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Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Kashi Tamil Sangamam in Varanasi , highlighting the bond between Kashi and Tamil Nadu, both being ancient centres of culture and civilisation.
He expressed hope in this event acting as a catalyst to generate the feeling of ‘Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat’ (One India, Best India), and took the opportunity to honour the ‘aadhinams’ (religious leaders) of Tamil Nadu’s various religious places and monasteries.
He also released the translated versions of the Thirukkural, and interacted with students from Tamil Nadu who had come to visit Kashi.
In his inaugural address, Mr. Modi greeted the audience with ‘Vanakkam Kashi, Vanakkam Tamil Nadu, HarHarMahadev’. “Both regions are the centres of the oldest languages, Sanskrit and Tamil.
In Kashi, we have Baba Vishwanath, while in Tamil Nadu, we have the blessings of Lord Rameshwaram. Both Kashi and Tamil Nadu are ‘Shivmay’ and ‘Shaktimay’.
Paying rich tributes to poet and freedom fighter SubramaniaBharathi, the Prime Minister said, “There is a great personality from Tamil Nadu, SubramaniaBharathi, a great poet and freedom fighter, who lived for a long time in Kashi and studied here.
India proposes permanent secretariat in fight against terror; delegates surprised (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
India has proposed a permanent secretariat for “No Money for Terror,” a ministerial body, to sustain the continued global focus on countering the financing of terrorism, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on November 19, 2022.
The Minister in his capacity as the chair of NMFT, also reiterated India’s position that all countries will have to agree on one common definition of ‘terrorism’ and ‘terror financing’, adding that it “should not become a political issue.”
He also called for the prevention of the use of Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) to spread terror Ideology.
During the deliberations, India has sensed the need for permanency of this unique initiative of NMFT, in order to sustain the continued global focus on countering the financing of terrorism and now the time is ripe for a permanent Secretariat to be established.
India will circulate a discussion paper to all participating jurisdictions for their valuable comments,” Mr. Shah said.
The announcement took delegates by surprise. One of them said the proposal was not part of the discussions at the two-day conference and he would like to see more paperwork on it.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is another multilateral body that monitors terror financing and money laundering. An official said that NMFT is complimentary to FATF as the latter is membership based while NMFT is ministerial.
COP-27 likely to agree on fund to redress climate damage (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Delegates at the U. N. climate conference in Sharm El-Sheikh continue to negotiate a final agreement, with the latest draft suggesting the creation of a fund to compensate a section of developing countries for the damage already done by disasters linked to climate change.
Country representatives at the 27 th Conference of Parties (COP27) of the U. N. Framework Convention on Climate Change are expected to convene again at a closing plenary session in the Egyptian resort town that is to commence late Saturday night by Indian time.
Loss and Damage (L&D) compensation has been part of COP deliberations for over a decade, with calls by island nations and developing countries to establish a dedicated fund and a clear financing scheme to compensate countries that are bearing the brunt of climate-linked calamities.
This was the first COP to formally include L&D as an agenda item. With little agreement among countries on other issues such as a call to eliminate all forms of fossil fuel or deliver on climate finance to developing countries, clarity on an L&D fund was widely perceived as a successful, tangible outcome from COP27.
States
Andaman seeks GI tag for Nicobari hodi (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Geographical Indications Registry at Guindy, Chennai, has received an application from the Tribal Development Council, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, seeking the Geographical Indication (GI) tag for the Nicobari hodi boat. This is the first application from the Union Territory seeking a tag for one its products.
The hodi is the Nicobari tribe’s traditional craft. It is an outrigger canoe, very commonly operated in the Nicobar group of islands.
The technical skills for building a hodi are based on indigenous knowledge inherited by the Nicobarese from their forefathers.
The hodi is built using either locally available trees or from nearby islands, and its design varies slightly from island to island.
The GI tag application states: “The master carpenter journeys to the islands where the search is to be made for the tree to make Hodi craft.
