09 FEBRUARY 2022 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS | UPSC CDS CAPF AFCAT NDA SSB

1. UNITARY DIGITAL IDENTITY FRAMEWORK

India has agreed to provide a grant to Sri Lanka to implement a ‘Unitary Digital Identity framework’, apparently modelled on the Aadhaar card.

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The Rajapaksa government will “prioritise” the implementation of the Framework as a national level programme, Sri Lanka’s Cabinet decided.
Under the proposed Unitary Digital Identity Framework, it is expected to introduce a personal identity verification device based on biometric data, a digital tool that can represent the identities of individuals in cyberspace, and the identification of individual identities that can be accurately verified in digital and physical environments by combining the two devices.
The initiative follows bilateral talks between President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2019.
It also comes amid substantive economic assistance from India — totalling $ 1.4 billion since the beginning of this year — to Sri Lanka, to help the island nation cope with its dollar crunch, and import food, medicines and fuel amid frequent shortages.
While India has confirmed support for Sri Lanka’s effort to transition to a digital identity system, there is no official information yet on the value of the grant, and whether it would include technological support or training.

Source : The Hindu

2. HARYANA PREVENTION OF UNLAWFUL CONVERSION OF RELIGION BILL, 2022

The Haryana Cabinet approved the draft of the Haryana Prevention of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Bill, 2022.

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It seeks to prohibit religious conversion effected through misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage or for marriage, by making it an offence.
According to the draft Bill, the burden of proof “lies on the accused”. The draft Bill will now be tabled before the Assembly.
The Bill, on the lines of recent anti-conversion laws passed in other States, proposes to make conversion by marriage an offence.
It also prescribes higher punishment for conversion of minors, women, and members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.
The burden of proof as to whether a conversion was not affected through misrepresentation, use of force, under threat, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage or for marriage for the purpose of carrying out conversion lies on the accused.
The draft Bill provides for declaring marriages null and void, which were solemnized by concealment of religion.

Source : The Hindu

3. PRAVEEN KUMAR SOBTI

Actor-athlete Praveen Kumar Sobti, best known for playing Bheem in the TV series "Mahabharat" and for winning an Asian Games gold medal, died following a cardiac arrest. He was 74.

About:

Praveen Kumar Sobti (1947 – 2022) was an Indian hammer and discus thrower, film actor, politician, and soldier with Border Security Force.
As a 20 year old he joined then newly raised Border Security Force from where he attracted the attention of his officers through his fine athletic skills and went to represent India at various athletic events in "Discus throw".
As an athlete he won four medals at the Asian Games, including two gold medals, won a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games and competed in two Olympics.
As an actor, he starred in more than 50 Hindi films and played the famous character of "Bheem" in B.R. Chopra's television series Mahabharat that started in 1988.
As a politician he contested the 2013 Delhi Legislative elections on an Aam Aadmi Party ticket, but lost. Subsequently, in 2014, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Source : The Hindu

4. SEMICONDUCTORS SHORTAGE

The European Union (EU) unveiled a plan to quadruple the supply of semiconductors in Europe by 2030, hoping to limit the bloc’s dependence on Asia for a key component used in electric cars and smartphones.

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The production of chips has become a strategic priority in Europe as well as the United States, after the shock of the pandemic choked off supply, bringing factories to a standstill and emptying stores of products.
The manufacturing of semiconductors overwhelmingly takes place in Taiwan, China and South Korea and the European Union wants factories and companies inside the bloc to take on a bigger role.
The highly anticipated EU Chips Act will “mobilise more than €43 billion ($49.1 billion) of public and private investments” and “enable the EU to reach its ambition to double its current market share to 20% in 2030”.
The proposal will need the approval of the EU member states and European Parliament, where opinions will vary between the ambitions of industrial heavyweights such as Germany, France and Italy and those of smaller states that are worried about closing off valuable supply chains with Asia.

Source : The Hindu

5. POLYGON

In the biggest round of investments in an Indian blockchain venture, marquee investment firms including Sequoia Capital India, Softbank Vision Fund II and Tiger Global have infused $450 million in Polygon, a decentralised scaling platform for ethereum blockchain.

What is Polygon and what does it do?

Polygon was founded by Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, Anurag Arjun, and Mihailo Bjelic.
The platform is essentially a “Layer 2” network built on the Ethereum blockchain to mitigate the traffic load on the main blockchain.
The Ethereum blockchain, which is waiting for an update to transition to a faster and more efficient stake-based network, has become congested with the addition of a large number of users. This prompted the creation of “Layer 2” networks like Polygon.
In addition to being a network, Polygon also has a native cryptocurrency token MATIC, with a market capitalisation of $15.6 billion.

