clataffairs

The United States conducted a military airstrike in eastern Syria along the border with Iraq night targeting Iranian-backed militias.  This was done in retaliation for a recent rocket strike in Erbil in northern Iraq that left several Americans injured. The airstrike targeted structures in the eastern Syrian town of Al Bukamal that belong to two Iranian-backed militias that have launched rocket attacks in the past against American facilities in Iraq, including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, according to a U.S. official. The strike was conducted on the orders of US President Joe Biden. The strikes destroyed multiple facilities located at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups, including Kait'ib Hezbollah (KH) and Kait'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS).

The Nepal Supreme Court reinstated the dissolved House of Representatives.  It ordered the government to summon the House session within the next 13 days. A five-member constitutional bench, headed by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana, in a unanimous judgement said that the provisions of the Constitution cited by Oli and Bhandari were not relevant as Nepal’s Constitution has made a special provision against the dissolution of Parliament mid-term without exhausting all options to forming an alternative government. DISSOLVING HOUSE Nepal plunged into a political crisis after President Bidhya Devi Bhandari had on December 20 dissolved the 275-member lower House. It announced fresh elections on April 30 and May 10 at the recommendation of Oli.  This happened amidst a tussle for power within the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) between factions led by the Prime Minister and by Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Madhav Kumar Nepal.

The WHO has identified 3 major new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which are more lethal and faster spreaders than the original version. 1.  UK STRAIN The UK variant (B.1.1.7) – Originated in UK in September 2020 and increased the risk of death.  It is 70% more contagious than the original Wuhan strain.  SOUTH AFRICA STRAIN The South Africa variant (B.1.351 or 20H/501Y.V2) – First identified in South Africa.  It was reported in the US at the end of January 2021.  It carries a mutation called N501Y, that appears to make it 50% more contagious or easy to spread.  It is less susceptible to antibody action. The South Africa variant is showing unusually large number of mutations, especially in the ‘Spike protein’ of the virus. BRAZIL VARIANT The Brazil variant (P.1) – Emerged in Manaus, Brazil.  It is known to have 17 unique mutations.  Three of these, mutations are in the receptor-binding domain of the spike protein.

The Narendra Modi government unveiled its plan to enact greater oversight over social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter and also bring digital media and streaming platforms into a stricter regulatory net.  The rules are called the ‘Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021′. They will supersede some parts of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2011. Prasad added that the rules will come into effect the day they are notified for most applicable entities. However, an extra three-month window would be given to ‘significant social media intermediaries’. PROVISIONS The new rules will require big social media companies to take down unlawful content within a specific time-frame of being served either a court order or notice by an appropriate government agency.  The rules also carve out a separate category for sexual content – under which an intermediary shall within 24 hours remove the offending con...

The International Solar Alliance (ISA) plans to launch the World Solar Bank (WSB) at the COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in November 2021.  This will help India’s attempt to lead global climate action and the development of a green economy.  The ISA is the first treaty-based international government organization headquartered in India.  ISA It is an alliance of 121 countries.  It was formed in 2015 at Paris, France. It aims to work for efficient consumption of solar energy and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.  Headquarters: Gurugram, India.  Credit Partners – European Investment Bank (EIB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB). OSOWOG ISA is the nodal agency for implementing India’s global electricity grid plan – One Sun One World One Grid (OSOWOG).  It seeks to transfer solar power generated in one region to feed the electricity demands of others. COP26 PLANS Green Grid Initiative – a joint effort of ISA and Climate Parliament t...

