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By admin: Feb. 23, 2022

Germany halts Nord Stream 2 Gas Pipeline

Tags: International News

Germany on 22 February 2022 halted the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea gas pipeline project in response to the Russian President Vladimir Putin decision to recognise the breakaway Ukrainian region of  Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic, as an Independent country on 21 February 2022.

• The Nord 2 gas pipeline is  designed to double the flow of Russian gas direct to Germany. Europe's most ambitious and divisive energy project, worth $11 billion, was finished in September, but has stood idle pending certification by Germany and the European Union.

• Nord 2 and Nord 1 pipelines could deliver 110bn cubic meters of gas to Europe every year. That is over a quarter of  all the gas that European Union countries use annually.

Controversy over the pipeline

• The pipeline  was meant to  ease the pressure on European consumers facing record energy prices amid a wider post-pandemic cost of living crisis. 

• The Nord 2 gas pipeline has been controversial from its inception . Germany, which meets half of its gas requirement from Russia, argued that the project was a commercial one not political. 

• But the pipeline had faced opposition within the European Union and from the United States. They feel that the pipeline will increase European energy dependence on Russia and the Russians can use it to blackmail Europe in future conflict .

• It will also deny transit fees to Ukraine through which another Russian pipeline passes through and enable Russia to punish Ukraine and possibly invade it .   

• Russia planned the Nord gas pipeline after there was a dispute over transit fees with Ukraine on the gas pipeline passing through its territory and Ukraine was found to be using gas meant for Western Europe for itself without the permission of Russia in  2005.

Nord 2 Gas pipeline 

• It is a 1200 Km gas pipeline which will transport natural gas from Ust Luga gas field in Russia to Greifswald in Germany under the baltic sea.

• The Nord 2 pipeline is owned by the Russian state owned gas company Gazprom. It paid half the cost but the rest of the cost was shared by Shell ,Austria's OMV ,France's Engie and Germany's Uniper and Wintershall.

• The Nord 1 pipeline which started transporting gas to Europe along the same route started its operation in 2011.

Fact File 

Top Natural Gas Producing countries in the world (2020)

1. United States 

2. Russia

3. Iran

4. Qatar

5. China 

Country having  biggest  reserves of Natural Gas (2020)

1. Russia 

2. Iran 

3. Qatar

4. Turkmenistan

5. United States 

Source : BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2021.

First batch of Indian wheat aid sent to Afghanistan

Tags: National News

Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla flagged off the first truckload of wheat supplies from India to Afghanistan at the Attari-Wagah border on 22 February 2022.  Afghan Trucks carrying 2500 tonnes of Indian wheat will carry it to Afghanistan’s Jalalabad via Pakistan's Torkham border.

This is the part of 50,000 tonnes of wheat promised by India to Afghanistan as humanitarian aid in October 2021.

India Pakistan  Trade route 

At present the only operational land trade route between India and Pakistan is through the Attari/Wagah border . 

• Wagah is  an Indian army outpost on the Indo-Pak border ( between Amritsar and Lahore) and  Atari is on the Pakistani side of the border .

• Currently there is only one operational rail route along the Amritsar-Attari-Lahore railway line through Attari and Amritsar rail station for movement of cargo between the two countries. 

• The cargo moves either by the goods trains or by freight cars attached to the bi-weekly Samjhauta Express(Delhi to Lahore). 

India to be the Chairman of the International Rubber Study Group

Tags: National News

India has been elected as the chairman of the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG) for two years.

KN Raghavan, the head of the Indian delegation to IRSG and the Executive Director of the Indian Rubber Board, will serve as Chairman of IRSG for the next two years.

The previous chairman of the IRSG was Cote d'Ivoire's.

IRSG 

It was founded in 1944, with Singapore as its headquarters.

It is an international body which discusses matters relating to the rubber industry and acts as an intermediary between the Governments and Industry.

Fact File  

Rubber 

Rubbers are of two types . Natural rubber and Synthetic rubber 

Natural rubber is obtained from a plant called Hevea brasiliensis, whereas synthetic rubbers are man-made polymers under controlled conditions using petroleum by-products.

The Top producer of natural rubber in the world (2020)

1. Thailand 

2. Indonesia 

3. Vietnam

4. India 

5. Cote d'Ivoire's

Source : Food and Agricultural Organisation 

The largest exporter of natural rubber in the world 

1. Thailand 

2. Indonesia

3. Cote d'Ivoire's

Largest natural rubber producing state in India 

1. Kerala 

2. Tripura 

3. Karnataka 

Source  Government of India , PIB

Fun facts 

Natural Rubber comes from the sap of a plant called Hevea brasiliensis which is a native of the Amazon forest in South America .

