(FREE) UPSC Current Affairs 2024 PDF

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 18 August 2021

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Green Deposits are the term deposits which are used to invest in environmentally beneficial projects and initiatives, promoting the transition to a low-carbon, climate resilient and sustainable economy.
This includes Renewable Energy, energy efficiency, sustainable water management, clean transportation, green buildings etc.
It helps banks in Net Zero Strategy while providing funds to organisations in rebuilding or transition of business towards sustainability; helping to meet the Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives.

In 2020-21, over 58,000 children were rescued across India, rehabilitated and mainstreamed under the National Child Labour Project (NCLP).

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NCLP is a Central Sector Scheme for mainstreaming rescued children into formal education.
Children in age group of 9-14 years are withdrawn from work and put into NCLP Special Training Centres, where they are provided with bridge education, vocational training, etc.
District Project Societies (DPS) are set up at district level under Collector/District Magistrate for overseeing implementation.

After ten years of democracy and multiple leaders struggling to keep up with it, Tunisia faces its biggest turmoil as President Kais Saied suspended Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and Parliament over a week ago.
The President stated that the move was taken amidst the economic trouble the country has been facing for years and the government’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Tunisia, which was supposed to be a hope of democracy in the Arab world, has seen leader after leader come with little to no relief to the citizens of the country.

Tunisia:

Tunisia is the northernmost country in Africa.
It is a part of the Maghreb region of North Africa, and is bordered by Algeria, Libya and the Mediterranean Sea.
It contains the eastern end of the Atlas Mountains and the northern reaches of the Sahara desert.
Tunisia is home to Africa’s northernmost point, Cape Angela.
Its capital and largest city is Tunis.

Germany becomes 5th country to sign International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement.

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The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is a treaty based inter-governmental organization working to create a global market system to tap the benefits of solar power and promote clean energy applications.
With 75 signatory countries in this global collective, the ISA creates a multi-stakeholder ecosystem where sovereign nations, multilateral organizations, industry, policymakers and innovators work in together to promote the common and shared goal of meeting energy demands of a secure & sustainable world.
The Paris Declaration that established the ISA states that the countries share the collective ambition to undertake innovative and concerted efforts to reduce the cost of finance and technology for deployment of solar generation assets.
The ISA aims to pave the way for future solar generation, storage and technologies for Member countries’ needs by mobilising over USD 1000 billion by 2030.
Achievement of ISA’s objectives will also strengthen the climate action in member countries, helping them fulfil the commitments expressed in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Framework, issued under provisions of Payment and Settlement Systems Act 2007, is for payment and settlement related activities by Payment Service Operators (PSO).

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A PSO means a person who operates an authorised payment system.
Clearing Corporation of India Ltd., National Payments Corporation of India, VISA etc are some of the authorized PSOs in India.
Framework places minimum standards to manage risks in outsourcing of payment and/or settlement-related activities.
Earlier, RBI also allowed PSOs to take direct membership of Centralised Payment Systems, such as RTGS and NEFT.

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare is funding various projects for Crop Production Forecasting, which includes

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FASAL Scheme (Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land based observations) for following 9 crops: Rice, Wheat,Tur, Rabi Pulses, Rapeseed & Mustard, Rabi Jowar, Cotton, Jute and Sugarcane.
CHAMAN (Coordinated Horticulture Assessment and Management using geo-iNformatics) for Potato, Onion, Tomato, Chilli, Mango, Banana and Citrus.
The KISAN project launched by Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare carried out various pilot studies for evaluating the role of satellite technology in crop yield estimation.
In addition to this satellite based indices are used for drought assessment.