Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 31 December 2020


Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 31 December 2020

::NATIONAL::

PM Modi inaugurates New Bhaupur-New Khurja stretch of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 351-km ‘New Bhaupur- New Khurja section’ in Uttar Pradesh of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor(EDFC) via video conferencing. 
  • He also inaugurated the EDFC’s Operation Control Centre (OCC) at Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh.

About:

  • The plan to develop the dedicated freight corridors have been on paper since 2006 but the work started after 2014. 
  • The Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor is a 1875-km stretch that connects Punjab’s Ludhiana to Dankuni in West Bengal.
  • The project is aimed at decongesting the railway lines and to make the transportation of goods smoother without any delays. 
  • The project also claimed that the speed of freight trains will double from 25km/hour to 75 km/hour.

Prime Minister lay foundation stoneof Light House Projects 

  • Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of Light House Projects (LHPs) under Global Housing Technology Challenge-India (GHTC-India) at six sites across six States on 1st January 2021 at 11 AM via video conferencing. 
  • He will also announce winners under Affordable Sustainable Housing Accelerators - India (ASHA-India) and give out annual awards for excellence in implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U) Mission.

Light House Projects:

  • The Light House Projects (LHPs) showcase the best of new-age alternate global technologies, materials and processes in the construction sector for the first time in the country at such a large scale. 
  • They are being constructed under GHTC-India which envisages to provide an ecosystem for adoption of innovative technologies in the housing construction sector in a holistic manner. 
  • The LHPs are being constructed at Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Rajkot (Gujarat), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Agartala (Tripura) and Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh). They comprise about 1000 houses at each location along with allied infrastructure facilities. 
  • These projects will demonstrate and deliver ready to live houses at an expedited pace within twelve months, as compared to conventional brick and mortar construction, and will be more economical, sustainable, of high quality and durability.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Tibetan Policy andSupport Act 2020

  • United States passesthe Tibetan Policy andSupport Act (TPSA) 2020.
  • TPSA strengthens US policy on Tibet and reaffirms government's steadfast support for Dalai Lama and CentralTibetan Administration.
  • It reaffirms rights of Tibetan people to choose next incarnation of Dalai Lama without any interference ofChina.
  • TPSA empowers US to impose sanctions on Chinese Government officials in case of interference.
  • US has officially recognizedTibet as a part of China and India has mostly refrained from playing the Tibet cardagainst China, and has a one China policy regarding Tibet.

Japan to join ‘Five Eyes’ 

  • Japanese government to join the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence-sharing alliance, it provided key inputs to the US and the UK regarding Chinese clampdown on Uyghurs.

About:

  • Five Eyes is a network of five nations - Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the US who collaborated tobetter respond to increasing threats by North Korea and China.
  • Japan is on its way to become the 'sixth eye'.
  • Japan would provide key inputs on Chinese dampdown on Uyghurs.
  • Uyghurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims who live in China's autonomous Xinjiang region, in the country'snorth-west.
  • Many Uyghur communities also live-in countries neighbouring China, such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan andKazakhstan.

Economy

Enforcement Directorate attaches the property of an accused

  • The Enforcement Directorate (ED) issued orders for the attachment of several properties belonging to former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and leader of the National Conference Dr Farooq Abdullah in connection with its investigation into alleged money laundering in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) case.
  • The attached properties include Farooq Abdullah’s Gupkar Road residence in Srinagar, where he lives. They also include two other residential properties in Tangamarg and Sunjwan, apart from commercial properties on Srinagar’s Residency Road.
  • Does this mean Farooq Abdullah is homeless now?
  • Provisional attachment orders issued by the ED do not lead to immediate sealing of a property. Farooq Abdullah can continue to live in his house while the matter remains pending in courts.
  • The ED order would be valid for 180 days, during which time it must be confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). If it is not confirmed, the property would be automatically released from attachment. And if it is, the accused can challenge the confirmation in the Appellate Tribunal within 45 days, and subsequently in the concerned High Court and the Supreme Court.

What is the JKCA case?

  • The case relates to alleged irregularities in grants given by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA). 
  • It is alleged that between 2002 and 2011, funds to the tune of over Rs 43 crore were siphoned off from the JKCA’s coffers. These funds were part of the Rs 112 crore grant given by BCCI to JKCA.

Science and Technology

Proxima Centauri

  • Astronomers running the world’s largest initiative to look for alien life have recently picked up an “intriguing” radio wave emission from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Sun.
  • The news has sparked renewed interest in Proxima Centauri, one of whose planets is believed to revolve in the star’s habitable zone, giving rise to the possibility that it could have, or does, sustain life.

The mysterious radio signal:

  • Astronomers at the $100 million Breakthrough Listen project, started by the legendary physicist Stephen Hawking, regularly spot blasts of radio waves using two powerful telescopes– the Parkes Observatory in Australia or the Green Bank Observatory in the US. 
  • All of their findings so far, though, have been attributed either to natural sources or interference caused by humans.
  • Unlike the project’s previous findings, the beam picked up from the direction of Proxima Centauri–which has been named BLC1 or Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1– has two interesting characteristics. 
  • First, its signal frequency is 982 Mhz– a narrow-band value that is not transmitted by human-made spacecraft or satellites. Neither do we know of a natural astronomical phenomenon that can generate such a radio signal. 
  • Second, the apparent shift in this frequency is reportedly consistent with the movement of the planet.

The interest in Proxima Centauri

  • Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light-years away from the Sun – considered a close distance in cosmic terms. 
  • Its mass is about an eighth of the Sun’s, and it is too dim to be seen with the naked eye from Earth.
  • Proxima b, one of the two planets that revolve around the star, is the subject of significant curiosity. Sized 1.2 times larger than Earth, and orbiting its star every 11 days, Proxima b lies in Proxima Centauri’s “Goldilocks zone”, meaning the area around a star where it is not too hot and not too cold for liquid water to exist on the surface of surrounding planets. To give an example, the Earth is in the Sun’s Goldilocks zone.

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Sports

4th Asian Youth Athletics Championships postponed to October 2021

  • The fourth Asian Youth Athletics Championships, scheduled to be held in Kuwait City from March 1 to 4, has been postponed to October 2021, the Asian Athletics Association (AAA) has told its member federations.
  • The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) said that the AAA has also informed member federations of the cancellation of the Asian Race Walking Championships scheduled for March 21 in Nomi, Japan.
  • The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has also postponed sixth Asian Beach Games scheduled to be held in Sanya City, China from April 2 to 10, 2021 till further notice. 
  • Athletics is one of the new sporting disciplines that was added to the Asian Beach Games programme.

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