CURRENT AFFAIRS :  18-11-2020

Table of Content :

1.Hurricane Iota  

2.mRNA Vaccine

3.Regulatory Sandbox Programme

4.Additional Judges of High Court

5.Lilavati Award

6.12th BRICS Summit 2020

1.Hurricane Iota

Recently, Hurricane Iota made landfall in Nicaragua in Central America and has developed into a category five storm.

About Hurricane Iota

• Iota was spotted as a tropical depression in the Central Caribbean Sea by the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).

  • The US NHC is responsible for issuing forecasts for all tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic and Northeast Pacific basins.

• Hurricane Iota is a significant storm, and damaging winds and a life-threatening storm surge are expected along portions of the coast of northeastern Nicaragua.

Categorization of Hurricanes

• Hurricanes are categorised on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which rates them on a scale of 1 to 5 based on wind speed.

• Hurricanes that reach category three or higher are called ‘major hurricanes’ because of their potential to cause devastating damage to life and property.

About Hurricanes and their formation

• Tropical cyclones or hurricanes use warm, moist air as fuel and therefore form over warm ocean waters near the equator.

• According to NASA, when the warm, moist air rises upward from the surface of the ocean, it creates an area of low air pressure below.

• The air from the surrounding areas rushes to fill this place, eventually rising when it becomes warm and moist too.

• When the warm air rises and cools off, the moisture forms clouds and this system of clouds and winds continues to grow and spin, fuelled by the ocean’s heat and the water that evaporates from its surface.

• The storms that form towards the north of the equator rotate counterclockwise, while those that form to the south spin clockwise because of the rotation of the Earth.

Difference between a hurricane and a tropical storm

• As per NASA, the scientific name for all these kinds of storms is tropical cyclones.

• There is no such difference but depending on where they occur, hurricanes may be called typhoons or cyclones.

• The tropical cyclones that form over the Atlantic Ocean or the eastern Pacific Ocean are called hurricanes and the ones that form in the Northwest Pacific are called typhoons.

• The tropical storms that form in the Bay of Bengal or the Arabian Sea are called cyclones.

Source: The Indian Express

2.mRNA Vaccine

Recently, Moderna announced results of human trials on the mRNA vaccine which it has developed with US National Institutes of Health and the trials found the vaccine 94.5 per cent effective.

What is mRNA Vaccine?

• The coronavirus vaccine based on mRNA, once injected into the body, will instruct the body’s cells to create copies of the spike protein.

  • The mRNA is coded to tell the cells to recreate the spike protein of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19.

• It is the spike protein which appears as spikes on the surface of the coronavirus that initiates the process of infection and it allows the virus to penetrate cells, after which it goes on to replicate.

• The mRNA vaccines work by using mRNA or messenger RNA, which is the molecule that essentially puts DNA instructions into action.

• The mRNA vaccines have the advantage that scientists are not growing the virus in the lab, which has been a hindrance sometimes to create enough virus or viral particles to give in a vaccine.

Source: The Indian Express

3.Regulatory Sandbox Programme

Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced the names of two startups that have been selected as a part of its regulatory sandbox programme.

About Regulatory Sandbox Programme

• A regulatory sandbox is a framework set up by a financial sector regulator to allow small scale and live testing of innovations by private firms in a controlled environment.

• The sandbox entities are subject to restrictions such as maximum number of customers served.

• According to SEBI’s guidelines, all entities registered under the SEBI Act 1992 are eligible for testing in their sandbox even if they use the services of a fintech firm.

• The IRDAI’s sandbox exclusively looks at products and services in the insurance sector and has set up a panel to review applications.

Significance of Regulatory Sandbox Programme

• It introduces the potential to change the nature of the relationship between regulators and financial services providers toward a more open and active dialogue.

• Its primary objective is to promote competition and efficiencies in financial services markets through innovation.

• The regulatory sandboxes allow financial regulators to mitigate future risks by working with fintech innovators by having a ring-side view of the potential problems.

Source: All India Radio

4.Additional Judges of High Court

Recently, the President appoints 28 Additional Judges as Judges of Allahabad High Court.

About Additional Judges of High Court

• The President can appoint duly qualified persons as additional judges of a high court under Article 217(1).

• The additional judges are appointed for a temporary period not exceeding two years when:

  • there is a temporary increase in the business of the high court; or

  • there are arrears of work in the high court

• The President can also appoint a duly qualified person as an acting judge of a high court when a judge of that high court (other than the chief justice) is:

  • unable to perform the duties of his office due to absence or any other reason; or

  • appointed to act temporarily as chief justice of that high court.

• An acting judge holds office until the permanent judge resumes his office.

• The additional judge and acting judge cannot hold office after attaining the age of 62 years.

Ad-hoc Judges of Supreme Court

 

When there is a lack of quorum of the permanent judges to hold or continue any session of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of India can appoint a judge of a High Court as an ad-hoc judge of the Supreme Court for a temporary period.

 

The judge so appointed should be qualified for appointment as a judge of a Supreme Court.

 

Source: PIB

5.Lilavati Award

Recently, the Union Minister of Education virtually launched Lilavati Award-2020:AICTE's Innovative education program to empower women.

About Lilavati Award

• The Lilavati Award were established under the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

• Significance: The awards are aimed to award the efforts taken in the field of women’s development and create ‘equality and fairness’ for women in all spheres of their lives.

  • The aim of the new awards is to create awareness and promote efforts in the field of women empowerment.

  • The theme of this award is women empowerment and it aims to use “traditional Indian values” to raise awareness on issues such as sanitation, hygiene, health and nutrition.

  • It aims to create awareness about issues like literacy, employment, technology, credit, marketing, innovation, skill development, natural resources, and rights among women.

• Eligibility: Teams can apply based on their work undertaken in the last two years and the team will comprise five people with at least two women members.

  • The award will be given to individuals and institutes affiliated with AICTE on their contribution in the area of women empowerment.

Source: The Indian Express

6.12th BRICS Summit 2020

Recently, the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi addressed a virtual summit of the BRICS grouping which focussed on economic recovery amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Key Highlights of 12th BRICS Summit 2020

• The 12th edition of BRICS Summit was hosted by Russia under the theme of 'Global Stability, Shared Security and Innovative Growth'.

• The summit’s agenda includes intra-BRICS cooperation, key global issues such as reforming the multilateral system, measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, counter-terrorism cooperation, trade, health and energy.

• BRICS will play an important role in significant geo-strategic changes which are taking place all over the world and will continue to impact the stability, security and growth.

• Terrorism is the biggest menace the world is facing today but the BRICS Counter-Terrorism Strategy has been finalized under the presidency of Russia which is a notable achievement.

  • The objective of BRICS counter-terrorism cooperation is to complement and strengthen the existing bilateral and multilateral ties among the BRICS countries.

• BRICS economies will play a prime role in the post-COVID global recovery.

• Under India's presidency in 2021, India will try enhancing intra-BRICS cooperation by strengthening all the three pillars.

  • India will endeavor to enhance intra-BRICS solidarity and develop a solid institutional framework for this purpose.

BRICS

 

It is an informal group of states comprising the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa.

 

The first BRICS Ministerial Meeting was held at the proposal of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the margins of a UN General Assembly Session in New York.

 

South Africa began efforts to join the BRIC grouping and on December 24, 2010, was invited to join BRICS.

Source: The Hindu

Jai Hind!

Join our Official Telegram Channel HERE for Motivation and Fast Updates

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel HERE to watch Motivational and New videos

Join our Instagram Channel HERE