Current Affairs - 2019-20

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The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, dealing with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, signed in 2016. 
The United States has formally notified the United Nations of its withdrawal from the Paris climate accord. On 4 August 2017, U.S. intends to withdraw from the Paris Agreement as soon as it is legally eligible to do so. The formal notice of withdrawal could not be submitted until the agreement is in force for 3 years for the US, in 2019.

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The Bundala Biosphere Reserve is located on the southeast Coast of Sri Lanka. The core area of Bundala Biosphere is national park and includes brackish water lagoon is added to UNESCO’s man and Biosphere.

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World Town Planning Day (WTPD) is an international day celebrating the accomplishments of planners and their contributions to their communities. On November 8, 2019 planners around the world participate in World Town Planning Day activities annually. It is a practice that began in 1949.It is a special day to recognize and promote the role of planning in creating livable communities.

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The Indian Air Force on November 8, 2019 launched the multiplayer version of its interactive mobile game which lets users experience the thrill of flying a combat aircraft. The game, available for Android and iOS, is a combat simulator which lets the players choose from an array of fighter aircraft, including Tejas, Rafale Mirage-2000, Su-30 among others. The game was initially launched by the Indian Air Force to connect with the youth of the country and inspire them to join the Indian Air Force.
The first version of the mobile game was launched on 31 May 19. The mobile application has two modes named as “Team Battle” and “Death Match”. The user has option to choose from the diverse range of the aircraft in the inventory of the IAF, including Mig 21, Tejas and Mig 29 etc.

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The Brown to Green Report is the world’s most comprehensive annual review of G20 climate action. The report draws on the latest emissions data from 2017 and covers 80 indicators on decarbonisation, climate policies, finance and vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. According to 2019 report, G20 countries are responsible for 80% of global Green House Gas emissions.

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11th BRICS Summit has started under the theme ‘Economic Growth for an Innovative Future. BRICS brings together five major emerging economies-Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa- comprising 42 per cent of the world’s population, having 23 per cent of t he global GDP and around 17 per cent of the share in world trade. The five nations account for 50 per cent of the world economic growth, 42.58 per cent of the world population and 26.6 per cent of the World Land Area.

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India will host the 19th Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in 2020. The first such high level meeting of the eight-member grouping is to be organized by New Delhi after its admission to the bloc in 2017. The SCO is a China-led eight-member economic and security bloc, in which India and Pakistan were admitted as full members in 2017. Its founding members included China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

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The Government of India appointed Justice Ravi Ranjan as the Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court. His approval comes after the recommendation made by the Collegium on 15 October 2019. Justice Ranjan will take over the position from the Jharkhand High Court from Acting Chief Justice, Harish Chandra Mishra. Mr. Mishra was appointed after the sudden demise of Acting Chief Justice Prashant Kumar.

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Lenovo launched ThinkBook — a new sub-brand dedicated to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in India.The company has made two additions to the ThinkBook sub-brand with the ThinkBook 14 and ThinkBook 15 which will be available in the first week of December at a starting price of Rs 30,990. ThinkBook is specially designed for the SMBs, thus, providing a unique balance of premium metal design to appeal to the new workforce with business grade security and services.

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Nilkanth Khadilkar  was the editor of Marathi newspaper Navakal.He died at a private hospital in suburban Bandra. He was the editor of the newspaper for 27 years and had gained popularity for his hard-hitting editorials which became the daily’s popular feature. Nilkanth Khadilkar was also author of a few books, including “Practical Socialism: musings from a tour of Russia”.