Today's Current Affairs-24th November 2022

INTERNATIONAL

Nepal PM Sher Bahadur Deuba elected for consecutive 7th time from Dadeldhura district

• In Nepal, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has elected for the consecutive 7th time from the home district of Dadeldhura. The counting of votes continues for parliamentary and provincial elections in the country. Senior Nepali Congress leader, Mr. Deuba defeated an independent candidate Sagar Dhakal by a margin of over 12 thousand votes. The 77-year-old Nepali Congress president Deuba is currently holding the post of Prime Minister for the fifth term.
• The parliamentary and provincial elections were held on 20th of November in Nepal. It was the second general election since the promulgation of the constitution in 2015. Deuba secured 25,534 votes against his nearest rival Sagar Dhakal, 31, an independent candidate who received 1,302 votes. Deuba has never lost any parliamentary election in the five decades of his political career.

 SPORTS

Jagadeesan breaks world record for highest ever List A score

• Tamil Nadu batter Narayan Jagadeesan broke the world record for the highest individual score in men’s List A cricket by hammering 277 off 141 balls against Arunachal Pradesh in the Vijay Hazare Trophy at the Chinnaswamy in Bangalore. Tamil Nadu became the first team to breach the 500- mark in List A cricket before winning the Group C match by 435 runs, making it the highest victory margin at this level. The previous record was Somerset’s 346-run win over Devon in 1990.
• This was after the 26-year-old Jagadeesan became the first-ever player to score five consecutive centuries in men’s List A cricket. He also went past Alistair Brown and Rohit Sharma to set a new record for the highest individual score.
• Brown’s previous high of 268 for Surrey came against Glamorgan in 2002. The Indian record for highest List A score of 264 by Rohit in an ODI against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens in 2014.
• Jagadeesan’s first wicket partnership of 416 with Sai Sudharsan (154) is the highest stand for any wicket in List A cricket.

 IMPORTANT DAYS

Prasar Bharati celebrates silver jubilee of its establishment

• Prasar Bharati celebrated the silver jubilee or 25 years of its establishment on 23 November, 2022. It was on this day in 1997, that it came into being as a statutory autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament. It comprises the Doordarshan and All India Radio. Prasar Bharati CEO Gaurav Dwivedi said, Prasar Bharati has stood firmly with the people during the challenges faced by the country and the world.
• It is the largest statutory autonomous public broadcasting agency in India which was established in 1997.
• It was established under an Act of Parliament and consists of Doordarshan Television Network and All India Radio.
• In September 1990, the Parliament passed the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act.
• This act made provision for the establishment of a Broadcasting Corporation of India named Prasar Bharati.
• The Prasar Bharati Act provides for the establishment of a Broadcasting Corporation, to be known as Prasar Bharati, and define its composition, functions, and powers. The Act grants autonomy to All India Radio and to Doordarshan, both of which were previously under government control.
• The Act received the assent of the President of India on 12 September 1990 after being unanimously passed by Parliament. It was finally implemented in November 1997.

 SUMMIT'S & MOU's

India to set up e-office of Indian Ocean Rim Association secretariat

• India participated in the 22nd Council of Ministers’s meeting of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) held at Dhaka in Bangladesh. The Indian delegation was led by Minister of State for External Affairs Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh.
• During his remarks, Mr. Singh reaffirmed the country’s strong commitment to strengthening IORA to promote peace, security and prosperity in the Indian Ocean Region as well as in the Indo-Pacific. He highlighted the country’s contributions as coordinator of the IORA priority areas of Disaster Risk Management and Science, Technology and Innovation towards capacity building and strengthening of IORA Secretariat.
• On the challenges posed by climate change, the Minister highlighted the initiatives of LiFE – Lifestyle for Environment and International Year of Millet in 2023.
• The COM adopted the ‘IORA’s Outlook on the Indo-Pacific’ (IOIP) which would guide enhancement of IORA’s engagement in the Indo-Pacific region. India led the process of development of the IOIP. Dhaka Communique was adopted as the Outcome Document of the 22nd COM Meeting.

Union Health Ministry rolls out country’s first suicide prevention policy

• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare unveiled the National Suicide Prevention Strategy — the first-of-its-kind policy formulated by the government to prevent suicides as a public health priority.
• According to the ministry, the policy that will set the stage for promotion of mental health and prevention of suicides in the coming decade.
• The goal of the strategy is to reduce suicide mortality in the country by 10 per cent by 2023. The strategy provides a framework for multiple stakeholders to implement activities for prevention of suicides in the country.
• it seeks to establish effective surveillance mechanisms for suicide within the next three years.
• it seeks to establish psychiatric outpatient departments that will provide suicide prevention services through the District Mental Health Programme in all districts within the next five years.
• it aims to integrate a mental well-being curriculum in all educational institutions within the next eight years.
• is to strengthen surveillance of suicide and further generation of evidence through evaluation, that will ensure improvement in the programme quality.

