IASbaba's Flagship Course: Integrated Learning Programme (ILP) - 2024 Read Details
(Topic: Constitutional Amendments)
The Government of National Capital Territory (GNCTD) Amendment Act, 2021 has come into force after being passed by the Lok Sabha, by the Rajya Sabha, and after the assent of the President of India. The Amendment Act has the effect of amending Sections 21, 24, 33 and 44 of the Act.
Objectives of the Amendment Act:
The Amendment would ensure better governance in the NCT of Delhi and lead to improved implementation of schemes and programmes meant for the common people of Delhi.
The amendments are consistent with the existing legal and constitutional provisions, and are in line with the judgements of the Hon’ble Supreme Court dated 04.07.2018 and 14.02.2019.
The amendments to the GNCTD Act, 1991, in no way alter the constitutional and legal responsibilities of the elected Government to take necessary action, in respect of the subjects transferred to them in the State and Concurrent Lists of the Constitution of India, including subjects such as health, education, etc.
(Topic: India and Neighborhood relations)
Project DANTAK is commemorating its Diamond Jubilee in Bhutan. It was a fitting tribute to the sacrifices made by personnel of DANTAK in strengthening the bonds of friendship between India and Bhutan. It may be recalled that over 1,200 DANTAK personnel laid down their lives while constructing important infrastructure in Bhutan.
Project DANTAK was established on April 24, 1961 as a result of the visionary leadership of His Majesty the Third King and then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru. Identifying the utmost importance of connectivity in spurring the socio-economic development and growth of Bhutan, DANTAK was tasked to construct the pioneering motorable roads in the Kingdom. DANTAK completed the road connecting Samdrup Jongkhar to Trashigang in 1968. In the same year, Thimphu was connected to Phuentsholing by DANTAK. Many Bhutanese had also volunteered to work with DANTAK.
Some other notable projects executed by the project include the construction of Paro Airport, Yonphula Airfield, Thimphu – Trashigang Highway, Telecommunication & Hydro Power Infrastructure, Sherubtse College, Kanglung and India House Estate.
The medical and education facilities established by DANTAK in far flung areas were often the first in those locations. The food outlets along the road introduced the Bhutanese to Indian delicacies and developed a sweet tooth in them. The famous Takthi Canteen midway between Phuentsholing and Thimphu has been a compulsory stop for travelers.
As DANTAK celebrates six decades in Bhutan, the project reaffirms its commitment to support the march of Bhutan towards realising the dreams of His Majesty Druk Gyalpo, the plans of the Royal Government of Bhutan and aspirations of the people of the kingdom.
(Topic: India and other countries)
The Trade Ministers of India, Japan and Australia formally launched the Supply Chain Resilience initiative in a Trilateral Ministerial Meeting –
The Ministers acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic was having an unprecedented impact in terms of lives lost, livelihoods and economies affected, and that the pandemic had revealed supply chain vulnerabilities globally and in the region. The Ministers also noted that some supply chains have been left vulnerable due to a range of factors.
Based on the high level consultations among Australia, India and Japan since September last year, the Ministers noted the importance of risk management and continuity plans in order to avoid supply chain disruptions and affirmed their commitment to strengthen resilient supply chains. Possible policy measures may include:
(i) Supporting the enhanced utilization of digital technology; and
(ii) Supporting trade and investment diversification.
The Ministers hereby launch the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) - The Ministers instructed their officials to implement the following as initial projects of SCRI and further develop the Initiative:
(i) Sharing of best practices on supply chain resilience; and
(ii) Holding investment promotion events and buyer-seller matching events to provide opportunities for stakeholders to explore the possibility of diversification of their supply chains.
The Ministers further
Cabinet approves Agreement between the Government of India and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on Customs Cooperation and Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters
The Agreement will help in
Background:
The Agreement would provide a legal framework for sharing of information and intelligence between the Customs authorities of the two countries and help in the proper application of Customs laws, prevention and investigation of Customs offences and the facilitation of legitimate trade. The draft text of the proposed Agreement has been finalized with the concurrence of the two Customs Administrations. The Agreement takes care of Indian Customs' concerns and requirements, particularly in the area of exchange of information on the correctness of the Customs value, tariff classification and origin of the goods traded between the two countries.
(Topic: Agriculture)
Agriculture Infrastructure Fund is bringing together the collective power of all stakeholders in the Agriculture ecosystem.
Agriculture Infrastructure Fund has crossed the Rs. 8000 crore mark after receiving 8,665 applications worth Rs. 8,216 crores. The largest share of the pie is contributed by Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) (58%), agri-entrepreneurs (24%) and individual farmers (13%). These investments are for a wide range of projects which will unlock value for farmers across the country.
These initiatives have led to not only an overall increase in applications but an increase in interest in innovative infra types such as custom hiring centers & farm machinery banks (130 applications worth ~25 crores) and infra for smart & precision agriculture (200 applications worth ~1,300 crores). AIF has brought farmers & agribusinesses together with newer partnership models emerging for the creation of distributed infra near farm-gate in a hub & spoke model. The agribusinesses are increasing awareness about AIF & newer agri-tech amongst FPOs and supporting them in application & adoption.
About Agriculture Infrastructure Fund
(Topic: Space and Technology)
A community service centre has been set up to bring all data on board India’s first dedicated solar space mission to a single web-based interface enabling the users to quickly look at the data and identify the interesting science cases.
