The International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. is commemorated every year on 19 June, which marks the date of the adoption of the first Security Council resolution to recognize conflict-related sexual violence as a tactic of war and threat to international peace and security as related in the UN Security Council Resolution S/RES/1820 of 2008.
World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees around the globe. It falls each year on June 20 and celebrates the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution. 2024 Theme: For a World Where Refugees Are Welcomed.
World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees around the globe. It falls each year on June 20 and celebrates the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution. 2024 Theme: For a World Where Refugees Are Welcomed.
The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol help protect them. The 1951 Convention contains a number of rights and also highlights the obligations of refugees towards their host country.
The rights contained in the 1951 Convention include:
The right not to be expelled, except under certain, strictly defined conditions;
The right not to be punished for illegal entry into the territory of a contracting State;
The right to work;
The right to housing;
The right to education;
The right to public relief and assistance;
The right to freedom of religion;
The right to access the courts;
The right to freedom of movement within the territory;
The right to be issued identity and travel documents.
According to this principle, a refugee should not be returned to a country where he or she faces serious threats to his or her life or freedom. This protection may not be claimed by refugees who are reasonably regarded as a danger to the security of the country, or having been convicted of a particularly serious crime, are considered a danger to the community.
The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), in collaboration with the Australian Government, hosted a comprehensive and productive roundtable to discuss the learnings from the Australia-India Critical Agriculture Skills Pilot Project.
The findings were shared with MSDE and the Australian Government and subsequently 107 emerging job roles were mapped to identify the 5 critical emerging job roles in the agriculture sector for the pilot projects. The six pilot projects nearing completion have been implemented in 4 states, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.
In a significant boost to the India’s port development programme, as many as 9 ports of India made it to the Global Top 100 in the latest edition of Container Port Performance Index (CPPI), 2023 - a report prepared by the World Bank and S&P Global Marketing Intelligence. Vishakhapatnam Port has showcased strong performance with 27.5 moves per crane hour.
These metrics highlight the port's efficiency in handling container ships and significantly influence customer preference. Seven other Indian ports, which secured ranks in the top 100, are Pipavav (41), Kamarajar (47), Cochin (63), Hazira (68), Krishnapatnam (71), Chennai (80) and Jawaharlal Nehru (96).
The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal of Ministry of Home Affairs for Central Sector Scheme “National Forensic Infrastructure Enhancement Scheme (NFIES) with a total financial outlay of Rs. 2254.43 crore during the period from 2024-25 to 2028-29. Financial outlay of the Central Sector Scheme will be provisioned by the Ministry of Home Affairs from its own budget.
The Cabinet has approved the following components under this Scheme:
i. Establishment of Campuses of the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) in the country.
ii. Establishment of Central Forensic Science Laboratories in the country.
iii. Enhancement of existing infrastructure of the Delhi Campus of the NFSU.
With the enactment of the New Criminal Laws which mandates forensic investigation for offences involving punishment of 7 years or more, a significant increase in the workload of forensic science laboratories is expected. Further, there is a significant shortage of trained forensic manpower in the Forensic Science Laboratories (FSL) in the country.
The Reserve Bank on 19th June cancelled the licence of The City Co-operative Bank, Maharashtra for lacking adequate capital and earning prospects. The Commissioner for Cooperation and Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Maharashtra has also been asked to issue an order for winding up the bank and appoint a liquidator, RBI said.
On liquidation, every depositor would be entitled to receive deposit insurance claim amount of his/her deposits up to a monetary ceiling of Rs 5 lakh only from Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC). As per the data submitted by the bank, about 87 per cent of the depositors are entitled to receive full amount of their deposits from DICGC," RBI said.
SabPaisa (SRS Live Technologies Private Limited), a payment solutions provider has announced that it has received final approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to function as a Payment Aggregator (PA) under the Payments and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. The license will allow SabPaisa to offer comprehensive payment aggregation services to merchants across the country.
