General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - March 2016

Mar 2016

Mar 15, 2020

Bill Gates Quits Microsoft Board

Microsoft announced that co-founder Bill Gates left its board of directors to devote more time to philanthropy.
Gates served as chairman of Microsoft's board of directors until early in 2014 and has now stepped away entirely.
Microsoft would continue to benefit from Gates' "technical passion and advice" in his continuing role as a technical advisor.

Europe Now the Epicenter of the Coronavirus Pandemic

As per World Health Organization officials, Europe has become the new epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic as cases in China slow and the deadly coronavirus runs through Italy and nearby countries.
More cases are now being reported (in Europe) every day than were reported in China at the height of its epidemic.
Italy currently has the most cases outside of China with at least 15,113 infections, followed by Spain at 4,334, Germany at 3,156 and France at 2,882, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Other countries in Europe are seeing cases soar. Switzerland currently has 1,125 cases, followed by Sweden at 809, the Netherlands at 804 and Denmark at 788.

Mar 14, 2020

Bombardier CEO Alain Bellemare to Step Down

Canada's Bombardier Inc said that Chief Executive Officer Alain Bellemare would step down and be replaced by former company executive and Hydro-Quebec CEO Eric Martel.
Bellemare, who took over the top job at Bombardier in 2015, has steered the company through some of its biggest challenges, including a brush with bankruptcy due to its costly C Series jet program.
Under his watch, the company has narrowed its focus on making business jets, after offloading its stake in the A220 passenger jet program - formerly known as the C Series - to Airbus SE and selling the rail division to France's Alstom SA earlier this year.
Martel had worked with Bombardier for 13 years and was the president of its business aircraft unit before joining the hydropower producer as CEO in 2015.

India 2nd Largest Arms Importer in 2015-19

In accordance with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's (SIPRI) annual report titled "Trends in international arms transfers, 2019" released in 2020, India is the world's second largest arms importer during 2015-19 with its global share of 9.2% after Saudi Arabia, who has topped the ranking with global share of 12%. On the other hand, India ranked 23rd in terms of world's largest arms exporters with global share of 0.2% and its main clients being Myanmar (46%), Sri Lanka (25%), and Mauritius (14%). United States (US) topped the list in this section with a share of 36%.
On the global front, the volume of international transfers of major arms in 2015–19 has increased by 5% as compared to 2010–14.
Largest suppliers of arms to India: Russia is largest supplier of arms to India; however, share of weapons purchased has declined from 72% to 56% during 2015-19, which accounted 25% of total Russian arms exports. Contrarily, Israel and France's share increased, by 175% and 715% respectively, which have become second and third largest suppliers to India during 2015-19.

US Congress Approves to Limit Trump's War Powers against Iran

The United States House of Representatives approved a War Powers Resolution aimed at limiting President Donald Trump's ability to wage war against Iran.
The passage of the resolution was yet another rebuke of the President over his decision to order the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in January 2020 amid escalating tensions with Tehran.
The Senate voted 55 to 45 - with eight Republicans joining Democrats on February 13 - to approve the resolution. The House action sends the measure to Trump, who has threatened to veto it. A two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate would be needed to override a veto.

Mar 13, 2020

Italy Orders Shutting Down of All Shops

Italy added new restrictions to a lockdown imposed to fight the coronavirus, ordering bars, restaurants and beauty parlours to close after the highest daily increase in deaths of any country since the outbreak began.
In a televised address to the nation, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that all shops would be shuttered except supermarkets, food stores and chemists, and companies must close all non-essential departments.
On Wednesday the death toll in Europe's worst affected country jumped by 196 in 24 hours to 827. Confirmed cases across Italy rose to 12,462 from a previous 10,149.

WEF Launches 1st Global COVID Action Platform for Private-sector Businesses to Fight against Coro...

The World Economic Forum (WEF) initiated the creation the COVID Action Platform with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO), and Wellcome Trust. This first of its kind platform, operating globally, is open to all businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders, for integrated and collective business action to mitigate the risk and impact of COVID-19 (Coronavirus). The Forum has established a special team to support the platform's work.

Report Finds Widespread and Systemic Forced Uighur Labour in China

US lawmakers have pushed for a ban on imports from a vast area of northwestern China because of the widespread use of forced labour in a region where the communist government has detained more than a million people in a campaign against ethnic minorities.
The US already bans imports made with forced labour, but a bipartisan group of lawmakers said virtually anything coming from Xinjiang, including goods sold by major American and global consumer brands, should be considered tainted by the mass detention and repression of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities.
McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, is co-chairman of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which released a report that documented forced labour. It found it in the mass internment camps, on farms in Xinjiang that produce cotton for the global market as well as factories elsewhere in the country.

Trump Suspends Travel from Europe to US

US President Donald Trump announced sweeping travel restrictions on 26 European countries in a bid to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
The ban applies to travellers from countries which are members of the Schengen border-free travel area.
The UK, Ireland and other non-Schengen countries are unaffected. US citizens are also exempt.
The EU condemned the measures, which it said were taken "unilaterally and without consultation".
There are 1,135 confirmed cases of the virus across the US, with 38 deaths so far.

