VISION

 Why in news?

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently visited India, to make preparations for the upcoming visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin for the annual summit.

What are the highlights?

• On the bilateral front, both sides appeared to make progress on strategic cooperation, cooperation in energy, nuclear and space sectors.
• Also mentioned was the talk on a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).
• Discussions also involved more agreements on military-technical cooperation for the joint production of India-made Russian weapons.
• Mr. Lavrov highlighted that Russia was the only partner supplying India “cutting-edge military technology”.
• Neither side referred to the upcoming delivery of the $5 billion S-400 missile defence system directly.
• However, they reaffirmed their commitment to their defence partnership.
• Affirmations included those on avenues for more investment in connectivity.
• This included the International North-South Transport Corridor and the Chennai-Vladivostok Eastern Maritime Corridor.

What were the conflicting areas?

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1)  World Homeopathy Day: 10 April

•World Homeopathy Day is celebrated every year on April 10 to spread awareness about homoeopathy and its contribution to the world of medicine. The day marks the birth anniversary of German physician Dr Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann, who is considered the founder of the system of alternative medicine called Homeopathy. The year 2021 marks the 266th birthday of Hahnemann.

2)  India gifts Rs 100 crore patrol vessel “PS Zoroaster” to Seychelles

•India formally handed over Rs 100 crore patrol vessel “PS Zoroaster” to Seychelles during the virtual summit between Indian PM Narendra Modi and Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan. The PS Zoroaster is the fourth made-in-India patrol boat developed for Seychelles since 2005. The other vessels gifted by India include PS Topaz (2005), PS Constant (2014), Patrol Boat Hermes (2016).

3)  Nirmala Sitharaman attends 103rd Development Committee Meeting of World Bank-IMF

•Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the 103rd Meeting of the Development Committee Plenary, via video conferencing. During the meeting, she shared the measures taken to combat COVID-19 including social support measures for the poor and vulnerable, and relief measures for firms in statutory and regulatory compliance matters.

4)  Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal launches “NanoSniffer”

•The Union Education Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ launched the world’s first Microsensor based Explosive Trace Detector (ETD) called “NanoSniffer”. The ETD has been developed by NanoSniff Technologies, an IIT Bombay incubated startup. It is being marketed by Vehant Technologies, a spin-off from a former IIT Delhi incubated startup Kritikal Solutions.

5)  Tika Utsav: COVID-19 Vaccination Drive

•Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently appealed to the Chief Ministers of the States to organise “Tika Utsav”. Tika Utsav is a vaccine festival. It is to be held between April 11, 2021, and April 14, 2021. The main objective of the festival is to vaccinate as many people as possible. It will also focus on zero wastage of the COVID-19 vaccine.

6)  Niger President Bazoum Names Mahamadou as New Prime Minister

•Niger President Mohamed Bazoum appointed Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou to head his new cabinet as the country’s new prime minister. He was previously served as a minister in charge of the finance and mining portfolios. He was the chief of staff to former President Mahamadou Issoufou between 2015 and 2021. He was sworn as Niger’s first democratic transition of power since independence in 1960.

7)  Indian Army Officer Bharat Pannu Breaks 2 Guinness World Records

•Indian Army’s Lieutenant Colonel, Bharat Pannu has earned two Guinness World Records for his fastest solo cycling feats from October 2020. The first record was created when Lt Col Pannu cycled from Leh to Manali (472 km distance) on October 10, 2020, in just 35 hours and 25 minutes.

•Lt Col Pannu created a second record when he cycled the 5,942-km-long ‘Golden Quadrilateral’ route, which connects Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, in 14 days, 23 hours and 52 minutes.

8)  Dutee Chand selected for inaugural Chhattisgarh Veerni Award

•Indian sprinter, Dutee Chand has been chosen for the inaugural edition of the Chhattisgarh Veerni Award, by the Chhattisgarh state government. The award, which recognises the contribution of Indian women in different fields, including sports, will be given virtually on April 14, 2021.

•The Odisha sprinter became the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the World University Games held in Italy in 2019. She is a silver-medalist in 100 and 200 metres at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. Apart from this, Dutee holds the national record of 11.22 secs in 100m.

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 What is the issue?

• Pakistan’s double U-turn on resuming trade with India highlights the internal differences within Ministries, between business and political communities.
• All these hint at the reality that the shadow of politics looms over trade and economy.

What is the recent trade decision that was reversed?

• Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) recently decided to import cotton, yarn, and 500,000 metric tons of sugar from India.
• Pakistan’s new Finance Minister Hammad Azhar announced this decision.
• The media dubbed it as a political breakthrough.
• But the ECC’s decision was based on Pakistan’s immediate economic needs and not on bilateral trade.
• It was only about importing three items - cotton, yarn and sugar.
• It was not designed as a political confidence-building measure to normalise relations with India.
• Despite this, a day later, Pakistan’s cabinet overruled the decision.
• It was also made clear that as long as India did not review the unilateral steps it took on August 5, 2019, normalising relations with India would not be possible.
• The Finance Minister accepted the cabinet’s decision as the working of “economic and political interface in a democracy.”
• It was left with the Prime Minister and the cabinet to “endorse, reject or modify” the ECC’s proposals.

Why was the ECC’s decision inevitable?

 Why in news?

Recently RBI has released a new series of REER which is effective in depicting the rupee’s over/under valuation.

What is REER?

• It is the standard measure to gauge the value of the home currency against the weighted average value of the currencies of its trading partners divided by a price deflator or index.
• REER above 100 denotes that the home currency is overvalued and more expensive compared to its competitors.
• During the global financial crisis in 2007-08, REER was around the 100 and it was moving close to 120 in 2017-18.
• This shows that the rupee was overvalued against its trading partners and is affecting India’s exports.

• Now RBI has released new series for REER which reflects the true state of affairs.

How is new series different from earlier one?

1)  CRPF Valour Day: 09 April

•Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Valour Day (Shaurya Diwas) is observed on 9 April every year, as a tribute to the brave men of the Force. 2021 marks the 56th CRPF Valour Day. It was on this day in 1965, a small contingent of CRPF created history by defeating an invading Pakistani army, several time larger, at the Sardar Post located in the Rann of Kutch, Gujarat. The CRPF men eliminated 34 Pakistani soldiers and captured four alive. In the conflict, CRPF lost six personnel who had attained martyrdom.

2)  Nirmala Sitharaman attends 2nd Virtual G20 Finance Ministers

•Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman has participated virtually in the Second G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting. This meeting held under the Italian Presidency to discuss policy responses to global challenges to restore strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth.

3)  India-Japan signed MoU for Academic and Research Cooperation

•The Union Cabinet recently apprised an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) signed between India and Japan. The MoU was signed between the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL) that operates under the Department of Space, GoI and the Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere called the RISH that operates under the Kyoto University of Japan.

4)  Narendra Singh Tomar launches Madhukranti portal

•The Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar launched a portal ‘Madhukranti’ and Honey Corners on April 07, 2021, with the aim to bring an increase in income of farmers, employment generation and increase in exports. Madhukranti portal is an initiative of the National Bee Board (NBB). The portal is being developed for online registration to achieve traceability source of Honey and other beehive products on a digital platform.

•The portal will also check the source of adulteration and contamination in honey. It will have an end-to-end record to track the source of honey. Honey Corner is a specially designed space in National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) stores dedicated to the sale of honey.

5)  India contributes USD 500,000 to UN Trust Fund for counter-terrorism

•India has contributed an additional $500,000 to the United Nations Trust Fund for Counter-Terrorism, taking the country’s donation to the UN office set up to combat terrorism to over $1 million. With this amount, India’s total contribution to it so far is $1.05 million.

•The UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, established in 2017, enhances coordination and coherence across the Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact entities to ensure the balanced implementation of the four pillars of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. In line with General Assembly resolution 71/291 that established UNOCT in June 2017, the UN Trust Fund for Counter-Terrorism was transferred to UNOCT.

6)  RBI decides to open up RTGS, NEFT facilities for payment system operators

•In a major move in the online payments segments, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to allow payment system operators to take direct membership of Centralised Payment Systems (CPS), such as RTGS and NEFT. Membership in Centralised Payment Systems (CPS) RTGS and NEFT for entities other than banks are so far limited to banks, with a few exceptions, such as specialised entities like clearing corporations and select development financial institutions.

•The RBI noted that over the last few years, the role of non-bank entities in payment space such as prepaid payment instrument (PPI) issuers, card networks, white label ATM (WLA) operators, Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) platforms, has grown in importance and volume, as they have innovated by leveraging technology and offering customised solutions to users.

7)  RBI raise G-SAP for orderly G-Sec market

•The Reserve Bank of India has announced to conduct the open market purchase of government securities of Rs 1 lakh crore under the G-sec Acquisition Programme (G-SAP 1.0) in the first quarter of 2021-22. The objective of this is to have a stable and orderly evolution of the yield curve. Under this scheme the first purchase of government securities for an aggregate amount of Rs. 25,000 crore under G-SAP 1.0 will be conducted on April 15, 2021.

8)  A book titled exam warriors updated version released by PM Modi

•The updated version of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s book named ‘Exam Warriors’ was launched. The book gives out various suggestions to both students and parents to deal with the examination pressure and stress. The book raise the awareness on topics like mental health, the role of technology and time management. The book has new Mantras and a range of interesting activities. The book reaffirms the need to remain stress-free before an exam.

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