🔆Political party to be booked for money laundering

📍Why in news?

✅ The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has informed the Delhi high court that it will name the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) an accused in the ongoing money laundering investigation related to alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy scam.

✅ED said that it is planning to invoke Section 70 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to probe the role of AAP in this regard. Main allegation of the ED is that AAP was the recipient of the proceeds of crime in the excise scam.

📍Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002

✅Sec 3 of the Act defines offence of money laundering as –
whosoever directly or indirectly attempts to indulge or knowingly assists or knowingly is a party or is actually involved in any process or activity connected with the proceeds of crime and projecting it as untainted property shall be guilty of offence.

📍Laws under which a political party can be booked for money laundering

✅Section 70 of the PMLA, 2002
🔰It states that if a company commits a contravention of any provision of the Act, every person who was in charge of the company's business at the time of the contravention is also liable.
🔰The proviso to Section 70 states that the person in charge of the company's business can defend themselves by proving that the contravention took place without their knowledge or despite all due diligence.

📍Is political party a company?

🔰The political party is not a ‘company’ incorporated under the Companies Act 2013.
🔰However, the provision of PMLA under Section 70 has crucial explanation that could bring political party under the ambit of the anti-money laundering law.
🔰Explanation 1[1] --For the purposes of this section (i.e., Section 70 of PMLA) says that company means any body corporate and includes a firm or other association of individuals.
🔰The phrase ‘association of individuals’ can include political parties.
🔰A party, according to Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act (RPA), is any association or body of individual citizens of India registered with the EC and calling itself a political party

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#NISAR satellite
& it's uses
Tectonic activity
Weather forecast
Gauge the climate change
Agricultural yeild/productivity
Severe water distress area like Drought like Condition

📍NISAR Mission click here

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🔆Kalamkari Paintings

✅Kalamkari is a painting done by kalam (pen). These paintings are made in Andhra Pradesh. It is hand painted as well as block printing with vegetable dyes applied on cloth. Vegetable dyes are used for colour in the Kalam Kari work. The pen used is made of sharp pointed bamboo, used to regulate the flow of colours.
✅A small place Sri-Kalahasti is the best known centre of Kalamkari art. This work is also found at Masaulipatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
✅Owing to Muslim rulers in Golconda, the Masulipatnam kalamkari was widely influenced by Persian motifs and designs.
✅This art is mainly related to decorating temple interiors with painted cloth panels, which was developed in the fifteenth century under the patronage of Vijaynagar rulers.
✅Subjects are adopted from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and Hindu religious mythology. This art form is a continuous legacy from father to son.
✅The outlines and main features are done using hand carved blocks. The finer details are later done using the pen.

🔆Three texts from Indian Knowledge system added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World(MoW).

1. Ramcharitmanas: Goswami Tulsidas
2. Panchatantra: Pt . Vishnu Sharma
3. Sahṛdayaloka-Locana: Acharya Anandvardhan

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🔆Igla-S air defence system

✅Russia recently signed a contract to supply Igla-S hand-held anti-aircraft missiles to India and has allowed the production of the Igla under license.

✅It is a man-portable air defence system (MANPADS) developed by Russia.
✅It is known in the West as SA-24 Grinch.
✅It entered service with the Russian Army in 2004.
✅It can be fired by an individual or crew to bring down an enemy aircraft.
✅It has the capability of bringing down low-flying aircraft. It can also identify and neutralise air targets, such as cruise missiles and drones.
✅It has an effective range upto 6 km.
✅The limiting altitude of effective target destruction for the "Igla-S" complex is 3.5 km.

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NORGES BANK - The central bank of Norway has excluded adani ports and special economic zone from its Government pension fund global

📍 Government Pension Fund

✅The Government Pension Fund Global was established after Norway discovered oil in the North Sea.
✅The fund was set up to shield the economy from ups and downs in oil revenue. While investing in companies, the fund considers environmental and social issues.
✅The fund itself may also decide to divest from companies that impose substantial costs on other companies and society as a whole, and so are not considered long-term sustainable.
✅As per the Norges Bank Investment Management website, the fund held 0.24 per cent stake in Adani Ports at the end of December 2023
✅The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global GPFG is one of the world’s largest fund, owning almost 1.5 percent of all shares in the world’s listed companies. It has holdings in around 9,000 companies worldwide

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Consider the following statements:

1. She joined the freedom struggle after being inspired by Mahatma Gandhi.

2. She led a large procession that marched with the aim of taking over the Tamluk police station from British authorities.

3. The local people used to call her "Old Lady Gandhi."

🔆Open Network for Digital commerce

📍ONDC click here

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📍Orcas in news

Click here

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🔆Lignite ore in News

As per the coal statistics of 2022-2023, Tamil Nadu is the largest producer of Lignite in the country

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🔆What is India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC)?

✅An Indian delegation recently paid a visit to the UAE for the first time to hold discussions with the key entities there on the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC).

📍 India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC): 

✅It was announced on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in New Delhi when a memorandum of understanding was signed between the European Union and seven countries, namely India, the US, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), France, Germany, and Italy.
✅The corridor will provide a reliable and cost-effective cross-border ship-to-rail transit network to supplement existing maritime routes. 
✅It intends to increase efficiency, reduce costs, secure regional supply chains, increase trade accessibility, enhance economic cooperation, generate jobs, and lower greenhouse gas emissions.
✅The IMEEC will comprise two separate corridors, the east corridor connecting India to the Gulf and the northern corridor connecting the Gulf to Europe.
✅The corridor will include a shipping route connecting Mumbai and Mundra (Gujarat) with the UAE, and a rail network connecting the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan with the Israeli port of Haifa to reach the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
✅Haifa will then be connected by sea to the port of Piraeus in Greece to eventually be connected to Europe.
✅Beyond the transport infrastructure, undersea cables would facilitate the exchange of data, while long-distance hydrogen pipelines would boost the participants’ climate and decarbonisation goals.

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🔆 The grandeur of the chola empire one of the longest ruling dynasties in south India

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Important points of ARTICLE 22

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