Current affairs notes on December 1-5

 1.FATF recently held its annual joint experts’ meet. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 on the initiative of the G7.It is a “policy-making body” which works to generate the necessary political will to bring about national legislative and regulatory reforms in various areas. The FATF Secretariat is housed at the OECD headquarters in Paris.

2.A ‘Monthly Progress Report’ was recently submitted by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti on cleaning Yamuna. The river Yamuna is a major tributary of river Ganges. Originates from the Yamunotri glacier near Bandarpoonch peaks in the Mussoorie range of the lower Himalayas in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand. It meets the Ganges at the Sangam in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh after flowing through Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi. Tributaries: Chambal, Sindh, Betwa and Ken.

3.Present Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal. The Attorney General for India is the central government’s chief legal advisor, and its primary lawyer in the Supreme Court of India. He is a part of the Union Executive. He is appointed by the President of India under Article 76(1) of the Constitution and holds office during the pleasure of the President.

4. The major demand of the protesting farmers has been that the government guarantee in writing the MSP system. The MSP (minimum support price) assures the farmers of a fixed price for their crops. The Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP) in the Ministry of Agriculture would recommend MSPs for 23 crops. The CACP considered various factors while recommending the MSP for a commodity, including cost of cultivation.

5.Chardham Project in news: The project comprises improvement as well as the development of 889 km length of national highways. The project will connect Badrinath Dham, Kedarnath Dham, Gangotri, Yamunotri, and part of the route leading to Kailash Mansarovar yatra.

6. The virtual edition of the Aadi Mahotsav – Madhya Pradesh launched. Aadi Mahotsav is a national tribal festival and a joint initiative of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India & Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED).

7. Cyclone Nivar hit the Karaikal coast, another cyclone, Burevi, named by the Maldives, is expected to cross Tamil Nadu’s southernmost district of Kanyakumari . Tropical Cyclone is any large system of winds that circulates about a center of low atmospheric pressure in a counter-clockwise direction north of the Equator and in a clockwise direction to the south.

8. Chinese Chang’e-5  probe lands on Moon to collect samples. The objective of the mission is to bring back lunar rocks, the first attempt by any nation to retrieve samples from the moon in four decades. If successful, China will be only the third country to have retrieved samples from the moon, following the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.

 9. Bihar is holding a bird festival for the first time as part of its initiative to save migratory birds that arrive in the state in large numbers every year. This was because the 60-kilometre-long stretch of the Vikramshila Dolphin Sanctuary between Sultanganj and Kahalgaon had long been a hub of migratory birds.

10. An expert panel of India’s environment ministry has deferred environment clearance for the Lower Orr Dam, which is part of the Ken-Betwa river interlinking project. Ken- Betwa project. Conceived as a two-part project, this is the country’s first river interlinking project. Ken and Betwa rivers originate in MP and are the tributaries of Yamuna. Ken River passes through Panna tiger reserve (MP).

11. Every year, India celebrates December 4 as Navy Day to commemorate Operation Trident, a key offensive during the 1971 India-Pakistan War, when the Indian Navy inflicted heavy damage on Pakistani vessels in Karachi harbour.

Thank You.