Once the choice is made. the terms and conditions under which the owner will allow the tree to be felled have to be determined.
The trunk selected has to be free of branches along the required length, while it has to be sufficiently wide in girth to provide for the desired width. A 60 to 80 year old tree with a straight trunk or one having a slight incline to one side is preferred.”
News
Two iconic battles and a massive infrastructure upgrade (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Infrastructure)
The 60th anniversary of two iconic battles in the India-China war was observed this week: the Battle of Walong, in the eastern sector, on November 16 and the Battle of Rezang La in eastern Ladakh on November 18.
Today, both India and China, against the backdrop of a 30-month stand-off, are engaged in massive infrastructure upgrade and consolidation of positions along the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Construction of a series of roads, tunnels, caverns and underground ammunition stores is in progress, a defence source said.
Nine new tunnels are under construction, including the strategic 2.5-km-long Sela tunnel in Tawang at an altitude of 13,000 feet, which will be the highest bi-lane tunnel in the world once completed. Another 11 tunnels are being planned.
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is currently executing 18 projects spread across the country. This effort to build habitats and adding firepower is an effort to reduce the asymmetry with the infrastructure upgrade by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
In Arunachal, a 2,000-km-long frontier highway also known as the Mago-Thingbu-Vijaynagar border highway is planned to be constructed at cost of ₹40,000 crore which follows the McMahon Line. In order to provide interconnectivity between three horizontal national highways — Frontier Highway, Trans-Arunachal Highway and East-West Industrial Corridor Highway — six vertical and diagonal national highway corridors of a total length of 2,178 km are planned to be built, which will also provide faster access to border areas, a source added.
World
No one’s backyard’: Xi sends message to U.S. on Asia trip (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Chinese President Xi Jinping ended his week-long trip through Asia, his first overseas visit in his third-term, warning against “decoupling” and countries treating Asia as their “backyard” in thinly-veiled messages aimed at the United States.
Mr. Xi, who began his trip with a meeting with U.S President Joe Biden on Monday, November 14, 2022, in Bali ahead of the G-20 Summit, ended his visit in Bangkok with a flurry of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the APEC summit, all aimed at shoring up China’s relations in the region and pushing back against the U.S.
Meeting with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Mr. Xi called on both countries to “work together to reject unilateralism and acts of bullying, defend fairness and justice, and safeguard peace and stability in the region.”
A similar message followed his meeting with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. “China will work with Singapore,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry quoted Mr. Xi as saying, “to uphold solidarity and cooperation in the region, oppose group politics, resist bloc confrontation, keep to the right direction of economic and regional integration, and firmly reject the attempts to push for ‘decoupling and severing supply chains’, or to build ‘a small yard with high fences’.”
That was also the message stressed by Mr. Xi in two speeches to the APEC meet in Bangkok. “The Asia-Pacific is no one’s backyard and should not become an arena for big power contest.
No attempt to wage a new cold war will ever be allowed by the people or by the times,” he told a CEO summit. The Chinese leader added at the APEC meet that “no one should interfere in other countries’ internal affairs,” without naming any country.
Science
Climate change drives dengue spread in France (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Each year, nearly 100 million dengue cases and about 10,000 deaths are reported from over 125 countries, and about half the global population are in countries that provide suitable environmental conditions for dengue spread.
With climate change, dengue-endemic countries will see increased dengue cases through “faster viral amplification, and increased vector survival, reproduction and biting rates”.
This will lead to longer periods of spread and hence, more cases of dengue, as per a 2019 paper inNature Microbiology.
Increased temperature due to climate change will also allow the vector and virus to spread to countries that are currently free of dengue.
By October 21, France had already recorded 65 dengue cases of local origin from nine transmission events, the highest since 2006 when surveillance for dengue began.
And for the first time in Europe, one event causing 34 cases on a single day was recorded in France on October 21, 2022.
