The 2028 Olympics is to be held in Los Angeles. This is after the 2024 Olympics to be held in Paris. The 2022 Olympics was held in Tokyo. These are all the summer Olympics, the main Olympics. The one that is being held in China right now is Winter Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee determines the sports to be held in the Olympics games. The committee has decided to conduct 28 Olympic sports and 24 paralympic sports at the Los Angeles Olympics.

What are the sports events to be included in 2028 Olympics?

It includes surfing, climbing and skateboarding. These are new sports. They were introduced in 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Weightlifting, boxing and modern pentathlon have been left off.

Why were some of the sports removed?

The sports were removed over the issues between International Olympics Committee and the governing bodies of the sports. This includes AIBA (International Boxing Association), International Weightlifting Federation and Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne.

About the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics

This is the first summer Olympics to be held in the US since 1996. Before this, the winter Olympics was held in 2002. This is the third time Los Angeles is hosting the Olympics. The other cities that have hosted Olympics three times are London and Paris. In London, Olympics was held in 1908, 1948 and 2012. In Paris the Olympics was held in 1900 and 1924. It is to be held in 2024.

It is the ninth Olympics to be held in US and fourth to be held in the state of California.

The Russian President Vladimr Putin and the Chinese president Xi Jing Pin held a face to face meeting. This is the first time the leaders are meeting in two years. The leaders released a joint statement after the meet.

What did the statement say?

Russia and China have agreed to oppose the enlargement of NATO. They are to abandon the cold war approaches.

Russia had been opposing the entry of Ukraine in NATO. Ukraine was a part of Soviet Union before its disintegration. Russia annexed Crimea of Ukraine for easy shipping. This created the tussle. Here in the statement, enlargement of NATO indirectly means that Russia does not want Ukraine to join NATO.  The countries have expanded their bilateral cooperation. The statement exactly read, “Our friendship has no limits”. There are no forbidden areas of cooperation. This deepens the diplomatic relations between the two countries. The meeting comes when the Ukraine tensions are at the peak. Russia has deployed 100,000 troops in the Ukraine border. The leaders agreed to work together in control of internet, artificial intelligence, climate change and space.

The Statement on Ukraine

The statement did not use the word “Ukraine”. However, it has indirect implications. For instance, the statement read that the countries will stand together against the external forces that are interfering with the internal affairs of the countries. Also, they will stand together against the revolutions being created by external forces.

Statement on the US

The US was directly criticised. The countries did not like the AUKUS alliance. According to them, the US is trying to disturb the peace in the Indian Ocean and Pacific ocean through its Indo – Pacific strategies. AUKUS alliance is a trilateral treaty signed among the US, UK and Australia. The Australian Navy was strengthened under the alliance. UK and US helped Australia to acquire nuclear warships under the treaty.

Chauri Chaura is located in Gorakhpur of Uttar Pradesh. Mahatma Gandhiji called off the non – cooperation movement due an incident that occurred in Chauri Chaura. The incident occurred on February 4, 1922. India recently celebrated the 100 years of the Chauri Chaura incident.

What happened?

On February 4, 1922, the volunteers of the Non – Cooperation movement proceeded to a local police station. They held a procession. The police fired at the procession. In retaliation, the volunteers set the police station on fire. Some police men tried to escape the fire. They were caught and beaten to death. This is referred to as the Chauri Chaura incident.

Background

Mahatma Gandhiji launched the non – cooperation movement on August 1, 1920. The movement boycotted foreign goods. It mainly included machine made clothes. Also, the people refused to assist rulers who misrule the country. Education and administrative institutions were boycotted.

What is India doing to commemorate the incident?

PM Modi launched Chauri Chaura centenary celebrations. A postal stamp commemorating the incident was launched. The Uttar Pradesh government is to renovate the Chauri Chaura Shaheed memorial into a heritage tourist spot.

On World Wetlands Day, that is, on February 2, the Aravalli Biodiversity Park was announced as the first Other Effective Area – based Conservation Measures site, OECM site.

What is OECM?

The OECM tag is provided by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN. According to IUCN, the OECM sites are not protected but are rich in biodiversity. The Aravalli hills are the first OECM site of the country. The proposal to make Aravallis as the OECM was made by the National Biodiversity Authority

About the Aravalli Biodiversity Park

The park is spread over 390 acres. It has a semi – arid vegetation. It has more than 43,000 shrubs, 101,000 trees and 300 endemic plant species. Earlier, the park was a mining site. It was transformed into a city forest through immense efforts of environmentalists, scientists, ecologists along with the local population. Aravallis are considered as the green lungs of Delhi. They support leopards, fox, sambhar and jackals. The Aravallis provide 7.07% of oxygen to Delhi.

Need for the tag

25% of the Aravallis was lost due to illegal mining. According to CAG, there were more than 4,0000 illegal mining cases. Since 1960s, 31 hills vanished from the hills.

Significance of Aravallis

The Aravallis act as a barrier between the desert in the west and the fertile land in the east. The Aravallis stops the monsoon clouds and brings rains to Nainital and Shimla. The hill function as the groundwater recharge for the region.

The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy recently released the unemployment report. According to the report, the unemployment in India was at 6.57% in January 2022. This is the lowest since March 2021. The improvement comes as the lock down restrictions was eased in the country.

Unemployment rate in January 2022

• The unemployment in the urban regions was 8.16%. It was 5.84% in rural areas. In December 2021, the unemployment rate in the country was 7.91%. It was 9.3% in urban and 7.28% in rural.
• Telangana had the lowest unemployment rate in January 2022. It was 0.7%. The second lowest was in Gujarat in 1.2%. the third lowest was in Meghalaya, 1.5% followed by Odisha (1.8%).
• Haryana had the highest unemployment rate, 23.4%. The second highest was in Rajasthan (18.9%).
• As of December 2021, the total number of unemployed in India is 53 million. Of this, the majority were women. Around 35% of the Indian population is actively looking for work. This includes 8 million women. Another 17 million people are unemployed. These people are willing to work if work was available. However, they were not actively looking for job opportunities.

Current Scenario

• The educated and highly qualified are ready to take low paying jobs. On the other hand, the uneducated are willing to take whatever work comes their way.
• Three – fourths of the workforce in the country is self-employed. They do not receive any social security benefits.
• 2% of the workforce have secure jobs. They receive social security such as maternity benefits, health care benefits, retirement savings scheme.
• 9% have formal jobs and access to at least one social security benefit.
• 45% of salaried workers earn less than 9,750 rupees.