• Indian Navy (IN) is scheduled to host the 27th edition of India - Singapore Bilateral Maritime Exercise SIMBEX-20 from 23 to 25 November 2020 in Andaman Sea.
• The SIMBEX series of exercises between IN and Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), being conducted annually since 1994, are aimed at enhancing mutual inter-operability and imbibing best practices from each other.
• The exercise, being conducted as a ‘non-contact, at sea only’ exercise in view of COVID-19 pandemic, highlights the high degree of mutual trust and confidence, synergy and cooperation in the maritime domain between the two friendly navies and maritime neighbours.

• The Union Cabinet Secretary, Shri Rajiv Gauba has recently chaired a meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) to review the status of impending Cyclone Nivar through video conferencing with the Chief Secretaries of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC)

• For effective implementation of relief measures in the wake of natural calamities, the Government of India has set up a Standing National Crisis Management Committee.
• It will be chaired by the Union Cabinet Secretary.

• People across the country are paying homage to the Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur on his death anniversary.
• On November 24, 1675, Guru Tegh Bahadur was publicly executed on the orders of Aurangzeb because he had opposed religious persecution.

Guru Tegh Bahadur

• He is the ninth of the ten Gurus of the Sikhism - was the youngest son of Guru Hargobind. 

• Guru Tegh Bahadur had resisted forced conversions of non-Muslims to Islam during Aurangzeb's rule.
• Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib and Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in Delhi are the sites of his execution and cremation.
• Guru Tegh Bahadur's term as Guru ran from 1665 to 1675.
• In the Guru Granth Sahib, there are one hundred and fifteen hymns of Guru Tegh Bahadur.
• Guru Tegh Bahadur is remembered for his selfless service to people.
• He travelled across the country with the teachings of Guru Nanak - the first Sikh Guru.
• Guru Tegh Bahadur had set up community kitchens and wells for the local people wherever he went.
• Anandpur Sahib, the famous holy city and a global tourist attraction in the foothills of Himalayas, was founded by Guru Tegh Bahadur.

• Maharashtra has recently announced the setting up of a desalination plant in Mumbai.
• The project is proposed to be set up on 25 to 30 acres of land at Manori and will have a capacity of 200 MLD.

Desalination Plant

• It turns salt water into water that is fit to drink.
• The most common technology used for this process is Reverse Osmosis (RO).
• These plants are mostly set up in areas that have access to sea water.

Limitations

• The cost of setting up and running a desalination plant is too high.
• The other problem is the disposal of the byproduct — highly concentrated brine — of the desalination process.
• While in most places brine is pumped back into the sea, there have been rising complaints that it ends up severely damaging the local ecology around the plant.

Desalination Plants in India

• Desalination has largely been limited to affluent countries in the Middle East and has recently started making inroads in parts of the United States and Australia.
• In India, Tamil Nadu has been the pioneer in using this technology, setting up two desalination plants near Chennai in 2010 and then 2013.
• Two more plants are expected to be set up in Chennai.
• The other states that have proposed these plants are Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.
• Maharashtra is becoming the fourth state in the country to experiment with the idea. 

Reverse Osmosis (RO)

• During this process, an external pressure is applied to push solvents from an area of high-solute concentration to an area of low-solute concentration through a membrane.
• The microscopic pores in the membranes allow water molecules through but leave salt and most other impurities behind, releasing clean water from the other side.

• Republic of China had recently sold negative-yield debt for the first time, and this saw a high demand from investors across Europe.

Negative-yield Bonds

• These are debt instruments that offer to pay the investor a maturity amount lower than the purchase price of the bond.
• These are generally issued by central banks or governments, and investors pay interest to the borrower to keep their money with them.
• Negative-yield bonds attract investments during times of stress and uncertainty as investors look to protect their capital from significant erosion.
• At a time when the world is battling the Covid-19 pandemic and interest rates in developed markets across Europe are much lower, investors are looking for relatively better-yielding debt instruments to safeguard their interests.

Reason for current demand

• There was a huge demand for the 4-billion-euro bonds issued by China and this was mainly due to:

Lower Yields in Europe

• China’s 5-year bond was priced with a yield of –0.152%, and the 10-year and 15-year securities with positive yields of 0.318% and 0.664%.
• The fact that the 10-year and 15-year bonds are offering positive returns is a big attraction at a time when interest rates in Europe have dropped significantly.
• As against minus —0.15% yield on the 5-year bond issued by China, the yields offered in safe European bonds are much lower, between –0.5% and —0.75%.

China’s GDP

• While the majority of the large economies are facing a contraction in their GDP for 2020-21, China is one country that is set to witness positive growth in these challenging times: its GDP expanded by 4.9% in the third quarter of 2020.

COVID-19

• While Europe, the US and other parts of the world are facing a second wave of Covid-19 cases, China has demonstrated that it has controlled the spread of the pandemic and is therefore seen as a more stable region.
• Many feel that European investors are also looking to increase their exposure in China, and hence there is a huge demand for these bonds.