Daily Current Affairs 11 July 2024, WBPSC Exam Current Affairs

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International

UNESCO designates 11 new biosphere reserves

• Eleven new Biosphere Reserves (BR), including two transboundary biosphere reserves, have been designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in eleven nations. Belgium and the Gambia's biosphere reserves were added to UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves for the first time.
• Currently, 759 sites in 136 nations make up the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, including 24 transboundary sites.
• The 36th session of the International Coordinating Council (ICC), which oversees UNESCO's Man and Biosphere (MAB) program, was convened in Agadir, Morocco, from July 2–5, 2024, and authorized these 11 additional BRs.

• The entire area of these recently authorized biosphere reserves is 37,400 square kilometers (km2), or the same size as the Netherlands.
• Of the 11 new BRs that UNESCO certified, only two were transboundary BRs: the Julian Alps transboundary BR (between Italy and Slovenia) and the Kempen-Broek tansboundary BR (between Belgium and the Kingdom of the Netherlands).
• The other new biosphere reserves are in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Italy, Mongolia, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Spain, Belgium and the Gambia.
• Under the MAB Program, 12 BRs from India have received interna-tional recognition.

The New Additions to the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve List:

1. Kempen-Broek Transboundary Bios-phere Reserve (Belgium, Kingdom of the Netherlands)
2. Darién Norte Chocoano Biosphere Reserve (Colombia)
3. Madre de las Aguas Biosphere Reserve (Dominican Republic)
4. Niumi Biosphere Reserve (Gambia)
5. Colli Euganei Biosphere Reserve (Italy)
6. Julian Alps Transboundary Biosphere Reserve (Italy, Slovenia)
7. Khar Us Lake Biosphere Reserve (Mongolia)
8. Apayaos Biosphere Reserve (Philippines)
9. Changnyeong Biosphere Reserve (Republic of Korea)
10. Val d'Aran Biosphere Reserve (Spain)
11. Irati Biosphere Reserve (Spain)

National

The Finance Commission constitutes a five-member Advisory Council

• An advisory council comprising five members has been established by the Sixteenth Finance Commission to provide counsel on matters about the Commission's Terms of Reference (ToR) and related areas.
• By the ToR, the Finance Commission will also recommend actions to increase a state's Consolidated Fund to augment the resources of municipalities and panchayats.

• The National Council of Applied Economic Research's Director General, Poonam Gupta, has been named the Advisory Council's convenor.

• Neelkanth Mishra, Chief Economist at Axis Bank;
• D.K. Srivastava, Chief Policy Advisor at EY
• Pranjul Bhandari is HSBC Securities & Capital Markets' chief economist for India.
• Rahul Bajoria, MD, Head of Barclays' EM Asia (ex-China) Economics

• drafting research studies or papers
• observing or evaluating research that the Finance Commission has commissioned
• Increasing the Commission's comprehension of the matters covered in its ToR
• expanding the Commission's purview and knowledge base by looking for the best national and worldwide fiscal devolution methods

• On December 31, 2023, the President established the 16th Finance Commission, chaired by Arvind Panagariya.
• The commission was established to provide recommendations for five years starting on April 1, 2026.
• The commission is also required to examine the current finance arrangements for disaster management efforts, taking into account the funds established under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 (53 of 2005), and to provide pertinent suggestions based on its findings.
• The proposals of the 15th Finance Commission say that the federal government should give the states 41% of tax revenue. We call this vertical devolution.
• The allocation of resources across states, also known as horizontal devolution, is determined by several factors, including population, income, area, forest and ecosystem, taxes, and steps taken by each state to control its budgetary deficit.

• Chairman: Arvind Panagariya
• Secretary: Ritvik Ranjanam Pandey

• Ajay Narayan Jha
• Annie George Mathew
• Manoj Panda
• Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Part-Time Member

Appointment

Gautam Gambhir appointed India men’s cricket head coach

• Gautam Gambhir, the former opener for India, has been named the new Head Coach of the India Cricket Team (Senior Men) and will hold the position till the end of 2027, according to a statement made by Jay Shah, Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
• The Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), which is made up of Ashok Malhotra, Jatin Paranjpe, and Sulakshana Naik, recommended his appointment.

• Beginning on July 27, 2024, he will be in charge of Team India's next series against Sri Lanka, which consists of three Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) and three One Day Internationals (ODIs).
• Rahul Dravid, whose mandate concluded following the 2024 International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 World Cup, is replaced by Gautam.
• his outstanding efforts to the Indian squad, which included standout performances in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup and the 2007 ICC World T20.
• The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won their third Indian Premier League (IPL) championship in 2024 thanks in part to Gambhir's coaching.
• Along with Mohammad Yousuf, Don Bradman, and Jacques Kallis, he is the only other Indian player to hit hundreds in five straight Test matches.

Science & Technology

Türkiye Launches First Home-Made Communications Satellite

• TÜRKSAT-6A, the first communication satellite developed in Turkey, was launched into orbit by Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), in the United States of America (USA), by ASELSAN, a company of the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation (TAFF).
• ASELSAN engineers created the Ku-Band and X-Band communication payloads that are installed aboard the TÜRKSAT-6A satellite.
• With this launch, Turkey is now among the 11 nations in the world with the ability to produce its communication satellites.
• The biggest defense electronics manufacturer in Turkey is called ASELSAN.

• Turksat 2A was launched in 2001, Turksat 3A in 2008, Turksat 4B in 2014, Turksat 5A in 2021, and Turksat 5B in 2022. Turksat 1C, the replacement for the initial communications satellite Turksat 1B, was launched in 1995.
• On December 15, 2014, the Turksat 6A project was formally introduced. It has been in the works for around ten years.
• The satellite's construction was finished by Turkish defense companies Aselsan, C2TECH, and Turkish Aerospace Industries in collaboration with the Turkish Space Agency, Turksat, and TUBITAK.

• The 4.25-ton (4250 kg) satellite will operate at an orbital position of 42 degrees East for 15 years during its operational life.
• The Space Systems Integration and Testing (USET) Center hosted the integration and testing of the TÜRKSAT 6A satellite.
• ASELSAN designed the satellite's payloads, which have a combined mass of 300 kg and a power consumption of 5 kW.
• After a month of orbital testing, the satellite is scheduled to arrive at its operational orbit, which is 35,786 kilometers (km) above Earth's surface.

• Communication services will be available to Turkey, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia via the TÜRKSAT-6A satellite.
• With the addition of South Asian nations like India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia to its coverage region, Turksat will serve a population that will increase from 3.5 billion to over 5 billion.

• Capital: Ankara
• Currency: Turkish lira
• President: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Miscellaneous

Second BIMSTEC Foreign Ministers’ Retreat to Begin in New Delhi

• External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar will host his counterparts for the 2nd BIMSTEC Foreign Ministers' Retreat in New Delhi on 11-12 July 2024.
• The Retreat will present an opportunity for the Foreign Ministers of the BIMSTEC countries to discuss, in an informal setting, avenues to broaden and deepen cooperation across various sectors including in the fields of security, connectivity, trade and investment, people-to-people contacts etc, in the Bay of Bengal region and littoral.
• The first edition of the BIMSTEC Foreign Ministers' Retreat was held in Bangkok, Thailand on 17 July 2023.
• The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), brings together seven countries of South and South East Asia for multifaceted cooperation.

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC)

• Establishment: 6 June 1997
• Secretariat: Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Member: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand

Important Day

World Population Day - 11 th July