#term in news
#gs2
#prelims

@upsc_4_ir

🔆US Lobby group oppose India's digital competition bill

#gs2
#prelims

@upsc_4_ir

🔆What is ZiG?

✅Recently, to address its long-standing economic instability, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has launched a new gold-backed currency called the ZiG.

✅The Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) is a new gold-backed currency launched by Zimbabwe.

✅The ZiG, now the sixth currency used by Zimbabwe, has been in circulation since April 5, 2024.

📍Key features of ZiG
✅The ZiG stands out as a new currency backed by gold reserves, ensuring its value is supported by the physical gold held by the government.

✅ZiG notes and coins will be available and issued in denominations: 1ZiG, 2ZiG, 5ZiG, 10ZiG, 20Zig, 50ZiG, 100ZiG and 200ZiG, with the gold backing aims to provide stability and prevent currency devaluation.

📍Reasons for launching a new currency

✅Zimbabwe has grappled with high inflation, with rates surpassing 500% in recent years.

✅Consequently, the Zimbabwean dollar, introduced in 1980, lost its value due to Following this, the country relied on various currencies, primarily the US dollar, leading to limited control over its economy.

✅The collapse of the Zimbabwean dollar in 2009, with hyperinflation peaking at 5 billion per cent, marked one of the most severe currency crashes in history.

✅Banks in Zimbabwe have been converting the previous national currency, the Zimbabwe dollar, into ZiGs, aiming to promote simplicity, certainty, and predictability in monetary and financial matters.

#gs2
#ir

@upsc_4_ir

🔆Norway, Ireland and Spain recognise Palestinian state

#gs2
#ir
#prelims

@upsc_prep_squad

Taiwan's legislature passes bills curtailing the powers of president

#gs2
#prelims
#ir

@upsc_4_ir
@upsc_prep_squad

🔆What is the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)?

✅The United States and the Gulf Cooperation Council recently announced a new iteration of defense working groups to be based in Saudi Arabia to ‘advance US-GCC cooperation and multilateral (missile) integration against shared air and maritime threats’.

✅It is a political and economic alliance of six countries in the Arabian Peninsula: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
✅The GCC was established in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May 1981.

✅Objective: To promote economic, security, cultural, and social cooperation between the six states and hold a summit every year to discuss cooperation and regional affairs.
✅Together, the GCC countries possess almost half of the world’s oil reserves.

📍Organizational structure:

✅The Supreme Council:
🔰It is the highest authority of the organization, which meets on an annual basis and consists of GCC heads of state. 
🔰Decisions of the Supreme Council are adopted by unanimous approval.
🔰Its presidency rotates periodically among the member states in alphabetical order.

✅The Ministerial Council: 
🔰It is composed of the foreign ministers of all the Member States or other ministers deputizing for them.
🔰It meets every three months to implement the decisions of the Supreme Council and to propose new policy.

✅The Secretariat General: 
🔰It is the administrative arm of the alliance, which monitors policy implementation and arranges meetings.
🔰Its headquarters is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

📍India and GCC:
✅GCC is India’s largest regional-bloc trading partner.
✅Trade with the GCC comprised 8% of India’s total trade in FY2022–23.
✅The UAE has consistently been India’s principal trading partner within the Gulf and is India’s third-largest trading partner overall.
✅According to the latest figures, there are approximately 9 million Indian expats residing in GCC countries, which is approximately 66% of non-resident Indians.

#gs2
#ir
#prelims

@upsc_4_ir

China slams US over Missile deployment in Phillipines

#gs2
#ir
#Security

@upsc_4_ir
@upsc_prep_squad

🔆The question of Palestine's UN membership

#gs2
#ir

@upsc_4_ir
@upsc_the_hindu_ie_editorial

🔆What is the Colombo Process?

✅India has become chair of the Colombo Process for the first time since its inception in 2003.

📍Colombo Process:

✅It is a Regional Consultative Process and it provides an important platform for consultations on the management of overseas employment and contractual labour for countries of origin in Asia.
✅It serves as a forum for the exchange of best practices on overseas employment.

