Report on International Arms Transfers

Shankar School of Banking March 19 , 2021 454

NATIONAL NEWS

It is to be implemented by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) under the aegis of the Ministry of Home Affairs, along with coordination from the respective state governments and the National Institute for Disaster Management (NIDM), it is to be assisted by the World Bank.
The objective of the Project is to undertake suitable measures to mitigate the effects of cyclones in the coastal states and UTs of India.
The Project has identified 13 cyclone prone States and Union Territories (UTs), with varying levels of vulnerability.
These States/UT have further been classified into two categories, based on the frequency of occurrence of cyclone, size of population and the existing institutional mechanism for disaster management.
Category I: Higher vulnerability States i.e., Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
Category II: Lower vulnerability States i.e., Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa, Pondicherry, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The Rajya Sabha passed the Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2020.
The passage of this bill will raise the limit of foreign investments in an Indian insurance company from the existing 49 per cent to 74 per cent.

Report on International Arms Transfers

This report was released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
According to this report, largest arms exporters in 2016-20 were US, Russia, France, Germany, China, while Top importers in 2016-20 - Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, Australia, China.
India’s arms imports fell 33% between 2011-15 and 2016-20 and the top three arms suppliers during 2016-20 were Russia (49% of India’s imports), France (18%) and Israel (13%).
The report also mentioned that the top recipients of India’s arms - Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Mauritius.

The current Prime Minister of the Dutch i.e., Netherlands has been elected again for the fourth time consecutively in the recent election held.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte belongs to the Conservative party in Netherlands.

Facts on Netherlands:

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) have agreed to lend a $41 million to finance investment in renewable energy solutions by Indian SMEs.
USAID and DFC partnered with the New York-based Encourage Capital and two Indian non-banking financial companies- cKers Financial and Electronica Finance Ltd (EFL) for this process.

Chennai-based startups were the winner and runner of Qualcomm Design in India Challenge 2020.
Adiuvo Diagnostics won for their solution for early disease detection through optoelectronics was the winner and awarded with a prize money of ₹65 lakh.
Planys Technologies was the runner-up for their underwater robotic inspection and got awards of ₹50 lakh.
Wellnesys Technologies came as the 3^rd with ₹35 lakh for their digital healthcare innovation.
Qualcomm Design in India Challenge is one of India’s longest running hardware start-up incubation programmes.

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