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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 18 January 2022

::NATIONAL::

Oxfam India’s‘Inequality Kills’ Report

The Oxfam report, “Inequality Kills’’, released ahead of the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda, also found that as Covid continued to ravage India, the country’s healthcare budget saw a 10% decline from RE (revised estimates) of 2020-21.

Key highlights of the report:

As per the report, the income of 84 per cent of households in the country declined in 2021, but at the same time the number of Indian billionaires grew from 102 to 142.
There was a 6% cut in allocation for education, the Oxfam report says, while the budgetary allocation for social security schemes declined from 1.5% of the total Union budget to 0.6%.
The India supplement of the global report also says that in 2021, the collective wealth of India’s 100 richest people hit a record high of Rs 57.3 lakh crore (USD 775 billion).
In the same year, the share of the bottom 50 per cent of the population in national wealth was a mere 6 per cent.
More than 4.6 crore Indians, meanwhile, are estimated to have fallen into extreme poverty in 2020, nearly half of the global new poor according to the United Nations.
India has the third highest number of billionaires in the world, just behind China and the United States, says the report, with more billionaires than France, Sweden and Switzerland combined — a 39 per cent increase in the number of billionaires in India in 2021.
The report says, “this surge comes at a time when India’s unemployment rate was as high as 15 per cent in urban areas and the healthcare system was on the brink of collapse.’’

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Composite Regional Centre for Skill Development, Rehabilitation & Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities

Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) (DEPwD) is going to launch its first bi-monthly E-Newsletter during the inauguration of main building of Composite Regional Centre for Skill Development, Rehabilitation & Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (CRC).

About:

The function is being organized at CRC Campus at Chevayur, Kozhikode, Kerala.
CRC in Kozhikode was established in 2012 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India under the administrative control of National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPMD), Chennai (an autonomous Institute under the administrative control of DEPwD) as its outreach/ extension centre.
At present, the services of the Centre are being operated from rented building with a total area of 5000 sq ft of space with 12 rooms available for services.
Government of Kerala has allotted 3 acres of land at Chevayur, Kozhike in 2013 for establishment of CRC. This newly constructed building of CRC Kozhikode is a 48,000 sq. ft. structure, built at a cost of around 20 crores.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

In first BrahMos missile export order, Philippines approves $374-million contract

In the first export order for the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile system, Philippines has approved a $374.96 million contract for the purchase of shore based anti-ship variant of the missile from India.

About:

The BrahMos is a short-range, ramjet-powered, single warhead, supersonic anti-ship/land-attack cruise missile developed and manufactured by India and Russia.
The ability of the system to be integrated with land, air, and sea platforms gives the system the much-needed versatility in modern-day warfare.
BrahMosis a joint collaboration between India (DRDO) and Russia (NPOM) and can be launched from land, sea and air against surface and sea-based targets.
Its range is being extended from the original 290-km to 350-400-km now.
BrahMos missile flies at a speed of 2.8 Mach or almost three times the speed of sound.
Name represents Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers.

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Volcanic eruption inTonga

A violent eruption in Hunga Tonga HungaHa’apai volcano (an underwater volcano) triggered tsunami waves around the Pacific.
There are an estimated one million underseavolcanoes, and most of them are located nearthe tectonic plates.

About:

Tongais a group of islands in the South PacificOcean, located near Fiji and Samoa.
It is divided into four main groups –Tongatapu, Ha’apai and Vava’u and Niuas.
It lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of dynamic geological activity.
Tonga is the only Pacific country with a constitutional monarchy.
It is ranked the second most vulnerable country to natural hazards

::ECONOMY::

Chips to Startup Programme

A Cabinet committee chaired by Prime Minister had initiated this program to usher in a new era in electronics manufacturing by providing a globally competitive incentive package to companies in semiconductors and display manufacturing as well as design.

About:

The programme aims to train 85,000 high-quality and qualified engineers in the area of very-large-scale integration (VLSI) and Embedded System Design.
With the help of this training, the government intends to usher the development of 175 ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits), Working Prototypes of 20 System on Chips (SoC) and IP Core repository over a period of 5 years.

The scope of the C2S Programme:

The C2S programme will be executed at about 100 academic institutions/R&D organisations across India (including IITs, NITs, IIITs, Government/Private Colleges and R&D Organisations).
The programme is also open for Startups and MSMEs, they can participate by submitting their proposals under Academia-Industry Collaborative Project, Grand Challenge/ /Hackathons/RFP for development of System/SoC/IP Core(s).
The government has high hopes from C2S programme since its implementation will touch upon each entity of the value chain in electronics, namely, quality manpower training, research and development, hardware IPs design, System design, application-oriented R&D, Prototype design that will be deployed with the help of academia, industry, start-ups and R&D establishments – combined.
The Implementation and Proposal:
Under the present C2C programme, the MeitY has invited proposals based on the Institutions’ expertise, acquired during earlier SMDP Programmes in terms of Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and design experience.The proposals have been invited in three different categories;

1.   Design and Development of Systems/SoCs/ASICs/Reusable IP Core(s)
2.   Development of Application Oriented Working Prototype of IPs/ASICs/SoCs
3.   Proof of Concept oriented Research and Development of ASICs/FPGAs

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::SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY::

Virgin Orbit launches 7 satellites into orbit

A Virgin Orbit rocket released from a jet flying off the California coast carried seven small satellites into space as the company kicked off a year in which it plans to ramp up the pace of launches, including two originating from Britain.

About:

Virgin Orbit’s modified Boeing 747 took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in the Southern California desert, flew out over the Pacific Ocean and dropped the LauncherOne rocket from its left wing.
The 70-foot-long (21.3-metre) booster ignited at an altitude of about 35,000 feet (10,668 metres) and hurtled skyward.
Virgin Orbit, founded in 2017 by British billionaire Richard Branson, went public last month.

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