Next exam current affairs pdf today- 3 April 2023
Important Current Affairs for General pepar 2 and 3 – 30 march
(Governance, constitution, polity, social justice, and international affairs)
This news is mainly important for GS Paper 1 and 2, the given pdf covers the major points you will be having on it. You can get its complete information in PDF very well.
1- Russia Adopts new foreign Policy, identifies india china as main allies
Russia’s new foreign policy strategy adopted by President Vladimir Putin on Friday identified China and India as its main allies on the world stage.
The new 42-page document singled out ties with China and India, stressing the importance of “the deepening of ties and coordination with friendly sovereign global centers of power and development located on the Eurasian continent.”
India and Russia maintained a close strategic, military, economic, and diplomatic interaction during the Cold War. Both Russia and India refer to this alliance as being unique and privileged.
The strategic partnership between India and Russia is based on five main pillars — politics, defence, civil nuclear energy, counter terrorism cooperation, and space. India and Russia celebrated the 75th anniversary of their diplomatic relations.
According to the document, Russia will continue to build a particularly privileged strategic partnership with India with a view to enhancing and expanding cooperation in all areas on a mutually beneficial basis and place special emphasis on increasing the volume of bilateral trade, strengthening investment and technological ties, and ensuring their resistance to destructive actions of unfriendly states and their alliances.
“In order to help adapt the world order to the realities of a multipolar world, Russia intends to make it one of priorities to enhance the capacity and international role of the interstate association of BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the RIC (Russia, India, China) and other interstate associations and international organizations, as well as mechanisms with strong Russian participation,” read the docuemnt.
Russia has been the largest supplier of weapons to India, accounting for nearly 50 per cent of the latter’s arms imports from 2016-2020.
Moscow and New Delhi are also discussing the possibility of launching a trans- Arctic container shipping line and processing facilities along the Northern Sea Route (NSR), according to the Russian minister for the development of the Far East and Arctic, Aleksey Chekunkov.
Chekunkov discussed this during his working visit here this week, when he met with the country’s Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal.
2- ISRO successfully tests reusable launch vehicle
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on Sunday successfully conducted an experiment that it said would propel the country forward in its goal to send reusable rockets into space.
The space agency conducted the ‘Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission (RLV LEX)’ at the Aeronautical Test Range of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district.
According to ISRO, the RLV took off as the underslung load of a Chinook Helicopter of the Indian Air Force and, after reaching an altitude of 4.6 km, was released for carrying out an autonomous landing on a runway.
Such a technique has never been used before, the agency added.
ISRO said the experiment was carried out under the exact conditions of a space re-entry vehicle’s landing such as “high speed, unmanned, precise landing from the same return path”.
ISRO chairman Dr S Somanath said the success of the experiment has edged India closer to having its own reusable rockets and landing craft for specific mission goals.
“The very first experiment (of the RLV landing experiment programme) was successful. I am sure that it is meeting almost all the objectives of the landing experiment defined long back,” he said, adding it was a great opportunity for ISRO to develop an Orbital Landing Experiment.
The RLV is essentially a space plane with a low lift-to-drag ratio, requiring an approach at high glide angles that necessitated a landing at high velocities of 350 kmph. ISRO said the LEX utilized several indigenous systems.
3- Pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) TB drug patent has been rejected
Why in discussion?
On March 23, the Indian patent office rejected an application by US-basedpharmagiant Johnson& Johnson(J&J) toextend, its monopoly on manufacturing key tuberculosis drug Bedaquiline in India beyond July 2023 used for the treatment of those with drugresistantinfections.
About it’s Patent
- The drug first became available in India under the government’s TB program in 2015, but with a six-month course – which is the minimum required – costing Rs 21,000 or more per
person. - Received approval from US Food and Drug Administration in 2012.
What is the drug bedaquilane?
Bedaquiline is a critical drug in the treatment of multi-drug resistant TB patients for whom the first-line drug treatment has stopped working. Bedaquiline is used along with at least three other medications to treat multidrugresistanttuberculosis (MDR-TB; a serious infection that affects the lungs and other parts of the body).
