Current Affairs 7th April

National Affairs

1. MIB partners with Amazon India in the field of Media, Entertainment and Public Awareness

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and Amazon India have formed a partnership in the areas of media, entertainment, and public awareness, according to Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Singh Thakur.

 

About the Letter of Commitment:

 

A multifaceted partnership between various MIB organizations and Amazon verticals will result from the Letter of Engagement (LoE) between MIB and Amazon India.

 

This includes Prasar Bharati’s Publications Division, the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC), and the media training institutions of the FTII and SRFTI, both of which are part of MIB.

 

IMDb of Amazon, Alexa, Amazon Music, the Amazon e-marketplace, and Amazon Prime Video (APV).

 

The promotion of Indian music on Amazon Music and Alexa, as well as the promotion of Indian heritage through a dedicated catalog of Books on India’s Culture published by the Publication Division, will also be included in this LoE. Key Points:

 

Through this partnership, Alexa and Amazon Music will be used to distribute daily news bulletins, public speeches by the Prime Minister of India and President of India, content related to events of national importance, public interest campaigns, and more.

 

The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) Award-winning films and films produced in accordance with India’s international co-production treaties would be brought aboard by APV as part of this partnership.

 

Additionally, APV and MiniTV would incorporate NFDC and Prasar Bharati’s archived content.

 

As part of the talent development component, APV will sponsor scholarships, develop internship programs, and provide employment opportunities for FTII and SRFTI students.

 

In addition, APV will launch initiatives to improve the talent of the winners of the “75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow” program, conduct masterclasses with Indian and international film personalities in academic institutions for the media and entertainment industry, and collaborate with NFDC to organize skill-building activities.

 

Amazon will work no sweat of accessibility of data about Indian

craftsmen on IMDb, a worldwide information base for the imaginative business.

2. India & Romania signed their first Defence Cooperation Agreement

During the bilateral meeting on defense cooperation held in New Delhi, Delhi, between Giridhar Aramane, Secretary, Ministry of Defence, and Simona Cojocaru, State Secretary and Chief of the Department for Defence Policy, Planning, and International Relations of Romania, India and Romania signed the agreement on defense cooperation on March 28, 2023.

 

This is the primary protection participation arrangement among India and Romania.

 

Regarding the Contract:

 

The armed forces of India and Romania will be able to work together in practice as a result of this agreement.

 

The bilateral defense agenda will also gain new momentum as a result of this.

In accordance with this agreement, Romania and India will collaborate on military education, training, cyber defense, military medicine, military history, and other areas of mutual benefit.

 

The Romanian Institute for Political Studies of Defense and Military History and the Indian Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses will collaborate within the framework of this agreement.

 

India and Romania hold a bilateral meeting:

 

During the bilateral meeting, a variety of topics were discussed, including military-to-military cooperation, military training and courses, defense co-development and co-production, and capacity building.

 

India and Romania agreed to work together to improve cooperation in all areas of defense and shared their perspectives on the challenges to regional security.

International Affairs

1. ‘Top 10 Busiest Airports Worldwide for 2022’ by ACI: Delhi Airport Emerges as The World’s 9th Busiest Airport in 2022 

The “Top 10 Busiest Airports Worldwide for 2022” was published by the Airports Council International (ACI) World. In it, Delhi Airport (Indira Gandhi International Airport, or IGIA) was ranked as the 9th busiest airport in the world in 2022, surpassing Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport in France.

 

IGIA moved up from 13th in 2021 and 17th in 2019 to fifth in 2022 with a passenger count of 5,94,907 (5.94 crore) people.

 

For 2022, the top ten busiest airports worldwide The top 10 airports for total passenger traffic, which account for 10% of global traffic, saw an 85.9% increase over their 2019 figures, according to ACI. This represents a 51.7% increase from 2021.

 

The United States (US) is home to five of the world’s top ten airports, all of which have significant domestic passenger shares of between 75% and 95%.

