal
• Improve research and evaluation methods to assess progress in financial education

India Post Payment Bank (IPPB)

It is a payment bank which has been promoted by the Department of Post under the Ministry of Communication, Government of India .

IPPB was launched as a pilot project on 30 January 2017 in Ranchi (Jharkhand) and Raipur (Chhattisgarh).

It was formally launched on 1 September 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Headquarter of IPPB : New Delhi 

Punchline  of the bank : Apka Bank Apke Dwar 

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer : J. Venkatramu

Bhutan Army Chief Lt Gen Batoo Tshering meets Indian Army chief General Pande during his visit to India

Tags: Defence Person in news

The visiting Bhutanese Army Chief officially known as Chief Operations Officer, Royal Bhutan Army Lt Gen Batoo Tshering met his Indian counterpart, Indian Army Chief General Manoj Pande.  He also met the defence secretary Giridhar Aramane in New Delhi. 

 Lt Gen Batoo Tshering was on an official visit to India from 28 October to 02 November 2022.Eralier in the month of July this year the Chief of Army Staff General Manoj Pande visited Bhutan.

India Bhutan Special military Relationship 

India and Bhutan share a special relationship and it is governed by the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation of 1949 signed between the two countries and updated during the visit to India of Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck in February 2007. 

 Under the treaty India is responsible for Bhutanese security.

 For this purpose India has stationed its Indian Military Training Team in Bhutan to provide training to Bhutanese security forces. 

Regular India-Bhutan security and border management meetings take place between the two countries to discuss a number of key issues, including threat perceptions, security and border management issues.

Kingdom of Bhutan 

King of Bhutan: Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck

Prime Minister: Lotay Tshering

Capital: Thimphu 

Currency: ngultrum

Bhutan is known as "Druk Yul," or "Land of the Thunder Dragon".

President Murmu inaugurates the permanent Northeast Campus of IIMC in Aizawl

Tags: place in news State News

President Droupadi Murmu inaugurated the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) North East campus located at  Aizawl in Mizoram University in virtual mode on 3 November 2022.

The IIMC North East Campus began functioning in 2011 from a temporary building made available by Mizoram University. The construction work for the campus began in 2015 and was completed in 2019. 

Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC)

The Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) is a premiere Journalism Institute under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. 

It was inaugurated in 1965 to cater the training needs of media professionals in the country and other developing countries. 

It has set up five regional center in India to cater the need of five regions of India 

The Regional centers of IIMC are;

Eastern Regional Center   :  IIMC Dhenkanal near Bhubaneswar, Odisha 

Western Regional Center: Amravati, Maharashtra 

Northern Regional Center: Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir 

Northeastern Regional Center: Aizawl, Mizoram 

Southern Regional Center: Kottayam, Kerala 

Headquarters: New Delhi 

Chairman of IIMC: Apurva Chandra, Secretary, Information and Broadcasting Ministry. 

 State of Mizoram 

It was created as a Union Territory on 21st January 1972 by bifurcating Assam.

It was granted statehood on 20 February 1987.

Chief Minister of Mizoram:  PU Zoramthanga

Governor of Mizoram: Dr Hari Babu Kambhampati 

Capital: Aizawl 

15th Urban Mobility India (UMI) Conference & Expo 2022 to be held in Kochi, Kerala

Tags: place in news Summits

The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in collaboration with the Government of Kerala will organise the 15th Urban Mobility India (UMI) Conference & Expo 2022 in Kochi, Kerala from 4-6 November 2022. 

The Conference will be jointly inaugurated by the Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri and Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan. 

The genesis of UMI is from the National Urban Transport Policy of the Government of India, 2006 (NUTP), which lays a very strong emphasis on building capabilities at the State and city level to address the problems associated with urban transport and undertake the task of developing sustainable urban transport systems.

Theme of the conference

Theme of the 15th Urban Mobility India (UMI) Conference & Expo 2022 : “Azadi@75 – Sustainable AatmaNirbhar Urban Mobility”.

