on 22-Dec-2020 (Tue)

The eight other agreements that were signed are :

1. Protocol for Foreign Min consultations

2. Economic development MoU

3. MoU on space cooperation

4. MoU on Railway cooperation

5. Action plan on steps ahead in cooperation in nuclear field

6. MoU on transport

7. MoU on cooperation in Micro and SMEs trade cooperation

8. Cooperation on fertiliser cooperation

Vijayanagara, on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in modern Karnataka, India.

Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 14th century.

Hampi was a prosperous, wealthy and grand city near the Tungabhadra River, with numerous temples, farms and trading markets.

Vijayanagara / Hosapete, also known as Hospet, is a District in Karnataka, India. It is located on the banks of Tungabhadra River, 12 km from Hampi. The present day Hampi is a World Heritage site containing the ruins of the former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire.

Vijayanagara architecture is a vibrant combination of the Chalukya, Hoysala, Pandya and Chola styles, idioms that prospered in previous centuries.^[150][151] Its legacy of sculpture, architecture and painting influenced the development of the arts long after the empire came to an end. Its stylistic hallmark is the ornate pillared Kalyanamantapa (marriage hall), Vasanthamantapa (open pillared halls) and the Rayagopura (tower). Artisans used the locally available hard granite because of its durability since the kingdom was under constant threat of invasion. While the empire's monuments are spread over the whole of Southern India, nothing surpasses the vast open-air theatre of monuments at its capital at Vijayanagara, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.^[152]

Jahangir is widely considered to have been a weak and incapable ruler.^{[25][26][27][28]} Orientalist Henry Beveridge (editor of the Tuzk-e-Jahangiri) compares Jahangir to the Roman emperor Claudius, for both were "weak men... in their wrong places as rulers... [and had] Jahangir been head of a Natural History Museum,... [he] would have been [a] better and happier man."^[

Jahangir was fascinated with art and architecture. In his autobiography, the Jahangirnama, Jahangir recorded events that occurred during his reign, descriptions of flora and fauna that he encountered, and other aspects of daily life, and commissioned court painters such as Ustad Mansur to paint detailed pieces that would accompany his vivid prose

Tansen is remembered for his epic Dhrupad compositions, creating several new ragas, as well as for writing two classic books on music Sri Ganesh Stotra and Sangita Sara.^[10]

Numerous legends have been written about Tansen, mixing facts and fiction, and the historicity of these stories is doubtful.^[6] Akbar considered him as one of the Navaratnas (nine jewels), and gave him the title Mian, an honorific, meaning learned man.^[7]

There are a number of fine portraits of Akbar, but it was under his successors Jahangir and Shah Jahan that the portrait of the ruler became firmly established as a leading subject in Indian miniature painting, which was to spread to both Muslim and Hindu princely courts across India.

Another new type of image showed the Jharokha Darshan (literally "balcony view/worship"), or public display of the emperor to the court, or the public, which became a daily ceremonial under Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan, before being stopped as un-Islamic by Aurangzeb.

Chairperson

Shri Narendra Modi, Hon'ble Prime Minister

NITI Aayog’s entire gamut of activities can be divided into four main heads:

1. Design Policy & Programme Framework

2. Foster Cooperative Federalism

3. Monitoring & Evaluation

4. Think Tank and Knowledge & Innovation Hub

The different verticals of NITI provide the requisite coordination and support framework for NITI to carry out its mandate. The list of verticals is as below:

1. Agriculture

2. Health

3. Women & Child Development

4. Governance & Research

5. HRD

6. Skill Development & Employment

7. Rural Development

8. Sustainable Development Goals

9. Energy

10. Managing Urbanization

11. Industry

12. Infrastructure

13. Financial Resources

14. Natural Resources & Environment

15. Science & Tech

16. State Coordination & Decentralized Planning (SC&DP)

17. Social Justice & Empowerment

18. Land & Water Resources

19. Data management & Analysis

20. Public-Private Partnerships

21. Project Appraisal and Management Division (PAMD)

22. Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office

23. National Institute of Labour Economics Research and Development (NILERD)

Monetary policy refers to the actions undertaken by a nation's central bank to control money supply and achieve sustainable economic growth.

• Tools include open market operations, direct lending to banks, bank reserve requirements, unconventional emergency lending programs, and managing market expectations—subject to the central bank's credibility.

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• Tools include open market operations, direct lending to banks, bank reserve requirements, unconventional emergency lending programs, and managing market expectations—subject to the central bank's credibility.

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The Federal Reserve Bank is in charge of monetary policy in the United States. The Federal Reserve (Fed) has what is commonly referred to as a "dual mandate": to achieve maximum employment while keeping inflation in check.

The Government of India established the National Institute of Labour Economics Research and Development (NILERD) in 1962. It is a Central Autonomous Organization attached to NITI Aayog, Ministry of Planning. Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog presently serves as the President of its General Council, CEO, Shri Amitabh Kant as the Chairperson of the Executive Council and Prof Arup Mitra as the Director General of NILERD. The primary objectives of this Institution include research and data collection in relation to all major aspects of development, and education and training in all aspects of Human Capital Planning, Human Resource Development and Monitoring and Evaluation.

