Daily Current Affairs – 21th September 2016
1) International Day of Peace was observed on 21 September 2016 across the world.
The day is dedicated to world peace, and specifically the absence of war and violence, such as might be occasioned by a temporary ceasefire in a combat zone for humanitarian aid access.
The 2016 theme for the day is “The Sustainable Development Goals: Building Blocks for Peace”.
To inaugurate the day, the United Nations Peace Bell was rung at UN Headquarters in New York City.
This day was established in 1981 by the United Nations general assembly. In 2001, the general assembly unanimously voted to designate the Day as a period of non-violence and cease-fire.
The new ambitious 2030 agenda calls on countries to begin efforts to achieve these goals over the next 15 years. It aims to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all.
2) Barak-8, the long range surface-to-air missile (LR-SAM) has jointly developed by India and Israel.
Barak-8 was successfully test fired off the Odisha coast.It has been designed and developed by DRDO, Israel Aerospace Industries and Israel’s Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure.
The missile was test fired from a mobile launcher at the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur in Balasore district in Odisha.
It is 4.5-meter long and weighs around 3 tonnes can carry a payload of 70 kilograms. It has a speed of Mach 2.It has the capacity to identify and neutralize various forms of aerial threats such as rockets, UAVs, planes, helicopters in a single flight.
This missile’s most technologically advanced aspect is its ability to intercept missiles aimed at sea-bound vessels.
3) Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was conferred membership with voting rights of the Asia-Pacific Aerospace Quality Group (APAQG).
HAL is now a part of Global Quality team dedicated to bring improvements in the Aerospace Quality. The membership enables HAL to have access to various Quality System Standards and other guidelines developed by IAQG.
To become a part of IAQG, HAL has to be a member of APAQG and then graduate to IAQG as a voting member.
India became the seventh nation to join the APAQG under TRHE International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG). The other nations of APAQG are China, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore and Japan.
The IAQG is an international non-profit cooperative global organisation that brings aviation, space and defence companies together to deliver more value at all levels of the supply chain. It comprises Americas (AAQG), Europe (EAQG) and Asia-Pacific (APAQG) sectors.
4) India has been ranked 112th in the 2016 World Economic Freedom Index (WEFI).
World Economic Freedom Index measures the degree of economic freedom in countries in five broad areas based on 2014 data. They are (i) Size of government: expenditure, taxes and enterprises (ii) legal structure and security of property rights; (iii) access to sound money; (iv) freedom to trade internationally and (v) regulation of credit, labour, and business.
The index was release as part of the 2016 annual report of the Economic Freedom.The report was published by the Centre for Civil Society, a public policy think tank along with Canada’s Fraser Institute.
The report measures the economic freedom by analyzing the policies and institutions of all 159 countries and territories and was based on data from the year 2014.
The economic freedom index of a country is directly proportional to the freedom and opportunities available to its citizens. Countries with lower levels of freedom index tend to suppress its citizens’ freedom and rights.
5) The Union Ministry of Urban Development has shortlisted 27 cities for Smart Cities Mission in 3rd batch.
This competition list was topped by Amritsar in Punjab. With five cities, Maharashtra has the highest number of cities in the list.
The list also includes four cities each from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, three cities from Uttar Pradesh and two each from Rajasthan and Punjab. Nagaland and Sikkim with one city each for the first time have made it to the list.
These cities were shortlisted based on scores obtained in the latest round of the Smart City Challenge competition in which total 63 cities had participated.
Earlier, in the first batch 20 cities had made into the list. In the second batch 13 cities were selected.
6) The New York declaration for Refugees and Migrants have adopted by the world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
The adoption of the New York Declaration means that more children can attend school; more workers can securely seek jobs abroad and more people will have real choices about whether to move once the conflicts are resolved.
The commitment of the New York declaration are:
• Protect the human rights of all refugees and migrants, regardless of status. This includes the rights of women and girls and promoting their full, equal and meaningful participation in finding solutions.
• Ensure that all refugee and migrant children are receiving education within a few months of arrival.
• Prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence.
• Support those countries rescuing, receiving and hosting large numbers of refugees and migrants.
• Work towards ending the practice of detaining children for the purposes of determining their migration status.
• Find new homes for all refugees identified by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as needing resettlement.
• Expand the opportunities for refugees to relocate to other countries through labour mobility or education schemes.
• Strengthen the global governance of migration by bringing the International Organization for Migration (IOM) into the UN system.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also launched a new campaign called Together – Respect, Safety and Dignity for All to respond to rising xenophobia and turn fear into hope.
United Nations and International Organization for Migration (IOM) signed the new agreement by which IOM officially becomes a related organization of the United Nations system.
7) V.K. Sharma has been appointed as the new chairman of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).
He succeeded SK Roy, who recently resigned from the post. Prior to this appointment, Sharma was the managing director of the LIC.
Roy, appointed by previous UPA government, had resigned nearly two years ahead of completion of his five-year term. He was serving as the chairman since June 2013.
Sharma along with LIC MD Usha Sangwan have been strong contenders for the post.
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