Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 30 December 2022

::NATIONAL::

Road accidents in India- 2021 report

• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has released a report revealing the number of road accidents that occurred in 2021 in India. 
• The report released is titled “Road accidents in India- 2021”.

Key highlights:

• As per the 2021 data, a total of 19,748 road accidents were reported due to loss of control by the vehicle driver across the country. 
• The main reasons for the mishap included high speed and distraction or misjudgement of a turn by the driver. The accidents killed 9,150 and injured 19,077 people.
• Road accidents decreased by 8.1 % and injuries decreased by 14.8 % in 2021 compared to 2019.
• Fatalities, however, on accounts of road accidents increased by 1.9 percent in 2021 corresponding to the same period in 2019.
• In 2020, there is an unprecedented decrease in accidents, fatalities, and injuries due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Uttar Pradesh accounted for the largest share of fatalities at 13.8% followed by Tamil Nadu (10%).

Measures can be taken:

• The Road Safety Programme - funded by the World Bank for capacity building of states.
• Integrated Road Accident Database (iRAD) system for analysis of road accidents data to enhance road safety.
• National Road Safety Board under Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019.

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IAF successfully test fires extended range version of Brahmos missile

• The Indian Air Force (IAF) Thursday successfully test fired the Extended Range Version of Brahmos Air Launched missile against a ship target from a frontline SU-30MKI aircraft. 

Key highlights:

• The missile achieved the desired mission objectives in the Bay of Bengal region. With this, IAF has achieved a significant capability boost to carry out precision strikes from SU-30MKI aircraft against land or sea targets over very long ranges.
• The capability of striking the targets located at around 350 kilometres compared to around 290 kilometres for the initial version.
• The first test of the initial version of the Brahmos Air Launched Cruise Missile was conducted in 2017.

What are Brahmos missiles?

• Brahmos is a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organisation of India and NPOM of Russia. It is named after the rivers Brahmaputra and Moskva.
• It is a two-stage, solid propellant engine in the first stage and a liquid ramjet in the second.
• It can be launched from land, air, and sea and multi a capability missile with pinpoint accuracy that works both day and night irrespective of the weather conditions.
• It operates on the "Fire and Forgets" principlee it does not require further guidance after launch.
• These are called “standoff range weapons”,e fired from a range far enough to allow the attacker to evade defensive counter-fire.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Ethylene glycol

• At least 18 children died in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand allegedly after consuming
• India-manufactured syrup due to ethylene glycol.

About ethylene glycol:

• Ethylene glycol is a colourless and odourless alcoholic compound that can be fatal if consumed.
• The sweet-tasting ethylene glycol is a syrupy or viscous liquid at room temperature.
• It is mostly used as an automotive antifreeze and as a raw material for manufacturing polyester fibres.
• It is also found in several products such as hydraulic brake fluids, stamp pad inks, ballpoint pens, solvents, paints, cosmetics and plastics.
• Diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol are adulterants that are sometimes illegally used as solvents in liquid drugs.
• Diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol may be used by pharma companies as an alternative to non-toxic solvents such as glycerine or propylene glycol to cut costs.

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Israel’s controversial law

• Israel’s parliament approved divisive legislation, paving the way for the return of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister.

About:

• Israeli lawmakers also passed legislation that allows anyone convicted of offenses but not given a custodial sentence to serve as a minister. 
• It clears the way for Aryeh Deri, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, to serve as a minister despite a conviction for tax fraud. 
• After hours of debate, 63 of the 120 parliamentarians voted in favor and 55 against the amendments.

Why are the amendments so contentious?

• Smotrich is an ardent supporter of settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank. He would also get power over the West Bank administration and with it, the lives of many Palestinians.
• Deri was expected to serve as finance minister in two years, in a rotation with Smotrich.
• Israel’s Supreme Court said it would hear an appeal against Deri’s appointment by a group of scientists, academics and former diplomats called “Democracy’s Bastion.”
• The Knesset also voted to expand the powers of the national security minister over the police, a portfolio set to be handed to Itamar Ben Gvir, another far-right figure. He has a long history of incendiary rhetoric against Arabs.
• Netanyahu agreed with his far-right coalition partners to make the changes to secure their backing for his new government.

::Economy::

Spectrum Requirements of National Capital Region Transport Corporation

• The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has today released recommendations on ’Spectrum Requirements of National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) for Train Control System for RRTS Corridors’.

NCRTC requires spectrum in four areas, i.e.

• Train radio: Communication between trains and tracks for signalling and traffic management.
• Train positioning: High-precision information on train position, motion parameters (e.g.speed) etc.
• Train remote control: Data communication between a locomotive and a ground-based system.
• Train surveillance: Capture and transmit videos of public and trackside areas, driver cabs etc.

Recommendations from TRAI:

• Spectrum Allocation: Assign 5 MHz (paired) spectrum in 700 MHz band to NCRTC for use in RRTS corridors and to other RRTS/Metro which are geographically separated with no likely interference.
• Licence Requirement: Separate category of Permission/ License for Captive Non-Public Network for Railway Networks (CNPN-R) may be created with a simple and light touch.

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::SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY::

Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope 

• Astronomers and scientists at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), along with their international collaborators, while studying the Omega Centauri, which is the most massive globular cluster system in our galaxy, have found that hot stars and white dwarfs emitted less ultraviolet radiation than expected.

About:

• The team detected strange hot stars in the cluster using the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) images on AstroSat (India’s first dedicated space observatory, which has been operating since 2015).
• The team found that these hot stars emitted much less ultraviolet radiation than expected from theoretical models and, in comparison with stars of another globular cluster, M13, having similar overall properties.
• The IIA team combined the data from UVIT with archival data from other telescopes like Hubble Space Telescope and Gaia and used diagnostic plots called colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) to separate stars in various evolutionary phases.
• The team investigated this anomaly further by simulating the distribution of the HB stars in the Far Ultraviolet(FUV) — optical CMD. 
• The cluster was found to consist of at least five populations of stars with varying ages and chemical compositions, including those formed with significantly high content of helium.

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