UPSC Prelims News 28 November 2022

UPSC Prelims News of 28 November 2022

China-Indian Ocean Region Forum

Context: China has organized the first high-level China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on Development Cooperation.

More on the News:

The forum was held by China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) in Kunming, and hosted 19 countries, excluding India.
Theme: The theme of the forum was “Shared Development: Theory and Practice from the Perspective of the Blue Economy”.
Participant countries included Indonesia, Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, Oman, Kenya, South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius, Djibouti, and Australia.

Outcomes of the Forum:

China has proposed to set up a marine disaster prevention and mitigation cooperation mechanism between China and countries in the Indian Ocean region.
- It has pledged to provide necessary financial, material, and technical support to countries in need.
China has also proposed to establish a blue economy think tank network for China and countries in the Indian Ocean region.
Significance: The forum is aimed at countering India’s strong influence in the Indian Ocean region where India-backed organizations like the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) has strong roots.

UPSC Prelims News 26 November 2022

PSLV-C54 Mission

Context: ISRO has successfully placed nine satellites using the space agency’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C54.

More on the News:

The satellite payload included ISRO Nano Satellite-2 for Bhutan (INS-2B), EOS-06 satellite, Anand, Astrocast (four satellites), and two Thybolt satellites.
EOS-06 is third generation satellite in the Oceansat series, which provides continued services of Oceansat-2 with enhanced payload capability.
The EOS-06 aims to observe ocean color data, sea surface temperature and wind vector data to use in Oceanography, climatic and meteorological applications.

INS-2B Satellite:

This satellite has built in joint-collaboration between Indian and Bhutanese scientists. It carries two payloads namely NanoMx and APRS-Digipeater.
NanoMx is a multispectral optical imaging payload developed by Space Applications Centre (SAC), whereas APRS-Digipeater is jointly developed by DITT-Bhutan and URSC.

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV):

PSLV is a four-stage propulsion vehicle designed by ISRO. It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites into sun-synchronous orbits

Kathakar

Context: Ministry of Culture has partnered with Kathakar under Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav to take storytelling among the people.

About Kathakar:

It is the sole celebration of India’s rich oral storytelling tradition, which was started under the umbrella of Ghummakkad Narain Travelling Literature Festival, in 2010.
Kathakar 2022 aim is two-fold–to ensure the conservation of oral storytelling tradition and increase its popularity.
The festival will showcase in its pristine physical form amazing stories and music by Indian and International storytellers from seven countries—United Kingdom; Australia; Mongolia; Israel; Sierra Leonne; Korea; and India.

Art of Storytelling in India:

It has many forms and utilizes many mediums. Despite differences in settings, genres, or cultures, all stories ultimately aim to convey something universal.
They serve both an educational and entertainment purpose for audiences.
Puppets, dance, or even musical instruments are used as props to help the narrator make storytelling more impactful.

Insider Trading

Context: Capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has amended norms to bring buying and selling of mutual fund units under the insider trading rules.

What is Insider Trading?

It refers to the buying, selling or trading of shares or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) of a listed company using unpublished price-sensitive information (UPSI) that can affect the stock price that has not been disclosed yet.
Insider trading hurts the integrity of capital markets.
Unpublished price-sensitive information (UPSI):
- UPSI refers to a piece of exclusive information related to a firm’s stock prices, quarterly results, acquisition deals, mergers or any kind of sensitive activities that have not been shared with the public at large.
- When insiders are able to access the UPSI, they illegally conduct trade dealings for personal gains.
Who is an Insider?
- SEBI regulations define an ‘insider’ as someone who is a connected person or has access to UPSI.
- A connected person can be anyone who during the six months preceding the insider trade has been associated with the company in some way.
- This could be a company director or employee or their close relatives, or a legal counsel or banker to the company or even an official of the stock exchanges or trustees or employees of an asset management company who interacted with the company.