Daily Current Affairs – 12 November 2022

Nalini Sriharan, her husband and three other convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case were set free from the Tamil Nadu prisons a day after the Supreme Court ordered their release.
Rajiv Gandhi, 46, was killed by a woman suicide bomber at an election rally in Tamil Nadu in 1991.
The Supreme Court allowed the release of Nalini Sriharan and four others – Murugan, Santhan, Robert Pais, Jaikumar and Ravichandran — citing their satisfactory behaviour and the fact that they had served over 30 years in prison fin the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

The United States’ Department of Treasury has removed India from its Currency Monitoring List, hours after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen addressed US-India Businesses and investment Opportunities event in New Delhi on Friday.
Along with India, the United States also removed Italy, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam from its Currency Monitoring List. India had been on the list for the last two years.
China, Japan, Korea, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan are the seven economies that are a part of the current Currency Monitoring List, the Department of Treasury said in its biannual report to the Congress.
The biannual report also said that the countries that have been removed from the Currency Monitoring List have met only one out of three criteria for two consecutive reports.

G20 leadership summit to be held in Bali from November 14 to 16.

About G20

The G20 was formed in 1999 in the backdrop of the financial crisis of the late 1990sthat hit East Asia and Southeast Asia in particular.
It aims to secure global financial stability by involving middle-income countries.
Together, the G20 countries include 60 % of the world’s population, 80 % of global GDP, and 75 % of global trade.

Members:
- Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the EU.
  - Spainis invited as a permanent guest.

Presidency:
- The presidency of the G20 rotates every year among members, and the country holding the presidency, together with the previous and next presidency-holder, forms the ‘Troika’ to ensure continuity of the G20 agenda.
  - Italy, Indonesia, and India are the Troika countries right now and Indonesia holds the current Presidency.

Mandate:
- The G20 has no permanent secretariat. The agenda and work are coordinated by representatives of the G20 countries, known as ‘Sherpas’, who work together with the finance ministers and governors of the central banks.
- The primary mandate of the grouping is for International Economic cooperation with particular emphasis to prevent future financial crises across the world.
- It plays a significant role in shaping the global economic agenda.
- From 1999-2008 the forum exalted from a grouping of Central bank governors and finance ministers to Heads of states.

About Vande Bharat Trains

It is an indigenously designed and manufactured semi high speed, self-propelled train that is touted as the next major leap for the Indian Railways in terms of speed and passenger convenience since the introduction of Rajdhani trains.
The first Vande Bharat was manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, as part of the ‘Make in India’ programme, at a cost of about Rs. 100 crore.
The Vande Bharat was India’s first attempt at adaptation of the train set technology compared with conventional systems of passenger coaches hauled by separate locomotives.
- The train set configuration, though complex, is faster, easier to maintain, consumes less energy, and has greater flexibility in train operation.
Currently, two Vande Bharat Expresses are operational—one between New Delhi and Varanasi and the other from New Delhi to Katra.
The 400 new trains will have “better efficiency” and railways are looking at making several of these trainsets with aluminium instead of steel.
- An aluminium body will make each trainset around 40-80 tonnes lighter than a current Vande Bharat and this will mean lower consumption of energy as well as better speed potential.

Features of the Vande Bharat Trains

These trains, dubbed as Train 18during the development phase, operate without a locomotive and are based on a propulsion system called distributed traction power technology, by which each car of the train set is powered.
Its coaches incorporate passenger amenities including on-board WiFi entertainment, GPS-based passenger information system, CCTVs, automatic doors in all coaches, rotating chairs and bio-vacuum type toilets like in aircraft.
It can achieve a maximum speed of 160 kmph due to faster acceleration and deceleration, reducing journey time by 25% to 45%.
It also has an intelligent braking system with power regeneration for better energy efficiency thereby making it cost, energy and environment efficient.

Source : THE HINDU