• It is a bilateral Naval Exercise between India and Malasiya.

• NSDC along with a NBFC unveiled skill development initiative - Project Odiserv in Odisha. 

• About NSDC
  • NSDC is a not-for-profit public limited company incorporated under section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013. 
  • The Government of India holds 49% of the share capital of NSDC, while the private sector has the balance of 51% of the share capital.
• NSDC aims to promote skill development by catalyzing the creation of large, quality, and for-profit vocational institutions.

• According to the RBI, NEFT system has registered a growth of 700% in terms of the volume of transactions from 2014-23.

• About NEFT
  • Nation-wide centralized payment system owned and operated by RBI. 
  • Users: Individuals, firms and corporations can use the NEFT facility.
  • Limits: No limit imposed by the RBI for funds transfer through NEFT.
  • The outbound remittances through the NEFT system are permitted only to Nepal under the Indo-Nepal Remittance Facility (INRF) Scheme.
• The other Fund Transfer systems in India are Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and Immediate Payment Service (IMPS).

• 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) of WTO concluded with the adoption of Abu Dhabi Ministerial Declaration (ADMD).

• About Declaration 
  • Members committed to preserve and strengthen the ability of the multilateral trading system, with the WTO at its core.
  • Declaration underlines the centrality of the development dimension in the work of the WTO to achieve the UN 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals.
• WTO also agreed to further extend the moratorium on imposing import duties on e-commerce trade for two more years.

• Researchers discovered four gigantic seamounts in the deep sea off the coast of Peru and Chile.

• About Seamounts
  • A seamount is an underwater mountain with steep sides rising from the seafloor.
  • Most seamounts are remnants of extinct volcanoes and are typically cone shaped. 
  • Seamounts with large flat summits are called guyots.
  • Seamounts are found in every world ocean basin.
  • Seamounts function as oases of life or biological hotspots with higher species diversity and biomass on and around it. 
  • World’s highest seamount is Hawaii's dormant volcano Mauna Kea. 

• The 2024 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement will be awarded to Johan Rockstrom for his work on the Planetary Boundaries framework. 

• About Planetary Boundaries framework
  • First published in 2009, the Planetary Boundaries integrate nine systems that determine the functioning and the state of the planet. 
  • Nine planetary boundaries include Climate Change, Biosphere Integrity, Land-System Change, Freshwater Change, Biogeochemical Flows, Novel Entities, Stratospheric Ozone Depletion, Atmospheric Aerosol Loading, and Ocean Acidification. 
  • They provide life-support to humans and humanity is well outside of safe operating space on first six planetary boundaries. 

• Researchers finds that Bioenergy Trigeneration (BioTRIG) becomes technically feasible for pyrolysis.
  • Pyrolysis is a process of thermal decomposition of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. 
  • Pyrolysis can convert carbonaceous materials like waste biomass (crop residues, food waste and animal manure) into biochar and bio-oil and generate syngas. 
  • These pyrolysis products (bioenergy trigeneration) can help overcome three major challenges of rural communities in India - 
    • Biochar can improve soil quality.
    • Bio-oil can be used for electricity generation. 
    • Syngas can be used as a clean efficient cooking fuel. 

• To provide relief to sugar mills, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution has revised guidelines for restructuring of loans taken under SDF. 
  • Revised guidelines provide sugar factories option of debt restructuring and One Time Settlement. 
• SDF provides financial assistance to sugar factories at concessional interest rates in accordance with SDF Act 1982 and SDF Rules 1983. 
  • Assistance is provided for modernization cum expansion, cane development, bagasse based co-generation power projects, ethanol production from molasses, and conversion to zero liquid discharge plant.  

Cambodia (Capital: Phnom Penh)

• India signed an MoU with Cambodia on biodiversity conservation with special focus on tiger reintroduction in Cambodia.

• Political Boundaries
  • Located on Indochinese mainland of Southeast Asia.
  • Bordered by Thailand (west and northwest), Laos (northeast), Vietnam (east and southeast), and Gulf of Thailand (southwest).

• Geographical features
  • Major Mountain Range: Dangrek
  • Highest Peak: Phnom Aural
  • Major River: Mekong
  • Major Lake: Tonle Sap (Great Lake)