The conference will focus on designing and implementing efficient, high quality and sustainable transport systems in the cities. 

ECI announces two phase election to elect 15th Gujarat Legislative Assembly

Tags: State News

The Election Commission of India(ECI) on 3 November 2022 has announced that the election to constitute the 15th Legislative Assembly of Gujarat will be held on 1st and 5th of December 2022 and the counting will be done on 8 December 2022.The term of the  current and 14th Legislative Assembly will end on 18 February 2023.

Election in Gujarat 

The Gujarat Assembly has 182 seats with 13 seats reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) and 27 seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST).   

In the first phase, 89 seats will go to the polls and elections will be held in 93 seats in the second phase.

According to the election commissioner around 4 crore 92 lakh people are eligible to vote in the election.

Announcing the schedule of the Assembly poll the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that counting of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly and Gujarat Legislative Assembly polls will be conducted on 8 December and the process will be completed by 10 December 2022.

The Himachal Pradesh Assembly goes to poll on 12 November 2022 to constitute the 14th Legislative Assembly.

Gujarat Legislative Assembly 

The first Gujarat Legislative Assembly was constituted on 1 May 1960 when the Bombay State was bifurcated into Marathi speaking state of Maharashtra and Guajarati speaking state of Gujarat.

The Bombay State Legislative Assembly which was constituted in 1957 consisted of 389 members.

Out of this Gujarat Legislative Assembly was created with 132 members.

The first election to constitute the 2nd Gujarat Legislative Assembly election was held in 1962 

The 14th and current Legislative Assembly was constituted on 19 February 2018.

Korean Film Festival begins in Dhaka

Tags: Festivals International News

A three-day festival of Korean films was inaugurated on 2 November in Dhaka, Bangladesh by State Minister of Cultural Affairs K M Khalid and the Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh Lee Jang-keun.

Important facts

• The festival began with the screening of the acclaimed film 'Escape from Mogadishu' directed by Ryu Seung-wan.

• The film is based on real-life events during the Somali Civil War when the embassies of North and South Korea resorted to humanity and compassion to flee the country.

• The film was selected as the South Korean entry for Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.

• The festivities began with a two-minute silence in memory of those killed in Seoul during a recent Halloween event.

• The five films shown at the festival depict the life and history of Korea and its people.

• A large number of students and young people came to participate in the film festival enthusiastically. 

Education Ministry releases Performance Grading Index for states, UTs

Tags: National National News

The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education on 3 November, 2022 released the Performance Grading Index (PGI) for States/UTs for 2020-21.

Highlight of the Index

• A total of 25.57 crore students were enrolled in schools from primary to higher secondary in the year 2021-22, while in the year 2020-21, 25.38 crore students were enrolled.

• An increase of 19.36 lakhs was registered in the number of students enrolled in the year 2021-22.

• In the year 2021-22, there was an increase of 4.82 crores in the enrollment of SC students, while in the year 2020-21 it was 4.78 crores.

• The enrollment of ST students was 2.51 crore in the year 2021-22, as compared to 2.49 in the year 2020-21.

• The enrollment of OBC students was 11.48 crore in the year 2021-22, as compared to 11.35 crore in the year 2020-21.

Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER)

• An improvement in the Gross Enrollment Ratio in primary, upper primary and higher secondary level school education was observed in the year 2021-22 as compared to the year 2020-21.

• In the higher secondary schools, an improvement in GER was recorded in the year 2020-21 to 53.8 percent and it increased to 57.6 percent in the year 2021-22.

Number of Teachers

• During the year 2021-22, 95.07 lakh teachers were engaged in school education, of which more than 51 percent were female teachers.

• In the year 2021-22, the pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) stood at 26 in primary, 19 in upper primary, 18 in secondary and 27 in higher secondary.

• In this way, it is continuously improving from the year 2018-19.

