Today's Current Affairs -17th November 2022

INTERNATIONAL

India-Russia-Iran plan trilateral meet on Afghanistan on sidelines of Moscow format meet

• India participated in the fourth Meeting of the Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan, which was held in Moscow on November 16. Special envoys and senior officials from Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan also participated in the meeting.
• “During the meeting, the participants discussed issues related to Afghanistan, including the current humanitarian situation and the ongoing efforts of various stakeholders to provide assistance, intra-Afghan talks, formation of an inclusive and representative government, efforts to counter threats of terrorism and ensuring regional security,” Ministry of External Affairs said.
• It was introduced in 2017 on the basis of the six-party mechanism for consultations among special representatives from Russia, Afghanistan, China, Pakistan, Iran and India.
• The Moscow format meeting’s main objective is to facilitate the national reconciliation process in Afghanistan and secure peace in that country as soon as possible.
• Indian delegation and Taliban officials had come face-to-face for the first time at the Moscow Format meeting in Russia in 2021. JP Singh, the joint secretary who heads the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran desk in the external affairs ministry, had led the Indian delegation at the Moscow Format.

 NATIONAL

India becomes the world's second largest producer of steel

• India has emerged as the second-largest producer of crude steel by replacing Japan. The biggest steel producing country is currently China, which accounted for 57% of world steel production.
• In order to support the domestic steel industry, the Government of India has notified the National Steel Policy, 2017, and the Policy for Providing Preference to Domestically Manufactured Iron and Steel (DMI & SP) in the case of state procurement. These policies have helped create a favorable environment to improve domestic production and consumption of steel.
• The Government has also issued quality control orders, prohibiting the manufacturing and import of cheap and substandard quality of steel. In addition, India has liberalised the coal mining sector which stands to greatly benefit the steel industry.
• India has also been inviting foreign entities to invest in the steel sector as India’s steel demand is expected to rise by 7.2 per cent in 2019-20. Going ahead, the demand growth for steel is expected to remain unchanged at 5.2 per cent in 2022-23.

Three Indian cities emerges as top data centre markets in APAC region, says industry report

• According to a report by Knight Frank, Indian cities, namely – Hyderabad, Chennai and New Delhi, have emerged as three of the top data centre markets in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
• The report further noted that the data centre industry in India has been on a high growth trajectory, partly driven by government policies, including easier access to credit and other incentives to boost data centre investment.
• Commenting on the report, Fred Fitzalan Howard, data centre lead, APAC, Knight Frank, said, “The insight from our latest report reinforces APAC’s position as the most exciting market in the global data centre industry. More businesses are speeding up their digital transformations, and the demand for cloud services and lower latency has proliferated, resulting in cloud providers sourcing colocation and self-build facilities in previously overlooked cities. As these secondary cities continue to establish themselves as data centre locations, opportunities will continue to arise across the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and development space.”

 SPORTS

Paris 2024 Olympic Games: The meaning behind the mascot

• The Phrygian cap, the symbol of the French republic but wearing sneakers as a nod to the present, was unveiled as the mascot for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Olympic Phryge ((pronounced fri-jee-uhs) is a bit smaller, the Paralympic Phryge is a bit slimmer and has a blade on his right leg because it is a Phyrge with an impairment.
• The Paralympic mascot is different in that one of the legs is a runner’s blade. The Paris Games organisers defended the fact that the toy replicas of the mascot are almost all made in China. One of the mascot’s eyes is blue and one of the two is draped in two ribbons in the colours of the French flag, in the style of a cockade, or knot of ribbons, which was another symbol of republicanism during the Revolution.
• The mascots were unveiled in a press conference in Paris by Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet, Beijing 2008 wheelchair tennis men’s doubles champion Michael Jeremiasz and Gwladys Epangue, a bronze medallist in taekwondo from Beijing 2008.

 SCIENCE & TEHNOLOGY

NASA's next-generation Artemis mission heads to moon on debut test flight

• The United States space agency NASA has launched its Artemis-1 mission from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida. About eight minutes after launch, the core stage’s engines cut off and the core stage separated from the rest of the rocket. After this, the Orion spacecraft was propelled by the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS). NASA also deployed the four solar arrays of the Orion spacecraft. After completing “translunar injection”, Orion separated itself from the ICPS and is now on its way to lunar orbit.
• For the first time in 50 years since the end of the Apollo program, the launch of Artemis 1 is an ambitious US mission to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon.
• The Artemis 1 launch will also be the first flight of NASA’s 21st century moon-exploration program.
• With Artemis 1 on the surface of the Moon, NASA aims to demonstrate new technologies, business approaches and capabilities that are essential for future explorations, including Mars. The launch aims to further aid in the study of the Moon, its origin and history.

