General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - October 2018

Oct 2018

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.

Feb 16, 2023

Scottish Premier Sturgeon Resigns

Nicola Sturgeon resigned from her position as Scotland's First Minister, acknowledging that her previous commanding influence over both her party and the country is no longer an advantage in the push for Scottish independence.
After being in office since 2014, Nicola Sturgeon admitted that she had become excessively polarising and exhausted to bridge the political gap, and therefore wished to distance herself from the harsh realities of modern politics in order to concentrate on her personal life.
Her sudden resignation will have repercussions not only for her Scottish National Party (SNP), but also for the independence campaign, and it may impact the results of the upcoming national election if it facilitates the opposition Labour Party in reclaiming some of its former seats in Scotland.

World Bank Chief David Malpass to Step Down Early

World Bank chief David Malpass announced he would step down nearly a year early, ending a tenure at the head of the development lender that was clouded by questions over his climate stance.
The veteran of Republican administrations in the United States was appointed to the role in 2019 when Donald Trump was President and previously served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for international affairs.
His tenure at the World Bank saw the organization grapple with global crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and an international economic slowdown.

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