Enrollment in Higher Secondary Education

• In the year 2021-22, more than 12.29 crore girl students had enrolled from primary to higher secondary.

• Thus, in 2020-21, an increase of 8.19 lakh was registered in the enrollment of girls as compared to boys.

• The Gender Parity Index (GPI) shows that girls are at a reasonable level of representation in school education, given the population of girls in the same age group.

SC students enrollment

• The enrollment of SC students from primary to higher secondary in the year 2021-22 increased to 4.83 crore as compared to 4.78 crore enrollment in the year 2020-21.

• The enrollment of ST students increased from 2.49 crore in 2020-21 to 2.51 crore in 2021-22 and the enrollment of OBC students increased from 11.35 crore in 2020-21 to 11.49 crore in 2021-22.

Number of schools

• There were 14.89 lakh schools in the year 2021-22, while the number of schools in the year 2020-21 was 15.09 lakh.

• The main reason for the decrease in the number of schools was the closure of private schools and other managed schools and the formation of clusters of schools by different states.

Availability of infrastructure facilities in schools

• Electricity connection - 89.3%

• Drinking water - 98.2%

• Girls Toilet - 97.5%

• CWSN Toilet - 27%

• Hand washing facility - 93.6%

• Playground - 77%

• Railing ramp for CWSN - 49.7%

• Library/Reading Room/Reading Space - 87.3%

Sustainable Environmental Initiatives for Schools

• Kitchen Garden - 27.7%

• Rainwater Harvesting - 21%

About Performance Grading Index for states, UTs

• The online data collection system from schools was developed by the Department of School Education and Literacy in the year 2018-19.

• It is a unique index for evidence-based comprehensive analysis of school education systems across State/UTs.

• Its objective is to promote evidence-based policy making and highlight course correction to ensure quality education for all. 

• This report was released for the year 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20. 

• The present report is for the year 2020-21.

SEWA founder and Gandhian Elaben Bhatt passes away

Tags: Person in news

Elaben Bhatt, 89, noted Gandhian, leading women’s empowerment activist, and founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) died on 2 November, 2022 in Ahmedabad. 

Important facts

• She has been honoured with Padma Bhushan, Ramon Magsaysay Award, Indira Gandhi Peace Prize along with many other national and international awards.

• She has been recognized globally as a women leader.

• She founded many institutions and carried out pioneering work in organising the informal sector for self-employment and empowerment of women not only in India but across South Asia. 

• She was the Chairperson of Sabarmati Ashram and recently resigned as the Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi-founded Gujarat Vidhyapith. 

• In 2007, she became part of a group of world leaders called the Elders, founded by Nelson Mandela to promote human rights and peace around the world.

• She was also a member of the Rajya Sabha and the Planning Commission of India in the 1980s.

• She also served as an advisor to the World Bank and addressed the United Nations General Assembly.

• She founded SEWA in 1972, one of the largest cooperatives working for women, with over two million members from around 18 states and neighbouring countries.

• Elaben was born on September 7, 1933 in Ahmedabad in a family that was involved in social work.

China launches third and final lab module of space station

Tags: Science and Technology International News

China on 1 November, 2022 launched its third and final permanent space station module (Tiangong space station).

Important facts

• The name of this lab module is Mengtian.

• Mengtian is the second lab module and the last major component of China's space station.

• Mengtian will later be relocated to its permanent position and three modules—named Tianhe, the Wentian Lab Module, and Mengtian—will form a basic T-shaped structure of the space station.

• It will provide space for science experiments in zero gravity.

• Mengtian weighs about 23 tons, is 17.9 metres (58.7 ft) long and has a diameter of 4.2 metres (13.8 ft).

• China's space laboratory will be fully ready as soon as this module, sent to the Wenchang Launching Station, located on the coast of the southern island province of Hainan, via Long March-5BY-4 rocket, connects to the space station Tiangong.

• China successfully launched the first lab module of its under-construction space station in the last week of July 2022.

