DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS - 27 JULY 2021

1. TYPHOON IN-FA

Typhoon In-fa, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Fabian, is an active and very large tropical cyclone inland over China.

About:

• The system was first noted as an area of low pressure, located east of the Philippines on July 14. Favorable conditions helped the storm to intensify, becoming a tropical depression, two days later and a tropical storm on July 17.
• The storm has exacerbated and played a part in starting the 2021 Henan floods. Since 17 July 2021, China's Henan province has been affected by severe flooding, caused by a period of prolonged heavy rainfall.
• According to projections, In-fa would beat Typhoon Fitow of 2013 as the costliest typhoon to strike China, and the third costliest typhoon on record (a total of $14.7 billion) when adjusted for inflation.

Source : All India Radio

2. NATIONAL CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR ANIMATION, VISUAL EFFECTS, GAMING & COMICS

The Union Government has decided to set up a National Centre of Excellence for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics for creating a world-class talent pool in India to cater to the Indian as well as global industry.

About:

• It will be set up in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
• The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B) has identified the animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) sector as a sunrise industry.
• Despite growing at an estimated 29-30 per cent per annum, the share of the domestic AVGC industry in the global AVGC market was just one per cent at $2.69 billion (or Rs 20,000 crore), a CII report says.

Source : All India Radio

3. WORLD HERITAGE SITE

UNESCO inscribed the 13th-century Ramappa temple in Palampet, Telangana as a World Heritage Site. With this, India now has 39 sites on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List, and the Archaeological Survey of India is now the custodian of 23 world heritage sites.

About:

• A World Heritage Site is a location with an “outstanding universal value”.
• This signifies “cultural and/or natural significance which is so exceptional as to transcend national boundaries and to be of common importance for present and future generations of all humanity”.
• To be included, sites must meet at least one of the ten selection criteria, such as representing a masterpiece of human creative genius, or exhibiting an important interchange of human values over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world.

The listing

• The World Heritage Convention’s operational guidelines say that a tentative list is like an inventory of properties a country thinks should be on the World Heritage Site.
• After UNESCO includes a property in the tentative list, the country prepares a nomination document that will be considered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.
• In this case, the nomination was under Criterion I (Masterpiece of human creative genius) and Criterion III (bearing a unique or at least an exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition, which is living or which has disappeared).
• Earlier, the International Council of Historic Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) had evaluated Ramappa’s heritage status.

Source : Indian Express

4. NATIONAL MISSION FOR CLEAN GANGA (NMCG)

The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), conceived as a ₹20,000-crore programme in 2014 to clean up the river, has so far been allocated ₹15,074 crore.

About:

• Of this only ₹10,972 crore, or about two-thirds, has been released by the Finance Ministry to the NMCG, a body under the Jal Shakti Ministry. The NMCG further allocates the money to the riverine States.
• The planned outlay for the Ganga clean-up mission, accounting for future costs, is well over ₹20,000 crore.
• Overall, 346 projects had been taken up at a sanctioned cost of ₹30,235 crore, out of which, 158 projects are completed.
• Uttar Pradesh, at ₹3,535 crore, has received the most funds, followed by Bihar (₹2,631 crore), Bengal (₹1,030 cr) and Uttarakhand (₹1001 cr). 

Source : The Hindu

5. NATIONAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION (NRF)

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said that the Government proposes to set up a National Research Foundation (NRF) to strengthen the research ecosystem in the country.

About:

• NRF is being envisaged as an umbrella structure that will improve linkages between Research and Development, academia and industry.
• The total proposed outlay of NRF is 50,000 crore rupees over a period of five years.
• One of the main objectives of NRF is to seed, grow and facilitate research at academic institutions, particularly at universities and colleges, where research capacity is currently in a nascent stage.

Source : All India Radio

6. CHAURASI KOSHI PARIKRAMA MARG

The central government last week decided to declare the “84 kos parikrama marg” around Ayodhya a national highway.

About:

• Road Transport and Highways Ministry has issued Draft Notification declaring ‘Chaurasi Koshi Parikrama Marg’ as National Highway in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
• All three parikramas in Ayodhya — the 5 kos (around 15 km), 14 kos (42 km), and 84 kos (about 275 km) parikramas — are linked to Lord Ram.
• The Baal Kand of the Valmiki Ramayana mentions that Ayodhya was earlier known as Koshaldesh, intially spread over 48 kos, and was later expanded to 84 kos.
• The 84 kos parikrama is a circumambulation of Koshaldesh, touching all important places associated with the kingdom of Ram.
• The 14 kos parikrama is for the main Ayodhya city of that time, and the 5 kos parikrama circumabulates the inner circle within which the heart of Ram’s kingdom was located.

Parikrama and its route

• It is believed that King Dasharath performed a Putrayeshthi Yajna on the bank of the Manorama river some 20 km from Ayodhya, to seek sons from the gods.
• Subsequently, he was blessed with four sons from his three wives.
• The 84 kos parikrama starts and ends — after about 22 days — from the place where the yajna was performed, now identified as Makhaura in Basti.

Important Info :

• Besides Ayodhya, similar parikramas are performed by devotees at Govardhan in Braj, Kamadgiri in Chitrakoot, and Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu.

Source : Indian Express

7. FOREX

India’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $835 million to touch a record high of $612.73 billion in the week ended July 16, 2021, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed.

About:

• According to weekly data from the RBI, forex reserves rose to a record $612.73 billion in the reporting week, helped by a rise in Foreign Currency Assets (FCA), a major component of the overall reserves.
• India’s forex reserves cover Foreign Currency Assets (FCAs), Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), Gold Reserves and the country’s reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• Currently, China has the largest reserves followed by Japan and Switzerland. India has overtaken Russia to become the fourth largest country with foreign exchange reserves.

Source : All India Radio

8. CENTRAL & SOUTH ASIA CONNECTIVITY CONFERENCE 2021

Uzbekistan hosted a high-level International Conference titled “Central and South Asia: Regional Connectivity. Challenges and Opportunities” at Tashkent, recently.

About:

• The conference was an initiative of the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
• Delegates from over 40 countries and about 30 international organizations, and heads of think tanks participated in the conference. It was attended by President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani, Ministers from Central Asian, West Asian and South Asian countries, including Minister of External Affairs of India Dr. S. Jaishankar.
• Jaishankar said that for Central Asian countries, Chabahar port in Iran provides a ‘secure, viable and unhindered access to the sea. The port has been proposed to be included in the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).
• It may be added that an India-Uzbekistan-Iran-Afghanistan Quadrilateral Working Group has been formed on the joint use of Chabahar port.

Source : All India Radio

9. KANDLA SEZ (KASEZ)

Kandla becomes first Green SEZ in the country.

About:

• Kandla Special Economic Zone (KASEZ), the oldest export zone in the country, has become the “first green industrial city” in India to receive a platinum rating under IGBC Green Cities Rating for existing cities in the industrial cities category.
• Compared to the 25,000 trees in KASEZ in 2019, the 1000-odd acres has 3.5 lakh trees. Most of these trees have been planted post 2019, using the Miyawaki forestation method.
• Apart from this, KASEZ also used plastic waste to line the artificial water bodies created inside the area to prevent water seepage and mix with the saline water. 

Source : Indian Express

10. KARGIL VIJAY DIWAS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 26, 2021, paid tributes to Kargil martyrs on the Vijay Diwas day.

About:

• Kargil Vijay Diwas is commemorated every 26th July in India, to observe India’s victory over Pakistan in the War of 1999 for the ejecting the Pakistani Forces from the mountain tops of Northern Kargil District in Ladakh in 1999.
• Initially, the Pakistani army denied involvement in the war, claiming that it was caused by Kashmiri militants forces.
• However documents left behind by casualties, testimony of POWs and later statements by Pakistan's Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff showed the involvement of Pakistani paramilitary forces, led by General Ashraf Rashid.
• The infiltration was code named "Operation Badri". The aim of the Pakistani incursion was to sever the link between Kashmir and Ladakh and cause Indian forces to withdraw from the Siachen Glacier, thus forcing India to negotiate a settlement of the broader Kashmir dispute.

Source : The Hindu