- Currently, Bedaquiline tablets are priced at $400 per six month treatment course, which is unaffordable for many patients.
- According to the latest estimates, in 2019, over 55,000 patients who had developed multi-drug resistant TB could have benefited from access to Bedaquiline, but only a little over 10,000 of these patients had accessed the drug as of March 2020.
What is multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB)?
- MDR-TB is a type of tuberculosis infection caused by bacteria that are resistant to at least two of the most effective first-line drugs for TB treatment, isoniazid and rifampicin.
- MDR-TB is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the same bacterium that causes regular TB, but is much more difficult to treat.
Why was the Patent Application Rejected?
- J&J’s patent application was for fumarates salt of a compound to produce quiline tablets.
- It was argued that J&J’s method to produce a “solid pharmaceutical composition” of bedaquiline doesn’t require an “inventive step”.
- According to the Indian Patent Act 1970 Section 2(1) (ja), an ‘inventive step’ is an invention that is “not obvious to a person skilled in heart”.
- The current application drew significantly from a previous patent, which discussed a similar compound on which bedaquiline is based.
- A patent cannot begrantedon’ mereuse of a known process, machine or apparatusunless such known process results in a new product employing at least a new reactant’.
What is the Evergreening of Patents?
- The evergreening of patents is a practice of tweaking drugs in order to extend their patent term and thus their profitability.
- The Indian Patents Act 1970 introduced many provisions to prevent the mischievous practice of “evergreening” of patents.
- This is toaid millions of people who can’tafford the expensive modified drugs, as well as the development of the domestic generic drug market.
The rejection of Johnson & Johnson’s attempt to extend its monopoly on manufacturing the anti-tuberculosis drug Bedaquiline in India beyond July 2023 is a significant victory for patients seeking wider access to the drug.
4- Competition (Amendment) Bill passed in Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed amendments to the competition Act 2002 for stricter compliance, including by empowering the antitrust regulator to impose penalties on global turnovers of erring firms, removing that could open the doors for harsher punishments on entities like BigTechfirms.
Recently, the National Company LawAppellateTribunal released its final verdict upholding the competition’s regulator’s(CCI) findings that Google abused its market dominance in the Android ecosystem, the Lok Sabha passed a piece of competition-related legislation which could pose a new frontier of challenges for Google and other global technology companies.
What’s the Bill
The Bill seeks to amend the Competition Act, 2002, to regulate mergers and acquisitions based on the value of transactions.
- Deals with transaction value of more than Rs2,000 crore will require CCI’s approval.
- The Bill proposes to reduce the timeline for the CCI to pass an order on such transactions from 210 days to 150 days.
According to section 5 of the act, parties indulging in mergers, acquisitions, or amalgamation need to notify the Competition Commission of India of the combination only on the basis of asset or turnover.
- It proposes to exempt open market purchases and stock market transactions from the requirement to notify the commission advance.
- The appointment of a Director General by the Commission rather than the Central government gives the Commission greater control.
Expansion of scope of institutions
The Bill expands the scope of entities that can be adjudicated to be a part of anticompetitive agreements. Currently, enterprises or persons engaged in similar businesses canbeheldtobeapart of anti-competitiveagreements. The Bill expands this to also include enterprises or persons who are not engaged in similar businesses.
Features of Competition Act 2002
- Anti-competitive agreements: The law of competition prohibits any agreement between two or more enterprises or individuals to maintain market competition and to protect the interests of consumers within India. Such agreements can be vertical or horizontal. Vertical agreements are agreements between enterprises at different stages of production, Whereas horizontal agreements are between enterprises at the same production level.
- Anti-abuse of dominance: If an enterprise misuses its dominant position, it will be punished.
- Anti cartels: If any agreement between enterprises or individuals causes harm to competition, it will be considered a criminal offence.
- Combination regulations: The Commission will decide on mergers and acquisitions only if it does not harm competition in the market.
Competition Commission of India ( CCI )
It is a statutory body within the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and is responsible for enforcing the Competition Act, 2002 to promote competition and prevent activities that have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India. The commission was established in 2003.
