General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - March 2017

Mar 2017

Feb 22, 2023

Bangladesh Demands Bangla be Adopted as UN's Official Language

A senior Bangladesh minister exhorted the United Nations to formally adopt Bangla as one of its official languages, on the day when the country celebrated the Language Martyrs Day to commemorate the pioneers of the Bengali language movement.
The UN has six official languages -- English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and Arabic.
During the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly held last year, it adopted Bangla, Hindi and Urdu as the non-official languages following an India-sponsored resolution.
We are again demanding that Bangla be given the status of an official language of the UN, the ruling Awami League general secretary and senior government minister Obaidul Quader said.

Mukaab Indoor Super-City is Saudi Arabia's Next Mega-Project in Riyadh

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince unveiled The Mukaab, which is a 400-meter-high, wide, and long indoor super city in the centre of Riyadh. The Mukaab, the super city, will be large enough to hold 20 empire state buildings and it is aimed that the PIF-backed giga-project will become a new global icon of technology, sustainability, mobility, and Saudi Innovation.
The Mukaab will be in the center of the Wider New Murabba Development created by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Prime Minister and Chairman of the New Murabba Development Company (NMDC) to bring the project to fruition. The Mukaab, the super city, is based on the Najdi architecture with more futuristic approach. The building will enclose a tower on top of a spiral base. The structure will feature two million square meters of floor space that will be a hospitality destination with retail, cultural, and tourist attractions, featuring residential and hotel units, commercial space, and recreational facilities.
The Mukaab, a new Murabba project will feature 1,04,000 residential units, 9000 hotel rooms, 9,80,000 square meters of retail space, and 1.4 million square meters of office space. It will also include a green area and walking paths to promote a healthy lifestyle.

As G20 Chair and Ahead of SDG Summit, India to Host Series of Roundtables at UN

As chair of G20 and ahead of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Summit later this year in New York, India's Permanent Mission to the United Nation will host roundtables at the UN headquarters.
A series of roundtables have been lined up for the next few months. The 2023 SDG Summit will be convened in September 2023, during the United Nations General Assembly high-level week.
A roundtable titled 'Gandhian Trusteeship: A panel discussion on Sustainable Lifestyles and Enduring Pace' will be held.
Next on March 9, a roundtable on 'A world we women and girls want: Technology enabled social and economic advancement' is being scheduled.
On March 16, a roundtable on 'Grassroots leadership and transformation: Charting the path of empowerment through technology and skill development' will take place.
On April 14, a special event commemorating the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar is being planned.
Focus will be on India's growth story and achievements and how these might be scaled for the potential benefit of the global South.

Putin Walks Out of Nuclear Pact

Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended Russia's participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States.
Putin, while announcing Russia's exit from the last remaining arms reduction pact between the Washington and Moscow, accused the West of being directly involved in attempts to strike its strategic air bases.
The New START treaty is a nuclear arms reduction treaty that came into force in 2011. Signed between the two former Cold war rivals, United States of America and the Russian Federation, on "Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms", the treaty puts legally binding strategic offensive limits on both Russia and US.

Feb 21, 2023

Bangladesh Youth Delegation Corner Inaugurated

High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Pranay Verma and Bangladesh Deputy Minister for Education, Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel jointly inaugurated the Bangladesh Youth Delegation (BYD) Corner at the Indian Cultural Centre, Gulshan in Dhaka. The event was part of a programme to reconnect with the alumni of the Bangladesh Youth Delegations.
In addition, a BYD alumni portal was also launched during the programme to further institutionalise the exchanges between the High Commission and the young alumni.
Bangladesh Youth Delegation is an International Youth Exchange programme between the governments of India and Bangladesh. It aims to promote cultural exchange, leadership development, and people-to-people contacts between the two countries. Since its inception, nearly 800 Bangladeshi youth selected under the BYD programme, have visited India to participate in various activities that promote cultural exchange and mutual understanding between the two countries.

Japan Discovers 7,200 New Unknown Islands

A fresh survey of Japan's territorial waters led to the discovery of 7,000 new unknown islands in the country. After the Japanese government's first official survey of its territorial waters since 1987, the official number of Japan's islands is expected to double from 6,852 to 14,125, with the addition of 7,272 new islands.
The nation currently comprises 6,852 islands, but that figure dates back to a 1987 study conducted by the Japan Coast Guard. However, a lawmaker argued in 2021 that the data was old and the true figure could be vastly different.
The new survey which was conducted by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan will not increase the nation's territory. However, it would give officials a more accurate picture of Japan's territory.

Feb 20, 2023

UN Social Development Commission Elects Ruchira Kamboj its Chair for 62d Session

The UN Commission for Social Development elected India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ruchira Kamboj as its chair for the 62nd session.
Kamboj was elected chair by acclamation at the first meeting of the 62nd session of the UN Commission for Social Development at the UN headquarters in New York.
It also elected Jon Ivanovski from North Macedonia, Carla María Carlson from Dominican Republic and Thomas Lammar from Luxembourg as the Vice-Chairs of the 62nd session.

Indian-origin Meghana Pandit Named CEO of Oxford University Hospitals

Professor Meghana Pandit, a leading Indian-origin medic was appointed the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, one of the UK's largest teaching hospitals.
Pandit became the trust's first female chief and she is also the first person of Indian heritage to be appointed CEO of any National Health Service (NHS) trust in the Shelford Group, which represents some of the biggest teaching hospitals in the country.

Feb 18, 2023

Bengaluru is World's 2nd Slowest Driving Place

Bengaluru is the second-slowest city to drive in, according to new research.
One can go 10 kilometres in the southern city in 29 minutes and 10 seconds, as per TomTom, a Dutch multinational developer of location technology.
The absolutely slowest city to drive in, in the word, is London, where people take 36 minutes and 20 seconds to go 10 kilometres – the longest time for a journey of that distance out of 389 cities in 56 countries surveyed in 2022.
In the third and fourth positions were Dublin, Ireland, at 28 minutes and 30 seconds, and Sapporo, Japan, at 27 minutes and 40 seconds.
A specialist in geolocation technologies, TomTom released the 12th edition of its annual traffic index.

India Ranks 47th in OECD's Services Trade Restrictiveness Index

Reflecting presence of huge market barriers in the country, India stood at 47th position in Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI) conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for the year 2022.
The STRI indices take into consideration the government policies in several sectors that define the ease of trading in those sectors and industries. Based on these factors, STRI indices assign value to countries between zero and one. As per the index, zero shows least restriction and one shows no restriction. The database also records details based on a Most Favoured Nation basis.

Feb 17, 2023

Moldova's President Appoints Dorin Recean as New Prime Minister

Moldova's President Maia Sandu nominated her security advisor and secretary of the national Security Council, Dorin Recean, to head the government as the new Prime Minister.
Sandu made the appointment after Natalia Gavrilita announced her resignation after one and a half years in office. The change of Prime Minister came shortly after Ukrainian officials warned of a plot to destabilise Moldova. The replacement also addresses public disappointment about the slow progress of reforms in key areas such as justice and the deterioration in the standard of living amid high inflation.
Gavrilita announced her resignation following a meeting held by Sandu with members of the ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), which holds a robust majority in parliament. The transition to the new government will most likely be smooth. Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu said that most of the ministers will keep their seats.

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