GS- 2nd Paper
Topics Covered- Important International institutions, agencies and fora, their structure, mandate.
Association of World Election Bodies
Context
4th General Assembly of Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB) is being held in Bengaluru.
About
- Election Commission is hosting the 4th General Assembly of Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB)at Bengaluru.
- Election Commission of India was one of the founding members of AWEB in October 2013.
- India will take over as A-WEB’s Chair for the 2019-21 term.
About The Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB)
- It is the largest association of Election Management Bodies (EMBs) worldwide.
- Established on October 14, 2013 in Song-do, South Korea.
- Its Permanent secretariatis located at Seoul.
- Its slogan is ‘Democracy to Grow for All Worldwide’.
- The A-WEB Secretariat provides training programs for election officials of member nations and undertakes country programs at the request of member organization.
Aims
- A-WEB’s vision is to foster efficiency and effectiveness in conducting free, fair, transparent and participative elections worldwide.
Composition
- A-WEB is composed of 114 members from 106 countries.
- At present A-WEB has 115 Election Management Bodies (EMBs) as Members & 20 Regional Associations/Organisations as Associate Members.
- 24 EMBs from Asia, 37 from Africa, 31 from America, 17 from Europe & 6 from Oceania presently are members of A WEB.
- ECI will continue to remain on the Executive Board of A-WEB for 2021-23 in its capacity as immediate former Chair of A-WEB.
GS- 2 Paper
Topic covered- Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate .
UNCCD COP14
Context
India is hosting UNCCD COP14
About COP14
- The 12-day 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) begins today at India Expo Centre & Mart, Greater Noida.
- India took over the COP presidency from China for the next two years until the next COP is hosted in 2021.
- An estimated 7,200 participants that include ministers and representatives of governments, non-government and intergovernmental organizations, scientists, women and youth from the 197 Parties are expected.
- One of the primary functions of COP-14 is to review reports submitted by Conference of Parties to convention and detailing how they are carrying out their commitments.
Bonn Challenge
- The Bonn Challenge is a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030.
- It was launched in 2011 by the Government of Germany and IUCN, and later endorsed and extended by the New York Declaration on Forests at the 2014 UN Climate Summit.
- At COP-13 (2015) in Paris, India also joined the voluntary Bonn Challenge pledge and had committed towards restoring 13 million hectares (MH) of degraded and deforested land by year 2020, and an additional 8 million hectares (MH) by 2030.
- India’s pledge is one of the largest in Asia.
About UNCCD
- The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is an international agreement on good land stewardship.
- It helps people, communities and countries to create wealth, grow economies and secure enough food and water and energy, by ensuring land users have an enabling environment for sustainable land management.
- It was established in 1994.
- UNCCD is the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management.
- The Convention addresses specifically the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, known as the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples can be found.
- The Convention’s 197 Parties set up robust systems to manage drought promptly and effectively.
- It works together to improve the living conditions for people in drylands, to maintain and restore land and soil productivity, and to mitigate the effects of drought.
- The UNCCD secretariat facilitates cooperation between developed and developing countries, particularly around knowledge and technology transfer for sustainable land management.
- The permanent Secretariat of the UNCCD is located in Bonn, Germany since January 1999.
- It was established during the first Conference of the parties (COP 1) held in Rome in 1997.
India and UNCCD
- Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has launched a flagship project which is a part of a larger international initiative called ‘Bonn Challenge’.
- The project is aimed at enhancing India’s capacity for Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR).
- During the pilot phase of project (initial 3.5 years), it will be implemented in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland and Karnataka.
- Initially, the project will be aimed at developing and adapting best practices and monitoring protocols for country, and building capacity within 5 pilot States.
- The project will be implemented by MoEFCC in partnership with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
GS- 2 Paper
Topic covered- Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.
New Development Bank (NDB)
Context
A one-day Joint India- NDB workshop on Enhancing NDB’s engagement with the India private and public sector was held in New Delhi.
About NDB
- The NDB is the first Multilateral Development Bank established by developing countries and emerging economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
- The mandate of the Bank is to mobilize resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging economies and developing countries, complementing the existing efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global growth and development.
- India is one of the founding members, holding 20% stake in the Bank.
- The Bank is headquartered in Shanghai.
Significance of New Development Bank
- New Development Bank was created due to the discriminatory attitude of the Western developed countries towards the developing countries.
- The BRICS member countries are accounting for almost half of the world’s population.
- They have about one-fifth of global economic output but have only 11 per cent of the votes at international financial institution like the IMF.
- Both the WB and the IMF are based on the weighted voting system, which provides the rich countries with a big say in the management.
- The expectation is that the NDB with its total capital of $100 billion would meet short term liquidity requirement of the member countries.
- An effort has been made to avoid China’s dominance on the bank; for which India is made the president of the bank for the first six years and after this Brazil and Russia would have turns with five years each.
- The setting up of the New Development Bank and the $100 billion currency stabilization fund will signal the emergence of new international currencies to challenge the US dollar’s hegemony.
- In the initial years, the Chinese yuan will get internationalized first, followed by the Indian rupee after about a decade of strong growth in India’s economic and trade shares.
- The dollar will not remain the only option for the settlement of global trades, especially when intra-Asian, African and Latin American shares of global trade start picking up in the decades ahead.
For prelims-
AH-64E Apache Attack Helicopter
Context
The IAF formally inducted the AH-64E Apache Attack Helicopter into its inventory at Air Force Station Pathankot.
Highlights
- Eight US made Apache AH-64E attack helicopters joined the Indian Air Force (IAF) fleet.
- It will provide a major boost to India’s combat capabilities.
- Apache AH-64E attack helicopters are one of the most fierce attack helicopters in the world.
- The Apaches are equipped with hellfire missiles and rockets. Each helicopter has the capacity to carry eight such missiles.
- It also has a canon gun that can fire 1,200 rounds at a time, with which two missile pods carrying 19 missiles each can be fixed.
- The Apaches are meant to progressively replace the IAF’s legacy fleet of Russian Mi-35 choppers which are nearing the end of their service life.
- The choppers, which fire anti-armour missiles, are meant to take out tanks and hardened targets in the Rajasthan desert.
- They are equipped with advanced sensors to enable them to detect and engage their targets while flying very low and at high speeds to evade detection by enemy forces.
- The AH-64E Apache for the IAF completed successful first flights in July 2018.
- Some of the major components of these machines have been made in India.
Exercise Yudh Abhyas 2019
Context
Indo-US joint military training, Exercise Yudh Abhyas – 2019 is being conducted at Joint Base Lewis Mc Chord, Washington, USA.
Highlights
- Exercise Yudh Abhyas is one of the largest joint running military training and defence corporation endeavors between India and USA.
- This will be the 15th edition of the joint exercise hosted alternately between the two countries.
- Exercise Yudh Abhyas will provide an opportunity to the armed forces of both countries to train in an integrated manner at Battalion level with joint planning at Brigade level.
- The exercise is also an ideal platform to learn from each other’s expertise and experiences of planning and execution of operations.
- Both armies will jointly train, plan and execute a series of well-developed operations for neutralization of threats of varied nature.
- ln the end a joint exercise will be undertaken by both countries in an operational setting under a UN mandate.
- Experts from both sides will hold expert academic and military discussions to share each other’s experiences on varied topics for mutual benefit.
