Daily Current Affairs

Religious and historical significance of Al – Aqsa Mosque Jerusalem is historically important for Jews, Christians and the Muslims alike. Al-Aqsa mosque is an important holy site in Islam, located in the Old City of Jerusalem. After Mecca and Medina, Al-Aqsa is the most sacred site for Muslims. It was built about four centuries ago, Al-Aqsa translates from Arabic to English as ‘the Farthest Mosque’. According to the Quran, it is believed that Prophet Muhammad travelled from Mecca to Al-Aqsa during the Night Journey, and then on to heaven. Temple Mount, located in the compound, is a walled-in area dating back to the time of the Second Jewish Temple, built at the end of first century B.C.E. Jews believe that these walls were built around the summit of Mount Moriah where Abraham offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Originally built as a small prayer house, the mosque was reconstructed by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik in 705 CE. After an earthquake, it was rebuilt again in 746, then in ...

Background India – UK Relations India and Britain have had umbilical relationship since our independence; yet, building a sustainable partnership with Britain has been rather hard. While India’s relations with countries as different as the US and France have dramatically improved in recent years, ties with Britain have lagged. One reason for this failure has been the colonial prism that has distorted mutual perceptions. London has found it difficult to shed its own prejudices about India. The bitter legacies of the Partition and Britain’s perceived tilt to Pakistan, coupled with Britain’s domestic politics have long complicated the engagement between Delhi and London. Delhi’s problems have been accentuated by the British Labour Party’s growing political negativity towards India. At a virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his UK counterpart Boris Johnson India and the UK launched an  Enhanced Trade Partnership  that envisages facilitating market ac...

Government of India  cleared  the Rs 48,000-crore deal for 83 LCA (Light Combat Aircraft) Tejas aircraft on 15 January 2021.This will see a greater collaboration between state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and private firms as part of ‘Make in India’. Of these 83 aircraft, HAL will deliver 73 Tejas Mk 1A and 10 Tejas Mk 1 trainers by 2026. Tejas will only be the second indigenously built fighter aircraft in India’s history. Tejas’ history Government of India cleared a project to build a new Light Combat Aircraft as a replacement for MiG 21s in 1983. The first prototype of Tejas flew in 2001, 18 years after the project started. In the 1970s and 80s, especially after the 1974 Pokhran nuclear tests, India was caught in a terrible environment of technology denial. The West, particularly America, denied India access to any ‘sensitive technology. While India’s strengths included the inherent ability in composite materials, design, math, and metallurgy, India lacked ...

Advertisement Revenue for the Print Media News publishers have traditionally been raising revenue through advertisements. The shift from print and TV to digital has spelt a lot of uncertainties for news publishers. As per the old revenue model in print media, the newspapers were published based on the known circulation figures and the quality of readership. They would sell advertising space which would then contribute to their revenue stream. These were fair, transparent terms of trade. In this case cost of newspapers was calculated on the known circulation and advertisement revenue, which was all very transparent. In comparison, digital news publishers, today, are not transparent on how much revenue is coming in from advertisements. Despite the number of views or clicks, advertisements do not seem to be paying enough to the media houses from big platforms like Google and Facebook. The playing field is not level between the publishers and the platforms … each platform has a monopoly, t...

                    Introduction      Its common knowledge that the International trading community suffered colossal losses, by the blockade happened in Suez Canal for a week. The blockade exposed the vulnerability of the present trade sea routes when Suez canal goes in-operational since it acts as an impasse between two seas.      Hence when Israel announced the start of work on the "Ben Gurion Canal", the futuristic alternative canal to the Suez Canal, it was a breaking news to the world. Naturally conspiracy theories are also agog. Many Islamic groups and leaders pointed out that the whole episode was a deep rooted conspiracy to undermine the supremacy of the Islamic world and Egypt over the world trade routes. They believe that the blockade was conjured by Israel to berate the Suez Canal management. Ben Gurion Canal Project    After Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi signed the ...

There was a large scale blackout and power failure at south Tehran’s Natanz Nuclear complex, the country’s largest uranium enrichment facility. Iran’s top nuclear official, Ali Akbar Salehi  called  the large-scale blackout, an act of nuclear terrorism.  It later turned out that this black out was a result of a huge explosion which struck  Iran’s nuclear centre  at Natanz on 11 April 2021. This incident comes a week after the US and Iran held their first dialogue, under the chairmanship of the British, to work out how to revive the 2015 US-Iranian peace deal or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which restricts Iran’s nuclear programme, in lieu of relief sanctions. Iran and the US chalked out   roadmap  during talks in Vienna, designed to bring them back into compliance with the JCPOA. Detailed talks are scheduled to resume. While the US will have to re-evaluate economic sanctions on Iran, the latter will have to consider steps to bring its nuc...

A US guided missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones sailed through India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), 130 nautical miles west of the Lakshadweep Islands, without intimating India on 07 April 2021 — in violation of the Indian law. The US move is a violation of India’s laws. The US Navy has publicly declared it conducted  “Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOP)”  in India’s  Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)  near Lakshadweep earlier this week, without deliberately seeking New Delhi’s prior consent. B ut it is considered more of a ‘messaging to China’, in view of its belligerent moves in South China Sea. Background India’s domestic laws hold any country carrying out military manoeuvres in its EEZ must provide prior notification. While a country has full sovereignty over its territorial waters, which end at 12 nautical miles from the coast, it only has special rights in exploration and use of marine resources in its EEZ, which stretch to 200 nautical miles from the base...

Crypto currency is a form of digital cash that can be exchanged for goods and services. It’s not backed or regulated by governments like traditional “fiat” currency. Instead, cryptocurrency operates with a “blockchain,” also known as a public ledger. Users around the world verify transactions by using their computers to solve complex algorithms. It can be transferred directly from person to person without involving a third party, like a bank. These transactions happen much faster than traditional money transfers and can be done in a matter of seconds. Unlike traditional currency, cryptocurrencies don’t have a physical object that represents value. There aren’t actual coins or bills. These currencies exist entirely within the digital realm. Where Did Crypto currency Come From? Crypto currency was developed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis as an alternative to existing banking. The idea for this new system was developed by a person, or persons, going by the alias Satoshi Nakamoto...

The lockdown imposed during the pandemic period, banks are likely to witness an increase in  Non-performing assets (NPAs).  Before the lockdown, the gross NPAs were below Rs 10 lakh crore, which is now expected to cross Rs 11 lakh crore by the end of this fiscal year. What are NPAs? A  non performing asset  ( NPA ) is a loan or advance for which the principal or interest payment remained overdue for a period of 90 days. NPAs are further classified as Substandard, Doubtful and Loss  assets .   Banks  use  write -offs to remove  bad loans  from their balance-sheets and minimise their tax liability. The Finance Minister Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman made a proposal for the ‘bad banks’ in  her Budget speech for 2021  f or the overall welfare of banks. It is advocated that ‘Bank Bank should bt incorporated in private sector for because asset restructuring requires quick decision-making, which may not happen in Public Sector Banks. What is ...