Current Affairs Question - 10 April 2020

Explanation :

• Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) is an autonomous organisation of the Government of India, involved in India's external cultural relations, through cultural exchange with other countries and their peoples.
• It was founded in 1950 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, independent India’s first Education Minister.

Objectives

• To actively participate in the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes pertaining to India’s external cultural relations
• To foster and strengthen cultural relations and mutual understanding between India and other countries
• To promote cultural exchanges with other countries and people, and to develop relations with nations.

ICCR Awards

• Distinguished Indologist Award
• World Sanskrit Award
• Distinguished Alumni Award
• Gisela Bonn Award

Explanation :

• The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is an intergovernmental organisation and the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, which entered into force on 29 April 1997.
• Headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, OPCW, with its 193 Member States, oversees the global endeavour to permanently and verifiably eliminate chemical weapons.
• The Convention aims to eliminate an entire category of weapons of mass destruction by prohibiting the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, transfer or use of chemical weapons by States Parties.
• States Parties, in turn, must take the steps necessary to enforce that prohibition in respect of persons (natural or legal) within their jurisdiction.
• A unique feature of the Convention is its incorporation of the ‘challenge inspection’, whereby any State Party in doubt about another State Party’s compliance can request a surprise inspection.
• Under the Convention’s ‘challenge inspection’ procedure, States Parties have committed themselves to the principle of ‘anytime, anywhere’ inspections with no right of refusal.
• The organisation was awarded the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize "for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons.