Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 12 November 2021

::NATIONAL::

The Wildlife Institute of India (WII-Dehradun) Conservation Biologists will begin collaring ten Fishing Cats (Prionailurus Viverrinus) in the Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS) in Andhra Pradesh next week.
The country’s first Fishing Cat collaring project is led by Conservation Biologist Dr. Bilal Habib, WII-Dehradun. In Asia, a similar project was done earlier in Bangladesh.
The Andhra Pradesh State Forest Department has already released ₹.45 lakh which was funded by the Vedanta group for the project.

Fishing Cat:

It is a nocturnal animal and habitant of wetlands.
It is mainly found in mangroves forest of the Sundarbans, around Chilika Lake, foothills of the Himalayas along Ganga and Brahmaputra River valleys and in the Western Ghats.
It preys on fish, frogs, crustaceans, snakes, birds and scavenges on carcasses of larger animals.
As per IUCN status it comes under Endangered category.
Threats faced by Fishing cat includes Habitat loss due to development activities in wetlands; Intensive aquaculture; hunting for meat and skin etc.
In 2012, the West Bengal government officially declared the Fishing Cat as the State Animal.

At the COP26 global climate conference currently underway here, four developing countries – Brazil, South Africa, India and China (the BASIC Group) – have jointly opposed the proposed carbon border tax, calling it “discriminatory”.
A joint statement issued by BASIC stresses on the importance of the successful completion of negotiations for operationalising Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which deals with carbon markets.

Cheaper imports:

The carbon border tax is a levy proposed by the European Union to protect its domestic industry from cheaper imports from countries where rules imposing low carbon production are not strict.
EU fears that while its industry would be at a disadvantage because European companies would have to comply with strict rules, those from other countries may not.
Developing countries fear that the carbon border tax might turn out to be a protectionist tool in the hands of European countries, leading to “market distortion”.
The joint statement makes a strong pitch for the framing of rules for carbon markets and underscores the need for an ‘Enhanced Transparency Framework’, and emphasised that flow of climate finance, including its predictability, “is a key component” of the framework.

India hosted the third Regional Security Dialogue (RSD) on Afghanistan on November 10, with the participation of national security advisers (NSAs) of seven other nations — the five Central Asian states, Russia and Iran.
Pakistan and China decided to stay away from the Delhi meeting.
The joint statement is a motherhood and apple-pie reiteration of regional concerns and priorities with regard to the Taliban, and the manner in which it has seized power in Kabul.

There was agreement on a range of issues:

They reiterated strong support for a peaceful, secure and stable Afghanistan.
They called for collective cooperation against the menace of radicalisation, extremism, separatism and drug trafficking in the region.
They reiterated that humanitarian assistance should be provided in an unimpeded, direct and assured manner to Afghanistan.

Six large automobile makers and 31 countries recently committed a non-legally binding pledge to work towards ending the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040.

About:

India the fourth-largest auto market in the world joined the coalition, along with United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Sweden.
However, world’s biggest automobile markets, the United States, China, and Japan, abstained from taking the pledge.
The pledge is not legally binding. But the announcement by the companies and countries were seen in Glasgow as another indication that the internal combustion engine was on its way out, and battery-powered electric vehicles would rapidly gain roadspace around the world.
The entire transportation sector accounted for a little more than a fifth of total of total CO2 emission.

Prime Minister launch two innovative customer centric initiatives of the Reserve Bank of India.

Key highlights:

These initiatives are the RBI Retail Direct Scheme and the Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme.
The RBI Retail Direct Scheme is aimed at enhancing access to government securities market for retail investors.
It offers them a new avenue for directly investing in securities issued by the Government of India and the State Governments.
Investors will be able to easily open and maintain their government securities account online with the RBI, free of cost.

About:

The Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme aims to further improve the grievance redress mechanism for resolving customer complaints against entities regulated by RBI.
The central theme of the scheme is based on ‘One Nation-One Ombudsman’ with one portal, one email and one address for the customers to lodge their complaints.
There will be a single point of reference for customers to file their complaints, submit the documents, track status and provide feedback.
A multi-lingual toll-free number will provide all relevant information on grievance redress and assistance for filing complaints.

Australian Space Agency announced plans to send an Australian-made rover to the Moon by as early as 2026, under a deal with NASA.
The rover will collect lunar soil containing oxygen, which could eventually be used to support human life in space.
The rover itself, also built by ispace, will have an integrated robotic arm created by the private companies Stardust Technologies (based in Canada) and Australia’s EXPLOR Space Technology.
Roving in search of water The ten-kilogram rover, measuring 60x60x50cm, will be launched on board the Hakuto lander made by ispace, a lunar robotic exploration company based in Japan.
It will also collect information on the physical and chemical composition of lunar dust, soil and rocks — specifically with a goal of finding water.