Daily Current Affairs Analysis Today : 08 – feb-2023
India, EU to establish three Working Groups under Trade and Technology Council to deepen ties
India and the European Union announced the establishment of three Working Groups under the India-EU Trade and Technology Council- TTC and their Terms of Reference.
TTC was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen during her visit to India in April last year.
The TTC is a strategic coordination mechanism that will allow both partners to tackle challenges at the nexus of trade, trusted technology and security, and thus deepen cooperation in these fields between India and the EU.
Such a council is the first for India with any of its partners and second for the EU, following the first one it has set up with the United States (US).
On the EU side, the council will be co-chaired by Executive Vice-Presidents Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis. On the Indian side, it will be chaired by S Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs, Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, and Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology.
Under the TTC, the following three Working Groups have been established:
i). Working Group on Strategic Technologies, Digital Governance and Digital Connectivity: Chaired by Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
ii). Working Group on Green & Clean Energy Technologies: Chaired by Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India
iii). Working Group on Trade, Investment & Resilient Value Chains: Chaired by Secretary, Department of Commerce.
India and the European Union have formed which three working groups under the European Union Trade and Technology Council-TTC? Working Group on Strategic Technologies, Digital Governance and Digital Connectivity, Green & Clean Energy Technologies & Trade, Investment & Resilient Value Chains
Australia’s longest-serving T20I captain Finch retires from international cricket
Australia’s T20 World Cup-winning captain Aaron Finch has announced his retirement from the T20Is, this brings an end to his international cricket career for Australia spanning 12 years.
Earlier, the opening batsman had announced retirement from the 50-over format in September last year. Finch also played five Test matches for Australia.
Aaron Finch career:
Finch made his international cricket debut in a T20I against England in 2011. He made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka in 2013.
Finch made his Test debut against Pakistan in 2018. Finch became a permanent part of the leadership group in the absence of regular captain Steve Smith and vice-captain Warner.
Finch retires from T20I cricket after 103 caps for Australia, leading the country in 76 of those matches.
He retires as Australia’s leading run-getter in the format, having scored 3120 runs at an average of 34.28 and a strike rate of 142.5.
His career-best 172 came against Zimbabwe in 2018 and is also the best individual score in the format.
Aaron Finch, who recently announced his retirement from international cricket, is associated with which national cricket team? Australia
Vedanta appoints David Reed as CEO of semiconductor business
Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Ltd named David Reed as the CEO of its semiconductor unit, where it is looking to invest USD 20 billion to manufacture chips essential for mobile phones to laptops and TV sets..
The group is planning to start manufacturing semiconductors at Gujarat’s Dholera in two to three years.
Reed was previously the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Global Operations at NXP Semiconductors.
In September 2022, Vedanta signed an MoU with Gujarat government to set up India’s first semiconductor fab unit, a display fab unit, and a semiconductor assembling and testing unit in the state.
Vedanta Group has earlier announced that the group has earmarked investments of up to USD 20 billion for semiconductor business, and it plans to invest USD 15 billion in the first 10 years.
Vedanta will look at making a 28 nanometer (nm) chipset.
The semiconductors will be manufactured in joint venture with Taiwanese electronics company Foxconn. Vedanta holds a 63 per cent interest and the remaining is with Foxconn in the joint venture.
Vedanta Limited:
Industry: Mining, Oil and Gas, Electric utility
Founded 1979
Headquarters: Mumbai, India
Chairman: Anil Agarwal
CEO: Sunil Duggal
Who has been appointed by Vedanta Ltd as CEO of its semiconductor unit? David Reed
Google unveils ChatGPT rival named ‘Bard’
Google has announced that it will launch an artificial intelligence chatbot called ‘Bard’ in the coming weeks.
The new AI-powered chatbot is based on Google’s LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) technology and draws on information from the web to “provide fresh, high-quality responses”.
It can help people explain complex topics, such as discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, to a 9-year-old, or learn about the best football players and get training drills to build skills.
ChatGPT was introduced in the month of November last year. Since then, OpenAI has revealed the extraordinary capabilities of ChatGPT and its impact on daily lives. Google has been working on AI for the past six years and it has finally revealed Bard.
Google is releasing Bard initially with a lightweight model version of LaMDA, which requires less computing power, making it easier to scale to more users and get more feedback. The company plans to combine external feedback with its internal testing to enhance Bard’s responses and to ensure higher ‘quality, safety and groundedness in real-world information’.
ChatGPT:
ChatGPT is an AI chatbot system. You can ask it countless questions and often will get an answer that’s useful.
For example, you can ask it encyclopedia questions like, “Explain Newton’s laws of motion.” You can tell it, “Write me a poem,” and when it does, say, “Now make it more exciting.” You ask it to write a computer program that’ll show you all the different ways you can arrange the letters of a word.
Google’s artificial intelligence-powered chatbot ‘Bard’ is built on the company’s existing large language model named ___. LaMDA
Yuva Sangam registration portal launched
The Yuva Sangam registration portal was launched in New Delhi.
The Yuva Sangam is an initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to build close ties between the youth of the North East Region and rest of India under the spirit of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat.
Under the initiative over 20 thousand youth will travel across the country and gain a unique opportunity of cross-cultural learning.
The program is an opportunity for the youth of the North East to explore the country.This Wide Cultural Exchange Program will also give an opportunity to the country’s youth to celebrate the ancient culture and natural diversity of India. Out of one thousand, 300 students will be from the North East region.
‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat, Yuva Sangam’, the youth of 18 years to 30 years will get an opportunity to see different states of the country, to understand their art, culture and languages.
Under which initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, over 20 thousand youth will travel across the country and gain a unique opportunity of cross-cultural learning? Yuva Sangam
Telangana gets India’s 1st mobility valley
The Telangana government launched India’s first new mobility-focused cluster at the first edition of Mobility Next Hyderabad Summit.
The cluster has been named Telangana Mobility Valley and it is aimed at attracting investments of around ₹50,000 crore and generating more than four lakh jobs in the next five years.For this, the State is developing 4 Mega clusters in and around Hyderabad- EV Manufacturing cluster in Zaheerabad, an EV Manufacturing cluster in Seetharampur, Energy storage system (ESS) cluster in Divitipally and Innovation cluster at Yenkathala. Each of the clusters will be equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure to reduce the cost of operations for their tenant.
Telangana Mobility Valley will create best-in-class infrastructure making Telangana the most competitive destination for both manufacturing and E R&D in India.
As part of the event, the State also announced three Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) — ATS-TUV Rheinland MoU with Telangana Government; Bosch Global Software Technologies MoU with BITS Hyderabad, and Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge’s (TASK) MoU with Shell.
Telangana:
Founded: 2 June 2014
Capital: Hyderabad
Governor: Tamilisai Soundararajan
Chief minister: K. Chandrashekar Rao
What is the name of India’s first mobility-focused cluster launched by Telangana government at the first edition of Mobility Next Hyderabad Summit? Telangana Mobility Valley
Apsara A. Iyer becomes first Indian-American woman to head Harvard Law Review
Second year law student at Harvard Law School, Apsara A. Iyer has been elected the 137th president of the Harvard Law Review.
She is the first Indian American woman to hold the position.
Harvard Law Review, was founded in 1887 and is among the oldest student-run legal scholarship publications.
Apsara Iyer’s distinguished predecessors in the role include Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and former president Barack Obama.
She aims to include more editors in the process of reviewing and selecting articles and upholding the publication’s reputation for “high-quality” work.
Apsara Iyer:
Iyer graduated from Yale in 2016 and received a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Math and Spanish.
Iyer worked in the office in 2018 before coming to the Law School, and took a leave of absence after her first year studying law to return to the role.
Iyer has previously been involved in the Law School’s Harvard Human Rights Journal and the National Security Journal and is also a member of the South Asian Law Students Association.
Who has become the first Indian-American woman to head Harvard Law Review? Apsara A. Iyer
Indore becomes first civic body to launch green bonds
Indore Municipal Corporation has ranked top in cleanliness survey for six consecutive years, has become the country’s first civic body to launch green bonds, seeking to raise Rs 244 crore for a 60-mw solar plant at its water pumping station.
The public issues of the green bonds will be open for subscription from February 10-14. The issue will be listed on the National Stock Exchange.
The drinking water department of the city administration spends over Rs 300 crore in annual electricity charges. Its Juladh pumping station, by the Narmada river falling in the Khargone district, is the biggest pumping station for the city.
The balance amount will come from the Centre: Rs 41 crore as viability gap funding and Rs 26 crore or 13 per cent special incentives that the Centre offers to municipalities for launching bonds. The Centre caps this 13 per cent incentive for only up to Rs 200 crore of bond sales.
Green bonds:
A green bond is a debt security issued by an organization for the purpose of financing or refinancing projects that contribute positively to the environment and/or climate. A green bond is alternatively known as a climate bond.
Which has become the first civic body in India to issue green bonds? Indore Municipal Corporation
Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s ex-president, dies aged 79
Pakistan’s former president General Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, has died aged 79.
The former leader – who was president between 2001 and 2008 – died in Dubai after a long illness.
He had survived numerous assassination attempts, and found himself on the front line of the struggle between militant Islamists and the West.
He supported the US “war on terror” after 9/11 despite domestic opposition.
In 2008 he suffered defeat in the polls and left the country six months later.
When he returned in 2013 to try to contest the election, he was arrested and barred from standing. He was charged with high treason and was sentenced to death in absentia only for the decision to be overturned less than a month later.
He left Pakistan for Dubai in 2016 to seek medical treatment and had been living in exile in the country ever since.
General Pervez Musharraf, who died recently, was elected as Pakistan’s president in which year? 2001
India’s Monty Desai appointed head coach of Nepal national cricket team
he Nepal Cricket Association has appointed former Indian cricketer Monty Desai as the head coach of the Nepal national cricket team.
He will replace another former Indian cricketer Manoj Prabhakar, who resigned from his post in December 2022. Nepal Cricket Association has signed a two-year deal with Monty Desai.
Monty has been the head coach of teams like West Indies, Canada, UAE. Monty has also served as the head coach of the Rajasthan Royals team in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
A total of 24 people had applied following a call for application by the CAN for the post of the national coach of Nepali national cricket team.
Nepal is currently preparing for the triangular one-day series as part of the ICC Men’s World Cup Cricket League Two tournament.
The tournament featuring Nepal, Scotland and Namibia is being held in Nepal from February 14.
Nepal:
Capital: Kathmandu
President: Bidhya Devi Bhandari
Prime minister: Pushpa Kamal Dahal
Currency: Nepalese Rupee
Which former Indian cricketer has been appointed as the head coach of the Nepal national cricket team? Monty Desai
Also read: