Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 09 June 2022

::NATIONAL::

Two days after issuing an advisory asking people to refrain from sharing photocopies of their Aadhaar Card, the Unique Identification Development Authority of India (UIDAI) opted to withdraw the notification.

Key highlights:

It stated that the action was to avert any possibility of ‘misinterpretation’ of the (withdrawn) press release, asking people to exercise “normal prudence” in using/sharing their Aadhaar numbers.
The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 makes it clear that Aadhaar authentication is necessary for availing subsidies, benefits and services that are financed from the Consolidated Fund of India.
In the absence of Aadhaar, the individual is to be offered an alternate and viable means of identification to ensure she/he is not deprived of the same.
The confidentiality needs to be maintained and the authenticated information cannot be used for anything other than the specified purpose.
The NPCI’s Aadhaar Payments Bridge (APB) and the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) facilitate direct benefit transfer (DBT) and allow individuals to use Aadhaar for payments. This requires bank accounts to be linked to Aadhaar.
More than 200 central and State government websites publicly displayed details of some Aadhaar beneficiaries such as their names and addresses. Both were made possible by the lack of robust encryption.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the country’s first liquid nano urea plant at Kalol. This patented product is expected to not only substitute imported urea, but to also produce better results in farms.

About:

Liquid nano Urea is a patented chemical nitrogen fertiliser developed by IFFCO’s Nano Biotechnology Research Centre at Kalol with nano nitrogen particles (from 20-50 nm).
One nanometre is equal to a billionth of a metre.
It is sprayed directly on the leaves of plants and gets absorbed by the stomata- pores found on the epidermis of leaves.

Benefits:

Improved agricultural produce with reduced urea consumption as the efficiency of liquid nano urea is as high as 85-90% in comparison to 25% of conventional urea.
Liquid nano urea is sprayed directly on the leaves and gets absorbed by the plant.
Fertilisers in nano form provide a targeted supply of nutrients to crops, as they are absorbed by the stomata, pores found on the epidermis of leaves.
2-4 ml of nano urea should be mixed a litre of water and sprayed on crop leaves at active growth stages.

The 118th meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) comprising Indus Commissioners of India and Pakistan concluded.
During the meeting, the annual report for the year ending on March 31, 2022, was finalised and signed.

About:

PIC is a communication channel created under Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) for the governments to gather and resolve questions about the treaty’s implementation. It is required to meet at least once in a year.
IWT was signed in 1960 by India and Pakistan with the World Bank as a third-party guarantor.
It is a water-distribution treaty and delimits the rights and obligations of both countries concerning the use of waters on the Indus River System.
Under this, waters of three eastern rivers namely Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, have been allocated exclusively to India.
Western rivers, namely Indus, Chenab and Jhelum, are for Pakistan with India given some rights like agriculture, navigation, domestic use and also right to generate hydroelectricity through run of the river projects.

India will strongly oppose continuation of a moratorium on imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions at the World Trade Organization’s crucial 12th ministerial meeting (MC12).

Key highlights:

India will push for a review of the moratorium as it would help developing countries generate more revenue through customs duties.
In 1998, WTO members agreed not to impose customs duties on electronic transmissions and the moratorium has been periodically extended at successive ministerial conferences.
At MC12, many WTO member nations are seeking temporary extension of the moratorium until the next ministerial.
At the 12th MC next month, many WTO members are seeking temporary extension of the moratorium till 13th MC but India does not want this time to continue this further. India will take a hard stand this time on the matter.
India and South Africa have been making several joint submissions at the WTO, highlighting the adverse impact of the moratorium on developing countries.

The government has released ₹86,912 crore to the state governments, clearing all the Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation dues till 31 May, 2022.

About:

The government has made the full payment despite only about ₹25,000 crore being available in the GST compensation fund. The balance money has been paid from the Centre’s own resources pending collection of cess.
Of the ₹86,912 crore released to states, ₹47,617 crore worth of compensation was due up to January, ₹21,322 crore was due for February-March, and ₹17,973 crore was due for April-May.
Bi-monthly GST compensation to states for the period 2017-18, 2018-19 was released on time out of the Compensation Fund.
In order to meet the resource gap of the states due to short release of compensation, the Centre has borrowed and released ₹1.1 lakh crore in 2020-21 and ₹1.59 lakh crore in 2021-22 as back-to-back loan to meet a part of the shortfall in cess collection.

Recently, Scientists used Machine Learning to predict the match of pairs of metals that can form bimetallic nanoalloys.

About:

Nano alloys, also called core-shell nanocluster alloys, are alloys with one metal forming core and another stays on surface as a shell.
The formation depends on the cohesive energy difference, atomic radius difference, surface energy difference and electronegativity of the two atoms.
Nanoalloys can have other configurations as well such as homogeneously mixed alloy and cluster-in-cluster.
The periodic table has 95 metals of different categories ranging from alkalis to alkaline earth, which can potentially form 4465 pairs.