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Sunday, November 01, 2020

14th Asian Film Awards 2020 announced

14th Asian Film Awards Winners List:

Award	Name Winner
Best Actor	Lee Byung-hun – The Man Standing Next (South Korea)
Best Actress	Zhou Dongyu – Better Days (China)
Best Cinematography	Dong Jinsong – The Wild Goose Lake
Best Costume Designer	Pacharin Surawatanapongs– Happy Old Year
Best Director	Wang Xiaoshuai for So Long, My Son (China)
Best Editing	Yang Jin-mo – Parasite
Best Film	Parasite (South Korea)
Best Newcomer	Jackson Yee – Better Days
Best New Director	Hikari – 37 Seconds
Best Supporting Actor	Ryo Kase – To the Ends of the Earth
Best Supporting Actress	Ko Shu-chin – A Sun
Best Screenplay	Bong Joon-ho, Han Jin-won – Parasite
Best Original Music	Karsh Kale, The Salvage Audio Collective – Gully Boy
Best Production Design	Ha-jun Lee – Parasite
Best Visual Effects	Tomi Kijo, Renovatio Pictures – Detention
Best Sound	Yoshifumi Kureishi – Listen to the Universe

Daily Current Affairs, 31st October 2020

vision ias current affairs

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1) National Unity Day: 31 October

•In India, the Rashtriya Ekta Diwas or National Unity Day is observed every year on October 31 since 2014, to commemorate the birth anniversary of the Iron Man of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. This year marks the 145th anniversary of the great leader who played an instrumental role in India’s struggle for independence, and later during the integration of the country.

2) World Psoriasis Day 2020

•World Psoriasis Day is commemorated by International Federation of Psoriasis Associations (IFPA) annually on 29th October. It aims to create awareness and promoting empowerment, taking action regarding improving the quality of life for citizens with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

•World Psoriasis Day Theme 2020: INFORMED.

3) World Cities Day: 31 October

•The United Nations General Assembly has designated the 31st of October as World Cities Day. The Day is celebrated to promote the international community’s interest in global urbanization, push forward cooperation among countries in meeting opportunities and addressing challenges of urbanization, and contributing to sustainable urban development around the world.

•2020 Theme: Valuing Our Communities and Cities

4) International Internet Day 2020

•International Internet Day is observed on 29th October every year. It aims to honour a momentous day in the history of telecommunications and technology. This day also highlights the sending of the 1st electronic message which was conveyed from one computer to another computer in the year 1969.

5) World’s first scientoon book “Bye Bye Corona” by Anandiben Patel

•World’s 1st scientoon book entitled “Bye Bye Corona”, was released by Anandiben Patel, Governor, Uttar Pradesh. The book was written by ‘scientoonist’ Dr Pradeep Srivastava, former Senior Principal Scientist at CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow. It is further planned to make a 3D version of the book. The book has been published by Vigyan Prasar.

6) India hosts 19th Meeting of SCO Ministers of Foreign Economy

•India hosted the 19th Meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Ministers of Foreign Economy and Foreign Trade. The virtual meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Union Minister of Commerce and Industry of India Shri Piyush Goyal. It was attended by the Secretary-General of SCO Vladimir Norov and Ministers from Kyrgyz Republic, China, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The meeting concluded with the adoption of the following four documents:

•Statement on the response to Covid-19: It highlights the need for greater cooperation for access to medicines and facilitation of trade.

•Statement on the Multilateral Trading System of Ministers of SCO Countries who are WTO Members: It highlights the importance of the rules-based multilateral negotiations.

•Statement on SCO Cooperation on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). It relates to the cooperation of intellectual property and include sharing information/experience on legislation and enforcement, cooperation in international organisations and other areas.

•Action Plan for Implementation of MOU to stimulate cooperation within the framework of SCO in the field of MSMEs. It looks at the number of areas of cooperation among MSMEs, including the exchange of information, organisation of events and collaboration on research and capacity building.

7) India extends $1 bn credit line to Central Asian countries

•The second meeting of the India-Central Asia Dialogue was held virtually, under the chairmanship of the External Affairs Minister of India Dr S Jaishankar. The foreign minister of all the five Central Asian countries- Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan– participated in the meeting.

•During the meeting, India announced US $1 billion line of credit for “priority developmental projects” in Central Asian countries in the fields of connectivity, energy, IT, healthcare, education, agriculture and offered to provide grant assistance for implementation of High Impact Community Development Projects (HICDP) for furthering socio-economic development in the countries of the region.

•Apart from this, the Acting Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan also attended the meeting as a special invitee. The first India-Central Asia Dialogue was held in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand in 2019.

8) Om Puri awarded Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously at IIFFB 2020

•Late Indian actor, Om Puri was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the third edition of the India International Film Festival of Boston (IIFFB 2020). The award was received by his wife Nandita Puri. The three-day film festival, based in Boston USA. Another highlight of the festival was a conversation with chef Vikas Khanna, recipient of the “Pride of India Award”.

•Malayalam film “Kaanthi” bagged the Best Feature Film Award, while the Best Male Actor was won by Victor Banerjee for playing a priest in Josef: Born In Grace. The Best Female Actor went to Shylaja Ambu for Kaanthi at the Boston festival.

The HINDU Notes – 31st October 2020

the hindu notes

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📰 Protection from imports is time bound: NITI Aayog

India will respect multilateral trading frameworks

•Any tariff protection to promote local manufacturing in India will come with an in-built sunset clause, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar said on Friday, asserting that the country’s self-reliance mission must not be equated to it becoming a ‘protectionist’ and closed economy.

•The government is set to extend the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for manufacturing pharmaceuticals, medical devices and electronics announced under the AtmaNirbhar Bharat package to six more sectors, he said.

•“We will pursue self-reliance; we will want to give our domestic entrepreneurs the best situations to go forward. We will, while attracting FDI, also repose our faith and trust in those who have already invested in India. We want to recognise them by giving them much better logistics, infrastructure and more flexibility in the use of land and labour,” he said.

•Explaining the rationale for the PLI schemes that, he said, will soon become valid for ‘nine to 10’ sectors from four at present, Mr. Kumar said this is meant to incentivise investors already in the country to put up globally comparable capacities in scale and competitiveness.

•He emphasised that India’s efforts towards self-reliance were not dissimilar to what other nations are doing to insulate themselves from global supply chain shocks and revive the economy.

‘In global context’

•“But it will be done in a global context. It will be done with India remaining open and trying to regain its share in global and regional production chains, it will be done with respect to rule-bound multilateral trading orders. It will not imply in any sense any form of isolation, closed economy or protectionism,” he said.

•Mr. Kumar added that the country will do its best to increase the share of trade in its gross domestic product (GDP).

•“If there is any support given to domestic enterprises, it will all be targeted towards creating globally competitive capacities and any support that we give them through tariffs would have an in-built sunset clause. I wanted to emphasise India’s commitment to a global economy with open order,” Mr. Kumar said in an address to the Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

•The government recently barred the import of several products, ranging from split air-conditioners to certain types of TVs while imposing higher import duties or curbs on other items.