24 JUNE 2021 CURRENT AFFAIRS 

1.GREEN HYDROGEN

India had organised the two-day summit on green hydrogen involving BRICS nations, on their initiatives around the green fuel. The summit started on 22 June and was organised by state-run NTPC Ltd.

About:

• India pitched for common international standards for green hydrogen at the BRICS Green Hydrogen Summit, to ensure safe transportation and storage of the new age emission-free fuel.
• Green hydrogen gas is produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using an electrolyzer that may be powered by electricity generated from renewable energy sources.
• Leveraging India’s landmass and green energy sources for exporting green hydrogen is one of the steps for achieving energy sufficiency for the country, according to a draft proposal circulated by the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE), for the planned National Hydrogen Energy Mission. 

Source : LiveMint

2.TAX INSPECTORS WITHOUT BORDERS (TIWB)

Bhutan’s Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) programme launched in partnership with India.

About:

• Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB), a joint initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), launched its programme in Bhutan.
• India was chosen as the Partner Jurisdiction and has provided the Tax Expert for this programme.
• This programme is expected to be of about 24 months’ duration through which India in collaboration with the UNDP and the TIWB Secretariat aims to aid Bhutan in strengthening its tax administration by transferring technical know-how and skills to its tax auditors, and through sharing of best audit practices.
• The focus of the programme will be in the area of International Taxation and Transfer Pricing.

Source : PIB

3.OTHER SERVICE PROVIDERS (OSP)

Department of Telecommunication has further liberalized the guidelines for Other Service Providers (OSPs).

About:

• These entities are business process outsourcing (BPO) organisations giving Voice based services, in India and abroad.
• The Guidelines issued today further liberalized the special dispensation given to OSPs in addition to the major measures already announced and implemented in November, 2020.
• The main features of the liberalised guidelines announced today are:
• Distinction between Domestic and International OSPs has been removed. A BPO centre with common Telecom resources will now be able to serve customers located worldwide including in India.
• EPABX (Electronic Private Automatic Branch Exchange) of the OSP can be located anywhere in the world. OSPs apart from utilising EPABX services of the Telecom Service Providers can also locate their EPABX at third Party Data Centres in India.
• With the removal of the distinction between Domestic and International OSP centres, the interconnectivity between all types of OSP centres is now permitted.
• Remote Agents of OSP can now connect directly with the Centralised EPABX/ EPABX of the OSP/ EPABX of the customer using any technology including Broadband over wireline/ wireless.

Source : Business Standard

4.SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES

The Union Cabinet has approved an Agreement between India and Saint Vincent and The Grenadines for the Exchange of Information and to provide assistance to each other in collection of tax claims.

About:

• This is a new Agreement between the Republic of India and Saint Vincent and The Grenadines. There was no such agreement in past between the two countries.
• Agreement also contains tax examination abroad provisions which provide that a country may allow the representatives of the other country to enter its territory to interview individuals and examine records for tax purposes.

Important Info :

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island country in the Caribbean.
• It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean.
• Kingstown is the capital and main port.

Source : PIB

5.CENTRAL WAREHOUSING CORPORATION (CWC)

Union Cabinet approves merger of Central Railside Warehouse Company Limited (CRWC) with Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC).

About:

• CWC is a Mini-Ratna Category-I CPSE.
• It is a statutory body which was established under ‘The Warehousing Corporations Act, 1962.
• It is a public warehouse operator established by the Government of India in 1957 for the purpose of warehousing of agriculture produce and certain other commodities notified by the Central Government and for matters connected there with.

Headquarters: New Delhi.

Important Info :

• ‘Central Railside Warehouse Company Ltd.’ (CRWC)
• CWC formed a separate subsidiary company named ‘Central Railside Warehouse Company Ltd.’ (CRWC) in 2007 to develop Railside Warehousing Complexes (RWCs) on land leased from Railways.
• CRWC is a Mini-Ratna Category-II Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE) incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956.
• CRWC developed specialization, expertise and goodwill in development and operation of RWCs but due to shortage of capital and also due to some of the restrictive clauses in its MoU with Ministry of Railways, its pace of growth was not as expected.
• A separate Division with the name ‘RWC Division’ will be created by CWC for handling operations and marketing of RWCs.

Source : Economic Times

6.NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OPEN SCHOOLING (NIOS)

Minister of State for Education Shri Sanjay Dhotre launched NIOS Diploma course in Yogic Science on the occasion of International Day of Yoga.

