Today's Current Affairs-11th September 2022

INTERNATIONAL

North Korea's New Law Allows For Nuclear 1st Strike, Makes Policy "Irreversible"

• North Korea passes law regarding Nuclear Strikes: North Korea has approved a law that gives it the authority to launch a nuclear attack in advance. With the recently passed law, North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state has become irreversible. North Korea, this year tested a record number of weapons, including an intercontinental ballistic missile.
• According to the law, among other things, the North may use nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear or non-nuclear attack by hostile forces against the state’s leadership and the command structure of its nuclear forces.
• Since 2019, discussions on sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be ready to give up in exchange have stalled nuclear negotiations and diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang.

About North Korea:

Supreme leader: Kim Jong-un

President: Yoon Suk-yeol

Capital: Pyongyang

Currency: North Korean won

Premier: Kim Tok-hun

PM Modi, Russian Prez Putin, China's Xi to attend SCO Samarkand summit: Uzbekistan

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to travel to Samarkand in Uzbekistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit on September 15 and 16. This will be the first in-person summit after June 2019 when the SCO summit was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The Prime Minister, sources said, is likely to reach Samarkand on September 14 and return on September 16, according to the current travel schedule.
• India’s presence at the summit is important because it will assume the rotational presidency of the SCO at the end of the Samarkand summit. Delhi will hold the presidency of the grouping for a year until September 2023. So, next year, India will host the SCO summit which will be attended, among others, by leaders of China, Russia, Pakistan.
• Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi are among the leaders expected at the summit.

About Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO):

Headquarters: Beijing, China

Founded: 15 June 2001

Founders: China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan

Secretary-General: Zhang Ming

About Uzbekistan:

Capital: Tashkent

Currency: Uzbekistani sum

President: Shavkat Mirziyoyev

Official language: Uzbek

Bangladesh PM's India visit promises to take bilateral ties to new heights

• Ever since the Liberation War in 1971, Bangladesh and India have shared a special relationship not only due to their geographical boundaries, but also largely owing to their shared cultural, linguistic and historical connections. India, during the war for liberation of the Bangladeshi nation, provided much of the required humanitarian as well as militaristic support which was so duly needed at the time. Both the countries since then, have shared a gigantic 4000 km long border which makes Bangladesh India’s longest land sharing neighbour in the South Asian region.
• Bangladesh’s current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently described the India-Bangladesh bilateral relations as a ‘role model of good neighbourhood diplomacy’. This statement hence came as an assertion of the long-shared friendship the two nations have had for the past five decades.
• India, on the other hand, was amongst the first countries in the world to establish its diplomatic relations with the newly independent nation in December of 1971.
• In 1972 a bilateral Joint River Commission was set up between the two to maintain mutual contact in order to maximize benefits for the shared river systems.

About Bangladesh:

Capital: Dhaka

Currency: Bangladeshi taka

Prime Minister: Sheikh Hasina

President: Mohammad Abdul Hamid

Official language: Bengali

9/11 attacks reverberate as US marks 21st anniversary, people pay tribute

• Americans remembered 9/11 on 11th Sept with readings of victims’ names, volunteer work and other tributes 21 years after the deadliest terror attack on US soil. A tolling bell and a moment of silence began the commemoration at ground zero in New York, where the World Trade Center’s twin towers were destroyed by the hijacked-plane attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Victims’ relatives and dignitaries also convened at the two other attack sites, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.
• It also stirred for a time a sense of national pride and unity for many, while subjecting Muslim Americans to years of suspicion and bigotry and engendering debate over the balance between safety and civil liberties.
• President Joe Biden plans to speak and lay a wreath at the Pentagon, while first lady Jill Biden is scheduled to speak in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where one of the hijacked planes went down after passengers and crew members tried to storm the cockpit as the hijackers headed for Washington. Al-Qaida conspirators had seized control of the jets to use them as passenger-filled missiles. Vice President Kamala Harris and husband Doug Emhoff joined the observance at the National Sept.

About United Nations:

Founded: 24 October 1945, San Francisco, California, United States

Headquarters: New York, United States

Secretary General: António Guterres

 NATIONAL

Navy launches stealth frigate Taragiri, built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders

• ‘Taragiri’, the third stealth frigate of the Indian Navy’s Project 17A, was launched in Mumbai, the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders (MDL) said. This ship has been built using an integrated construction methodology which involves hull block construction in different geographical locations and integration and erection on the slipway at the MDL, it said in a statement.
• The ship was named by Charu Singh, President, Navy Wives Welfare Association (Western Region), wife of vice admiral Ajendra Bahadur Singh, FOC-in-C Western Naval Command, who was the chief guest. The keel of ‘Taragiri’ was laid on September 10, 2020. The ship is expected to be delivered by August 2025, the statement said. The vessel is being launched with an approximate launch weight of 3,510 tons. The frigate is designed by the Indian Navy’s in-house design organization, the Bureau of Naval Design.

About Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders (MDL) :

Headquarters: India

Founded: 1934

Owner: Govt of India (84.83%)

Key people: Narayan Prasad; (Chairman & MD)

 OBITURY

Justice KN Singh, CJI with the shortest tenure, passes away at the age of 95

• Former Chief Justice of India Kamal Narain Singh passed away, at the age of 95. Justice Narain had a tenure of only 17 days as the CJI, making him the chief justice with the shortest tenure. He was the 22nd Chief Justice of India, with a term from November 25, 1991, to December 12, 1991.
• Born on December 13, 1926, his career as a judge started with his appointment as an Additional Judge of the Allahabad High Court in 1970. He then became a Permanent Judge in August 1972. He got elevated as a Supreme Court judge in 1986 and, after almost five years, became the CJI. He also served as Chairman of the 13th Law Commission of India from 1991-1994. Late Justice Narain was part of several important judgments, including the Ganga Pollution case, the case challenging the validity of a death sentence, etc.

About Chief Justice of India:

Seat:      Supreme Court of India, New Delhi, India

Nominator:         Outgoing Chief Justice of India on the basis of Seniority

Appointer:          President of India

Term length:      Until the age of 65

Formation           28 January 1950; 72 years ago

First holder         H. J. Kania (1950–1951) 

IMPORTANT DAYS

National Forest Martyrs Day 2022: 11^th September

• National Forest Martyrs Day is observed on September 11 to pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives to protect forests and wildlife. The observance of the National Forest Martyrs is marked by several events aimed at creating awareness about protecting forests and the environment at large. The day holds a lot of significance in the present scenario when depleting green cover is among the greatest challenges in front of the world.
• This incident is remembered as a key event, and it has inspired many activists and campaigns, like the Chipko movement, in which peasants hugged trees to save them from felling.
• National Forest Martyrs Day commemorates the importance of trees. To live healthy lives, we must conserve the forests and protect the trees. In the current climate, one of the most serious issues confronting the globe is the loss of green cover.

 BANKING AND ECONOMY

Indian Railways revenue up 38 pc to Rs 95,486.58 crore till August-end

• The overall revenue of Indian Railways at the end of August’22 stood at ₹95,486.58 cr, showing an increase of Rs. 26271.29 cr (38%) over the corresponding period of last year. The revenue from passenger traffic was Rs.25,276.54cr with an increase of ₹13,574.44 cr (116%) over the corresponding period of last year, according to official notes movers released by ministry of railways.
• As per the data, Passenger traffic also increased compared to last year in both the segments, reserved as well as unreserved. The growth from the long distance reserved mail express trains has been sharper than the same in passenger & suburban trains. The other coaching revenue was Rs. 2437.42 cr, showing an increase of Rs.811.82 cr (50%) over the corresponding period of last year, the rail Mistry data showed.
• This growth is being fueled by robust growth in the Parcel segment of Indian Railways, the statement said. Goods revenue was Rs.65,505.02cr by August this year and has increased by ₹10,780.03 cr (20%) over the corresponding period of last year.

About Indian Railways:

Track length: 67.956 million m

Customer service: 139

Founded: 6 May 1836, India

Headquarters: New Delhi

Founders: Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, Jagannath Shankarseth

PhonePe tokenizes 14 million debit and credit cards prior to RBI's deadline

• PhonePe tokenized debit and credit cards: PhonePe announced that it had tokenized 14 million credit and debit cards on its network in accordance with the RBI’s (Reserve Bank of India) guidelines for data security. Since the exercise began in December 2021, the Walmart-backed company claims to have tokenized more than 80% of its active users’ cards.
• The real card details are not disclosed to a merchant during transactions, a tokenized transaction is safer and less likely to result in data leakage.
• PhonePe stated that it is collaborating with Visa, Mastercard, and RuPay, three of the largest card networks, to meet the regulator’s September 30 tokenization deadline.
• Since April of this year, when the company began processing token-based transactions, almost all eligible transactions are handled by tokens.
• The success rate of transactions processed via tokens on PhonePe has shown an improvement of around 2 per cent in comparison with card-based transactions.
• The RBI delayed the card-on-file tokenization deadline in July till September 30 since token-based transaction processing had not yet gained traction. It was the third and maybe final one of its kind.

About PhonePe:

Founder: Sameer Nigam, Burzin Engineer and Rahul Chari

CEO: Sameer Nigam (Dec 2015–)

Headquarters: Maharashtra

Founded: 2015

Parent organization: Flipkart

Founders: Sameer Nigam, Burzin Engineer, Rahul Chari

About Reserve Bank of India (RBI) :

Founded: 1 April 1935, Kolkata

Founder: British Raj

Jurisdiction: India

Ownership: Ministry of Finance, Government of India

Governor: Shaktikanta Das