General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - February 2016

Feb 2016

Dec 15, 2022

EAM Jaishankar Inaugurates India Global Forum 2022 in UAE

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar inaugurated the India Global Forum UAE 2022.
It was a five-day event that brought together leading political, business and cultural personalities from India, the UAE and across the world.
This was the first major international event following India's ascendency to the G20 Presidency, and was held in Dubai and Abu Dhabi from December 12 to 16.
Covering the breadth of bilateral relations between India and the UAE, climate finance, technology, and investments, the five-day event was also an opportunity to discuss India's global aspirations and its presidency of the G20 amid challenging geopolitical scenarios.
The forum also presented opportunities for businesses and entrepreneurs of both countries to work together for regional and global impact.

France Hosts Conference "Standing with the Ukrainian People"

Some 70 countries and institutions worldwide pledged more than 1 billion euros ($1.05 billion) in immediate aid to help Ukraine get through a harsh winter as Russian forces batter its energy grid and other critical civilian infrastructure.
France hosted the global meeting to discuss what could be offered between now and March to maintain water, food, energy, health and transport during Ukraine's typically frigid winter.
Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said over 1 billion euros had been pledged with some 415 million devoted to Ukraine's energy sector, hammered by Russian air strikes, adding that the participation of non-Western countries such as Qatar and Cambodia showed a widening of support for Ukraine.
The rest of the funds will be channelled to Ukraine's health, food, water and transport sectors, with almost 500 million euros still to be allocated.

G-7 Approves 15.5 billion US Dollar Deal with Vietnam to Help Cutting Climate-damaging Pollution

A group of nine rich industrialized nations approved a deal to provide Vietnam with 15.5 billion US dollars to help the Southeast Asian nation move faster from coal power to renewable energy, cutting its climate-damaging pollution. The Group of Seven major economies, along with Norway and Denmark, said that the aim is to help Vietnam reduce its emissions to "net zero" by 2050. It is a goal which experts say needs to be met globally to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The Just Energy Transition Partnership with Vietnam is among a series of agreements that developing and rich nations are negotiating. The first such deal was signed with South Africa last year, and a similar agreement was reached with Indonesia last month. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that Vietnam is a dynamic, emerging economy at the heart of Southeast Asia. He said the investment they are making today means the country can cut its emissions while simultaneously creating new jobs and growth.

Dec 14, 2022

European Union Agrees to Give Bosnia Candidate Status

EU countries agreed to grant Bosnia "candidate status" to join the union, putting the volatile Balkan nation at the start of a long road to membership.
Russia's war on Ukraine has breathed fresh life into the European Union's willingness to consider letting in more of its eastern neighbours after years at a standstill.
The EU is concerned that other powers, such as Russia or China, might spread their influence into the Balkans if countries hopeful of joining the bloc are thwarted.
European affairs ministers meeting in Brussels gave the green light to Bosnia becoming a candidate after the bloc's executive arm in October recommended that they launch the membership process.
The move comes despite long-standing concerns over the political situation in Bosnia, a country of three million people burdened with ethnic divisions since its devastating war three decades ago.

New Zealand Passes World-first Tobacco Law to Ban Smoking for Next Generation

New Zealand introduced a steadily rising smoking age to stop those aged 14 and under from ever being able to legally buy cigarettes in world-first legislation to outlaw smoking for the next generation.
New Zealand is believed to be the first country in the world to implement the annually rising smoking age, ensuring tobacco cannot be sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It will be accompanied by a slew of other measures to make smoking less affordable and accessible, including dramatically reducing the legal amount of nicotine in tobacco products and forcing them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than corner stores and supermarkets.
The number of stores legally allowed to sell cigarettes will be reduced to a tenth of their existing levels – from 6,000 to just 600 nationwide. The law passed its final reading, and will come into force in 2023, as New Zealand attempts to reach its goal of making the country "smoke-free" by 2025.
The new laws, however, will not restrict vape sales. Data indicates that at least some New Zealanders haveswapped their nicotine habit from cigarettes to vapes.

WHO Picks Jeremy Farrar as Chief Scientist, Replacing Soumya Swaminathan

The World Health Organization said that Jeremy Farrar will become its new chief scientist as the agency prepares to cope with post-pandemic health challenges. Jeremy Farrar will join the WHO in the second quarter of 2023, replacing Soumya Swaminathan, who departed in November 2022.
Farrar's is the latest appointment as Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus' second term as the leader of the UN health agency gets underway.
As chief scientist, Jeremy will accelerate our efforts to ensure WHO, its member states and our partners benefit from cutting-edge, life-saving science and innovations.
Jeremy Farrar is a clinical scientist who served as the director of the Wellcome Trust.

Dec 13, 2022

Karen Bass Becomes First Black Woman to be Elected Los Angeles Mayor

Karen Ruth Bass, a former physician assistant who shattered glass ceilings with her rise to a leadership post in the California legislature and later a prominent spot in Congress, took a ceremonial oath of office as mayor of Los Angeles.
A progressive Democrat, Bass became the first woman and second black person to hold the city's top job and assumed her duties amid multiple crises in the nation's second most populous city.
She was sworn in ceremonially by Vice President Kamala Harris, a longtime friend and former California attorney general. The formal oath was administered privately by the city clerk.

