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”UPSC Prelims Bits For Today” is every day published in the morning between 11:00 AM to 12:00 Noon and contains selective current affairs articles. ”UPSC Prelims Bits For Today” covers various topics from UPSC Prelims Syllabus and is very helpful and time managing for UPSC Aspirants. The framing of this daily current affairs compilation article is easy to read and understandable also.
In the ”UPSC Prelims Bits For Today” article, we focus on UPSC Preliminary exam-oriented current affairs covering various sections from leading National Newspapers, PIB, and other various official sources.
India become the world’s fifth biggest economy
Key Points
- India leaped past the UK in the final three months of 2021 to become the fifth-biggest economy.
- The calculation is based on US dollars, and India extended its lead in the first quarter, according to GDP figures from the International Monetary Fund.
- On an adjusted basis and using the dollar exchange rate on the last day of the relevant quarter, the size of the Indian economy in “nominal” cash terms in the quarter through March was $854.7 billion. On the same basis, UK was $816 billion.
- The calculations were done using the IMF database and historic exchange rates on the Bloomberg terminal.
- UK GDP grew just 1% in cash terms in the second quarter and, after adjusting for inflation, shrank 0.1%. Sterling has also underperformed the dollar relative to the rupee, with the pound falling 8% against the Indian currency this year.
- The IMF’s own forecasts show India overtaking the UK in dollar terms on an annual basis this year, putting the Asian powerhouse behind just the US, China, Japan and Germany. A decade ago, India ranked 11th among the largest economies, while the UK was 5th.
NPT
Why in news?
- The Tenth Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons was held between 1 – 26 August 2022.
What is NPT?
- The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote co-operation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.
- The NPT represents the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon States.
- Opened for signature in 1968, the Treaty entered into force in 1970.
- Since its entry into force, the NPT has been the cornerstone of global nuclear non-proliferation regime.
- 191 States parties have joined the Treaty, including the five nuclear-weapon States, making the NPT the most widely adhered to multilateral disarmament agreement.
- The Treaty, particularly article VIII, paragraph 3, envisages a review of the operation of the Treaty every five years, a provision which was reaffirmed by the States parties at the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference and the 2000 NPT Review Conference.
TPNW/Ban Treaty
- Frustrated by the absence of progress on nuclear disarmament, the nuclear have-nots successfully negotiated a Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW, also called Ban Treaty) in 2017 that entered into force in January 2021.
- All 86 signatories are nuclear have-nots and parties to the NPT.
- The TPNW creates a new legal instrument and at their meeting in June in Vienna, the TPNW states committed to pushing for ‘stigmatising and de-legitimising’ nuclear weapons, condemning all nuclear threats and ‘building a robust global peremptory norm against them’.
- Expectedly, the nuclear-haves and their allies ignored the Vienna meeting but will find it increasingly difficult to overlook this political reality as more and more NPT colleagues call their bluff.
CTBT
History
- The Conference on Disarmament (CD) began its substantive negotiations on a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty in January 1994 within the framework of an Ad Hoc Committee established for that purpose.
- Although the CD had long been involved with the issue of a test-ban, only in 1982 did it establish a subsidiary body on the item.
- Disagreement over a mandate for that body blocked tangible progress for years.
Status of the Treaty
- The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was concluded in 1996 but has yet to formally enter into force because two major powers, the U.S. and China, have yet to ratify it.
- In accordance with Article XIV of the Treaty, it will enter into force after all 44 States listed in Annex 2 to the Treaty have ratified it. Pakistan & India did not ratify this treaty yet.