IVRI demanded a ban on using Aceclofenac in cattle

Tags: Science and Technology

The Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) has called for a ban on the use of aceclofenac in cattle.

Important facts

• IVRI found in its study that aceclofenac was rapidly converted to diclofenac when injected into the buffalo.

About Aceclofenac

• It is used for the relief of pain and inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and ankylosing spondylitis.

• Wildlife Institute of India, BNHS and IVRI had written to the Union Health Ministry seeking a ban on Aceclofenac, but no action has been taken so far.

About Diclofenac

• It is an anti-inflammatory drug and was banned for veterinary use by the Government of India in 2006. 

• This was the main reason for the massive decline (99 percent) in the vulture population across Asia.

3rd National Tribal Dance festival comes to an end in Raipur, Chhattisgarh

Tags: Festivals State News

The third National Tribal Dance festival, organised by the Chhattisgarh government to promote tribal culture, folk dance, folk music, and folk art came to an end on 3 November 2022.

The three day (1-3 November) National Dance festival was held at the Chhattisgarh capital Raipur on the occasion of the 22nd foundation day of Chhattisgarh state.  Chhattisgarh state was founded on 1 November 2000 after the bifurcation of Madhya Pradesh.

According to the 2011 census 30.62% of the population of the state were Scheduled Tribes.

Participants at the National Tribal Dance festival

In this year more than 1500 tribal performers from India and 10 other nations including Mozambique, Mongolia, Tonga, Russia, Indonesia, Maldives, Serbia, New Zealand, and Egypt, performed at the event.

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel inaugurated the festival on 1 November 2022.

 National Tribal Dance Festival 

To promote tribal culture Chhattisgarh organised the first national tribal dance festival from 27th December to 29th December 2019.

The second national tribal dance festival was organised from 28th October to 1st November 2021.

The third edition of this festival (NTDF) started from 1st of November on the occasion of 22nd foundation day of Chhattisgarh state. It concluded on 3 November 2022.

Some of the famous Tribal dance form of India 

 Some of the famous tribal dance forms of are India are Cheraw Bamboo dance from Mizoram, the Kalbelia dance from Rajasthan, Elelakkaradi dance from Kerala, Bhagoria from Madhya Pradesh, Chhau dance from West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha, Dhimsa from Andhra Pradesh, Shad Suk Mynsiem from Meghalaya,Santhali dance by the Santhal tribals from West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha.

Vadodara becomes the second city to successfully issue municipal bonds with assistance from US Treasury

Tags: Economy/Finance

Vadodara city of Gujarat became the second city in India to successfully issue its municipal bonds with the assistance of the US Treasury Department’s Office of Technical Assistance. 

Earlier Pune was the first city in India to issue Municipal bonds in 2017 with the assistance of US Treasury Department’s Office of Technical Assistance, Finance Ministry in the United States of America is known as Treasury department.

The successful issuance of the bond was celebrated by the US Embassy and the US Treasury officials, the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Vadodara city and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on 3 November 2022.

The Rs 100 crore fund raised by the bond will be used for infrastructure development in Vadodara.

What is a Municipal Bond?

 Municipal Bonds also known as Muni bonds. It is a debt instrument which is issued by Urban Local Bodies in India. The fund is used to develop Infrastructure developments in the municipal areas.

The first Municipal bonds were issued in 1997 by the Bangalore Municipal Corporation.

SEBI guidelines on Municipal bonds 

The municipality which meets the following criteria can issue municipal bonds:

• The municipality must not have a negative net worth in each of the three previous years.
• The municipality must have no default history in repayment of loans to financial institutions in the last year.
• The municipality, promoter and directors must not be enlisted in the wilful defaulters published by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). 
• The municipality should have no record of default in the payment of interest and repayment of principal with respect to debt instruments.

Other features of the Bond 

The time period of the bonds shall be 3 years.

The bonds must be rated by Credit Rating agencies with a rating above investment grade.