1. Global Leaders Commit US$ 2.6 Billion At World Health Summit To End Polio
Tags: Summits National News
Global leaders announced USD 2.6 billion funding for the 'Global Polio Eradication Initiative' (GPEI) 2022-2026 strategy to eradicate polio at the World Health Summit in Berlin.
World Health Summit (WHS)
It is an international health conference.
It aims to strengthen exchanges, promote innovative solutions to health challenges, establish global health as a major political issue, and promote dialogue on global health in the spirit of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
What is Polio?
Polio is a potentially fatal viral infectious disease that affects the nervous system.
There are three types of polio virus-
Wild Polio Virus 1 (WPV1)
Wild Polio Virus 2 (WPV2)
Wild Polio Virus 3 (WPV3)
All three types are similar depending on the symptoms and can cause paralysis and death.
The virus spreads from person to person mainly through the 'faecal-oral route' or through contaminated water or food.
2. China’s total trade surplus with India ‘surpasses $1 trillion’
Tags: Economy/Finance International Relations
Since the boom in bilateral trade in the early 2000s, China has taken advantage of a favourable trade balance with India that now exceeds $1 trillion.
India-China bilateral trade
Bilateral annual trade between India and China crossed $100 billion for the first time in 2021 to reach $125.6 billion, of which India's imports were $97.5 billion.
Important facts
Trade ties between both countries began to boom in the early 2000s.
This was largely driven by the import of Chinese machinery and other equipment by India.
It increased from $3 billion in 2000 to $42 billion in 2008 and China became India's largest trading partner in 2008.
One-third of the machinery and about two-fifths of organic chemicals that India buys from the world come from China.
Automotive parts and fertilizers are other items where China accounts for more than 25 per cent of India's imports.
India procures nearly 90 percent of the parts for some mobile phones from China.
India’s export to China
China is also a major partner of India in terms of export market.
China is the third largest destination for Indian shipments.
According to the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), India's share in China's total exports is only a little over two per cent.
3. Chad's President Mahamat Idriss Deby declares state of emergency
Tags: International News
The President of the Central African country, Chad, Mahamat Idriss Deby, declared a state of emergency on October 19, 2022 as the country struggles to deal with extraordinary floods that have affected millions of people.
Important facts
Heavy floods in the Central African country are affecting 636 localities in 18 of its 23 regions.
Thousands of people are migrating due to floods and thousands of hectares of cultivable land are getting destroyed.
The government has put in place a response plan to provide shelter, food and sanitation.
Chad's two main rivers, the Chari and the Logon, which flow through its southern provinces, are at their peak.
About Chad
President - Mahamat Idriss Déby
Prime Minister - Albert Pahimi Padacké
Capital - N’Djamena
According to the United Nations Human Development Index, Chad is the third poorest country on the planet.
The United Nations has said that some 5.5 million people in the country are in need of emergency humanitarian aid.
According to the World Bank, 42 percent of Chad's 16 million population live in poverty.
4. NSIC Signs MoU with Phillips Machine Tools India Pvt Ltd
Tags: Economy/Finance National News
A MoU signed between the National Small Industries Corporation Ltd (NSIC) and Phillips Machine Tools India Pvt Ltd for Skill Development Training in Additive Technologies on October 18, 2022 in New Delhi.
Important facts
B B Swain, Secretary (MSME), Gaurang Dixit, CMD, NSIC and Mercy Epao, Joint Secretary (SME) were also present on the occasion.
The MoU was signed by Navin Chopra, CGM-SG (Tech), NSIC.
This MoU will be a significant step for preparing skilled manpower in additive technologies which is the future of manufacturing.
National Small Industries Corporation
It is an ISO certified Government of India Enterprise under Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).
NSIC is working to promote, assist and promote the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the country.
NSIC works through a countrywide network of offices and technical centres in the country.
5. Liz Truss becomes the shortest serving Britain’s Prime Minister as she announces resignation
Tags: Person in news International News
Elizabeth Truss popularly known as Liz Truss announced on 20 October 2022 that she would resign as British Prime Minister, just six weeks after being sworn in as the Prime Minister on 6 September 2022. She became the shortest-serving Prime Minister (44 days) in the British history.
She lost the support of her party and the people over her economic plans that led to the sharp fall in the value of the British pound, crashed the bond market, pushed up cost of living for voters and angered her own party members.
Speaking outside the door of her Number 10 Downing Street office, Truss accepted that she had lost the faith of her party and said she would step down next week. Number 10 Downing Street is the official residence of the British prime Minister.
