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By admin: Jan. 18, 2022

SC upholds the Winding up of Devas Multimedia

Tags: National News

The Supreme Court on 17 January 2022 upheld the National Company Law Tribunal’s May 2011  order to wind up Bengaluru-based Devas Multimedia, saying “it is a case of fraud of a huge magnitude which cannot be brushed under the carpet".

•  It upheld the decision of the Bengaluru bench of the  National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) which had in  May 2021 ordered the winding up of Devas and had also appointed a provisional liquidator, saying the firm was incorporated with a fraudulent motive to collude and connive with the then officials of Antrix to get bandwidth from it.
• The NCLT’s order was also upheld by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal in September 2021.

What is the Devas MultiMedia case 

 In 2005 Devas MultiMedia  company signed an agreement with Antrix corporation of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) under which , ISRO was to  lease two S-Band satellite spectrum  for 12 years at Rs 167 crore to Devas Multimedia.

•  The start-up was to provide multimedia services to mobile platforms in India using the space band or S-band transponders on ISRO satellites.
• In 2011 the UPA government cancelled this deal as the S- Band spectrum was needed for national security and for other social needs 
• After the cancellation of the deal, the foreign investors in Devas, including Deutsche Telekom, the three Mauritius-based investors, and Devas itself, had approached international tribunals seeking compensation.
• Deutsche Telekom was awarded $101 million compensation by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Geneva; the Mauritius investors were awarded $111 million by the International Trade Law tribunal; and Devas awarded $1.2 billion by an International Chamber of Commerce.
• Since then Devas multimedia and other shareholders have filed cases in US and Canada to seize  identified Government of India properties  to recover the dues.

Devas MultiMedia 

• It is a Bangalore-based start-up, founded in 2004, is headed by Dr. M.G. Chandrasekhar, former Scientific Secretary at ISRO.
• In 2008, Deutsche Telekom picked up a 17 per cent stake in Devas for about $75 million. 
• It wanted  to offer satellite broadband services across India on various platforms, including mobile.  

Antrix Corporation

• It was set up in 1992 under the companies act 1956 and its headquarters is at Bengaluru.
• It is a wholly owned Government of India company under the administrative control of the Department of Space . 
• Its main function is to promote and  commercially market the products and technology developed by ISRO.
• It is a Miniratna category 1, Central Public Sector Enterprises.

Election Commission defers Punjab Assembly polls

Tags: National News

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on 17 January 2022 postponed polling for the Punjab Assembly election from February 14 to 20 after the State government and political parties raised concern that many devotees would be in Varanasi to celebrate Guru Ravidas’s birth anniversary on February 16 and miss out on voting.

• Punjab has a substantial population of followers of Guru Ravidas, including the Scheduled Caste community, which is around 32 per cent of the state’s population.
• Counting would, however, take place on March 10, as in the schedule announced on January 8 2022.

Guru Ravidas 

Ravidas is a 15th-century poet, saint and philosopher, who founded the Ravidassia religion. It has a  large following among dalits in Punjab who consider Sant Ravidas as their Guru and some of his sayings has been included in the  Sikh holy book “ Guru Granth Sahib”.

• The birthday of Ravidasji  is on 16 February 2022 and lakhs of devotees are expected to visit his birthplace Varanasi . Many of them take a special train organised by the Dera Sachkhand Ballan in Jalandhar.
• The Dera Sachkhand Ballan is the Ravidassias' largest dera with around 20 lakh followers worldwide. Of these, around 15 lakh live in Punjab in the Doaba region. The region has 23 out of the total 117 Assembly seats in the state.

Chinese Economy grew by 8.1% in 2021

Tags: Economics/Business

According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)  of China on 17 January 2022 the second largest economy in the world  grew 8.1% in 2021 and reached the $18 trillion mark.

•  Last year's growth rate was the fastest since 2011 and marked a strong recovery after growth dipped  to a 44-year-low of 2.2% in 2020.
• The NBS said 10.6 million babies were born last year, down from 12 million in 2020,  a growth rate of 0.034 %, lowest since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 .
• China's population grew to 1.41 billion by the end of last year, stoking fears of a looming demographic crisis and a consequent economic slowdown in the world's most populous nation.
• Experts have warned that a demographic turning point may be just around the corner in the world’s most populous nation, and some say it threatens to erode the foundation of China’s booming economic growth over the past 40 years.