The Union Cabinet approved amendments to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.  OFFENCES CATEGORY Heinous offence: where there is a minimum punishment of 7 years imprisonment under any existing law.  Serious offence: where imprisonment of 3 to 7 years.  Petty offence: where there is a maximum of 3 years imprisonment. CHANGES BY THE 2015 LAW Juvenile Justice(Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 defined a juvenile or a child as – any person below 18 years of age. Juvenile Justice Care and Protection Act, 2015 defines a juvenile or child as – any person below 18 years of age. In 2015, the central government enacted a new version of the law, which provided a special provisions to deal with children in the age group of 16-18 years in cases of heinous offences. The 2015 act provides for minors in the age group of 16 to 18, to be treated as adults by the law, in case of heinous crimes. THE CURRENT AMENDMENT The new amendment lays down the eligib...

Recently, India and the Maldives signed a defence Line of Credit agreement worth USD 50 million. The agreement was signed during the visit by the External Affairs Minister of India to Maldives.  It was signed pursuant to the request by the Government of Maldives in April 2013 for India’s support and cooperation in enhancing the capability of the Maldives Defence Forces in maritime surveillance, and subsequent requests in October 2015 and March 2016. OTHER KEY POINTS A dockyard will be developed at the Uthuru Thila Falhu (UTF) Naval Base with Indian assistance, a few miles northwest of Male. The agreement is part of the defence action plan signed in 2016 by then Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom during a visit to India. An agreement to develop, support and maintain a Maldives National Defence Force Coast Guard Harbour at Sifavaru was also signed. The Maldivian side assured India of its support for permanent membership of India at the “expanded and reformed” UN Security...

An agreement for establishing India’s first-ever geothermal field in Ladakh has been signed.  Ladakh's Lieutenant Governor R K Mathur termed it a step towards achieving the goal of carbon-neutral Ladakh. The MoU was signed between: Union Territory Administration Ladakh, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC)-Leh, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Energy Centre. WHAT IS GEOTHERMAL ENERGY? Geothermal energy is the thermal energy generated and stored in the rock and fluids beneath Earth’s crust.  Thermal energy is the energy that determines the temperature of matter.  The largest geothermal development in the world is The Geysers north of San Francisco in California. In 2015, India launched the draft National Policy on Geo-Thermal Energy. THE LADAKH PROJECT In phase 1, 1 megawatt (MW) power generation capacity is to be installed. ONGC Energy Centre is the implementing agency for this pilot project. Phase-2 will focus on deeper and lateral exploration of geot...

The Government of South Korea has rolled out a plan to build the world's largest offshore wind power plant by 2030.  It is estimated to cost $43.2 billion (₹3.15 lakh crores).  It is a part of South Korea’s efforts to achieve an environmentally-friendly economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.  The South Korean plant will have a maximum capacity of 8.2 gigawatts. At present, the world's largest offshore wind farm is Hornsea 1 in Britain. GREEN NEW DEAL The project is a major component of President Moon Jae-in's Green New Deal.  The Green New Deal was initiated last year to curb reliance on fossil fuels in South Korea.  The Green New Deal plans to make it carbon neutral by 2050.

NASA’s rover Perseverance landed safely on the floor of a vast crater, Its first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet. Nasa's Perseverance rove becomes the fifth Nasa rover ever to touch down on Mars after Sojourner -- twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity and Curiosity. DETAILS OF LAUNCH The launch was made aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V. The launch took place from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.  The Rover’s destination is a crater Jezero.  COMPONENTS  Perseverance is loaded with seven instruments chosen to help it achieve its mission objectives. Perseverance will carry a unique instrument, MOXIE or Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment.  MOXIE will manufacture molecular oxygen on Mars using carbon dioxide from the carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere.  ISRU means In Situ Resource Utilization: or the use of local resources to meet human needs or requirements of the spacecraft. The mission will also carry Ingenuity, the fir...

