DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

By admin: Nov. 24, 2021

‘Bharat Gaurav Scheme: Railways to run 190 Theme based trains’

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Union Railway Minister Mr Ashwini Vaishnav  has  announced that the Indian Railway will  launch a new segment of trains for tourism called 'Bharat Gaurav'. These will be theme-based trains.

Theme Based Trains 

Theme based trains means trains which are run to cater a particular theme like Ramanaya Trains which goes to places associated with Lord Rama or Guru Kripa Trains that cover places of Sikh culture. 

Bharat Gaurav Trains 

• These trains can be operated by Government owned Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) or by Private operators 
• The private operator can take the train on lease from Indian Railways and will have the freedom to decide the route and fare of these trains .
• These are not regular trains, they are exclusive tourist trains to showcase India’s culture and heritage.
• Packages of these tourist trains might include hotel accommodation, sightseeing arrangements and visits to historical/heritage sites.

At Present Indian Railways operates two types of Trains:

•  Passenger trains and 
•  Freight Trains also known as Goods trains.

Sports:

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 FIH men’s Junior Hockey World Cup:

The 12th Junior Hockey World Cup 2021 is going to start in Bhubaneswar (Kalinga stadium) from 24 November. 

•  Defending champions India will start their campaign against France on 24 November.
• The Indian Junior Hockey Team, captained by Vivek Sagar Prasad.
• India's chief coach Graham Reid.
• The inaugural match of the World Cup will be played between Belgium and South Africa.
• 16 teams will participate in the World Cup.
• Australia, New Zealand and England have withdrawn from hockey's Men's Junior World Cup.

Additional:

• This is the third consecutive time that India is hosting the tournament, which took place in New Delhi in 2013 and in Lucknow in 2016.

 India had won the last World Cup held in 2016.

Delhi government launches Tactical Urbanism trials to make road safer

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• The Delhi Government has opened ‘Tactical Urbanism’ (TU) trials at Rajghat, aimed at improving road safety in the Capital.  
• As part of the Zero Fatality Corridor (ZFC) Project, Delhi Government with the Delhi Transport Department, and  SaveLIFE Foundation tests temporary urban design interventions to improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and other road users and to reduce vehicle crash and accident related deaths. 

What is ‘Tactical Urbanism’?

Tactical urbanism is the term used to describe ‘urban interventions’ that create more ‘people friendly’ streets and spaces – where people feel safe and comfortable moving around, in ways that are good for their health..  It involves the local government , community and government .

It is a temporary, quick and relatively low cost intervention. For eg  painting Zebra crossing so that the pedestrian can safely walk on that while crossing the roads .

Driverless trains on Pink Line of Delhi Metro to start from Nov. 25

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  • Delhi Metro's 'driverless train operations' on 57-km Pink Line is all set to be inaugurated  on 25 November.
  •  Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot will inaugurate it via video-conferencing,
  • The Pink Line, with a length of 58.43 kilometres (36.31 mi), is the longest individual line in Delhi Metro. 
• India's first-ever driverless train operation on the Delhi Metro's Magenta Line was inaugurated on 28  December 2020  by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Law Students to help prisoners of 16 Delhi Jails “, NHRC

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The NHRC signed an MoU with 16 Delhi Prisons, the National Law University, Delhi (NLU) and the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA), for improving access to justice for prisoners.

The project would also help in fostering a sense of public service in the students of NLU.

The students will help the poor and underprivileged prisoner in various legal work like filing bail applications, drafting representation etc.

The aim of this collaborative exercise is to:

• Promote and protect the human rights of prisoners.
• Provide early justice to prisoners.
• Inculcating professionalism among the law students.

NHRC: 

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India was established on 12 October 1993 through  an ordinance issued by the President.

It was provided statutory status by the The  Protection of Human Rights Act (PHRA), 1993.

• Headquarters: New Delhi
• Chairperson:   A retired Supreme Court Chief Justice or a Supreme Court Judge can be appointed  by the President as the Chairman of the NHRC.
• The First Chairman was Justice Ranganath Mishra
• The Current and the 8th  Chairman of NHRC is Justice Arun Kumar Mishra 

Role: NHRC’s role is to protect human rights and recommend measures for their effective implementation. 

MOTO of NHRC: “सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः / May all be happy.”

It has been taken from  Brihadāraṇyaka Upanishad

DSLSA:

Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) provides free and competent legal aid to the underprivileged, poor etc. section of society. 

The Andhra Pradesh State Assembly passed a resolution urging the Center to include caste based census in the 2021 Census.

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The Andhra Pradesh Assembly adopted a resolution urging the Centre to conduct caste wise census of the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes of citizens along with that of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the minorities while holding the General Census for 2021.

