अमेरिका-ईरान तनाव के बीच Air India का बड़ा फैसला
अमेरिका और ईरान के बीच तनाव लगातार बढ़ता जा रहा है। इसका असर अब दिखना भी शुरू हो गया है। ईरान ने अमेरिका का ड्रोन मार गिराया अब दोनों देशों के बीच तल्खी काफी बढ़ती जा रही है। इस बीच एयर इंडिया ने भी अपने विमानों को ईरान के एयरस्पेस में न भेजने का फैसला किया है। एयर इंडिया के सीएमडी अश्वनी लोहानी ने ईरान के एयरस्पेस से विमानों के न गुजरने पर कहा, 'एयर इंडिया की उड़ानों पर इसका कोई खास प्रभाव नहीं है। हालांकि आने वाले विमानों का रूट फिर से तय करने पर काम किया जा रहा है।'
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants-hindi/20633-air-india
#AirIndia #Iran #CMD #AshwaniLohani #DGCA #NewYork

इस खास कदम से दोगुनी होगी किसानों की आय
अगले तीन साल की अवधि के भीतर किसानों के आय को दोगुना करने के क्रम में कृषि व किसान कल्‍याण मंत्रालय ने ग्रामीण भारत में डिजिटल टेक्‍नोलॉजी का इस्‍तेमाल करने का निर्णय लिया है। डिजिटल टेक्‍नोलॉजी के जरिए भारत के गांवों में कृषि संबंधित गतिविधियों का आधुनिकीकरण कर व्‍यवस्‍थित करने की योजना बनाई गई है।
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants-hindi/20632-2019-06-23-04-29-33
#Agriculture #India #NarendraSinghTomar #RajyaSabha #ICAR

Crackdown on cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrency firms will be subjected to rules to prevent the abuse of digital coins such as bitcoin for money laundering, a global watchdog said, the first worldwide regulatory attempt to constrain the rapidly growing sector.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/20638-crackdown-on-cryptocurrencies
#Crackdown #cryptocurrencies #FATF #FinTech #GlobalDigitalFinance

Pakistan must implement FATF action plan
India on 22 June 2019 emphasised that Pakistan needs to take all necessary steps to fully implement the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) action plan by the October deadline. Pakistan, however, claimed that India was politicising the process for its “narrow” objectives. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a statement that India expects Pakistan to take credible and verifiable steps against terrorism and terrorist finances.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/20637-pakistan-must-implement-fatf-action-plan
#FATF #Pakistan #ICRG #India #RaveeshKumar #narrow

New NASA missions to study Sun
NASA will launch two new missions to advance our understanding of the Sun and its dynamic effects on space weather, the US space agency said. One of the selected missions will study how the Sun drives particles and energy into the solar system and a second will study Earth’s response, NASA said.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/20636-new-nasa-missions-to-study-sun
#NASA #solar #GPS #TRACERS #Moon #missions #Sun

The Central Asian nodes in BRI
Ahead of the recently concluded summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Chinese state media provided extensive coverage of Beijing’s recent forays into Central Asia, including into Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. On its website, the state-run Xinhua news agency splashed pictures of the Irkeshtam pass, one of China’s gateways to Kyrgyzstan, a few days before planes ferrying leaders of the eight SCO member countries, apart from observers, flew into Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s capital.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/20635-the-central-asian-nodes-in-bri
#BRI #Asian #SCO #CPEC #XUAR #EuropeanUnion #Irkeshtampass

ASEAN summit in Bangkok
Southeast Asian leaders opened a two-day summit in Bangkok on 22 June 2019, though it was unclear what progress their 10-country group could make on disputes in the South China Sea and the plight of ethnic Rohingya fleeing Myanmar.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/20634-asean-summit-in-bangkok
#ASEAN #Bangkok #COC #Myanmar #10countrygroup #Thailand

Co-origination pact lend to MSMEs
The troubled shadow banks are not yet out of the woods and the largest lender SBI has stitched a co-origination agreement to finance small businesses--which used to be a major customer-base for the crippled financiers.
Read More: http://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21275-co-origination-pact-lend-to-msmes
#MSMEs #SBI #RBI #NBFCs #ReserveBank #agreement

DRDO hands over design of MMR
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) handed over the design of Mobile Metallic Ramp (MMR) to the Indian Army at a ceremony held at DRDO Bhawan. With load bearing capacity of 70 metric ton (MT), the MMR has been designed and developed by DRDO’s premier research laboratory.
Read More: http://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21274-drdo-hands-over-design-of-mmr
#DRDO #MMR #MT #CFEES #TDEs #DSO #DTDP #Bhawan #IndianArmy

Chandrayaan-2 enters 2nd Lunar orbit
The second Lunar orbit manoeuvre for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was successfully completed on 21 August 2019, said India Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
According to ISRO, the orbit manoeuvre began at 12.50 p.m. and took 1,228 seconds to complete. The orbit achieved is 118 km X 4,412 km. All spacecraft parameters are normal.
Read More: http://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21273-chandrayaan-2-enters-2nd-lunar-orbit
#Chandrayaan2 #spacecraft #ISRO #Vikram #GSLVMkIII #Lunar #orbit

