Today's Current Affairs-20th September 2022

INTERNATIONAL

Rajnath Singh reaches Cairo on two-day official visit to Egypt

• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reached Cairo on Sunday on a two-day official visit to Egypt. Central Military Zone Commander Major General Tarik Hamed Elshazly received Mr Singh at the Al Maza Air Base in Cairo.
• During the visit, Mr. Singh will hold bilateral talks with Minister of Defence and Defence Production, General Mohamed Zaki. The two Ministers will review the bilateral defence ties, explore new initiatives to intensify military-to-military engagements and focus on deepening cooperation between the defence industries of the two countries. An MoU to provide further impetus to enhanced defence cooperation between India and Egypt will also be signed. Mr. Singh will also call on President of Egypt Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

About Egypt:

Capital: Cairo

Currency: Egyptian pound

Continent: Africa, Asia

Official language: Modern Standard Arabic

FM Sitharaman Urges World Bank To Raise Lending To India

• The World Bank approved a USD 1 billion loan to support India’s efforts for providing social assistance to the poor and vulnerable households, severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The “Accelerating India’s COVID-19 Social Protection Response Program” will support the government’s efforts towards a more consolidated delivery platform accessible to both rural and urban populations across state boundaries.
• The total commitment from the World Bank towards emergency COVID-19 response in India to USD 2 billion. A USD 1 billion support was announced last month towards immediate support to India’s health sector. The multilateral lending agency is also in discussions with the government to provide assistance to the country’s micro, small and medium enterprises, said World Bank Country Director in India Junaid Ahmad in a webinar with media. The response to the COVID-19 pandemic around the world has required governments to introduce social distancing and lockdowns in unprecedented ways, he said.
• Of the USD 1 billion commitment, USD 550 million will be financed by a credit from the International Development Association (IDA) the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm and USD 200 million will be a loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), with a final maturity of 18.5 years including a grace period of five years.

About World Bank:

Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States

President: David Malpass

Founded: July 1944, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States

Motto: Working for a World Free of Poverty

Founders: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White

About International Development Association (IDA):

Founded: 24 September 1960

Headquarters: Washington, D.C., U.S.

Membership: 174 countries

Chief Executive Officer: Kristalina Georgieva

About International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD):

Founded: 1944

Leader: Kristalina Georgieva

Headquarters: Washington, D.C., U.S.

Purpose: Development assistance, poverty reduction

Membership: 189 countries

 NATIONAL

Adani Green commissions 325-MW wind power project in Madhya Pradesh

• Cementing its presence in renewable energy further, Adani Green commissioned a 325 MW wind energy plant Madhya Pradesh's Dhar.
• The operational generation capacity has increased to 6.1 GW after the commissioning of this plant, the company said.
• "Adani Wind Energy MP One Private Ltd (AWEMP1PL), a subsidiary of AGEL, has commissioned a 324.4 MW wind power plant in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh," it said.
• The plant has two 25-year Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), one for 274.4 MW energy and another for 50 MW power, at a tariff of Rs 2.83 per kwh (kilowatt hour).
• The newly commissioned plant will be managed by the Adani Group's 'Energy Network Operation Centre' platform, which provides technological assistance.

About Madhya Pradesh:

Capital: Bhopal (Executive Branch)

Chief Minister: Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Governor: Mangubhai Patel

About Adani Green:

CEO: Vneet Jaain (Jul 2020–)

Headquarters: Ahmedabad

Founded: 23 January 2015

Founder: Gautam Adani

India emerges as Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral lender overtaking China

• India has emerged as the largest bilateral lender for Sri Lanka, overtaking China. India has provided a total of 968 million US dollars in loans to the island nation in four months of 2022. In the past five years from 2017-2021, China has been the largest bilateral lender to Sri Lanka.
• Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been the largest multilateral lender in the past five years and disbursed funds amounting to 610 million dollars in 2021. India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ruchira Kamboj had said that India had provided nearly 4 billion dollars in food and financial assistance to Sri Lanka. On August 22, India handed over 21,000 tonnes of fertilizer to crisis-ridden Sri Lanka.

About China:

Capital: Beijing

Currency: Yuan

President: Xi Jinping

TSSC partners Huawei to open Centre of Excellence for IoT in Patna

• The Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC), India’s premier skill development institution for telecom,inaugurated a Centre of Excellence at NIT Patna for capacity building in the telecom sector with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., under the aegis of Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE).
• The inauguration was graced by the chief guest Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad (former IT minister) who lauded the efforts of TSSC, citing the growing economy of states like Bihar, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh. The CoE will cater to roles in Information and Communications Technology, Cyber Security, Electronics and Communication including Technical, Services and allied fields. This includes job roles for Internet of Things (IoT), Call Centre Executive, ToT, ToA, among others.
• On the occasion, Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad (former IT minister) said, “TSSC is fulfilling the need of the hour by creating high-end skill centres to cater to demand from the youth. We need more industry-aligned training to empower our youth with advanced skills like 5G and IoT. I want to see more being done for the state of Bihar.”

