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CURRENT AFFAIRS: IMPORTANT DAYS
57th Border Security Force (BSF) Raising Day Celebrated on December 01, 2021
- The Border Security Force (BSF) is observing its 57th Raising Day on 01 December 2021.
- The Border Security Force (BSF), India’s central armed police force, was established on December 1, 1965.
Note:
- The first Director-General of Border Security Force (BSF) was K F Rustamji IPS who served from July 21, 1965, to September 30, 1974.
- Border Security Force Act – 1968
About BSF:
- Headquarters: New Delhi
- Director General : Pankaj Kumar Singh
- Founder: Khusro Faramurz Rustamji
- BSF is one of the five Central Armed Police Forces of the Union of India and stands as the worlds largest border guarding force.
- It comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- BSF has been termed as the First Line of Defence of Indian Territories.
- It is a unified central agency after the Indo-Pak and India-China wars for ensuring the security of the borders of India and for matters connected therewith.
International Day for the Abolition of Slavery Observed on 2 December 2021
- Every year, the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery is observed on December 2 since 1986 by the United Nations General Assembly.
- Theme of 2021 International Day for the Abolition of Slavery is Ending Slaverys Legacy of Racism: A Global Imperative for Justice.
Aim:
- To Eradicate the contemporary forms of slavery, such as trafficking in persons, sexual exploitation, the worst forms of child labour, forced marriage, and the forced recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.
- On the day of International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, United Nations General Assembly adopted the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (resolution 317(IV) of 2 December 1949).
- As per the International Labour Organisation (ILO), over 40 million people are suffering from modern slavery across the world.
About ILO:
- Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland
- Director-General; Guy Ryder
CURRENT AFFAIRS : NATIONAL NEWS
PM Narendra Modi inaugurate InFinity Forum
- On Dec 03, 2021, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will inaugurate InFinity Forum, a thought leadership Forum on FinTech via video conferencing.
- The two-day event is being hosted by International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), under the aegis of Government of India in collaboration with GIFT City and Bloomberg.
- Indonesia, South Africa and the U.K. are partner countries in the first edition of the Forum.
About InFinity Forum:
- InFinity Forum will bring together the leading minds of the world in policy, business, and technology.
- To discuss and come up with actionable insight into how technology and innovation can be leveraged by the FinTech industry for inclusive growth and serving humanity at large.
- The agenda of the Forum will focus on the theme of ‘Beyond’; with various sub themes including FinTech beyond boundaries, FinTech beyond Finance, FinTech Beyond Next.
- The forum will witness participation from over 70 countries.
- The forum will focus on issues such as financial inclusiveness, fintechs convergence with emerging areas such as spacetech, greentech and agritech to drive sustainable development and quantum computing which could impact the nature of fintech industry.
About IFSCA:
- Headquarters: GIFT City, Gandhinagar Gujarat
- The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) was established on April 27, 2020 under the International Financial Services Centres Authority Act, 2019.
- It works as a unified authority for the development and regulation of financial products, financial services and financial institutions in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in India.
Objective:
- To develop a strong global connection and focus on the needs of the Indian economy as well as to serve as an international financial platform for the entire region and the global economy as a whole.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: MOU & AGREEMENTS
Flipkart Inks MoU with Ministry of Rural Development Under National Rural Livelihood Mission
- A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Ministry of Rural Development and Flipkart Internet Pvt. Ltd. to allow the Self-Help Groups (SHGs) producers including the artisans, weavers and craftsmen to access national markets through the Flipkart Samarth programme.
- The partnership is aligned with the DAY-NRLMs goal of strengthening the capabilities of rural communities for self-employment and entrepreneurship, thus providing further impetus to the Prime Ministers vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat.
- This MoU is a part of the Flipkart Samarth program and aims to provide skilled yet under-served communities of craftsmen, weavers and artisans with national market access through the Flipkart marketplace, as well as dedicated support for knowledge and training.
- Flipkart Samarth seeks to break entry barriers for local communities by providing time-bound incubation and support with onboarding, cataloging, marketing, account management, business insights, and warehousing.