Shabnam is likely to be the first woman in independent India to be hanged for a crime.  Only one jail in India –– the one in Mathura –– has the provisions for hanging a woman convict.  THE CASE Shabnam lived in western Uttar Pradesh and her family was opposed to her relationship with Saleem, a Class VI dropout. She along with her lover Saleem was convicted of killing seven members of her family in 2008. In 2010, an Amroha sessions court sentenced them to death, which was upheld by the Allahabad High Court in 2013 and the Supreme Court in May 2015.  However, within 10 days, the Apex Court stayed the death warrants. In September 2015, then-Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik rejected Shabnam’s plea for mercy, which she had sought on the ground of her responsibilities towards her son, Mohammad Taj.  In August 2016, then President Pranab Mukherjee rejected her mercy petition. In January 2020, a Supreme Court bench headed by CJI SA Bobde upheld the death sentence.

Delhi Police have named environmental activists Disha Ravi, Nikita Jacob, and Shantanu Muluk in the Greta Thunberg ‘toolkit’ case .  They are volunteers of a global environment movement seeking to call attention to the climate change emergency. EXTINCTION REBELLION  The global movement Extinction Rebellion, also referred to as ‘XR’, describes itself as a “decentralised, international and politically non-partisan movement using non-violent direct action and civil disobedience to persuade governments to act justly on the Climate and Ecological Emergency”. XR was launched in the United Kingdom on October 31, 2018, as a response to a report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report had declared that “we only have 12 years to stop catastrophic climate change and our understanding that we have entered the 6th mass extinction event”. The movement now has a presence in 75 countries, including India. DEMANDS  The group has “three core deman...

Journalist Priya Ramani was acquitted by a Delhi court over a defamation case filed by former Union Minister MJ Akbar.  She had accused Akbar of sexual misconduct in 2018. THE CHARGE Ramani's charge against MJ Akbar had come in the backdrop of a global MeToo campaign that began with a series of allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein in the US in 2017.  In October 2018, Ms Ramani named MJ Akbar - then a minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government - in a tweet.  A week later MJ Akbar filed the criminal defamation case and resigned as minister two days later. In his defamation suit, MJ Akbar had claimed that Priya Ramani caused damage to his "stellar reputation". THE JUDGEMENT Women can't be punished for raising instances of sexual abuse.  The Constitution allows women to put forward her grievances before any forum and at any time. Priya Ramani's disclosure was in the interest of antisexual harassment at workplace.

The National Informatics Centre has launched an instant messaging platform called Sandes on the lines of WhatsApp. Like WhatsApp, the new NIC platform can be used for all kinds of communications by anyone with a mobile number or email id.  The National Informatics Centre is a branch under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. WHY? The government felt the need to build a platform to ensure secure communication between its employees as they worked from home.  After security scares, the Ministry of Home Affairs had in April last year issued an advisory to all government employees to avoid using platforms like Zoom for official communication. This was after the Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-In) had also posted an advisory against Zoom over safety and privacy concerns. THE APP The execution of the idea of such an app was accelerated during the last year.  In August 2020, the NIC released the first version of the app, which said that the app could be ...

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala became the first female and first African to become the head of WTO.  She was elected unanimously. Her dual citizenship with the United States also makes her the first American to hold this position.  WHO IS NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA? Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a Nigerian economist whose career in development and finance spans over four decades.  Iweala served as the Finance Minister of Nigeria, holding the position for two consecutive terms, first from 2003 to 2006 and then from 2011 to 2015.  She was also the first woman to hold this position in her country and the first female to hold it twice. Iweala was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria after her first tenure as the finance minister, again becoming the first female to be in this role. WTO Founded: 1 January 1995. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland. Membership: 164 member states. GATT The WTO is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was created in 1947. The Ur...

India’s rank has slipped six places to 86th among 180 countries in Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released by Transparency International. India was ranked 80th out of 180 countries in 2019.  Transparency International is an international non -governmental organisation founded in 1993 based in Berlin, Germany. The top countries on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) are Denmark and New Zealand, with scores of 88. South Sudan and Somalia are the bottom Countries with scores of 12 each. In 2020, India's score is 40 (41 in 2019).

