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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 13 December 2021

::NATIONAL::

North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd. (NEDFi), a premier financial institution in the North-Eastern Region with its head office at Dispur, Guwahati and branch offices all across North-Eastern Region has completed an eventful twenty-six years since its establishment in 1995.

About:

The objective to develop the petty artisans of the North Eastern Region by providing financial assistance in the form of term loan for income generating activities for setting up / expansion / modernization / working capital requirement and other activities related to the sector NEDFi has introduced Atmanirbhar Hastshilpkar Scheme to the grass root Artisans of the region.
During the launching ceremony, a total of 17 artisans have been provided with credit assistance of Rs.1 lakh per artisan. The credit facility is collateral free and carries a subsidized interest rate of 6% p.a., which is repayable in 24 months.
For regular repayment, an incentive of 1% on the interest rate is provided, which will be refunded to the artisans on successful repayment of loans.
The interested artisans can apply for the scheme at NEDFi registered office Guwahati and any of its branch offices with the following eligibility criteria:

At summit, India highlighted the need to further cooperation among democracies for free and fairelections, transparency in governance etc.

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The Summit for Democracy is a two-stage initiative from the USA to bring together leaders fromdemocratic governments, civil society and private sector.
It aims to bolster democracy from local to global levels through its three Pillars of Focus as-

USA also launched the Presidential Initiative for Democracy Renewal at the summit.
Pakistan skipped this summit whereas China was not invited to it.

The 2021 Global Health Security Index(GHSI) finds that despite significant steps taken by countries to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, all countries remain dangerously unprepared to meet future epidemic and pandemic threats.

About:

GHSI measures capacities of 195 countries to prepare for epidemics and pandemics.
It was jointly released by non-profits NuclearThreat Initiative (NTI) and Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Key findings:

Countries across all income levels remain dangerously unprepared to meet future epidemic and pandemic threats.
World’s overall performance on GHSI score slipped to 38.9 (out of 100) in 2021 (40.2 in 2019). India also slipped.
Most countries have not made dedicated financial investments in strengthening epidemic or pandemic preparedness.

India recently co-chaired Global Methane Initiative (GMI) Steering Leadership Meeting.

About:

GMI is a voluntary Government and an informal international partnership created to achieve global reduction in anthropogenic methane emission through partnership among developed and developing countries having economies in transition.
It was created in 2004 and has membership from 45 countries.
Recently at the UNFCCC COP26 (Glasgow), the Global Methane Pledge was launched that aims to cut down methane emissions by up to 30% from 2020 levels by the year 2030.
Methane is a greenhouse gas having 25-28 times more harmful effect than CO2.
It is also the second-most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, after carbon dioxide.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed the companies will have to quote the legal entity identifier (LEI) number so as to undertaking cross-border transactions of Rs 50 crore or more. It will be starting from October next year.

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LEI is a 20-character, alpha-numeric code based on the ISO 17442 standard from International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
It is used to uniquely identify parties to financial transactions worldwide, improving the quality and accuracy of financial data reporting systems for better risk management.
It’s issuance and use is regulated by Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF),established by the Financial Stability Board in 2014.

A recent study shows higher prevalence (42.2%) of Neurocysticercosis (NCC) among patients with active epilepsy in the tea gardens of Assam.

About NCC

It is a preventable parasitic disease caused by larval cysts of the pork tapeworm.
It can result in adult-onset epilepsy.
It is caused when a human consumes meat from, or is indirectly in contact with a pig infected with tapeworm.
Sometimes these cysts get into people’s brains, triggering epileptic seizures, headaches, difficulty with balance and excess fluid around the brain.