(FREE) UPSC Current Affairs 2024 PDF

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 03 September 2021

::NATIONAL::

Odisha’s Kendrapara is now India's only district to have all 3 species of crocodilians - salt-water,gharial and mugger.

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Kendrapara district is crisscrossed byrivers, creeks, water inlets and claimedfame for its successful conservationprogramme for salt-water or estuarinecrocodiles at the Bhitarkanika NationalPark.
All 3 species are protected underSchedule 1 of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972and Appendix 1 of CITES.

IUCN status of crocodiles:

Uttar Pradesh has reported many cases of a mystery fever, which has been identified as scrub typhus.

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According to Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), scrub typhus is a disease causedby bacteria called Orientia tsutsugamushi.
It is also known as bush typhus.
Infection spreads to people through bites of infected chiggers (larval mites).
Symptoms include fever and chills, headache, body aches, rashes and muscle pain.
No vaccine is available to prevent scrub typhus.The antibiotic doxycycline can be used to treatthe person.

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The new railway line that runs from the border town of Lincang to Chengdu, a key trade hub in western China, completes the corridor.
This passage connects the logistics lines of Singapore, Myanmar and China.
China also has plans to develop another port in Kyaukphyu in the Rakhine state, including a proposed railway line from Yunnan directly to the port, but the progress there has been stalled by unrest in Myanmar.
Chinese planners have also looked at the Gwadar port in Pakistan as another key outlet to the Indian Ocean that will bypass the Malacca Straits. Gwadar is being developed as part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to the far western Xinjiang region, but has been slow to take off amid concerns over security.
The costs and logistics through CPEC are also less favourable than the Myanmar route with the opening of the rail transport channel from the Myanmar border right to western China’s biggest commercial hub, Chengdu.
Transportation time on the railway line from the Myanmar border to Chengdu takes three days.

This report provides a global overview of progress made around the world over the past decade in extending social protection and building rights-based social protection systems, including floors, and covers the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Key highlights:

In a report on the state of social protection globally, the UN’s International Labour Organization said that 4.1 billion people were living without any social safety net of any kind.
Social protection includes access to health care and income security measures related especially to old age, unemployment, sickness, disability, work injury, maternity or the loss of the main breadwinner in a family, as well as extra support for families with children.
In 2020, only 46.9% of the global population benefitted from at least one such protection, according to the report — ILOs first on the subject since 2017.
That low rate came even as access to healthcare, sickness and unemployment benefits have more than ever proved their relevance during the pandemic.

Department of Animal husbandry & Dairying (DAHD) & Department of Rural Development (DoRD) sign an MoU ensures the use of SHGs members as livestock resource persons & primary service providers through A-HELP.

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Its convergence of DAHD & NRLM will help increase outreach of DAHD schemes and enhance sustainability.
Recently, the Government has approved implementation of a Special Livestock Sector Package consisting of several activities by revising and realigning various components of following existing schemes in order to have focused development of animal husbandry and dairying across the country for next 5 years starting from 2021-22.
Department of Rural development is also working in the similar platform for rural upliftment through various programmes where more women are involved in livelihood activities, especially in the livestock sector.

IIT Ropar’s startup company, Urban Air Laboratory, that has developed the product claims it to be world’s first, state-of-the art ‘Smart Bio-Filter’ that can make breathing fresh.

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It has been incubated at IIT Ropar, which is a designated iHub - AWaDH (Agriculture and Water Technology Development Hub) by the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India.
The technology works through the air-purifying natural leafy plant. The room-air interacts with leaves and goes to the soil-root zone where maximum pollutants are purified.
The novel technology used in this product is ‘Urban Munnar Effect’ along with patent pending “Breathing Roots” to exponentially amplify the phytoremediation process of the plants. Phytoremediation is a process by which plants effectively remove pollutants from the air.
‘Ubreathe Life’ effectively improves indoor air quality by removing particulate, gaseous and biological contaminants while increasing the oxygen levels in the indoor space through specific plants, UV disinfection and a stack of Pre-filter, Charcoal filter and HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filter fitted in a specially designed wooden box.