‘One India; Best India’:
- Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel inspires all of us to journey towards the ideal of ‘One India, Best India’.
- The ‘One India, Best India’ initiative was announced by the Central Government on October 31, 2015, the 140th birth anniversary of Patel.
- It aims to promote dialogue and mutual understanding among the people living in the states and union territories.
- The Central Government has launched the One India, Great India scheme to promote national integration.
- The scheme is being implemented by integrating and involving states, union territories, central ministries, educational institutions and the general public.
- It strives to achieve its objective by promoting people-to-people exchanges through language, literature, culture, sports, tourism and other means.
- Under this scheme, the states/union territories are divided into 16 pairs.
- His contribution in giving shape to the unity, integrity and sovereignty of the country inspires all of us to work towards ‘One India, Best India’.
Strong WTO subsidy rules for high seas fishing in international waters: India
- India has urged the World Trade Organization to adopt strong subsidy rules for fishing in international waters.
- In 2022, world countries signed an agreement to stop subsidizing illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities.
- Some European countries provide a subsidy of $76,000 per fisherman annually for fishing in international waters, which do not fall within the territorial waters of the world countries.
- But India provides only $35 per fisherman annually.
- Strict rules must be followed in providing this subsidy.
- Those who continue to provide subsidies must obtain permission from the Fisheries Subsidy Committee in the future.
- It was stated that WTO member countries that engage in fishing within 200 nautical miles of the coast should suspend such subsidies for 25 years.
- Indonesia and other developing countries have supported these demands.
India reduces imports of Russian crude oil:
- Russia continues to be the top exporter of crude oil to India.
- Russia has offered to provide crude oil at concessional rates to its friendly countries, including India.
- India started buying crude oil from Russia from February 2022.
- As a result, the amount of crude oil India buys from Russia increased from 1 percent to 40 percent.
- India ranked second in the list of countries that export the most crude oil to Russia.
- China is at the top of this, with India buying 37 percent of Russia’s total crude oil exports.
- India is the second largest coal importer from Russia.
- India reduced its crude oil imports from Russia last November. India has also reduced imports as Russia reduced the price concessions it had been offering so far.
December 15: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s death anniversary
- December 15 is the death anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, known as the ‘Iron Man’ of India.
- He is known as the Iron Man of India.
- Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who served as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of independent India, is the architect of the unification of independent India.
- He united more than five hundred princely states and created today’s unified India.
Important Facts:
- Famous tabla musician Zakir Hussain, who won a total of 5 Grammy Awards, has passed away.
- Russia continues to be the top exporter of crude oil to India.
- NASA has warned that two large asteroids are approaching Earth, the largest of which has been named ‘Asteroid 2024 XY5’. The other asteroid, ‘Asteroid XB6’ 56, has been named.
- India is the second largest importer of coal from Russia.
- Mumbai has bought 16-year-old Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper G Kamalini for Rs 1.60 crore in the mini auction for the Women’s IPL series.
- India defeated China to become the champion in the 9th Junior Women’s Asia Cup hockey tournament held in Oman.