 China is the second largest economy in the world after the United States.

China is the most populous country in the world,second in India and third is the U.S.

PM address the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Davos Agenda

Tags: National News

The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi delivered ‘State of the World’ special address at the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda on 17 January 2022, via video conferencing.The WEF's annual meeting, which has been taking place in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos for 50 years now, could not take place in 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic and has been deferred till early summer this year.

Highlight of his speech 

• Referring to the Mission LIFE, that he gave at the CoP26 conference held at Glasgow , the Prime Minister said that making LIFE into a mass movement can be a strong foundation for P-3 i.e ‘Pro Planet People’. LIFE i.e. ‘Lifestyle for Environment’, is a vision of a resilient and sustainable lifestyle that will come handy in dealing with the climate crisis and other unpredictable challenges of the future.
•   He said that "We contribute 5 percent of global carbon usage but our commitment to phasing out non-renewable energy is 100 percent,". India has set a target of becoming carbon neutral by 2070.
• He said that India has given the entire world a "bouquet of hope". "The bouquet contains - trust towards democracy, technology to empower 21st century and talent & temperament of us Indians,". 
• In the times of Covid, we saw India's vision of one Earth, One Health which helped save millions of lives by sending medicines to countries. India is today the pharmacy of the world. 

The World Economic Forum's Davos Agenda Virtual Summit will host world leaders and heads of important institutions and organisations around the world who will discuss areas of concern and present their ideas on how to address them.

The three main areas of concern at the summit are Climate Action, Pandemic Recovery, and Economic and Social Resilience.

See 21 December 2021 post on WEF 

Shri Narendra Goenka takes over as new Chairman of AEPC

Tags: Person in news

Narendra Kumar Goenka, founder and managing director of Texport Industries Pvt Ltd, today took charge as the new chairman of the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC). Goenka succeeds Padma Shri Dr. A Sakthivel as AEPC chairman.

• AEPC is the official body of apparel exporters in India, under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Textiles,  that provides invaluable assistance to Indian exporters as well as importers/international buyers.

Figures from the Indian Textile Sector

• The Indian textile industry contributes to about 7% of the industry output (in value terms) and around 15% of India’s export earnings. 
• The top global export destination countries for Indian Textiles are USA, UAE, Bangladesh, UK, and Germany. 
• About 50% of India’s textiles import is Fibre and Yarn used for the value addition. The maximum textile and apparel imports come from China followed by USA and Bangladesh.
• In FY 2020-21 there was a deceleration in textile exports due to pandemic disrupting the supply chain and demand.
• During April-December, 2021 the total Textiles & Apparel including Handicrafts exports was US$ 29.8 billion as compared to US$ 21.2 billion for the same period last year. This implies robust growth of approximately 41% over last year.

CSIR’s UV-C Disinfection Technology to combat the pandemic

Tags: National News

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh trolled out CSIR's newly developed Disinfection technology for use by the common masses.

• The UV-C technology is developed by the Ministry of Science & Technology through CSIR-CSIO (Council Of Scientific And Industrial Research - Central Scientific Instruments Organisation) and is totally effective for mitigation of airborne transmission of SARS-COV-2 and will also remain relevant in the post-COVID era. 
• The technology has been successfully tried in Railways, AC Buses, and even the Parliament House
• UV-C deactivates viruses, bacteria, fungus, and other bioaerosols, etc. with appropriate dosages using 254nm UV light.
• UV-C air duct disinfection system can be used in auditoriums, large conference rooms, classrooms, malls, etc. which provides a relatively safer environment for indoor activities in the current pandemic.

Virat, Darmi, and Heena awarded the Chief of the Army Staff Commendation

Tags: Defence

Virat, Darmi, and Heena were awarded the Chief of the Army Staff Commendation on the eve of Army Day on January 15 for their exemplary service. Virat is a horse with the President’s Bodyguard (PBG), while Darmi and Heena are Army dogs.

