General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - February 2017

Feb 2017

May 09, 2022

Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa Reimposes State of Emergency

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared a state of emergency. The state of emergency gives the police and security forces the power to arbitrarily arrest and detain people. The decision was taken to ensure public security and maintain essential services. The move comes amid weeks of public protests demanding the resignation of the President and the government. Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis in its history.
Rajapaksa had declared emergency on April 1 also after a mass protest near his residence. He had revoked it on April 5.

Beijing Loyalist John Lee Elected as Hong Kong's Next Leader

John Lee, a hard-line security chief, who oversaw a crackdown on Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, was elected as the city's next leader in a vote cast by a largely pro-Beijing committee. Lee was the only candidate and won with over 99% of the vote in which nearly all 1,500 committee members were carefully vetted by the central government in Beijing.
He will replace current leader Carrie Lam on July 1. Her five-term was marked by huge pro-democracy protests calling for her resignation, a security crackdown that has quashed virtually all dissent, the recent COVID-19 wave that had overwhelmed the health system — events that have undermined Hong Kong's reputation as an international business hub with Western-style freedoms.
Thousands of residents had left the city of 7.4 million people amid the 2019 protests and subsequent harsh pandemic restrictions, including many professionals and expatriates.

May 08, 2022

India Invites Montreal-based ICAO to Join International Solar Alliance

As he interacted with executives and representatives of various nations at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), India's Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia extended an invitation to the Montreal-based United Nations agency to join the International Solar Alliance (ISA).
This came as Scindia met with the president of the Executive Council of ICAO Salvatore Sciacchitano. He also met with ICAO's secretary-general Juan Carlos Salazar.
Several international and multilateral organisations are partners of the ISA, which was launched by India and France in 2015. Among them are UN agencies like United Nations Development Programme, UN Environment, and others like the World Bank, European Union, and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

May 07, 2022

Robert Piper Becomes Guterres' Special Adviser on Internal Displacement

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Robert Piper of Australia as his special adviser on solutions to internal displacement.
The appointment of a special adviser on solutions to internal displacement is a key component of the secretary-general's Action Agenda on Internal Displacement.
The action agenda, developed in response to the September 2021 report of the High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement, will help mobilize collective action and advance solutions for the millions of people who today find themselves displaced within their own countries, with a focus on root causes anchored in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Sitharaman, 3 CMs among 300 Leaders Expected to Attend WEF Davos Summit

Nearly 300 government leaders including 50 heads of state or government are expected to attend the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting later this month in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos and the Indian participants would include Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as well as three Chief Ministers and over 100 CEOs.
Geneva-based WEF, which describes itself as an international organisation for public-private cooperation, has been hosting its annual meeting in Davos every January for nearly 50 years, but it could not take place in a physical format in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while the 2022 edition had to be postponed from January to May.

May 06, 2022

US Intents to Appoint Ex-US Ambassador to India Richard Verma to Advisory Board

US President Joe Biden intents to appoint Indian-American lawyer diplomat Richard Verma, also a former US ambassador to India, as a member of his Intelligence Advisory Board.
The President's Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB) is an independent element within his Executive Office.
Verma is currently the general counsel and head of Global Public Policy for Mastercard. In this role, he oversees the company's law and policy functions in the United States and around the world.
Verma, a member of Biden's Democratic Party, was the US Ambassador to India from 2014 to 2017.

Taliban Stops Issuing Driving Licence to Women in Kabul & other Provinces in Afghanistan

The Taliban regime in Afghanistan stopped issuing driving licenses to women in Kabul and other provinces. The ban comes at a time when the country suffers from a devastating humanitarian crisis, with an acute shortage of food and other essential supplies.
Notably, the situation of human rights in Afghanistan has worsened since the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban's return to power in August 2021. Serious human rights violations continue unabated, especially against women since taliban took over the country.
Afghanistan is grappling with a serious humanitarian crisis as according to international assessments. Afghanistan has now the highest number of people in emergency food insecurity in the world, with more than 23 million in need of assistance. Approximately 95 per cent of the population having insufficient food consumption.

May 05, 2022

Myanmar Supreme Court Rejects Suu Kyi Appeal

The Myanmar Supreme court summarily rejected the appeal filed by the former State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi against her conviction by a lower court in a corruption case.
The lower court in April 2022 had sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to five years of imprisonment on the charge of accepting 11.4 kg of gold and cash payments worth USD 6 lakh from her protege Phyo Min Thein who was the Chief M
minister of the city of Yangon. This was the first of the 18 offences brought against her which could carry a combined maximum of 190 years of jail sentence if found guilty.
Earlier, In December 2021 and January 2022 she was handed over six years of jail term for breaking a telecommunication law relating to import of equipment, breaching COVID 19 law and incitement against the military.

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