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
