Salween River is a major river of Southeast Asia and the longest river of Myanmar.
Rising in the mountains of the Tibetan Plateau, the river flows generally south for about 2400 Km through Yunnan province of China and eastern Myanmar.
In its lower course, Salween River forms the frontier between Myanmar and Thailand for about 130 km, thereafter emptying into the Gulf of Martaban of the Andaman Sea.
Points to note from News Articles in THE HINDU (28-29 SEP-2020):
🔎 Violent clashes have erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which may escalate into full-scale conflict.
Why Armenia and Azerbaijan are fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh region?
🔎 What is Sandalwood Spike Disease (SSD) which has resurfaced in Karnataka, threatening India's sandalwood forests?
SSD is caused by phytoplasma- bacterial parasites of plant tissues which are transmitted by insect vectors.
There is no cure of SSD as of now. Only option is to cut down and remove the infected tree. If its spread is not prevented, it could wipe out the entire natural population of sandalwood.
🔎 Benefits of carbon tax - how to price carbon ?
1) price carbon content of domestic production and imports to cut effluents
1) through emission trading
2) putting a carbon tax on economic activities, for e.g., use of fossil fuels like coal
🔎 Industrial Relations Code, 2020 has introduced a new Reskilling Fund to be created to give monetary benefit equal to 15 days of wages.
🔎 Offset Clause has been removed for Inter-Governmental Agreements (IGA) in the new Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP), 2020.
DAP, 2020 has also introduced leasing option for military equipment. It will be useful for military equipment not used in actual warfare like transport fleets, trainers, simulators etc.
What is offset clause in defence deals? Why it has been removed from govt-to-govt, single vendor and IGAs in defence acquisition in DAP, 2020?
Offset clause - foreign companies are required to invest part of the deal value in technology transfer meant to improve India's domestic defence manufacturing.
Rafale deal of ₹60,000 crore has a 50% offset clause to be executed by French company Dassault aviation and by other vendors part of the deal, but technology transfer to DRDO under offset clause has not been done till now.