Delhi court sent a 21-year-old climate activist, Disha Ravi, to five days police custody in connection with allegedly being involved in sharing a “toolkit” on social media related to the farmers’ protest.  The police said her custody was required to probe an alleged larger conspiracy against the government of India and to ascertain her alleged role relating to the Khalistan movement. THE TOOLKIT CONTROVERSY  It started with Greta Thunberg sharing a toolkit on her twitter account. She deleted the tweet a few minutes later and shared an 'updated' version of the toolkit.  The toolkit has been claimed as the proof of the Khalistani conspiracy against India by many critics. In the document, various urgent actions, including creating a Twitter storm and protesting outside Indian embassies, were listed which were needed to be taken to support the farmers' protest. The Delhi Police has claimed pro-Khalistani Poetic Justice Foundation is the key conspirator behind the toolkit...

A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde directed to maintain status quo with regard to dismantling/breaking of INS Viraat. The order was issuued on a petition filed by M/s Envitech Marine Consultants Pvt Ltd, which wants to buy INS Viraat and convert it into a museum. The Thane-based firm had approached the SC after the Ministry of Defence declined to provide a No-Objection Certificate, needed to repurchase the vessel. IMPLICATIONS FOR ALANG SHIPBREAKER Mukesh Patel, chairman of Shree Ram Group, the shipbreaker at Alang who purchased INS Viraat as scrap from an auction conducted by Metal Scrap Corporation Limited for Rs 38.54 crore announced stopping all dismantling work on INS Viraat. The shipbreaker said the decision to stall the breaking of INS Viraat was taken by the SC without hearing their side.  According to experts, any profit for the shipbreaker at Alang depends on the “turnaround time” which is the period within which the shipbreaker can disma...

Protesters, mostly social activists, writers and journalists are out on the streets in Nepal against a proposed law that puts restrictions on foreign travel for women below age 40.  THE LAW The proposed law requires that any woman below 40, if travelling abroad, needs to present a letter of consent from the guardian of her family — implying a male member — or from the ward office, specifying the reason of travel.  The protesters call their agitation an assertion of their right to justice from “an establishment controlled by males and insensitive towards women rights and dignity”. Neither faction of the Nepal Communist Party has responded to the proposed immigration law. WHY THE LAW Besides rape cases, a larger number of Nepali women are trafficked to the Middle East. These complaints were cited as the reason for proposing the law by immigration officials. 

ISRO and location and navigation technology solutions provider MapmyIndia announced an initiative to partner together to offer India's best, and fully indigenous, mapping portal and geospatial services. It combines the power of MapmyIndia's digital maps and technologies with ISRO's catalogue of satellite imagery and earth observation data. The Department of Space signed a memorandum of understanding MaymyIndia parent CE Info Systems Pvt. Ltd.  Under the partnership, the combined geospatial expertise of the DoS and CE Info Systems would be leveraged through their respective Geoportals. 

China's broadcasting regulator banned BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) World News. WHY It accused the agency of flouting guidelines after a controversial report on its treatment of the country's Uighur minority.  In February the BBC had published a report featuring interviews with Uighur women. The women said that they had been systematically raped, sexually abused and tortured in China's "re-education" camps in Xinjiang. TIT-FOR-TAT? The decision came just days after Britain's own regulator, Ofcom, revoked the license of Chinese broadcaster CGTN (China Global Television Network). It was done for breaking UK law on state-backed ownership, and provoked angry accusations of censorship from London.  The regulator cited links to China's ruling Communist Party among the reasons.  CGTN was also found in breach of British broadcasting regulations last year, for airing the allegedly forced confession of UK citizen Peter Humphrey.

Deep Sidhu was arrested by the Delhi Police.  He was wanted in connection with the Red Fort violence incident on Republic Day. Actor Deep Sidhu – who had already joined the farmers' protests, had allegedly provoked a group of farmers to head to the Red Fort, instead of sticking to the farmer unions' planned protest route, that was approved by the authorities. Sidhu defended the actions, by saying that the flag ‘Nishan Sahib’ was hoisted at the Red Fort as a symbolic protest against the farm laws.  He also said that the media was giving it a narrative of religious hostility. Sidhu's ties to BJP leaders in the past, made many question whether he was actually working for the BJP, when he provoked a group to resort to violence.