About Bihar:

Governor: Phagu Chauhan

Chief Minister: Nitish Kumar

Capital: Patna

Union Minister Piyush Goyal concludes two-day visit to Saudi Arabia; discusses bilateral trade, commerce, and investments linkages

• Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal has concluded his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia. Mr Goyal had visited the country to attend the Ministerial meeting of the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council. The outcomes of the Ministerial meeting include streamlining efforts to realize the announcement made by Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, during his visit to India in February 2019 about investments worth 100 billion dollars in India. It also includes endorsement of the 41 areas of cooperation identified by the technical teams under domains of Agriculture and Food Security, Energy, Technology and  IT, and Industry and 
• During his two-day visit, Mr Goyal met the Minister of Commerce of Saudi Arabia Majid bin Abdullah Al-Kassabi and held wide-ranging discussions on the entire gamut of bilateral trade, commerce and investments linkages.
• He also met the President of the Royal Commission of Jubail and Yanbu Khalid Al-Salem and  CEO of Saudi EXIM Bank, and other senior officials of the Ministry of Industry, Saudi Arabia.

About saudi arabia:

Capital: Riyadh

Currency: Saudi riyal

King: Salman of Saudi Arabia

Official language: Arabic

 APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNATIONS

NHRC chief Arun Kumar Mishra elected as member of Asia Pacific Forum's Governance committee

• National Human Rights Commission of India chairperson justice (retd) Arun Kumar Mishra has been elected as a member of the Governance Committee of the Asia Pacific Forum (APF). He has also been elected as a member of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) Bureau at the 27th Annual General Meeting of the APF.
• The APF’s Governance Committee is elected by APF councilors, representing ‘A status’ National Human Rights Institutions in the Asia Pacific region. The role of the five-member APF Governance Committee is to consider and make recommendations to the APF General Assembly on a range of issues for the promotion and protection of human rights.

About National Human Rights Commission (NHRC):

Website: nhrc.nic.in

Formed: 12 October 1993

Jurisdiction: Government of India

Headquarters: New Delhi

First executive: Ranganath Misra

Preceding executive: K. G. Balakrishnan

Current executive: Arun Kumar Mishra

 SUMMIT'S & MOU's

India to head Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in 2023

• The rotational presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has been handed over to India in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Delhi will hold the presidency of the grouping for a year until September 2023. And next year, India will host the SCO summit. In the declaration, it is stated that the presidency of the SCO for the forthcoming period passes to India. The next meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State will be held in 2023 in India.
• The leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States signed the Samarkand Declaration in the meeting of the Council of Heads of State in the city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. During the SCO Summit, the Member States noted the various global challenges and threats including the technological and digital divide, continued turbulence in global financial markets, instability in supply chains, increased protectionist measures and uncertainty in the global economy.

About Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO):

Headquarters: Beijing, China

Founded: 15 June 2001

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

China To Help Emirati MBRSC Land Rover On The Lunar Surface; Beijing Further Deepens Cooperation In The Middle East

• China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have agreed to join hands to help further the latter’s space ambitions. The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) of the UAE and the China National Space Agency (CNSA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to work together on the UAE’s moon missions. The agreement marks the first joint space project between the two countries.
• The UAE has been pushing to become an important space player. Its collaboration with China involves the “landing of an MBRSC rover aboard a CNSA lander.” Under the project, the UAE will develop a rover dubbed Rashid-2; China will help it with the landing, data transmission, observation, and control. MBRSC director-general Salem Humaid Al Marri and CNSA deputy director Wu Yanhua signed the MoU.
• China has been highly successful with its lunar missions. In the last decade, the country launched three successful lunar surface missions dubbed Change 3, Change 4, and Change 5. In 2020, Change 5 also brought samples back from Moon to Earth.

About China:

Capital: Beijing

Currency: Yuan

President: Xi Jinping

About United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Capital: Abu Dhabi

Currency: Dirham

President: Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Prime Minister: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

 BANKING AND ECONOMY

MAS and IFSCA to Pursue Cross-border FinTech Innovations

• The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) signed a FinTech Co-operation Agreement to facilitate regulatory collaboration and partnership in FinTech technology. The agreement is expected to leverage existing regulatory sandboxes in their respective jurisdictions to support experimentation of technology innovations.
• It will include referral of companies to each other’s regulatory sandboxes and enable innovative cross-border experiments in both jurisdictions. The agreement will also allow both the organisations to evaluate the suitability of use cases which could benefit from collaboration across multiple jurisdictions, and invite relevant jurisdictions to participate in a Global Regulatory Sandbox.
• Sharing of information will be a key aspect of the agreement. The two will share non-supervisory related information and developments on innovation in financial products and services, facilitate discussions on emerging FinTech issues and participate in joint innovation projects.

About Singapore:

President: Halimah Yacob 

Currency: Singapore dollar

Singapore: Singapore city