The centre will
The centre will expand reach of Aditya-L1 not only within India, but also increase the visibility of the mission at the international level. It will allow every interested individual to be able to perform scientific analysis of the data.
(Topic: Space and Technology)
In 2011, the Nobel Prize was awarded to three scientists for discovering that the Universe is expanding at an ever-accelerating rate through observations of distant supernovae. Now a team of Indian astronomers observing such distant supernovae have narrowed down the possible mechanisms of explosion of such supernovae which provide key measures of cosmological distances.
Their detailed study of a supernova called SN 2017hpa, a particular type of supernovae called I a supernova, which exploded in 2017 helped narrow down the explosion mechanism of the supernovae by observations of unburned carbon in the early phase spectra.
The explosive death of a star as a supernova is one of the most spectacular and catastrophic events in the Universe. Type Ia supernovae are the result of explosions of white dwarfs that exceed their mass beyond the Chandrasekhar limit through accretion of matter. Their homogeneous nature makes them extremely good standardizable candles to measure cosmological distances. However, the explosion mechanisms which create these supernovae (SNe), and the exact nature of their progenitor systems (star which is at the origin of a supernova phenomenon) are still not yet clearly understood. While most SNeIa are homogeneous, a good fraction of these events show diversity in both their light curve as well as spectral properties.
The burning front in the white dwarf moves or propagates at speeds less than speed of sound which leaves behind unburned material. The expansion velocity calculated using these unburned features can provide an essential hint towards the velocity structure of the ejected material. It is generally expected that the unburned material will be present in the outermost layers of the ejecta and expand with velocity higher than velocity of the outer most layer of the star called photospheric velocity. In this study, the authors have shown that the unburned layer is moving with photospheric velocity indicating that mixing of the explosion materials is dominant within the ejected material.
(Topic: Space and Technology)
High energy particles are generally lower in number in the cosmic universe. But the excess number of high energy particles of the antimatter counterpart of the electrons, called positrons have intrigued scientists for long.
Over the years astronomers have observed an excess of antimatter counterpart of the electron or positrons having an energy of more than 10 giga-electronvolts, or 10 GeV. For an estimate, this is the energy of a positively charged electron accelerated across a 10,000,000,000 volt battery! Positrons with energy more than 300 GeV, however, are lower in comparison to what astronomers expect. This behaviour of positrons between 10 and 300 GeV is what astronomers call the ‘positron excess’.
Researchers from the Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bengaluru, have resolved the mystery in a new study published. Their proposal is simple –– cosmic rays while propagating through the Milky Way galaxy interact with matter producing other cosmic rays, primarily electrons and positrons.
The Milky Way consists of giant clouds of molecular hydrogen. They are the seats of the formation of new stars and can be as massive as 10 million times the Sun’s mass. They can extend up to 600 light-years, the distance that would take light 600 years to travel. Cosmic rays, produced in supernovae explosions propagate through these clouds before they reach the Earth. Cosmic rays interact with molecular hydrogen and can give rise to other cosmic rays. As they propagate through these clouds, they decay from their original forms and intermix, lose their energy by energising the clouds, and may also get re-energised. The researchers from RRI studied all these astrophysical processes via a code they set up on the computer, using a publicly available code.
The combined catalogue consists of ten molecular clouds in the immediate neighbourhood of our Sun. These galactic clouds provide the astronomers a crucial input –– the number of giga-electronvolt cosmic rays. These help them determine the excess number of positrons that reach the Earth. The computer code the researchers used, by taking into account the exact number of nearby galactic molecular clouds, was successfully able to reproduce the observed number of positrons at giga-electronvolt energies.
(Topic: Environment)
A Solar Dryer and Pyrolysis pilot plant at Chennai will soon offer an innovative approach for smart cities to transform urban organic waste into biochar and energy.
The pilot is part of the Indo-German project ‘Pyrasol’ launched to transform urban organic waste into biochar and energy in smart cities.
Prelims-oriented News
Demise of Padma Shri Dadudan Gadhvi: Veteran Gujarati poet and folk singer; he was also known as Kavi Dad. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2021 for his contribution in literature and education. Besides, he had written songs for 15 Gujarati films.
EPFO Launches Aadhaar based e- nomination: In order to facilitate EPF subscribers, EPFO has launched one more e-initiative i.e., Aadhaar based e - nomination. The physical filing of nomination is done through submission of ‘Form 2 (Revised)’, now with the launch of e-nomination facility; members themselves can file their nomination online, using this e-Nomination facility available in member portal.
DRDO conducts maiden trial of Python-5 Air to Air Missile: Tejas, India's indigenous Light Combat Aircraft, added the 5th generation Python-5 Air-to-Air Missile (AAM) in its air-to-air weapons capability. Trials were also aimed to validate enhanced capability of already integrated Derby Beyond Visual Range (BVR) AAM on Tejas.
Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs (CCSCH) finalizes quality standards for 4 more spices: The Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs (CCSCH) has finalised and recommended quality standards for four spices; cloves, oregano, basil, and ginger, during its fifth session held virtually. The committee forwarded these four new standards to the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) for adoption at final step 8, as full -fledged Codex standards.
ABOUT CCSCH & CAC
DRDO develops Single Crystal Blades for helicopter engine application: Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed single crystal blades technology and supplied 60 of these blades to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) as part of their indigenous helicopter development program for helicopter engine application.
New high-yielding and pest-resistant variety of soybean can help boost countrywide production
Soyabean
Kharif season