 APPOINTMENS & RESIGNATIONS

Govt appoints Arvind Virmani as full-time member of NITI Aayog

• Former Chief Economic Advisor, Arvind Virmani has been appointed as a full time member of NITI Aayog. The other existing Members of NITI Aayog are VK Saraswat, Ramesh Chand and VK Paul. While Suman Bery is the Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, Parameswaran is the incumbent CEO of the think tank. The Prime Minister has approved the appointment of Shri Arvind Virmani, Founder, Chairman, Foundation for Economic Growth & Welfare as Full-Time Member, NITI Aayog with immediate effect and until further orders, on the same terms and conditions as are applicable to Full-Time Members of NITI Aayog.
• Virmani was Chief Economic Advisor in the Finance Ministry from 2007-09. He was Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) till end 2012. He served as a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on monetary policy from February 2013 to August 2016.

 SUMMIT'S & MOU's

NCW launches Digital Shakti 4.0 for making women digitally skilled

• The National Commission for Women (NCW) launched the fourth phase of the Digital Shakti Campaign, a pan-India project on digitally empowering and skilling women and girls in cyberspace.
• Digital Shakti started in June 2018 to help women across the nation to raise the awareness level on the digital front, to build resilience, and fight cyber-crime in the most effective ways.
• The Digital Shakti 4.0 is focused on making women digitally skilled and aware to stand-up against any illegal/inappropriate activity online.
• It is helping women in reporting & redressal mechanisms, data privacy and usage of technology for their benefits.
• In line with its commitment to creating safe spaces for women and girls online, Digital Shakti 4.0 is focused on making women digitally skilled and aware of standing up against any illegal/inappropriate activity online. NCW launched it in collaboration with CyberPeace Foundation and Meta, said by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

 RANKING

India ranks high in climate protection, bags 8th position in Climate Change Performance Index

• The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2023 released which was published by three environmental non¬governmental organizations viz. Germanwatch, NewClimate Institute and the Climate Action Network (CAN) International. India rose two spots to rank eighth out of 63 countries in the Climate Change Performance Index 2023 (CCPI). In the Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Energy Use categories, the country was rated “high”. In the Climate Policy and Renewable Energy categories, it earned a “medium” rating.
• The CCPI evaluates 59 countries and the European Union, which together generate over 90 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Using standardised criteria, the CCPI looks at four categories, with 14 indicators: Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Renewable Energy, Energy Use, and Climate Policy. In 2022 and 2021, India stood in the 10th spot. In 2020, it ranked ninth on the list. Since signing the Paris Agreement in 2015, India has updated its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). At the COP26 Summit in Glasgow, the country announced its commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2070.

 BANKING AND ECONOMY

5G expected to power up to 2% of GDP by 2030: Report

• The launch of 5G services will strengthen India’s position as an economic and technology powerhouse globally and is expected to boost 2% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), amounting to approximately $180 billion by 2030, according to a new report by industry body Nasscom.
• The report titled, “5G — Unfolding India’s era of digital convergence” was released on the side lines of Nasscom Tech Innovation Conclave (NTIC) 2022, added that “5G is expected to create new value through hyper-connectivity and become a catalyst for digital transformation across industries”.
• “For India, 5G provides an opportunity for industries to augment the pace of digitisation at the grassroots level and for consumers to gain with economies of scale,” said Debjani Ghosh, president, Nasscom. However, she said that “achieving this will require effective ecosystem collaboration between telcos, OEMs, infrastructure companies, and the government to increase consumer adoption and market readiness to unlock large-scale benefits of 5G”.
• Sectors such as healthcare, energy and utilities, manufacturing, and retail are expected to benefit the most from large-scale 5G adoption. For example, certain aspects such as adequate infrastructure upgradation and fiberisation for 5G deployment, along with network densification need to be addressed to realise the utmost benefit of the technology across industries, the report noted.

RBI shortlists five banks to work on its digital currency pilot project

• State bank Of India(SBI), ICICI Bank, IDFC First Bank, HDFC Bank and Yes Bank are among a shortlist of at least five lenders that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has roped in to work on the retail pilot project of the central bank digital currency (CBDC).
• The report said, citing people familiar with the matte, that the Reserve Bank of India could add more banks to run the pilot, which is expected to launch soon. “Five banks have been shortlisted to run the pilot along with the help of NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) and RBI. Some customer and merchant accounts will be chosen to roll out the retail digital rupee pilot soon,”
• The RBI is working on two fronts to test the central bank digital currency (CBDC): one for the wholesale market, for which a pilot project is already underway, and the other for retail (CBDC-R).
• The central banker is also weighing whether to build a new framework for its digital currency or make retail CBDC interoperable with the current digital payments system.