India & World Current Affairs December
First BRICS Media Summit
- China has taken the initiative on December 1, 2015 for creating an alternative media platform for the emerging economies by hosting the first media summit of countries belonging to the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) grouping.
- A total of 25 media organizations were participated in the summit, which hopes to create a new institutional framework that would be tailored to benefit the media of five emerging economies, which have deep linkages with the Global South.
- China’s Xinhua news agency has been the initiator of the project that is adding one more dimension to the BRICS format, in collaboration with The Hindu group of publications, the Brazil Communication Company, Russia Today International News Agency, and South Africa’s Independent Media.
Read Also – Defence and Security Current Affairs Nov.
India and France Launched International Solar Energy Alliance at CoP-21
- India and France have launched an International Solar Alliance to boost solar energy in developing countries on November 30, 2015 at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris by Indian Prime Minister Narendera Modi and French President Francois Hollande.
- The alliance includes around 120 countries that support the “Declaration on the occasion to launch the international solar alliance of countries dedicated to the promotion of solar energy”. Thit alliance brings together countries that have high solar resource and have been relatively underexploited, and represents a large market for solar technology.
- The alliance will bring countries located within the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn on a single platform. These typically have high solar resource, some with as many as 300 days of sunshine.
India Re-elected as Member of IMO Council
- The 29th Session of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Assembly is being held at IMO Headquarters London from November 23 to December 2, 2015 where India has been re-elected unopposed to the Council of IMO under Category ‘B’ on November 27, 2015.
- India’s overseas seaborne EXJM trade, which is presently about 600 million tonnes per annum, is expected to be quadrupled to about 2200 million tonnes by 2020. India ranks amongst the top 20 ship owning countries of the world.
- IMO is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating shipping. It was established in 1948 at Geneva and came into force in 1959.
Read Also – Space Current Affairs November 2015.
India and Singapore Entered into Strategic Partnership
- India and Singapore signed a joint declaration envisaging a ‘Strategic Partnership ‘which aims to catalyse new ones ranging from political, defence and security cooperation to economic, cultural and people-to-people contacts.
- Besides broadening engagement in existing areas of cooperation, the partnership declared a framework to contribute to greater regional stability and growth. In this regard, the two countries signed as many as 10 bilateral agreements.
- MoUs were signed for curtailing drug trafficking and improving cybersecurity, enabling Singapore and India to collaborate on technology and research. Another MoU was signed for cooperation in a number of mutually agreed areas of civil aviation services and airport management beginning with Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports.
- Agreements were signed for collaboration in urban planning and wastewater management and to extend long-term loan of Indian artefacts to the Asian Civilisations Museum of Singapore and for cooperation in the fields of arts, museums, archives and monuments.
- A document was signed for operationalisation of the Technical Agreement on sharing white-shipping information signed by the Indian Navy and the Singapore Navy on July 21, 2015.
- India had sought Singapore’s expertise in skills development, development of tourism, particularly the Buddhist circuit and smart cities. In this connection, India was looking at the northeast for setting-up a skill development institute by Singapore.
- Prime Minister Modi witnessed the release of two, stamps by the Singapore postal department. He presented ‘an old and very rare’ map of Singapore to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Besides he paid homage at the Indian National Army memorial in Singapore.
ADB Pledged $ 120 Million Loan to Finance Electricity Link
- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has pledged to provide $ 120 million loan on November 19, 2015 in order to finance cross-border electricity link between Bangladesh and India under the ambitious South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) Programme.
- The loan amount would be used for Second Bangladesh-India Grid Inter connectivity project which will double the existing capacity from 500 MW to 1000 MW of the inter-connectivity link connecting power grid at Bheramara in western Bangladesh and the grid of Eastern India at Bahrampur (Odisha).
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