General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - December 2014

Dec 2014

Jul 06, 2021

Nepal's Election Commission Announces Schedule for Mid-term Polls

Nepal's Election Commission announced the schedule for upcoming mid-term elections despite the uncertainty over polls due to the petitions in the Supreme Court against the dissolution of the House of Representatives.
President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved the Lower House for the second time in five months in May at the recommendation of Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli and announced snap elections on November 12 and November 19.
Prime Minister Oli is currently heading a minority government after losing a trust vote in the 275-member House.

Pakistan Establishes Anti-money Laundering Cell

Pakistan's anti-corruption watchdog has established an anti-money laundering and terror financing cell to check financial crimes and illegal transfer of resources as the country struggled to exit from the FATF's grey list.
The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed Pakistan on the grey list in June 2018 and asked Islamabad to implement a plan of action to curb money laundering and terror financing by the end of 2019 but the deadline was extended later on due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Putin, Bennett Agree to Meet

Israel's new PM spoke for the first time with his Russian counterpart and the two have agreed to meet soon. Bennett's office said that he thanked Vladimir Putin for Russia's contribution to stability in the region and that the two spoke of the bridge between the two countries represented by Russian immigrants to Israel.
It was the first time the two had spoken since Bennett took office last month at the head of Israel's new coalition government. After two years, Bennett is to step aside while Foreign Minister Yair Lapid rotates into the premiership.

Jul 05, 2021

Tokyo Election Tests Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga Ahead of Olympics

Residents headed to the polls in Tokyo for a metropolitan assembly vote that could provide clues to how Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and his ruling party will fare in a general election expected after this month's Olympics.
The election comes less than three weeks before the opening of the games, which are strongly backed by Suga, despite widespread concern about staging the global sports spectacle during a pandemic.
Suga's Liberal Democratic Party currently has 25 seats in the assembly, compared with the 45 held by Tokyoites First, a local party formed by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, who now serves as an adviser. The Constitutional Democratic Party, the main opposition force at national level, controls eight seats.

Jeff Bezos Steps Down as Amazon CEO

Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, will step down as Amazon CEO on July 5, 2021. Bezos chose July 5 as it was exactly 27 years ago on that date in 1994 when he founded Amazon.
However, he won't be going far from Amazon and will be the executive chair. The American business magnate will also focus on new products and initiatives.
Jeff Bezos, the world's richest person for the fourth year running with a net worth over 20,180 crores USD, now plans to focus on his other ventures that include his rocket ship company, Blue Origin, and his newspaper, The Washington Post.
The former head of Amazon Web Services (AWS) Andy Jassy officially took over as the CEO of Amazon.com after the world's richest man, Jeff Bezos, stepped down as the e-commerce giant's boss.
Jassy joined Amazon in 1997.

Jul 03, 2021

ILO Report on International Migrant Workers

International Labour Organisation (ILO) published its report on International Migrant Workers. Report was published amid COVID-19 pandemic and increased global industrialisation that has impacted world's economy by shift in workers crossing borders to look for employment.
As per ILO report, number of international migrant workers has increased to 169 million globally. It has increased by 3% since 2017.
Share of youth migrant workers (aged 15-24) has also increased by almost 2% (accounting to 3.2 million) since 2017.
Migrant workers contribute to their country's economy and send their remuneration home which boost economy of their country of origin too. However, some unskilled migrant workers are vulnerable to violence of human trafficking. In order to provide them protection and management of migrant workers flow, ILO standards on migration provide for tools like Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 and Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949.

Jul 02, 2021

Turkey Quits Violence-on-women Treaty

Thousands of people took to the streets of Turkey's largest cities to protest against the country's withdrawal from an international treaty to combat violence against women, a move that has drawn strong criticism from Western allies.
The protests came hours after President Tayyip Erdogan defended the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, negotiated in Turkey's biggest city in 2011 and designed to prevent and prosecute violence against women and domestic abuse.
The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention, is a human rights treaty of the Council of Europe against violence against women and domestic violence which was opened for signature on 11 May 2011, in Istanbul, Turkey.
The Convention came into force on 1st August 2014.
In March 2012, Turkey became the first country to ratify the convention, followed by 34 other countries from 2013 to 2021.

