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Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) established in 1966 is an independent international institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament. Based in Stockholm the Institute provides data, analysis and recommendations, based on open sources, to policymakers, researchers, media and the interested public.   Highly Important Eight sovereign states have publ

New START

New START New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation with the formal name of Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. It was signed in 2010 in Prague, and, after ratification entered into force in 2011, it is expected to last at least until 2021. New START replaced the Treaty of Moscow (SORT), which was to expire in December 2012. It follows the START I treaty, whic

Committee to oversee Ownership of Private Banks

Committee to oversee Ownership of Private Banks Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has constituted an internal working group to review the existing guidelines on ownership and corporate structure of private sector banks. The group will be headed by RBI executive director P.K. Mohanty. The bank licensing rules mandated that a private bank’s promoter will need to pare holding to 40% within three years, 20% in 10 years and to 15% in 15 years. The rules on promoter holding have changed ove

PCPNDT Act

PCPNDT Act In April Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued a notification which put on hold the implementation of certain rules of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex-Selection Rules) of 1996 till June 30, 2020. One of the suspended provisions, Rule 8, is intrinsically connected with the statute’s provisions dealing with the mandatory registration of genetic counselling centres, laboratories and clinics, Non-compliance leads t

Guwahati - Urban Jungle

Guwahati - Urban Jungle Assam State Zoo occupies 30 hectares of the 620-hectare Hengerabari Reserve Forest referred to as the city’s lungs. It has diverse fauna like the Chinese pangolin, Nepal cricket frog, Bengal monitor lizard, Assamese cat snake, Eurasian moorhen, Asian elephant, Terai cricket frog and Ganges river dolphin. By this Guwahati redefines the term “urban jungle” with 334 and counting free-ranging faunal species living in the green spaces within concrete struc

Mobile Payments Market Report

Mobile Payments Market Report S&P Global Market Intelligence has launched the 2020 India Mobile Payments Market Report. According to the report, mobile payments and card transactions exceeded cash withdrawals from automated teller machines (ATMs) for the first time in 2019, indicating that the country’s push toward digital payments was bearing fruit. The highlights of the report are as follows Mobile payments, initiated by payment apps comprising account-to-account transfer

United Nation Security Council

United Nations Security Council The United Nations Charter established six main organs of the United Nations, including the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Article 23 of the UN Charter concerns the composition of the UNSC. The UNSC has been given primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security to the Security Council, which may meet whenever peace is threatened. While other organs of the United Nations make recommendations to member states, only the Security Co

Pashupatinath Temple and India - Nepal

Nepal-Bharat Maitri Nepal-Bharat Maitri is a development partnership initiated by India as a high-impact community development scheme. This initiative is another milestone in strengthening cultural ties and people-to-people contacts between the two countries. In 2018, Nepal-Bharat Maitri - Pashupati Dharmashala was inaugurated in Kathmandu, Nepal. Recently, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed under Nepal-Bharat Maitri: Development Partnership, for the construction of a sa

Maramon Convention

Maramon Convention Maramon Convention is Asia’s largest weeklong annual Christian meet. The convention is organized in the vast river bed of Pampa near the Kozhencherry Bridge. The ongoing 123rd convention at Maramon, Pathanamthitta, Kerala began with a call to conserve the river Pampa and the environment.

Mudumalai Tiger Reserve

Mudumalai Tiger Reserve Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) is situated at the tri-junction of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. The reserve straddles the Ooty -Mysore interstate national highway. It is contiguous with Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary on the west, and Bandipur Tiger Reserve on the north.                     The Moyar river flows downstream into the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and is the natural line of division between Mu

Wetlands International

Wetlands International Wetlands International coordinates the International Waterbird census of which the Asian Waterbird census is an integral part. It is a global not-for-profit organization dedicated to the conservation and restoration of wetlands. It is one of the International Partner Organizations of the Ramsar Convention. It was formerly known as International Waterfowl & Wetlands Research Bureau (IWRB) and its scope included the protection of wetland areas.

Senior Citizen’s Welfare Fund

Senior Citizen’s Welfare Fund Insurance regulator IRDA has asked all insurers to transfer the deposits of policyholders that have been laying unclaimed for over 10 years to the Senior citizen’s welfare fund. The corpus of the Senior Citizens Welfare Fund comprises any credit balance in any of the accounts under the small savings like Post Office Saving Schemes, Banks, etc. remaining unclaimed for 7 years from the date of declaration as an inoperative account. The nodal Ministry fo

Strategic Petroleum Reserves

Strategic Petroleum Reserves Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) will send ships carrying crude oil to fill half of the 1.5 million tonne strategic oil reserves India has built at Mangaluru. Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd has built 5.33 million tonnes of strategic crude oil storage at three locations — Padur (Kerala) and Mangaluru on the western coast and Visakhapatnam on the eastern coast The oil stored in the underground rock caverns at the three locati

Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality School children in the United States experience exotic field trips through virtual reality headsets. The definition of ‘virtual’ is near and reality is what we experience as human beings. So the term ‘virtual reality basically means ‘near-reality’.   

Baghjan natural gas Blowout

Assessment of OIL well blowout impact on the environment begins A team of The Energy and Research Institute (TERI) and an accredited private agency have begun assessing the impact on the environment around the Baghjan natural gas well that caught fire after a blowout, Oil India Limited (OIL) officials said on Wednesday. The well in eastern Assam’s Tinsukia district adjoins the sensitive Maguri-Motapung wetland and is close to the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park that houses some wild h

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