Currency Monitoring List
- Currency Monitoring List is maintained by Department of Treasury, USA.
- The countries are placed in this list which have potentially questionable foreign exchange policies.
- India was placed for the first time in April this year, in this list.
- The other countries in the list are China, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland.
- In the latest report by department of treasury, it highlighted that India could be removed from the list citing India’s foreign exchange market intervention and current account deficit.
- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has noted that the value of the rupee is broadly market-determined, with intervention used only during "episodes of undue volatility”.
- IMF projects that India’s current account deficit to be around 2.5% of GDP over the medium term.
Women of India Organic Festival
- The Ministry of Women and Child Development is organizing the 5th edition of the Women of India Organic Festival in New Delhi.
- It is the country's largest organic festival.
- The festival is aimed to boost organic culture and promote women organic farmers and entrepreneurs.
C-FLOWS
- C-FLOWS (Chennai FLOod Warning System) is developed by National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) and IIT Madras.
- It is a flood warning system customised for use in Chennai and soon going to be developed for other cities.
- It can predict flooding due to heavy rainfall, sea-level rise and increase in water levels of the rivers that traverse the city.
- Data from IMD, NCMRWF, INCOIS and Tamil Nadu State government are brought together to observe the situation in real time.
Baishui Glacier
- The glacier is in China and it is one of the world’s fastest melting glaciers.
- It is located in the Third Pole of the Earth, a region in Central Asia with the world’s third largest store of ice after Antarctica and Greenland.
- Third Pole glaciers are vital to billions of people from Vietnam to Afghanistan.
- Asia’s 10 largest rivers, including the Yangtze, Yellow, Mekong, and Ganges are fed by seasonal melting third pole glaciers.
- The melting of this glacier attracts large number of tourists.
- Scientists have already warned that the effects of glacier melting on water resources are gradually becoming increasingly serious for China.
Marigold – Colour of Sacrifice
- Marigold flower is chosen as the symbol of remembrance for Indian soldiers martyred in World War I.
- The world marks the centenary of the end of the First World War on November 11.
- The United Service Institution of India (USI) and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) have launched ‘India Remembers’ project.
- It aims to project and to remember, honour and commemorate the valour and sacrifice of personnel of the Indian Armed Forces in conflicts, both before and after independence.
- It proposes that the Marigold flower join the poppy as a new Indian symbol of remembrance.
- After the WW-I, poppy was adopted as the symbol of remembrance as it grew widely in the Flanders fields in Europe.
- In India, the India Gate was built as the focal point to the Remembrance with the names of over 72,000 soldiers inscribed over it.
- The government and the Army have to formally adopt the marigold to make it an official effort.
Source: PIB, The Hindu
