1. Rising sea levels prompt Indonesia to relocate the capital
Tags: International News
On 18th January 2022 Indonesia’s parliament passed a law approving the relocation of its capital from slowly sinking Jakarta to a site 2,000 kilometers away on the jungle-clad Borneo island.
- The new capital will be named “Nusantara”
- The new capital will cover about 56,180 hectares in East Kalimantan province on the Indonesian part of Borneo.
- This was first proposed by President Joko Widodo in April 2019, citing rising sea levels due to climate change and severe congestion on densely populated Java island.
About Indonesia
Indonesia officially the Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian Ocean and Pacific ocean.
- It consists of over 17,000 islands, making it the world's largest island country
- Indonesia is the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world .
- Java, the world's most populous island, is home to more than half of the country's population.
- Indonesia is a presidential, constitutional republic with an elected legislature.
- The country's capital, Jakarta, is the world's second-most populous urban agglomeration after Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan.
- Delhi, India is the third-most populous urban agglomeration in the world.
- Official language - Indonesian
- Legislature - People's Consultative Assembly (MPR)
- Currency - Indonesian Rupiah
2. 11 cities win Centre’s “Streets for People Challenge”
Tags: National News
Eleven cities have been selected as the winners of the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA)’s “Streets for People Challenge” for their pilot projects to make roads more pedestrian-friendly.
- The list of selected cities includes Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Gurugram, Kochi, Kohima, Nagpur, Pimpri Chinchwad, Pune, Udaipur, Ujjain, and Vijayawada.
- All the selected cities would be given 50 lakh each to scale up their proposals.
- The Ministry also announced 10 winners of the pilot stage of the “Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge” which included 70 pilot projects by 25 cities.
- Among the winners were Bengaluru, Hubballi-Dharwad, Jabalpur, Indore, Kakinada, Kochi, Kohima, Rourkela, Vadodara, and Warangal.
3. Explosion on Naval Ship INS Ranvir
Tags: National News
Three Navy personnel were killed and 11 injured in an explosion on board the ageing destroyer INS Ranvir at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai on 18th January 2022.
- Adm R Hari Kumar, CNS and all personnel of Indian Navy extend heartfelt condolences to the families of Krishan Kumar MCPO I, Surinder Kumar MCPO II & AK Singh MCPO II, who succumbed to injuries caused by the unfortunate incident onboard INS Ranvir.
- INS Ranvir, among the oldest warships in the Navy, is a Soviet-era destroyer and was commissioned in April 1986.
- The fourth destroyer of the Rajput class, it is the first of the Ranvir class. The other Ranvir class destroyer is INS Ranvijay.
4. No Foreign Chief Guest at the Republic day 2022
Tags: National News
There will be no foreign chief guest on Republic Day this year due to the coronavirus crisis and the Omicron threat. Earlier, the government of India had sent invitations to the Head of the Government of the five Central Asian Republics of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan to be the Chief Guest at the Republic day parade in 2022. .
Last year's invited Chief Guest, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had to cancel his visit due to coronavirus.
The Government of India has decided that this year on, Republic Day celebrations will begin from January 23, in order to include Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s birth anniversary.
The first foreign Guest at Republic Day was Indonesia President Sukarno in 1950.
There were no foreign chief guests in the years 1952, 1953, 1966, 2021, 2022.
5. Oxfam Report on Poverty in India
Tags: National News
The non-profit group Oxfam International published its latest report titled “Inequality Kills” on January 17th, 2022 ahead of the World Economic Forum’s Davos agenda.
- Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International.
- It is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.
- Gabriela Butcher is the present director of Oxfam.
- Oxfam describes itself as a global movement of people who are fighting inequality to end poverty and injustice.
Highlights from the latest report-
- The income of 84 percent of households in the country declined in 2021, but at the same time, the number of Indian billionaires grew from 102 to 142.
