Current Affairs in Short: 9 December 2021

Canada joins US allies to boycott Beijing Winter Olympics 

•Canadian Prime Minister Justine Trudeau informed on December 8, 2021 that the nation will also join the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom in their diplomatic boycott of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics over human rights concerns at Xinjiang Province. The nations will still be sending their teams to the Olympic Games but will not be sending their officials.

•Trudeau said that they are extremely concerned by the repeated human rights violations by the Chinese government and added that they should not be surprised that we will not be sending any diplomatic representation. Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly called on other countries also to take more similar action.

•China warned that the nations would inevitably regret launching the joint diplomatic boycott of the multi-sports event next winter. The nation said that using the Olympic platform for “political manipulation” is “unpopular and self-isolating”.

Rajnath Singh to brief President Kovind today on helicopter crash 

•Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is expected to call on President Ram Nath Kovind today to apprise him about the helicopter crash near Tamil Nadu's Coonoor district. The crash claimed the lives of 13 people. There is only one survivor, Group Captain Varun Singh, who is currently on life support in the Military Hospital in Wellington. 

•The Defence Minister has ordered a 'tri service' inquiry into the crash of the Indian Air Force Mi-17V5 helicopter. The inquiry will be headed by Air Marshal Manvendra Singh, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command.

•CDS General Bipin Rawat was on a scheduled visit to Defence Services Staff College, Wellington to deliver an address.

India’s human space mission “Gaganyaan” will be launched in 2023

•Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh informed on December 9, 2021, that India’s maiden human space mission “Gaganyaan” will be launched in 2023.

•He informed that with the launch India will become the fourth nation in the world to launch a Human Spaceflight Mission after US, Russia and China.

•The other major missions including Test vehicle flight for the validation of Crew Escape System performance and Gaganyaan's first Uncrewed mission are scheduled to launch in the second half of 2022.

•The second uncrewed mission is also scheduled to take place at the end of 2022. It will carry “Vyommitra” a human-robot developed by ISRO.

Singapore removed from India's 'at-risk' nations list

•India has removed Singapore from its list of "at-risk" nations. The countries that are currently in the list include South Africa, Botswana, Ghana, Mauritius, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Israel, the United Kingdom and China.

•The development comes after the detection of a new Omicron variant in 57 countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) expects the number to grow further.

•As a precaution, India had added several countries to the list of 'at risk' nations, from where travellers would need to follow additional measures upon their arrival in India including post-arrival testing for infection.

•The new Omicron variant was first reported from South Africa on November 25. 

Indian weightlifter Jhilli Dalabehera clinches gold at Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships

•Indian weightlifter Jhilli Dalabehera clinched the gold medal in the women's 49kg category at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

•Dalabehera lifted a total weight of 167kg with 73kg in snatch and 94kg in clean and jerk to bag the top spot. 

•Another weightlifter, Sanket Mahadev Sargar had clinched the gold medal earlier in the men's 55kg snatch category. He created a new snatch national record.

•The Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships 2021 is being hosted concurrently in Tashkent from December 7-17, 2021 along with World Weightlifting Championships 2021.