Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 16 December 2021

::NATIONAL::

The Union Cabinet approved a Rs 76,000 crore policy boost for semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem in the country.

Key highlights:

The scheme is expected to usher in a new era in electronics manufacturing by providing a globally competitive incentive package to companies in semiconductors and display manufacturing as well as design.
The programme will give an impetus to semiconductor and display manufacturing by facilitating capital support and technological collaborations.
The government has lined up an attractive incentive support for companies engaged in silicon semiconductor fabs, display fabs, compound semiconductors, silicon photonics, sensors fabs, semiconductor packaging and semiconductor design.
The scheme for setting up of semiconductor fabs and display fabs in India will extend fiscal support of up to 50 per cent of project cost to eligible applicants.

About:

Semiconductors possess specific electrical properties. A substance that conducts electricity is called a conductor, and a substance that does not conduct electricity is called an insulator.
Semiconductors are substances with properties somewhere between them. ICs(integrated circuits) and electronic discrete components such as diodes and transistors are made of semiconductors.
Common elemental semiconductors are silicon and germanium. Silicon is well-known of these. Silicon forms most of ICs.
Common semiconductor compounds are such as gallium arsenide or indium antimonide.
Semiconductors became essential for many electronic appliances as well as for social infrastructure that support our everyday life.

The Supreme Court allowed the Centre to construct all-weather roads with 10-metre tarred surfaces, as opposed to the 5.5-metre-wide road ordered earlier, as a part of the Char Dham project.
Many of these are strategic feeder roads leading to the Indo-China border.

About:

The defence ministry had urged the Supreme Court to modify the earlier order and allow the national highways from Rishikesh to Mana, from Rishikesh to Gangotri, and from Tanakpur to Pithoragarh to be developed to two-lane configuration.
The Supreme Court noted that the recent past has thrown up serious challenges to security along the borders. “This court can’t second-guess infrastructural needs of armed forces,” held the top court.
The Supreme Court has, however, taken note of environmental concerns raised regarding the widening of the Char Dham highway project. An oversight committee, led by former Supreme Court judge AK Sikri, has been constituted to ensure that all remedial measures are taken in the interest of the environment and that the relevant recommendation of the high-powered committee is implemented while going ahead with the project.

UNESCO has added Durga Puja to the representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

About:

The 16th Committee of UNESCO for safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in its meeting held today in Paris has inscribed DURGA PUJA in KOLKATA on the representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
This is the 1st festival in Asia to achieve recognition as UNESCO ICH of Humanity. 48 nominations had been submitted for inscription on the Representative List of ICH of humanity.
The nominations were reviewed by an Evaluation Body who made recommendations to the Committee for its decision. The Committee approved the decision of the inscription of Durga Puja in Kolkata.
UNESCO also commended the concerned organizations in Kolkata for their initiatives to involve marginalized groups and individuals as well as women in their participation in safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage.

Durga Puja:

Durga Puja is a five-day festival which begins on the fifth night of the nine-day Navratri festival and ends on the tenth day, which is Dashami.
During this time, people collectively worship and invoke Goddess Durga, who is regarded as the feminine energy of the cosmos, also known as ‘Shakti’.
Though originating in West Bengal, which has the largest Bengali community in the country, the festival — as mentioned earlier — is celebrated in many other parts of India, and also the world.
During this time, intricately-designed clay models of the Goddess are worshipped in ‘pandals’ and pavilions where people get together. Folk music, culinary, craft, and performing arts traditions are a part of the celebration.

Recently, World Meteorological Organisationcertified a 38 degrees Celsius reading in the Russiantown of Verkhoyansk.
It constitutes the vast region of Russia andnorthern Kazakhstan, constituting all of northernAsia.
It extends from the Ural Mountains in the westto the Pacific Ocean in the east and southwardfrom the Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-centralKazakhstan and the borders of Mongolia andChina.

Geographical Features:

Major features are the West Siberian Plateau andthe Central Siberian Plateau.
The climatic condition is mostly Subarctic.
In this area the prominent mountains are Ural Mountains, the Altai Mountains, and the Verkhoyansk Range.
KlyuchevskayaSopka (active volcano on the KamchatkaPeninsula) is the highest point.
The world’s oldest and deepest lakeLakeBaikal is located there.
The prominent rivers are Ob (7th longest in the world), Yenisei and Lena.

India’s annual wholesale inflation surged to 14.23% in November driven by mineral oils, basic metals, crude petroleum, natural gas, chemicals and food products.
The surge in the wholesale price index (WPI), which measures factory-gate inflation, or what producers charge wholesalers, follows a rise in retail prices.

About:

WPI reflects changes in the average prices of goods at the wholesale level i.e., factory gate/mandi levels.
It does not consider the price of services.
WPI reckons only basic prices and does not include taxes, rebate/trade discounts, transport andother charges.
Based on wholesale prices of a basket of 697 commodities categorised under three groups

The WPI is released by Economic Advisor in Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The current base year for calculation is: 2011-12 (revised in 2017).

A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) has created BhuParikshak.

About:

It is a portable soil testing device, which can detect soil health in just 90seconds, by use of an embedded mobile application.
It attempts to do away with the lengthy process of waiting for soil health cards.
Rapid soil testing device will assist individual farmers in obtaining soil health parameters withrecommended dose of fertilizers.
Six soil parameters are nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, organic carbon, clay contents, andcation-exchange capacity - can be detected.