Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 03 January 2022

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Eminent author Namita Gokhale, Punjabi writerKhalid Hussain and TMC MLA BratyaBasu are amongthe 20 winners of the Sahitya Akademi Award 2021announced on December 30, 2021, by SahityaAkademi.
English writer Namita Gokhale won the award for hernovel ‘Things to Leave Behind’. She is among theauthors who have been honored with SahityaAkademi Award 2021 in 20 different languages.

About:

Sahitya Akademi announced Sahitya Akademi Awards in 20 languages.
Awards in Gujarati, Maithili, Manipuri and Urdu languages will be announced later.
It is a literary honour, conferred annually on writers of most outstanding books of literary meritpublished in any of the major Indian languages.
Besides 22 languages enumerated in Constitution, English and Rajasthani language are alsorecognised.
Award includes a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and an amount ofRs. 1,00,000/-.

Odisha has completed its first-ever radio-tagging of the Indian pangolin to standardise rehabilitation protocol in the State.

About the species:

Pangolins are toothless, nocturnal, and live in burrows and feed mainly on ants and termites.
Distribution: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Threats: Hunting and poaching for local consumptive use and international trade, its meat etc.
Indian Pangolin and Chinese Pangolin (critically Endangered) are found in India.
IUCN status for Indian Pangolin: Endangered

China’s new law on land borders, passed on October 23, came into effect on January 1.
This has happened at a time when the border standoff in eastern Ladakh remains unresolved, when China has renamed several places in Arunachal Pradesh as part of its claim on the Indian state.

What is the new law?

The Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress passed the law for the “protection and exploitation of the country’s land border areas”.
It mandates the state to take measures “to strengthen border defence, support economic and social development as well as opening-up in border areas, improve public services and infrastructure in such areas, encourage and support people’s life and work there, and promote coordination between border defence and social, economic development in border areas”.
This means that it is encouraging the development of villages for civilians in the border areas.
The law lays down four conditions under which the state can impose emergency measures, including border shutdown.

Does it concern India?

Although the law is not meant specifically for India, it is bound to have some impact.
China and India share a disputed 3,488-km boundary, the third longest among China’s 22,457-km land boundaries with 14 countries, after the borders with Mongolia and Russia.
Besides India, Bhutan (477 km) is the only other country with which China has a disputed land border.

China has unveiled a five-year plan to become an innovation hub for the global robotics industry by 2025, as industries like automobile, aerospace, railway transportation, logistics, and mining aim to roll out smart factories.

About:

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a statement that the operating income of China’s robotics industry is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 20 per cent from 2021 to 2025.
More efforts will also be made to achieve breakthroughs in core robot components, such as speed reducers, servomotors, and control panels – the three basic building blocks of sophisticated automated machines.
China has been the world’s largest market for industrial robots for eight consecutive years.

The total funds disbursed under RythuBandhu, Telangana government’s direct benefit transfer scheme for farmers, will soon touch Rs 50,000 crore in the coming days.

About:

Since 2018, when the scheme was launched by the state government, the government has been crediting Rs 5000 per acre per season into bank accounts of land-owning farmers ahead of Rabi and Kharif seasons.
On Tuesday, ahead of the ongoing Rabi season, the government started crediting money into the bank accounts of eligible beneficiaries in the state.
Under the RythuBandhu scheme, as many as 66.56 lakh farmers identified as beneficiaries, regardless of the extent of land owned by them, would receive financial assistance over the next 10 days.
With this, the state government would have disbursed Rs 50,405.63 crore to farmers under the scheme to date, a major landmark since its inception in May 2018.

RythuBandhu is a scheme under which the state government extends financial support to land-owning farmers at the beginning of the crop season through direct benefit transfer so that they can take care of the initial investment needs and do not fall into a debt trap.
Each farmer gets Rs 5,000 per acre per crop season without any ceiling on the number of acres held. So, a farmer who owns two acres of land would receive Rs 20,000 a year, whereas a farmer who owns 10 acres would receive Rs 1 lakh a year from the government.
The grant helps them cover the expenses on input requirements such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and labour.

Indian Researchers develop high-performance transistor models useful for Space and Defense Applications.

About:

The researchers have developed an industry-standard model for Aluminium gallium nitride(AIGaN/GaN) High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) which can be used to make high-powerRadio Frequency (RF) circuits owing to its high breakdown voltage.
RF circuits include amplifiers and switches, which are used in wireless transmission and areuseful for space and defense applications.
Technology is gaining popularity owing to its high performance and efficiency.