DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS 13 October 2021
Ecological Threat Report (ETR) 2021
- Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP), an international think tank released the Ecological Threat Report (ETR) 2021: Understanding ecological threats, resilience, and peace.
- This is the second edition of the ETR, which covers 178 independent states and territories.
- The ETR includes the most recent and respected scientific research on population growth, water stress, food insecurity, droughts, floods, cyclones, and rising temperature.
- Around 1.26 billion people across 30 countries are suffering from both extreme ecological risk and low levels of resilience.
- These countries are least likely to be able to mitigate and adapt to new ecological threats, leading to mass displacement.
Ram Manohar Lohia remembered on his Death Anniversary
- Ram Manohar Lohia (23 March 1910 – 12 October 1967) was an activist in the Indian independence movement and a socialist political leader.
- During the last phase of British rule in India, he worked with the Congress Radio which was broadcast secretly from various places in Bombay until 1942.
- Lohia wrote his Ph.D. thesis paper on the topic of Salt Taxation in India, focusing on Gandhi’s socio-economic theory.
60th Anniversary of NAM
- As the Special Envoy of Prime Minister, Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi addressed the High-Level Meeting to mark the 60th Anniversary of Non-Aligned Movement NAM in Belgrade, Serbia.
- The Non-Aligned Movement was formed during the Cold War as an organization of States that did not seek to formally align themselves with either the United States or the Soviet Union but sought to remain independent or neutral.
- The basic concept for the group originated in 1955 during discussions that took place at the Asia-Africa Bandung Conference held in Indonesia.
- The first NAM Summit Conference took place in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in September 1961.
- It has 120 members as of April 2018 comprising 53 countries from Africa, 39 from Asia, 26 from Latin America and the Caribbean and 2 from Europe (Belarus, Azerbaijan). There are 17 countries and 10 international organizations that are Observers at NAM.
India Post launches e-PLI bond
- Department of Posts, Ministry of Communications, launched the digital version of the Postal Life Insurance policy bonds, also termed as “ePLI bond”, on the occasion of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav in an event here today. 12 October is celebrated as the Postal Life Insurance Day in the week-long Postal week festival. Shri Vineet Pandey, Secretary, Department of Posts, Shri Alok Sharma, DG, Department of Posts, Smt Sandhya Rani, Member PLI, Smt Manju Kumar, Chief General Manager PLI and Abhishek Singh, President & CEO (Additional Charge), National e-Governance Division (NeGD) attended the event.
- While inaugurating the “ePLI bond” Secretary Posts Shri Vineet Pandey stated that ePLI bond is the Department of Posts’ first digital integration with Digilocker which will greatly facilitate citizens in a meaningful way by providing ease of access and quick claim settlements.
- ePLI bond is made available in collaboration with DIGILOCKER, National eGovernance Division (NeGD), Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) Government of India. DigiLocker has been providing a secure cloud-based platform for storage, sharing and verification of documents & certificates for various organisations.
- By securely logging in to the Digilocker, the user can download the digital copy of the Policy bond on their mobile phone. Both the Postal Life Insurance (PLI) as well as the Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) policy bonds are available in the ‘electronic form’. ePLI policy bonds having a digital signature is valid proof as per the Rule 9A of the Information Technology (Preservation and Retention of Information by Intermediaries Providing Digital Locker Facilities) Rules, 2016 notified on February 8, 2017, vide G.S.R. 711(E). It shall be treated at par with the original policy bond issued by the Department of Posts for processing all types of Financial & Non-financial requests related to PLI/RPLI.
6th Ministerial meeting of CICA 2021
- The Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) is an inter-governmental forum for enhancing cooperation towards promoting peace, security, and stability in Asia. It is a forum based on the recognition that there is close link between peace, security, and stability in Asia and in the rest of the world. The key idea of the Conference is based on the priority of the indivisibility of security, joint initiative, and mutually beneficial interaction of small and large states.
- The idea of convening the CICA was first proposed by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev on 5 October 1992, at the 47th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. On October 5, 2017, the CICA process celebrated its 25th anniversary.
- EAM S Jaishankar addresses 6th Ministerial meeting of Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures 2021 in Kazakhstan.
Prime Minister to launch PM Gatishakti
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch PM Gatishakti National Master Plan’ for providing multimodal connectivity infrastructure to various economic zones.
- The project is the brainchild of the Prime Minister who has been a strong advocate of ending silos in government functioning and bringing more inter-departmental and ministerial synergies.
- The Prime Minister had announced ‘PM Gati Shakti – National Master Plan’ in his Independence Day speech on August 15 this year.
- It will break inter-ministerial silos and integrate the planning and designing of projects with a common and holistic vision, enhance India’s global competitiveness through next-generation infrastructure and seamless multi-modal connectivity, ensure seamless movement of goods and people and enhance the ease of living as well as the ease of doing business.
- At the initial stage, the national master plan will include 16 ministries including Railways, Civil Aviation, Petroleum, MEITY, Shipping, Road Transport, Textiles and Food Processing.
- An empowered group of secretaries, headed by the Cabinet Secretary, will be formed for quick decision-making and DIPP will be the nodal agency.
- Gatishakti seeks to use technologies like Geographic Information System-based Enterprise Resource Planning with 200+ layers of evidence-based decision-making besides planning tools for route planning, dashboard-based periodic monitoring, and latest satellite imagery.
- BISAG-N (Bhaskaracarya National Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics) is designing its interface. It also uses satellite imagery available from ISRO and base maps from the Survey of India. Visualization of BISAG maps will be available to people at large including the private sector, thus bringing efficiency.
- There will be a conceptual change in the functions of government. With this application, a holistic, integrated approach will be followed and there will be real-time coordination among various departments.
- The move will increase efficiency and will also save money on projects.
- Initially, the portal will have 200 layers in which 16 ministries will put all available data about the active projects to be completed by 2024- 25.
- Concerned projects will be mapped on the interface. Forests, eco-sensitive zones, archaeological sites, and land needs will be among the factors to be mapped.
- When a department plans a project, they have all this information. This will lead to integrated planning; decision support system will also be integrated. At the planning level, you will have all the data.
- With so many layers, data of railways, NHAI, telecom, It Department, gas pipelines, civil aviation’s hopping ports, all this will be put together.
- There is also gap analysis available in the system. Ahead of the launch, state governments were also approached and most of them showed a willingness to join the project.
- In later stages data will also be provided to private partners in various projects and this will solve the problem of coordination.
- An Integrated Multimodal Network Planning Group (NPG) with heads of Network Planning Division of all connectivity infrastructure ministries and departments will be responsible for unified planning and integration of the proposals.
- A workshop for stakeholders at three levels will also be organised after the launch in Delhi.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
- The first NAM Summit Conference took place in
- Belgrade
- Singapore
- Serbia
- New Delhi
ANSWER: A
- Which of the following is mismatched
- Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia
- Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt
- Kwame Nkrumah of Sudan
- Sukarno of Indonesia
ANSWER: C
- The purpose of the NAM was enumerated in _____ of 1979
- Havana Declaration
- Belgrade Declaration
- Cairo Declaration
- Rwanda declaration
ANSWER: A
- The current Host country of NAM
- Iran
- Venezuela
- Azerbaijan
- Uganda
ANSWER: C
- Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) was established in
- 1995
- 1999
- 2001
- 2005
ANSWER: B
- The idea of convening the CICA was first proposed by
- Tajikistan
- Uzbekistan
- Azerbaijan
- Kazakhstan
ANSWER: A
- LIC was founded in
- 1948
- 1952
- 1956
- 1960
ANSWER: C
- Current Chairmen of LIC
- M R Kumar
- Mukesh Gupta
- Rajkumar
- Siddharth Mohanty
ANSWER: A
- It was the first company in India offering life insurance coverage
- Oriental Life Insurance Company
- United India Insurance Company
- New India Assurance
- Life Insurance Corporation of India
ANSWER: A
- The Concept of Sapta Kranti was given by
- Sarvepalli Radha Krishna
- Ram Manohar Lohia
- Babu Jagjivan Ram
- Rajkumari Amrit Kaur
ANSWER: B
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