Daily Current Affairs – 02nd Jan. 2021

Given below are the daily current affairs for 02nd Jan 2021. You can take the daily current affairs quiz here for free.

PM unveils project for affordable housing

Context:

Prime Minister laid the foundation stone of six Light House Projects in six cities as part of the Global Housing Technology Challenge-India (GHTC-India) initiative.

Industrial Corridor nodes at Krishnapatnam and Tumakuru

Context:

Cabinet approves Industrial Corridor nodes at Krishnapatnam and Tumakuru.

What is an industrial corridor?

An industrial corridor is basically a corridor comprising of multi-modal transport services that would pass through the states as main artery.

• Industrial corridors offer effective integration between industry and infrastructure, leading to overall economic and social development.

Industrial corridors constitute world-class infrastructure, such as:

1. High-speed transportation network – rail and road.
2. Ports with state-of-the-art cargo handling equipment.
3. Modern airports.
4. Special economic regions/industrial areas.
5. Logistic parks/transshipment hubs.
6. Knowledge parks focused on catering to industrial needs.
7. Complementary infrastructure such as townships/real estate.

Three sites selected for vaccine dry run in Delhi

Context:

A dry run is being planned in the national capital to gear up for the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Dry Run:

• To assess the readiness for India’s biggest immunization Programme, a dry run has been planned by the Centre.
• This activity will include activities from the necessary data entries in Co-WIN to vaccine receipt & allocation to the deployment of team members, mock drill of session sites with test beneficiaries to reporting and evening meeting.
• This will also include testing for cold storage and transportation arrangements for the COVID-19 vaccine, management of crowd at the session sites with proper physical distancing.

Health Ministry plans communication strategy

Context:

The Union Ministry of Health has come up with an elaborate communication strategy to counter issues arising out of vaccine hesitancy, and ‘eagerness’ among the people.

Details:

• The strategy is structured to guide national, state and district level communication channels.
• The idea is to make sure that the information on the COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination process reaches all people, across all states in the country.
• The strategy seeks to disseminate timely, accurate and transparent information about the vaccine(s) to alleviate apprehensions.
• The strategy also seeks to build trust and enable greater confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine amongst all people by employing transparency in communication, while also managing any mis/disinformation and rumours around it.
• It hopes to take on the challenging task of managing and mitigating any potential disappointment expressed by unmet demand for the vaccine or ‘eagerness’ amongst people.

Implementation:

• The entire strategy will be implemented across three main platforms — influencers/celebrities, through community groups, and all forms of media from social media to hoardings and wall posters.
• A media rapid response cell at the Ministry will be tasked with media monitoring and social listening and responding real-time, the document said.

Need for a communication strategy:

The communication strategy is absolutely necessary at this point to inform people about the details as there is still a lot of vaccine hesitancy.

Argentina’s legalization of abortion

Argentina’s has legalized abortions up to the 14th week of pregnancy.

• Prior to this, women were forced to turn to illegal and unsafe procedures because abortion was against the law in Argentina.
• For women from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, the scope of access to safe medical procedures for abortion was even narrower.

IFSCA becomes member of IOSCO

Context:

The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has become an Associate Member of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

About IOSCO:

• The IOSCO is the international organization that brings together the world’s securities regulators, covering more than 95% of the world’s securities markets.
• It is also the global standard-setter for the securities sector.
• IOSCO works closely with the G20 and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) in setting up the standards for strengthening the securities markets.
• The IOSCO Objectives and Principles of Securities Regulation have been endorsed by FSB as one of the key standards for sound financial systems.

How would IOSCO membership benefit IFSCA?

• The membership of IOSCO would provide IFSCA with the platform to exchange information at the global and regional levels on areas of common interests.
• Further, the IOSCO platform would enable IFSCA to learn from the experiences and best practices of the regulators of other well established financial centres.
• It is a significant milestone in connecting IFSCA with the regulators of securities markets globally and would contribute immensely towards the development and regulation of the financial products, financial services and financial institutions at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City International Financial Services Centre.