Key Features of ATL

ATL is a work space where young minds can give shape to their ideas through hands on do-it-yourself mode; and learn innovation skills. Young children will get a chance to work with tools and equipment to understand the concepts of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). ATL would contain educational and learning ‘do it yourself’ kits and equipment on – science, electronics, robotics, open source microcontroller boards, sensors and 3D printers and computers. Other desirable facilities include meeting rooms and video conferencing facility.

In order to foster inventiveness among students, ATL can conduct different activities ranging from regional and national level competitions, exhibitions, workshops on problem solving, designing and fabrication of products, lecture series etc. at periodic intervals.

Financial Support

AIM will provide grant-in-aid of Rs. 20 Lakh to each school that includes a one-time establishment cost of Rs. 10 lakh and operational expenses of Rs. 10 lakh for a maximum period of 5 years to each ATL.

Approximately 80% of the world's sugar is produced from sugar cane in tropical and subtropical climates. The remaining 20% comes from sugar beets, which are grown mostly in the temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere. A total of over 120 countries produce sugar.

The largest sugar-producing countries in 2019–2020 were Brazil, India, the EU, China, and Thailand.

Brazil was the single largest producer, with 29.93 million metric tons of sugar produced in 2019–2020.

Brazil regained its historical place as the world's largest sugar producer from India during the 2019–2020 crop year. The country produced 29.93 million metric tons of sugar. 1  Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecasts that Brazil's sugar production will increase by over 40% to more than 42 million tons during 2020–2021

This massive increase in sugar production will be achieved by shifting a substantial fraction of Brazil's sugar cane crop from ethanol production to sugar production. In addition to being the world's largest sugar producer, Brazil is second only to the United States in ethanol production.

Countries with more land, warmer temperatures, and more rain tend to produce more sugar.

The balance of payments (BOP) is the method countries use to monitor all international monetary transactions at a specific period. Usually, the BOP is calculated every quarter and every calendar year.

All trades conducted by both the private and public sectors are accounted for in the BOP to determine how much money is going in and out of a country. If a country has received money, this is known as a credit, and if a country has paid or given money, the transaction is counted as a debit.

Theoretically, the BOP should be zero, meaning that assets (credits) and liabilities (debits) should balance, but in practice, this is rarely the case. Thus, the BOP can tell the observer if a country has a deficit or a surplus and from which part of the economy the discrepancies are stemming.

The Current Account

The current account is used to mark the inflow and outflow of goods and services into a country. Earnings on investments, both public and private, are also put into the current account.

A trade deficit occurs when a country's imports exceed its exports during a given time period. It is also referred to as a negative balance of trade (BOT).

Hedge fund investing is usually open only to the very wealthy and institutions. Hedge funds are speculative, which means returns can fluctuate heavily.

What Is Offshore?

The term offshore refers to a location outside of one's national boundaries, whether or not that location is land- or water-based. The term may be used to describe foreign banks, corporations, investments, and deposits.

Offshore can refer to a variety of foreign-based entities or accounts. In order to qualify as offshore, the accounts or entity must be based in any country other than the customer’s or investor’s home nation.

Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter that is thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe.

This Agreement, negotiated during the Uruguay Round, applies only to measures that affect trade in goods. Recognizing that certain investment measures can have trade-restrictive and distorting effects, it states that no Member shall apply a measure that is prohibited by the provisions of GATT Article III (national treatment) or Article XI (quantitative restrictions).

Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs)

This Agreement, negotiated during the Uruguay Round, applies only to measures that affect trade in goods. Recognizing that certain investment measures can have trade-restrictive and distorting effects, it states that no Member shall apply a measure that is prohibited by the provisions of GATT Article III (national treatment) or Article XI (quantitative restrictions).

A new variant of the pandemic SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is spreading rapidly in Britain and prompting high levels of concern among its European neighbours, some of which have cut transport links.

The strain, referred to by some experts as the B.1.1.7 lineage, is not the first new variant of the pandemic virus to emerge, but is said to be up to 70% more transmissible than the previously dominant strain in the United Kingdom.

“The new B.1.1.7 ... still appears to have all the human lethality that the original had, but with an increased ability to transmit," said Martin Hibberd, professor of emerging infectious disease at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Are there other significant SARS-CoV-2 variants?

Yes. Strains of the COVID-19-causing virus have emerged in recent months in South Africa, Spain, Denmark and other countries that have also raised concern.

The governments of Australia, Italy and the Netherlands say they detected cases of the new strain. It was identified in the Netherlands in early December.

There are a number of ways of looking at the World Trade Organization. It is an organization for trade opening. It is a forum for governments to negotiate trade agreements. It is a place for them to settle trade disputes. It operates a system of trade rules. Essentially, the WTO is a place where member governments try to sort out the trade problems they face with each other.

The bulk of the WTO’s current work comes from the 1986–94 negotiations called the Uruguay Round and earlier negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The WTO is currently the host to new negotiations, under the ‘Doha Development Agenda’ launched in 2001.

But the WTO is not just about opening markets, and in some circumstances its rules support maintaining trade barriers — for example, to protect consumers or prevent the spread of disease.