• American business magazine Forbes released its “Forbes World’s Billionaires List 2024: The Top 200″.
• Forbes has released its 2024 Billionaires List with record 2,781 individuals holding $14.2 trillion of the wealth in the world.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS:

• India too saw its billionaires soar to record high.
• The list features 200 Indians, up from 169 last year. They hold a combined wealth approaching a trillion dollars, with a record total of $954 billion.
• Bernard Arnault and family, with a total net worth of $233 billion, topped the list, followed by Elon Musk ($195 billion), Jeff Bezos ($194 billion), Mark Zuckerberg ($177 billion), Larry Ellison ($114 billion), Warren Buffett ($133 billion), Bill Gates ($128 billion), Steve Ballmer ($121 billion), Mukesh Ambani ($116 billion), and Larry Page ($114 billion).
• Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, is at the top of the list in India with a net worth of $116 billion, an increase of 39.76 per cent to $83 billion last year, making him the first Asian to break into the $100 billion club. Ambani retained his position as the ninth richest person in the world and both India’s and Asia’s richest person.
• Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, is the second richest Indian, with a net worth of $84 billion.
• The richest woman in India is Savitri Jindal, now the fourth richest Indian, up from sixth a year ago. She has a net worth of $33.5 billion.
• The Forbes 2024 list also has 25 Indian billionaires who made their debut. These include Naresh Trehan (managing director of Medanta), Ramesh Kunhikannan (managing director of Kaynes Technology), and Renuka Jagtiani (chief executive officer of Landmark Group).
• Meanwhile, Byju Raveendran and Rohiqa Mistry have been dropped off this time.
• At the age of 37 years, Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of Zerodha, is the youngest Indian billionaire in the Forbes list.
• India’s 10 richest people in Forbes World’s Billionaires List 2024: The Top 200
  • Mukesh Ambani — net worth $116 billion
  • Gautam Adani — net worth $84 billion
  • Shiva Nadar — net worth $36.9 billion
  • Savitri Jindal — net worth $33.5 billion
  • Dilip Shanghvi- net worth $26.7 billion
  • Cyrus Poonawalla — net worth $21.3 billion
  • Kushal Pal Singh — net worth $20.9 billion
  • Kumar Birla — net worth $19.7 billion
  • Radhakishan Damani — net worth $17.6 billion
  • Lakshmi Mittal — net worth $16.4 billion

• The 19th annual meeting of the secretaries of the security councils of the SCO member states was held in Astana, Kazakhstan, from 2 to 3 April 2024.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS:

• The President of Kazakhstan ‘Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’, is the current Chairman of Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
• Addressing the meeting, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev advocated adopting a Cooperation Programme to counter terrorism, separatism, and extremism for 2025-2027 and the SCO Anti-Drug Strategy for 2024-2029.
• He mentioned that countering “three evil forces” – terrorism, separatism and extremism – along with transnational organised crime, drug trafficking and cybersecurity challenges remain priorities during Kazakhstan’s chairmanship in the SCO.

INDIA AT THE MEETING

• The Indian National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval led the Indian delegation at the meeting of the Secretaries of the Security Councils of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
• The Indian government has invested $3 Billion in Afghanistan and supplied 50,000 MT of wheat, 250 Tons of medical aid, and 40,000 litres of Malathion pesticide to fight the locust menace in Afghanistan.
• However, the government of India does not recognize the present Taliban government in
• NSA Ajit Doval strongly condemned the terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall in Moscow, Russia, on March 22, which killed 144 people.

ABOUT SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANISATION

• The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was established as a regional organisation on June 15, 2001. It replaced the Shanghai Five organisation. The founding members of the SCO were China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
• Member of SCO: The SCO has two types of members: permanent and observers.
• There are 9 permanent members- China, Russia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, India (Joined in 2017), Pakistan (Joined in 2017) and Iran (Joined in 2023).
• Observer Members (3) – Afghanistan, Belarus and Mongolia.
• Headquarters: Beijing, China
• Current Chairman of SCO: Kazakhstan

• The Chamba Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer Mukesh Repaswal has appointed four poll icons under the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme.
• Padma Shri award winners Lalita Vakil, Musafir Ram, and Dr Vijay Sharma have been appointed icons in the art and culture category.
• Asian shooting championship bronze medallist Farhan Mirza has been appointed as the youth icon.

• The African country Congo has appointed Judith Suminwa Tuluka as the country’s first woman Prime Minister.
• Tuluka’s appointment has come at a time when there is an atmosphere of tension in the area bordering Rwanda.
• Congo is a Central African country, its capital is

• Joyshree Das Verma took over as the 41st National president of FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), the oldest women-led and women-centric business chamber of South East Asia for 2024-25.
• She has been appointed by Israel as its Honorary Consul for Northeast India.
• Verma is also the Director of HR firm Kaapro Management Solutions Pvt Ltd.

