1. National Commission for Women launched Digital Shakti 4.0
Tags: National National News
The National Commission for Women (NCW) launched the fourth phase of Digital Shakti Campaign, a pan-India project on digitally empowering and skilling women and girls in cyberspace on 15 November.
Important facts
Digital Shakti 4.0 focuses on making women digitally proficient and aware to stand against any illegal/inappropriate activity online.
The National Commission for Women launched it in association with Cyberpeace Foundation and META.
The launch was followed by an interactive panel discussion on "Combating Online Cyber-enabled Human Trafficking and Other Forms of Online Violence".
Third phase of Digital Shakti
The third phase of the program was launched in Leh in March 2021 by the Chairperson of the National Commission for Women in the presence of Lieutenant Governor Radha Krishna Mathur and Ladakh MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal.
In the third phase, a resource center was developed to provide information on all the ways a woman can report when she faces a cybercrime.
About Digital Shakti
Digital Shakti was launched in June 2018 to raise awareness and help women on the digital front across the country.
Through this project, more than 3 lakh women across India have been sensitised regarding cyber security tips and tricks.
It is helping women with reporting and redressal mechanisms, data privacy and use of technology for their benefit.
Chairperson of the National Commission for Women - Rekha Sharma
2. National Commission for Women launched Digital Shakti 4.0
Tags: National National News
The National Commission for Women (NCW) launched the fourth phase of Digital Shakti Campaign, a pan-India project on digitally empowering and skilling women and girls in cyberspace on 15 November.
Important facts
Digital Shakti 4.0 focuses on making women digitally proficient and aware to stand against any illegal/inappropriate activity online.
The National Commission for Women launched it in association with Cyberpeace Foundation and META.
The launch was followed by an interactive panel discussion on "Combating Online Cyber-enabled Human Trafficking and Other Forms of Online Violence".
Third phase of Digital Shakti
The third phase of the program was launched in Leh in March 2021 by the Chairperson of the National Commission for Women in the presence of Lieutenant Governor Radha Krishna Mathur and Ladakh MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal.
In the third phase, a resource center was developed to provide information on all the ways a woman can report when she faces a cybercrime.
About Digital Shakti
Digital Shakti was launched in June 2018 to raise awareness and help women on the digital front across the country.
Through this project, more than 3 lakh women across India have been sensitised regarding cyber security tips and tricks.
It is helping women with reporting and redressal mechanisms, data privacy and use of technology for their benefit.
Chairperson of the National Commission for Women - Rekha Sharma
3. NASA launches its Artemis 1 mission from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida
Tags: Science and Technology International News
The US space agency NASA launched its Artemis 1 mission on 16 November, 2022 from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida.
Important facts
About eight minutes after launch, the core stage's engines cut off and the core stage separated from the rest of the rocket.
After this, the Orion spacecraft was propelled by the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS).
NASA also deployed the four solar arrays of the Orion spacecraft.
After completing "translunar injection", Orion separated itself from the ICPS and is now on its way to lunar orbit.
About Artemis 1 mission
For the first time in 50 years since the end of the Apollo program, the launch of Artemis 1 is an ambitious US mission to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon.
The Artemis 1 launch will also be the first flight of NASA's 21st century moon-exploration program.
With Artemis 1 on the surface of the Moon, NASA aims to demonstrate new technologies, business approaches and capabilities that are essential for future explorations, including Mars.
The launch aims to further aid in the study of the Moon, its origin and history.
ISRO’s Moon Exploration Mission
Chandrayaan 1
Chandrayaan-2
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) recently announced India's third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3, which will consist of a lander and a rover.
4. Britain approves three thousand work visas for young Indian professionals
Tags: International Relations International News
On November 16, 2022, the United Kingdom government approved three thousand visas for young professionals from India to work in the country every year.
Important facts
This visa is done under the UK-India Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement which was signed in 2021.
India is the first country to benefit from such a scheme.
The UK government has approved the UK-India Young Professionals Scheme which offers 3,000 visas to Indian graduates aged 18-30 years to live and work in the UK for up to two years.
The announcement was made hours after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the 17th edition of the G20 Summit in Bali.
