India-Japan Maritime bilateral exercise ‘JIMEX’ begins today

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

India and Australia's two-day naval exercise, PASSEX, in Indian Ocean concludes

• Royal Australian Navy and Indian Navy warships completed two-day Passage Exercise (PASSEX) in the East Indian Ocean region.
• The exercise aimed at enhancing interoperability, improving understanding and imbibing best practices from each other.
• It involved advanced surface and anti-air exercises including weapon firing, seamanship exercises, naval manoeuvres and Cross Deck Flying Operations.
• The Indian Navy regularly conducts PASSEX with units of friendly foreign navies, whilst visiting each other's ports or during a rendezvous at sea.
• This exercise reflects the growing strength of Indo-Australian bilateral relations as comprehensive strategic partners, particularly in defence cooperation in the maritime domain.

India-Japan Maritime bilateral exercise ‘JIMEX’ begins today

• The fourth edition of India-Japan Maritime bilateral exercise (JIMEX) begins in North Arabian Sea from today with special focus on maritime security cooperation.
• The exercise is conducted biennially between the Indian Navy and Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF).
• The last edition of JIMEX was conducted in October 2018 off Visakhapatnam coast. JIMEX 20 will be spread over three days and is being conducted in a ‘non-contact at-sea-only format’, in view of COVID-19 restrictions.
• The three-day long, JIMEX 20 will display high degree of inter-operability and joint operational skills through conduct of a multitude of advanced exercises, across the spectrum of maritime operations.
• This bilateral exercise will further enhance the cooperation and mutual confidence between the two navies and fortify the long-standing bond of friendship between the two countries.

15th CII – Exim Bank Digital Conclave on India Africa Project Partnership

• Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organised the 15th CII – Exim Bank Digital Conclave on India – Africa Project Partnership with the support of the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, on virtual platform.
• Over the last 14 editions, the conclave has seen the participation of eminent dignitaries from across Africa and India, who have actively built bridges to strengthen the partnership between our two regions.
• The key areas for discussion are Agriculture, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, Power and Energy, Infrastructure, Manufacturing, Finance, Education & Skill Development amongst others.
• India is Africa's third-largest export destination. With a cumulative investment of USD 54 billion, it is also one of the biggest investors in the continent.

Fact: President of South Africa - Cyril Ramaphosa

NATIONAL NEWS

India holds webinar with Cambodia to boost defence cooperation

• A webinar between India and Cambodia was organised under the aegis of Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence through Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers, SIDM. 
• The theme of the webinar was “Indian Defence Industry Global Outreach for Collaborative Partnership: Webinar and Expo”.
• This webinar is the part of the series of webinars, which are being organized with friendly foreign countries in order to boost defence exports and achieve defence export target of 5 billion dollars in the next five years.
• Creation of Sub Working Group (SWG) on Defence Industrial Cooperation between India and Israel was also announced in the webinar.
• The main objective of the SWG will be Transfer of Technology, Co-development & Co-production, Artificial Intelligence, Innovation and Joint Export to friendly foreign countries.

World Risk Index 2020 released

• According to the World Risk Index (WRI) 2020, India is ‘poorly prepared’ to deal with ‘climate reality’, due to which it is vulnerable to extreme natural disasters.
• It ranked at the 89^th spot among 181 countries.
• Among continents, Oceania is at the highest risk, followed by Africa and the Americas.
• The Index is part of the World Risk Report 2020 released by the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), Bundnis Entwicklung Hilft and the University of Stuttgart in Germany.
• It is calculated on a country-by-country basis, through the multiplication of exposure and vulnerability and describes the disaster risk for various countries and regions since 2011.

ECONOMIC NEWS

Income Tax Department launches Faceless Income tax appeals

• The Income Tax Department has launched Faceless Income tax Appeals, under it, all income tax appeals will be finalised in a faceless manner with the exception of appeals relating to serious frauds, major tax evasion, sensitive and search matters, International tax and Black Money Act.
• The Faceless Appeals system aims to streamline the income tax collection process and check corruption and unfair practices during the resolution of the appeals of the taxpayers.
• The Faceless Appeal system will include allocation of cases through Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence under the dynamic jurisdiction with central issuance of notices, which would be having Document Identification Number.

OBITUARY

Legendary singer SP Balasubramanyam passes away due to COVID-19

• Legendary playback singer SP Balasubrahmanyam passed away on September 25 at the age of 74.
• Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam, fondly referred to as S. P. B., was an Indian musician, playback singer, music director, actor, dubbing artist and film producer who worked predominantly in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and Malayalam films.
• In a career spanning over five decades, SPB won 6 National Film Awards for Best Male Playback Singer and 25 Nandi Awards.
• The Government of India honoured the singer-actor with Padma Shri in 2001 Padma Bhushan in 2011.