Here is the Daily Current Affairs of the 30th November 2022 covering the
following news headlines: Gaslighting, Red Planet Day, Nargesi, Para Sports
Person of Year award, Artemis 1 Orion, Global Prime Cities Index, Prasoon Joshi
UN panel has recommended that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef should be
listed as a World Heritage site that is in danger. The UN also informed that
the world’s biggest coral reef ecosystem was significantly impacted by climate
change and the warming of oceans.
Frequent bleaching events are threatening the reef, including four over
the last seven years and the first during a La Nina phenomenon.
A report by UNESCO informed that the resilience of the Reef to recover
from climate change impacts is substantially compromised.
The report was expected to be released ahead of the UNESCO World
Heritage committee meeting however it was postponed due to the Russia-Ukraine
war.
Indore with a strong environmental record is planning to issue the
nation’s first local government bond targeting individual investors, with
proceeds used to fund a solar power project. Indore Municipal Corp.
seeks to raise as much as 2.6 billion rupees ($31.8 million) via a
10-year bond sale next month, according to Divyank Singh, chief executive
officer of Indore Smart City, who is working with various stakeholders to
finalize the offering. The offering from Indore, which is in the central state
of Madhya Pradesh, is also set to be the country’s maiden municipal green bond
designed for retail investors.
CEO & CCO of McCann Worldgroup India, Prasoon Joshi has been
appointed by Uttarakhand Government as the state’s brand ambassador. Padma Shri
awardee Prasoon Joshi is currently the Chairman of the Central Board of Film
Certification (Censor Board). He is a famous and highly awarded member of the
Indian advertising and media fraternity.
Joshi has also written the lyrics for songs in popular Bollywood movies
such as Rang De Basanti, Fanaa and Taare Zameen Par. He has also written the
script for the award-winning 2013 film, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.
Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS officer and former health secretary, Preeti
Sudan has took the oath of office and secrecy as Member, UPSC. The oath was
administered to her by the UPSC chairman Dr Manoj Soni.
Sudan superannuated as the Union Health Secretary in July, 2020. She
also served as Secretary, Department of Food & Public Distribution, and in
Women and Child Development and Defence Ministries.
The UPSC is headed by a chairperson and can have a maximum of 10
members. With Sudan’s appointment, there is still a vacancy of four members in
the Commission. The UPSC, is India’s premier central recruitment agency for
recruitment of all the Group ‘A’ officers under Government of India.
The body conducts civil services examination annually in three stages —
preliminary, main and interview — to select officers of Indian Administrative Service
(IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) among
others.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
UPSC Chairperson: Manoj Soni;
UPSC Founded: 1 October 1926;
UPSC Founder: Government of the United Kingdom.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a trial for retail digital
rupee (e ₹-R) beginning 1 December, with four banks in as many cities
participating in the pilot programme, a month after testing the wholesale
central bank digital currency (CBDC).
RBI said the pilot would cover select locations in a closed user group
(CUG) comprising participating customers and merchants. While it has identified
eight banks for gradual participation in the pilot, the first phase will begin
with four: State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank.
While the retail CBDC would initially cover Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru
and Bhubaneswar, the trials will be later extended to Ahmedabad, Gangtok,
Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna and Shimla.
Old private sector lender Tamilnad Mercantile Bank has entered into
bancassurance partnerships with Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company Ltd,
part of the Chennai-based Murugappa Group, and Max Life Insurance Company to
provide general insurance products and life insurance schemes respectively to TMB’s
customers.
Under the tie-up, Tuticorin-based TMB’s 500-plus branches will start
retailing the insurance products of both companies. The bank has inked
agreement with Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company for the purpose of
marketing, distribution & selling the general insurance products.
It is the selling of insurance products through banking channels.
In Bancassurance a bank enters into an
agreement with an Insurance company. The Bank makes its customer database
available to the Insurance companies. If the bank customer buys the insurance
products then the bank will receive a commission from the Insurance companies.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Tata Sons announced that they have agreed
to merge Air India and Vistara, with SIA getting a 25.1 per cent stake in the
merged entity at an investment of Rs 2,058.5 crore ($250 million) in Air India
as part of the transaction.
The 25.1 per cent stake will be in an enlarged Air India group – it will
have Air India, Vistara, AirAsia India and Air India Express – and the merger
of all airlines is targeted for completion by March 2024, subject to regulatory
approvals. The group is already in the process of merging Air India Express and
AirAsia India into one entity that will provide low-cost flight options.
