Current Affairs 7th March 2018

Current Affairs 7th March 2018 - Important Points

• Sharp decline in child marriages in India - UNICEF
• Which country became became biggest oil supplier to India - Iraq

Current Affairs 7th March 2018 - Details

Sharp decline in child marriages in India - UNICEF

The UNICEF specified on March 6th, 2018 that India has seen a high-pitched decline in child marriages over the past 10 years with only 27% of girls being married earlier to 18 years in contrast to 47% a decade earlier.

The decrease in numbers in India has donated significantly to a global decline in children marriages.

Key Highlights

The number of girls, who were married earlier to getting 18 declined by 15% globally in the past decade, from 1 in 4 to about 1 in 5.

About 25 million child marriages were banned globally in the past 10 years from 2005-06 and 2015-16, with the maximum decline seen in South Asia with India being at the front.
In fact, as per the UNICEF, South Asia recorded the maximum decrease in child marriages worldwide in the past ten years.

The risk of girls getting married as children decreased by above a third in South Asia, from approximately 50% to 30%, maximum due to the development took place in India.

As per the United Nations children’s agency, the issues that have played a mega role in the decrease in child marriages consist rising rates of girl education, active government investments in teen-age girls and robust public awareness about the unlawfulness of child marriage and the damage it causes.

Background

Talking on the decrease UNICEF’s Principal Gender Advisor Anju Malhotra informed that when a girl is pressurised to marry as a child, she faces instant and enduring consequences, as her chances of completing her schooling decline while her chances of being ill-treated by her husband and suffering problems during pregnancy grows.

Overall, the world has promised to end the conventional practice of child marriage by 2030.

Which country became became biggest oil supplier to India - Iraq

Iraq has become India’s major crude oil supplier by overhauling Saudi Arabia with a great margin in this present financial year. Iraq provided 38.9 MT of oil, which was above 20 percent of nation’s oil requirements.

In the initial 10 months from April 2017-January 2018, of the present fiscal year, Saudi Arabia provided 30.9 million tons of crude oil to India.

India’s oil import

India trade in 184.4 million tons of crude oil during the period of April 2017-January 2018 as comparison to 213.9 million tons in the entire 2016-17 fiscal year, and 202.8 million tons in 2015-16.

India is 80 percent reliant on on imports to meet its oil requirements.

India’s dependence on the Middle-East for its crude oil requirements has grown from 58% in 2014-15 to 63.7% in the April-January duration of this fiscal.

Out of 189.4 million tons of total crude imports in 2014-15, India had trade in 109.9 million tons from the Middle-East region. In the current fiscal so far, the Middle-East has calculated for 117.5 million tons of crude oil supplies to India.

Background

Saudi Arabia usually has been India’s topmost oil source, but current financial year Iraq substituted it with a large margin.

Iran continued to be the 3rd biggest supplier selling 18.4 million tons during April-January, in spite of India decrease the imports ended delays in award of agreement for a gas field progress.

Iran has engaged the 3rd place in oil supply reliably for the 2nd time. However, Iran was the 2nd biggest supplier of crude oil following Saudi Arabia till 2010-11. 

Then, it falls down to seventh place post western approvals over its supposed nuclear plan. India bought 11 million tons and 10.95 million tons in 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively from it. It touched to the 6th place with 12.7 million tons in 2015-16.

The facilitation of Western approvals in 2015 has commanded to the Indian refiners increasing their procurement from Iran. Kuwait, which was the 3rd biggest supplier in 2013-14, has progressively slipped, providing just 10.2 million tons in the 1st 10 months of the current fiscal.