The key features of MoU:
- SHG members and Clusters (geographical grouping of SHGs) will be provided training support for on-boarding products.
- Waiver of all commission charges for selling on the platform for a period of 6 months.
- Cataloguing support for a maximum of 100 products per seller.
- Other benefits like support for warehousing and account management etc.
- The Ministry in collaboration with Government e-Marketplace (GeM) has created Saras Collection ” as a StoreFront in GeM for marketing of SHG products.
- The States of Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh & West Bengal have supported SHGs in registering on the GeM portal.
- The four States of Assam, Bihar, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh have developed e-commerce platforms to support SHGs; the details are provided below.
| S.No | State | Name of Site |
| 1 | Assam | Asomi |
| 2 | Bihar | Jeevika Shop |
| 3 | Kerala | Kudumbashree Bazaar |
| 4 | Madhya Pradesh | Madhya Pradesh Aajeevika Mart |
About Ministry of Rural Development:
- Minister of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj: Giriraj Singh
- Minister of State: Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Faggan Singh Kulaste
- Secretary: Nagendra Nath Sinha
CURRENT AFFAIRS: SUMMITS & CONFERENCES
Tribes India Conclave organised by TRIFED and Ministry of External Affairs
- A Tribes India Conclave is organised in association with TRIFED and the Ministry of External Affairs at the Tribes India Adi Mahotsav.
- It was arranged in line with the Prime Ministers vision for Vocal for Local to build a self-reliant India and introduce rich tribal heritage to international audiences.
- The event was attended by around 100 diplomats from more than 20 foreign missions in India besides senior officials from the Ministry of External Affairs and other ministries.
- The dignitaries included diplomats from over 20 countries such as Poland, Kiribati, South Korea, Mexico, Thailand, Laos, Switzerland, Bangladesh, Maldives, US and Brazil.
- The dignitaries took a look at the stalls of the tribal artisans from across the country and showed their keenness to learn more about the unique handicrafts and traditions.
- With about 200 stalls on display which showcase products ranging from traditional weaves to jewellery and paintings and toys, the dignitaries were given a glimpse into tribal arts and crafts.
- In addition, there were live demonstrations by artisans on how to make pottery, Lac bangles and Gond paintings.
- Throughout the conclave, a unique GI store also emphasised distinguished, delicate items like Darjeeling tea from West Bengal, Kota Doriya fabric, Rajasthans blue pottery, Kala jeera from Himachal Pradesh, Odishas Pattachitra, Madhya Pradeshs Chanderi & Maheshwari silk, Karnatakas Bidriware, Banarasi silk from Uttar Pradesh.
- Tribal artisans also performed a live puppet show at the event.
About Ministry of Tribal Affairs:
- Cabinet Minister : Arjun Munda
- Minister of State : Renuka Singh Saruta, Bishweswar Tudu
- Secretary : Deepak Khandekar
About Ministry of External Affairs:
- Minister responsible: Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
- Minister of State : V. Muraleedharan, Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Meenakshi Lekhi
CURRENT AFFAIRS: DEFENCE NEWS
India to develop jet engines for aircrafts with foreign collaboration
- India is set to develop jet engines for aircrafts like Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) in association with the International Engine House.
- It is proposed to develop indigenous engines for powering aircraft such as LCA variants and Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA).
- LCA Tejas, Flight Operational Clearance (FOC) configuration demands higher thrust than the intended engine requirement.
- Hence the Kaveri in the present architecture cannot be integrated.
- In order to induct with LCA Tejas, a modified engine version is required.
- The technological capabilities built through the Kaveri engine project will be utilised.
- The LCA FOC variant and the Mk1A are powered by the GE-F404 engines while the LCA-Mk2 and AMCA in future will initially be powered by the more powerful GE-F414 engines.
About Project Kaveri:
- The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) had sanctioned the indigenous Kaveri engine project in 1989.
- The project which ran for 30 years with an expenditure of ₹2035.56 crore saw the development of nine full prototype engines and four core engines.