• The World Bank has projected that the Indian economy will grow by 5% in FY2024.
• The World Bank had earlier estimated a growth of 3%.
• The overall economic growth in South Asia, which includes countries like India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka is expected to be strong at 0% in 2024.
• Pakistan’s economy is forecasted to grow by 2.3% in the fiscal year 2024/25 after a contraction in the previous year.
• The economy is expected to grow by 5.7% in Bangladesh in the fiscal year 2024/25.

• The Reserve Bank of India is considering establishing a Digital India Trust Agency (DIGITA) to combat cyber fraud and illegal lending apps.

ABOUT DIGITAL INDIA TRUST AGENCY

• It will be responsible for stopping illegal lending apps from popping up.
• It will enable the verification of these digital lending apps and will maintain a public register of these verified applications.
• Any app which will not carry the “verified” tag of DIGITA, will be considered unauthorized.
• This will create an important and much-needed checkpoint in the fight against online financial fraud.

• The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has enforced the ‘One Vehicle, One FASTag‘ rule since April 1.
• This directive prohibits the use of a single FASTag across multiple vehicles or the association of several FASTags with one vehicle.

ABOUT FASTAG

• It is a device that employs Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for making toll payments directly while the vehicle is in motion.
• It is a RFID passive tag used for making toll payments directly from the customers linked prepaid or savings/current account.
• It is affixed on the windscreen of the vehicle and enables the customer to drive through toll plazas, without stopping for any toll payments.
• The toll fare is directly deducted from the linked account of the customer.

It is also vehicle specific and once it is affixed to a vehicle, it cannot be transferred to another vehicle

• The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Institute of Human Development (IHD) have released a report named “India Employment Report 2024”.

KEY FINDINGS:

• Basic long-term feature of the employment situation in the country continues to be insufficient growth of the non-farm sectors and the ability of these sectors to absorb workers from agriculture.
• India’s working-age population (aged 15–59) increased from 61% in 2011 to 64% in 2021 and is projected to reach 65% in 2036.
• About 7-8 million young people are added each year to the labour force.
• The authors warn that unemployment in the country is “predominantly a problem among youth”, especially those with a secondary level of education or higher, and that it has intensified over time.
• In 2022, the share of unemployed youth in the total unemployed population was 82.9%,” report noted, adding that the share of educated youth among all unemployed people also increased, from 54.2% in 2000 to 65.7% in 2022.
• Also, among the educated (secondary level or higher) unemployed youth, women accounted for a larger share (76.7%) than men (62.2%).
• There is a significant gender gap in the labour market, with low rates of female labour force participation. The gender gap in the LFPR has remained almost consistent over the past two decades.
• In 2022, the LFPR of young men (at 61.2%) was almost three times higher than that of young women (at 21.7%), and the gender gap was similar in both rural and urban areas.
• The ILO and IHD stated that the jobs remained low-productive and low-earning. Real wages and earnings showed a decline or had stagnated.
• While India’s large young workforce is a demographic dividend, the report noted that they don’t appear to have the skills to deliver with 75% of youth unable to send emails with attachments, 60% unable to copy and paste files, and 90% unable to put a mathematical formula into a spreadsheet.

• According to Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh India’s arms exports have surpassed Rs 21,000 crore for the first time.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS:

• India has been expanding its exports of a wide variety of weapons, from BrahMos cruise missiles to artillery guns, in an effort to become self-reliant in the sector.
• The country has taken a significant step forward in becoming ‘Aatmanirbhar’ or self-reliant in defence exports. The defence minister stated on April 1st that the arms exports reached Rs 21,083 crore in the financial year 2023-24, an impressive growth of 5% compared to the previous fiscal year. In the financial year 2022-23, India’s defence exports were nearly Rs 16,000 crore.
• This development comes as part of New Delhi’s push to boost defence exports under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India has set an ambitious target of taking annual defence exports to Rs 35,000 crore by 2024-25.

INDIA’S SUPPLIES TO ARMS:

• India supplies arms to more than 85 countries, including Italy, the Maldives, Russia, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Poland, Egypt, Israel, Spain, Chile, and others.
• India’s defense exports have seen significant growth in recent years, from Rs 686 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 21,083 crore in 2023-24.
• Around 100 firms are exporting defence products in India and the Centre allocated Rs 6.21 lakh crore to the defence budget for 2024-25, a 4.3% increase from Rs 5.94 lakh crore allocated in the previous fiscal year.
• Despite India’s “aatmanirbharta” push, it remains the world’s largest arms importer, accounting for 8% of all arms imports, according to the Swedish think-tank, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The rise in India’s arms imports has been driven by tensions with Pakistan and China.
• While Russia remains India’s primary supplier of arms, its share of Indian arms imports has decreased from 76% in 2009-13 to 36% in 2019-23. The report said that India is now looking to Western suppliers, “most notably France and the US,” and “its own arms industry” to meet its military requirements.
• The report also revealed that arms imports by Pakistan jumped 43% between 2014-18 and 2019-23, accounting for 4.3% of the world total. Pakistan was the fifth-largest arms importer globally.
• The other countries in SIPRI’s top five weapons list for 2019-23, Iran and Iran, were Saudi Arabia (second), Qatar (third) and Japanese (fourth).