1. WFP will handle Indian wheats in Afghanistan
Tags: International News
The Indian Government has signed an agreement with the United Nations World Food Programme((WFP)) for the distribution of 50,000 tonnes of wheat ,which will be supplied by India to Afghanistan as a humanitarian assistance .
India has committed to supply 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan free of cost through Pakistan’s land route.
Last year on October 7, India proposed to supply wheat to Afghanistan through the Pakistan road route and Pakistan agreed to it .
India has also committed to provide Rs 200 crore for development assistance to Afghanistan.
Earlier, India has also supplied six tonnes of medicine and 5 lakh doses of Covid vaccine out of the total 10 lakh vaccines promised by India to Afghanistan.
India does not recognise the Taliban government in Afghanistan which came to power after the Ashraf Ghani government fled from Kabul on 5 August 2020. Whatever assistance is provided by the Indian government to Afghanistan is through a neutral partylike the UN or its agencies.
WFP
The World Food Programme(WFP) is the largest humanitarian agency of the United Nation.
It provides food to people displaced by conflicts and made destitute by disasters.
It provides food to children in poor countries through school feeding programmes
It helps countries and communities to prepare and cope with climate related changes.
It helps the small farmers in improving productivity.
WFP headquarters : Rome
It was founded in 1961
It won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020.
Chairman : David Beasley
2. Australia and India signed an MOU on Tourism
Tags: International News
Australian minister of Trade, Tourism and Investment, Dan Tehan visited India on 10-11 February 2022.
He signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Tourism cooperation in the field of Tourism with Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles on behalf of the Tourism ministry on 11 February 2022.
3. Atal Innovation Mission and UNDP India launches Community Innovator Fellowship
Tags: National News
Atal Innovation Mission of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Ayog, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has introduced a Community Innovator Fellowship to mark the ‘International Day of Women and Girls in Science’. 11 February is celebrated in the world as the “ International Day of Women and Girls in Science”.
The fellowship is developed as a pre-incubation model which will provide youth with an opportunity to establish their social enterprise focusing on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) based solutions for solving community issues.
UNDP
The United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) was set up in 1965 by the United Nation .
Its headquarters is in New York , United States .
UNDP helps countries in eradicating poverty, reducing inequalities, and building resilience so countries can sustain progress. As the UN’s development agency, UNDP plays a critical role in helping countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
NITI Ayog
National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Ayog was set up on 1 January 2015 to replace the Planning Commission.
Prime Minister is the ex-officio chairman of NITI Ayog
Current Vice-chairman : Rajiv Kumar
Its headquarters : New Delhi
4. Diesel to be replaced by renewable energy in Agriculture by 2024
Tags: National News
The Government of India has set a target to replace the use of diesel by renewable energy in the agriculture sector by 2024.
Agriculture sector after transportation sector is the second largest consumer of diesel in India.
Diesel is used by farmers for running pumps for irrigation purposes , harvesters, threshers , and running tractors.
Diesel is the most-popular fuel, accounting for about 40% of India’s petroleum sales.
Green Energy Target
According to the Union Power Minister R.K.Singh ,the Government of India has set a target of 500 GigaWatt(GW) of installed renewable energy capacity by 2030 .
It has also set a target that by 2030 the contribution of the non -renewable source of energy in total energy production shall be 50 %.
Concept
Fossil Fuels
It is a hydrocarbon fuel which is formed due to decomposition of organic materials like tree, animals over a period of time . Petroleum, Natural Gas, Coal are examples of fossil fuels. They are burned for energy production.
Renewable Energy
The energy derived from natural processes that are replenished at a rate that is equal to or faster than the rate at which they are consumed. For eg Sun(solar energy,), river (hydel energy). Wind, hot springs (geothermal energy), biomass(bio-fuels), Tides(tidal energy ).
Non-Renewable Energy
The energy source which cannot be replenished during human lifetime is called non-renewable energy . Eg. Fossil fuels If we use 1 kg coal for producing power then the formation of new 1kg of coal by nature will take millions of years to form to replace the consumed coal.
FACTS
The total renewable energy installed capacity in India as on 30 September 2021 was 150.54 GW.of which
Solar energy was 48.55 GW,
Large Hydroelectric energy was 46.51 GW
Wind energy was 40.03 GW,
Biomass energy was 10.62 GW. and
Small Hydroelectric energy was 4.83 GW,
India has the fourth largest installed wind power capacity in the world after China, U.S and Germany.