- Oxfam’s analysis during the coronavirus pandemic (March 2020 to November 2021) showed that the wealth of Indian billionaires rose from Rs 23.14 lakh crore to Rs 53.16 lakh crore. In contrast, more than 4.6 crore Indians were estimated to have fallen into extreme poverty in 2020 alone, which was nearly half of the global new poor according to the United Nations
- Oxfam says that a 1% Wealth Tax on India’s Super Rich families could fund its entire vaccination program cost of Rs 50,000 crore, and a 4% wealth tax on just the 98 richest families of India could account for the Union health ministry’s budget for two years and the mid-day meal program for 17 years.
- The budgetary allocation for social security schemes declined from 1.5% of the total Union budget to 0.6%. There was a 6% cut in allocation for education and in the health sector, even though covid continued to ravage India, the country's healthcare budget saw a 10% decline from RE (revised estimates) of 2020-21.
- Lowering corporate taxes from 30 percent to 22 percent to attract investment last year resulted in a loss of Rs 1.5 lakh crore, which contributed to the increase in India’s fiscal deficit.
- As a remedy to the growing wealth inequality in India, Oxfam suggested imposing a wealth tax on the super-rich population of India.
6. CSIR’s UV-C Disinfection Technology to combat the pandemic
Tags: National News
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh trolled out CSIR's newly developed Disinfection technology for use by the common masses.
- The UV-C technology is developed by the Ministry of Science & Technology through CSIR-CSIO (Council Of Scientific And Industrial Research - Central Scientific Instruments Organisation) and is totally effective for mitigation of airborne transmission of SARS-COV-2 and will also remain relevant in the post-COVID era.
- The technology has been successfully tried in Railways, AC Buses, and even the Parliament House
- UV-C deactivates viruses, bacteria, fungus, and other bioaerosols, etc. with appropriate dosages using 254nm UV light.
- UV-C air duct disinfection system can be used in auditoriums, large conference rooms, classrooms, malls, etc. which provides a relatively safer environment for indoor activities in the current pandemic.
7. PM address the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Davos Agenda
Tags: National News
The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi delivered ‘State of the World’ special address at the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda on 17 January 2022, via video conferencing.The WEF's annual meeting, which has been taking place in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos for 50 years now, could not take place in 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic and has been deferred till early summer this year.
Highlight of his speech
- Referring to the Mission LIFE, that he gave at the CoP26 conference held at Glasgow , the Prime Minister said that making LIFE into a mass movement can be a strong foundation for P-3 i.e ‘Pro Planet People’. LIFE i.e. ‘Lifestyle for Environment’, is a vision of a resilient and sustainable lifestyle that will come handy in dealing with the climate crisis and other unpredictable challenges of the future.
- He said that "We contribute 5 percent of global carbon usage but our commitment to phasing out non-renewable energy is 100 percent,". India has set a target of becoming carbon neutral by 2070.
- He said that India has given the entire world a "bouquet of hope". "The bouquet contains - trust towards democracy, technology to empower 21st century and talent & temperament of us Indians,".
- In the times of Covid, we saw India's vision of one Earth, One Health which helped save millions of lives by sending medicines to countries. India is today the pharmacy of the world.
The World Economic Forum's Davos Agenda Virtual Summit will host world leaders and heads of important institutions and organisations around the world who will discuss areas of concern and present their ideas on how to address them.
The three main areas of concern at the summit are Climate Action, Pandemic Recovery, and Economic and Social Resilience.
See 21 December 2021 post on WEF
8. Election Commission defers Punjab Assembly polls
Tags: National News
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on 17 January 2022 postponed polling for the Punjab Assembly election from February 14 to 20 after the State government and political parties raised concern that many devotees would be in Varanasi to celebrate Guru Ravidas’s birth anniversary on February 16 and miss out on voting.
- Punjab has a substantial population of followers of Guru Ravidas, including the Scheduled Caste community, which is around 32 per cent of the state’s population.