John Joseph Murphy  of India  set up the country's first commercial rubber plantation at Thattekad near Kothamangalam ,Kerala in 1902.

Full form for exam 

IRSG : International Rubber Study Group. 

KPAC Lalitha passes away

Tags: Person in news

Maheshwari Amma, who was popularly known by her stage name KPAC Lalitha, died on 22 February 2022 in Kochi,Kerala. She was 74 years old.

• She was a noted Malayalam film actress who worked in more than 500 films.

• She won the National Awards under the best supporting actress category twice for her roles in Amaram (1990) and Shantham (2000). 

• She was also the winner of four Kerala State Film Awards. She also chaired the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi. 

JICA assistance to Pune river cleanup project

Tags: Economics/Business

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has approved the tendering process for a Rs 1,000-crore project for cleaning up Pune’s rivers, Mula, Mutha and Mula-Mutha (confluence of both rivers). The project to clean up the mula-mutha has been delayed due to issues of land acquisition and objection to the project.

• The Mula and Mutha rivers are heavily polluted with the city’s sewage being dumped into the rivers. 

• The project aims at improving the water quality by augmenting sewage collection systems and sewage treatment facilities in Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) area.

• The funding would go in for construction of sewer lines, pumping stations and treatment plants for treatment of the sewage before its discharge into the Mula, Mutha and Mula-Mutha rivers.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

It is an agency of the Japanese government . The Japanese government  provides most of its Official Development Assistance (ODA)to the developing countries through JICA

Its Headquarters : Tokyo 

Professor Neena Gupta awarded Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians 2021

Tags: Person in news

The Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians was awarded to Professor Neena Gupta, a mathematician of the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata, in a virtual ceremony on 22nd February 2022. 

• She received the award for the year 2021 for her outstanding work in affine algebraic geometry and commutative algebra.

• The prize is awarded annually to a researcher from a developing country funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) of the Government of India in association with ICTP (International Centre for Theoretical Physics)Trieste, Italy and the International Mathematical Union (IMU) Berlin, Germany.

• It is given to young mathematicians less than 45 years of age who have conducted outstanding research in a developing country.

• Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians
  The DST-ICTP-IMU Ramanujan Prize for young mathematicians from developing countries has been awarded annually since 2005.

  • It was originally instituted by (International Centre for Theoretical Physics)Trieste, Italy, the Niels Henrik Abel Memorial Fund, and the International Mathematical Union (IMU), Berlin, Germany.

  • The participation of the Abel Fund ended in 2012 and the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India (DST) has agreed to fund the Prize for a 5 year period, starting with the 2014 Prize.

  • The Prize carries a $15,000 cash award. The Prize is given with the provision that the prize money be used to support the research of the recipient.

  • The first person to win the award in 2005 was Brazilian Marcelo Viana 

Sanjeev Sanyal inducted in the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister

Tags: Person in news

 Finance Ministry's  principal economic advisor Sanjeev Sanyal has been inducted as a full-time member in the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), The appointment is for a tenure of two years.

Sanyal was appointed as Finance Ministry's principal economic adviser in February 2017 and was earlier the managing director at Deutsche Bank.

Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister

• It was set up by Indira Gandhi in 1980’s as the Prime Minister Economic Advisory Council . Later the government abolished and reconstituted the Advisory council as per their needs .

• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reconstituted the Economic Advisory Council in 2004 and made Dr C. Rangarajan as its Chairman 

• Dr Rangarajan resigned in 2014 after Manmohan singh government lost the election 

• Narendra Modi government  reconstituted the Economic Advisory Council  to the Prime Minister in 2017 and made Dr Bibek Debroy  as its Chairman 

• There is no limit on the number of members the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister has . 

• It is mainly composed of economists and experts who advise the Prime Minister on economic issues.

Vande Bharatam signature tune formally released by the Government of India

Tags: National News

Minister of State for Culture & External Affairs Smt. Meenakshi Lekhireleased the Vande Bharatam  song  signature tune  composed by Grammy winner Ricky Kej and tabla maestro Bikram Ghosh.

The song was released at an event on International Mother Language Day named "Ekam Bharatam" along with a cultural evening hosted by the Ministry of Culture at Delhi on 22nd February, 2022.

The ‘Vande Bharatam’ song was produced for Vande Bharatam, Nritya Utsav of the Ministry of Culture, presented at Rajpath,New Delhi for the national Republic Day event in 2022.