Capital markets regulator Sebi has set up a high-level panel to review
the takeover norms in a move to simplify and strengthen the current rules by
adopting appropriate global practices. Also, the regulator will assess the
current rules in the light of past judicial pronouncements and various informal
guidelines issued by the capital markets regulator.
The 20-member committee will be chaired by former Chief Justice of
Punjab and Haryana High Court, Shiavax Jal Vazifdar. Apart from Vazifdar, other
members of the panel include Sundareswaran S Managing Director (MD) at Morgan
Stanley Financial Advisors; Rajendra Kanoongo, Joint MD of Mark Corporate
Advisors; K Srinivas MD of Saffron Capital Advisors, Ankur Verma, Senior Vice
President at Tata Sons and Dolphy Dsouza Partner at E&Y.
Ministry of Power has launched a scheme for procurement of aggregate
power of 4500 MW for five years under SHAKTI Policy. The Ministry said that the
scheme will help states that are facing power shortage and help generation
plants to increase their capacities.
The last date for the bid submission is 21st December. It is for the
first time that bidding is being carried out under B(v) of SHAKTI scheme. PFC
Consulting Limited has been designated as the nodal agency. It has invited bids
for the supply of 4,500 MW electricity. The supply will commence from April
next year.
The utilities that have shown interest for the scheme are Gujarat Urja
Vikas Nigam Ltd, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd, Madhya
Pradesh Power Management Company Ltd, New Delhi Municipal Corporation and Tamil
Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd.
Mumbai stood at 22nd rank in a global index that measures annual price
appreciation of premium residential properties, according to Knight Frank. In
its report on ‘Prime Global Cities Index Q3 (July-September) 2022’, Property
consultant Knight Frank said that all three Indian cities: Mumbai, Bengaluru
and New Delhi, registered an increase in average annual prices in the third
quarter of 2022.
The report further cited that Dubai recorded the fastest rise in prime
prices with an 88.8 per cent increase during a 12-month change (Q3 2021- Q3
2022), while Wellington was the weakest performing market with a decline of 18
per cent.
Some European cities registered strong performance in prime prices
during Q3 2022. Zurich (10.7%), Edinburgh (9.9%), Berlin (9.4%), Dublin (8.6%),
and Madrid (5.6%) have all risen the rankings in the last 12 months despite the
drop-in sentiment and the slowdown in the Eurozone’s economy.
A study report, titled ‘Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage Policy
Framework and its Deployment Mechanism in India’, was released.
The report explores the importance of Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and
Storage as an emission reduction strategy to achieve deep decarbonization from
the hard-to-abate sectors. The report outlines broad level policy interventions
needed across various sectors for its application.
The report indicates that CCUS can provide a wide variety of
opportunities to convert the captured CO2 to different value-added products
like green urea, food and beverage form application, building materials
(concrete and aggregates), chemicals (methanol and ethanol), polymers
(including bio-plastics) and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) with wide market
opportunities in India, thus contributing substantially to a circular economy.
The World Health Organisation has changed the name of the disease
Monkeypox to Mpox, as they receive complaints about the word Monkeypox
conjuring up racist tropes and stigmatizing patients. The recommendation
follows outbreaks that began about six months ago in Europe and the United States.
Mpox has circulated in the rural development parts of Central Africa and
West Africa for decades.
WHO will adopt the term Mpox in its communications and encourages others
to follow these recommendations.
This decision was taken to minimize the ongoing negative impact of the
current name and from the adoption of the new name.
The name was inspired by a colony of caged lab monkeys in Denmark, where
the virus was first identified by researchers.
NASA’s Artemis 1 Orion Capsule has set a new space flight record for
spacecraft designed to carry humans by traveling 4,01,798 kilometers from
Earth. The record was previously held by Apollo 13 which logged the record on
14th April 1970 by traveling 400,171 kilometers.
Artemis 1 Orion Capsule was designed to stress the systems Orion and
NASA sent the capsule into distant retrograde orbit.
Since, Orion is not staffed, the Apollo 13 crew still holds the record
for the farthest distance from Earth reached by humans.
The Orion is carrying a manikin named “Commander Moonikin Campos”, after
the late Arturo Campos.
Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) announced that iNCOVACC
(BBV154), has received approval from the Drugs Controller General of India
(DCGI) under Restricted Use in Emergency Situations for ages 18 and above, in
India, for heterologous booster doses.
iNCOVACC is the world’s first Intranasal vaccine for COVID to receive
approval for the primary 2-dose schedule and the heterologous booster dose.
iNCOVACC is a recombinant replication-deficient adenovirus vectored vaccine
with a pre-fusion stabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. This vaccine candidate
was evaluated in phases I, II, and III clinical trials with successful results.
At the Turf 2022 and India Sports Awards of Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), former Ranji cricketer Sarkar
Talwar was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement of the Year award. Talwar,
the Director-Sports, Manav Rachna Education Institutions, is also the recipient
of the Dronacharya Lifetime Award, given by the President of India.
Apart from Talwar, Avani Lekhara, who won two medals at the Tokyo 2020
Paralympics, was recognized as the Para Sports Person of the Year, while Shrey
Kadyan was recognized as the Special Sportsperson of the Year. Best Male Coach
to R.B. Ramesh and Best Female Coach to Nonita Lal Qureshi.
For his contribution to sports journalism, Rakesh Rao, Deputy Editor
(Sports) of The Hindu, was presented the Special Recognition Award by the
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), at the FICCI
India Sports Awards 2022 held at Federation House.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
FICCI President: Sanjiv Mehta;
FICCI Founded: 1927;
FICCI Headquarters: New Delhi;
FICCI Founder: Ghanshyam Das Birla.
Iranian film Nargesi by Director Payam Eskandari has won the ICFT-UNESCO
Gandhi Medal at the 53rd edition of International Film Festival of India, given
for a film that best reflects Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals of peace, tolerance and
non-violence. The film is about a man with Down’s syndrome and the burden and
consequences it creates in his life. Compassion and tenderness are the two
qualities depicted in this award-winning film.
Every year at IFFI, ICFT Paris and UNESCO come together to present the
Gandhi medal to one film. The films competing for the ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Award
are screened at IFFI first and then, the ICFT jury evaluates the films based on
the ideals of UNESCO.
Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare is commemorated
on November 30 every year. This internationally marked day was adopted by the
United Nations to remember the victims of chemical warfare. The day aims to
encourage efforts for eliminating the use of chemical weapons and remember
those who have suffered because of such warfare.
The Chemical Weapons Convention was adopted in 1993. It came into force
on April 29, 1997. In 2005, the United Nations proclaimed November 30 as the
Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare.
Commemorating the day one of the most significant space missions to Mars
was launched, November 28 is marked as Red Planet Day. After 3 previous
attempts, Spacecraft Mariner 4 became the first successful flyby of Mars.
The spacecraft was launched on November 28, 1964, and reached Mars on
July 14, 1965. The successful mission produced 22 pictures of the Martian
surface. These pictures were the first-ever close-up photos to come from deep
space. This mission, along with several others that occurred afterward, has
helped us learn much about the red planet.
India’s automotive industry stalwart and Toyota Kirloskar Motor vice
chairperson, Vikram S Kirloskar has passed away. He was 64. Toyota Kirloskar
Motor (TKM), which sells a range of vehicles, is a joint venture between the
Japanese auto major Toyota Motor Company and the Kirloskar Group.
Vikram Kirloskar, a pioneer of India’s automotive industry, played a key
role in bringing Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp to India in the late 1990s. He had a
mechanical engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
US.
The US dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster announced that their 2022
word of the year is “gaslighting” or as Merriam-Webster defines it, “the act or
practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one’s own advantage.”
Interest in the term was up by 1,740% over the previous years according
to searches of the online dictionary. The term itself came into existence 80
years ago in 1938 through gas light, Gas Light is a play written by Patrick
Hamilton. Two films were made on this play in the 1940s.
The Himalayan Yak has been approved as a ‘food animal’ by the Food
Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI). The move is expected to help
slow the decline of the high-altitude bovine animal population by incorporating
it into the conventional milk and meat industries, according to an official at
the National Research Centre (NRC) on Yak in Dirang, West Kameng district,
Arunachal Pradesh. The ‘food animal’ tag will become official once it is
notified in the gazette following approval by a competent authority.
In India, Yak is found throughout the Himalayan region — Arunachal
Pradesh, Sikkim, North Bengal, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Jammu
and Kashmir.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
FSSAI Founded: 5 September 2008;
FSSAI Headquarters: New Delhi;
FSSAI Chairperson: Rita Teaotia.
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