UK-India Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement
The Union Cabinet approved the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Migration and Mobility Partnership in 2021 between India and the United Kingdom.
The objective of the agreement is to liberalize the issuance of visas promoting the mobility of students, researchers and skilled professionals and to strengthen cooperation between the two sides on issues related to irregular migration and human trafficking.
About United Kingdom
It is an island country located off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe.
Prime Minister - Rishi Sunak
Capital - London
Currency - British pound
Head of State - King Charles III
5. Britain approves three thousand work visas for young Indian professionals
Tags: International Relations International News
On November 16, 2022, the United Kingdom government approved three thousand visas for young professionals from India to work in the country every year.
Important facts
This visa is done under the UK-India Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement which was signed in 2021.
India is the first country to benefit from such a scheme.
The UK government has approved the UK-India Young Professionals Scheme which offers 3,000 visas to Indian graduates aged 18-30 years to live and work in the UK for up to two years.
The announcement was made hours after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the 17th edition of the G20 Summit in Bali.
UK-India Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement
The Union Cabinet approved the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Migration and Mobility Partnership in 2021 between India and the United Kingdom.
The objective of the agreement is to liberalize the issuance of visas promoting the mobility of students, researchers and skilled professionals and to strengthen cooperation between the two sides on issues related to irregular migration and human trafficking.
About United Kingdom
It is an island country located off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe.
Prime Minister - Rishi Sunak
Capital - London
Currency - British pound
Head of State - King Charles III
6. Union Agriculture Minister inaugurates first Greenfield Farm Machinery Plant in MP
Tags: Economy/Finance National News
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on 15 November, 2022 inaugurated the first greenfield farm machinery plant of Mahindra & Mahindra at Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh.
Important facts
This new farm machinery plant is capable of manufacturing affordable and accessible farm machinery equipment under the Mahindra and Swaraj brands.
The plant will also manufacture products for export to global markets in Asia, Africa, Europe and the America.
The facility is capable of manufacturing a range of new products designed at Mahindra's Global Centers of Technology Excellence in Finland, Japan and Turkey.
The plant is spread over 23 acres and can manufacture 1,200 combine harvesters and 3,300 rice transplanters per year.
The establishment of this plant is likely to provide employment to about 1,100 people.
Mahindra has been one of the leading tractor manufacturing companies globally.
In fact, in the first half of the financial year 2022-23, the company sold 2,52,844 tractors in the country, which was 12 percent more than the previous one.
What is a Greenfield Project?
It refers to an investment in a building, office, or other physical company-related structure or group of structures where no prior facilities exist.
7. Jeff Bezos Amazon Company becomes the first company in history to lose $1 trillion market capitalisation
Tags: Economy/Finance International News
Jeff Bezos’s company Amazon has become the first publicly listed company in the world to lose a trillion dollars in market value as a combination of fear of recession, rising inflation, tightening monetary policies and slowdown in the earnings updates triggered a historic selloff in the stock.
Shares in the e-commerce and cloud company have been declining in October and November month pushing its market value to about $879 billion from a record close at $1.88 trillion in July 2021.
The Big five Tech companies of America, Intel, Microsoft, Alphabet (owner of Google),Meta (formerly Facebook) and Amazon share prices are falling in the United States as their growth prospects look uncertain in an economy plagued by fear of recession.
The top five US technology companies by revenue have lost nearly $4 trillion in market value this year.
In October 2022, Amazon projected the slowest revenue growth for a holiday quarter in the company’s history as shoppers reduce their spending in the face of economic uncertainty. That sent its market value below $1 trillion for the first time.
What is Market capitalisation or M-cap?
Market capitalisation refers to the total number of free floating shares of a company in the market multiplied by the current market price of each share.
Explanation
Suppose there is a company called Tata motors and its promoter is Mr Ratan Tata. The company has 100 shares and all the shares of the company are with Ratan Tata. Ratan Tata decides that he needs money. He decided to sell 20 shares of Tata motors to the public through the Tata Motors Initial Public offering (IPO) at Rs 10 per share. People will buy the shares and the Tata motors company will be listed on an Indian Stock Exchange like BSE after the completion of the process.
