Henley Passport Index 2023

London-based global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners has released the Henley Passport Index 2023.

• Created in 2006, the Henley Passport Index ranks the passports of countries according to the number of destinations their holders can visit without a prior visa.
• It ranks passports based on their power and mobility based on the analysis of exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
  • IATA maintains the world’s largest and most accurate database of travel information.
• It assumes only the passport of citizen of country and it is not for diplomatic, emergency or temporary in nature.

Rankings

• Singapore is the most powerful passport in the world, with its citizens able to visit 192 travel destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free.
• Germany, Italy, and Spain occupy the second place. Alongside Japan at the third position are Austria, Finland, France, Luxembourg, South Korea, and Sweden.
• Japan which was first last year, dropped to third place this year.
• The U.K. climbed two places to occupy the fourth place, while the U.S. continued its decade-long slide down the index, dropping two places to the eighth spot.

Most open countries

• The Top 20 ‘most open’ countries are all small island nations or African states, except for Cambodia.
• There are 12 completely open countries that offer visa-free or visa-on-arrival entry to all 198 passports in the world (not counting their own), namely: Burundi, Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Guinea-Bissau, Maldives, Micronesia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Samoa, Seychelles, Timor-Leste, and Tuvalu.

India

• India has climbed seven places on Henley Passport Index 2023 to 80th rank from 87 last year though the number of countries allowed visa-free access to Indian passport holders remain unchanged.
• However, India is among the worst countries for allowing visa-free entry.

Tiger Orchids

Tiger orchids, largest orchid species, bloom at Kerala’s Jawaharlal Nehru botanic garden.

• The orchid variety is native to South East Asia.
• They are native to Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.
• Grammatophyllum speciosum, popular as the ‘Tiger Orchid,’ is the largest orchid species in the world.
• The plant was listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s tallest orchid.
• They are so called because of their splendid flowers which sport striking brown spots against a yellow backdrop, bringing to mind tigers.
• Flowering starts in June and lasts till August.
• After 8-12 years of growth, Grammatophyllum speciosum produces flowers in alternate years in its natural habitat.
• Different parts of tiger orchids can be used as treatments for skin rashes, fever, and also anemia.

FAME Scheme

Seven manufacturers were fined over not complying with local sourcing norms under the FAME scheme.

• The scheme is implemented by the Department of Heavy Industry, Ministry of Heavy Industries
• The scheme is implemented to reduce the price of EVs by incentivising manufacturers through subsidies.
• To be eligible for the scheme, a manufacturing clause required the vehicle to be fitted with 50 per cent of locally made parts by vehicle value.

FAME Phase I

• Under the scheme, subsidy is being given to 11 cities for launching electric buses, taxis and three-wheelers.
• The cities include Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Jaipur, Mumbai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Indore and Kolkata, plus two cities, Jammu and Guwahati under special category.

FAME Phase II

• Government has approved Phase-II of FAME Scheme with an outlay of Rs. 10,000 Crore for a period of 3 years commencing from 1st April 2019.

Gujarat International Finance Tech (GIFT) City

Foreign investors will need assurance about a benign regulatory environment before the IFSC takes off.

• It is a business district near Ahmedabad in Gujarat.
• The building has been conceptualized as an iconic structure, reflective of the growing prominence and stature of GIFT-IFSC as a leading International Financial Centre.
• It consists of a multi-service Special Economic Zone (SEZ), which houses India’s first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) and an exclusive Domestic Tariff Area (DTA).
• It is situated on the shores of the Sabarmati River.

International Financial Services Centre Authority

• IFSCA is a statutory body established in 2020 under the International Financial Services Centres Authority Act, 2019 to ensure inter-regulatory coordination within the financial sector.
• Headquarters: At GIFT City, Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
• It is a unified authority for the development and regulation of financial products, financial services and financial institutions in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in India.
• In 2021, it had constituted the Vandana Aggarwal committee to examine global best practices in financing and leasing of ships.
• The committee also assigned the task of identifying opportunities and devise a roadmap to enable such activities from GIFT IFSC.

Light Fidelity (Li-Fi)

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has formally announced 802.11bb as a standard for light-based wireless communications, or Li-Fi.

• It uses special LED (light-emitting diodes) light bulbs as routers and works on optical wireless communications (OWC) technology.
• Li-Fi devices will deliver data through visible, infrared, or ultraviolet light, unlike Wi-Fi routers, which use radio frequencies to transmit data.
• Li-Fi's speed is said to be 100 times faster than WiGig, the fastest Wi-Fi in the 60GHz frequency band, which can achieve a maximum speed of 7GB per second.
• Li-Fi decreases eavesdropping and jamming and facilitates centimeter-precision indoor navigation.
• If a user wants to use Li-FI, they need a Li-Fi-equipped LED bulb in the room since light cannot penetrate walls like radio waves.
• Currently, developers are working to optimise mixed use of Wi-Fi and Li-Fi for homes and offices use.