- Counting would, however, take place on March 10, as in the schedule announced on January 8 2022.
Guru Ravidas
Ravidas is a 15th-century poet, saint and philosopher, who founded the Ravidassia religion. It has a large following among dalits in Punjab who consider Sant Ravidas as their Guru and some of his sayings has been included in the Sikh holy book “ Guru Granth Sahib”.
- The birthday of Ravidasji is on 16 February 2022 and lakhs of devotees are expected to visit his birthplace Varanasi . Many of them take a special train organised by the Dera Sachkhand Ballan in Jalandhar.
- The Dera Sachkhand Ballan is the Ravidassias' largest dera with around 20 lakh followers worldwide. Of these, around 15 lakh live in Punjab in the Doaba region. The region has 23 out of the total 117 Assembly seats in the state.
9. SC upholds the Winding up of Devas Multimedia
Tags: National News
The Supreme Court on 17 January 2022 upheld the National Company Law Tribunal’s May 2011 order to wind up Bengaluru-based Devas Multimedia, saying “it is a case of fraud of a huge magnitude which cannot be brushed under the carpet".
- It upheld the decision of the Bengaluru bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) which had in May 2021 ordered the winding up of Devas and had also appointed a provisional liquidator, saying the firm was incorporated with a fraudulent motive to collude and connive with the then officials of Antrix to get bandwidth from it.
- The NCLT’s order was also upheld by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal in September 2021.
What is the Devas MultiMedia case
In 2005 Devas MultiMedia company signed an agreement with Antrix corporation of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) under which , ISRO was to lease two S-Band satellite spectrum for 12 years at Rs 167 crore to Devas Multimedia.
- The start-up was to provide multimedia services to mobile platforms in India using the space band or S-band transponders on ISRO satellites.
- In 2011 the UPA government cancelled this deal as the S- Band spectrum was needed for national security and for other social needs
- After the cancellation of the deal, the foreign investors in Devas, including Deutsche Telekom, the three Mauritius-based investors, and Devas itself, had approached international tribunals seeking compensation.
- Deutsche Telekom was awarded $101 million compensation by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Geneva; the Mauritius investors were awarded $111 million by the International Trade Law tribunal; and Devas awarded $1.2 billion by an International Chamber of Commerce.
- Since then Devas multimedia and other shareholders have filed cases in US and Canada to seize identified Government of India properties to recover the dues.
Devas MultiMedia
- It is a Bangalore-based start-up, founded in 2004, is headed by Dr. M.G. Chandrasekhar, former Scientific Secretary at ISRO.
- In 2008, Deutsche Telekom picked up a 17 per cent stake in Devas for about $75 million.
- It wanted to offer satellite broadband services across India on various platforms, including mobile.
Antrix Corporation
- It was set up in 1992 under the companies act 1956 and its headquarters is at Bengaluru.
- It is a wholly owned Government of India company under the administrative control of the Department of Space .
- Its main function is to promote and commercially market the products and technology developed by ISRO.
- It is a Miniratna category 1, Central Public Sector Enterprises.
10. Migrants from Honduras stopped at Guatemala
Tags: International News
Several hundred migrants who had departed from the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula in hopes of reaching the United States entered Guatemalan territory where they were intercepted by the authorities who asked them to return to their homeland.
Highlights
- Some 300 migrants, mainly Hondurans and Nicaraguans, arrived in Corinto, Honduras on 15th January 2022 and crossed into the Guatemalan border province of Izabal, where they were met by hundreds of anti-riot agents from the national police and army.
- According to the Guatemalan Migration Institute, discussions on returning the migrants to their home countries have begun. "People are being returned, everything in order, humanely," the institute's general director Carlos Emilio Morales said.
- According to a Nicaraguan man, people were migrating in search of a better life for their families. Many had been the victims of natural disasters like floods and drought.
The administration of US President Joe Biden is considering a seven billion dollars aid package for Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, to create homegrown jobs.
