Current Affairs 16th January 2018

Current Affairs 16th January 2018 - Important Points

• $50,000 to UN Youth Envoy’s office contributed by - India
•  New moth species 'Elcysma Ziroensis' discovered in  - Arunachal Pradesh
•  India INX lists 1st debt security at - IFSC
• India, Sri Lanka sign four agreements for collaboration in ICT sector on - 15th January 2018

Current Affairs 16th January 2018 - Details

$50,000 to UN Youth Envoy’s office contributed by - India

Donation of $50,000 to the office of Envoy, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Youth given by India in order to aid with its mission of demanding young people in the world body’s objectives. The donation was handed over by Paulomi Tripathi, a 1st Secretary in India’s UN  Mission to the Youth Envoy Jayathma  Wickramanayake.
Important Facts

• The donation made by India is voluntary with no strings connected. It is in addition to systematic
  payments India makes to United Nation’s general and peacekeeping allotments. 
• Jayathma Wickramanayake from Sri Lanka was designated the United Nation’s Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth in June 2017 at the age of 26.
• The Youth Envoy’s serves to increase international awareness and attention to youth problems among others. Its mission focuses to promote engagement of youth and supporter for them across all the 4 pillars of United Nation’s work –peace, human rights and security, humanitarian action and sustainable development.

 New moth species 'Elcysma Ziroensis'discovered in  - Arunachal Pradesh

Bombay Natural History Society researchers have found out a new species of moth, scientifically
nomenclature as Elcysma Ziroensis from Talley Wildlife Sanctuary, Arunachal Pradesh.
The discovery was issued in the Journal of Threatened Taxa, which is an international journal on
conservation and taxonomy.
Important Points

• Elcysma Ziroensis is often known as Apatani Glory, named after a local resident tribe called Apatani.
• It was discovered at a height of 1,700m in Ziro. This discovery represents the 1st documentation of
  Elcysma from Arunachal Pradesh.
• This species has only been noticed during autumn, preferably in the month of September. This points that it is univoltine species, which means that it has 1 brood of young in a single year.
  Talley Valley Wildlife Sanctuary
• It is a wildlife sanctuary and a bio-diversity spot situated in Arunachal Pradesh. It is located at an altitude of 2400m with rivers like Sipu, Pange, Subansiri and Karing going through the Reserved Forest and Sanctuary. 
• Talley is plateau with thick forest of silver fir trees, vast wasteland and pine clad plateau of beautiful grandeur. It mainly consists of sub-tropical and alpine forests and has different variety of vegetations, including many endangered one. It is home to extremely endangered species including clouded leopard.  Arunachal Pradesh itself contains 40percent of the flora and fauna species in India.

 India INX lists 1st debt security at - IFSC

The India International Exchange has taken the Indian Railway Finance Corporation’s green bonds on its
debt listing platform-Global Securities Market.
Thus, Indian Railway Finance Corporation’s green bonds became 1st debt security to be shown on
exchange at International Financial Services Centre in Gujarat’s GIFT city. India INX’s GSM section is
India’s 1st debt listing platform. It permits elevating funds in any currency of choice by both foreign and
Indian releasers from investors across the world.
Green Bonds

• Bonds fundamentally are debt tools which aid releaser to get money while the investors receive fixed money as interest.
• In case of Green Bonds, the supplier gets money from the investors only if investment is being elevated to fund green schemes relating to renewable energy or emission reductions and many more.
  India International Exchange
• India-INX is India s 1st international exchange at IFSC Gujarat International Financial Tech City,
  Gandhinagar.
• It is completely owned subsidiary of Bombay Stock Exchange, via its global bourse.
• It is one of the world’s advanced and quickest trading technology stage with turn-around time of 4 micro seconds.
• It will work for twenty-two hours a day permitting international investors and NRIs to trade from
  anywhere across world.
• It businesses in currency derivatives, commodity derivatives, equity derivatives  including Index and Stocks. It also suggests depository bonds and receipts.

India, Sri Lanka sign four agreements for collaboration in ICT sector on - 15th January 2018

India and Sri Lanka signed four agreements on 15th January 2018 for collaboration in the Information and communication technology (ICT) sector, setting up of an e-office system and connection of NKN (National Knowledge Network) to collaborate among academics and universities.

The Union minister for Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad with his Sri Lankan counterpart
signed this MoU during his visit to Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka. Speaking on the occasion, the Union Minister stated that the agreement is a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of extending benefits of Digital connectivity to its neighbours.

National Knowledge Network (NKN) connection

Sri Lanka has become the first country to be connected to India’s NKN with this move through a Gigabyte optical fibre network. The dedicated high-speed internet connectivity will be connecting NKN to Sri Lanka’s education & research network (LEARN) through which academic institutions of both the nations would be able to collaborate and share research ideas and best practices.

Setting up of E-office system

• NIC, The National Informatics centre, the leading science & technology organisation of Government of India in informatics services and information and communication technology applications, has set up a model E-office system for Sri Lanka.
• Other than this, both the nations signed a MoU to enhance cooperation between them in the IT sector, cyber security and eGovernance.
• The IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also called upon Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena in order to discuss cooperation in other areas of mutual interest.

More about National Knowledge Network

• It is a state-of-the-art Pan-India network aiming to establish a strong and robust Indian network that will be capable of providing secure and reliable connectivity.
• With its multi-gigabit capability, the network aiming to connect all universities, laboratories,research institutions, libraries, healthcare and agricultural institutions across the country.
• By facilitating the flow of knowledge and information, the network also addresses the critical issue of access and creates a new paradigm of  collaboration by enriching the research efforts in India.
• Overall, it is aiming to bring about a knowledge revolution that will be instrumental to transform society and promote inclusive growth.