 AWARDS & RECOGNITION

NIIT Chairman and Founder Rajendra Singh Pawar honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award by FICCI

• The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), felicitated Rajendra Singh Pawar, Chairman & Founder, NIIT with ‘Lifetime Achievement Award 2022’ at the 8th FICCI Higher Education Excellence Awards ceremony. The award recognises Pawar for his immense contribution and exemplary work in the field of education as well as creating the IT Training industry.
• The selection of Award was done by a high-level jury panel, Chaired by Dr R. A. Mashelkar, Indian National Research Professor and Chancellor, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai and former Director General of CSIR.
• NIIT has played a key role in shaping the growth of the Indian IT sector, by creating skilled manpower to drive its momentum. Along with revolutionizing the IT Training industry, he is now also involved in establishing an innovative model in Higher Education through the not-for-profit NIIT University.
• For an outstanding contribution in his field, Pawar has been awarded the country’s prestigious civilian honour, Padma Bhushan, by the President of India in 2011.

 BANKING AND ECONOMY

Ayush market has reached 18 billion US dollar mark: Ayush Minister Sarbananda Sonowal

• Union Ayush Minister Shri Sarbananda Sonowal informed that AYUSH has grown by 17 percent in 2014-20 to reach US dollars 18.1 billion. The Minister was speaking at the inauguration of ‘AYUR-UDYAMAH’ at New Delhi, where he also released the RIS report titled ‘AYUSH Sector in India: Prospects and Challenges.
• On the occasion, the All-India Institute of Ayurveda – Incubation Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (AIIA ICAINE) the first-of-its-kind incubation center under the Ministry of Ayush to promote Start-ups was also launched.
• AIIA ICAINE was launched by the Union Minister of Food and Processing Industries Shri Pashupati Paras Ji.
• As per the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) report, despite a slump in economic activity in 2020 due to the pandemic, the industry is projected to reach US$ 20.6 billion in 2021 and US$ 23.3 billion in 2022.

India's CAD pegged at 3-3.2% of GDP in FY23: CEA V Anantha Nageswaran

• Robust domestic economic activity and an uptick in oil import bills, India’s current account deficit is expected to be 3-3.2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) for FY23, according to Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran.
• India’s current account balance recorded a deficit of 1.2 per cent of GDP in 2021-22, against a surplus of 0.9 per cent in 2020-21.
• The Reserve Bank of India expects CAD to have widened modestly in the first half (April-September 2022) but shrink in the second half (October 2022-March 2023). Overall, CAD is expected to be under 3 per cent of GDP for FY23.
• CEA Nageswaran said India’s annual import cover remains quite comfortable and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) does not consider India’s external sector to be in a zone of vulnerability.
• According to the RBI’s assessment (in the state of economy report), India’s foreign exchange reserves at $ 530.0 billion, as on November 4, covered 8.6 months of imports projected for 2022-23. The foreign exchange reserves’ cover of imports (on a balance of payments basis) declined to 10.4 months at end of June 2022, from 11.8 months at the end of March 2022.

Tata Consumer Products to acquire packaged water giant Bisleri for about ₹7,000 crore

• Tata Consumer is set to acquire India’s largest packaged drinking water company, Bisleri, for an estimated Rs 6,000-7,000 crore. Chairman Ramesh Chauhan is aiming to disinvest Bisleri International to Tata Consumer Products three decades after selling soft drink brands Thums Up, Gold Spot and Limca to Coca-Cola.
• The current management will continue for two years as part of the deal. Chauhan’s ill health and daughter Jayanti’s lack of interest in the business is driving him to sell off the company. Selling Bisleri was a painful decision, he said, but believes that the Tata Group will take ‘even better’ care of it.
• There have been other interested parties such as Reliance Retail, Nestle and Danone. The report stated that talks between Tata and Chauhan have been going on for the past two years.
• The Tata Group houses its consumer business under Tata Consumer Products Ltd (TCPL) which also sells packaged mineral water under the brand Himalayan and with brands as Tata Copper Plus Water and Tata Gluco in the hydration segment.
• The deal would provide the Tata group FMCG arm a larger play into the fast-growing bottled water segment.

Unemployment rate dips marginally to 7.2% in July¬-September 2022

• Unemployment rate for persons aged 15 years and above in urban areas declined to 7.2 per cent during July-September 2022 from 9.8 per cent a year ago, the National Statistical Office (NSO) said.
• India’s urban unemployment rate dropped for the fifth consecutive quarter in the July-September period of 2022-23 (FY23) to 7.2 per cent, according to the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
• The unemployment rate in current weekly status terms for all ages in the September quarter (second quarter or Q2) of FY23 is the lowest unemployment rate recorded in more than four years, from the time the NSO launched India’s first computer-based survey in April 2017.
• The unemployment rate among men and women has been estimated at 6.6 and 9.4 per cent, respectively. It has been showing continuous decline since the April-June quarter (first quarter, or Q1) of 2020-21, when it was estimated at 12.6 per cent.