Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 22 February 2022

::NATIONAL::

With Covid-19 cases witnessing decline across the country, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday decided to restore the number of star campaigners a party can field for campaigning amid the ongoing polls in five states.

About:

According to the revised limit that will come into effect immediately, recognised national and state parties have been permitted to field as many as 40 star campaigners, while other parties which are registered but not recognised can now have 20 star campaigners.
Star campaigners are nominated by political parties to campaign in a given set of constituencies for a specified duration.
List of star campaigners must be communicated to Chief Electoral Officer and ECI within a week from the election notificationdate under section 77(1) of Representation of People Act (RPA), 1951.
There is no law that defines who can be a star campaigner.
The expenditure of star campaigners is borne by the party and not the candidate or candidates for which they campaigns.

Ministry of Culture organized a two-day event on the occasion of International Mother Language(IML) Day as a part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

About:

The theme for 2022 is, using technology for multilingual learning challenges and opportunities.
Every year a unique theme is chosen by UNESCO.
It promotes awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism.
It focuses on potential role of technology to advance multilingual education and support thedevelopment of quality teaching and learning for all.

US authorities have warned Russia not to invade Ukraine and urged both countries to return to a set of agreements designed to end a separatist war by Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine.

MINSK I:

Ukraine and the Russian-backed separatists agreed a 12-point ceasefire deal in the Belarusian capital in September 2014.
Its provisions included prisoner exchanges, deliveries of humanitarian aid and the withdrawal of heavy weapons, five months into a conflict that had by then killed more than 2,600 people – a toll that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says has since risen to around 15,000.
The agreement quickly broke down, with violations by both sides.

MINSK II:

Representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the leaders of two pro-Russian separatist regions signed a 13-point agreement in February 2015.
The leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine, gathered in Minsk at the same time, issued a declaration of support for the deal.

Two Benin bronzes were returned to Nigeria, more than a century afterthey were pillaged by British troops.

About:

Benin Bronzes’ (made of brass and bronze) are a group of sculptures whichinclude elaborately decorated cast plaques, commemorative heads,animal and human figures, items of royal regalia, and personal ornaments.
They were created from at least the 16th century onwards in the WestAfrican Kingdom of Benin (now southwestern Nigeria).

Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Shri Giriraj Singh will launch Rural Connectivity GIS Data in Public Domain in India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

About:

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) was launched in the year 2000.
With an objective to provide all-weather road connectivity to eligible unconnected habitations throughout the nation.
Later on, upgradation and consolidation of through routes and major rural links was also included as its objective to give fillip to the rural economy. Since inception, 7.83 lakh Km roads have been sanctioned and 6.90 lakh Km have been constructed with an expenditure of Rs. 2.69 lakh crores.
As part of the implementation of PMGSY, GIS data for 800,000+ rural facilities as points, 1 Million + habitations and 25,00,000+ km of rural roads have been collected and digitised using GIS platform developed for the scheme. The collected rural connectivity GIS data will be available to the public.

Gati Shakti:

NRIDA, the nodal implementation agency of PMGSY scheme will be signing MoU with 3 renowned GIS Firms & collaborating with Gati Shakti for releasing the Rural Connectivity GIS Data in Public Domain.
Gati Shakti is a national master plan and digital platform to plan and execute infrastructure projects in India to reduce logistics costs and enhance infrastructure.
NRIDA is collaborating with Gati Shakti with an objective to exchange the data for the better planning and implementation of both the schemes.

Astronomers from the Pune-based National Centre of Radio Astrophysics (NCRA-TIFR) and the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) have used the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) to map the distribution of atomic hydrogen gas from the galaxy hosting a fast radio burst (FRB) for the first time.
FRBs are transient, bright pulses of emission from distant galaxies at radio wavelengths (seen mostly at wavelengths of tens of centimeters) whose bursts last at most for a few milliseconds.
Although FRBs were first detected 15 years ago, and more than 1,000 have been found so far, radio astronomers are still searching for clues as to what kind of astronomical objects can produce so much energy in so little time.

Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope:

GMRT is an instrument for studying astrophysical phenomena, ranging from nearby Solar system to the edge of observable Universe, at low radio frequencies (40 to 1450 MHz).
It is operated by NCRA, which is part of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.