Source : Indian Express

6. FAIRBANK'S DISEASE; ACROMEGALY

The Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, informed Rajya Sabha about the Cases of Fairbank's disease and Acromegaly in India.

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The Fairbank's disease (Multiple epiphyseal dysplasia) patient usually requires management of pain and orthopedic procedures, for which facilities are available at tertiary care institutions in India.
Another rare disorder, Acromegaly is caused by excessive secretion of growth hormone, most often from a tumor in the pituitary gland.
The disorder causes increased height when it manifests in childhood and adolescent age group, before the fusion of bony epiphysis.
The somatostatin drug used for Acromegaly, is a scheduled drug as per the National List of Essential Medicines 2015. Therefore, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has fixed the ceiling price.

Source : PIB

7. REIMAGINING MUSEUMS IN INDIA

Ministry of Culture, Government of India will organize a first of its kind, 2-Day Global Summit on ‘Reimagining Museums in India’, on 15-16 February 2022.

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The summit is being organized under the aegis of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the flagship program to mark 75th anniversary of India’s independence and celebrate the glorious history of its people, culture and achievements.
The Global Summit will bring together leading luminaries, domain experts and practitioners in the field of museum development and management from India and around the world to discuss best practices and strategies. The Summit is being organised in partnership with Bloomberg.
An outcome of this knowledge sharing will include creation of a blueprint for development of new museums, nurture a renewal framework, and reinvigorate existing museums in India.
The online summit will encompass four broad themes: Architecture and Functional Needs; Management; Collections (including Curation & Conservation practices); and, Education and Audience Engagement.

Source : PIB

8. NATIONAL SINGLE WINDOW SYSTEM (NSWS)

In a historic achievement, Jammu & Kashmir became the first Union Territory to be onboarded the National Single Window System (NSWS). This marks a major leap in Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) in the Union Territory.

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Lieutenant Governor Shri Manoj Sinha launched the J&K Single Window Clearance System integrated with NSWS.
NSWS is linked with India Industrial Land Bank (IILB) which hosts 45 industrial parks of J&K. This will help Investors to discover available land parcels in J&K.
The NSWS, a 2020 budgetary announcement of the Government of India, is a digital platform that serves as a guide for investors to identify and to apply for approvals as per their business requirements.
The platform was soft launched in September 2021 by the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal.
NSWS will eliminate the need for investors to visit multiple platforms/offices to gather information and obtain clearances from different stakeholders.
Twenty Ministries / Departments have been integrated on NSWS including Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare amongst others. Currently 142 central approvals can be applied through the NSWS portal.
14 States/UTs onboarded on NSWS include Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.
The Know Your Approval (KYA) module on NSWS guides investors to identify approvals required for their business based on a dynamic intuitive questionnaire. Currently, the module hosts more than 3,000 approvals across Centre & States.

Source : PIB

9. IDEA DATABASE

Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has commenced the work for creating various agricultural services built around a core layer of Farmers’ Database (Agristack) in India.

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In order to create Agristack, the department is in the process of finalising the “India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA)” which lays down a framework for building Agristacks.
This Ecosystem shall help the Government in effective planning towards increasing the income of farmers in particular and improving the efficiency of the Agriculture sector, as a whole.
As a first step, in this direction, the Government has already initiated building federated farmers’ database that would serve as the core of the envisaged Agristack.
At present, proposed farmers’ database will include the farmers registered under the PM-Kisan Scheme.

Source : PIB

10. SAMRIDH INITIATIVE

Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a new partnership under the Sustainable Access to Markets and Resources for Innovative Delivery of Healthcare (SAMRIDH) initiative, which will improve access to affordable and quality healthcare for vulnerable populations in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and rural and tribal regions.

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In 2020, USAID, IPE Global, and stakeholders from the Indian government, academia, and the private sector developed the innovative SAMRIDH blended finance facility to combine public and philanthropic funds with commercial capital to create and rapidly scale market-based health solutions.
This new partnership announced will enhance SAMRIDH’s efforts to reach vulnerable populations, leveraging AIM’s expertise in innovation and entrepreneurship.
AIM and SAMRIDH will leverage philanthropic capital, and public sector resources to offset barriers for commercial investments in small and medium health enterprises to invest in and scale healthcare solutions.

Source : The Hindu

09 FEBRUARY 2022 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS | UPSC CDS CAPF AFCAT NDA SSB

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