Prelims in Focus, an IAS Abhiyan Initiative to quickly navigate through the important facts, current affairs, static portion to enrich aspirant’s knowledge base along with conceptual clarity. Our Prelims in Focus initiative will surely be an added advantage for UPSC Prelims Examinations. This initiative will help the aspirants to focus to the main points of a topic quickly at the same time. In this initiative, we will cover 10-15 important facts on a daily basis. You can also join our Telegram Channel too to read these articles. Click here to Join. We will continue our Monthly Pre-Bits Flash Liner along with this initiative. 

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Prelims in Focus-Part-11

1. Netherlands and India
   __________
   🔹Share a long history of trade and investment.

   🔹India’s sixth largest EU trading partner—as much as 20% of India’s exports to the European continent goes through the Netherlands

   🔹India’s ‘gateway to Europe’—and one of the top five investors in the country.

   🔹3rd largest source of Foreign Direct Investment for India.

2. The Indian Chemical and Petrochemical industry have huge potential to play a significant role a by 2025, the sector can alone contribute $ 300 billion to the GDP as compared to $ 160 billion at present.
3. Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT)
   ____________
   🔹A 2.01 meters (6.5 feet) diameter optical-infrared telescope named after India-born Nobel laureate Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar.

   🔹Modified Ritchey-Chretien system with a primary mirror made of ULE ceramic which is designed to withstand low temperatures it experiences.

   🔹Manufactured by Electo-Optical System Technologies Inc. at Tucson, Arizona, USA.

   🔹Mounted with 3 science instruments called Himalaya Faint Object Spectrograph (HFOSC), the near-IR imager and the optical CCD imager.

   🔹Remotely operated from Hosakote, about 35 km northeast of Bangalore via an INSAT-3B satellite link which allows operation even in sub-zero temperatures in winter.

4. BrahMos supersonic cruise missile
   ______
   🔹Strike range of more than 400 km

   🔹Can be launched from land, sea platforms as well as fighter jets

   🔹1st extended version of the missile, which had a strike range of 450 km, was successfully tested on 2017

   🔹Jointly developed by the DRDO and NPOM, a leading aerospace enterprise of Russia

   🔹Medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile capable of being launched from submarines, warships, fighter jets or land

5. Windhoek Declaration
   _________
   🔹Development of a Free, Independent and Pluralistic Press

   🔹Statement of press freedom principles by African newspaper journalists in 1991

   🔹Produced at a UNESCO seminar

   🔹Date of the Declaration’s adoption, May 3, has subsequently been declared as World Press Freedom Day

6. Equity Reference Framework
   ______________
   🔹Advocated by some countries and NGOs as the basis of operationalizing the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities in the 2015 Paris Agreement

   🔹Under the UN Framework Climate Change Convention

   🔹Does not address the shifting of existing commitments and burden (from a regime where only the developed countries were to act) to the future agreement (where all countries will need to contribute).

   🔹It tries finds a ‘fair’ formula to distribute this entire burden (the bits transferred from the past plus that of the future) across all countries

   🔹Uses parameters such as current income levels, current emissions and past emissions

7. 📌 The Ministry of Shipping of Government of India has started Project Green Ports which will help in making the Major Ports across India cleaner and greener and promote environmentally sustainable economic growth.
   ➖Project Green Ports has two verticals – one is Green Ports Initiatives related to environmental issues and second is Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan (Clean India Initiative).
8. 📌 National Committee for Strengthening Maritime and Coastal Security (NCSMCS), is headed by the Cabinet Secretary, coordinates all matters related to Maritime and Coastal Security.
9. 📌 Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) is an initiative of World Bank.
10. 📌The Natural Capital Declaration was launched at the United Nations ‘Rio+20’ Earth Summit in 2012.