Daily Prelims 7th October 2023

1) Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1955: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has notified amendments in the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994 

• It provides the operational mechanism for implementation of the decriminalized provisions of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.  
• Aim: to make the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, of 1995 more business-friendly and to boost investor confidence and ease of doing business.  
• Sections of the act were re-examined and were decriminalized through the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provision) Act, 2023.  
• The imprisonment provisions have been now replaced with monetary penalties and other non-monetary measures like Advisory, Warning, etc. 

2) Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group: India supports OSCE Minsk Group for a peaceful resolution of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh region.  

• OSCE is the world’s largest regional security organization with 57 participating states.  
• Established in 1994, it is co-chaired by France, Russia, and the United States.  
• Its permanent members are Belarus, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland, and Turkey, as well as Armenia and Azerbaijan 

3) India-UAE agreements: Agreement signed during a meeting of the UAE-India High-Level Joint Task Force (JTF) on Investments include:  

• MoU for cooperation in the fields of Industry and Advanced Technology with focus on seven key areas.  
• Agreement between Al Etihad Payments and NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) to develop the UAE’s Domestic Card Scheme (DCS).  
• DCS solution provided by NIPL consists of a RuPay stack and value-added services like fraud monitoring services and analytics.  
• JTF was established in 2013 to promote trade, investment and economic ties between both countries 

4) Services Purchasing Managers Index (PMI): Services PMI, grew to 13 year high in September according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.  

• The growth in services in September was due to effective marketing, favorable demand, and improved new businesses.  
• The PMI is a survey-based indicator based on the responses of around 400 service companies released by S&P global. 

Places in News: 

1) Pangong Tso Lake: Pangong Lake (at 4,350m height) is an endorheic (landlocked) lake in Leh Ladakh.  

• It is the world’s highest saltwater lake.  
• It falls in the Eastern Ladakh and West Tibet (1/3rd of the lake lies in India and remaining 2/3rd in China).  
• It is also known to change colors (appears blue, green and red at different times).  
• It is not a part of the Indus River basin.  
• Formerly, Pangong lake had an outlet to Shyok River (tributary of Indus) but it was closed off due to natural damming