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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 22 November 2020

::NATIONAL::

PM Modi, Bhutan PM jointly launch RuPay card Phase-II

Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with his Bhutanese counterpart Lotay Tshering launched RuPay card Phase-II that will allow Bhutanese card holders to access the RuPay network in India.
The prime ministers of the two countries had jointly launched Phase-I of the project during Mr. Modi’s state visit to Bhutan in August last year.
The implementation of Phase-I of RuPay cards in Bhutan has enabled visitors from India to access ATMs and Point of Sale (PoS) terminals across Bhutan.
Phase-II will now allow Bhutanese card holders to access RuPay network in India.
The RuPay card is an Indian debit and credit card payment network, with acceptance at ATMs, POS devices and e-commerce websites.

Unnat Bharat Abhiyan

Recently, Ministry of Education reviewed the progress of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan.
UBA connects higher education institutions with villages for the economic and social betterment of ruralcommunities.
It aims to create a virtuous cycle between society and an inclusive academic system by providing knowledgeand practices for emerging professions.
NT Delhi is the National Coordinating Institute for the UBA.

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::ECONOMY::

Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation

Petronet LNG signed a pact with Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) for setting up compressed biogas (CBG) plants under SATAT initiative.
This will give a big fillip to the clean energy initiative in India.

About:

SATAT was launched by MoPNG in 2018.
It is an initiative aimed at setting up of CBG production plants and make it available in the market for usein automotive fuels by inviting Expression of Interest from potential entrepreneurs.
It envisages setting up of 5000 CBG plants by FY 2023-24.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

15th G20 Summit

Indian Prime Minister virtually attended the 15th G20 Summit chaired by Saudi Arabia.
The theme of this Summit is “Realising the opportunities of 21st Century for all”.

The Prime Minister congratulated the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its leadership for its successful Presidency of the G20 this year and for organising the second G20 Summit in 2020 through a virtual format despite the challenges and obstacles posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Indian Prime Minister urged the leaders to take decisive action, not limited to economic recovery, jobs and trade, but to focus on preserving planet.
The Prime Minister also called for a new Global Index for the post-Covid World that comprises four key elements:

1.   Creation of a vast talent pool;
2.   Ensuring that technology reaches all segments of the society;
3.   Transparency in systems of governance; and
4.   Dealing with the planet with a spirit of trusteeship.

The agenda of the Summit is spread out over two days with two sessions focused on overcoming the pandemic, economic recovery and restoring jobs, and building an inclusive, sustainable and resilient future.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Sentinel-6 satellite

The Copernicus Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite, designed to monitor oceans, was launched from the Vandenberg Air Force base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on November 21.
This is a part of the next mission dedicated to measuring changes in the global sea level. Other satellites that have been launched since 1992 to track changes in the oceans on a global scale include the TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1 and OSTN/Jason-2, among others.
The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite has been named after Dr. Michael Freilich, who was the Director of NASA’s Earth Science Division from 2006-2019 and passed away in August this year.

About the mission:

The mission, called the Jason Continuity of Service (Jason-CS) mission, is designed to measure the height of the ocean, which is a key component in understanding how the Earth’s climate is changing. The spacecraft consists of two satellites, one of them launched on Saturday, and the other, called Sentinel-6B, to be launched in 2025.
It has been developed jointly by the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat), the USA’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the EU, with contributions from France’s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES).

Key functions:

According to NASA, the satellite will ensure the continuity of sea-level observations into the fourth decade and will provide measurements of global sea-level rise.
It essentially, the satellite will send pulses to the Earth’s surface and measure how long they take to return to it, which will help scientists measure the sea surface height. It will also measure water vapour along this path and find its position using GPS and ground-based lasers.
Data from satellites such as Sentinel-6 help scientists foresee the effects of the changing oceans on the climate.

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Sports

Tamil Nadu banned online games

Tamil Nadu Governor promulgated an ordinance that banned online gaming in the state, with a fine up to Rs 5,000 and imprisonment of up to six months.

Why has Tamil Nadu banned online games?

In the ordinance banning the game, the Governor said that due to online gaming, innocent people, mainly youngsters, are being cheated, and some people have committed suicide. The state has thus decided to ban online gaming to “avoid such incidents of suicide and protect the innocent people from the evils of online gaming”.
Any form of wagering or betting in cyberspace by using computers or any other communication device, common gaming houses, and any electronic transfer of funds to distribute winnings or prize money has also been banned.
This effectively means that players in the state will not be able to purchase any add-on for the games they play, go to gaming arcades or participate in online gaming tournaments. Some multiplayer games such as Counter-Strike host weekly tournaments with a buy-in of up to Rs 10,000.
While there has been some debate on whether online games are a matter of pure luck or skill, the arrival of money has further complicated matters. Most adversaries of online games and gambling have said that since there are no regulations, most players end up spending a lot of money for buy-in in these games.
Critics have also said that since these games are also played by kids of all ages, the lack of money to buy these add-on puts different kinds of peer pressure leading to unpleasant circumstances.