Relevance IN - Prelims ( about DANX) + Mains ( GS III security challenges and their management in border areas)
What's the NEWS

• Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) has conducted the second edition of Defence of Andaman & Nicobar Islands 2019 (DANX-19), a large scale joint services exercise from 14 Oct to 18 Oct 19.

Know! more about it

• Spanning over a period of five days, components of the Indian Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard carried out mobilisation and field manoeuvres to validate defensive plans of Headquarters ANC towards pursuance of the Command's responsibility, namely ensuring territorial integrity of the A&N Islands.
• In addition to internal forces from ANC, accretional forces from Mainland comprising ships and aircraft, Special Forces from the newly formed Armed Forces Special Operations Division (AFSOD), also participated in this edition.

Social Justice
GOAL: Digital Skill Training Programme for Tribal Women

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about GOAL) + Mains ( GS II Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections
What's the NEWS

• Union Minister of Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda announced the second phase of programme GOAL (Going Online as Leaders) for tribal women.
• The programme GOAL aims at encouraging, inspiring and guiding tribal women from across India to become local level digitally literate leaders.

Know! more about GOAL Programme

• Ministry of Tribal Affairs partners with Niti Aayog and Facebook are running GOAL for tribal women.
• The objective of this program is to digitally mentor 5000 young women in India's tribal-dominated districts.
• The GOAL program will give technical support to the socially and economically marginalized women for their needs to succeed, using the technology they may otherwise have not had access to
• The GOAL program will include one-to-one weekly mentoring sessions. These sessions will focus on various types of programs like entrepreneurship, online safety and digital literacy.
• Facebook and Tribal Affairs Ministry are jointly working on this project with an aim to close the digital gender gap.

Statics of Tribal Population

• About 104 million tribal people are living in India. Most of the tribal people are living in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andaman Nicobar Islands and some north-eastern states.

International Organisations
FATF puts Pakistan on 'grey list'
Relevance IN - Prelims (about FATF) + Mains ( GS II international relations)
What's the NEWS

• FATF - Financial Action Task Force on October 16, 2019, decides to keep Pakistan on its ‘Grey List' till February 2020.
• FATF directs Pakistan to take extra strict measures to eliminate terror funding and money laundering.
• The final decision in this regard will be taken by the FATF in February 2020.
• Pakistan was added to the FATF's ‘grey list' on June 27, 2018.
• The list contains the names of countries that are involved in providing monetary assistance to terrorism and related causes. The decision was taken during the FATF meeting on Money Laundering in Paris.

Know! the impact of being on the grey list

• It would make it harder for foreign investors and companies to do business in the country that is blamed for funding terror activities
• Being on the grey list could make borrowing from international debt markets harder and costlier for Pakistan. It might reduce Pakistan's credibility in the international market.
• Block the way for foreign banks to deal with Pakistani counterparts:
• Widen Pakistan's CAD
• Grey listing would lessen the investors' confidence in the country.

Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

• The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 by the Ministers of its Member jurisdictions.
• Established during the G7 Summit in Paris (France), the organisation aims to establish international standards for combating money laundering and terrorist financing and seeks to combat the growing problem of money laundering.
• FATF Secretariat is housed at the headquarters of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris.
• FATF's decision making body is the 'FATF Plenary'. The FATF plenary sessions are held in February, June and October every year.
• It consists of over 39 member countries including India. Currently, China is the Vice President of the FATF.

Economic Development
World Economic Outlook 2019 Report
Relevance IN - Prelims (about world economic outlook and its findings) + Mains (GS III Economic development)

What's the NEWS

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released its biennial report - World Economic Outlook .
• The report indicates that over the past year, global growth has fallen sharply. For advanced economies, growth is projected to soften to 1.7 percent in 2019 and 2020. However, India's GDP growth has been estimated at 6.1 percent.

India Specific Findings

• India's GDP growth will touch a mark of 6.1% in 2019 while it will go up to 7% in 2020.
• The report suggests that India's trade volume has reached its lowest level since 2012. Also, It has reduced by 1% since 2012.
• The report highlights that India's economic growth softened in 2019 because corporate and environmental regulatory uncertainty, together with concerns about the health of the non bank financial sector, weighed on demand.

India halved its poverty rate

• The World Bank has released a statement on October 15 that India has halved its poverty rate since the 1990s and achieved a seven-plus growth rate over the last 15 years.
• The World Bank also mentioned that India enjoyed strong improvements in most human development outcomes in last 15 years.
• Along with this, the World Bank recommended that India will need to achieve greater resource efficiency to keep its growth rate on the right track.

Recommendations given by IMF

• IMF report recommends that monetary policy and broad-based structural reforms should be used to address cyclical weakness and strengthen confidence in India.
• Apart from other measures, a credible fiscal consolidation path is required to bring down India's elevated public debt over the medium term.
• Some steps should be supported by subsidy-spending rationalization and tax-base enhancing measures.
• Public sector banks and their credit allocation need strengthening, and role of the public sector in the financial system needs to be reduced.
• Reforms are also required for hiring and dismissal regulations because it would help incentivize job creation and absorb the country's large demographic dividend.

Culture/Heritage
India wins four 2019 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation

Relevance IN - Prelims (UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation)
What's the NEWS

• UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation announced recently where Indian bagged four awards in three categories. India's Flora Fountain and three other landmarks in Mumbai are among the four sites that have been chosen from India.
• UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation were declared at a function held in Malaysia.

Know! more about the awards given
Award of Distinction

• Vikram Sarabhai Library, Indian Institute of Management, (Ahmedabad) India

Award of Merit

• Our Lady of Glory Church (Mumbai) India
• Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue (Mumbai) India

Honourable Mention

• Flora Fountain (Mumbai) India

Know! about UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards 2019

• These awards were given away in four categories - Award of Distinction, Award of Merit, Honourable Mention and New Design in Heritage Contexts.
• The UNESCO award highlights the spirit and efforts of private organisations or individuals that have successfully restored and conserved structures of heritage value in their regions.
• These awards aim to encourage and support other people and organization to take action for conservation within their communities, either independently or by seeking public-private partnerships (PPP). The jury reviewed 57 entries from 14 countries across the South-Asia region.
• UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation was established in the year 2000. UNESCO established this award to motivate the protection of cultural heritage sites by any individual organization or by any private sector entity.

World Food Day 2019
Relevance IN - Prelims (about World food day) + Mains (GS II Social justice + Issues relating to poverty and hunger.

What's the NEWS

• World Food Day is celebrated to create awareness among masses about food security. United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) released data that says approximately one in nine people around the world are hungry.
• Aim - Providing healthy diets for a zero hunger world.
• In India, about 23% of the world's hungry people live.

Theme of World Food Day 2019

• "Our Actions Are Our Future. Healthy Diets for A #ZeroHunger World."

Know! more about FAO and its findings

• Its objective is to pay attention to food security, hunger, inequality, unemployment, environmental degradation and climate change.
• According to the report released by FAO on World Food Day, about one in every three people is affected by obesity and other forms of malnutrition.
• If the situation will not change the number will be one in every two by 2025.
• More than 93 lakh children in the country are suffering from severe malnutrition.
• More than 21 percent of children in the country are malnourished.
  
  

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