China’s Defence Ministry announced that Chinese and Indian troops on the southern and northern shores of Pangong Tso began “synchronized and organized disengagement” in line with the consensus reached between Corps Commanders when they last met on January 24. DETAILS Both sides will remove the forward deployment in a phased, coordinated and verified manner. China will pull its troops on the north bank towards the east of Finger 8.  India will also position its forces at its permanent base at the Dhan Singh Thapa post near Finger 3. Both sides have also agreed that the area between Finger 3 and Finger 8 will become a no-patrolling zone temporarily, till both sides reach an agreement. All the construction done by both sides on the north and south banks of the lake since April 2020 will be removed.

Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (L&T) won the bid to construct India’s longest road bridge over a river.  Before this, 9.15-km-long Bhupen Hazarika Setu was India's longest road river bridge. DETAILS The bridge was first proposed in 2015.  In 2019, the Union cabinet approved the project. The bridge will be from Dhubri (Assam) to Phulbari (Meghalaya) on NH 127B.  It will be built for the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. The length of the bridge is to be 19.8 km long.  It will be built across the river Brahmaputra.  It will cost ₹3166 crore.  The project is being financed by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency).  It is expected to be completed by 2026-27.

President Joe Biden announced an end to United States support for Saudi-led military offensive operations in Yemen. Now, the US will stop supporting offensive operations, including the sale of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Now new US envoys on Yemen, and Iran, are tasked with ending this war, and the regional rivalries which still fuel it. This marks a change of tack from Mr Trump's administration, which increased support for the Saudi-led coalition. Saudi Arabia welcomed Biden’s remarks, particularly his commitment to the country’s defence and addressing threats against it.  YEMEN WAR Fighting began in 2014 between a weak Yemeni government and the Houthi rebel movement.  It escalated a year later, when Saudi Arabia and eight other Arab states - backed by the US, the UK and France - began air strikes against the Houthis. HOUTHIS The Houthis are Zaydi Shiites, or Zaydiyyah.  Shiite Muslims are the minority community in the I...

Recently, a glacial break in the Tapovan-Reni area of Chamoli District of Uttarakhand led to massive Flash Flood in Dhauli Ganga and Alaknanda Rivers. It damaged houses and the nearby Rishiganga power project. In June 2013, flash floods in Uttarakhand had wiped out settlements and took lives.  CAUSES It occurred in river Rishi Ganga due to the falling of a portion of Nanda Devi glacier in the river which exponentially increased the volume of water. Rishiganga meets Dhauli Ganga near Raini due to which Dhauli Ganga also got flooded. IMPACT The flood resulted in the death of some people and many went missing. It also affected projects like Rishi Ganga Power Project, a privately owned 130MW project and Tapovan Vishnugad Hydropower Project on the Dhauliganga, a 520 MW run-of-river hydroelectric project being constructed on Dhauliganga River.

The United States announced that it would rejoin the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council that it left in 2018. The USA will return to the Council as an observer with the aim of seeking election as a full member.  WHY US HAD LEFT Trump pulled in 2018 due to UNHRC's disproportionate focus on Israel, which has received by far the largest number of critical council resolutions against any country. The council had also failed to meet an extensive list of reforms demanded by then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. In addition to the council’s persistent focus on Israel, the Trump administration took issue with the body’s membership, which currently includes China, Cuba, Eritrea, Russia and Venezuela, all of which have been accused of human rights abuses. UNHRC The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the world. The Council was created by th...

