Daily Current Affairs, 12th July 2019

1) Rajghat coal plant to be turned into solar park

•The Delhi government has announced that the Rajghat thermal power plant will be officially shut and turned into a solar park. A 5,000 KW of solar power will be produced at the 45 acre plant site.

•The coal-based plant, whose current units were commissioned in 1989, has been lying in a shutdown mode from 2014. 

2) North Korea revises constitution

•North Korea has revised its constitution to make Kim Jong Un as official head of state, a promotion that could help normalise the isolated country’s diplomatic relations with the rest of the world. Earlier Kim ruled as a chairman of state Affairs Commission. The previous constitution stated that the chairman of SAC served as a Supreme Leader. 

3) 19th Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting in London

•The 19th Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting was held in London. External Affairs Minister conveyed India’s stand at the meet.

4) BCC signs MoU with BRICS chamber to promote trade

•The Bharat Chamber of Commerce and the BRICS Chamber of Commerce and Industry, New Delhi, signed an MoU  for promoting trade and investments between the BRICS countries and the eastern part of India.



5) India hands over pre-fabricated houses to Myanmar

•India handed over 250 pre-fabricated houses to Myanmar in Maung Daw for use of displaced returnees from Bangladesh. The Indian government had taken up the project under its Rakhine State Development Programme for $ 25M for a period of five years.

6) The 2019 global Multidimensional Poverty Index

UN Development Programme (UNDP) has released the 2019 global Multidimensional Poverty Index. Highlights of the reports are:

1.India’s MPI value reduced from 0.283 in 2005-06 to 0.123 in 2015-16.
2.India has lifted 271 million people out of poverty between 2006 and 2016, recording the fastest reductions in the multidimensional poverty index.
3.India and Cambodia has reduced their MPI values the fastest among the 10 selected countries for which changes over time were analysed.
4.Gains for India according to the report:

•deprivation in nutrition from 44.3% in 2005-06 to 21.2% in 2015-16.
•child mortality dropped from 4.5% to 2.2%.
•people deprived of cooking fuel reduced from 52.9% to 26.2%.
•deprivation in sanitation from 50.4% to 24.6%.
•people deprived of drinking water reduced from 16.6% to 6.2%.

7) Vikas Swarup appointed as Secretary of Overseas Indian Affairs

•The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Shri Vikas Swarup, High Commissioner in Ottawa as Secretary (Consular, Passport, Visa and Overseas Indian affairs) in the Ministry of External Affairs with effect from 01.08.2019.

8) USISPF second annual leadership summit held in Washington

The US India Strategic and Partnership Forum 2nd annual leadership summit held in Washington. “US India Bilateral Trade Report” was released on the occasion.

Some findings of the report are:

•US India bilateral trade could reach USD 238 billion by 2025.
•Sectors such as defence trade, commercial aircrafts, oil and LNG, coal, machineryand electronics are areas of potential growth.
•The US-India trade balance has grown 3.8 per cent on an average in favour of India.

9) First Global Conference for Media Freedom in London

•The first Global Conference for Media Freedom co-hosted by the UK and Canada in London.

•A three members Indian media delegation, including Prasar Bharati Chairman A.Surya Prakash, Rajya Sabha MP and journalist Swapan Dasgupta, and journalist and political analyst Kanchan Gupta, have attended the first Global Conference for Media Freedom.