Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 20 January 2022

::NATIONAL::

The FICCI Gaming Committee has urged the government to adopt an enabling gaming policy protecting players while ensuring a secure, and responsible gaming environment.

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The remarks came in response to a recent statement by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on bringing an end to online gaming in the state.
Considerably, the Madras high court struck down an amendment to the Tamil Nadu Gaming Act, 1930, banning online games last year.
Online gaming falls in a regulatory grey area and there is no comprehensive legislation with respect to its legality, or its boundaries with gambling and betting.
As betting and gambling is a state subject, different states have their own legislation.
Every state in India, except Goa, Sikkim, and Daman, explicitly prohibits any sort of gambling, betting or wagering on games of chance.
Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have placed restrictions on games of skill as well.

The government has released operational guidelines for PM Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM MITRA) parks scheme.
As per which the state government will transfer land to the Special Purpose Vehicle- a legal entity with 51% equity shareholding of the state and 49% of the centre.

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The sites for the parks will be selected basis five metrics- connectivity to site, existing ecosystem for textiles, availability of utilities services at site, state industrial /textile policy, and environmental and social impact.
The nearest highway from site, distance from air cargo, airport/railhead, distance from sea port/inland waterway/dedicated freight corridor and distance from multi modal logistic park /will have a weightage of 25%.
Similarly, the existing ecosystem for textiles like distance from existing textile cluster, availability of raw materials and skilled manpower suitable for textiles industry, availability of skill development institutes/research associations/institutes will also have a 25% weightage.
A 20% weightage will be given for assurance of availability of good quality power source at the site to support the development and operation of park, assurance for power distribution license for Master Developer for park area along with permission for open access sourcing of power.

Two Indians and a Pakistani were killed and six other people including two Indians were injured in an attack by suspected drones on three petroleum tankers at an oil facility in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

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The attack was claimed by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen.
Yemen is located at the junction of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, its coastline commanding the strategic strait of Bab al-Mandab.
The country has been wracked by civil war for more than seven years now, and the Houthis control the western part of the country, including the capital Sana’a.
The war involves several nations directly or indirectly, and the attack in Abu Dhabi spotlights the multiple conflicts that are playing out in Yemen and the wider region as a whole.

Who are the Houthis, and why is there a war in Yemen?

The Houthis are a large clan belonging to the Zaidi Shia sect, with roots in Yemen’s northwestern Saada province.Zaidis make up around 35 per cent of Yemen’s population.
The Zaidis ruled over Yemen for over a thousand years until 1962, when they were overthrown and a civil war followed, which lasted until 1970.
The Houthi clan began to revive the Zaidi tradition from the 1980s, resisting the increasing influence of the Salafists, who were funded by the state.

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Accelerating pace of digitalisation,fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, hasled to:
151% surge in Global ransomware attacks in 2021.
An average of 270 cyberattacks per organisation.
Cyber incidents are becoming costly and damaging, sometimes evenparalysing critical services and infrastructure.
Wide availability of sophisticated tools and methods of cyberattacks tothreat actors at relatively low or no cost.

Solution suggested by World Economic Forum:

India has signed a partnership agreement with International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)to scale-up renewable and clean energy technology.

Under the agreement

IRENA will facilitate knowledge sharing from India on scaling-up renewable energy and cleanenergy technologies.
IRENA will support India’s efforts to advance cost-effective decarbonisation through the development of domestic green hydrogen.
Green hydrogen is hydrogen produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable electricity.

The chief executives of major US passenger and cargo airlines have warned of a “catastrophic” aviation crisis this week as AT&T and Verizon deploy new 5G services.

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They said the new C band 5G service set to begin on Wednesday could render a significant number of aircraft unusable, causing chaos for US flights and potentially stranding tens of thousands of Americans overseas.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has warned that the new 5G technology could interfere with instruments such as altimeters, which measure how far above the ground an airplane is travelling.

Altimeters: