Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 11 April 2022

::NATIONAL::

AAI Airports providing platform to Self-Help Groups for promotion of local artisans and products through ‘AVSAR’ Scheme.
‘AVSAR’ to provide SHGs an opportunity to showcase local products.

About:

Under “AVSAR” (Airport as Venue for Skilled Artisans of The Region), which is an initiative of AAI, an opportunity to help the indigent to mobilize their households into functionally effective self-earned groups for self-reliance and self-dependence, has been provided.
Under this scheme, an area of 100-200 square feet has been earmarked at each AAI operated airport.
The space is being allotted to the self- help groups, turn on turn basis, for a duration of 15 days.
Few outlets have already been commissioned at Chennai, Agartala, Dehradun, Kushinagar, Udaipur & Amritsar Airport wherein SHGs operated by local women, are showcasing and marketing their homemade local products like Puffed Rice, Packaged Papad, Pickles, traditional craft with contemporary design to the air travellers.

The Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) released the study, ‘Managing Forest Fires in a Changing Climate’.

Key highlights:

More than 3/4thof Indian districts are extreme climate event hotspots and 30% of districts are hotspots for extreme forest fires (FF).
10- fold increase in forest fire incidences in the last two decades.
India is 2nd most vulnerable country in the global south to FF.
Mizoram has had the most number of FF incidences in the last two decades.
89% of FF extreme hotspot districts are located in drought hotspot regions.
Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra are most prone to high-intensity FF events caused by rapid climate change.

The United States’ decision to impose stricter sanctions on Alrosa of Russia, a major player in India’s gems and jewellery industry, was being evaluated.
The “blocking sanctions” on the largest diamond mining company of the world was announced by United States.

About:

Diamond has been a major component of India-Russia trade in recent years and the sector also received attention at the top political level.
Alrosa which has been recognised as a state-owned enterprise (SOE) by the U.S. Department of the Treasury was targeted by the U.S. authorities during the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine.
The Department of the Treasury described Alrosa as the “world’s largest diamond mining company”, which supplies “90%” of Russia’s rough diamonds.
Alrosa’s supplies to India had paused briefly earlier this year but resumed last month even as the Indian gems and jewellery sector grappled with the challenges of making payments through German banks.

Hackers reportedlyused the ChineseGovernmenttrojan ShadowPad, totarget State LoadDespatch Centres(SLDCs) responsible for real time grid control and electrical dispatch but did notsucceed because safeguards for critical infrastructure were in place to thwart such intrusions.
Critical Infrastructure (Cl) refers to those essential physical and informationtechnology facilities, networks, services, and assets, which, if disrupted,would have a serious impact on the health, safety, security, economic orsocial well-being, or effective functioning of government.

Measures to protect CIs

Policy Measure: National Cyber Security Policy 2013 to build a secure andresilient cyberspace for citizens, businesses and Government.

Institutional Measure:

National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC)to regulate and protect the nation’s Critical Information Infrastructures(CIIs).
Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-ln) as National nodalagency for responding to computer security incidents.
National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC) to coordinate with differentagencies at the national level for cyber security matters.

As per the initial field report of the Punjab Agriculture department, around 35,000 hectares (86,450 acres) are being used for the cultivation of spring/summer maize.
The ideal time for sowing maize is from January-end to February 15.But farmers continue to sow it till the end of February or even in early March.

About:

Utilizing more area for maize cultivation is always a welcome move in a state like Punjab where maize is seen as an alternative to the water-guzzling paddy crop.
But growing maize during spring is not always a good choice in Punjab. From March to June, the temperature in the state is very high and the sunshine hours are also long.
The temperature starts rising from March from 35 degree centigrade to 45 degree in June. Also, the average sunshine hours remain between 9 to 9.5 hours.
Due to high temperature, the water gets evaporated soon and frequent watering of the maize crop is needed in peak summer season. This affects the water table drastically.
According to scientists, this crop is ‘big no’ without ‘drip irrigation’ for Punjab where the groundwater table is depleting drastically and there is a need for sustainable farming.

Which crops can be an alternative to spring maize in the state?

Google Pay has launched a new feature/Tap to pay for UPI, which makes use of Near Field Communication Technology (NFCT).

About:

NFC is a short-range wireless connectivity technology that allows NFC-enabled devices to communicate with each other and transfer information quickly and easily with a single touch.
NFC transmits data through electromagnetic radio fields, to enable communication between two devices.
NFC-enabled devices must be either physically touching or within a few centimetres from each other for data transfer to occur.