About:
- Along with Delhi Fit India Freedom Runs 2.0, programme will be organised in 9 other iconic locations across the country.
- Each week programmes will be held in 75 districts and at 75 villages in each district till 2nd October 2021. Thus, Fit India Freedom Runs will be organized in 744 Districts, 75 villages in each of the 744 Districts and 30,000 Educational Institutions across the country.
- The aim of the campaign is to encourage people to take up fitness activities such as running and sports in their daily lives and get freedom from obesity, laziness, stress, anxiety, diseases etc.
- Through this campaign, citizens will be given call to make a resolve to include physical activity of at least 30 minutes daily in their lives "FITNESS KI DOSE AADHA GHANTA ROZ".
- The key activities of Fit India Freedom Run 2.0 include pledge, rendering of National Anthem, Freedom Run, cultural functions at venues, awareness among Youth Volunteers to participate and also organize similar Freedom Runs in their villages.
Background
- 'Fit India Freedom Run' was conceived last year in the wake of COVID-19 Pandemic when social distancing became 'new normal lifestyle, so as to keep the imperative need of fitness active even while following the social distancing norms.
- The first edition of the campaign was organized from 15th August to 2nd October, 2020.
About:
- Today India stands at 4th position in the world in terms of installed RE capacity, 5th in solar and 4th in wind in terms of installed capacity.
- If large hydro is included the installed RE capacity increases to 146 GW.
- While 100 GW has been installed, 50 GW is under installation and 27 GW is under tendering.
- India has also enhanced its ambition to install 450 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030.
About:
- Indian Navy's guided-missile destroyer INS Kochi reached the Jubail port in Saudi Arabia for the "Al-Mohed Al-Hindi 2021" exercise.
- The harbour phase of the "Al-Mohed Al-Hindi 2021" exercise began with the sea-based drills taking place subsequently.
- The exercise is taking place amid rising tension in the Gulf region after a drone attack on a merchant tanker off Oman killed a British national and a Romanian citizen over a week back.
About:
- Minister for Environment released the population estimation protocol to be adopted in the exercise to be taken up for the All India elephant and tiger population estimation in 2022.
- The protocol was released on the occasion of World Elephant Day.
- The programme also witnessed release of the fourth edition of the quarterly newsletter “Trumpet” of the Elephant Division of the Ministry.
- Asian elephants are listed as "Endangered" on the IUCN Red List of threatened species.
- Indian Elephant has also been listed in the Appendix I of the Convention of the Migratory species in the recently concluded Conference of Parties of CMS 13 at Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat in February 2020.
About:
- Currently, the world is experiencing a shortage of chips and semiconductors that have become essential not only for new-age technological products like smartphones and computers, but also for traditional sectors like automobiles.
- Several carmakers in the world have delayed deliveries of their vehicles and even pushed the launch of new vehicles because of the chip shortage. Tata Motors’ UK-based unit Jaguar-Land Rover has also done so.
- For the Tata Group, while a foray into chip making would mean entering a lucrative business that can find customers not only in India but across the world, it would also be significant for captive use with Tata Motors, Tata Power, etc.
What is behind the global chip shortage?
- The chips, or semiconductors, which are the brain-centre of any electronic technology has found itself to become a rare commodity in the post-Covid era, with several large factories in places like South Korea and Taiwan being shut down. This has created pent-up demand that these foundries were unable to satisfy after opening up.
- On the one hand, the pandemic caused a surge in demand for electronic devices such as smartphones, laptop and computers, etc.
- This shortage that began last year, is expected to go on till 2022.
6. VIRGINITY TESTS
About:
- The use of virginity tests by Indonesian security forces was first exposed by Human Rights Watch in 2014. According to its investigation, virginity tests have been imposed on thousands of female applicants since 1965, despite the National Police principles that recruitment must be both “nondiscriminatory” and “humane.”
- Virginity testing–also known as hymen, “two-finger” or vaginal examination–is an inspection of the female genitalia to ascertain whether a woman or girl has engaged in vaginal intercourse.
- A group of United Nations agencies, in a joint statement issued in 2018, called for scrapping of tests meant to assess the virginity of a girl or a woman, describing the practice as a form of gender-based violence and a human rights violation with no scientific basis.
- There is no known examination that can prove a person’s history of vaginal intercourse. The practice can cause both immediate and long-term consequences that may be harmful to the physical and psychological well-being of a woman subjected to it.
About:
- In India, the Constitution gives the government the right to levy taxes on individuals and organisations, but makes it clear that no one has the right to levy or charge taxes except by the authority of law.
- Any tax being charged has to be backed by a law passed by the legislature or Parliament. A tax “is not a voluntary payment or donation, but an enforced contribution, exacted pursuant to legislative authority”.
- Taxes in India come under a three-tier system based on the Central, State and local governments, and the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution puts separate heads of taxation under the Union and State list.
- There is no separate head under the Concurrent list, meaning Union and the States have no concurrent power of taxation.
About:
- The RTO offices, where crucial transport-related services are offered, had over the years turned into dens of corruption as the nexus of middlemen and officials covered everything, ranging from issuance of learner’s licenses to change of address in registration certificates (RC).
- The “faceless services” scheme seeks to eliminate any scope of corruption by ending the need for people to visit the RTOs.
How will it work?
- Aadhaar-based verification will be relied upon in dispensing the services online. A separate provision for those not having or willing to share their Aadhaar details has also been kept.
- Upon entering the Aadhaar number, an OTP will be sent to the Aadhaar-linked mobile number of the applicant. The verification of the documents will be done automatically as the application developed by the government will draw details from the central Aadhaar database.
- There will be separate provisions for making payments and making digital signatures. In case of learner’s license, e-licenses will be issued instantly after taking the test online.
What are the services that are not being offered as part of the “faceless” initiative?
- The two services for which a person will have to visit the RTO are the driving test for getting a licence and vehicle fitness certificates.
About:
- Poly Network is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that facilitates peer-to-peer transactions with a focus on allowing users to transfer or swap tokens across different blockchains.
- For example, a customer could use Poly Network to transfer tokens such as bitcoin from the Ethereum blockchain to the Binance Smart Chain, perhaps looking to access a specific application.
- Poly Network was launched by the founders of Chinese blockchain project Neo.
- Poly Network operates on the Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum and Polygon blockchains. Tokens are swapped between the blockchains using a smart contract which contains instructions on when to release the assets to the counterparties.
About:
- Fan Tokens are a type of NFT (non-fungible token) which is a digital-only asset. Like Bitcoin and similar digital currencies, fan tokens are volatile assets and their value can drastically change overnight.
- These fan tokens are created by a crypto platform called Socios.
- Fans can purchase said crypto tokens with real-world money to gain access to exclusive content and augmented-reality games. Among other rewards and perks, the fan token holders also get to vote on mostly minor decisions related to their clubs.
- What decisions can fans vote on? Examples include kit designs, goal music, the team’s destination for a pre-season tour. The more tokens a fan has, the more votes they get in the polls. Ultimately though, the polls are decided upon by the clubs.