Current Affairs in Short: 3 December 2021

Prime Minister Modi inaugurates InFinity Forum

• Prime Minister inaugurated InFinity Forum virtually. The event was hosted by the International Financial Services Centres Authority under the Govt of India. South Africa, Indonesia, and the UK were the partner countries in the first edition of the forum.

• During his address, Prime Minister highlighted that India has proved to the world that it is first when it comes to adopting or innovating the technology. The transformative initiatives under Digital India have also opened doors for innovative Fintech solutions.

• The newly inaugurated InFinity Forum will bring together the leading minds in business, policy, and technology. The forum will also witness the participation from over 70 countries.

• Ministers of various countries, MDs, and CEOs of domestic and international companies will be participating in the event. Invest India, NITI Aayog, NASSCOM and FICCI are some of the key partners.

President Kovind confers National Awards on International Day of Persons with Disabilities

• President Ram Nath Kovind conferred National Awards for the remarkable work that has been done for the empowerment of people with disabilities on International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

• The awards by the President were given to the individuals, organizations, institutions for their achievement and work towards the empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.

• The Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment highlighted the steps taken by the Government to empower Persons with Disabilities.

• He also informed about the Unique ID for Persons with Disabilities Project which is being implemented with a view of creating a national database for individuals with disabilities.

South Sudan promises to end Child Marriages by 2030

• The Government of South Sudan has promised to end Child Marriages by the year 2030. The announcement is in line with African Union’s Campaign to end child marriages in continent.

• The Chiefs from three administrative areas and 10 regional states met in the Capital, Juba, for the second national conference to end child marriages.

• South Sudan in Africa is one of the 40 countries globally that has the highest rates of child marriages. As per a survey in 2010, 7% of girls marry before the age of 15 and 40% before the age of 18.

• The Gender Ministry of South Sudan says that only 6.2% of girls in the country complete primary school while one out of five drop out of secondary school due to pregnancies.

Olympic truce to be observed for Olympic and Paralympic Games Beijing 2022

• UNGA has adopted a resolution- Building a peaceful and better world through sport and Olympic ideal by consensus. The resolution calls for the observance of the Olympic truce for the Olympics and Paralympic Beijing 2022.

• It will be from 7 days before the start of the Olympic games, until 7 days after the end of the Paralympic games.

• The resolution adopted by UNGA underlines the significance of cooperation among the member states for collectively implementing the values of Olympic Truce all over the world.

• The Olympic Truce has a 3,000-year-old history of allowing participation in the games of all the athletes and the spectators.

Pakistan allows the use of Afghan trucks from Wagah Border to Torkham

• Pakistan has confirmed that it will allow the use of Afghan trucks for transportation purposes from Wagah Border to Torkham.

• The decision was announced by the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan days after it permitted the transportation of 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat and life-saving medicines from India to Afghanistan via Wagah Border.

• Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan had earlier informed that they allowed the passage of 50,000 MT of wheat which was provided by India to Afghanistan as a humanitarian crisis.

• UNDP has recently said that the nominal GDP of Afghanistan is likely to contract by 20% within a year. It will go from USD 20 billion in 2020 to USD 16 billion.