US Prints First Banknotes with Women's Signatures

The Treasury (United States of America's Finance Ministry) printed the first US banknotes (currency notes) with two women's signatures. The new currency notes of $1 and $5 value carry the signature of the Secretary of Treasury (American Finance Minister) Janet Yellen and Lynn Malerba. The United States currency notes are popularly called as Greenback.
Lynn Malerba is Native American and is the chief of the Mohegan Tribe, who holds the position of Treasurer of the United States within the Department of Treasury, United States government.
Janet Yellen is a former chairman of the United States Central Bank, Federal Reserve of New York. She was the first female head of the Federal Reserve.

Two Indian-Americans in Money Magazine's Top 50 Change Makers

Two Indian-Americans were among Money magazine's 50 influential figures from entertainment, media, business, investing, politics, etc, who are shaping Americans' finances.
Rohit Chopra, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Gaurav Sharma of New York-based fintech firm Capitalize, were recognised for offering "unique perspective on the gaps within the financial systems - and how they're working to improve the future for everyday consumers.
As the director of the government's CFPB, Chopra is tasked with protecting families from deceptive and abusive financial practices.
Appointed by US President Joe Biden in 2021, Chopra has already made an outsized impact on the wallets of Americans by helping overhaul how medical debt affects our credit, reduce 'junk fees' charged by banks, and more.
An Australian by birth, Gaurav Sharma is the CEO and Co-Founder of Capitalize -- a venture-backed fintech company in New York focused on the retirement savings market. Before founding Capitalize, Sharma worked for JP Morgan, UBS, Morgan Stanley, and Greenlight Capital.

Dec 12, 2022

President Xi Rocks the Arab World, Alarms QUAD and the West

The Middle-East leadership showed the mirror to the Joe Biden administration last week as Chinese President Xi Jinping was feted in Saudi Arabia with even arch-rival Qatari Emir Tamin bin Hamad Al Thani leaving the ongoing World Cup soccer festival in Doha to meet the Middle Kingdom emperor in Riyadh.
The four-day visit of President Xi Jinping to oil-rich Saudi Arabia with virtually every Middle-East ruler in attendance as part of the GCC and Arab summit at that time was a message to the US and its allies that China increasingly is the alternate pole in an unstable world. Clearly Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman show-cased President Xi's four-day visit to the oil-rich kingdom as a comeback to his testy relationship with US President Joe Biden over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. The Islamic countries on their part ask no questions to China over the treatment of Sunni Muslims in the restive Xinjiang province.
The line-up to meet President Xi included Bahrain's King Hamad, Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamin, Fujairah, UAE ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed, Kuwaiti Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal Al Sabah and Deputy Prime Minister of Oman Sayyid Fahd Al Said for the China-GCC summit. Other middle-east leaders who joined for the China-Arab summit were: Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El Sisi, Sudan Sovereign Council head Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al Sudani. The message from Saudi Arabia was that the world's biggest oil exporter was the leader of the Sunni Muslim world and had the support of the world's largest oil importer China and the two were more than willing to do business as a first step towards future military cooperation.

Hurun Global 500 Rankings: India Ranks 5th in the List of Valuable Companies

India, with 20 of the most valuable companies in the world, moved into the fifth position among countries that are home to the world's top 500 firms. Last year, it ranked ninth with eight companies. The US continued to top the chart, according to the 2022 Hurun Global 500 list. The list, released by the Hurun Research Institute, is a compilation of the 500 most valuable non-state-controlled companies in the world. Companies were ranked according to their market capitalisation (for listed companies) and valuations for non-listed companies.

Indian-origin Nihar Malaviya is Interim CEO of Penguin Random House

Nihar Malaviya, an Indian-origin publishing executive, was named interim CEO of New York-based international publishing group Penguin Random House after its current Chief Executive Officer Markus Dohle announced he was stepping down from the role.
Malaviya, who has been President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the publisher's American division Penguin Random House US since 2019, will assume the role of Interim CEO of Penguin Random House starting January 1, 2023.

Pakistan Ranks Atop List of 82 Nations most Influenced by China

According to reports from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a new study that measures Beijing's expanding global sway revealed that Pakistan is the country in the world which is most influenced by China.
The China Index, a database re-launched by DoubleThink Labs, a Taiwan-based research organisation ranked Pakistan atop a list of 82 other nations around the world and said that its links and dependency on China with regard to foreign and domestic policy, technology, and the economy make it particularly susceptible to Chinese influence.
Following Pakistan, Cambodia and Singapore are listed at the second spot while Thailand at third position, as per the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) report. The Philippines is listed at the seventh spot while Malaysia lies in the 10th position. South Africa and Peru are tied at the fifth spot on the index.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are at the eighth and ninth spots on the index. These two countries share a border with China's Xinjiang Province and are the Central Asian countries most influenced by Beijing.

Dec 11, 2022

Pakistani Passport Ranks 4th Lowest in World

Pakistan was ranked 94th, sharing the slot with Somalia, in terms of passport strength while the UAE topped the list of the world's most powerful ones.
According to the list issued by Arton Capital, a Pakistani passport mandates travel to only 44 countries without a visa.
Below Pakistan were Iraq (ranked 95th), Syria (96th) and Afghanistan (97th).
In comparison, the passports of Yemen (93rd), Bangladesh (92nd), North Korea, Libya and Palestine (91st) and Iran (90th) were declared more powerful than that of Pakistan.
However, the passport of the UAE has been declared the most powerful across the world.
UAE nationals can travel to 180 countries without a visa.
Citizens of countries, including the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and others do not require a visa to visit 173 countries.
Pakistan was the lowest ranked country among South Asian countries.

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