- A total of 3217 hours of engine testing was conducted and the engine has also completed altitude tests and Flying Test Bed (FTB) trials.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: RANKING & INDEX
Tel Aviv ranked worlds costliest city – The world’s most expensive cities in 2021
- Tel Aviv the Israeli city has become the world’s most expensive city to live in 2021, Paris and Singapore are jointly ranked second, followed by Zurich and Hong Kong at the fourth and fifth spots according to the annual Worldwide Cost of Living index released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
- Tel Aviv climbed from 5th place to the top in 2021 due to the rising value of the Israeli currency shekel against US Dollar and the increase in the price of grocery and transport.
- The Syrian capital Damascus was ranked the worlds cheapest city to live in.
List of world’s top 10 expensive cities
- Tel Aviv, Israel
- Paris, France
- Singapore
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Hong Kong
- New York, US
- Geneva, Switzerland
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Los Angeles, US
- Osaka, Japan
About Worldwide Cost of Living 2021 Index:
- From Israels Tel Aviv to France Paris the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) conducted research that compares more than 400 individual prices across 200 products and services in 173 cities, measured against impactful global events.
- On average, prices for goods and services have risen by 3.5% year-on-year, the highest inflation rate seen in the last five years.
- The cost of the living study is conducted twice a year by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Note:
- In 2020, Paris, Zurich and Hong Kong shared joint first place in the EIU’s survey.
About EIU:
- Headquarters: London, England
- Founded: 1946
- Managing Director: Robin Bew
CURRENT AFFAIRS: ENVIRONMENT
Kyhytysuka sachicarum- Extinct swordfish-shaped marine reptile discovered
- A team of international researchers from Canada, Colombia, and Germany has discovered a new extinct marine reptile Kyhytysuka sachicarum.
- The new species Kyhytysuka which translates to one that cuts with something sharp in the Indigenous language from the central Colombian region the fossil was found in.
- Researchers chose the name in honour of the ancient Muisca culture that lived in the Villa de Leyva area for millennia.
- The team presented its findings in a study published this month in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology.
About Kyhytysuka :
- Kyhytysuka was a mid-sized ophthalmosaurian with heterodont dentition.
- The animal was previously assigned to the genus Platypterygius.
- Kyhytysuka has a large body size & robust skull & it was mostly found in shallow waters.
- It has several adaptations suggesting that it was a macropredatory vertebrate hunter.
- The dentition is the unique feature of the species as the teeth are seated in continuous grooves.
- The longest bone of the species is the dentary, which measures 720 mm & the teeth are slightly curved posteriorly.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: SPORTS NEWS
Indian athlete Anju Bobby George wins World Athletics Woman of the Year award
- Legendary Indian athlete Anju Bobby George has been bestowed with the Woman of the Year Award by World Athletics for grooming talent in the country and for her advocacy of gender equality.
About Anju Bobby George:
- Anju was born 19 April 1977 , Changanassery, Kottayam, Kerala, India.
- She was a gold medallist in 2005 IAAF World Athletics Finals.
- The 44-year-old Anju is India’s only medallist at the IAAF World Championships (Paris, 2003), a gold medallist in the IAAF World Athletics Finals (Monaco, 2005).
- She finished sixth in the 2004 Olympic Games
- She was the first Indian athlete to win a bronze medal in long jump at the World Championships in Athletics held in 2013 in Paris.
- She won medals in Delhi Junior Asian Championship, South Asian Federation Games (held in Nepal), Commonwealth games held in Manchester and also won gold medal at the Asian Games held in Busan.
- Currently, Anju is the Chairperson of TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme) and also the Executive member of Khelo India project.
- She is also the chairperson of the Athletes Commission of the Indian Olympic Association.
Awards & Honours:
- Anju Bobby George received the Arjuna award in 20022003 for eminent sports persons from the government of India
- She received the country’s highest sporting honour, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 20032004 after her success in the World Athletic meet.
- She was conferred Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian award in 2004
CURRENT AFFAIRS: OBITUARIES
Renowned Telugu lyricist Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry passes away
- On Nov 30, 2021, Renowned Telugu lyricist ‘Sirivennela’ Seetharama Sastry passed away at the age of 66.
About Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry:
- Chembolu Seetharama Sastry was born on 20 May 1955 in Anakapalle in Andhra Pradesh, India.
- He was an Indian poet and lyricist known for his works in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre.
- He has penned lyrics for over 3000 songs until 2020.
- He acquired the name Sirivennela after writing the lyrics for K. Viswanath’s directorial film of the same name in 1986.
- The veteran lyricist also worked with legendary playback singer S P Balasubrahmanyam and gave a lot of hits songs.
Awards & Honours:
- In January 2012, he was honored with a Lifetime achievement award.
- Seetharama Sastry won accolades and innumerable awards that include 11 Nandi awards given by the government of Andhra Pradesh and four Filmfare awards.
- In 2019, he was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award in India, for his contributions towards the field of arts and aesthetics.
UNION GOVERNMENT SCHEME
One nation one ration card scheme
The ONORC scheme is implemented by the Department for the nation-wide portability of ration cards under National Food Security Act (NFSA).
According to the scheme all eligible ration card holders/beneficiaries covered under NFSA can access their entitlements from anywhere in the country.
Launched on:
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution launched a pilot scheme titled, One Nation One Ration Card Scheme in four states on a pilot basis in 2019.
The One Nation One Ration Card scheme was initially started in four states in August 2019. Now, two years later, it is enabled in 34 states and UTs covering almost major per cent of the NFSA population (about 690 million NFSA beneficiaries) in the country.
Ministry involved:
One nation one ration card scheme is under administrative control of ministry of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution.
Objectives:
The main objective of the scheme is to introduce nation-wide portability of ration card holders under National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA), to lift their entitlement food grains from any FPS in the country without the need to obtain a new ration card, by integrating the existing PDS systems/portals of States/UTs with the Central systems/portals, etc.
The basic objective of this scheme is to provide adequate food grains to the poor sections of the country across the country at very meager rates.
To create Reforms in the public distribution system.
To provide access of food grains to each beneficiary
To enable migrant workers and their family members to access PDS benefits from any Fair Price Shop in the country.
Eligibility :
Any citizen, who is declared under Below Poverty Line (BPL) category will be eligible to get the benefit of this scheme across the country.
What is BPL:
Below Poverty Line is a benchmark used by the government of India to indicate economic disadvantage and to identify individuals and households in need of government assistance and aid. It is determined using various parameters which vary from state to state and within states.
Internationally, an income of less than ₹150 per day per head of purchasing power parity is defined as extreme poverty. By this estimate, about 12.4% of Indians are extremely poor.
Income-based poverty lines consider the bare minimum income to provide basic food requirements; it does not account for other essentials such as health care and education.
Target group :
One Nation One Ration Card allows all the NFSA beneficiaries/ration cardholders, particularly the migrant NFSA beneficiaries/ration cardholders, for claiming either whole or part of the foodgrains from any FPS situated anywhere in the country through an existing ration card with biometric or Aadhaar authentication
The target group on which the scheme’s main focus is people below poverty line
Need of scheme:
Owing to the defined coverage of beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 in each State/UT,
It was difficult for migrant beneficiaries to get a new ration card issued. Even if they were able to get one issued, it introduced the ‘duplicity’ of ration cards/beneficiaries in the country’s Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), thereby potentially depriving many other left-out and genuinely deserving beneficiaries from getting included under the fold of NFSA.
Now problems of getting a new ration card and duplicity of beneficiaries are solved and the government is enabling the inclusion of all genuine beneficiaries of State/UT through portability under the fold of NFSA.
This mechanism can plug the leakage/diversion of un-lifted foodgrains in FPSs, as they can now be lifted by their rightful beneficiaries through portability and gets adjusted between States/UTs, thereby minimizing the chances of diversion.
Benefits:
This system allows all NFSA beneficiaries, particularly migrant beneficiaries, to claim foodgrains from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) in the country through existing ration card with biometric/Aadhaar authentication in a seamless manner.
