1. JNPA inaugurates Continuous Marine Water Quality Monitoring Station
Tags: Environment National News
One of the best performing Continuous Marine water Quality Monitoring Station (CMWQMS) in India at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) in collaboration with the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras was inaugurated on 21 November 2022.
Important facts
Along with this, the Electric Driven Environment Monitoring Vehicle (EV) was formally launched.
JNPA is committed to achieving sustainability and creating value for the business, which is reflected in economic, social and environmental parameters.
The continuous water quality system and electrically powered monitoring vehicle will assist in sea water and air quality management in the port area and improve the environmental quality within the port area.
JNPA will be able to reduce green-house gas emissions from vehicles.
Apart from this, it will also be possible to monitor the compliance of environmental quality around the port estate.
This work will be done through water quality station data, water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, ammonia, conductivity, nitrate, salinity, TDS of sea water etc.
The TDS of seawater is based on the sea water quality database.
This is essential for maintaining sanitary standards in the marine environment.
E-Vehicles will also monitor the existing air and noise level in JNPA.
Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA)
Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) located in Navi Mumbai is the major container handling port in India.
Commissioned on 26 May 1989, the port has grown from a bulk-cargo terminal to a major container port in the country in three decades.
JNPA is connected to over 200 ports in the world and is ranked 26th in the list of top 100 Container Ports globally.
2. Ayush Ministry to set up an Academic Chair in Ayurvedic Science at Western Sydney University, Australia
Tags: National International News
The Union ministry of Ayush announced the setting up of an Ayurveda Academic Chair based at Western Sydney University’s NICM Health Research Institute, with tenure for a period of three years.
Dr. Rajagopala S., Associate Professor & Head (Department of Kaumarabhritya) All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), New Delhi has been selected for the post of Academic Chair in Ayurvedic Science at Western Sydney University, Australia.
In order to promote Ayurveda and Yoga the Ministry has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with 16 foreign countries for the setting up of Ayush Chair.
The Academic Chair will undertake academic and collaborative research activities in Ayurveda, including herbal medicine and yoga, as well as design academic standards and short-term/medium-term courses and educational guidelines. It will provide academic leadership in demonstrating and fostering excellence in teaching, research and policy development related to Ayurveda.
Union Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Homoeopathy)
- The Ministry of AYUSH was set up on the 9th of November 2014 to revive the knowledge of traditional Indian systems of medicine.
- It focuses on education and research in the fields of Ayurveda, Yoga Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy.
- Minister of AYUSH: Sarbananda Sonowal
3. Ayush Ministry to set up an Academic Chair in Ayurvedic Science at Western Sydney University, Australia
Tags: National International News
The Union ministry of Ayush announced the setting up of an Ayurveda Academic Chair based at Western Sydney University’s NICM Health Research Institute, with tenure for a period of three years.
Dr. Rajagopala S., Associate Professor & Head (Department of Kaumarabhritya) All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), New Delhi has been selected for the post of Academic Chair in Ayurvedic Science at Western Sydney University, Australia.
In order to promote Ayurveda and Yoga the Ministry has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with 16 foreign countries for the setting up of Ayush Chair.
The Academic Chair will undertake academic and collaborative research activities in Ayurveda, including herbal medicine and yoga, as well as design academic standards and short-term/medium-term courses and educational guidelines. It will provide academic leadership in demonstrating and fostering excellence in teaching, research and policy development related to Ayurveda.
Union Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Homoeopathy)
- The Ministry of AYUSH was set up on the 9th of November 2014 to revive the knowledge of traditional Indian systems of medicine.
- It focuses on education and research in the fields of Ayurveda, Yoga Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy.
- Minister of AYUSH: Sarbananda Sonowal
4. Canada’s Brampton city gets first turbaned Sikh Harkirat Singh as deputy mayor
Tags: Person in news International News
Brampton city in the Canadian province of Ontario got its first turbaned Sikh deputy mayor with the appointment of Harkirat Singh .A release by the Brampton City Council said that Harkirat Singh, who represents wards 9 and 10, has been appointed deputy mayor from 2022-26. The deputy mayor presides at council and other committee meetings and assumes ceremonial and civic event duties on behalf of the mayor if the mayor is absent or unavailable.
Prior to his role as councillor, he served a four-year term as school trustee at the Peel District School Board.