Recently, the United Arab Emirates' (UAE’s) first-ever interplanetary Hope Probe mission successfully entered orbit around Mars.  2021 is also the year of 50th anniversary of UAE’s founding. The mission is one of the three missions launched to Mars in July (Other two by The USA and China). HOPE MISSION The Emirates Mars Mission called “Hope” was announced in 2014 with the aim of creating mankind’s first integrated model of the Red planet’s atmosphere. It is the first interplanetary mission for the Arab World. The ‘Hope Orbiter’ was lifted on an H-IIA rocket from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a machinery maker in Japan. It was launched from Tanegashima Island in Japan.  The probe is called Al Amal in Arabic.  AIM It will give planetary scientists their first global view of Martian weather at all times of day.  Over its two-year mission, it will investigate how dust storms and other weather phenomena near the Martian surface speed or slow the loss of the planet’s atmosp...

The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) Council held its maiden meeting and approved the establishment of the world’s largest radio telescope, SQUARE KILOMETRE ARRAY. The telescope will be located in Africa and Australia. The operation, maintenance and construction will be overseen by SKAO.  The completion is expected to take nearly a decade at a cost of over £1.8 billion. RADIO TELESCOPES Unlike optical telescopes, radio telescopes can detect invisible gas. Therefore, they can reveal areas of space that may be obscured by cosmic dust. SKAO   SKAO is a new intergovernmental organisation dedicated to radio astronomy. It is headquartered in the UK.  At the moment, organizations from ten countries are a part of the SKAO.  These include Australia, Canada, China, India, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK. French-born Dr Catherine Cesarsky was appointed the first Chair of the SKAO Council. Indian contingent is led by Pune-based ...

India slipped two places to 53rd position in the 2020 Democracy Index's global ranking. Its score has also fallen from 6.9 to 6.61. The index is released by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The primary reason for the fall was the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that came into being in January 2020. India has been categorized as a ‘flawed democracy’ in the index.  GLOBAL   Out of 167 countries, the Democracy Index classifies 23 countries as full democracies, 52 as flawed democracies, 35 as hybrid regimes and 57 as authoritarian regimes. Norway topped The Economist Intelligence Unit's latest Democracy Index report. Taiwan attained “full democracy” status for the first time. North Korea was ranked last at 167th position.

After strong opposition from trade unions across the country, Sri Lanka has unilaterally pulled out of a 2019 agreement with India and Japan for developing the strategic East Container Terminal (ECT) at the Colombo Port. It announced that the ECT would be developed and operated as a “wholly owned container terminal of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA)”.  India’s response was that Colombo should not be taking a unilateral decision on an existing tripartite agreement. THE 2019 AGREEMENT In 2019, India and Sri Lanka signed a memorandum of understanding for “co-operation on economic projects”.  The development and operation of the container terminal was one of the projects in the MoU.  As per a Memorandum of Co-operation signed by the previous Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremesinghe administration, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority would have 100 per cent ownership of the ECT.  The Terminal Operations Company (TOC) conducting all East Container Terminal operations was t...

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced that he’ll step down as the online retailer major’s CEO in late 2021.  Bezos will now take over as Amazon’s executive chairman. He will also continue to be Amazon's biggest shareholder. Bezos is focusing on the longer-term projects at the company, including his rocket venture Blue Origin. Bezos will hand over the CEO reins to Andy Jassy. Andy Jassy is the head of Amazon’s cash-cow cloud computing division.  AMAZON Founded: 5 July 1994. Headquarters: Seattle, Washington, United States.

A new COVID-19 strain in Brazil, also called the P.1., is spreading rapidly in the Amazonian city of Manaus.  Doctors have noticed an increase in the number of premature births in Manaus. In September, 2020, a study of COVID-19 antibodies in blood-bank samples from Manaus, estimated the presence of antibodies in 76% of the city’s population.  Back then, this had confirmed local rumours that Manaus had reached “herd immunity”. Now, the proposition is being doubted.

