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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 13 November 2021

::NATIONAL::

A CAG report on preparedness and response to floods in Kerala’ has said the state is yet to enact flood plain zoning legislation, 45 years after the Union Government circulated to all states a model draft bill for flood plain zoning legislation.

Key highlights of the report:

The report said flood plain zoning is aimed at demarcating zones or areas likely to be affected by floods of different magnitudes or frequencies, and specify the types of permissible developments in these zones, so that whenever floods actually occur, the damage can be minimized, if not avoided.
Kerala has not enacted flood plain zoning legislation, even though a model draft bill for flood plain zoning legislation was circulated by the Union Government in 1975 to all the States.
The flood plains of the State have not been identified and demarcated, Legislation to identify and demarcate flood plain zones of the State would have enabled the Government to take proactive measures in controlling potential encroachment activities in the flood plains.
It said out of the total area of the State, 14.52 per cent is estimated to be prone to floods.
However, no large-scale flood hazard map is available in the State; State’s Disaster Management Plan includes flood susceptibility map not conforming to Central Water Commission (CWC) criteria for flood prone area.

The Election Commission plans to start mapping the population of migrant workers across the country to prepare a roadmap for the introduction of remote voting.

About:

The poll panel will conduct the exercise to assess the deployment of remote voting machines in the future based on available data on the migrant population.
It is part of EC’s reform proposals submitted to the Union Law Ministry.
Remote voting allows electors to vote from locations other than polling stations assigned to their registered constituencies.
With lakhs of voters unable to exercise their franchise on account of geographical barrier due to different reasons, remote voting aims to bridge that gap.

India and France carry out three biennial training exercises namely, Exercise GARUDA with Indian Airforce, Exercise VARUNA with Indian Navy and Exercise SHAKTI with Indian Army.

About:

The 6th Edition of the biennial training exercise “EX SHAKTI 2021” is being conducted from 15 to 26 November 2021 in Frejus, France.
A platoon strength of a Gorkha Rifles Infantry Battalion is representing the Indian Army in this bilateral exercise and the French side is being represented by troops of 21st Marine Infantry Regiment of 6th Light Armoured Brigade.
Exercise SHAKTI will focus on Counter Terrorism operations in backdrop of semi-urban terrain under United Nations Mandate with an aim to enhance military cooperation and inter-operability between the two Armies.
The last edition of Exercise SHAKTI was conducted at Foreign Training Node in Mahajan Field Firing Ranges, Rajasthan from 31 Oct to 13 Nov 2019 in which Counter Terrorism operations in semi-desert terrain were practiced and validated.

Professor Bimal Patel, Vice-Chancellor, Rashtriya Raksha University and Member of National Security Advisory Board of India, has been elected to the International Law Commission for a five-year term starting January 1, 2023 in a hard-fought election at the United Nations.
Patel garnered 163 votes in the UN General Assembly out of 192 members present and voting, topping the Asia-Pacific group that included candidates from China, South Korea and Japan.
In the Asia-Pacific group, there were 11 very strong candidates vying for 8 seats, making the election hotly-contested.

The license and spectrum have been granted to Vodafone Idea Limited and Reliance Jio Infocomm to test 5G applications.
5G (5th generation) is a next generation mobile network technology after 4G LTE networks.

Following four use cases were also tested by the Gujarat LSA, DoT team on site:

360 degrees virtual reality content playback – user connects on 5G to the content providing server and experiences the location in virtual reality, as if he/she is physically there.
Virtual reality connected classroom - Facilitates a teacher to reach students remotely through 360° live streaming via 5G network. Student gets a feeling of private lesson, where he/she can interact with the teacher via voice chat or exercises.
5G immersive gaming - Gamers movements are captured online and sent to gaming platform via 5G network wherein it is merged to a pre-recorded gaming video.
Artificial intelligence assisted 360 degrees camera - Real time video stream from 360-degree cameras is uploaded via 5G network; the end users get real 360 experience and with added artificial intelligence, he/ she can also detect the things like people, bags, bottles, laptop etc.

It is NASA’s first planetary defence test mission that will be launched later this month.

Key highlights:

The aim of the mission is to test the newly developed technology that would allow a spacecraft to crash into an asteroid and change its course.
The spacecraft will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The mission will test the new technology to beprepared in case an asteroid heads towards Earth in the future.
The target of the spacecraft is a small moonlighted Dimorphos(that orbits a larger asteroid named Didymos).
Moonlet is a small natural or artificial satellite.