Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 10 November 2022

::NATIONAL::

Nankana Sahib

• The Union Home Ministry said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always given special importance to the celebrations of Gurupurab. 
• The Ministry has facilitated the visit of Indian Sikh pilgrims to Nankana Sahib on the occasion of Gurupurab.

About:

• Nankana Sahib is a city in Pakistan’s Punjab province, where Gurdwara Janam Asthan (also called Nankana Sahib Gurdwara) is located.
• The shrine is built over the site where Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, was believed to be born in 1469.
• Besides Gurdwara Janam Asthan, Nankana Sahib has several important shrines, including Gurdwara Patti Sahib, Gurdwara Bal Leela, Gurdwara Mal Ji Sahib, Gurdwara Kiara Sahib, Gurdwara Tambu Sahib — all dedicated to stages in the life of the first Guru.
• There is also a Gurdwara in memory of Guru Arjan (5th Guru) and Guru Hargobind (6th Guru). Guru Hargobind is believed to have paid homage to the town in 1621-22.
• The Janam Asthan shrine was constructed by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, after he visited Nankana Sahib in 1818-19 while returning from the Battle of Multan.

Middle East Green Initiative

• Union Minister for Environment Forest and Climate Change attended the Middle East Green Initiative Summit 2022 at COP 27 Egypt.

About:

• The Middle East Green Initiative aims to reduce carbon emissions from regional hydrocarbon production by more than 60%.
• It also plans to plant 50 billion trees across the Middle East and restore an area equivalent to 200 million hectares of degraded land. The initiative will help reduce global carbon levels by 2.5%.
• The first Middle East Green Initiative (MGI) Summit was hosted by HRH Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister in Riyadh on 25 October 2021.
• It facilitated a first-of-its-kind regional dialogue on climate, with leaders in attendance from 28 countries agreeing to work together to tackle climate change.
• Saudi Arabia plans to rely on renewables for 50% of its electricity generation by 2030, , removing 44 million tonnes of carbon emissions by 2035.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Sharm el-Sheikh adaptation agenda 

• Seeking to minimise devastating impacts of climate change on vulnerable people across the globe, the COP27 Presidency has launched the Sharm-el-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda outlining 30 goals to enhance resilience for 4 billion people living in the most climate vulnerable communities by 2030.

About:

• The 30 Adaptation Outcomes include urgent global 2030 targets related to:
• Transitioning to climate resilient, sustainable agriculture that can increase yields by 17% and reduce farm level greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 21%, without expanding agricultural frontiers, and while improving livelihoods including of smallholder farmers
• Protecting and restoring an estimated 400 million hectares in critical areas (land and freshwater ecosystems) supporting indigenous and local communities with use of nature-based solutions to improve water security and livelihoods and to transform 2 billion hectares of land into sustainable management.
• Protecting 3 billion people by installing smart and early warning systems
• Investing USD 4 billion to secure the future of 15 million hectares of mangroves through collective action to halt loss, restore, double protection and ensure sustainable finance for all existing mangroves.
• Expanding access to clean cooking for 2.4 billion people through at least USD 10 billion/year in innovative finance.
• Mobilising USD 140 to USD 300 billion needed across both public and private sources for adaptation and resilience and spur 2,000 of the world's largest companies to integrate physical climate risk and develop actionable adaptation plans

US unveils new carbon offset scheme for climate finance

• U.S.A recently unveiled a new carbon offset scheme called Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA) for climate finance.

About:

• It will be developed by the US along with the Bezos Earth Fund and the Rockefeller Foundation and receive inputs from public and private sectors.
• It is a new carbon offset plan that will allow companies to fund clean energy projects in developing countries and gain carbon credits that they can then use to meet their own climate goals, at least partly.
• According to U.S.A, the concept is to put the carbon market to work, deploy capital otherwise undeployable, and speed up the transition from dirty to clean power, for two puposes- to retire unabated coal fired power and accelerate renewables.
• The ETA is expected to deliver deeper and earlier emissions reductions, help developing countries achieve and strengthen their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement, and help them advance broader sustainable development goals, including expanded energy access.
• The ETA is expected to operate through 2030, possibly extending to 2035.

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::Economy::

Atal Innovation Mission

• Atal Innovation Mission of NITI Aayog launched the Women centric challenges under the 2nd edition of Atal New India Challenge (ANIC). 

About:

• The Woman centric challenges address the major issues faced by women from all spheres of life. 
• These include driving women hygiene through innovation, innovations to improve women’s safety, professional networking opportunities for women, innovations that make working mothers’ life better, and easing the life of Rural Women.
• Addressing the gathering, CEO NITI Aayog Parmeswaran Iyer said that these challenges are thought provoking and can lead to major innovations and solutions. He said that NITI Aayog and AIM focus on women empowerment. 
• The Aayog highlighted that ANIC aims to seek, select, support and nurture technology-based innovations that solve sectoral challenges of national importance and societal relevance through a grant-based mechanism of up to one crore rupees.

::SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY::

Lab grown blood

• In first such clinical experiment ever conducted, researchers in UK have infused blood that hasbeen grown in a laboratory into human subjects.

How is the blood grown in lab?

• Process starts with a normal donation of a pint of blood (around 470ml).
• Magnetic beads are used to fish out flexible stem cells that are capable of becoming a red

blood cell.

• These stem cells are encouraged to grow in large numbers in the labs.
• And are then guided to become red blood cells.

Significance: 

• To manufacture vital, but ultra-rare, blood groups; for people who depend on regularblood transfusions etc

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