 Caste  Census in India 

• The first caste census in India was held in 1881 
• The last caste census was to be held before independence was held in 1931. 
• After Independence, census data included the  census of the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Caste in the general census of India held after every ten years  
•  For the first time after Independence, caste census for all castes were held in the 2011 census. 
• The 2011 caste census was titled as “Socio Economic Caste  Census 2011(SECC)”.
•  Due to discrepancy in the data, the Union Ministry of Social Justice set up a committee to review the SECC data. The head of the committee was  Mr. Arvind Pangariya.

India, US to revive Trade Policy Forum after 4 years:

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The U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, is in India for the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum (TPF) meeting.

•  The meeting was co-chaired by Commerce and Industry, Textiles, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal and U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Katherine Tai, 
• India and the US have agreed to revive their Trade Policy Forum, after four years. It will help in deepening bilateral trade by establishing regular contact and resolving obstacles.

The main trade related issue between India and U.S are as follows:

• India wants the US to restore the GSP (Generalised System of Preferences ) to India which was withdrawn in 2019.
• India is seeking exemption from high duties imposed by the US on some steel and aluminium products under the GSP, and greater market access for its products from sectors such as agriculture, and automobile.
• US wants: The US wants greater market access for its farm and manufacturing products, dairy items and medical devices, apart from cut in import duties on some information and communication technology products. 

The India-US Trade Policy Forum has five focus groups:

• Agriculture, 
• Investment, 
• Innovation and creativity (intellectual property rights), 
• Services, 
• Tariff and non-tariff barriers.

India-US Trade Policy Forum:

•  India US Trade Policy Forum (TPF) was set up in 2005 and reconstituted in 2014.
•  The Minister of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, and Office of the US Trade Representative are the nodal agencies.
• The United States is the second largest trading partner of India.
•  while India is its 9th largest trading partner. 
•  The US is also India’s largest investment partner.

GSP(Generalized System of Preferences )

• The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) was started in  1971 under the aegis of the United Nation Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
•  The main aim of the GSP is to create an enabling trading environment for developing countries, especially least Developed Countries (LDC).
• At Present, the following 15 countries grant GSP preferences: Armenia, Australia, Belarus, Canada, the European Union, Iceland, Japan, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Norway, the Russian Federation, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States of America.

How does it work?

• Suppose the US provides GSP status to India on certain goods like  Cotton bedsheets.
• Now the United States will not impose any tax on cotton bedsheets imported from India.
• Suppose China is not provided with the GSP status by the US. The cotton bedsheet which is exported to the United States by China will be taxed in the U.S. It will make the Chinese bed sheets costly as compared to Indians and hence the American public will prefer to buy Indian bedsheets. It will boost Indian exports to the United States and benefit Indian manufacturers.

Why was it withdrawn from India?

• The Donald Trump administration in the United States withdrew the GSP status to India from 5 July 2019.
• According to the US, India was not providing “equitable and reasonable access to its goods and service in the Indian Market.
• The US government demanded that the Indian Government change its policy on price caps on medical equipment, removal of certain mandatory certifications for dairy product exports, e-commerce policy, etc.

U.S. to release 50 mn barrels of oil to ease soaring oil prices

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President Joe Biden ordered 50 million barrels of oil released from America’s strategic reserve to help bring down energy costs, in coordination with other major energy consuming nations, including India, the United Kingdom and China.

• India announced it would release 5 million barrels from its strategic reserves.
•  The British government confirmed it will release up to 1.5 million barrels from its stockpile. 
• It is basically a symbolic measure by the large oil consuming countries to the major oil cartel OPEC+ , signaling their disapproval of the high crude oil prices in the market .

Oil on Fire

•  The international benchmark, Brent crude, has crossed the $70 a barrel,   while the U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, was quoting at $68.50 a barrel. Both prices were the highest since October 2018.

 OPEC+ and its role in oil price rise 

Oil price like any commodity is determined by the dynamics of demand and supply. World’s major economies are oil importing, with China being the largest oil importer in the world followed by the United States, India, South Korea, Japan, and Germany.

The major suppliers of oil in the world are Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United States and United Arab Emirates.

• Many of the top oil exporting countries are part of an International organization called OPEC(Organisation of Oil Exporting Countries ). In 2016 it formed an alliance with other major oil exporting countries which were not members of OPEC as OPEC Plus or OPEC+.
• OPEC+ controls around 50%of the world oil supply and 90% of proven oil reserves .The main aim of the OPEC plus is to control the world oil price by increasing or decreasing the production of the crude oil so as to influence the supply of oil prices in the world.
• As a cartel, the OPEC+ member countries collectively agree on how much oil to produce, which directly impacts the supply of crude oil in the global market at any given time.
•  After the corona pandemic which ravaged the world economy in 2020 ,the world economic growth prospect is improving . According to the latest International Monetary Fund  (IMF) projection, the world economy is likely to grow by 5.9% in 2021 and by 4.9 % in 2022.This has boosted the demand for oil in the world market. 
• The OPEC+ countries are not increasing the production of oil as desired by the major oil importers like India, U.S ,China etc as it is boosting their revenue .
•   On the other hand the persistent increase in oil price is  creating inflationary pressure in all the oil importing countries.This is creating problems for these governments. 
•  The release of oil from the strategic reserves is at best a token gesture as it is not going to impact the supply situation.
• Already China has refused to release oil form its reserves while the OPEC+ has turned down the demand of the U.S government.

