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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 26 January 2021

::NATIONAL::

Election Commission of India is celebrating 11th National Voters Day on 25th January 2021.
The theme for this year’s NVD, ‘Making Our Voters Empowered, Vigilant, Safe and Informed’, envisages active and participative voters during elections. It also focuses on ECI’s commitment towards conducting elections safely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The National Voters’ Day has been celebrated on January 25 every year since 2011, all across the country to mark the foundation day of Election Commission of India, i.e., 25th January 1950.
The main purpose of the NVD celebration is to encourage, facilitate and maximize enrolment, especially for the new voters.
Dedicated to the voters of the country, the day is utilized to spread awareness among voters and for promoting informed participation in the electoral process. New voters are felicitated and handed over their Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) in the NVD functions.

Recently, 69th plenary session of North Eastern Council (NEC) was held.
NEC is a statutory body constituted under NEC Act 1971.
NEC is the nodal agency for the economic and social development of North Eastern Region which consists ofeight States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
NEC comprises of Governors and Chief Ministers of constituent States and three members to be nominated bythe President.
Union Home Minister is ex-officio Chairman of NEC.

It is a treaty between US and Russia on measures for the further reduction and limitation of Strategic OffensiveArms.
Treaty restricts both countries to a maximum of 1,550 deployed warheads each, a cut of about 30 percentfrom a limit set in 2002.
Treaty entered into force in 2011 and expires in February 2021.
Recently, United States is seeking a five-year extension of the New START treaty as the treaty permits.

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The Netherlands government hosted an online international Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS Online) on 25 January 2021.
The summit will have a significant focus on securing new investments to ensure that millions of smallholder farmers can adapt to the stresses of climate on food production.

During the summit, PM Modi said that

We are targeting 450 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity by 2030.
We are promoting LED lights and saving 38 million tons of carbon-di-oxide emissions annually.
We are going to restore 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030.
We are providing clean cooking fuel to 80 million rural households.
We are connecting 64 million households to piped water supply.

Recently, a meeting was held by FIST advisory board.
FIST (under Department of Science and Technology) intends to provide basic infrastructure and enablingfacilities for promoting R&D activities in new and emerging areas and attracting fresh talents in universities& other educational institutions.
Support is provided for five 5 years to any PG College or a department/centre/School of any University oracademic Institute.
It covers four areas i.e., Basic Equipment, Networking & Computational Facilities, Research Infrastructure andMaintenance of equipment.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the Integrated Weapons System Design Centre at DRDO’s Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Missile complex in Hyderabad.

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The Integrated Weapon System Design facility is said to enhance the capability in design and development of command & control systems for surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems and ballistic missile defence (BMD) systems.
Centre will give a thrust to the overall system design and evaluation methodology for state-of-the-art missile systems and will help in improving the performance of missiles.
The Vice President inaugurated a new missile technology exposition and seminar hall on the campus. The exposition will display missile technologies and weapon systems and the centre will be the backbone for outreach activities.
He was also briefed about the various ongoing projects and technological developments of missile complex laboratories namely Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), and Research Centre Imarat (RCI).