Mar 12, 2020

WEF Launches COVID Action Platform

With the coronavirus epidemic hurting economic activities globally, the World Economic Forum launched a new platform with the support of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to convene the global business community for a collective action on the COVID-19 response.
This is the first initiative of its kind that aims to convene the business community for collective action, protect people's livelihoods and facilitate business continuity, and mobilise support for the COVID-19 response.
The ''COVID Action Platform'' has been created with the support of the WHO and is open to all businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders including the governments, aiming to integrate their efforts for a joint action.
The new platform is intended to catalyse private-sector support for the global public health response to COVID-19, and to do so at the scale and speed required to protect lives and livelihoods, aiming to find ways to help end the global emergency as soon as possible.
The three priorities for this platform would be to galvanise the global business community for collective action; protect people''s livelihoods and facilitate business continuity; and mobilise cooperation and business support for the COVID-19 response.

Australia Unveils $11.4 billion Stimulus to Curb Coronavirus Impact

Australia's government said that it would pump A$17.6 billion ($11.4 billion) into the economy to prevent the coronavirus outbreak from pushing the country into its first recession in nearly 30 years.
The country's first stimulus package since the 2008 global financial crisis, which helped Australia avert a recession then, illustrates the lengths the government will take to pare the economic impact of the outbreak. Despite only affecting about 120 people in Australia so far, economists are expecting the widening epidemic to cause a recession in the second quarter.
The package will subsidise the wages of 120,000 apprentices, offer one-off cash payments for welfare recipients and deliver payments of up to A$25,000 ($16,160) for small businesses.

Malaysia Wants to Resolve Palm Oil Spat with India within a Month

According to the south-east Asian nation's new Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Malaysia aims to resolve its palm oil spat with India within a month.
Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali added that he wanted to send a delegation to India as soon as possible in an effort to improve ties between the two countries.
India, the world's biggest consumer of edible oil, this year set curbs on palm oil purchases from Malaysia in retaliation for comments by then Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, criticising New Delhi's policy on the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

US Most Promising Source of Disruptive Technologies: KPMG 2020

Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler's (KPMG) global Technology (Tech) industry innovation survey ranked India in 2nd position which is shared with China as the most promising country for developing globally impactful disruptive technologies. The United States (US) topped the survey.
According to the survey findings, India dropped a rank last year, but now it is tied up to China in the 2nd position.
The potential innovation is faced reversely by China & US policies encouraging more tech professionals to return or remain in India, this is suitable for future innovation in India.
This is further increased by urbanization & younger demographic trends moving in the right direction, this is further compounded by the increase in the venture capital of India over the last 2 years.
KPMG's also surveyed which cities in addition to global leader Silicon Valley/San Francisco, will be leading technology innovation hubs over the next 4 years. Bengaluru ranked 9th and Singapore topped the position. Bangalore last year was at the 18th position.

Mar 11, 2020

Pakistan Tops in Holding Biases against Women: UN Report

As per a United Nations report, Pakistan tops a list of countries of people holding prejudiced views against women.
According to the findings of the Gender Social Norms Index report, released recently by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the percentage of those holding at least one sexist bias was the most in Pakistan, at 99.81%. Qatar and Nigeria followed with 99.73%.
The index measured how social beliefs act as a hindrance to gender equality in areas like politics, work and education, and the study surveyed 75 countries, or around 80% of the world's population.

Ashraf Ghani Takes Oath for a Second Term

Ashraf Ghani was sworn in as the President of Afghanistan for the second term at a ceremony held at the Presidential Palace in Kabul.
The ceremony was attended by US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, US Charge d'Affaires Ross Wilson, and US, NATO forces commander Gen. Scott Miller, along with the ambassadors from the EU, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Germany and Norway.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of Afghanistan Abdullah Abdullah, who too claimed to have won the Presidential election, also held a swearing-ceremony for himself.
Ghani was declared to have won a second term in February, nearly five months after the polls were held in September amid a record number of Taliban attacks intended to destabalise the election.
The preliminary results of the September votes were announced in December 2019. Ghani was narrowly declared the winner while Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah got 39 per cent of a total of over 1.8 million votes. However, opposition parties immediately protested the result, threatening a full-blown political crisis on the cusp of a United States peace deal with the Taliban. The IEC conducted the assessments of votes and announced the results in February 2020, declaring Ghani as the winner.

Netanyahu Rivals to Cooperate on Forming New Government

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's chief rival said that he has agreed with a smaller party to work together to form a new government following national elections last week.
The announcement by Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White Party, dealt a new setback to Netanyahu as he struggles to hold on to power ahead of his upcoming trial on corruption charges.
In last week's election, Israel's third in under a year, Netanyahu's Likud Party emerged as the largest party. But with his smaller religious and nationalist allies, he secured only 58 seats in parliament, three short of the required 61-seat majority needed to form a new government.

UN Adopts Political Declaration on Women's Rights

The United Nations (UN), an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and security, adopted a stripped-down political declaration on women's rights that sought to protect the benefits under threat but does not recommend new ways to ensure progress toward equality.
A UN declaration on women is approved every 5 years.
The declaration was adopted during the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) held in New York, US (United States), that was compressed to just one day meet from a normal 2-week meet due to the global coronavirus outbreak.

Inclusive Internet Index 2020

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) released the 4th iteration of the Inclusive Internet Index 2020 for 100 countries where India is overall ranked in 46th place and Sweden in 1st place. The index aimed to measure the extent to which the Internet is not only accessible & affordable, but also relevant to all, allowing usage that enables positive social & economic outcomes at the individual & group level. It is commissioned by Facebook.
Among South Asian countries India ranked first followed by Srilanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The 1st country ranked is Sweden, followed by New Zealand (2nd) and the US (3rd). Australia & Denmark both ranked (4th), followed by South Korea (6th), Canada (7th), the United Kingdom (8th), France (9th), Spain (10th) & Pakistan (76th).

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