General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - March 2018

Mar 2018

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).

Mar 09, 2020

India Joins Indian Ocean Commission as Observer

India was admitted to the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC: Commission de l'Océan Indien, COI) on Friday as an observer after it applied last month to be considered for observer status.
The Indian Ocean Commission is a five nation grouping in the Western Indian Ocean, which includes Madagascar, Comoros, Seychelles, Mauritius and French Reunion.
The decision to join the IOC marks a part of the government's push for greater salience in the whole Indian Ocean Region (IOR), including what is called the Western or African Indian Ocean.

BRAC Retains its Position as the Top NGO of the World for the 5th Consecutive Year

Bangladesh-based international development organization BRAC has retained its position as the top NGO of the world for the 5th consecutive year.
The rankings for 2020 were announced by the Geneva-based organization NGO Adviser which publishes the rankings every year based on publicly available data for the top 500 global NGOs.
In drawing the rankings the Public Adviser focuses on the impact, innovation, governance and sustainability of the NGO.
BRAC was founded by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 immediately after Bangladesh came into existence as an independent nation in 1971 to help the returning war refugees with small-scale relief and rehabilitation project.
Fazle Hasan Abed died in 2019. Presently, it works in Bangladesh and 11 countries in Asia and Africa.
BRAC recently announced a new 2030 strategy with the goal to make lives of 250 million people self-sustainabe.

Mar 08, 2020

Senate Passes $8.3 billion Emergency Coronavirus Package

The Senate passed a multibillion-dollar spending package to combat the spread of the deadly coronavirus. The bill will now head to the White House, where President Donald Trump is expected to sign it.
Only one senator, Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against the supplemental aid bill.
The $8.3 billion emergency funding plan sailed through the House a day earlier in a 415-2 vote, just hours after it was unveiled by Senate and House appropriations leaders.
The bill, which includes more than $3 billion in vaccine research and $2.2 billion in prevention and preparedness efforts, far exceeds the $2.5 billion proposal that the White House put forward last week.

Elizabeth Warren Ends White House Bid

Elizabeth Warren ended her presidential campaign after concluding she had no realistic path to the Democratic nomination, leaving behind a two-man battle between former Vice-President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders.
Warren, a liberal senator who won plaudits for her robust policy plans and focused her campaign on fighting the corrupting influence of money on politics, finished well behind the two front-runners on Tuesday in contests in 14 states, including her home, Massachusetts.
Her exit meant that what was once hailed as the most diverse field of candidates in U.S. history narrowed to a race between two white, septuagenarian men for the nomination to face Republican President Donald Trump in November.

EU Hails Syria Truce, Migrant Rush Continues

EU countries gave a cautious welcome to a Russian-Turkish ceasefire in Syria as a sign of goodwill but urged the warring parties to allow in more humanitarian aid.
Foreign Ministers from the 27 EU states are meeting for talks in Zagreb on the crisis in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, where Ankara is battling Moscow-backed government forces.
Meanwhile, migrants stuck on the Turkish side of the border with Greece tried to dodge tear gas canisters as a tense standoff between Greek and Turkish security forces.
About a quarter of the migrants at the border are Syrians.

Mar 07, 2020

Trump Replaces White House Chief of Staff

US President Donald Trump replaced his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, whose departure had long been rumoured.
North Carolina lawmaker Mark Meadows would take over the job.
Mr. Trump said that Mr. Mulvaney would become US special envoy to Northern Ireland.
Mr. Mulvaney was perceived to have implicated the President in last year's impeachment inquiry in an off-the-cuff remark at the White House podium.

Brazil Recalls All Diplomats, Foreign Service Officials from Venezuela

Brazil recalled its entire corps of diplomats and Foreign Service officials from Venezuela while ordering the government of Nicolas Maduro to pull out its representatives in Brazil, further hardening ties between the two.
Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro had already branded the government of radical leftist Maduro a dictatorship and he, in return, has called Bolsonaro a fascist.

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