National
'Services Export Promotion Council- Global Services Conclave 2021'
⇒ The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal addressed the gathering at ‘Services Export Promotion Council- Global Services Conclave 2021’ in New Delhi on 09 November 2021.
Theme:
The theme of the Global Services Conclave 2021 was ‘India Serves: Exploring Potential Growth Sectors Beyond IT/ITes’.
Addressing the gathering Shri Goyal said:
- India is poised to achieve services export target of $1 trn by 2030.
- Services sector provides employment to nearly 2.6 crore people and contributes approximately 40% to India’s total global exports.
- Services trade surplus was $89 bn in FY 2020-21 and it has been the largest FDI recipient (53% of FDI inflows 2000-2021).
- In 2020, India became the 7th largest services exporter in the world, moving up the ladder by two positions.
- Services PMI rose to a decade high of 58.4 in Oct’21.
- The government supported the service sector through the Aatmanirbhar Bharat package, released collateral-free Automatic loans worth Rs 56,027 crore to businesses including MSMEs under various export promotion schemes.
- India has the potential to become the top services exporter in the world.
- ‘Services’ is boosting India’s transition from an assembly economy to a knowledge-based economy.
- India has transformed from being the ‘Back office’ to the ‘Brain office’ of the world.
MoU between Indian Army and 'BISAG-N'
⇒ The Indian Army has inked a Memorandum of Understanding with the Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-Informatics (BISAG-N), Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
- This MoU will facilitate exchange of knowledge and collaboration in the fields emerging technologies for development of GIS and IT based Enterprise Resource Planning Software, Training Content, Telecasting of Audio-Visual Content, Research and Knowledge Partnership, Technical Support and Upgradation for Resources Developed.
- This is helpful for projects that have the prior approval of Army Management Studies Board or approved on case-to-case basis, under a holistic partnership for projects.
» The MOU will leverage the relative advantage of BISAG-N to support training and evolving innovative solutions to boost operational capabilities of the Indian Armed Forces.
About BISAG-N:
BISAG-N which is an autonomous scientific society under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India will act as a medium of exchange of knowledge and collaboration in the fields of emerging technologies.
Assam cabinet approves the Industrial Relation Rules, 2021
⇒ The Assam cabinet on November 4, 2021 approved the Industrial Relation Rules, 2021 aiming at safeguarding the rights of employers and employees.
The rules have been framed with a view to amalgamate, simplify and rationalise provisions of three central labour codes relating to industrial relations.
International
DRDO and DDR&D, Israel signs Bilateral Innovation Agreement
⇒ Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Directorate of Defence Research and Development (DDR&D), Ministry of Defence, Israel have entered into a Bilateral Innovation Agreement (BIA) for development of dual use technologies.
The agreement has been signed to promote innovation and accelerated R&D in startups and MSMEs of both countries for the development of dual use technologies.
Under the agreement, startups and industry of both countries will work together to bring out next generation technologies and products in the following areas:
Drones, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Quantum technology, Photonics, Biosensing, Brain-Machine Interface, Energy Storage, Wearable Devices, Natural Language Processing, etc.
- The development efforts will be jointly funded by DRDO and DDR&D, Israel.
First Chinese woman to walk in space
⇒ Astronaut Wang Yaping became the first Chinese woman to walk in space.
She exited the under-construction Tiangong space station and participated in extravehicular exercises for more than six hours alongside her male colleague Zhai Zhigang.
- Tiangong – meaning “heavenly palace” – is the latest achievement in China’s drive to become a major space power, after landing a rover on Mars and sending probes to the Moon.
- Its core module entered orbit in the year 2021, with the station expected to be operational by 2022.
History:
Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya was the first woman to walk in space in 1984. Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to do so later the same year.
Sports
ICC Players of the Month for October 2021
⇒ Pakistan’s Asif Ali and Ireland’s Laura Delany have been voted the ICC Players of the Month for October 2021.
- ICC Men’s Player of the Month, October 2021: Asif Ali
- ICC Women’s Player of the Month, October 2021: Laura Delany
Death
Legendary Cricket Coach, Tarak Sinha
⇒ Legendary cricket coach Tarak Sinha passed away on 06 November 2021. He was 71.
Tarak Sinha was the renowned coach from Delhi’s famous Sonnet Cricket Club.
Sinha is renowned for coaching players across generations and the list comprises Surinder Khanna, Manoj Prabhakar, Ajay Sharma, Atul Wassan, Ashish Nehra, Sanjeev Sharma, Aakash Chopra, Shikhar Dhawan, Anjum Chopra and Rishabh Pant.
Sinha was conferred with the lifetime Dronacharya Award in 2018.