Current Affairs in English – November 30 2022

November 30, 2022

National Events:

INTUC:

• The Karnataka branch of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) has appointed D Lakshmi Venkatesh as its president.
• Meanwhile, incumbent president SS Prakasam passed away. Therefore, the ad – hoc committee has been reconstituted with Venkatesh as the new president.

Union Civil Aviation Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia:

• Union Civil Aviation Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia, inaugurated multiple flights on 29 November 2022 to expand the connectivity to the northeastern region. The flights are operated by Indigo and Alliance Air.
• The Itanagar-Mumbai flight via Kolkata operated by IndiGo started on November 28. Twice – weekly Dibrugarh – Itanagar – Ziro flights operated by Alliance Air started on November 29.

MMR:

• India has achieved a significant milestone by achieving the National health policy target for Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR).
• MMR has declined from 130 per lakh live births in 2014-16 to 97 per lakh live births in 2018-20, according to a bulletin released by the office of the Registrar General of India.
• Assam has the highest MMR of 195 while Kerala has the lowest of 19 per lakh live births.

CIFE:

• Hyderabad – based Indian Immunologicals Ltd has joined hands with the Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE) for the commercial development of India’s first fish vaccine.
• The vaccine will be developed to protect freshwater fish against common bacterial diseases. CIFE, will provide technology for 2 inactivated bacterial vaccines, one for Columnaris Disease and other for Edwardsiellosis.

GeM:

• The Government e-Marketplace, GeM platform has crossed one lakh crore rupees Gross Merchandise value till 29 November 2022 for the financial year 2022-2023. GeM is an online platform for public procurement in India.
• It was launched in August 2016 with the objective of creating an open and transparent procurement platform for government buyers.

CCUS:

• Niti Aayog launched the carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) policy framework and its Deployment Mechanism in India on 29 November.
• The report was prepared on the valuable inputs provided by the various stakeholders from the Energy and Power Sector (E & P). India is the third largest emitter of CO2 in the world after China and the US.

Vistara airlines & Air India:

• Vistara airlines will be merged with Tata-owned Air India by March 2024. Singapore Airlines and Tata Sons have agreed to merge Air India and Vistara by March 2024, subject to regulatory approvals.
• Singapore Airlines will invest 250 million Dollars or Rupees 2,000 crore into Air India as soon as this integration is completed. Singapore Airlines owns a minority share in Vistara.

First pilot for the retail digital Rupee:

• RBI has announced the launch of the first pilot for the retail digital Rupee on 1st December 2022. Eight banks have been identified for phase-wise participation in this pilot.
• The first phase will begin with four banks including State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank in four cities across the country.

INCOVACC:

• World’s first Intranasal Vaccine, Bharat Biotech’s INCOVACC has received approval for Covid booster doses from Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).
• INCOVACC is a recombinant replication – deficient adenovirus vectored vaccine with a pre-fusion stabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. INCOVACC was developed in partnership with Washington University.

Preeti Sudan:

• Former Health Secretary Preeti Sudan took the Oath of Office and Secrecy as Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Member in New Delhi, in November 2022.
• Sudan is a 1983 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre retired Indian Administrative Service officer.
• She also served as the Department of Food and Public Distribution Secretary as well as in Women and Child Development and in the Defence Ministry.

Hornbill Festival 2022:

• Nagaland is all set to host the 23rd Hornbill Festival 2022 at Naga Heritage Village Kisama from December 1 to 10, 2022. The festival represents all ethnic groups of Nagaland.
• The aim of the festival is to revive and protect the rich culture of Nagaland and display its extravaganza and traditions. Festival highlights include the traditional Naga Morungs exhibition.

First – ever Mental Health and Social Care Policy:

• In Meghalaya, the State Cabinet has passed its first – ever Mental Health and Social Care Policy following a Cabinet meeting on 29 November 2022.
• With this, Meghalaya has become the first state in the Northeast and the third state in India to have such a policy.
• The vision is to promote overall mental health and well – being and facilitate appropriate access and care pathways.

International Events:

Mpox:

• The World Health Organization announced that Monkeypox is to be renamed mpox, in a bid to avoid stigmatisation stemming from the existing.
• Monkeypox received its name because the virus was originally identified in monkeys kept for research in Denmark in 1958. The disease was first discovered in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Merriam-Webster:

• The US dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster announced that their 2022 word of the year is “gaslighting”.
• Interest in the term was up by 1,740 % over the previous years, according to searches of the online dictionary.

G20:

• India will assume the Presidency of the G20 for one year from 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023. During the course of its Presidency, India will be holding about 200 meetings in 32 different sectors in multiple locations across the country.
• The G20 Summit to be held next year would be one of the highest-profile international gatherings to be hosted by India.

Bust of Mahatma Gandhi:

• A bust of Mahatma Gandhi will be inaugurated at the United Nations during India’s Presidency of the UN Security Council on 14 December 2022.
• It will be inaugurated during External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to the UN for India’s Presidency of the Council. It will be placed in the North Lawns of the UN headquarters .It will be the first Gandhi sculpture that will be installed in the UN.

International Jaguar Day: 29 November:

• International Jaguar Day is observed annually on Nov 29. In March 2018 representatives from 14 range countries gathered in New York at UN ‘ Headquarters for the Jaguar 2030 Forum.
• It resulted in the creation of the Jaguar 2030 Statement which outlined a wide range of internationally collaborative jaguar conservation initiatives, including the proposal to create an International Jaguar Day.

India & Maldives:

• India has provided financial assistance of 100 million US dollars to the Maldives. The assistance is in the form of budgetary support to tide over the difficult economic situation in the archipelago nation.
• The assistance is being extended without any conditions and Maldives is free to use it in its economic recovery as it deems fit.

International Lusophone Festival:

• International Lusophone Festival is being held from 3rd to 6th December 2022 in Goa. Ministry of External Affairs is organising the festival in partnership with the Council of Cultural Relations and the Goa government.
• The festival seeks to further India’s connection with the Lusophone world. Lusophones are people that speak Portuguese as a native or as a common second language.

Sports Events:

Avani Lekhara:

• At the Turf 2022 and India Sports Awards of FICCI, Avani Lekhara, who won two medals at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, was recognized as the Para Sports Person of the Year.
• Apart from Lekhara, former Ranji cricketer Sarkar Talwar was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement of the Year award. Shrey Kadyan was recognized as the Special Sportsperson of the Year.

National Sports Awards 2022 and National Adventure Awards 2021:

• President Droupadi Murmu conferred the National Sports Awards 2022 and National Adventure Awards 2021 to the awardees at a function at Rashtrapati Bhawan on 30 November 2022.
• Table Tennis player Sharath Kamal Achanta has been chosen for Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award for 2022. This year Arjuna Awards for outstanding performance in Sports and Games will be given to 25 sportspersons.