Facts in News

Facts in News

Passage Exercise

• Recently, the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Indian Navy participated in a Passage Exercise or PASSEX with a US carrier strike group (CSG) in the Indian Ocean for two days.
  • A passage exercise is normally undertaken whenever an opportunity arises, in contrast to pre-planned maritime drills.
• The INS Kochi and Teg, along with P8I and MiG-29K aircraft participated in a ‘Passage Exercise’ with US Navy CSG Ronald Reagan during its transit through Indian Ocean Region”.
  • High tempo operations during the exercise include advanced air defence exercises, cross-deck helicopter operations and anti-submarine exercises. 

Objectives 

• The two-day exercise aims to strengthen the bilateral relationship and cooperation by demonstrating the ability to integrate and coordinate comprehensively in maritime operations.
• It will endeavour to hone their war-fighting skills and enhance their interoperability as an integrated force to promote peace, security and stability in the maritime domain.

Indo-US Exercises

• Yudh Abhyas (Army)
• Vajra Prahar (Army)
• Cope India (Air Force)
• Malabar Exercise (Trilateral naval exercise between India, USA and Japan)
• Red Flag (USA’s Multilateral Air exercise)

International Olympic Day 2021

• Every year on 23 June, International Olympic Day is observed across the world to mark the importance of games and sports in our lives and to promote participation in games and sports across the world, irrespective of age, gender, caste, or religion, 
  • The day was initially observed to promote the idea of the Olympics and to celebrate the establishment of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). 
  • This committee was formed on 23 June 1894 in Sorbonne, Paris. 
  • The first Olympic Day was celebrated on 23 June 1948.

• Athletes from every nation participate in sports activities, such as runs, exhibitions, music, and educational seminars on this day.

 Olympic Games

• They are the largest sporting celebration in terms of the number of sports on the programme and the number of athletes present 
•  It is organised every four years, they include summer and a winter edition.
• Athletes from all 206 National Olympic Committees and the IOC Olympic Refugee Team are eligible to compete in a wide range of sporting disciplines and events, watched by a worldwide audience.
• The first edition of the modern Olympic Games was staged in Athens, Greece, in 1896, while the first winter edition was held in Chamonix, France, in 1924. 
• Since 1994, the Olympic Games have alternated between a summer and winter edition every two years within the four years of each Olympiad.

Peter Pan Syndrome

• A special court in Mumbai has granted bail to a 23-year-old accused of sexually assaulting a minor. 
  • The accused had told the court he suffered from “Peter Pan Syndrome”.

• Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist James Matthew Barrie in the early 1900s.
  • The term ‘Peter Pan Syndrome’ first appeared in 1983, in a book authored by Dr Dan Kiley titled ‘Peter Pan Syndrome: Men Who Have Never Grown Up’. He described it as a “social-psychological phenomenon”. 
  • It is used to describe any adult male or female, who are not socially mature. While it can affect anyone without regard to gender, race, culture, it is more common among males.”
• People with this behaviour live carefree life, finding responsibilities challenging in adulthood, and basically, “never growing up” — suffer from Peter Pan Syndrome.
• The World Health Organization does not recognise Peter Pan Syndrome as a health disorder, many experts believe it is a mental health condition that can affect one’s quality of life.
• The symptoms and impact 
  • As Peter Pan Syndrome hasn’t officially been diagnosed as a health disorder, there aren’t clearly defined symptoms or characteristics or even reasons which cause it. 
    • But it could affect one’s daily routine, relationships, work ethic, and result in attitudinal changes. 

IBM-IISc Hybrid Cloud Lab

Recently, IBM and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have announced the launch of the IBM-IISc Hybrid Cloud lab.

• IISc students and faculty and IBM scientists will work to leverage the true power of hybrid cloud by enabling faster, seamless and more secure adoption of hybrid cloud & Artificial Intelligence (AI).
• The lab will take an open access approach by jointly presenting the research findings in premier conferences, hosting workshops and releasing open-source material to the community.
• Benefits
  • Advance research in hybrid cloud technologies and drive breakthrough innovations in this area.
  • Bring together a talented community of scientists, faculty and students in scaling the adoption of cloud computing across industries.
  • Enable faster adoption of Hybrid Cloud technology.
  • Exposure to industry-driven problem statements.
  • Foster exchange of ideas for the research and industry community in the region.
• Hybrid Cloud: It is a solution that combines a private cloud with one or more public cloud services, with proprietary software enabling communication between each distinct service.
  • It provides businesses with greater flexibility by moving workloads between cloud solutions as needs and costs fluctuate.
  • The value derived from a hybrid, multi-cloud platform technology and operating model at scale is 2.5 times the value derived from a single platform, single cloud.

(Image Courtesy: Techtarget)

Tax Inspectors without Borders Programme

Recently, Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) has launched its programme in Bhutan.

• India was chosen as the Partner Jurisdiction and has provided the Tax Expert for this programme.
• Aim: Aid Bhutan in strengthening its tax administration by transferring technical know-how and skills to its tax auditors, and through sharing of best audit practices.
• Focus: International Taxation and Transfer Pricing.
• Expected Duration: 24 months.
• Significance: It is another milestone in the continued cooperation between India and Bhutan and India’s continued and active support for South-South cooperation.
  • It is a broad framework of collaboration among countries of the South in the political, economic, social, cultural, environmental and technical domains.
  • It can take place on a bilateral, regional, intraregional or interregional basis, involving two or more developing countries, which share knowledge, skills, expertise and resources to meet their development goals through concerted efforts.
• TIWB is a joint initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
  • It was launched in July 2015.
  • It is designed to support developing countries to build tax audit capacity by facilitating well-targeted, specialised tax audit assistance.
  • Aim: Transfer technical know-how and skills to developing countries’ tax auditors, as well as share general audit practices.
  • With programmes across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the TIWB initiative has 80 completed and ongoing programmes in 45 countries and jurisdictions worldwide.
  • TIWB assistance has delivered more than USD 537 million in additional revenue for developing countries up to June 2020, according to its latest annual report.

Malaysia Becomes India’s Top Palm Oil Supplier

Recently, Malaysia has surpassed Indonesia to become the biggest Crude Palm Oil (CPO) exporter to India in 2020-21.

• As per the data by the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA), Malaysia’s palm oil exports to India surged 238 per cent to 2.42 MT.
  • SEA is a trade body of Indian vegetable oil refiners and traders.
• During the same period, Indonesia’s palm oil shipments to India fell 32 per cent to 2 million tonnes.
• The latest development comes after Indonesia imposed higher levies on crude palm oil exports in December 2020 to raise funds for its palm-based biodiesel programme, aimed at maximising domestic use of the edible oil.
• India is the world’s largest edible oil importer and is heavily dependent on imported edible oils.
• Palm Oil is a versatile edible vegetable oil that comes from the fruit of oil palm trees (Elaeis guineensis).
• Palm is an efficient crop, producing more oil per land area than any other equivalent vegetable oil crop, fulfilling around 35 percent of the world’s vegetable oil demand on just around 10 per cent of the land.
• From it, two types of oil can be produced, namely crude palm oil and palm kernel oil, of which crude oil has more demand.