9 PM Current Affairs Brief – April 27th, 2020

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UN75 Initiative

News:UN75 Initiative has released the findings from the first three months of Global Dialogue.

Facts:

• The UN75 Initiative was launched by the United Nations in 2019.
• Aim:To build a global vision for the year 2045 by initiating a dialogue and action on how we can build a better world despite the many challenges we face.
• The views and ideas that are generated through the dialogue will be presented during the 75th Session of the General Assembly in September 2020.

Additional Facts:

United Nations(UN):

• UN is an international organization founded in 1945.It is currently made up of 193 Member States.
• Aim:To maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations.
• Six Principal Organs: General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council, International Court of Justice and the UN Secretariat.

Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator

Facts:

• Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator is a Global Collaboration to speed up the development, production of COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines and ensure equal access to treatments for rich and poor.
• This initiative is led by the World Health Organization with a long list of countries, industry groups and nongovernmental organizations committed to joining the project.

Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary

News:National Board for Wild Life(NBWL) has recommended coal mining in a part of Dehing Patkai elephant reserve which includes the Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam.

Facts:

• The Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary is also known as the Jeypore Rainforest.It is located in the districts of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia in Assam.
• Dehing is the name of the river that flows through this forest and Patkai is the hill at the foot of which the sanctuary lies.
• Vegetation:It is a deciduous rainforest interspersed with semi-evergreen and lush green flora.
• Habitat: Chinese pangolin, Flying fox, Rhesus macaque, Assamese macaque, Himalayan black bear, Lesser Adjutant Stork, White and Slender-billed Vulture, Leopard, Golden Cat, Jungle Cat and Marbled Cat.

Basava Jayanthi

News:The Prime minister has greeted the people on the occasion of Basava Jayanthi,the Birth anniversary of Lord Basaveshwara.

Facts:

• Basavanna was a 12th-century philosopher, founding saint of the Lingayat sect, Kannada poet and social reformer during the reign of the Kalachuri-dynasty king Bijjala I in Karnataka.

Contributions:

• He rejected gender or social discrimination, superstitions and rituals by advocating that every human being was equal, irrespective of caste and that all forms of manual labor was equally important.
• Anubhava Mantapa(hall of spiritual experience):It was a public institution founded by Basavana to welcome men and women from all socio-economic backgrounds to discuss spiritual and mundane questions of life in open.
• Literary works:He spread social awareness through poetry(Vachanas) such as Shat-sthala-vachana (discourses of the six stages of salvation), Kala-jnana-vachana (forecasts of the future) and Mantra-gopya.
• He is known for introducing the Ishtalinga(a necklace with a pendant that contains a small Shiva Linga).

Recognition:

• He was the first Kannadiga in whose honour a commemorative coin has been minted in recognition of his social reforms.
• In 2015, Indian Prime Minister inaugurated his statue along the bank of the river Thames at Lambeth,London.

Rohtang Pass

News:The Border Roads Organisation(BRO) has opened the Rohtang Pass for transporting essential supplies and relief materials to the Lahaul and Spiti districts of Himachal Pradesh amid the lockdown.

Facts:

• Rohtang Pass is present on the Pir Panjal Range of Himalayas.It connects the Kullu Valley with Lahaul and Spiti Valleys of Himachal Pradesh.
• The pass lies on the watershed between the Chenab and Beas rivers basins.
• The Ravi river rises west of the Rohtang pass in the Kullu hills of Himachal Pradesh.
• Atal Tunnel:It is an 8.8-kilometre-long under Rohtang Pass.It will become the world’s longest highway tunnel above 10,000 feet.

World Bank Migration and Development Brief

News:The World Bank has released its report “Migration and Development Brief”. It focuses on COVID-19 Crisis Through a Migration Lens.

Facts:

• The report is prepared by the Migration and Remittances Unit- the research and data arm of the World Bank.It is released twice a year.
• Aim:To provide an update on key developments in the area of migration and remittance flows and related policies over the past six months.
• It also provides medium-term projections of remittance flows to developing countries.

Additional Facts:

• Remittances: It is a transfer of money often by a foreign worker to an individual in their home country.
• Indiais the world’s biggest recipient of remittances.In 2019,India is estimated to have received $83.1 billion in remittances which is about 12% of the total expected global inflow.