📍Membership:
✅It comprises 12 Member States of Asia (countries of origin of migrant workers).
✅Members: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
✅India has been a member of the Colombo Process since its inception in 2003.
✅The process is non-binding and decision-making is by consensus.
✅The process is coordinated through the Permanent Missions of Member States at the United Nations in Geneva. 
✅The process is governed by Ministerial Consultations wherein recommendations and action plans are discussed and adopted by the Ministers of the participating countries.

📍There are five Thematic Area Working Groups (TAWGs):
✅Skills and Qualification Recognition (chaired by Sri Lanka);
✅Fostering Ethical Recruitment (chaired by Bangladesh);
✅Pre-Departure Orientation and Empowerment (chaired by Philippines);
✅Remittances (chaired by Pakistan);
✅Labour Market Analysis (chaired by Thailand);

#gs2
#ir

@upsc_4_ir

🔆India in talks with Sri Lanka to acquire graphite mine block

📍Graphite:
✅It is an opaque, non-metallic carbon polymorph that is blackish silver in colour and metallic to dull in sheen. Since it resembles metal lead, it is also known colloquially as black lead or plumbago.
✅Formation: It is formed by the metamorphosis of sediments containing carbonaceous material.

📍Properties:
✅It is a naturally occurring form of crystalline carbon and is a stable form of carbon.
✅It is extremely soft, cleaves with very light pressure, and has a very low specific gravity.
✅In contrast, it is extremely resistant to heat and nearly inert in contact with almost any other material. These extreme properties give it a wide range of uses in metallurgy and manufacturing.
✅Applications:It is used in pencils, lubricants, crucibles, foundry facings, polishes, arc lamps, batteries, brushes for electric motors, and cores of nuclear reactors.
✅Globally it is mined extensively in China, India, Brazil, North Korea, and Canada.

@upsc_4_ir

Egypt demands Israel withdrawal from Rafah crossing for aid to flow

📍Kerem shalom crossing

#gs2
#ir

@upsc_4_ir

🔆China doesn't want countries to attend Switzerland peace summit

#gs2
#ir
#prelims

@upsc_prep_squad

🔆Alleged use of white phosphorous in Lebanon by Israel

📍Why in news?
✅A global human rights group has claimed that Israel used white phosphorus incendiary shells on homes in at least five towns and villages in conflict-affected southern Lebanon.
✅Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported no evidence of burn injuries from white phosphorus in Lebanon but noted possible respiratory damage. Human rights advocates argue that using these munitions in populated areas is a crime under international law.
✅Israel claims it uses white phosphorus only as a smokescreen, not to target civilians.
✅In October 2023, Israel was accused of using white phosphorus in residential areas. This occurred shortly after clashes began between the Israeli military and Hezbollah along the southern Lebanon-Israel border, following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.

#gs2
#ir

@upsc_4_ir

🔆Clean Economy Investor Forum

✅The IPEF Clean Economy Investor Forum is one of the initiatives under the IPEF.
✅It brings together the region's top investors, philanthropies, financial institutions, innovative companies, startups and entrepreneurs. The forum aims to mobilize investments into sustainable infrastructure, climate technology and renewable energy projects.
✅The Department of Commerce is the nodal agency for the IPEF engagements, and the IPEF Clean Economy Investor Forum is managed by Invest India, the country's national investment promotion agency.

IPEF Click here

#gs2
#ir
#pib

Join @PIB_UPSC

#gs2
#ir
#prelims

@upsc_4_ir
@upsc_prep_squad

🔆Mongla Port

✅The Port of Mongla is located in the Bagerhat District of Bangladesh. It lies 62 km north of the Bay of Bengal coastline.
✅It is situated at the confluence of the Pasur River and the Mongla River.
✅The Port is surrounded and protected by the Sundarban mangrove forest.
✅Mongla is the second largest seaport in Bangladesh after Chittagong.

📍Significance for India:
✅Provides strategic access to India's northeastern states (e.g., Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya).
Reduces distance and transportation costs for goods to and from these regions.
✅India Ports Global Limited (IPGL) has expressed interest in operating Mongla Port, which would be its third international port operation after Chabahar in Iran and Sittwe in Myanmar.
✅Expansion project: India and Bangladesh signed a MoU on the use of Chattogram and Mongla ports in 2015.
✅The MoU envisages the transit of goods from Mongla port to the northeastern states of India through waterways, roads and railways.

@upsc_4_economy