Japanese film ‘Ring Wandering’ bags top honour at IFFI

• Japanese director Masakazu Kaneko’s ‘Ring Wandering’, about an aspiring manga artist, won the top honour at the closing ceremony of the 52nd edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.

• The film won the coveted Golden Peacock Award, which consists of a cash prize of Rs 40 lakh to be shared equally between Kaneko and producer Takashi Shiotsuki.

• The Silver Peacock award for best director went to Czech director Vaclav Kadrnka’s ‘Saving One Who Was Dead’. He received a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh for the award.

• Jitendra Bhikulal Joshi won the Silver Peacock for best actor (male) for filmmaker Nikhil Mahajan’s Marathi drama ‘Godavari’. Mahajan was also felicitated with a special jury award.

• The Silver Peacock for best actor (female) went to Angela Molina for her Paraguayan film ‘Charlotte’ by Simon Franco. Both Joshi and Molina received cash prizes of Rs 10 lakh each.

• In recognition of their outstanding contribution to world cinema, Hungarian filmmaker Istevan Szabo and American filmmaker Martin Scorsese have been conferred the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award at the opening ceremony of the festival.

• Noted lyricist and CBFC chairman Prasoon Joshi and veteran actor Hema Malini were honoured with the Indian Film Personality of the Year 2021 Award. 

• Argentine filmmaker Mari Alessandrini’s ‘Zahori’ bagged the best debut feature film of a director at the festival. 

• The special jury mention was given to Roman Vasyanov for the Russian film ‘The Dorm’. 

• Simon Farriol’s ‘Wealth of the World’ won the jury special mention for the debut feature film of a director. 

• ‘Lingui - The Sacred Bonds’, helmed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun from Chad, won the ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Award.

• Uttar Pradesh was awarded the most friendly state for film shooting.

BRICS Film Festival

• The winners for BRICS Film Festival, conducted alongside the IFFI for the first time, were also announced during the ceremony.

• National Award winner Dhanush won the best actor trophy for his Tamil movie ‘Asuran’, while Brazilian actor Lara Boldorini took home the best actress award for ‘On Wheels’.

• This is the sixth edition of the BRICS Film Festival in which a special package of films from countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa were showcased.

• Lucia Marat was named the best director under the BRICS Film Festival for the film ‘Ana’ (Brazil).

• The best film award was shared by South African film ‘Barakat’ and Russian film ‘The Sun Above Me Sets’.

• Chinese director Yan Han was given the special mention award for the film ‘A Little Red Flower’.

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Petr Fiala appointed as new PM of Czech Republic

• Czech President Milos Zeman appointed the leader of a centre-right alliance Petr Fiala as Prime Minister. 

• Fiala leads a bloc of five centre and centre-right opposition parties that won an election in October, ousting the incumbent premier Andrej Babis and his allies.

• Fiala, 57, who has led the conservative Civic Democratic Party since 2014, is a professor of political sciences. Previously, he served as Education Minister between 2012-13. 

• Indian PM Narendra Modi congratulated Petr Fiala over his appointment as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic and said he looks forward to working with him for further enhancing ties between the two countries.

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Vivek Johri appointed CBIC chairman

• Senior bureaucrat Vivek Johri has been appointed as the chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC). He succeeds M. Ajit Kumar who completes his tenure this month end. 

• Johri, a 1985-batch Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Indirect Taxes) officer, is currently working as a member of the Board.

• The  Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Johri as the chairman of the CBIC.

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs

• Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (erstwhile Central Board of Excise & Customs) is a part of the department of revenue under the ministry of finance. The Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) was restructured as CBIC when GST was implemented in 2017.

• It deals with the tasks of formulation of policy concerning levy and collection of customs, central excise duties, Central Goods & Services Tax and IGST, prevention of smuggling and administration of matters relating to customs, central excise, Central Goods & Services Tax, IGST and narcotics to the extent under CBIC’s purview. 

• The Board is the administrative authority for its subordinate organisations, including Custom Houses, Central Excise and Central GST Commissionerates and the Central Revenues Control Laboratory.

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Interpol General Assembly elects new President

• The Interpol General Assembly has elected Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi of the United Arab Emirates as the organisation’s new president.

• As president, Al Raisi’s role during his four-year term will include chairing meetings of the executive committee which supervises the implementation of decisions taken at the General Assembly. The role of the president is part-time and unpaid.

Interpol

• The International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) is an inter-governmental organisation that has 194 member countries.

• It began as the International Criminal Police Commission in 1923, and became the International Criminal Police Organisation in 1956.

• India became a member country on October 15, 1949.

• Interpol’s mission is to enable police around the world to work together to prevent and fight international crime.

• It enables police to work directly with their counterparts, even between countries which do not have diplomatic relations.

Functioning of Interpol

• Interpol enables countries to share and access data on crimes and criminals and offer a range of technical and operational support.

• The General Secretariat coordinates its day-to-day activities to fight a range of crimes. Run by the secretary general, it is staffed by both police and civilians and comprises a headquarters in Lyon and several satellite offices in different regions.

• In each country, an Interpol National Central Bureau (NCB) provides the central point of contact for the General Secretariat and other NCBs. An NCB is run by national police officials and usually sits in the government ministry responsible for policing.

• It connects all countries via a communications system called I-24/7. Countries use this secure network to contact each other. It also allows them to access databases and services in real time, from both central and remote locations.

• The General Secretariat provides a range of expertise and services to member countries. Interpol manages 19 police databases with information on crimes and criminals (from names and fingerprints to stolen passports), accessible in real time to countries.

• It supports national efforts in combating crimes across three global areas — terrorism, cybercrime and organised crime.

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New Russian module docks with International Space Station

• A Russian cargo craft carrying a new docking module successfully hooked up with the International Space Station after a two-day space journey.

• The new spherical module, named Prichal (Pier), propelled by a modified Russian Progress propulsion compartment, docked to the Nauka module on the Earth-facing side of the Russian segment two days after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. 

• Prichal, named for the Russian word for pier, has five available docking ports to accommodate multiple Russian spacecraft and provide fuel transfer capability to the Nauka module. Named for the Russian word for “science”, Nauka launched to the space station in July.

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