10-11-22 Daily-Himachal Pradesh-HPPSC Current Affairs

Responding to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamans assertion that the import duty on apple had been levied at a maximum of 50% as agreed under the WTO pact, growers said the cess on the US produce was 70% since 2019.

The apple growers have been demanding the increase of the import duty on apple to 100 per cent, especially on the cheap produce coming from Iran thats hurting the domestic farmers a lot. If the government wants, it can put apple in the special category status. It can then easily raise the duty, said Lokinder Bisht, president, Progressive Growers Association.

AMemorandum of Understandinghas been signedon 7^thNovember, 2022 between National Education Society for Tribal Students (NESTS),an autonomous organization established under Ministry of Tribal Affairs and 1M1B Foundation (1M1B) at NESTS headquarters, New Delhi.The MoU was signed by Shri. Asit Gopal, Commissioner, NESTS and Shri Manav Subodh, Managing Director, 1M1B in presence of 1M1Band NESTS team.

The program will capacitate the teachers & students with Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) skills using the AR-VR skills curriculum launched by CBSE. The programme objectives include conduct of training and capacity-building programs for teachers and students of Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRSs). In pilot phase, as part of MoU,programmeis being implemented in EMRSs of 2 states, namely Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.

1 Million For 1 Billion (1M1B), is a Bengaluru based Not for Profit Company accredited to United Nations Organization with special consultative status to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and is associated with the United Nations Department of Global Communications and also is a registered credible organization with NGO Darpan Portal of . Itis a social innovation and future skills initiative aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

NESTS in PARTNERSHIP with the implementing agency, 1M1Baims to engage students of EMRSs in nation-building by enabling teachers and students to understand the world of possibilities offered by emerging technologies and become creators using Augmented reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) to build Indias Metaverse.In congruence with NEP 2020, it is believed that this collaboration will go a long way in providing students of EMRSs an exposure to immersive,visual, and experiential Learning that shall enhance human Infrastructure resource for the nation.

India’s first privately built rocket – Vikram-suborbital (VKS)- was launched by the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) on Friday. The rocket – developed by Skyroot Aerospace –has been named after Vikram Sarabhai, hailed as the father of India’s space sector. In a bid to symbolise a new start, the mission has been named ‘Prarambh‘, which literally translates as begining.

This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had opened the space sector for participation by private players in June 2020. The government had called it a big reform amid the push for Make-in-India scheme.

The Global Shield Against Climate Risks, a joint initiative of the and the V20 Group of 20 vulnerable countries, was launched at the COP 27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.

This new initiative aims to respond to the call from the most climate vulnerable countries to improve the response to Climate Change-related loss and damage. In 2023, France will contribute 20 million in subsidies to the Global Shield Against Climate Risks. Germany, Canada, Denmark, the United States, France and Ireland will contribute a combined total of 210 million to the Global Shield. Other countries contribution announcements are forthcoming.

Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Fiji, Ghana, Pakistan, the Philippines and Senegal will be among the first countries to benefit from the Global Shield.

The Global Shield is structured around two pillars: a coordination platform tasked with designing Insurance solution packages together with the beneficiary countries and a financing structure that will support the deployment of these solutions. Frances contribution will go to the Global Shields financial vehicle.