Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 21 August 2021

::NATIONAL::

The Union government has removed 4% job reservation for the differently-abled in all posts of IPS, Railway Protection Force, the police force for Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman, Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and all combatant posts of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) including BSF, CRPF, CISF, ITBP, SSB and Assam Rifles.

About:

In exercise of the powers conferred by the second proviso to sub-section (1) of section 34 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (49 of 2016), the Central Government, in consultation with the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities.
Section 34 of the Act pertains to reservation. It says, “every appropriate government shall appoint in every government establishment, not less than 4%, of the total number of vacancies in the cadre strength in each group of posts.”

Union Health Minister inaugurated Arogya Dhara 2.0 to increase the reach of Ayushman Bharat - Jan Arogya Yojana and create more awareness about the scheme.
Event was conducted by National Health Authority (NHA) to mark the milestone of 2 crore hospital treatments under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).

About:

The objective is to increase the reach and create more awareness about AB PM-JAY.
The minister launched three initiatives — Adhikar Patra, Abhinandan Patra, and Ayushman Mitra.
Ayushman Mitra: To encourage citizens to participate in motivating eligible beneficiaries to get verified under the scheme and to help them get Ayushman Cards issued.
Adhikaar Patra: A welcome note containing information about the rights of AB PM-JAY beneficiaries.
Abhinandan Patra: A thank you note to the beneficiary.

On Saturday last week, for the first time on record, the summit of Greenland received rain and not snow, just as temperatures at the spot went above freezing for the third time in less than ten years.
As per the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, this was the heaviest rainfall that the ice sheet received since record keeping began in 1950.

About:

Greenland, which is the world’s largest island located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, has three-quarters of its surface covered with a permanent ice sheet, which is increasingly coming under threat because of climate change.
Greenland is already witnessed one of its most severe melting events of the past decade last month, when it lost 8.5 billion tons of surface mass in one day– the third such extreme event in the past decade.
The UN’s “code red” climate report released last week concluded that the burning of fossil fuels led to Greenland melting in the last 20 years.

More than 4 million people in Lebanon could face a critical shortage of water or be cut off completely in the coming days due to a severe fuel crisis, UNICEF warned.

About:

Lebanon (Capital is Beirut) , with a population of 6 million, is at a low point in a two-year financial meltdown, with a lack of fuel oil and gasoline meaning extensive blackouts and long lines at the few gas stations still operating.
Vital facilities such as hospitals and health centres have been without access to safe water due to electricity shortages, putting lives at risk.

The Ministry of Road transport and Highways (MoRTH) has notified 'Electronic Monitoring and Enforcement of Road Safety.

About:

It will enable authorities to monitor traffic movements and also challan online to defaulters who do not follow the rules.
The rules specify the detailed provisions for placement of electronic enforcement devices such as speed camera, closed-circuit television camera, speed gun, body wearable camera, dashboard camera, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), weigh in machine (WIM) and any such technology.
State governments shall ensure that EED are placed at High-risk and high-density corridors on National Highways and State Highways.
Critical junctions at least in major cities with more than one-million population and also including the 132 cities as specified in the rules.

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed an advanced chaff technology to safeguard fighter aircraft from enemy radar threats.

About Chaff Technology:

A chaff is primarily an electronic counter-measure technology used to protect high-value targets such as fighter jets or naval ships from radars and radio frequency (RF) guiding mechanisms of the enemy missiles.
The chaff deployed in the air reflect as multiple targets for the missile guidance systems, thus misleading the enemy radars or deflecting adversary missiles.