NATIONAL

India unites in G20 Troika

• India joins hand along with Indonesia and Italy in the G20 Troika, recently Indonesia assumed the G20 Presidency from Italy which was the former president.
• Now Indonesia will conduct G20 meetings with the members throughout the year with the overall theme of "Recover Together Recover Stronger”, and will preside till the G20 Leaders Summit to be held on 30-31 Oct 2022.
• India will assume the G20 presidency from Dec1 2020 from Indonesia and will be responsible to conduct the meetings and consistency of the G20 agenda.

Additional Fact-

1. The Global 20 or G20 is an intergovernmental organization formed on 26 sep 1999, comprising of 19 countries and European Union to work and address on International Financial Stability, Climate change mitigation and sustainable development.
2. The members of G20 Include Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States and European Union.
3. Troika is a Russian Word that describes a group of three things.

Hornbill Festival of Nagaland Begins

• Chief Minister of Nagaland Mr. Neiphiu Rio and Governor of Assam and Nagaland Jagdish Mukhi have inaugurated the 22nd Edition of Nagaland’s Hornbill festival at Naga Heritage village Kisama.
• The Festival started with a flight of Hornbill, a traditional Musical presentation by Task Force for music and Arts of Nagaland.
• Ambassador of Israel to India Mr. Naor Gilon, United States Consul General Ms. Melinda Pavek, and Consul General of Germany Mr. Manfred Auster were the guests of Honour.
• The Hornbill festival will be celebrated for 10 days with colourful traditional music and dance by the indigenous warrior tribes of Nagaland, the Naga Tribes

27^th report on Ethical Standards in Media Coverage presented

• The Parliamengtary committee on Communications and Information Technology has submitted its 27^th report on Ethical Standards in Media Coverage report in the parliament.
• The panel suggested the government to ensure code of ethics in the digital media space along with preserving the Freedom of expression
• The panel also had put forward about the trend of digital Fake news and insisted the Ministry of law and justice to implement the recommendations of law commission to make paid news as an electoral offence.
• The Committee also recommended to create a media commission with experts to look after the complex issues.

Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation bill 2020 passed

• Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has passed the Assisted Reproductive Technology(Regulation) bill in the Lok Sabha,
• The Bill aims to regulate assisted reproductive technology (ART) services such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF) centres, sperm or egg Banks.
• The bill was passed by a voice vote to protect affected women and children from exploitation.

BANKING, FINANCE AND ECONOMICS

GST collection records second

• The Good and Services Tax, collected for the month of November saw a high of Rs 1,31,526 crore.
• It is the second highest collection from its implementation, and it records a second month collection over Rs.1.3 lakh crore.
• The revenue of November 2021 saw a high of 25% higher than the revenue collected in the Nov 2020.
• Revenue from Import goods saw a 43% high, Revenues from domestic transaction saw a 20% high compared to the collections on Nov 2020.

India’s Export notices a Dip

• The Merchandise exports saw a dip to $ 29.88 billion in the month of November, which is the lowest in the eight months.
• The Indian imports stood at 38% from the pre pandemic levels, while the exports recorded a 16%, ultimately widening the trade deficit.
• The trade deficit broadened to a record of $23.27 billion from $19.9 billion.
• It is 83% higher compared to the levels in Nov 2019.

RBI report on State Finances

• The Reserve Bank of India released a report ‘State Finances: A study of Budgets of 2021-22’.
• The report revealed that the combined debt-to-GDP ratio stayed at 31% by end of March 2022.
• The target was actually set at 20% to be achieved by 2022-23, while the finance commission expects the debt-GDP ratio to peak at 33.3% in 2022-23 and will decline to reach at 32.5% by 2025-26.

SPORTS

Football Stadium opens at Qatar

• The Al Bayt football stadium located at city of Al Khor in Qatar has been opened by the Emir of the state of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamas Al Thani, while FIFA president Gianni Infantino was invited as the guest for the inauguration
• The stadium is set to host the opening games of FIFA which is to be held by 2022.
• The Stadium has been modelled on Bayt Al Sha’ar, which is the traditional nomadic tents of the Gulf region equipped with artificial cooling technology.

MISCELLANEOUS

• Dec 2^nd is observed as the International day of Abolition of Slavery, aimed to abolish all forms of slavery.
• Dec 2^nd is observed as the World Computer Literacy Day.