Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 11 March 2022

::NATIONAL::

India is looking to develop alternative export markets for tea such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the US, Japan and Tunisia in view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

About:

As of 2019, India was the second largest tea producer in the world.
India is home to a wide variety of teas, including CTC tea, orthodox tea, green tea and organic tea. Tea Board of India undertakes developmental, regulatory functions, and direct promotional activities.
Russia alone imports over 20 per cent of the total tea exports from the country.
Commonwealth Independent States (CIS) are also important export destination.CIS was founded in 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.It has 12 members.

Climatic Condition for Tea cultivation:

Temperature: 21 Degrees C to 29 Degrees C is ideal for Tea. The lowest temperature for the growth of tea is 16 degrees C.
Rainfall: 150-250 cm of rainfall is required for tea cultivation.
Soil: Tea shrubs require fertile mountain soil mixed with lime and iron.The soil should be rich in humus.
Land: Tea cultivation needs well-drained land. Stagnation of water is not good for tea plants.

Marking International Women’s Day 2022, new batches of women-centric courses were started by RSETIs (Rural Self Employment Training Institutes) across the country on 7th March 2022.

About:

The event titled – Avsar Ki Azaadi – launched focused batches for women candidates.Women form 66 per cent of the total trained candidates under the RSETI programme.
RSETI programme is a three-way partnership between the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), GoI, State Governments and Sponsor Banks.
The Banks are mandated to open at least one RSETI in their lead district to provide training to rural youth to take up self-employment/ entrepreneurship ventures.
RSETI program runs with an approach of short-term training & long-term handholding of entrepreneurs.
Rural poor youth between the age group of 18-45 years are eligible to join the training.
The RSETIs have become established as pioneers in capturing the aspirations of the rural poor youth and turning them into profitable entrepreneurs by training them in the domain and entrepreneurial skills.

According to study published in Nature Climate Change, more than 75 percent of the Amazonrainforest has been likely heading towards a tipping point since the early 2000s.
It may be losing its ability to bounce back from extreme events such as drought or fire, threatening to become a dry savanna-like ecosystem.

About:

It is world’s largest tropical rainforest occupying the drainage basin of the Amazon Riverand its tributaries in northern South America.
It comprising about 40% of Brazil’s total area,bounded by Guiana Highlands to the north,
Andes Mountains to the west, Braziliancentral plateau to the south, and AtlanticOcean to the east.It is not landlocked.

Features:

It sometimes also called as‘lungs of the planet’.The forest is carbon sink — a place that absorbsmore carbon dioxide than it releases.
It helps to combat climate change.

Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservative former prosecutor, is all set to become South Korea’s next president after his win in the country’s presidential election, defeating his liberal rival.

About:

Yoon Suk-yeol (born December 18, 1960) is a South Korean politician, former public prosecutor and lawyer who is the president-elect of South Korea.
Yoon served as the prosecutor general of South Korea from 2019 to 2021 under President Moon Jae-in.
South Korea,informally Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK),is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea.
Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eastern border is defined by the Sea of Japan.

The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) will take over setting up the special purpose vehicle (SPV), which will be run as a professional company to derive more value from the assets.

About:

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister approved setting up National Land Monetization Corporation (NLMC).
It aims to undertake monetization of surplus land and building assets of central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) and other government agencies.
NLMC has been set up as a government-owned company.
Department of Public Enterprise, Ministry of Finance, will set up the company and act as its administrative ministry.
The asset monetization proposed in last year’s budget is distinct from the government’s disinvestment plan, which involves selling stakes in public sector enterprises.

Indian researchers have built a low-energy security chip to prevent Side-channel attacks (SCA) on IoT (Internet of Things)devices.

About:

SCA aims to extract sensitive information like cryptographic keys, proprietary machine learningmodels and parameters by measuring things like timing information, power consumption andelectromagnetic leaks of a system.
They are also referred to as sidebar attack or an implementation attack.
They are difficult to detect and defend against.

Types of SCAs: