Current Affairs - 2019-20

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The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit will be held in Astana, Kazakhstan on June 8-9, 2017. In this summit, India and Pakistan will become full members of the organization. The SCO is a Eurasian political, economic, and military organisation which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It is mainly aimed at military cooperation between the members and involves intelligence- sharing, counter-terrorism operations in Central Asia. Afghanistan, Belarus, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan have observer status.

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India is the most populous democracy in the world. As of 2022, India has a population of over 1.4 billion people, making it the second most populous country in the world after China, which is a communist country.

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The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) won the international competition to adopt the Wax Deoiling Technology at Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) in Assam. The Wax Deoiling Plant is based on indigenously developed technology and in line with the Make in India initiative. The Wax Deoiling Technology is used to produce waxes from petroleum streams. Paraffin wax is used for making candles, polishes, medicines, food packaging, paints, leather etc, while Microcrystalline Wax is mainly used in cosmetic industry.

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The renowned Khasi Mandarin of Meghalaya has a tight and smooth skin. It has been recently issued GI certificate. 

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Setu Bharatam is an ambitious programme with an investment of Rs. 50,000 crore to build bridges for safe and seamless travel on National Highways. The programme aims at making all national highways Railway Level Crossing free by 2019. This is being done in order to prevent the frequent accidents and loss of lives at level crossings. A 208 new “Road Over Bridges (ROB) / Road Under Bridges (RUB)” are envisaged for construction, while 1500 bridges will be widened, rehabilitated or replaced.

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The Mankidia tribe has been recognised as one of the 13 particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) in the State. They are known for collection of Siali fibre, from which they build small huts and offer worship to their deities. This tribal group was in news for filing a claim for habitat rights in the Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR). However, their claim was recently denied since the Forest Department thought that the indigenous people might face life threat from wildlife or even come in way of their free movement due to grant of habitat rights in the Tiger Reserve.

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As per the recently Index by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Gujarat topped the Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) index, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh took the second and third positions, respectively. LEADS (Logistics Ease Across Different States) is a first-ever sub-national logistics performance index. The LEADS index is based on various parameters such as rail and roads network, warehouses, efficiency of regulatory processes, logistics services, unscheduled stoppages etc. The recent report on LEADS has been prepared by consultancy firm Deloitte.

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BND stands for Bharatiya Nirdeshak Dravya, is an indigenous Indian standard Gold bar weighing 20gms and with the dimensions of famous “Parle-G” Biscuit. It has been jointly developed by the scientists of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and CSIR-National Physical Laboratory (NPL). With this, Indian jewellers will no longer need to import gold bars to check the purity of ornaments.This will add to the Make in India campaign and will save foreign exchange of nearly 1000 crore per annum as well as minimise dependency on foreign countries. The bars are being minted in denominations of 10g, 50g, 100g, 500g & 1000g by the India Government Mint (IGM), a unit of Security Printing and Minting Corp of India Ltd. The standard gold bars would be nearly 25% cheaper than their imported versions.

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The international conference on the VISION ZERO and its relevance to Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) is being organized from 15th to 17th, March 2017 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi by Directorate General Factory Advice and Labour Institutes (DGFASLI).

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The International Conference for Sustainable Development for the year 2017 has been proposed to be held in Rome, Italy. The European Centre of Sustainable Development will be organizing the conference.