The ruling Conservative Party which has a comfortable majority in the Parliament will elect a new leader by 28 October 2022.
The former finance minister Rishi Sunak is likely to contest the election. But many people are supporting former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was ousted in July when his ministers resigned en masse to force him out of power.
6. 10th Heads of Missions Conference starts in Kevadia, Gujarat
Tags: place in news National Summits
The Ministry of External Affairs is organizing its 10th Heads of Missions Conference in Kevadia, Gujarat, from 20-22 October 2022. The Conference will bring together 118 Heads of Indian Missions (Ambassadors and High Commissioners) from all over the world.
The conference is always presided over by the Union External affairs Minister and this year S.Jaishankar presided over the meeting.
The event is a platform for the government to brief the country's top diplomats on ways to promote India's interests abroad.
This year Prime Minister Modi who was on a two day (19-20) Visit to Gujarat also participated in the meeting.
Difference between Ambassador and High Commissioner
Every country appoints a senior diplomat to a foreign country to represent the government in that country. The senior diplomat is called Ambassador or High Commissioner.
High Commissioner
If the country is a member of the Commonwealth and sends its diplomat to a fellow Commonwealth country then the senior diplomat will be called as High Commissioner. For eg. India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, as both the countries are members of the Commonwealth.
Ambassador
If the senior diplomat is appointed to a non-commonwealth country then he/she is called as Ambassador. For eg. India’s ambassador to Russia, United States of America, and France etc. These countries are not members of the Commonwealth.
Commonwealth of Nations
Commonwealth is an association of Independent countries who were once part of the British Empire. However there are some countries like Rwanda, Mozambique, Gabon and Togo who were never part of the British Empire but still are the members of the Commonwealth.
At present 56 countries are its members and the monarch of Britain is the head of the Commonwealth.
7. 41.5 Crore Indian lifted out of Poverty says the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index report 2022
Tags: National Economy/Finance
According to the 4th Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2022 report, India has successfully lifted 41.5 crore people out of poverty between 2005-06 and 2019-20. The report is jointly brought out by the UNDP’s Human Development Report Office and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).The first report was released in 2019 and it is released annually.
The report ranks 111 developing countries in the world on its Multidimensional Poverty index.
Main Points of the report
Poverty in the world
- According to the report 1.2 billion people in the world are multidimensionally poor.
- The highest number of poor people are in Sub Saharan Africa (579 million), followed by South Asia (385 million). The two regions together are home to 83% of poor people.
India report
Decline in Poverty over the years
- 41.5 Crore people in the country were lifted out of multidimensional poverty between 2005-06 and 2019-20.
- The data shows that roughly 27.5 crore people exited multidimensional poverty between 2005-6 and 2015-16, which works out to 2.75 crore people a year on an average.
- Between 2015-16 and 2019-20, 14 crore people were lifted from multidimensional poverty, which works out to an average of 2.8 crore people a year.
World’s largest poor in India
- India has the largest number of poor people worldwide (228.9 million), followed by Nigeria (96.7 million projected in 2020).”
- The Index has used 2020 population data of India for this purpose.
- In India “about 4.2 per cent of the population live in severe poverty (meaning their deprivation score is 50 per cent or higher).
Children are the poorest age group
- Poverty is found more amongst the children as compared to the adults.
- Children are still the poorest age group, with more than one in five (21.8 per cent) children being poor, compared to around one in seven adults (13.9 per cent).
- There are around 9.7 crore poor children in India.
More poor in rural areas
- The percentage of people who are poor is 21.2 per cent in rural areas compared with 5.5 per cent in urban areas
- Rural areas account for nearly 90 percent of poor people and 205 million of the nearly 229 million poor people live in rural areas
Poverty more in female headed households
- About 19.7 percent of people living in female-headed households live in poverty compared with 15.9 per cent in male-headed households.
Performance of the States
- Only West Bengal was successful in coming out of the list of 10 poorest state list prepared in 2015/16.
- The other 9 poorest states of India are Bihar, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
- Across states and union territories the fastest reduction of poverty in relative terms was in Goa, followed by Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
What is Multidimensional poverty Index?
- Multidimensional poverty assessments aim to measure the non-income based dimensions of poverty, to provide a more comprehensive assessment of the extent of poverty and deprivation.
- The Index measures a person’s deprivation across three dimensions and 10 indicators: health (child mortality, nutrition), education (years of schooling, enrollment), and living standards (water, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel, and assets).
- It first identifies which of these 10 deprivations each household experiences, then identifies households as poor if they suffer deprivations across one -third or more of the weighted indicators.