Now Ratan Tata has only 80 shares of the company.
Keep in mind only 20 shares of the company will be listed on BSE as the company has sold only 20 shares to the public. In Stock market language it will be said that the Tata motors free float is 20 shares not 100.
Now suppose the price of the Tata motors in the market is Rs 100 then the Market capitalization of the Tata Motors will be: Free floating share of the company X market price of the company’s single share.
Thus it will be 20X Rs 100= Rs 2000
Types of Market capitalisation
In India on the basis of market capitalization companies are classified into Large Cap, Mid-Cap and Small Cap. Here cap means capitalisation.
Publicly listed companies which have a market capitalization of Rs 20,000 crore or more are called as Large Cap companies.
Mid-Cap: Publicly listed companies which have a market capitalization of less than Rs 20,000 crores and up to Rs 5000 crore.
Small Cap: Publicly listed companies which have a market capitalization of less than Rs 5,000 crores.
8. Central government releases Rs 13,000 crore from Contingency Fund for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana -Gramin
Tags: National Economy/Finance Government Schemes
The Union Finance Ministry has authorized release of Rs 13,000 crore from the Contingency Fund of India to meet the additional financial demand for implementing the Government of India's flagship Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna-Gramin (PMAY-G) programme in 2022-23. This amount is in addition to the Rs 20,000 crore allocated for the programme in the Union Budget 2022-23.
Reason for such unusual step
The Government of India under the PMGY-G has set a target of building 52.78 lakh houses under the scheme in 2022-23.
In the first seven months (April-October 2022), the Union Rural Development Ministry has utilized Rs 16,785 crore which is about 84 per cent of the Rs 20,000 crore under the PMAY-G scheme.
With several states demanding extra funds for construction of rural houses, the Union Rural Development Ministry had approached the Ministry of Finance way back in June for additional allocation
Funding pattern of the PMAY-G and Central government share
Under the PMAY-G scheme, the government provides financial assistance of Rs 1.20 lakhs per beneficiary for construction of houses in rural areas in plain areas and in the North East and Hilly areas the assistance amount is Rs 1.30 lakhs per beneficiary.
The financial assistance shared between the Center and the States are as follows:
- In the plain areas the ratio of the Center and States is 60:40.
- In the hilly areas (8 Northeastern states, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand) the ratio of the Center and States is 90:10.
- In the Union Territories the centre’s share is 100%.
PMAY-G and financial obligation of the Central Government for the remaining period
- The Narendra Modi government when it came to power in 2014 changed the name of the Indira Awas Yojana to Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna-Gramin (PMAY-G) and it was re- launched on 20 November 2016.
- It set a target of providing “Housing to All” for rural areas to eligible beneficiaries by 2022 which was later extended to 2024. A total of 2.95 crore houses were to be constructed under the scheme.
- According to the government a total of 2.02 crore houses have been built till 15 August 2022.
- The government has set a target to build 52.78 lakh houses in 2022-23 and 57.34 lakh houses in 2023-24.
- According to the estimates of the Union Ministry of Rural Development which is implementing the scheme, a Central share of Rs 48,422 crore would be required to complete the target of 52.78 lakh houses in 2022-23.
- However only Rs 20,000 crore was allocated in the Budget 2022-23. Thus the Union Rural Development Ministry asked the Union Finance Ministry to release the additional fund otherwise it will not be able to release the Centre’s share of the fund to the state government and the scheme will not be able to achieve the target.
Why Release of Funds from Contingency Fund?
- In the Union Budget the government mentions how much money is allocated to a Union Ministry and for which purpose. If the ministry’s need for funds is more than those allocated in the budget then permission of the Parliament is needed.
- For this purpose a supplementary demand for grants is brought before the Parliament requesting for extra funds. The Parliament authorizes the extra expenditure by passing the supplementary grants.
- In this case the Parliament's next winter session is expected to start in December 2022. The Rural development ministry wanted the extra fund now so that the scheme can achieve its target in time. The Finance Ministry agreed and released the fund from the
- Contingency fund of India.
What is the Contingency Fund of India?
- Article 267 of the constitution provides for a Contingency Fund of India for the central government and for each state government. Parliament can set the fund for the Government of India and the concerned state legislature set up for its state government.