In the present Canadian Parliament there are 18 Sikhs members.Currently Harjit Sajjan, Bardish Chagger are the two Sikhs who are ministers in the Justin Trudeau government in Canada.
5. Prime Minister Modi launches Karmayogi Prarambh module for new government employees at the Rozgar Mela
Tags: National Economy/Finance
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 22 November 2022 virtually launched an online orientation course ‘Karmayogi Prarambh module’ for all new appointees at Rozgar Mela via video conference. The module was launched at the Rozgar mela where 71,000 appointment letters were issued to newly inducted recruits by the Prime Minister online.
The module will include a code of conduct for Government servants, workplace ethics and integrity, human resource policies and other benefits and allowances that will help them to get acclimatized to the policies and transition smoothly into the new roles. It will also help to enhance their knowledge, skills and competencies.
The Central government launched Rozgar mela on 22 October 2022 as part of the central government commitment to provide 10 lakh new jobs in the various central government departments and public sector undertakings.
Earlier in October, appointment letters were handed over to 75,000 newly inducted appointees under Rozgar Mela.
6. Australian Parliament approves trade deal with India
Tags: National Economy/Finance
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on 22 November 2022 announced that the country's Free Trade Agreement with India has been passed by the Australian Parliament.
India and Australia signed an historic trade agreement on 2 April 2022 to give a boost to trade and investment between the two countries. The India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (“IndAus ECTA”) was signed virtually in the presence of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the then Australian Prime Minister Scott Morison .
The agreement was to be implemented after the Parliament of Australia passed it. However a parliamentary election was held in Australia on 21 May 2022 in which Scott Morison lost the election and Anthony Albanese was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Australia on 24 May 2022.
Trade deal
It is an interim trade deal which will be gradually converted into a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CEPA). This is the second such agreement signed by India with a foreign country after a similar agreement was signed with the United Arab Emirates in March 2022.
Highlights of the trade deal
- More than 95% of roughly 12,000 Indian goods will get duty-free access to the Australian market.
- In the next five years the agreement will be expanded to cover 100% Indian goods.
- About 70% of Australian products will get duty-free and concessional access to the Indian market. This will be increased to cover 85% of goods in 10 years.
- Indian exporters in critical sectors, especially labour-intensive ones like agriculture, textiles & garments and pharmaceuticals will get duty-free access to the Australian market.
- The deal also ensures freer movement of skilled professionals from India.
- India has allowed import of premium Australian wine at a concessional rate.
- India has kept the dairy sector out of the trade deal.
India Australia Trade
- India had a merchandise trade deficit of $7.2 billion with Australia in the first ten months of 2021-22. Its exports were $6.3 billion, while its imports from Australia stood at $13.5 billion.
- The major items imported by India from Australia are coals, pearls, precious stones, woods and its products.
- Major exports by India to Australia include petroleum products, gems and jewellery, textiles and apparels, engineering goods, leather, chemicals.
- Australia is the 17th largest trading partner of India and India is Australia’s 9th largest partner.
- Bilateral trade in goods and services stood at USD 27.5 billion in 2021.
7. Over 60 people dead in the Indonesian earthquake
Tags: place in news Science and Technology International News
A 5.6-magnitude earthquake killed more than 60 people and injured hundreds in Indonesia's West Java province on 21 November 2022. However the death toll is likely to rise further as many are still trapped under the rubbles.
The epicentre was near the town of Cianjur in West Java, about 75 km (45 miles) southeast of the capital, Jakarta.
Indonesia lies across the "Pacific Ring of Fire", a highly seismically active zone, where different plates on the Earth's crust meet and create a large number of earthquakes and volcanoes.
In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude quake off Sumatra Island in northern Indonesia triggered a tsunami that struck 14 countries, killing 226,000 people along the Indian Ocean coastline, more than half of them in Indonesia.
Earthquake
Earthquakes happen when the plates of the earth collide with each other. The earth's lithosphere consists of 7 major plates and they float over the molten surface of the upper mantle. When they collide energy waves are released which causes vibration on the surface of the Earth known as Earthquake.
The location below the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter, and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicenter.
Earthquakes are recorded by instruments called seismographs. The recording they make is called a seismogram.