The Index reflects deprivations on the following indicators:
- Adult(under 70 years) or child being malnourished
- Death of any Child (under age of 18 years) within the household in the last 5 years
- No household member aged above 6 years has completed at least six years of schooling
- Disrupted or curtailed schooling (a minimum of years 1-8)
- Any child of the family who is not attending school upto the age at which he/she would have completed class eight study
- Lack of access to safe drinking water
- Lack of access to basic sanitation services
- Lack of access to clean cooking fuel
- Lack of basic modern assets (radio, TV, telephone, computer, bike, motorbike, etc.)
- Lack of access to reliable electricity
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
It was set up by the United Nation General Assembly on 22 November 1965.
It help the countries in developing their own solutions on the issues of;
- Sustainable Development,
- Democratic governance and peace building, and
- Climate and Disaster resilience.
Headquarters: New York City, United States
Reports
- It publishes a Human Development Report every year.
- It also publishes the Multidimensional Poverty Index with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative.
8. Inauguration of Waste to Energy Plant at Tughlakabad, Delhi
Tags: National National News
Home Minister Amit Shah on 20 October, 2022 inaugurated MCD's Tehkhand Waste to Energy Plant at Tughlakabad in New Delhi.
Important facts
This plant will treat 2000 metric tonnes of waste in the national capital per day.
Along with this 5 megawatts of green energy will also be produced by this plant.
It is a multifunctional, multi-purpose plant that will clean the capital Delhi and fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of Swachh Bharat Mission.
This plant has been built in collaboration with Municipal Corporation of Delhi and Jindal Group.
Electricity will be generated from the waste in the plant, along with the work of making manure from the waste will also be done.
What is Waste to Energy?
It is the process of generating energy in the form of electricity or heat from the primary treatment of waste into a fuel source.
These plants convert municipal and industrial solid waste into electricity and heat for industrial processing.
The plant works by burning waste at high temperatures and using the heat to make steam.
9. Inauguration of Waste to Energy Plant at Tughlakabad, Delhi
Tags: National National News
Home Minister Amit Shah on 20 October, 2022 inaugurated MCD's Tehkhand Waste to Energy Plant at Tughlakabad in New Delhi.
Important facts
This plant will treat 2000 metric tonnes of waste in the national capital per day.
Along with this 5 megawatts of green energy will also be produced by this plant.
It is a multifunctional, multi-purpose plant that will clean the capital Delhi and fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of Swachh Bharat Mission.
This plant has been built in collaboration with Municipal Corporation of Delhi and Jindal Group.
Electricity will be generated from the waste in the plant, along with the work of making manure from the waste will also be done.
What is Waste to Energy?
It is the process of generating energy in the form of electricity or heat from the primary treatment of waste into a fuel source.
These plants convert municipal and industrial solid waste into electricity and heat for industrial processing.
The plant works by burning waste at high temperatures and using the heat to make steam.
10. Grant of Rs 1,764 crore released to four states for urban local bodies
Tags: Economy/Finance National News
The Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance has released an amount of Rs 1,764 crore to 4 states on 19 October 2022 for providing grants to Urban Local Bodies.
Important facts
The states to which the grant was released include Andhra Pradesh (Rs 136 crore), Chhattisgarh (Rs 109 crore), Maharashtra (Rs 799 crore) and Uttar Pradesh (Rs 720 crore).
In Uttar Pradesh, this amount has been given for Agra, Allahabad, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut and Varanasi.
Whereas, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Durg, Bhilainagar and Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Aurangabad, Greater Mumbai, Nagpur, Nashik, Pune and Vasai-Virar cities in Maharashtra will spend this amount.
A total grant of Rs 4,761.8 crore has been released to urban local bodies in the year 2022-23 so far.
Two categories of Urban Local Bodies
The 15th Finance Commission in its report for the period 2021-22 to 2025-26 has divided the urban local bodies into two categories -
Urban agglomeration/cities with population Million-Plus (except Delhi and Srinagar)
All other cities and towns with less than one million population (Non-Million Plus cities).
The commission had recommended a separate grant for them.
Of the total grants recommended by the Commission for over one million cities/urban clusters (MPCs/UAs), more than 2/3 are recommended for the solid waste management component and the remaining 1/3 for ambient air quality.
Sanjay Malhotra, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, will take over as the new Revenue Secretary on November 30 2022, currently Tarun Bajaj is the Revenue Secretary.
Secretary of Finance - Benjamin E. Diokno