5. Quad Foreign Ministers Meeting
Tags: Popular International News
Australia hosted the third in- person foreign minister’s meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue also known as QUAD in Melbourne on 11 February 2022. Earlier in person foreifn ministers’ meetings were held in Tokyo in October 2020 and the inaugural meeting in New York in September 2019.
The Melbourne meeting was attended by the Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken , Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and the Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payn.
A joint statement was issued after the end of the meeting .The main highlights of the statement were as follows :
For the first time the QUAD mentions the terrorist incident of 2008 Mumbai attack of 26/11 and the attck on Pathankot air base 2016 and called for bringing the prepartotrs to justice .
The foreign ministers of India, Australia, Japan and the US reviewed the Quad Vaccine Partnership, which was launched in March last year, during their meeting in Melbourne. The partnership envisages the production of at least 1 billion doses of US-developed vaccines in India with American and Japanese funding.
Indian company Biological E is producing corona vaccine developed by U.S Texas Children’s Hospital scientists Drs Peter Hotez and . Maria Bottazzi. The vaccine is called Corbevax. This vaccine will be supplied to poor countries through Quad Vaccine Partnership.
Australia will hold an Indo-Pacific Clean Energy Supply Chain Forum meeting in mid-2022 to establish responsible and resilient clean-energy supply chains
QUAD
Quad or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue is a group of four countries US, Japan, Australia and India. The concept of QUAD was given by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2007 for maritime cooperation between these countries after the Indian ocean Tsunami disaster in 2004.
Now the group is mainly seen as a group to counter the Chinese influence in the region .
The first virtual summit meeting of the leader of QUAD was held in March 2021.
The First in person summit meeting of the leaders of the four countries was held by the United States in September 2021 in Washington attended by the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga
The next summit meeting will be held in Japan in 2022.
6. Government of India to set up two Centre for excellence in Carbon capture facility in India
Tags: National News
The Government of India is setting up two National Centres of Excellence in Carbon Capture and Utilisation for long-term research, design development, collaborative and capacity-building hubs for state-of-the-art research and application-oriented initiatives in the field of Carbon capture.
The two centre s are:
National Centre of Excellence in Carbon Capture and Utilisation (NCoE-CCU) at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay,
National Centre in Carbon Capture and Utilisation (NCCCU) at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru
Concept clearing
Carbon Capture and Storage and Utilisation
Carbon Capture and Storage is the process of capturing the carbon dioxide which is released due to industrial activities/power generation using fossil fuels, before it is released in the atmosphere .
The captured carbon- dioxide can be used to make commercially marketable products . This is called Capture Capture Storage and Utilisation (CCSU). Normally it is used in enhanced oil extraction where carbon dioxide is injected in oil fields to increase their extraction efficiency.
The first large-scale CCSU project began operating at Sleipner in Norway in 1996.
Important full form for EXAMS :
NCoE-CCU: National Centre of Excellence in Carbon Capture and Utilization
National Centre in Carbon Capture and Utilisation.
NCCCU: National Centre in Carbon Capture and Utilisation
CCSU.: Carbon Capture Storage and Utilisation
JNCASR: Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research
7. INCOIS Brings out Coastal Vulnerability Index
Tags: National News
The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad has brought out the Coastal Vulnerability Index(CVI).
The Coastal Vulnerability Index ranks the coastal areas of the States /Union Territories on the basis of physical and geological risk they face if there is rise in sea level in future.
To prepare the Index, INCOIS used various parameters. The parameters were selected on the basis of the change expected in the coastal area when the sea level rises. These parameters are based on :
Tidal range;
Wave height;
Coastal slope;
Coastal elevation;
Shoreline change rate;
Geomorphology; and
Historical rate of relative sea-level change,
Risk assessment of the coastal states
According to the CVI the States/Union Territories which are going to be affected are as follows
Gujarat’s 124 coastal km or 5.36 % of its coastal area is going to get affected , similarly
Maharashtra 11 km or 1.22%
Karnataka & Goa 48 km or 9.54% each ,
Kerala 15 km or 2.39%,
Tamil Nadu 65 km or 6.38%,
Andhra Pradesh 6 km or 0.55 %,
Odisha 37 km or 7.51%
West Bengal 49 km or 2.56%,
Lakshadweep Islands 1 km or 0.81%,
Andaman Islands 24 km or 0.96 km and Nicobar Islands 8 km or 0.97%.
