Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 23 March 2021

::NATIONAL::

Supreme court has raised concerns over failure to furnish information on rule curve for the dam.
This rule decides the fluctuating storage levels in a reservoir and it is part of the“core safety” mechanism in a dam.
Mullaperiyar dam built in 1895 is located after the confluence of the Mullayar and Periyar rivers.
Though the dam is situated in Kerala, it is operated by Tamil Nadu Government.
Dam’s purpose was to divert the waters of the west-flowing River Periyar eastward to the arid rain shadow regions ofTamil Nadu.

It aims at attracting international students to pursue higher studies in the country.
The programme was launched in 2018 and is currently partnered with 117 institutes across India.
As part of the programme, around 7500 international students from over 50 countries have come to Indiato pursue their higher education.
Admissions to these institutions are merit-based and done through a common portal.
Budget 2020 proposed to start an Indo-SAT exam under a ‘Study in India’ scheme, to enable evaluation and study of students from Asia and Africa who seek admission here.

US President Joe Biden has nominated former Senator Bill Nelson to serve as the 14th NASA Administrator.
Nelson will serve as NASA’s chief executive officer and will be directly accountable to President Biden.
In this role, he will articulate the space agency’s vision, will set its programmatic and budget priorities, internal policies and assess the agency’s performance.

Who is Bill Nelson?

He was a graduate of Yale and the University of Virginia, represented the state of Florida from 2001-2019 where he served as a ranking member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
He has experience serving in public office for over four decades, in the state legislature, in the US Congress and then as the State Treasurer.
He also served in the US Army Reserve from 1965-1971 and was on active duty for over two years between 1968-1970.

The Jal Shakti Ministry entered a partnership with the United Nations Office for Project Services and the government of Denmark to help bring tap water connections to 11 water-scarce districts in Uttar Pradesh’s water-starved Bundelkhand and Vindhya regions under the Jal Jeevan mission.
The project will include capacity building support, with the creation of village action plans, community mobilisation and grassroot water quality monitoring methods being facilitated by UNOPS.
The project has a million dollar budget for 2021, but is likely to be scaled up in the following years, according to UNOPS.

About:

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is an operational arm of the United Nations, dedicated to implementing projects for the United Nations System, international financial institutions, governments and other partners around the world.
The organization’s global headquarters is located on the UN City campus in Copenhagen, Denmark.
UNOPS was established in 1973 as part of the UNDP. It became an independent, self-financing organization in 1995.

The government has readied a draft district-wise export promotion plan for 451 districts in the country after identifying products and services with export potential in 725 districts.
The district-specific approach that perforce involves the States in identifying potential export sectors and the logistics bottlenecks to be fixed.

Key highlights:

In the initial phase, products and services with export potential in each district have been identified and an institutional mechanism of State and District Export Promotion Committees (SEPC) are being created, with an action plan to grow exports from each district.
Draft District Export Action Plans have been prepared by regional DGFT authorities in 451 districts.
Products/services with export potential have been identified in 725 districts across the country (including Agricultural & Toy clusters and GI products in these Districts).
District Export Promotion Committees have been notified in the districts of all the States except West Bengal.

Minister of State Telecom Shri Sanjay Dhotre represents India at the World Summit on Information Society Forum 2021.
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum 2021 represents one of the world’s largest annual gathering of the ‘ICT for development’ community.
It is co-organized by International Telecommunications Union (ITU), UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD.

Key highlights:

Minister of State Telecom mentioned that under the flagship program BharatNet, nearly 6,00,000 villages are being connected through laying of more than 4,00,000 Km length of optical fiber cable and use of satellite communication services.
He further added that through submarine cable networks small and remote islands of Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep and other inaccessible areas are being connected with funding from Government.
The establishment of ITU Area office and Innovation Centre in India with involvement of SMEs, Academia and Startups in the region will go a long way in development of technologies, standards and solutions best suited for rural and remote areas of developing nations.
This will bolster efforts towards bridging the digital divides in many developing regions of the world and meeting SDGs.

Japan’s top telecommunications company is getting 7.3 billion yen about $67 million in taxpayer money to design mobile tracking software to curb the spread of coronavirus infections during the Tokyo Olympics.
Few Olympic fans from abroad will be around to use it.
Tokyo Olympic organizers and the IOC on Saturday announced a ban on fans from abroad attending the the games, which open on July 23.
NTT Communications Corp., a group company of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. and a domestic sponsor of the Tokyo Games, heads the consortium developing the app in multiple languages that is set for release in June.