Tata Power commissions 100 MW solar projects in Uttar Pradesh

Tags: Economics/Business

Tata Power Renewable Energy Ltd (TPREL) has commissioned two solar power projects of 50 MW each at Prayagraj and Banda in Uttar Pradesh.

• The plants are expected to generate more than 221.26 million units annually.
• The plants at Prayagraj and Banda are expected to reduce 1,77,037 lakh tonnes of carbon emission annually.
• Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) has already been signed between TPREL and Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL), Lucknow for these two projects.
• With the addition of 100 MW, the renewables capacity in operation for Tata Power will be 3,055 MW with 2,123 MW of solar and 932 MW of wind.

NO FRENCH OPEN FOR UNVACCINATED

Tags: Sports News

The French parliament on 16 January 2022 approved a new vaccine law, which requires anyone wanting to enter sports arenas and other public venues to have been vaccinated against coronavirus. French Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu said ‘’this law applies to everyone,to volunteers and to the elite sportspeople, including those coming from abroad, until further notice”.

• Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic could miss the French Open, another grand slam tennis tournament after being out of Australian Open as he is not vaccinated against coronavirus. 

REAL MADRID WIN SPANISH SUPER CUP

Tags: Sports News

Real Madrid football club of Spain won the 38th edition of the Spanish Super Cup by beating Athletic Bilbao 2-0 on 16 January 2022  at the King Fahd Stadium,Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia.

• Man of the match- Luka Modric (Real Madrid)   
• The Spanish Super cup is played between four teams who are the winners and runners up  in the Copa del Rey and La Liga tournament of Spain .
• Under an agreement with Saudi Arabia , the Super cup will be held in Saudi Arabia till 2029.

Oxfam Report on Poverty in India

Tags: National News

The non-profit group Oxfam International published its latest report titled “Inequality Kills” on January 17th, 2022 ahead of the World Economic Forum’s Davos agenda.

• Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. 
• It is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. 
• Gabriela Butcher is the present director of Oxfam.
• Oxfam describes itself as a global movement of people who are fighting inequality to end poverty and injustice.

Highlights from the latest report-

• The income of 84 percent of households in the country declined in 2021, but at the same time, the number of Indian billionaires grew from 102 to 142.
• Oxfam’s analysis during the coronavirus pandemic (March 2020 to November 2021) showed that the wealth of Indian billionaires rose from Rs 23.14 lakh crore to Rs 53.16 lakh crore. In contrast, more than 4.6 crore Indians were estimated to have fallen into extreme poverty in 2020 alone, which was nearly half of the global new poor according to the United Nations
• Oxfam says that a 1% Wealth Tax on India’s Super Rich families could fund its entire vaccination program cost of Rs 50,000 crore, and a 4% wealth tax on just the 98 richest families of India could account for the Union health ministry’s budget for two years and the mid-day meal program for 17 years.
• The budgetary allocation for social security schemes declined from 1.5% of the total Union budget to 0.6%. There was a 6% cut in allocation for education and in the health sector, even though covid continued to ravage India, the country's healthcare budget saw a 10% decline from RE (revised estimates) of 2020-21.
• Lowering corporate taxes from 30 percent to 22 percent to attract investment last year resulted in a loss of Rs 1.5 lakh crore, which contributed to the increase in India’s fiscal deficit.
• As a remedy to the growing wealth inequality in India, Oxfam suggested imposing a wealth tax on the super-rich population of India.

Narayan Debnath passes away

Tags: Person in news

A noted comics artist, writer and illustrator, who brought to life cult  Bengali cartoon characters like Bantul the Great, Handa Bhonda, and Nonte Phonte passed away at the age of 96 years on 18 January 2022. 

• He was the first and the only comics artist from the country to have received the D. Litt. degree.
• He was a Padma Shri awardee,who held the record of running the longest comics series by an individual artiste for Handa Bhonda, which has now completed 53 years.

India can achieve the targets of USD 650 billion in the current financial year

Tags: Economics/Business

The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal said it is possible to achieve exports of USD 650 Billion within the current financial year. 

The total merchandise export during April to December 2021 was USD 299.7 billion and the overall target for merchandise export for the financial year 2021-22 is USD 450 billion.

The target for the Service sector export is USD 250 billion for the current financial year.