The system also allows their family members back home, if any, to claim the balance foodgrains on same the ration card.
Characteristics :
Existing ration cards will be converted in one nation one ration card.
New card will be a universal ration card allotted to each beneficiary registered under NFSA.
A beneficiary who migrates from one place to another can buy subsidized food grains from the fair price shop located in the destination city regardless of the origin of the beneficiaries.
The beneficiaries will be cheched through biometric authentication on electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) devices.
These devices will be installed at each fair price shop.The national portability will work using the:
Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IM-PDS) portal – It will provide the technological platform for the ration cards portability.
Annavitran portal – It will host the data of the food grains distribution through ePoS devices within a state. This will help a beneficiary to access subsidized food grains within a state (inter-district.)
ration card will be seeded with adhar card which will help beneficiaries get the ration using the same ration card.
About “Mera Ration Mobile App”:
The central government has launched the “Mera Ration Mobile App” in the country on March 12, 2021. This app was launched in order to facilitate the ‘One Nation-One Ration Card’ system. About Mera Ration Mobile App The app was developed by the government in association with the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
Outcomes of schemes till November 2021:
The broad-based reform of portability covering nearly 81 Crore NFSA beneficiaries in all States/UTs is being achieved with minimal outlay of just Rs. 127 Crore, over a period of 4 years.
This is a one-of- its-kind Citizen-Centric initiative in the country, swiftly implemented in34 States/UTs in a short-span of time (as of August 2021), after being sanctioned in 2018-19 and implemented from August 2019.
ONORC was helpful to NFSA beneficiaries in availing food grains from any location during COVID pandemic/ lockdown period.
During the period between 01-April-2020 and 30-September-2021, about 24.32 crore portability transactions under NFSA were carried out across States/UTs, benefiting large number of NFSA beneficiaries, mostly migrants, at the Fair Price Shops (FPS) near to their location of work/temporary stay.
Under the NSFA, almost 23.6crore Ration cards have been digitized to cover 80 crore beneficiaries of all states/UTs.
Almost 93.1 % Ration Cards and 90.1 % beneficiaries are Aadhar-seeded at a national level.
Online allocation orders for food grains for all FPS has been implemented in all states/UTs, besides Chandigarh and Puducherry.
Supply Chain Management of food grains is computerized in 31 States/UTs for online management of stocks in godowns and its in-and-out movement.
Daily CA On Dec 03:
- The Border Security Force (BSF) is observing its 57th Raising Day on 01 December 2021.
- Every year, the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery is observed on December 2 since 1986 by the United Nations General Assembly & the theme of 2021 International Day for the Abolition of Slavery is Ending Slaverys Legacy of Racism: A Global Imperative for Justice.
- On Dec 03, 2021, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will inaugurate InFinity Forum, a thought leadership Forum on FinTech via video conferencing & the two-day event is being hosted by International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), under the aegis of Government of India in collaboration with GIFT City and Bloomberg.
- A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Ministry of Rural Development and Flipkart Internet Pvt. Ltd. to allow the Self-Help Groups (SHGs) producers including the artisans, weavers and craftsmen to access national markets through the Flipkart Samarth programme.
- A Tribes India Conclave is organised in association with TRIFED and the Ministry of External Affairs at the Tribes India Adi Mahotsav.
- India is set to develop jet engines for aircrafts like Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) in association with the International Engine House.
- Tel Aviv the Israeli city has become the world’s most expensive city to live in 2021, Paris and Singapore are jointly ranked second, followed by Zurich and Hong Kong at the fourth and fifth spots according to the annual Worldwide Cost of Living index released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
- A team of international researchers from Canada, Colombia, and Germany has discovered a new extinct marine reptile Kyhytysuka sachicarum.
- Legendary Indian athlete Anju Bobby George has been bestowed with the Woman of the Year Award by World Athletics for grooming talent in the country and for her advocacy of gender equality.
- On Nov 30, 2021, Renowned Telugu lyricist ‘Sirivennela’ Seetharama Sastry passed away at the age of 66.