Current Affairs 7th november 2015

• Union Cabinet gives nod to MoU on Tourism with Colombia

Union Cabinet has given its approval for signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Colombia to strengthening cooperation in the field of Tourism.

Decision in this regard was taken at Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

The MoU will be signed between the Union Tourism Ministry and Ministry of Trade Industry and Tourism of Colombia.

Key facts of the MoU

• Aims at expanding bilateral cooperation in the tourism sector and exchanging information and data related to tourism.
• Seeks to help encourage cooperation between tourism stakeholders including Tour operators and Hotels in both countries.
• Establish an exchange programme for cooperation in Human Resource Development (HRD) in tourism sector.

In recent times, Colombia has emerged a tourism source market for India. Similarly, considering the huge outbound tourism market of India, it has emerged as a potential source market for Colombia.

Thus, by signing this MoU, it will help to consider the mutual benefits in the field of tourism sector. It would also enable both countries to mutually develop and promote tourism in each other’s country for the mutual economic development.

• Union Government launches Three Gold Schemes

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched three gold related scheme viz Gold Monetization Scheme (GMS),Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme (SGBS) and Indian Gold Coins (IGC).

These ambitious schemes were launched to reduce the physical demand for gold and fish out 20,000 tonnes of the precious metal lying idle with households and institutions.

Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS) 2015

• GMS 2015 will offer option to resident Indians to deposit their precious metal and earn an interest on it and will replace the existing Gold Deposit Scheme (GDS) 1999.
• All residents can invest in this scheme but are subjected to Know Your Customer (KYC) Scheme.
• Scheme tagline: Earn, while you secure.
• Implementation: As per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directives all Scheduled Commercial Banks (excluding Regional Rural Banks) will implement GMS 2015.
• Deposit limit: Minimum deposit at any one time of raw gold in the forms of bars, coins, jewellery excluding stones and other metals is 30 grams with 995 fineness. There is no maximum limit for the deposit.
• Tenure: Banks will accept gold deposits under the Short Term of Bank Deposit (STBD) of 1-3 years, Medium (5-7 years) and Long (12-15 years).
• Principal and Interest of the deposit: Banks are free to fix the interest rates and it will be denominated in gold.

• President launches IMPRINT India initiative of IITs and IISC

President Pranab Mukherjee launched Impacting Research Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT) India to boost research in the country.

The initiative is joint venture of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Science (IISC).

Key facts

• IMPRINT India initiative seeks to develop a roadmap for research in order to solve major engineering and technology challenges in 10 identified technology domains.
• These 10 domains are: Health Care, Computer Science and ICT, Advance Materials, Water Resources and River systems, Sustainable Urban Design, Defence, Nano-technology Hardware, Environmental Science and Climate Change and Energy Security.
• These domains are distributed among IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur, IIT Bomaby, IIT Rookree, IIT Madras and IISC, Bengaluru.
• Objectives of this initiative : (i) identify areas of immediate relevance that requires innovation in the society. (ii) Direct scientific research in the identified areas.
• (iii) Ensure support and higher funding for research for identified areas (iv) Measure the outcomes of innovation and research efforts and its impact on the standard of living in the urban and rural areas.

• France to deploy its largest warship against IS in Syria and Iraq

France is set to deploy its largest warship (aircraft carrier) named Charles de Gaulle (R91) in order further boost its operations against Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq.

Since September 2014, France has been targeting IS targets in Iraq and Syria as part of the US-led international coalition.

The aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle can carry upto 40 aircraft and support 100 flights a day. Its involvement in the coalition campaign will shorten the time taken by French jets to carry out air strikes.

The deployment of aircraft carrier is also described as a rational choice of France which inturn would allow the country to be more efficient in coordination with the allies.

The aircraft carrier already has been deployed in the coalition’s fight against IS. It is France’s only such vessel which can be used as base for French jets in the Gulf.

Currently, France is using six Mirage jets stationed in Jordan and six Rafale jets in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to target IS.