Putin Signs Law Forcing Foreign Social Media Firms to Open Russian Offices

President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that obliges foreign social media giants to open offices in Russia, the latest move by Moscow to exert greater control over Big Tech.
The Russian authorities are keen to strengthen their control of the internet and to reduce their dependence on foreign companies and countries. In particular, they have objected in the past to political opponents of the Kremlin using foreign social media platforms to organise what they say are illegal protests and to publicise politically-tinged investigations into alleged corruption.
A foreign entity, carrying out activities on the internet in Russia, is obliged to create a branch, open an office or establish a Russian legal entity.

Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2021

India stands at the 20th spot among the top 100 countries that have been ranked in the Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2021 by Startup Blink. The country was in the 17th spot in 2019, after which it slid six spots down and stood at 23 in 2020. With this jump, India's start-up ecosystem makes a re-entry into the global top 20 countries again. Like last year, the US, the UK, Israel, Canada and Germany are in the top five spots this year too and continue their lead.
The report has a score for each location, which is calculated as the sum of three parameters: quantity, quality and business environment. The quantity parameter comprises elements such as number of start-ups, number of start-up related meet-ups, number of co-working spaces, number of accelerators, etc.

Maria Leptin New President of the European Research Council

The European Commission appointed German biologist Maria Leptin as the new president of the European Research Council (ERC), which as Europe's largest basic science funder hands out roughly €2 billion in grants per year. Leptin will be ERC's fifth president; her 4-year term begins on 1 October.
Leptin comes to ERC after 10 years leading the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), an intergovernmental research institute based in Heidelberg, Germany, that is funded by 30 countries.

Jul 01, 2021

UN Urges US to Remove Iran Sanctions

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed to US President Joe Biden's administration to lift or waive all sanctions on Iran as agreed under a 2015 deal aimed at stopping Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.
In a report to the UN Security Council, Guterres also urged the United States to "extend the waivers with regard to the trade in oil with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and fully renew waivers for nuclear non-proliferation projects." The 15-member council will on Tuesday discuss the secretary-general's biannual report on the implementation of a 2015 resolution that enshrines the nuclear deal between Iran, the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China.
Guterres' appeal to Washington comes amid talks to revive the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, under which Iran accepted curbs on its nuclear programme in return for a lifting of many foreign sanctions against it.

G20 Adopts Matera Declaration

The G-20 Foreign Ministers have adopted the 'Matera Declaration', which asks the global community to step up efforts to contain the effects of the pandemic on lives and livelihoods, build inclusive and resilient food chains and ensure adequate nutrition for all.
Meeting for the first time in the format of "Joint meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Development Ministers" after the G20 Foreign Affairs Ministers' Meeting in Italy, the declaration concurred with the UN's 'Zero Hunger' goal set for 2030.
The G20 ministers recognised that poverty alleviation, food security, and sustainable food systems, are key to ending hunger, encouraging social cohesion and community development.

China Turns on World's Second Biggest Hydropower Dam

The Government of China officially turned on the first two generating units of the Baihetan Dam, the world's second-biggest hydroelectric dam, to start generating energy. The Baihetan Dam is set up on the Jinsha River, in southwestern China.
The dam is a 289-meter-tall (954-foot-tall) double-curvature arch dam, having 16 generating units.
Each unit will have to generate a capacity of 1 million kilowatts, making it the second biggest in size after the "Three Gorges Dam" opened in 2003 on the Yangtze, with 22.5 million kilowatts of generating capacity.
Through the Baihetan Dam, the Chinese government aims to curb surging fossil fuel demand by building more hydropower capacity.
Both the dams have been built by the state-owned Three Gorges Group Corp., the world's biggest investor in hydro, solar and wind generation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping Pledges Reunification with Taiwan

Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to complete reunification with self-ruled Taiwan and vowed to smash any attempts at formal independence for the island, taking a tough line on the 100th birthday of the ruling Communist Party.
China considers democratically-ruled Taiwan its own territory, and under Mr. Xi has stepped up efforts to assert its sovereignty claims, including regularly sending fighter jets and bombers close to the island.
While China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, Mr. Xi called for a process of peaceful reunification.
Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said that it was working on a response to Mr. Xi's comments.
Most Taiwanese have shown no interest in being ruled by China. Taiwan's government says only the island's people can decide their future, and has decried Chinese pressure.

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