The word "Budget" originates from the French word "bougette“, which means leather bag. Budget was introduced for the first time in India on April 7, 1860, by the East India Company to the British Crown. The first budget for the union of India was presented on November 26, 1947, by the first finance minister RK Shanukham Chetty. Till 1955, the Budget was presented only in English.  However from 1955-56, the Budget documents are printed both in English and Hindi Jawaharlal Nehru was the first prime minister to present the Union Budget in 1958-59.  Other than him, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were the only PMs to have presented the Union Budget in their respective terms. Morarji Desai, the former Finance Minister of India, has presented the budget a record 10 times. Indira Gandhi was the first woman to present the Budget for 1970-71. Budget presented in the year 1973-74 was known as the 'Black Budget’ due to high budget deficit of Rs 550 crore at that time. Budget pre...

Biden has written to the UN requesting that the US rejoin the Paris climate agreement.  Biden named John Kerry, who served as Secretary of State under former President Barack Obama and is one of the leading architects of the Paris Climate Agreement, as his special presidential envoy for climate change.  KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE PROJECT  Biden also cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline project on his first day in office.  The pipeline project was the proposed fourth phase of the Keystone Pipeline network between Canada and the US. It aims to cut short the distance between Alberta’s oil sands and the Texas Gulf Coast, where most of North America’s refineries are situated. Different groups had opposed this project including environmentalists.  They argued the pipeline would increase North America’s reliance on fossil fuels. 

An ‘investment trends monitor’ issued by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said that Global FDI collapsed in 2020 by 42% to an estimated $859 billion from $1.5 trillion in 2019.  Such a low level was last seen in the 1990s. THE REPORT According to the report, the decline in FDI was concentrated in developed countries, where flows plummeted by 69% to an estimated $229 billion.  The United States recorded a 49% drop in FDI, falling to an estimated $134 billion. FDI flows to developing economies decreased by 12% to an estimated $616 billion. China was the world’s largest FDI recipient, with flows to the Asian giant rising by 4% to $163 billion. India, another major emerging economy, also recorded positive growth (13%) to $57 billion, boosted by investments in the digital sector. UNCTAD It was established in as a permanent intergovernmental body in 1964.  Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland. Head: Mukhisa Kituyi.  UNCTAD is the part of the Uni...

Oxford Languages has chosen ‘Aatmanirbharta’ or self-reliance as its Hindi word of the year for 2020. The 2019 Oxford Hindi word of the year was “Samvidhaan”.  OXFORD'S WORD OF THE YEAR Oxford’s Word of the Year is a word or an expression that has attracted a great deal of interest in the preceding year.  For 2020, Oxford Languages has not chosen a single word in English since they believe that the year cannot be summed up using one single word. Therefore, this year they have released a report titled, “Words of an Unprecedented Year” in which they have analyzed themes such as COVID-19 and terms related to it. In 2019, the English word of the year was “climate emergency”. A word should have become more prominent in the last 12 months for it to be chosen. WHY ATMANIRBHARTA? The Oxford Hindi Word of the Year is a word or expression that is chosen to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year, and have lasting potential as a term of cultural significance. Oxfor...

The Myanmar military grabbed power in a coup, ahead of a scheduled meeting of the country’s newly elected Parliament.  Aung San Suu Kyi (won Nobel Peace Prize in 1991), who led the National League for Democracy (NLD) to a landslide win in the 2020 elections, and the de facto leader of the ousted government, has been detained. President Win Myint has also been detained. Tatmadaw, the Myanmar military  also declared a one-year state of Emergency. WHY THE COUP? The military has alleged that the general elections held in November 2020 were full of “irregularities” and that therefore, the results — a sweep for NLD — are not valid.  It has questioned the veracity of some 9 million votes cast in the election. The military had demanded that the United Elections Commission (UEC) of Myanmar which oversees elections, or the government, or outgoing parliamentarians prove that the elections were free and fair.  The demand was rejected. MILITARY IN POLITICS It was the military tha...