Current Affairs 21st July 2018

Current Affairs 21st July 2018 - Important Points

• Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill passed by Lok Sabha on - 19th July 2018
• RBI to issue new Rs 100 denomination banknote, bearing a motif of ‘Rani Ki Vav’ announced on - 19th July 2018
•  International Solar Alliance joined by Myanmar on - 19th July 2018

Current Affairs 21st July 2018 - Details

Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill passed by Lok Sabha on - 19th July 2018

The Lok Sabha passed the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill on July 19th, 2018 aiming to deter fugitive economic offenders who evade from the legal process by fleeing the country and remain outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts.

The legislation was passed through a voice vote after almost a two-hour long debate. The ruling government has been under attack from the opposition for  failing to bring back defaulters like Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya and Mehul Choksi. The Bill will now be taken up in the upper house of the Parliament, Rajya Sabha.

Moer about the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill

• The main motto of the bill is to lay down measures to deter fugitive economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts.
• It's implementation will going to restore law and order, as the fugitive economic offenders would be forced to return to India to face trial for their respective offences.
• The action would also be helping the financial institutions to achieve higher recovery from financial defaults committed by such fugitive economic offenders and  hence improving the financial health of these institutions.

RBI to issue new Rs 100 denomination banknote, bearing a motif of ‘Rani Ki Vav’ announced on - 19th July 2018

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced to shortly issue Rs 100 denomination banknotes in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series, bearing signature of Dr Urjit R. Patel, Governor of Reserve Bank of India on July 19th, 2018.  In addition to that , previous series of Rs 100 banknotes will still be valid.
Important Features

• The new banknote is bearing a motif of ‘Rani Ki Vav’ on the reverse, to depict the country’s cultural heritage.
• The base colour of this new note is Lavender.
• These new Rs 100 banknote has other designs, geometric patterns aligning with the overall colour scheme, at the front and reverse both.
• The dimensions of the banknote are 66 mm × 142 mm.

Did you know?
The existing green coloured Rs 100 note carries an image of Mount Kanchenjunga which is the third highest peak in the world.

 International Solar Alliance joined by Myanmar on - 19th July 2018

Myanmar joined the India-initiated International Solar Alliance (ISA) on July 19th, 2018, thus, has become the 68th signatory to the Framework Agreement of the ISA that aims for optimum utilisation of solar energy.

Myanmar Minister for International Cooperation, Kyaw Tin handed over the ISA Framework Agreement to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during  a bilateral meeting during this year's Delhi Dialogue.

Other projects discussed between India and Myanmar during the meeting

India is also implementing a number of infrastructure projects in Myanmar such as the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project to connect Mizoram with Sittwe port in
Myanmar, the Trilateral Highway Project to connect India with Myanmar, Thailand and the Rhi-Tiddim road. India is also offering humanitarian and economic aid to its eastern neighbour's Rakhine State in the wake of the Rohingya refugee crisis.

More about International Solar Alliance

• It was launched by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande on the first day of the COP-21 summit jointly at Paris in 2015.
• It is aiming to undertake joint efforts required to minimize the cost of finance and technology and mobilise over USD 1000 billion of investments  needed by 2030 for massive deployment of solar energy.
• It is India’s inter-governmental and first international organisation of 121 Countries and has headquarters in India with UNs as Strategic Partner.
• Its main objective is to make a collaborative platform to increase deployment of solar energy technologies and sustainable development and energy security.
• It will be working with partner countries in order to formulate projects and programs to boost development of clean solar energy technologies.
• It’s Governing Structure consisting of an Assembly, a Secretariat and a Council.
• The ISA Assembly is providing guidance, direction and advice to the Secretariat to undertake the activities.
• At present ISA has four ongoing programs which are Scaling Solar Applications for the Agricultural Use, Scaling Solar Mini Grids, Affordable Finance at Scale and Scaling Solar Rooftop catering to the needs of solar energy in specific areas.
• The ISA framework agreement entered into force on December 6th, 2017, the 30th day after the ratification by Guinea, the 15th country to ratify the agreement.