Since its establishment in 2016, SabPaisa has been offering innovative payment gateway solutions and related products such as Payouts and Subscriptions. Introduced in March 2020, RBI's payment aggregator framework mandates that only authorized entities can provide payment aggregation services to merchants.
Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and Mastercard India have signed a MoU for collaboration in cyber security to enhance India’s cyber-resilience in the financial sector. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said the two entities will leverage their shared expertise to strengthen the financial sector’s cybersecurity incident response.
Mastercard and CERT-In will hold training programs and workshops for cyber capacity building, the latest market trends and best practices to enhance the cyber security of financial sector organizations. The two entities will also share relevant cyber threat trends, technical information, threat intelligence, and vulnerability reports to strengthen the financial sector.
India Post Payments Bank has partnered with Ria Money Transfer, a global leader in cross-border money transfers to provide convenient and affordable doorstep financial services to customers in remote areas across the country. The partnership will enhance access to banking services at customers’ doorsteps, allowing them to withdraw only the amounts they need immediately.
Union Cabinet has taken a landmark decision by approving India's first offshore wind energy project. These will be 1GW offshore wind projects, 500 MW each (off the coast of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu). The Union Cabinet approved 1 GW offshore wind energy projects in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu with the total outlay of Rs 7,453 crore.
The successful commissioning of 1 GW offshore wind projects will produce renewable electricity of about 3.72 billion units annually, which will result in annual reduction of 2.98 million ton of CO2 equivalent emission for a period of 25 years, as per the government.
The Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme for offshore wind energy projects includes an outlay of Rs.6853 crore for installation and commissioning of 1 GW of offshore wind energy projects, and grant of Rs.600 crore for upgradation of two ports to meet logistics requirements for offshore wind energy projects.
The VGF scheme is a step towards implementation of the National Offshore Wind Energy Policy notified in 2015 with an aim to exploit the vast offshore wind energy potential that exists within the exclusive economic zone of India.
The Union Cabinet met for the first time in the third tenure of the Narendra Modi government and approved the construction of an all-weather greenfield deep draft port at Vadhavan near Dahanu, nearly 110 km from Mumbai, in Maharashtra, with a budget of Rs 76,000 crore.
The port will be developed by Vadhavan Port Project Ltd.—a joint venture between Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority Ltd., which will hold a 74% stake, and Maharashtra Maritime Board, which will hold the remainder—in two phases under the landlord model. The budget includes the project's land acquisition costs.
Upon completion, Vadhavan Port is poised to rank among the top ten ports globally. A 'deep-draft' describes a port that can accommodate large vessels such as big cargo ships. Vadhavan port is declared the 13th major port as part of the Indian government's Sagarmala initiative, which aims to make Indian ports major contributes to GDP.
The Union Cabinet announced minimum support price (MSP) for 14 Kharif season crops including paddy, ragi, bajra, jowar, maize and cotton which will have a financial implication of Rs two lakh crore for the government and entail gain of Rs 35,000 crore to farmers over the previous year.
The highest absolute increase in MSP over the previous year has been recommended for oilseeds and pulses. The increase in MSP for Kharif Crops for Marketing Season 2024-25 is in line with the Union Budget 2018-19 announcement of fixing the MSP at a level of at least 1.5 times of the All-India weighted average cost of production.
The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved a comprehensive development plan for Lal Bahadur Shastri international airport in Varanasi, with a projected cost of Rs 2869.65 crore. The Airports Authority of India will oversee the project, which aims to significantly enhance the airport's passenger handling capacity.
With India’s economic growth averaging over 8 per cent in 2021-24 as compared to 7 per cent during 2003-19, the Reserve Bank of India’s state of the economy report said there is a shift in the trend growth rate post the pandemic, which is powered by domestic drivers.
The report said that India’s real GDP growth of 8.2 per cent in FY24, which is the highest rate since 2016-17, barring the post-COVID rebound in 2021-22, has “stunned all projections”.
It said that recent indicators suggest that private consumption is resuming its role as the main driver of demand and is getting broad-based to include rural consumers.