In comparison, in 2020, France witnessed 14 cases from six transmission events followed by nine cases from two events in 2019 and eight cases from three transmission events in 2018.
Besides the locally transmitted cases, there have been 217 imported cases during the period between May 1 and October 21 this year.
The U.S. too reported one locally transmitted case of dengue this year in Arizona. Meanwhile, Vietnam and the Philippines reported over 3,00,000 cases (as on November 15) and over 1,70,000 cases (as on October 1), respectively.
Unlike in the case of the tropical countries whereAedesaegyptiis the vector,Aedesalbopictusis the vector responsible for virus spread in France.
UnlikeAedesalbopictus, the reason whyAedesaegyptimosquito is not the vector that spreads the virus in Europe is due to its eggs’ inability to survive the cold winter of Europe.
U.S. scientists find new oral drug for lowering cholesterol (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Scientists have identified an orally administered drug which they found lowers cholesterol in animal models by 70%.
The research, published in the journal Cell Reports, represents a previously unrecognised strategy for managing cholesterol and may also impact cancer treatments.
After statins, the next leading class of medications for managing cholesterol are PCSK9 inhibitors, the researchers said.
These highly effective agents help the body pull excess cholesterol from the blood, but unlike statins, which are available as oral agents, PCSK9 inhibitors can only be administered as shots, creating barriers to their use.
In the latest study, researchers at the University Hospitals (UH) and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, U.S., developed an orally administered small-molecule drug that reduces PCSK9 levels.
Cholesterol lowering is one of the most important therapies we have to prolong life and protect people from heart disease, which is still the number one cause of morbidity and mortality in the Western world.
Statins only lower cholesterol so far. This is a drug class that we think would represent a new way to lower cholesterol, new way to hit PCSK9.
The researchers noted that central to cholesterol regulation are LDL receptors, which sit at the surface of liver cells and remove cholesterol from the blood, thereby lowering serum levels.
FAQ
What is India’s future strategy on emissions? (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The Climate Change Conference (COP-27) at Sharm el-Sheikh was to end on Friday but the deadline was extended to the weekend because there were divisions among member countries on the final text of the agreement.
While India unveiled its much-awaited Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy during COP-27, several outstanding issues remain.
The Paris Agreement of 2015 required countries to submit a plan demonstrating how they would switch their economies from being reliant on fossil fuel to clean energy sources.
This was to include measures to be taken to keep temperatures from rising beyond 2°C, and preferably keep it at 1.5°C by the end of the century and becoming carbon neutral or achieving net zero.
India has committed to being net zero by 2070. The deadline to make a commitment was 2020 but the pandemic meant deadlines were extended.
India is now in a group of about 60 countries — the Paris Agreement has over 190 signatories — to have submitted a strategy document to the UN.
The 100-page document that lays out India’s strategy underlines the use of nuclear power and hydrogen as critical to transition India into a carbon-neutral economy.
Business
Centre scraps export tax on iron ore, steel (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India scrapped export taxes on low-grade iron ore and on some intermediate steel products beginning, after months of complaints from miners and steel makers about loss of foreign sales opportunities.
A notification, issued late on Friday, reverses the imposition in May of a 50% tax on exports of iron-ore lumps and fines with less than 58% iron content.
The government also reversed a May increase in export tax on iron ore concentrates other than roasted iron pyrites. That tax returns to 30% from 50%.
The additional tax imposed in May was intended to boost domestic supply of iron ore, a raw ingredient for making steel, and thereby hold down inflation.
India exported less than half as much steel in the seven months to October as it did a year earlier, according to government data seen by Reuters.
Major steel makers have urged the government to unwind the additional export taxation, saying it added to their problem of weakening global demand.
Despite the latest tax reductions, a top miners’ organisation remained doubtful about the prospect of exports reviving.
The “Chinese market is not very buoyant now. Let us see how much we are able to export,” R.K. Sharma, secretary-general of the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries, told Reuters. “Once you disturb the trade, to recover is very difficult.