STATUE OF PEACE & MORE( Current affairs 17 Nov 2020 )

 STATUE OF PEACE

The Prime Minister unveiled ‘Statue of Peace’ to mark the 151st Birth Anniversary celebrations of Jainacharya Shree Vijay Vallabh Surishwer Ji Maharaj.

About:

• The Statue unveiled in the honour of the Jain acharya, has been named as ‘Statue of Peace’.
  
  
• The 151 inch tall statue has been made from Ashtadhatu i.e. 8 metals, with Copper being the major constituent, and is installed at Vijay Vallabh Sadhana Kendra, Jetpura, in Pali, Rajasthan.
  
  
• INTERNATIONAL CROPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR THE SEMI-ARID TROPICS (ICRISAT)
  Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have granted conditional exemption to the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics(ICRISAT), Hyderabad, Telangana for the deployment of drones for agricultural research activities.
  

  About:

  • ICRISAT is an international organization which conducts agricultural research for rural development.
    
    
  • It is headquartered in Patancheru (Hyderabad, Telangana) with several regional centers (Bamako (Mali), Nairobi (Kenya)) and research stations (Niamey (Niger), Kano (Nigeria), Lilongwe (Malawi), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Bulawayo (Zimbabwe)).
    
    
  • It was founded in 1972 by a consortium of organisations convened by the Ford and the Rockefeller foundations. Its charter was signed by the FAO and the UNDP.
    
    
  • Since its inception, host country India has granted a special status to ICRISAT as a UN Organization operating in the Indian territory making it eligible for special immunities and tax privileges.
    
    
  • ICRISAT is managed by a full-time Director General functioning under the overall guidance of an international Governing Board.
    

  
  

  DEPARTMENT OF INVESTMENT AND PUBLIC ASSET MANAGEMENT (DIPAM)

  Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has signed an agreement with World Bank. Under the agreement, World Bank is to provide advisory services to DIPAM for asset monetization.

  

  About:

  • DIPAM is mandated with facilitating monetization of non-core assets of government CPSEs under strategic disinvestment or closure and enemy property of value of INR 100 crores and above. DIPAM has a framework for monetizing non-core assets.
    
    
  • The World Bank advisory project, approved by the Finance Minister, is aimed at analyzing public asset monetization in India and benchmarking its institutional and business models against international best practices.
    
    
  • It is expected that this project would facilitate and accelerate the non-core asset monetization process and help unlock the value of these un-used/ marginally used assets which has the potential to substantially augment financial resources for further investments and growth.
    

  Information and Broadcasting Ministry has requested compliance of policy on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in digital media within a month.

  

  About:

  • The Ministry issued a public notice to facilitate eligible entities involved in uploading and streaming of news and current affairs through digital media, to comply with the decision of Government, which had permitted 26 per cent FDI under Government approval route.
    
    
  • The entities having foreign investment below 26 per cent may furnish intimation to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting within one month.
    
    
  • Any entity which intends to bring fresh foreign investment in the country has to seek prior approval of the Central Government, through the Foreign Investment Facilitation Portal of DPIIT.
    
    
  • Every entity has to comply with the requirements of citizenship of Board of Directors and of the Chief Executive Officers.

  PINCER CATALYTIC SYSTEMS

  A research team of IIT Guwahati has formulated efficient “pincer” catalytic systems that transform biomass wastes into valuable chemicals.

  

  About:

  • Tiny amounts of these “pincer catalysts” repeatedly convert large amounts of industrial waste such as glycerol into lactic acid and hydrogen.
    
    
  • Such catalysts also efficiently convert bioethanol, a low-energy density fuel, into high-energy density butanol.
    
    
  • The conversion of valuable intermediates such as glycerol and ethanol, produced during the processing of biomass, into industrially useful chemicals has elicited much interest worldwide.

  
  

  • INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR TOLERANCE
  • International Day for Tolerance was observed on November 16, 2020.
    

    About:

    • In 1996, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 51/95(link is external) proclaiming 16 November as International Day for Tolerance. This action followed the adoption of a Declaration of Principles on Tolerance by UNESCO's Member States on 16 November 1995.
      
      
    • The Day recognizes the universal human rights and fundamental freedoms of others. It gives the message that people are naturally diverse; only tolerance can ensure the survival of mixed communities in every region of the globe.

    
    
  • NATIONAL PRESS DAY

    National Press Day was observed on 16th November.

    

    About:

    • The National Press Day is observed on 16th November every year. It was on this day the Press Council of India (PCI) started functioning as a moral watchdog to ensure that the press maintains high standards and is not fettered by any influence or threats.
      
      
    • Origin: The Press Council of India was first set up in the year 1966 by the Parliament on the recommendations of the First Press Commission.
      
      
    • Status: It is a statutory body functioning under the Press Council Act, 1978.
      
      
    • Objective: Preserving the freedom of the press and of maintaining and improving the standards of press in India.
      
      
    • Function: It is a quasi-judicial authority. It adjudicates the complaints against and by the press for violation of ethics and for violation of the freedom of the press respectively.
      

    
    

    • RAMSAR CONVENTION
      India has added two more Ramsar sites. They are Lonar lake in Maharashtra which is the only crater lake of the country while the other is Sur Sarovar, also known as Keetham lake in Agra of Uttar Pradesh.
      

      About:

      • The Ramsar Convention signed on 2nd February, 1971, is one of the oldest inter-governmental accord signed by member countries to preserve the ecological character of their wetlands of international importance.
        
        
      • It is named after Ramsar, the Iranian city where the treaty was signed in 1971, and places chosen for conservation under it are given the tag ‘Ramsar site’.
        
        
      • The aim of the Ramsar list is to develop and maintain an international network of wetlands which are important for the conservation of global biological diversity and for sustaining human life through the maintenance of their ecosystem components, processes and benefits.

      PERU

      Peru’s fifth president in five years, Manuel Merino, was forced out of power, just five days after taking office, as massive protests swept the South American country.

      

      About:

      • Peru is a country in western South America.
        
        
      • It lies wholly in the Southern Hemisphere, its northernmost extreme reaching to 1.8 minutes of latitude or about 3.3 kilometres (2.1 mi) south of the equator.
        
        
      • It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pacific Ocean.
        
        
      • Peru is a megadiverse country with habitats ranging from the peaks of the Andes mountains vertically extending from the north to the southeast of the country to the tropical Amazon Basin rainforest in the east with the Amazon river.
        
        
      • The country forms part of The Pacific Pumas, a political and economic grouping of countries along Latin America's Pacific coast that share common trends of positive growth, stable macroeconomic foundations, improved governance and an openness to global integration.
        
        
      • Its Capital is Lima.
        

      
      
    • REGIONAL COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP (RCEP)

      Recently, 15 countries solidified their participation in the RCEP. Even as India opted to stay out after walking out of discussions last year, the new trading bloc has made it clear that the door will remain open for India to return to the negotiating table.

      

      About:

      • Described as the “largest” regional trading agreement to this day, RCEP was originally being negotiated between 16 countries — ASEAN members and countries with which they have free trade agreements (FTAs), namely Australia, China, Korea, Japan, New Zealand and India.
        
        
      • The purpose of RCEP was to make it easier for products and services of each of these countries to be available across this region. Negotiations to chart out this deal had been on since 2013, and India was expected to be a signatory until its decision last November