Compliance report to FATF
Pakistan has submitted compliance report on its 27-point action plan to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), as three separate evaluations currently in progress will determine the country's possible exit from the grey list of the anti-money laundering watchdog by October.
Read More: http://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21272-compliance-report-to-fatf
#FATF #Australia #APG #Pakistan #BaqirReza #Bangkok #ImranKhan

Rocky exoplanet of Moon or Mercury
Scientists at NASA have achieved to get a rare glimpse of the conditions on the surface of a rocky exoplanet orbiting a star beyond the Sun. Using the data of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have detected the light from the planet LHS 3844b, which is located 48.6 lightyears away from the Earth.
Read More: http://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21271-rocky-exoplanet-of-moon-or-mercury
#Moon #Mercury #NASA #JPL #TESS #LHS #Mdwarf #planet

India pulls out of RCEP pact
India on 4 November 2019 pulled out of the 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, capping six years of talks to clinch the world’s biggest free-trade deal in the face of stiff resistance from domestic industries and political circles and reluctance of partners like China to grant it meaningful concessions despite hard negotiations in recent weeks.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21901-india-pulls-out-of-rcep-pact.html
#RCEP #India #Bangkok #ArvindPanagariya #NItiAayog #ASEAN #FTAs

US formally moves to exit the Paris Agreement
The United States formally notified the United Nations on 4 November 2019 that it was withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change. Today the United States began the process to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, said US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21900-us-formally-moves-to-exit-the-paris-agreement.html
#US #Paris #Agreement #KyotoProtocol #COP21

Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative
The United States formally notified the United Nations on 4 November 2019 that it was withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change. Today the United States began the process to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, said US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21899-indo-pacific-oceans-initiative.html
#IPOI #NarendraModi #ASEAN #EAS #USA #EastAsia

Clues to cosmic shoreline
Scientists have decoded the signals sent by NASA’s Voyager 2 from about 11 billion miles away from interstellar space, which will help scientists paint a clearer picture of cosmic shoreline, where the heliosphere ends and interstellar space begins.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21898-clues-to-cosmic-shoreline.html
#NatureAstronomy #MilkyWaygalaxy #spacecraft #Voyager2 #NASA

Today's Headlines - 19 July 2023
BIMSTEC Foreign Ministers’ meet
GS Paper - 2 (International Relations)

The first-ever Foreign Ministers’ meeting of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) began in Bangkok, Thailand. India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was also present, and said that areas of coordination challenge that were discussed, including health and energy security.

What is BIMSTEC?

BIMSTEC is a regional organisation that was established in 1997 with the signing of the Bangkok Declaration.
Initially known as BIST-EC (Bangladesh-India-Sri Lanka-Thailand Economic Cooperation), the organisation is now known as BIMSTEC and comprises seven members, with Myanmar joining towards the end of 1997, and Bhutan and Nepal in 2004.
Around 22% of the world’s population lives in the seven countries around the Bay of Bengal, with a combined GDP close to $2.7 trillion.
All seven countries have sustained average annual rates of growth between 3.4% and 7.5% from 2012 to 2016. A fourth of the world’s traded goods cross the bay every year.
Cooperation within the BIMSTEC had initially focused on six sectors in 1997 (trade, technology, energy, transport, tourism, and fisheries) and expanded in 2008 to other areas.
In 2021, a reorganisation led to each of the Member States leading certain sectors. India focuses on security, along with counter-terrorism and transnational crime, disaster management and energy.

Growth of BIMSTEC as a regional forum

Despite having been in existence for many years, the grouping had been largely ignored until India gave it a renewed push in October 2016, a month after the terrorist attack in Uri.
Alongside the BRICS summit in Goa, India hosted an outreach summit with leaders of BIMSTEC countries.
Weeks earlier, some of these countries had supported New Delhi’s call for a boycott of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit scheduled in Islamabad that November.
SAARC includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka as its members. When that summit was postponed, India claimed victory in isolating Pakistan.

China on mind

The Bay of Bengal is crucial for an increasingly assertive China in maintaining its access route to the Indian Ocean.
As China has undertaken a massive drive to finance and build infrastructure in South and Southeast Asia through the Belt and Road Initiative in almost all BIMSTEC countries, except Bhutan and India, BIMSTEC is a new battleground in the India-China battle for dominance.
BIMSTEC could allow India to push a constructive agenda to counter Chinese investments, and instead follow best practices for connectivity projects based on recognised international norms. The Chinese projects are widely seen as violating these norms.
The two organisations — SAARC and BIMSTEC — focus on geographically overlapping regions. However, this does not make them equal alternatives.
SAARC is a purely regional organisation, whereas BIMSTEC is inter-regional and connects both South Asia and ASEAN.
Since the SAARC summit has only been postponed, not cancelled the possibility of revival remains.

#upsc #news #bimstec #foreignminister #bangkok #technical #economic #cooperation #affairsminister #thailand #jaishankar #energy #security #bangladesh #myanmar #bhutan #nepal #sevencountries #terrorism #disaster #management #SAARC #finance #india #china #south #asian #newdelhi #maldives #srilanka