CAG Murmu elected as external auditor of Inter-Parliamentary Union

• The Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) of India Girish Chandra Murmu has been elected as external auditor of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) for three years. Murmu will assume the position shortly by taking charge from Supreme Audit Institution of Switzerland.

• The election took place at the virtual meeting of the 284th session of the IPU.

• The CAG of India has been the external auditor of various international organisations. The CAG has earlier also been on the UN Board of Auditors from 1993 to 1999 and 2014 to 2020. Presently, he is the external auditor of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

• In the recent past, he has been the external auditor of the World Food Programme, World Intellectual Property Organization, International Atomic Energy Agency, UN World Tourism Organization, International Organization for Migration, International Maritime Organization and Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

What is the purpose of the Inter-Parliamentary Union?

• The Inter-Parliamentary Union is a global organisation of national parliaments.

• The IPU was created in 1889 by France & UK, in an era when there were no established means for governments or parliaments to work together internationally.

• The slogan of IPU is “For democracy. For everyone.”

• Initially, the organisation was for individual parliamentarians but has since transformed into an international organisation of the parliaments of sovereign states. It facilitates parliamentary diplomacy and empowers parliaments and parliamentarians to promote peace, democracy and sustainable development around the world. 

• The IPU is inching ever closer to universal membership, with 179 Member Parliaments out of the 193 countries in the world – from huge nations like China, India and Indonesia, to the tiny States of Cabo Verde, San Marino and Palau. 

• Its Members represent more than 6.5 billion of the world’s 7 billion people.

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Pradhan stresses on ‘Mission Purvodaya’ for development in eastern region

• Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan said that India cannot become ‘atmanirbhar’ without the eastern India becoming self-reliant. 

• While addressing the 119th annual general meeting of Merchant’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Pradhan said that under ‘Mission Purvodaya’, the government is building an integrated steel hub in eastern India which would add to the competitiveness of the steel sector and facilitate regional development with job creation. 

What is Mission Purvodaya?

• Mission Purvodaya was launched in January this year which aims at the accelerated development of eastern India through an integrated steel hub.

• Eastern states (Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal) and northern part of Andhra Pradesh collectively hold 80 per cent of the country’s iron ore, 100 per cent of coking coal and a significant portion of chromite, bauxite and dolomite reserves.

• There are major ports such as Paradip, Haldia, Visakhapatnam and Kolkata, with more than 30 per cent of India’s major port capacity.

• The eastern belt has the potential to add more than 75 per cent of the country’s incremental steel capacity envisioned by the National Steel Policy. It is expected that out of the 300 million tonne capacity by 2030-31, more than 200 million tonnes can come from this region alone. At the same time, this will help drive investments, employment and improve the standard of living for the people in this region. 

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Rajnath launches portal for defence land management system

• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has launched a portal for defence land management system (LMS) that is expected to bring greater transparency, efficiency and speed in dealing with land management matters.

• As part of efforts to improve overall management of defence land, for the first time an LMS has been developed by the Department of Defence (DOD) in conjunction with the Directorate General Defence Estates (DGDE) and armed forces. The Intranet portal will digitise all requests of defence land management received by the DOD in the future.

• All data for cases since 2016 have already been captured and are available in the portal. Data of prior period will also be entered in the portal which is meant only for departmental use and it is not open for the public.

• With the integration of GIS (Geographic Information System) based tools, it will improve the decision-making process by removing duplication and unnecessary communication between various stakeholder groups involved in the decision-making process. The technical support for this GIS-based system has been provided by BISAG (Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics), India’s premier organisation in GIS-based informatics.

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Mastercard, USAID join hands for Project Kirana to empower women 

• Global payments technology major Mastercard has joined hands with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for Project Kirana that will help increase revenue streams, expand financial inclusion and digital payments adoption of kirana (grocery) shops that are owned or operated by women.

• To begin with, as many as 3,000 such women are targeted to be enrolled under this project in certain places in Uttar Pradesh.

• Recently, Mastercard announced a commitment of Rs 250 crore to help reboot Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and enable business recovery amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The company has launched multiple initiatives in India in helping small businesses go online by growing digital payments. The initiatives will also drive inclusive growth by enabling small merchants and kirana stores with access to credit and empower women entrepreneurs by increasing their business acumen.

What is the purpose of USAID?

• USAID was established on November 3, 1961. It leads the US government’s international development and disaster assistance through partnerships and investments that save lives, reduce poverty, strengthen democratic governance, help people emerge from humanitarian crises and progress beyond assistance.

