Prelim Bits 15-08-2017

Mega War Games

India and Russia will hold a mega war game in October involving their armies, navies and the air forces to further ramp up military ties.
It will be the first time both Russia and India carry out an integrated tri-services exercise.
It will be for the first time India will participate in a tri-services exercise with a foreign country with such large scale participation by the Navy, the Army and the Air Force.
The armies, navies and air forces of Russia are holding bilateral exercises separately such as

World Congress of Optometry

The congress is a World Council of Optometry initiative in partnership with its members the Asia Pacific Council of Optometry and the India Vision Institute.
It is being held once in two years.
The first Congress was held in Colombia in 2015.
The second Congress is going to be held in Hyderabad in 2017.
The theme of this year congress is ‘Accessible, quality vision and eye health’.
It ties into WHO’s ‘Universal eye health: A global action plan 2014-19,’ which aims to reduce the prevalence of avoidable visual impairment by 25 per cent by 2017.

Ashgabat agreement

Recently, India and Turkmenistan discussed ways to establish a transport transit corridor as a part of Ashgabat agreement.
India decided to accede to Ashgabat agreement in 2016. India would become member upon consent from the founding members of Ashgabat agreement.
The Ashgabat Agreement aims to create multi modal international transport transit corridor.
It has Oman, Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as founding members. Kazakhstan has also joined this arrangement subsequently.
Pakistan decided to join Ashgabat agreement last year.
Accession to the Agreement would enable India to utilise this existing transport and transit corridor to facilitate trade and commercial interaction with the Eurasian region.
Further, this would synchronise with our efforts to implement the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) for enhanced connectivity.

SITA

Supporting Indian Trade and Investment for Africa (SITA) is a project of the International Trade Centre which aims to catalyze at least $80 million worth investment by 2020 between East African Countries and India.
It covers five East African countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya Rwanda, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania.
Though Indian SMEs interested in exploring opportunities in African markets, they are not aware of the new geographies, political and socio economic situations, investment climate, regulatory framework.
SITA helps bridge this gap through awareness building workshops and seminars. It also disseminates sector-focused information.

Sankalp Se Siddhi

Sankalp Se Siddhi is a New India Movement 2017-22, launched on the occasion marking 75^th anniversary of Quit India Movement.
It envisages India free of Poverty, Corruption, Terrorism, Communalism, Casteism and uncleanliness.

Loan to Value Ratio

The ratio is used to access the risk involved in extending a loan to a borrower against the value of collateral.
The loan to value (LTV) ratio is calculated by dividing the loan amount by the estimated market value of the collateral.
The ratio is expressed in percentage terms and it shows the amount of money that can be salvaged from a borrower in case of a default.
Since the actual market value of the collateral is likely to fluctuate over time, loans with lower LTV ratio are considered safer as the lender is protected from larger fluctuations in collateral value.

Largest Volcanic Region on Earth

Researchers have recently discovered the largest volcanic region on Earth with nearly 100 volcanoes, two km below the surface of the vast ice sheet in west Antarctica.
This huge region is likely to dwarf east Africa’s volcanic ridge currently rated as the densest concentration of volcanoes in the world.