Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 13 August 2022

::NATIONAL::

On the auspicious occasion of Shraavana Poornima occurs the World Sanskrit Diwas.

About:

This year it falls on August 12, 2022.
The mother of all languages, Sanskrit, is one of the oldest languages in the world. It seems to be the first spoken language in ancient India.

Significance:

The Indo-Aryan language was first derived 3500 years ago. This classical language got its recognition for its scientific composition, which has a high demand internationally.
The scriptures mark their origin in the second millennium BCE when the Rig Veda was composed.
Observing the Sanskrit Diwas will promote, raise awareness and revive the language for this generation. It is also one of the most computer-friendly languages.

India experienced severe working-hour and employment losses in 2020 and 2021, and Indian youth employment deteriorated in 2021 compared to 2020, according to the Global Employment Trends for Youth 2022 report released by the International Labour Organisation.
The recovery in youth employment is still lagging globally, the report says confirming that COVID-19 has hurt young people more than any other age group.

Key highlights:

Globally, unemployed youth is estimated to reach 73 million in 2022.
India, too, saw a decline in youth employment.
Pandemic has worsened the labour market challenges for those aged between 15 and 24 years.
In India, 92% of children on average lost at least one foundational ability in language and 82% lost at least one foundationalability in mathematics,Teachers in non-state schools are paid significantly less than those in state schools.

World Elephant Day is observed every year on August 12 to raise awareness about preservation and protection of the world's elephants.

About:

World Elephant Day was first observed on August 12, 2012. It was due the efforts of Canadian filmmaker Patricia Sims and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand, that August 12 began to be observed as World Elephant Day.
World Elephant Day aims to spread awareness about the plight of Asian and African elephants.
The aim is "work towards better protection for wild elephants, improving enforcement policies to prevent the illegal poaching and trade of ivory, conserving elephant habitats, better treatment for captive elephants and, when appropriate, reintroducing captive elephants into natural, protected sanctuaries are the goals that numerous elephant conservation organizations are focusing on around the world".

Key facts:

Elephants are the largest land mammals on earth. In fact, African Savanna (Bush) elephant is the largest land animal on our planet.
This docile animal has 3 species - African Savanna (Bush), African Forest and Asian. Interestingly, you can distinguish between them on the basis of their ears and trunks.
Elephants are pachyderms, which means they have thick skin, almost 2.5 cm in some areas.
Elephants eat a LOT! They can spend up to three-quarters of their day just eating!
Elephants' trunks are a wonder organ. It has about 150,000 muscle units and it is most sensitive organ found in any mammal.
Their tusks grow throughout their lives.
Elephants 'never forget'. This is because their temporal lobe (the brain's area associated with memory) is larger and denser than humans.

It was recently reported that India held its first political dialogue with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Brussels on December 12, 2019.

About:

Attended by senior officials, including from the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Defence, the idea was to ensure the dialogue was primarily political in character, and to avoid making any commitment on military or other bilateral cooperation.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, or NATO, is a political and military alliance of 28 European countries and two countries in North America (United States and Canada).
It was set up in 1949 by the US, Canada, and several western European nations to ensure their collective security against the Soviet Union. It was the US’s first peacetime military alliance outside the western hemisphere.
Thirty countries are currently members of NATO, which is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. The headquarters of the Allied Command Operations is near Mons, also in Belgium

The Reserve Bank of India said disbursal of loans and collection of repayments must be executed only between borrowers and entities regulated by it, and that no third party should be involved in this process.

About:

Digital lending is the process of offering loans that areapplied for, disbursed, and managedthrough digital channels, in which lendersuse digitized data to inform credit decisionsand build intelligent customer engagement.

Key highlights:

All loan disbursals to be executed only between bank accounts of borrower and Regulated Entities (REs)without any pass-through of Lending Service Providers(LSPs) or anythird party.
Any fees, charges, etc., payable to LSPs in credit intermediation process shall be paid directly by RE and not by borrower.
Data collected by Digital lending apps should be need based.

A new Curtin University study has found the most robust evidence yet showing that Earth’s continents were formed by giant meteorite impacts.

About:

The paper, ‘Giant impacts and the origin and evolution of continents’, was published in Nature on August 10.
By examining tiny crystals of the mineral zircon in rocks from the Pilbara Craton in Western Australia, which represents Earth’s best-preserved remnant of ancient crust, experts found evidence of these giant meteorite impacts.