World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is marked every year on 17 June. The day focuses on turning degraded land into healthy or fertile soil to combat desertification.
In December 1994, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) decided on a resolution to observe 17 June as World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.
This year, the theme for the day is - Rising up from drought together.
India has witnessed the sharpest rise among the Asian economies, with a six-position jump from 43rd to 37th rank on the annual World Competitiveness Index compiled by the Institute for Management Development, largely due to gains in economic performance.
Denmark has moved to the top of the 63-nation list from the third position last year, while Switzerland slipped to 2nd.
Other ranks: Singapore(3rd),Sweden (4th) and Hong Kong SAR(5th) etc.
As per the report, after the onset of Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, 0.7% of India’s population was a ‘temporary visitor’ in households during July 2020-June 2021.
Covid may have forced return of 51.6% urban men to villages.
The survey pegged the rural migration rate at 26.5 per cent and urban migration rate at 34.9 per cent with the overall migration rate at 28.9%.
It estimated the number of rural migrants at 21 crore and urban migrants at 11 crore.
Inaugurating Industrial Decarbonization Summit 2022 in New Delhi, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari emphasized on maintaining equilibrium between ecology, environment and development.
He said the government's priority is green hydrogen and by using biotechnology we can increase the productivity of Biomass.
Egypt hosted the Eighth Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians in Sharm El Sheikh today. The two-day conference was jointly organized by the House of Representatives and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
Nagaland's first woman elected as Member of Parliament to Rajya Sabha S. Phangon Konyak is representing India at the Conference.
IBBI amended insolvency regulations, which now require creditors to file information regarding the assets and liabilities of their corporate debtors, along with other relevant financial information while initiating a corporate insolvency process.
Amendment also provides for filing copy of GST returns by operational creditors,along with e-way bills as evidence of debt
US central bank has announced its biggest interest rate rise in nearly 30 years to rein in surging inflation. The Federal Reserve said it would increase its benchmark rate by three-quarters of a percentage point to a range of 1.5 percent to 1.75 percent.
It is the largest rate hike since 1994.
RBI lifted business restrictions on Mastercard.
On July 14 2021, RBI had announced the restrictions on Mastercard citing non-compliance with payments data storage rule
As per the ‘Storage of Payment System Data’ rules introduced in 2018, all foreign payment operators are required to ensure that the entire data relating to payment systems are stored in a system only in India
Regulator IRDAI reduced the solvency margin requirement for general insurers providing crop insurance, a decision expected to unlock Rs 1,400 crore of funds for them to undertake more business.
Solvency margin, a key indicator of financial health of an insurer, refers to the difference between its value of assets & liability. Regulator fixes the solvency margin for insurers
Reforms is undertaken to increase insurance penetration in the country.
Mr. Masato Kanda, Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, Japan, and Mr. Ajay Seth, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, held the first India-Japan Finance Dialogue in New Delhi.
India-Japan financial cooperation, which had been held at the level of Deputy Director-Generals, was upgraded to the level of Vice Minister/Secretary.
India added around 15.4 gigawatts (GW) of renewable power capacity in 2021, the third highest after China (136 GW) and the United States (43 GW), according to a global status report released.
The REN21’s renewables 2022 global status report noted that with this growth, India is now the third-largest market in the world for new solar photovoltaics (PV) capacity.
India ranked 4th in the world for total solar energy installations (60.4 GW)
Microsoft has stopped offering services of the internet browser Internet Explorer from June 15, 27 years since its inception.
Users will now be redirected towards Microsoft’s browser Edge, which was launched in 2015.
The first version of the Internet Explorer was released in 1995.The company released the last version of the browser, Internet Explorer 11 in 2013.
Israel and the Haryana government signed a joint declaration in integrated water resources management and capacity building.
The joint declaration was signed by Ambassador Eynat Shlein, head of Mashav, Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Irrigation and Water Resources Department, Haryana government.
Canara HSBC OBC Life has renamed itself as Canara HSBC Life following its 3rd partner PNB's decision to exit. PNB had acquired a stake in the company following the amalgamation of Oriental Bank of Commerce.
Currently,Canara Bank holds 51% in the insurance arm, HSBC holds 26% & PNB 23%.
With PNB exiting, the stake is likely to be acquired by existing shareholders.
Canara HSBC Life MD: Anuj Mathur
Coursera’s latest Global Skills Report (GSR) 2022 revealed that in terms of overall skills proficiency, India has slipped four places to be ranked at the 68th position globally.In Asia, India stands in the 19th position.
India’s technology proficiency levels increased from 38% to 46%. Proficiency in data science has dipped from 38% in 2021 to 26 percent in 2022.
Cloud Computing is Indians' strongest skill as per the report.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Neftali Bennett and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan would attend the first-of-its-kind virtual summit of the I2U2 grouping next month for discussions of the food security crisis and other areas of cooperation.
Virtual summit of 4 countries would take place from July 13 to 16.
Financial wellness platform CASHe has launched an industry-first credit line service using its AI-powered chat capability on WhatsApp to provide customers with a fast, seamless and convenient way to access instant credit line by merely typing their name.
The firm offers an instant credit limit without the need for any documents, app downloads or filling up tedious forms.
E-commerce logistics solutions company, Shiprocket has signed a deal to acquire a majority stake in its competitor Pickrr for roughly $200 million, in a mix of cash and equity transaction.
Set up in 2017, software-as-a-service (SaaS) company Shiprocket started off as DIY technology stack focusing on social sellers and SMEs.
Picker was started in 2018.
Shiprocket founder and chief executive: Saahil Goel
India’s life expectancy at birth has increased up to 69.7 in the 2015-2019 period, data from the sample registration system (SRS) shows. It has taken almost 10 years to add two years to life expectancy & is still well below the global average of 72.6.
Odisha has had the highest increase, of over 24 years, from 45.7 to 69.8 years followed by Tamil Nadu.
India added 20 years to its life expectancy at birth - 49.7 in 1970-75 to 69.7 in 2015-19
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Shila Mandir of Jagadguru Sant Tukaram Maharaj at Dehu village near Pune. Sant Tukaram was a Warkari saint and poet, famously known for Abhanga devotional poetry and community-oriented worship through spiritual songs known as Kirtans. He lived in Dehu.
The largest known plant on Earth - a seagrass roughly three times the size of Manhattan - has been discovered off the coast of Australia.
Using genetic testing, scientists have determined a large underwater meadow in Western Australia is in fact one plant.
It is believed to have spread from a single seed over at least 4,500 years.
The seagrass covers about 200 sq km.
The team stumbled upon the discovery by accident at Shark Bay.
External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar and Sports Minister Anurag Singh Thakur inaugurated the Squash Courts at the Major Dhyanchand Stadium in New Delhi.
These are the first-ever Squash courts opened by the Sports Authority of India in any centre across the country.
Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the National Standards Body of India, has developed an Indian Standard, IS 17693: 2022 for 'non-electric cooling cabinet made of clay'.
Named as ‘Mitticool refrigerator’, Shri Mansukh Bhai Prajapati from Gujarat is the innovator behind the refrigerator which projects an eco-friendly technology.