- The Contingency fund of India was set up under the Contingency Fund of India act 1950.
- Its corpus was increased from Rs 500 crore to Rs 30,000 crore in 2021-22. This fund is used to meet unforeseen expenditure like natural calamities etc.
- The Secretary, Ministry of Finance manages this fund on behalf of the President of India. There is no need for prior approval from the Parliament to spend the money from the Contingency Fund of India.
Union Minister for Finance: Nirmala Sitharaman
Union Minister for Rural Development: Giriraj Singh
9. INDO - US Joint training Exercise“YUDH ABHYAS 2022” to commence in Uttarakhand
Tags: Defence National News
The 18th edition of Indo-US joint training exercise "Yudh Abhyas 22" will be held in Auli, Uttarakhand in November 2022.
Important facts
The 'Yudh Abhyas' between India and the US is held annually with the aim of exchanging best practices, strategies, techniques and procedures between the armies of the two countries.
The previous edition of this exercise was conducted in October 2021 at Joint Base Elmdorf Richardson, Alaska (USA).
The US Army soldier from the 2nd Brigade of the 11th Airborne Division and Indian Army soldier from the Assam Regiment will participate in the exercise.
The training schedule focuses on employment of an integrated battle group under Chapter VII of the UN Mandate.
The training program will cover all functions related to peacekeeping and peace enforcement.
Soldiers of both the countries will work together to achieve common objectives. The joint exercise will also focus on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations.
Troops of both the countries will practise launching quick and coordinated relief efforts in the wake of any natural calamity.
The exercise was started in 2004 under the US Army Pacific Partnership Program.
Other Exercises between India and the USA
Exercise Tiger Triumph - Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief exercise
Exercise Vajra Prahar - Special Forces’ Exercise
Cope India - Air Force
Malabar Exercise - Quadrilateral naval exercise of India, USA, Japan and Australia
Red Flag - US’ multilateral air exercise
10. World Population crosses 8 billion on 15 November 2022: United Nations
Tags: National International News
According to the United Nations (UN) the world human population has crossed the 8 billion mark on 15 November 2022 and it is expected to grow to 10.4 billion by 2080’s. The United Nations attributed the rise in population to a gradual increase in human longevity due to improvements in public health, nutrition, personal hygiene, and medicine.
Historical growth of Human Population
- According to the UN Population Fund , it took 12 years for the global population to go from 7 billion to 8 billion.
- In less than 100 years since 1930, the world population has grown four times.
- The global human population crossed the billion milestone in 1804 and it took another 126 years to cross the 2 billion population mark in 1930.
- It crossed the 3 billion mark in the next 30 years, 4th billion in the next 14 years and the 5th billion in the next 13 years.
- The annual population growth rate was highest between 1963 and 1972, at over 2 per cent.
- The growth rate has declined since then, and has fallen below 1 per cent since 2021.
Future Projections of Human population growth
- According to the United Nations it will take around 15 years until 2037 for it to reach 9 billion.
- It has been projected that the world population could grow to nearly 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050, and 10.4 billion in 2100.
- More than half of the projected increase in global population till 2050 will be concentrated in Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, and Tanzania.
- India is projected to cross China as the world’s most populous country during 2023.
- The most populous regions on Earth are Eastern and South-Eastern Asia with 2.3 billion people and Central and Southern Asia with 2.1 billion people. India and China
According to the World Bank population projection:
- In 2022 China and India account for over a third of the world’s population, with China‘s share at 18.2 per cent and India’s at 17.7 per cent.
- The world’s third most populous country, the United States of America and the fourth most populous Indonesia at present in 2022, have a share of 4.2 per cent and 3.5 percent of the global population respectively.
- This is expected to change by 2050, with India having the world’s highest population share at 16.8 percent, while China’s population share would have declined by over 4.2 per cent.
- India is projected to add over 2.3 billion people by 2050, while China’s population is projected to decline from 2030 onwards.
- At present Asia has the largest share of the world’s population, Africa is home to the youngest population with a median age of just 20, and Europe will have the oldest population on the globe with a median age of around 43.