INCOIS
Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services was established as an autonomous body in 1999 under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and is a unit of the Earth System Science Organisation (ESSO).
Functions :
It issues alerts on Tsunami, storm,high waves alerts etc.
It provides information to the fisherman on areas having abundant fish in the ocean.
Headquarter : Hyderabad
Facts
India has a coastline of 7516.6 Km.
It has 6100 km of mainland coastline plus a coastline of 1416.6Km of 1197 Indian islands .
Serial no | State/Union Territories | Length of coastline (in km) |
1 | Andaman and Nicobar | 1962.0 |
2 | Gujarat | 1214.7 |
3 | Andhra Pradesh | 973.7 |
4 | Tamil Nadu | 906.9 |
5 | Maharashtra | 652.6 |
6 | Kerala | 569.7 |
7 | Odisha | 476.4 |
8 | Karnataka | 280.0 |
9 | West Bengal | 157.5 |
10 | Lakshadweep Islands | 132.0 |
11 | Goa | 105 |
12 | Daman and Diu/Dadra Nagar Haveli | 54.50 |
13 | Puducherry | 30.6 |
Total Coastline | 7516.6 |
Source: Ministry of Home Affairs .
Important full form for EXAMS :
INCOIS: Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services
CVI : Coastal Vulnerability Index.
ESSO.: Earth System Science Organisation
8. Prime Minister address One Ocean Summit
Tags: National News
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the One Ocean Summit organised by France at the French city of Brest on 11 February 2022.
The One Ocean Summit is being organised by France from 9 to 11 February 2022 in cooperation with the United Nations and the World Bank.
The objective of the Summit is to mobilise the international community to take tangible action towards preserving and supporting healthy and sustainable ocean ecosystems.
9. America is the biggest customer of ISRO
Tags: National News
Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) has launched 222 American satellites during 2016-17 to 2021-22.
The Government of India has informed the Parliament on 10 February 2022 that ISRO successfully launched 285 customer satellites from 29 foreign countries, on-board Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on commercial basis.
Country wise breakup of number of foreign satellites launched during 2016-17 to 2021-22:
Algeria (3), Australia (1), Austria (1), Belgium (3), Brazil (1), Canada (5), Chile (1), Colombia (1), Czech Republic (1), Finland (3), France (2), Germany (2), Indonesia (1), Israel (2), Italy (4), Japan (2), Kazakhstan (1), Latvia (1), Lithuania (7), Luxembourg (1), Malaysia (1), The Netherlands (2), Republic Of Korea (5), Slovakia (1), Spain (2), Switzerland (2), UAE (1), United Kingdom (6), USA (222).
ISRO
The Indian Space Research Organisation was founded on 15 August 1969.
It is the premier space agency in India
Its headquarters is at Bengaluru
It launches its rockets from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at SriHarikota , Andhra Pradesh.
Antrix Corporation
Antrix corporation was set up as a company owned by the Government of India in 1992.
It is a marketing company which promotes ISRO’s capabilities to launch satellites successfully at a low cost around the world . It brings foreign clients to India for launching their satellites through ISRO’s PSLV rockets .
NewSpace India Limited (NSIL)
To involve the Private sector in the space programme and to develop technologies and products for the world market, the government of India set up a new company NewSpace India Limited (NSIL).
It was set up in 2019 as a company owned by the Government of India under the administrative control of the Department of Space .
Unlike Antrix Corporation which is a pure marketing company NSIL will involve the Indian companies to develop technology and products for the foreign buyers.
10. Iran unveils a new missile that can hit US base and Israel
Tags: International News
Iran has claimed to develop a new missile, the Khaibar-buster. a reference to a Jewish castle overrun by Muslim warriors in the early days of Islam.
The missile has a range of 1,4500 km and uses solid fuel.
The missile can hit the United States military bases in the West Asian region and also deep inside its arch enemy Israel.
Islamic Republic of Iran
It is a muslim country in West Asia .
Capital : Tehran
Currency : Iranian Rial
President : Ebrahim Raisi