The scale for measuring earthquakes is called the Richter scale. It is a mathematical scale used to measure the intensity of earthquake waves. It ranges from 0 to 9. However it can be more than 9.
8. India and European Union sign agreement for cooperation in high-performance computing
Tags: National Science and Technology
India and the European Union (EU) have signed an agreement on cooperation in hi-tech areas such as climate modelling and quantum technologies on 21 November 2022. This agreement seeks to implement the provision of the India-EU TTC (Trade and Technology Council) agreement signed during the visit of the European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on 25 April 2022 at New Delhi.
The agreement named ‘Intent of Cooperation on High Performance Computing (HPC), Weather Extremes and Climate Modelling and Quantum Technologies’ was signed by the ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT) during a virtual ceremony. The agreement was signed by MeitY secretary Alkesh Kumar Sharma and DG CONNECT director general Roberto Viola.
The agreement aims to facilitate collaboration on high performance computing applications using Indian and European supercomputers in areas such as bio-molecular medicines, Covid-19 therapeutics, mitigating climate change, predicting natural disasters and quantum computing.
India-EU TTC (Trade and Technology Council)
The India-EU TTC (Trade and Technology Council) was established between India and the European Union during the visit of the European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on 25 April 2022 at New Delhi.
The India-EU TTC (Trade and Technology Council) is a strategic mechanism that gives New Delhi access to advanced technologies and allows the two sides to set standards in crucial areas such as 5G and artificial intelligence.
This is the first such trade and technology council set up by India with any of its partners.
India is the second country after the United States of America with which the European Union has signed such an agreement.
European Union
The European Union is a group of 27 European countries.
The United Kingdom which was the founding member of the European Union has left the organisation.
It was founded on 1 November 1993
Headquarters: Brussels, Belgium
9. Government to hold the 25th National e-Governance Conference in Jammu
Tags: place in news National Summits
The 25th National e-Governance conference will be held at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University at Kakryal in Katra town of Reasi district in Jammu region on 25 and 26 November 2022. The 24th National e-Governance conference 2021 was held on 7 &8th January 2021 at Hyderabad, Telangana.
The conference will be inaugurated by Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Minister of State of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space, Government of India.
26th November is celebrated as the Constitution Day in the country to commemorate the adoption of the Constitution of India. As part of the celebrations Union Minister, Dr. Jitendra Singh will administer reading of the Preamble to the Constitution with all participants on 26th November 2022.
Who is organising the Conference
The Department of Administrative Reforms· & Public Grievances (DARPG) and Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), in association with the Union Territory Government of Jammu and Kashmir is organizing the conference.
Nearly 2000 officers from across the country are likely to attend the two-day long conference.
Theme of the Conference
The theme of the 25th National e-Governance conference is “Bringing Citizens, Industry and Government Closer”.
The application and use of Information technology and communication (ICT) in governance is known as e-governance. It is makes governance transparent and efficient. Some of the examples of e-governance are Digital India, Aadhaar, and National Portal of India etc.
10. New Zealand Supreme Court rules voting age of 18 is discriminatory in the country
Tags: International News
The Supreme Court of New Zealand has in a decision delivered on 21 November 2022 ruled that the country's current voting age of 18 was discriminatory. The Supreme Court found that the current voting age of 18 was inconsistent with the country's Bill of Rights, which gives people a right to be free from age discrimination when they have reached 16.
The case which was filed by the advocacy group Make It 16 in 2020 welcomed the ruling of the court and termed it historic.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the government would draft legislation to reduce the age to 16, which could then be put to a vote in parliament.
Voting age in the world
Maximum country in the world allow voting rights to citizens after completion of 18 years. However there are certain countries in the world which allows 16 years to vote. They are: Brazil, Ecuador, Austria, Cuba, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Malta, Nicaragua and Scotland.
Voting age in India
The voting age in India was 21 years since the promulgation of the constituting in 1950. However by 61st constitution amendment act 1988 the voting age was reduced to 18 years.
New Zealand
It is an island country in South Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people of New Zealand are called Maoris.
The island was discovered by Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman in 1642.
New Zealand is famous for its flightless bird Kiwi.
Its economy is dominated by agriculture (sheep raising).
It is a constitutional monarchy with the King of Britain being its Head of the State.
Prime Minister: Jacinda Ardern
Currency: New Zealand Dollar
Capital: Wellington