About:

• Name: The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) was formerly known as National Open School.
• What is it? It is the National board of education under the Government of India that administers examinations for Secondary and Senior Secondary examinations similar to the CBSE and the CISCE. It also offers vocational courses after the high school.
• Parent body: It is an autonomous institute under Union Ministry of HRD.
• Established in:
• Headquarters: Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
• How does NIOS Function? NIOS operates through a network of five Departments, Regional Centres and Accredited Institutions (Study Centres) in India and abroad.
• Enrolment: It has a current enrolment of about 2.71 million students at Secondary, Senior Secondary & Vocational levels which makes it the largest open schooling system in the world.

Source : PIB

7.SYAMA PRASAD MUKHERJEE

PM Modi has paid tributes to Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee on his Punya Tithi.

About:

• Syama Prasad Mukherjee (1901 – 1953) was an Indian politician
• In 1934, at the age of 33, he became the youngest Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta; he held the office until 1938.
• Mukherjee joined the Hindu Mahasabha in Bengal in 1939 and became its acting president that same year.
• He was also the president of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha from 1943 to 1946. He died in the custody of Jammu and Kashmir Police in 1953.
• In 1946, he was elected as a member of the Constituent Assembly of India in the same year.
• He served as the Minister for Industry and Supply in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet.
• He quit Congress because of differences of opinion with Nehru led government on the issue of Jammu & Kashmir.
• He founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the predecessor to the Bharatiya Janata Party, in 1951.

Source : PIB

8.HOW JUDGES RECUSE FROM CASES?

In the last week, two Supreme Court judges — Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Aniruddha Bose — have recused themselves from hearing cases relating to West Bengal.

About:

• When there is a conflict of interest, a judge can withdraw from hearing a case to prevent creating a perception that she carried a bias while deciding the case.
• The practice stems from the cardinal principle of due process of law that nobody can be a judge in her own case.
• The decision to recuse generally comes from the judge herself as it rests on the conscience and discretion of the judge to disclose any potential conflict of interest.
• There are no formal rules governing recusals, although several Supreme Court judgments have dealt with the issue. In Ranjit Thakur v Union of India (1987), the Supreme Court held that the tests of the likelihood of bias is the reasonableness of the apprehension in the mind of the party.
• Can a judge refuse to recuse? Once a request is made for recusal, the decision to recuse or not rests with the judge.
• Do judges record reasons for recusal? Since there are no formal rules governing the process, it is often left to individual judges to record reasons for recusal. Some judges disclose the reasons in open court; in some cases, the reasons are apparent. 

Source : Indian Express

9.OLYMPIC DAY

On 23 June, Olympic Day is celebrated all around the world.

About:

• Olympic Day was introduced in 1948 to commemorate the birth of the modern Olympic Games on 23 June 1894 at the Sorbonne in Paris. The formation of the IOC happened on this day.
• The goal was to promote participation in sport across the globe regardless of age, gender or athletic ability. 

Source : FirstPost

10.NISHTHA – NATIONAL INITIATIVE FOR SCHOOL HEADS’ AND TEACHERS’ HOLISTIC ADVANCEMENT

To fulfill the long-standing vision of Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) to achieve academic excellence in Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRSs), 120 EMRS teachers and principals from 3 states completed a 40 days’ NISHTHA Program, a national flagship program of NCERT on 19th June 2021.

About:

• In August 2019, Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister launched NISHTHA to build capacities of 42 Lakh government teachers across the country.
• What is it? NISHTHA is the world’s largest teachers’ training programme of its kind in the world.
• Objective: To motivate and equip teachers to encourage and foster critical thinking in students.
• Features: Under it, teachers will develop their skills on various aspects related to Learning Outcomes, School Safety and Security, ICT in teaching-learning including Artificial Intelligence, Environmental Concerns and School Based Assessment in a joyful learning manner.
• Coverage: It aims to build the capacities of around 42 lakh participants covering all teachers and Heads of Schools at the elementary level in all Government schools, faculty members of SCERTs, DIETs as well as Block Resource Coordinators and Cluster Resource Coordinators in all States/UTs.
• Strategy: Training will be conducted directly by 33120 Key Resource Persons (KRPs) and State Resource Persons (SRP) identified by the State and UTs, who will in turn be trained by 120 National Resource Persons identified from NCERT, NIEPA, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS), CBSE and NGO.

Source : PIB