South Asia Regional Youth Peace Conference
- The conference will be organized by Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti (GSDS), functioning under Ministry of Culture.
- UNESCO MGEIP (Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development) is in partnership with GSDS for organizing this conference.
- It is being organized to mark the beginning of celebration of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
- It focusses on building a network for young leaders from South Asian countries to work towards achieving UN sustainable development goals.
Mission Raksha Gyan Shakti
- Union Defence Minister has launched Mission Raksha Gyan Shakti (Power of Defence Knowledge).
- It aimed at educating scientists and technologists in defence public sector undertakings and ordnance factories OFs to create more patents.
- A target has been set to train approximately 10,000 persons of OFs and DPSUs on IPR in the financial year 2018-19 under the mission.
Hedging Norms for Companies
- A hedge is an investment to reduce the risk of adverse price movements in an asset.
- RBI has recently relaxed norms for External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) by reducing the mandatory hedging provision to 70% from the current 100%.
- The notification has come after strengthening of the dollar in the recent times which made ECB route unattractive to companies.
- A notification issued by RBI highlights that mandatory hedge coverage has been reduced under Track I of the ECB framework.
- Track I refer to medium-term foreign currency-denominated ECBs with a minimum average maturity of 3-5 years.
- ECBs raised prior to this circular would be required to mandatorily roll over their existing hedge only to the extent of 70% of outstanding ECB exposure.
- The move will help reduce costs for companies that raise foreign funds.
Chandrayaan – 2
- The Chandrayaan-2 lunar’s orbiter with lander and rover is scheduled to be launched in January, 2019.
- A crucial test before the launch called “Lander Sensor Performance Test (LSPT)” is going to be conducted by ISRO.
- It involves lander’s sensors which is set to undergo test at Challakere, Karnataka.
- ISRO has planned to fly the sensor on an aircraft over its artificial lunar site at Challakere, which resemble lunar craters.
- It is to test how the sensor will guide the lander when it starts descending on the lunar terrain.
- As the plane descends over the artifical terrain, the sensors must show how they will guide the soft landing of the lunar craft at the right spot, speed and position.
- Role of Sensor in the Lander – It helps assess height from the landing spot.
- It decides speed of the lander.
- It helps lander navigate boulder or uneven surfaces.
Logix India 2019
- It is the upcoming logistics meet to be held in New Delhi.
- Delegates from more than 20 countries including Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq are expected to participate.
- It will be organized by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO).
- It is aimed at exploring logistics partnerships with India and will improve logistics cost effectiveness and operational efficiencies for India’s global trade.
- It will focus on investment opportunities in infrastructure development, warehouse consolidation, technology integration and IT enablement and skilling of manpower.
- India is ranked 44 in the World Bank Logistics Performance Index 2018.
- Logistics costs in India are 13-15% of the product cost, while the global average is 6%.
Source: PIB, The Hindu, The New Indian Express
