1) Swiss reject plan to speed up exit from nuclear energy
- Swiss Parliament have rejected a plan to force their government to accelerate the Swiss reject plan to speed up exit from nuclear energycountry’s exit from nuclear energy after it received a majority from swiss council of states.
- The plan supported by the Green party would have meant closing three of Switzerland’s five nuclear plants in 2029.
- The Swiss government adopted a gradualist approach toward transitioning the country to renewable energy by 2050 after the Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011
Switzerland :
- Capital : Bern
- Currency: Swiss franc
2) WHO settles India, EU medicine dispute issue.
- In a meeting on November 24, 2016, the World Health Organisation (WHO) settled a long standing dispute and battle between India and the European Union (EU) about labeling of drugs by clarifying that ‘counterfeit’— will now be used by member States with respect to protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).
- This decision to drop the term ‘counterfeit’ and retain ‘falsified’ to describe medicines of inferior quality was taken by a WHO’s technical working group on draft to find a perfect definitions of substandard/spurious /falsely-labelled/falsified/counterfeit (SSFFC) medical products.
- Under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), the term counterfeit was defined as willful infringement of trademark on a commercial scale. However in reality, counterfeit drugs often have nothing to do with drug quality and substandard medicines.
- The major European and US pharmaceutical companies used the term to stop Indian made cheap generic drugs exported to other countries by showing that they were in violation of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). They were using increased enforcement of IP laws as a tool to stop the legitimate trade in high-quality generic medicines between developing countries especially India.
- The term falsified much clearly describes issues related with public health concerns regarding medicines. It easily describes the false claims regarding what medicines contain or where they are from, which is a bigger public health problem for developing countries.
WHO
- The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health.
- Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland
- Head: Margaret Chan
- Founded: April 7, 1948
3) Zimbabwe Launches ‘Bond Notes’ To Ease Cash Crunch
- Zimbabwe launches ‘bond notes’ currency in bid to ease cash crunch.Currency hold its value against the U.S. dollar
- The bright green bond notes, introduced by the southern African nation’s central bank to try to ease a shortage of dollars, were accepted by most businesses and black market tradersZimbabwe currency
Zimbabwe :
- Capital: Harare
- Currencies: United States Dollar, Euro, Botswana pula, Pound sterling, Renminbi, Indian rupee, South African rand
- President: Robert Mugabe
4) Amitabh Bachchan Starrer Pink To Be Screened at UN Headquarters on Special Invitation
- Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s first Bollywood movie Pink has been invited to screened at United Nations(UN) headquartes in New York, US announced by Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan who plays a lawyer role in the film.
- The movie ‘PINK’ was dealt with crime against women and it was released on September 16, 2016
- The movie was written by Ritesh Shah and produced by Rashmi Sharma and Shoojit Sircar.
5) A Chartered Plane Carrying Passengers Including Brazilian Football Team Crashed in Colombia
- A chartered plane, carrying 77 people, including a top Brazilian football team, crashed on its approach to the city of Medellin in Colombia late night on November 28, 2016.
- The British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, departed Santa Cruz, Bolivia, carrying members of the Chapecoense team from southern Brazil to play in the final of the Copa Sudamericana, against Medellin team Atletico Nacional which was due to be played on November 30, 2016.A Chartered Plane Carrying Passengers Including Brazilian Football Team Crashed in Colombia
- The plane was carrying 68 passengers and nine crew members. 4 other people listed on the flight however did not board the plane. 21 of the passengers were journalists.
- Among the passengers, only six were reported to survive including,- Players Alan Ruschel, Marcos Danilo and Jackson Follmann, Two crew members – Ximena Suárez and Erwin Tumiri – and one of the journalist Rafael Valmorbida. However, Danilo died a short time later.
- The plane was given priority to land but did not reach the airport, according to Alfredo Bocanegra, the head of Colombia’s civil aviation authority.
- According to the initial report the aircraft was suffering electrical problems although investigators were also looking into an account from one of the survivors that the plane had run out of fuel about five minutes from its expected landing at Jose Maria Cordova airport outside Medellin.
- Brazil’s president Michel Tamer has declared three days of national mourning, and offered support and sympathy to the families of those killed.
- Atletico Nacional, which was due to play the team on board, has asked South America’s soccer federation to award the Copa Sudamericana title to Chapecoense in light of the tragedy.
6) Nepal proposes New Constitution amendment Bill to meet Madhesis demands
- Nepal’s government registered the new Constitution amendment bill in Parliament on November 29, 2016, aimed at carving out a new state in southern Nepal to meet the demands of agitating Madhesis and other ethnic groups whose protests for bigger federal state last year left more than 50 people dead.
- Hridesh Tripati of the Terai Madhes Democratic Party on November 30, 2016 said that it was welcome progress of the government but still inadequate as the new proposal does not cover the districts Madhesi’s have been demanding to be included in Madhesi state.
- The Madhesi ethnic groups are unhappy with the constitution that was adopted last year in parliament as they were dissatisfied with the territory assigned to them in the new federal states in the constitution.
- Last year the protests lasted for months and left more than 50 people killed and paralyzed southern Nepal. Border points with India were blocked, causing severe shortages of fuel, medicine and other supplies in Nepal.
- The Madhesi community says they have always been discriminated against, and do not get equal opportunities in government, employment, education and other rights.
- Police reported small protests on November 30, 2016 in southwest Nepal opposing the government plans, but there were no reports of violence.
- The proposal will be debated in parliament next week. The government needs the support of two-third of parliament to approve the change. The main opposition Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) has not said yet if it will support the bill, and passing it would be difficult without their support.
7) World Economic Forum reports-India’s Ranks 102th among 136 economies in terms of enabling cross border trade
- According to the ‘Global Enabling Trade Report 2016’ of World Economic Forum (WEF), India has improved its ranking by four places to 102nd position among 136 economies in terms of enabling cross border trade.
- While India’s position has jumped four slots to 102, that of South Africa has improved three places to 55 while that of China stood at 61 compared with the previous ranking of 63.
- However, Brazil’s ranking has slipped to 110 from the earlier 97 while that of Russia dropped to 111 from the 105th position.
Top 5 countries :
Rank |
Country |
1 |
Singapore |
2 |
Netherlands |
3 |
Hong Kong |
4 |
Luxembourg |
5 |
Sweden |
8)Singapore students are the World’s best in Mathematics and Science-TIMSS Report
- An international benchmarking study, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) released a report on November 29, 2016 that, Singapore students are the world’s best in Mathematics and Science.
- The test was administered by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, a non-profit research cooperative based in Amsterdam.
List of Top 5 Countries :
1. Singapore |
1. Singapore |
1. Singapore |
1. Singapore |
2. SouthKorea |
2. Japan |
2. Hong Kong |
2. South Korea |
3. Taiwan |
3. Taiwan |
3. South Korea |
3. Japan |
4. Hong Kong |
4. South Korea |
4. Taiwan |
4. Russia |
5. Japan |
5. Slovenia |
5. Japan |
5. Hong Kong |