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Tibetan political leader visits White House for first time in six decades

• The head of the Tibetan government in exile has visited the US White House for the first time in six decades, a move that could further infuriate Beijing, which has accused the US of trying to destabilise the region.

• Lobsang Sangay, President of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), was invited to the White House to meet the newly appointed US Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, Robert Destro, on November 20. 

• US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on October 15 named senior diplomat Destro as Special Coordinator for Tibetan issues, who, among other matters, would focus on advancing dialogue between the Communist government in China and the Dalai Lama.

• China has criticised Destro’s appointment, saying it amounted to political manipulation aimed at destabilising Tibet.

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India, EU hold talks on counter-terrorism

• The 12th Counter-Terrorism Dialogue between India and the European Union (EU) was held virtually on November 19. The Dialogue was an opportunity to continue close cooperation and coordination on this important element of the India-EU strategic partnership. Both India and the EU resolved to support each other in the fight against terrorism.

• The Counter-Terrorism Dialogue was co-chaired by Mahaveer Singhvi, joint secretary for counter terrorism in ministry of external affairs and Joanneke Balfoort, director for security policy, European External Action Service.

• They strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations including the use of terrorist proxies for cross-border terrorism.

• India and the EU exchanged views on current counter-terrorism challenges, including countering radicalisation and violent extremism, combating the financing of terrorism, and tackling terrorist use of the Internet.

• They discussed ways to deepen cooperation between Indian agencies and their European counterparts, including Europol, to enhance interaction in the sphere of counter terrorism. In this context, they referred to the on-going negotiations on a working arrangement between Europol and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to support Indian and EU law enforcement authorities in preventing and combating organised crime and terrorism.

• The Dialogue also presented an opportunity to discuss counter terrorism cooperation in multilateral fora such as the Financial Action Task Force, the Global Counter Terrorism Forum and the United Nations, including in the UN High-Level Counter-Terrorism Week 2021 and the upcoming review of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.

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JuD chief Hafiz Saeed gets 10 years in jail for terror funding 

• Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed was sentenced to 10 years in jail by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan in two more terror financing cases.

• Saeed, a UN designated terrorist, was arrested on July 17 last year in the terror financing cases. He was sentenced to 11 years in jail by an anti-terrorism court in February this year in two terror financing cases. The 70-year-old JuD chief is lodged at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail.

• The sentencing comes weeks after Paris-based global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog — the Financial Action Task Force — retained Pakistan on its grey list till February 2021 as Islamabad failed to fulfil the agency’s six key obligations, including failure to take action against two of India’s most wanted terrorists — Saeed and Maulana Masood Azhar.

• The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. He was listed under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008. 

• The FATF had placed Pakistan on the grey list in June 2018 and asked Islamabad to implement a plan of action to curb money laundering and terror financing by the end of 2019 but the deadline was extended later. With Pakistan’s continuation in the ‘grey list’, the country may find it difficult to get financial aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union, thus further enhancing problems for the cash-strapped nation.

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Rajnath, Javadekar launch two books on President’s selected speeches

• Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Prakash Javadekar unveiled two books on President Ram Nath Kovind’s selected speeches.

• The books are: ‘The Republican Ethic - Volume III’ and ‘Loktantra Ke Swar’.

• ‘Loktantra Ke Swar’ and ‘The Republican Ethic’, published by the publications division, ministry of information and broadcasting, are a series of books of collection of selected speeches of the President Kovind in Hindi and English.

• The Republican Ethic - Volume 3, is a collection of selected speeches of Kovind during the third year of his presidency. Divided into eight sections, the 57 speeches covered in this volume reflect the thoughts and vision of the president for building a new India that is forward looking, growing and also strongly rooted in its historical and cultural value systems.

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Former US President Obama’s memoir releases

• Former President Barack Obama’s ‘A Promised Land’ sold nearly 890,000 copies in the US and Canada in its first 24 hours, putting it on track to be the best selling presidential memoir in modern history.

• The only book by a former White House resident to come close to the early pace of ‘A Promised Land’ is the memoir by Obama’s wife, Michelle Obama, whose ‘Becoming’ sold 725,000 copies in North America its first day and has topped 10 million worldwide since its release in 2018. 

• Obama has already written two acclaimed, million-selling works, ‘Dreams from My Father’ and ‘The Audacity of Hope:Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream’.  

Newsmaker

Former Goa governor Mridula Sinha passed away in New Delhi. She was 77. Sinha was from Bihar and was associated with the Jana Sangh and then the BJP. Sinha, a noted Hindi writer and poetess, was also a former head of the BJP’s Mahila Morcha and remained its executive member for long before being appointed Goa governor in 2014.

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