- it is with the following duties:
Prevent practices that have negative effect on competition. - Encourage and maintain market competition.
- Safeguard the interests of all consumers.
- Safeguard commercial liberty.
- Investigate problems related to rancillary to trade.
5- UN will allow deep sea mining operations
International seabed naturalization
The International Seabed Authority is a Kingston, Jamaicabased intergovernmental body of 167 member states and the European Unionestablished under the 1982 UN Convention the Law of the Seaandits 1994 Agreement onImplementation.
- India actively contributes to the work of the International Maritime Authority.
- In the year 2016, India got I.S.A. Re-elected as amember of the Council of
India’s role in the discovery of polymetallic nodules
India has been allotted a site of 75,000 square kilometers in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) by the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for the exploitation of Polymetallic Nodules (PMN) in 2002 for 15 years and again in 2017 it was extended to 5 years till 2022.
Government Steps
National Center for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR): It was established in 2020 by the Ministry of Earth Sciences in Goa, which is tasked with exploring the country’s deep-sea mineral wealth.
Draft Deep Seabed Mining Regulations, 2021: It has been formulated by the Indian government to provide a legal framework for the exploration and exploitation of mineral resources in the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
The draft decision of the ISA governing council allows companies to file permit applications from July 9.
In the instance of amining code, which has been under discussion for nearly 10 years, the 36-member council is uncertain about the process it should adopt for reviewing applications for mining contracts.
What are the growing concerns
Environmental impacts: Mining operations can disturb and damage fragile deep-sea ecosystems, including coral reefs, hydrothermal vents, and other important habitats.
- noise pollution
- Thermal pollution
- regulatory gaps
- Technological challenges
- Social and economic impacts
Gk Current Affairs Questions and Answer
Q-1:- Which country becomes the first country to temporarily ban OpenAI’s ChatGPT over privacy and security concerns?
a) Italy
b) Spain
c) China
d) Russia
Ans– a) Italy
Q-2:-World Bank approves $363 million loan to which state(India) for rural water supply programme?
a) Karnataka
b) Kerala
c) Tamil Nadu
d) Andhra Pradesh
Ans– a) Karnataka
Q-3:- With which Southeast Asian country, India can now trade in Indian rupee as per RBI initiative?
a) Malaysia
b) Philippines
c) Thailand
d) Cambodia
Ans– a) Malaysia
Q-4:- European Commission grants which of the following tag for Himachal’s Kangra tea?
a) GI tag
b) ISI tag / ISI tag
c) ISO tag / ISO tag
d) None of the above
Ans– a) GI tag
Q-5:- US Senate confirmed which Indian-American for top US State Department position?
a) Richard Verma
b) Atul Keshap
c) BikramChoudhury
d) Hasan Minhaj
Ans- a) Richard Verma
Q-6:- An Indian-Origin Engineer To Head NASA’s New Moon To Mars Programme, who is he?
a) Amit Kshatriya
b) Kamlesh Lulla
c) Ashwin R. Vasavada / Akin R Vasavada
d) Meyya Meyyappan
Ans– a) Amit Kshatriya
Q-7:- India Unveils State-Of-The-Art Space Design Lab for Startups in which of the following city, recently?
a) Ahmedabad
b) Lucknow / Lucknow
c) Hyderabad / Hyderabad
d) Visakhapatnam / Kavashakhapatnam
Ans– a) Ahmedabad
Q-8:- Which city is to get India’s 2nd largest cricket stadium?
a) Jaipur
b) Patna
c) Bhopal
d) Srinagar
Ans– a) Jaipur
Q-9 :- Recently, which Indian industrialist gets Lifetime Achievement award from University of Texas?
a) Naveen Jindal
b) Mukesh Ambani
c) Gautam Adani
d) Shiv Nadar
Ans– a) Naveen Jindal
Q-10 :- Recently, who is appointed as the new CEO of Hero Moto Corp?
a) Niranjan Gupta
b) Vikram Pawah
c) Saharsh Damani
d) Pawan Kumar Goenka
Ans– a) Niranjan Gupta
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