Monthly Current TitleAffairs Capsule & Quiz September 2020 Title The effective suspension of the publication of the rankings has been announced in the wake of a number of reported irregularities regarding changes to data in the 2018 and 2020 reports published in October 2017 and October 2019. First ''historic'' direct flight between Israel and The policy regime in India places a lot of UAE lands in Abu Dhabi importance on the rankings. After assuming power in 2014, the Narendra Modi government set a target for India to be among top 50 countries in the rankings. In 2014, India was ranked 142nd. It jumped to the 63rd position among 190 countries in May 2019. India to receive development assistance loan worth Rs 3,500 Cr from Japan to fight COVID-19 The first commercial direct flight between Israel and the UAE landed in Abu Dhabi after both countries announced normalisation of relations. The flight carried a top level Israeli delegation led by National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabbat while the US delegation was headed by US President Donald Trump's adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien. Israel and the UAE announced on August 13 Japan has committed an official Development that they were establishing full diplomatic Assistance loan of 3 thousand 500 crore rupees for relations, in a US-brokered deal that required the COVID-19 Crisis Emergency Response Support. Israel to suspend its plan to annex parts of the West Bank. This programme loan aims to support India’s UAE is only the third Arab country to efforts in fighting COVID-19 and to prepare establish diplomatic ties with the Jewish the health system to manage future epidemics state. and also to improve the resilience of India’s Israel''s neighbours, Egypt and Jordan, being health systems against infectious diseases. the other two Arab states to recognise the This Grant-in-aid from the Government of Jewish state. Japan is for providing medical equipment to strengthen the public health and medical World Bank pauses Ease of Doing Business system in India. rankings It will strengthen the health care facilities for managing critical and serious patients The World Bank Group has 'paused' the publication suffering from COVID-19 infection. of the Doing Business report after irregularities have India and Japan have had a long and fruitful been reported regarding changes to the data used in history of bilateral development cooperation the report. since 1958. In the last few years, the economic Trade ministers of India, Australia, and Japan in a cooperation between India and Japan has meeting decided to soon launch an initiative on strengthened and grown into strategic supply chain resilience and invited like-minded partnership. countries in the Indo-Pacific region to join the initiative. Indian astronomers discover one of the farthest Star galaxies in universe The move aims to counter China’s dominance of global trade and supply chains. The creation of the “Supply Chain Resilience Initiative” was mooted by Japan amid the Covid-19 crisis. The three countries will now work with regional partners, including members of the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to build stronger supply and manufacturing chains that are protected from external shocks and influences. The three nations see countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and New Zealand among the players who can have a key role in the initiative. Indian astronomers have discovered one of the farthest Star galaxies in the universe in a landmark World Coconut Day: 03 September achievement. India’s first Multi-Wavelength Space Observatory 'AstroSat' has detected extreme- UV light from a galaxy located 9.3 billion light-years away from Earth. The galaxy called AUDFs01 was discovered by a team of Astronomers led by Dr Kanak Saha from the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune. India plans new supply chain initiative along with Australia, Japan to counter China World Coconut Day is observed every year on 03 September. The main objective of celebrating this day is to create awareness across the globe about the importance of the coconut and its benefits. The day is especially marked in countries under Asian and Pacific regions by the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community (APCC) as they house most of the world’s coconut growing production centres. The theme of World Coconut Day this year is – ‘Invest in Coconut to save the world’. In India, Kerala tops the production in coconut, but Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are also picking up in this sector. Google partners with Bangladesh for flood forecasting The International Day of Charity is an international day observed annually on 5 September. It was declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012. The date of 5 September was chosen in order to commemorate the anniversary of the passing away of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The prime purpose of the International Day of Charity is to raise awareness and provide a Google has partnered with Bangladesh Water common platform for charity related Development Board to bring the flood warning activities all over the world for individuals, services to the country. charitable, philanthropic and volunteer organizations for their own purposes on the It currently covers more than 40 million local, national, regional and international people in Bangladesh and it is working to level. expand its coverage to the whole of the country. Bangladesh govt extends suspension of jail term Google is working to launch a new of former PM Khaleda Zia for 6 months forecasting model to double the lead time so that people have an extra day or so to prepare in case of impending floods. It said the is available in Hindi, Bengali and seven other local languages. The company is also partnering with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to build to deliver alerts to people who don’t have smart phones to receive the alerts directly. The company uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyse historical data to predict flood in the river basins. Government of Bangladesh has suspended the jail Google launched its flood forecasting pilot sentence of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia for programme in Patna in 2018. six more months on health grounds. International Day of Charity: 05 September The decision has been taken so that the 75 year old leader can receive necessary medical treatment, reports the official news agency BSS. Former Prime Minister and leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Khaleda Zia was released on March 25 for six months after suspending her sentence for six months on health grounds. BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was serving jail sentence since February 2018 after the court sentenced her to five years imprisonment in 2017 in connection with the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case. The High Court enhanced her imprisonment to 10 years in 2018. Donald Trump announces Wilmington as first World War II Heritage City India attended a key meeting of the regional grouping BIMSTEC which discussed ways to further expand cooperation among its member nations to effectively deal with key challenges including impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The Indian delegation at the virtual meeting of the grouping was headed by Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs Vijay Thakur Singh. The Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) of BIMSTEC under the chairmanship of Sri Lanka discussed ways to deepen cooperation among the member nations and hold the next summit of the grouping. A number of issues including ways to boost US President Donald Trump announced Wilmington cooperation in dealing with the economic in southern US state North Carolina as the first World impact of the coronavirus pandemic was War II Heritage City. discussed in the meeting. During the war, Wilmington was the site of International Day of Clean Air for blue skies: 7 the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, September which built 243 ships in five years as part of the federal government's emergency shipbuilding program. The president signed legislation last year directing the secretary of the interior to each year designate at least one city as an American World War II Heritage City based on contributions made to secure victory in the war. India attends key meeting of BIMSTEC The world celebrated its first-ever International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies on September 7. Part of a resolution taken by the United disperse their manufacturing sites across the Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on ASEAN region. December 19, 2019, the day intends to emphasize on the ill-effects of air pollution 35th FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the and is a call to action against environmental Pacific (APRC) held under the Chairmanship of evil. Bhutan The International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies was introduced to acknowledge the threats posed by air pollution and to encourage every country in the world to take preventive measures. The day emphasises the need to improve air quality for long-term benefits for humankind. Japanese companies relocating from China to India, Bangladesh to get Japan govt's subsidy The 35th Session of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC 35), was held, in virtual format due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The Conference was held under the Chair of the Host Country, Bhutan. The conference focused on regional priorities and issues such as COVID 19, the state of agriculture, natural resources management, food security and nutrition. The Japanese government has said that it will provide The Union Minister of State for Agriculture subsidies to Japanese companies that shift their and Farmers Welfare Parshottam Rupala manufacturing setup from China to India, represented India in the conference.