 OPEC(Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries)

• It is an International organisation of petroleum  oil exporting countries  
•  It was created at the Baghdad Conference in 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. They are the founding members  of OPEC. 
• Later on many countries joined and left the organisation 
• At present there are 13 member countries Algeria,Angola, Congo,Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait , Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela .
• The last country to leave the organisation was Qatar in 2019.
• The headquarters of the OPEC is in Vienna (Austria).

 OPEC +

•  Plus denotes those countries who are also oil exporting countries but are not the member of the OPEC
• They are  Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, South Sudan and Sudan.

Strategic Petroleum Reserve Programme of India 

• The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is an emergency stockpile to preserve access to oil in case of natural disasters, national security issues and other events.
• Under Phase I of strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) programme, Government of India, through its Special Purpose Vehicle, Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Limited (ISPRL), has established petroleum storage facilities with total capacity of 5.33 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) at 3 locations, namely (i) Visakhapatnam   (1.33 MMT), (ii) Mangaluru (1.5 MMT) and (iii) Padur (2.5 MMT).
• Under Phase II of the petroleum reserve programme, Government has given approval in July 2021 for establishing two additional commercial-cum-strategic facilities with total storage capacity of 6.5 MMT underground storages at Chandikhol (4 MMT) and Padur (2.5 MMT) on PPP mode.

FAO : State of the Agri-Food Business report

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• The United Nation ,Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has warned the world to  be prepared for future "shocks" to their agricultural and food systems from droughts, floods or diseases following the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
• An additional one billion people are at risk as they would not be able to afford a healthy diet if a shock were to reduce their incomes by one-third,” the report said.
• In July, the FAO said that between 720 million and 811 million people faced hunger in 2020 — some 161 million more than in 2019, largely due to the pandemic.
• Agri-food systems include production, food supply chains, transport networks and consumption. 

FAO( Food and Agricultural Organisation) 

• The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security.
• It was founded in 1945.
• Its headquarters is in Rome (Italy).

Goldman Sachs forecast 9.1% growth rate for India in 2022

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United States based Investment banker Goldman Sachs  expect Indian economy to grow by 9.1% in 2022.on the basis of increased consumption.

According to Andrew Tilton, chief Asia Pacific economist, Indian economic growth will be led by consumption themes . With a control in Covid virus situation in India coupled with strong vaccination drive has led to fully reopening of the economy. It will boost the demand in the economy.

Forecast for the Indian economy growth rate in 2021-22

Institutions Expected GDP growth rate

RBI 9.5%

World Bank  8.3%

International Monetary Fund (IMF)   9.5%

• In 2020-21 the Indian economy showed a negative growth rate of -7.3% in 2020-21 .

ICICI Bank unveils online portal for EXIM Trade

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• India’s largest private bank ,ICICI Bank has unveiled Trade Emerge, an online platform to offer digital banking and value added services to exporters and importers across India. 
• The initiative is aimed at making cross border trade hassle­free, expeditious and convenient.

DAC approves India-Russia AK-203 deal!

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• Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) which met under the Chairmanship of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh (MoD), cleared the long-pending ₹5,100 crore deal between Russia and India to manufacture 6 lakh AK203 assault rifles at a new factory in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh.
• A final decision in this regard will be taken by the Defence Acquisition Council ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to India.
• The two countries had signed an Inter-­Governmental Agreement (IGA) in February 2019 following a joint venture, Indo­-Russian Rifles Private Ltd. (IRRPL), was set up in Uttar Pradesh. The JV is between Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) from the Indian side and Rosoboron Export and Kalashnikov on the Russian side.
• The AK203 Kalashnikov assault rifle will replace the indigenous INSAS rifles as the primary assault weapon for the Indian Military.

IAF to have its own satellite!

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• The Ministry of Defence has  approved a proposal to procure a GSAT-7C satellite and related equipment for the Indian Air Force (IAF) at a cost of Rs 2,236 crore.
• The decision to clear the procurement was taken at a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
• The induction of the GSAT-7C satellite and ground hubs for software-defined radios (SDRs) will enhance the ability of our armed forces to communicate beyond Line of Sight among one another in all circumstances in a secure mode.
•  First dedicated satellite for the Indian Air Force and Indian Army, GSAT 7A  was launched on 19 December 2018, 

Books and Authors

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The Custodian of Trust : A Bankers Memoirs  

The book has been written by Rajnish Kumar, former  Chairman of State Bank of India .

Kamala Harris: Phenomenal Woman

The book has been written by Renowned journalist and writer Chidanand Rajghatta 

Person in News

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Katherine Tai : The U.S. Trade Representative