Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 28 March 2022

::NATIONAL::

Gujarat has retained the top position at the NITI Aayog’s second edition of the Export Preparedness Index 2021.Among union territories, Delhi has topped the index.

About:

The index, prepared by NITI Aayog in partnership with the Institute of Competitiveness, is a comprehensive analysis of India’s export achievements.
The index is used to benchmark the performance of states and UTs against their peers and analyse potential challenges to develop better policy mechanisms to foster export-led growth at the subnational level.
The EPI ranks states and UTs on four main pillars,

1.   policy;
2.   business ecosystem;
3.   export ecosystem and
4.   export performance.

Along with and 11 sub-pillars that includes export promotion policy; institutional framework; business environment; infrastructure; transport connectivity; access to finance; export infrastructure; trade support; R&D infrastructure; export diversification and growth orientation.
As per the 2021 Index, the three major challenges to India’s export promotion include intra- and inter-regional differences in export infrastructure; weak trade support and growth orientation across states; and lack of R&D infrastructure to promote complex and unique exports.
The EPI 2021 will help the states and UTs in a long way to plan and execute sound export-oriented policies for ensuring a conducive export ecosystem, to make maximum utilization of their export potential.

About:

It is the world's largest grassroots movement for the environment where people around the globe unite to take a stand against climate change by turning off non-essential lights for one hour.
Starting out as a symbolic lights-out event in Sydney in 2007, it has come to be observed every year on the last Saturday of March in more than 180 countries uniting millions of people in the effort to decarbonise the planet both collectively and individually.

India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar is on a two-day official visit to the Maldives till March 27, where he will be engaged in the review of the progress of various areas of bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

About:

During the visit, During the visit, the National College of Policing and Law Enforcement (NCPLE) in Addu City was inaugurated, in the southernmost atoll of the Indian Ocean archipelago, that was established under Indian grant assistance.
The establishment of the police academy had, till recently, been India’s largest grant-funded project prior to the Greater Male Connectivity Project for which India extended a $400 million line of credit in 2020.
In addition to the inauguration of this academy, an MoU was signed between the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA), the prestigious training institute in Hyderabad, and the Maldives Police Service.
On the domestic level in the Maldives, the training academy would help strengthen law enforcement abilities and counter drug trafficking, a major concern in the country.
Defence security cooperation between India and the Maldives has been happening for some time now and a large number of their personnel travel overseas for training, including to India.
The Colombo Security Conclave, a trilateral maritime security grouping of India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, where intelligence sharing is also a part of this trilateral security cooperation

As per information released by government in Parliament, the tropical Indian Ocean has experienced a rapid increase in oceanwarming with an average rise in sea surface temperature (SST) of about 1°Cover the period of 1951-2015, 0.15°C per decade.

About:

Western Indian Ocean region experienced a four-fold rise inmarine heatwaves events (increasing at rate of 1.5 events perdecade) while north Bay of Bengal experienced a two-to-three-fold rise (0.5 events per decade).
A marine heatwave (MHW) is defined when seawatertemperatures exceed a seasonally-varying threshold (usuallythe 90th percentile) for at least 5 consecutive days.

Causes of MHW over Indian Ocean:

Background ocean warming in the Indian Ocean and also inresponse to El Nino events in the Pacific Ocean.
Locally, a peak in solar radiation and a dip in evaporativecooling due to weak winds.
In the western Indian Ocean, the weak winds also reduce theheat transported by ocean currents from the near equatorial region towards the north, intensifying the MHW.

Impacts:

The pure time-preference theory of interest is an economic theory that seeks to explain the phenomenon of interest.
American economist Frank Fetter was the best-known proponent of the pure time-preference theory in the 20th century through his 1904 book The Principles of Economics.

About:

The pure time-preference theory states that interest arises when present goods are exchanged for future goods because people, considering all other things being equal, prefer present goods over future goods.
So, for example, an individual may prefer to have ₹100 in the present moment over the same ₹100 at some time in the future, ceteris paribus. So, unless an individual expects to receive an amount that is more than ₹100 rupees in the future, he would be reluctant to part with the ₹100 that is in his possession at the moment.
Time preference refers to the relative importance that an individual places on the present versus the future.
If an individual prefers immediate consumption over future consumption, he is said to possess high time-preference. On the other hand, if an individual prefers future consumption over immediate consumption, then he is said to possess low time-preference.

The GSLV-F10/EOS-03 mission, which lifted off from Sriharikota on August 12 last year failed due to ‘deviation in the performance’ of the cryogenic upper stage (CUS) of the launch vehicle, a national-level Failure Analysis Committee (FAC) has found.

About:

Although the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) had a normal lift-off after a 26-hour countdown, the mission had to be aborted much to the dismay of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The FAC, which consisted of experts from the space agency and the academia, submitted its findings.
The FAC has concluded that a leak in a Vent and Relief Valve (VRV), probably triggered by damage in the soft seal, resulted in lower pressure in the LH2 (Liquid Hydrogen, the propellant) tank when the CUS engine ignited.
This caused the Fuel Booster Turbo Pump (FBTP) to malfunction, ultimately leading to the failure of the mission.