Invest India

• Invest India has received the top UN Investment Promotion Award in recognition of its efforts to boost investments in the renewable energy sector in India.
• The award was presented in Geneva at the inaugurations of the World Investment Forum organized by the UN Convention on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
• The Invest India received this award for its “excellence in servicing and supporting a major global wind turbines company in the establishment of a blade manufacturing plant in India while committing to train local staff and produce 1 gigawatt of renewable energy.
• Implementation of the project is expected to reduce India’s wind energy cost significantly”
• Invest India is set up as a non-profit venture under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.
• Invest India focuses on sector-specific investor targeting and development of new partnerships to enable sustainable investments in India
• The awards recognize “the excellence in boosting investment into sectors that will have social and economic benefits and help countries meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

UNCTAD

• The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was established in 1964 as a permanent intergovernmental body.
• UNCTAD is the part of the United Nations Secretariat dealing with trade, investment, and development issues.
• The organization’s goals are to: “maximize the trade, investment, and development opportunities of developing countries and assist them in their efforts to integrate into the world economy on an equitable basis.
• UNCTAD was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1964 and it reports to the UN General Assembly and the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
• The permanent secretariat of UNCTAD is in Geneva.

Druzbha-III

• It is the third edition of a joint bilateral military training exercise between Pakistan and Russia.
• The two armies will be holding joint military drills in the mountains of northwestern Pakistan.

UNCITRAL Model Law

• The UNCITRAL Model Law has been adopted in as many as 44 countries which is a part of international best practices in dealing with cross-border insolvency issues.
• The advantages of the model law are the precedence given to domestic proceedings and protection of public interest.
• The other advantages include greater confidence generation among foreign investors, adequate flexibility for seamless integration with the domestic Insolvency Law and a robust mechanism for international cooperation.

The Model law has for major principles of cross-border insolvency

1. Direct access to foreign insolvency professionals and foreign creditors to participate in or commence domestic insolvency proceedings against a defaulting debtor;
2. Recognition of foreign proceedings & provision of remedies;
3. Cooperation between domestic and foreign courts & domestic and foreign insolvency practitioners;and
4. Coordination between two or more concurrent insolvency proceedings in different countries.

Chai Sahay (Tea Help)

• Tea Board of India is planning to launch an app called ‘Chai Sahay’.
• This app will help to guide small grower which would increase the total production of tea.
• The main objective is to establish better two-way communication.
• The mobile platform would have user-interface facilities with the targeted user groups (the small tea grower) and the various officials.
• The existing database of the STGs (small tea grower) would be incorporated in the app which would also give information on their registration process.
• It would help in tackling real-time farm-issues such as pest identification by taking the picture of a new pest and post it for identification and tackling methods.

Kelp Forest

• Kelp forests are underwater areas with a high density of kelp.
• They are recognized as one of the most productive and dynamic ecosystems on Earth.
• Kelp forests occur worldwide throughout temperate and polar coastal oceans.
• Kelp forests were also discovered in tropical waters near Ecuador.
• Kelp forests can influence coastal oceanographic patterns and provide many ecosystem services.

Mars Cube One

• MarCO Mission designed by NASA.
• The mission has twin low-cost cube sats – MarCO A and MarCO B.
• The two cubesats are boarded in Insights Lander to Mars.
• The objective of the mission is to find out whether briefcase-sized spacecraft called CubeSats could survive the journey to deep space.
• By verifying cubesat as a viable technology for interplanetary mission, it could lead to many other applications to explore and study our solar system.
• It have recently beamed back an image of Mars , visible as a tiny red dot against the dark sky.  
• CubeSats are a class of spacecraft based on a standardized small size and modular use of off-the-shelf technologies.

Green Climate Fund

• The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a fund established within the framework of the UNFCCC as an operating entity of the Financial Mechanism to assist developing countries in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change.
• The GCF is based in the Incheon, South Korea.
• The objective of the Green Climate Fund is to “support projects, programmes, policies and other activities in developing country Parties using thematic funding windows”.
• The Copenhagen Accord established during the 2009 COP-15 in Copenhagen mentioned the “Copenhagen Green Climate Fund”.
• The fund was formally established during the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun as a fund within the UNFCCC framework.

Unnayan Banka:

• The initiative entitled “Unnayan Banka- Reinventing Education Using Technology of Banka District, State of Bihar has been awarded under the Category “Innovation Incubation”.
• “Unnayan Banka” is an initiative which envisages “Quality education for all’ especially for those at the bottom of the Pyramid, using latest technologies.
• It’s a holistic model of overall development of youths from Education to Employability.
• “Unified Agriculture Markets” of Co-operation Department of Government of Karnataka has also been selected under the Category ‘Innovation in Public Service Management’.  This initiative has also been awarded the overall Gold Award for CAPAM Awards, 2018.

International Air Transport Association (IATA):

• The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is the trade association for the world’s airlines, representing some 280 airlines or 83% of total air traffic.
• Formed in April 1945, it is the successor to the International Air Traffic Association, which was formed in 1919.
• IATA supports airline activity and helps formulate industry policy and standards. It also provides consulting and training services in many areas crucial to aviation.
• It is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with Executive Offices in Geneva, Switzerland.

Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)

• Recently the Union Cabinet has approved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and Certified Professional Accountants Afghanistan (CPA Afghanistan).
• The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is a statutory body established by an Act of Parliament of India, ‘The Chartered Accountants Act, 1949′, to regulate the profession of Chartered Accountancy in India.
• ICAI is the second largest professional Accounting & Finance body in the world.
• ICAI is the only licensing cum regulating body of the financial audit and accountancy profession in India.
• It recommends the accounting standards to be followed by companies in India to National Advisory Committee on Accounting Standards (NACAS).
• ICAI is solely responsible for setting the Standards on Auditing (SAs) to be followed in the audit of financial statements in India.
• ICAI is one of the founder members of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA), and Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants (CAPA).

Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund:

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for creation of special  Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF).
• National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), National Cooperatives Development Corporation (NCDC) and all scheduled Banks (hereinafter referred as Banks) shall be the nodal Loaning Entities.
• FIDF would provide concessional finance to State Governments / UTs and State entities, cooperatives, individuals and entrepreneurs etc., for taking up of the identified investment activities of fisheries development. 
• Under FIDF, loan lending will be over a period of five years from 2018-19 to 2022-23 and maximum repayment will be over a period of 12 years inclusive of moratorium of two years on repayment of principal.