Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 10 February 2021

::NATIONAL::

A glacier break is suspected to have caused the flash floods in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli on Sunday.
Earlier the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had issued detailed guidelines on how to reduce and deal with disasters caused by what is scientifically called Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs).

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A GLOF refers to the flooding that occurs when the water dammed by a glacier or a moraine is released suddenly.
Unlike earthen dams, the weak structure of the moraine dam leads to the abrupt failure of the dam on top of the glacial lake, which holds large volume of water.
A failure of the dam has the potential of releasing millions of cubic metres of water in a short period, causing catastrophic flooding downstream.
Peak flows as high as 15,000 cubic metre per second have been recorded in such events.

A World Health Organization panel recommended AstraZeneca Plc’s Covid-19 vaccine for all adults over 18, paving the way to speed up inoculations in developing countries.
The recommendation may encourage more countries to use the vaccine broadly, after some European Union countries advised against giving it to the elderly, citing insufficient trial data involving older people.
The WHO’s recommendation on the Astra shot follows the organization’s decision to clear a vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE in December.
The U.K. drugmaker’s shot is easier to deploy than other vaccines like Pfizer’s that need to be stored at ultra-cold temperatures, and costs less.

Facebook, Inc. announced that the company will temporarily reduce the amount of political content in the News Feed of a small percentage of people in a few countries.

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The announcement indicated that the social media giant plans to keep civic and political groups out of recommendations in the United States for the long term and expand the policy globally.
Facebook has now said in a blog post that the upcoming changes to the News Feed are along similar lines.
It added that although the company already offers controls to help users manage what they see in their feed, it is trying to find a new balance of the content people want to see.

Key findings from the announcement:

The social media firm, over the next few months, will work to better understand the varied preferences for political content and test a number of approaches based on those insights.
Facebook will temporarily reduce the distribution of political content in the News Feed this week for a limited number of users in Canada, Brazil and Indonesia. It will extend the move in the United States in the coming weeks.
It will explore ways to rank political content in the feeds of Facebook users using different signals, and then decide on the approaches the company will use going forward.
Content from official government agencies and services, Covid-19 information from health organisations and agencies will be exempt from these tests.
It will not remove political content from Facebook altogether to preserve people’s ability to find and interact with political content on the social media platform “while respecting each person’s appetite for it at the top of their News Feed.”
Facebook will carry out a survey on the users’ experience during these tests.

Central Government is implementing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National AYUSH Mission (NAM) through States/UTs for development and promotion of AYUSH systems of medicine including Ayurvedic system.

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The Mission inter-alia makes following provisions for promotion of AYUSH systems including Ayurvedic system.
Co-location of AYUSH facilities at Primary Health Centers (PHCs), Community Health Centers (CHCs) and Districts Hospitals (DHs).
Up gradation of exclusive State Government AYUSH Hospitals and Dispensaries.
Setting up of upto 50 bedded integrated AYUSH Hospital.
Upgradation of State Government Under-Graduate and Postgraduate Educational Institutions.
Setting up of new State Government AYUSH Educational Institutions in the States where it is not available in Government Sector.
Strengthening of State Government/State Government Co-operatives/Public Sector Undertakings for manufacturing of quality medicines in AYUSH Systems.
Strengthening of State Drug Testing Laboratories for ASU&H Drugs for stringent quality control.
Support for cultivation of Medicinal Plant including processing and post-harvest management to ensure supply of quality raw material for AYUSH medicine and other products.

Recently,Central Bank of Sri Lanka settled a USD 400 million currency swap facility with RBI under SAARC currency swap framework (SCSF).
A currency swap between countries is an agreement to exchange currencies with predetermined terms and conditions.
SCSF, since 2012, provides a backstop line of funding for short term foreign exchange liquidity requirements or short-term balance of payments stress.
It is available to all SAARC member countries, subject to their signing bilateral swap agreements.
Drawls can be made in US dollar, euro or Indian rupee.

A team of scientists at the Berkeley Lab has reported some of the properties of element 99 in the periodic table called “Einsteinium”, named after Albert Einstein.
It was discovered in 1952 in the debris of the first hydrogen bomb (the detonation of a thermonuclear device called “Ivy Mike” in the Pacific Ocean).

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Since its discovery, scientists have not been able to perform a lot of experiments with it because it is difficult to create and is highly radioactive. Therefore, very little is known about this element.
For the first time researchers have been able to characterise some of the properties of the element.
The scientists worked with less than 250 nanograms of the artificial element, which was manufactured at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope Reactor, which is one of the few places in the world capable of making einsteinium.
Specifically, the team worked with einsteinium-254, one of the more stable isotopes of the element that has a half-life of 276 days. The most common isotope of the element, einsteinium 253 has a half-life of 20 days.

Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma became the sixth Indian and third pacer from the country to take 300 wickets in Test cricket.
Besides him, Kumble (619) and Kapil (434), Ravichandran Ashwin (377 before this game), Harbhajan Singh (417), and Zaheer Khan (311) are the other bowlers from the country who have reached the landmark.
The 32-year-old Ishant reached the milestone in 98 matches, more than the other Indian bowlers in the club.