Banking and Finance

1. RBI Data: Bank credit growth Increased by 15% in FY23, Highest since FY12

India’s bank credit increased by 15% year-over-year (YoY) in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), compared to 9.6% YoY in 2021-22 (FY22), according to data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

 

Credit growth in FY23 is the highest it has been since FY12, when it was 19.3%.

 

Key Points:

 

In comparison to the growth of 8.9% YoY in FY22, bank deposits increased by 9.58% in FY23.

 

Bank deposit mobilization lag behind credit disbursements in FY23.

In FY23, deposits raised Rs 15.78 trillion, up from Rs 13.51 trillion in FY22.

 

In absolute terms, the credit increased by Rs 17.83 trillion in FY23, surpassing Rs 10.43 trillion in FY22.

 

At the end of the last fortnight of FY23 (on March 24, 2023), the outstanding credit stood at Rs 136.75 trillion, up from Rs 118.91 trillion in FY22 (on March 25, 2022), according to RBI data on Scheduled Bank’s Statement of Position in India.

 

In FY23, there were Rs 180.43 trillion in outstanding deposits, up from Rs 164.6 trillion in FY22.

 

By the end of March 2023, the interest rate on one-year term deposits had increased to 6-7.25% from a range of 5 to 5.6%.

 

In March 2022 and March 2023, the savings deposit rate remained within the range of 2.7-3%.

Economy and Business

1. ‘Global Trade Outlook and Statistics’ by WTO: Global Trade May Grow 1.7% In 2023 Despite War

As indicated by the “Worldwide Exchange Standpoint and Measurements” report delivered by the World Exchange Association (WTO) the product exchange volume is supposed to develop by 1.7% in 2023, up from October 2022 gauge of 1.0%.

 

The ongoing war in Ukraine, persistently rising inflation, tighter monetary policy, and financial uncertainty are all likely to slow down trade expansion in 2023.

 

The World Trade Organization (WTO) predicted a 3.5% increase in world merchandise trade in October 2022, but the actual growth rate in 2022 was only 2.7%.

 

Key Points:

 

The WTO’s trade projections project real global GDP growth of 2.4% in 2023 at market exchange rates.

 

It is anticipated that trade and output growth rates will fall below their averages by 2.6% and 2.7% in the 12 years following the global financial crisis.

 

It is anticipated that GDP growth will accelerate to 2.6% in 2024, bringing trade growth back to 3.2%.

 

However, significant downside risks, such as rising geopolitical tensions and global food insecurity, make the forecast more unpredictable than usual.

 

The easing of COVID-19 pandemic regulations in China, which is likely to relieve accumulated consumer demand in the country and boost international trade, are among the factors that have led to the revised projection for 2023.

 

Key Measurements:

 

It is anticipated that North America will have the highest rate of growth for merchandise exports in any WTO region in 2023 (3.3 percent), followed by the CIS (2.8 percent), Asia (2.5 percent), and Europe.

 

Exports of goods from Africa are expected to decrease (-1.4%), while West Asia and South America are anticipated to experience slower export growth of 0.9 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

 

The assessed Gross domestic product development for Europe has been changed up by 0.7% focuses, while the normal Gross domestic product development for Asia has been changed somewhere near 0.4% focuses.

 

The value of international merchandise trade will rise by 12% to USD 25.3 trillion in 2022 as a result of rising commodity prices worldwide.

 

The value of commercial services trade around the world increased by 15% to USD 6.8 trillion in 2022.

 

In 2022, digitally delivered service exports totaled $3.82 trillion.

2. Cognizant wins £74 million deal from UK’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 

Cognizant, an American multinational information technology company, was awarded a contract worth £ 74 million (approximately USD 92 million) from the UK’s Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) on April 6, 2023, to enhance the supply chain model of the government organization and add new digital capabilities. The agreement is good for two years.

 

Under the Application Development and Maintenance Support Services program, Cognizant will implement the new online services and digital platform capabilities.

 

It can be used again and again throughout the core Defra group, including the Environment Agency, the Animal Plant Health Agency, and the Rural Payments Agency, which are its partner organizations.

 

The program’s objective is to assist in providing consistency and a streamlined trip for Defra’s clients by improving processes and the quality of the agency’s digital services.