CURRENT AFFAIRS :  20-11-2020

Table of Content :

1.Safai Mitra Suraksha Challenge 

2.Portal for Defence Land Management System 

3.India-Luxembourg Virtual Summit

4.India’s first Convergence Project

5. Indian Army dismisses reports of use of Microwave Weapons by China

6.Arunachal Pradesh Records Best Sex Ratio

1.Safai Mitra Suraksha Challenge

Recently, the Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs has launched the Safai Mitra Suraksha Challenge.

About Safai Mitra Suraksha Challenge

• It aims to ensure that no life of any sewer or septic tank cleaner is ever lost again owing to the issue of ‘hazardous cleaning.

• It is in line with Prime Minister’s vision who has always placed the safety and dignity of sanitation workers at the core of the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U).

• The challenge has been launched in 243 cities to mechanize all sewer and septic tank cleaning operations by 30th April 2021.

• The challenge will focus extensively on creating citizen awareness on this critical issue along with infrastructure creation for mechanized cleaning and capacity building of workforce.

Need for Safai Mitra Suraksha Challenge

• The Government of India is committed to ensure that no person needs to enter a sewer or septic tank, unless absolutely unavoidable in the interest of greater public hygiene.

• The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act (2013) and various judgements of the Supreme Court expressly prohibit hazardous cleaning i.e. manual entry into a septic tank or sewer without protective gear and observing operating procedures.

• India still continues to witness over hundred deaths per year due to manual scavenging.

Source: Hindustan Times

2.Portal for Defence Land Management System 

Recently, the Ministry of Defence has launched the portal for Defence Land Management System (LMS).

About Portal for Defence Land Management System

• It has been developed by Department of Defence in collaboration with Directorate General Defence Estates (DGDE) and Armed forces.

• The Intra-net portal shall digitize all requests of defence land management received by the Department in future.

• The portal is expected to bring in greater speed, transparency and efficiency into the Land Management System (LMS) of the Department.

• The portal, alongwith integration of GIS based tool, will improve decision making process by removing duplication/unnecessary communication between various stakeholder groups involved in the decision-making process.

  • The technical support for the GIS-based system has been provided by Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG) which is India’s premier organization in GIS based informatics.

Need for Defence Land Management System (LMS)

• Almost 9,800 acres of military land having being encroached upon across the country.

• It will integrate several mapping tools into the existing “Raksha Bhoomi” software, which was launched with the data updated in 2011.

Source: PIB

3.India-Luxembourg Virtual Summit

Recently, the Prime Minister of India and the Prime Minister of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg addressed the first-ever India-Luxembourg Virtual Summit.

Key Highlights of the India-Luxembourg Virtual Summit

Economic Relationship

• MoU between India International Exchange (India INX) and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: It provides for cooperation in financial services industry, maintenance of orderly markets in securities respective country, ESG (environmental, social and governance) and green finance in the local market.

• MoU between Invest India and Luxinnovation: It is aimed at supporting and developing mutual business cooperation between Indian and Luxembourg companies, including promotion and facilitation of inbound FDI.

• The leaders looked forward to the 17th Joint Economic Commission between India and the Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union to review the economic and trade relations.

Financial Relationship

• The two leaders welcomed the signing of cooperation agreements by the Luxembourg Stock Exchange with State Bank of India and the India International Stock Exchange.

  • It is aimed at the importance of green financing to promote green growth and sustainable development.

• Luxembourg as a leading international financial centre in Europe, can act as an important bridge to help connect India’s financial services industry with international markets and reach European and global investors.

Space and Digital Cooperation

• The summit noted with satisfaction that the Luxembourg based space companies had begun utilizing the services of India for launching their satellites into space.

• The leader of Luxembourg welcomed the successful launch of the PSLV-C49 mission by ISRO which included 4 satellites from Luxembourg.

Higher Education and Research

• The leaders noted with satisfaction the ongoing collaboration in the field of neurodegenerative diseases between the National Brain Research Centre and the Luxembourg Institute of Health and the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine.

EU-India relations

• The two leaders acknowledged the importance of the India-EU Strategic Partnership rooted in shared principles and values of democracy, freedom, rule of law, and respect for human rights, for contributing to a safer, greener and more stable world.

• The leaders acknowledged that developing the India-EU economic relations will be important in the context of post-COVID-19 economic recovery.

Luxembourg

 

It is a landlocked country in northwestern Europe.

 

It is bordered by Belgium on the west and north, France on the south, and Germany on the northeast and east.

 

Source: PIB

4.India’s first Convergence Project

Recently, the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) and Department of New & Renewable Energy (DNRE), Goa, have signed a memorandum of understanding to roll out India’s first Convergence Project.

About India’s first Convergence Project

• Goa is the first state to adopt Convergence.

• The project will accrue savings of INR 2,574 crores to the State over the period of 25 years.

• The project will provide clean day time electricity to farmers as well as energy efficient pump sets which would reduce the power consumption as well as T&D losses associated with transmitting power to agriculture and rural feeder networks. 

• Through its convergence initiative, EESL seeks to connect seemingly independent sectors like Solar Energy, Energy Storage and LED lights to provide solutions.

• Under this programme, EESL is offering convergent interventions, which solve multiple gap areas in the energy ecosystem.

Significance of Convergence Project

• The project is aimed at improving the health of DISCOMs and providing cleaner power.

• The projects will accelerate the usage of renewable energy sources, especially for agricultural and rural power consumption in the State.

• The projects will also contribute in reduction of peak energy demand through deployment of energy efficient pumping and lighting thus contributing to overall sustainability.

Source: PIB

5. Indian Army dismisses reports of use of Microwave Weapons by China

Recently, the Indian Army has rejected as “baseless and fake” a report in the British daily newspaper which had quoted a Chinese professor to claim that the Chinese army had used “microwave weapons” to drive Indian soldiers away from their positions in eastern Ladakh.

Background

• India and China have been locked in a tense standoff at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh for the last six months.

• The Beijing-datelined report in ‘The Times’ titled “China turns Ladakh battleground with India into a microwave oven”.

• The Chinese professor quoted in the report claimed that Chinese forces had turned two strategic hilltops occupied by Indian soldiers “into a microwave oven”, forcing them to retreat, and allowing the positions to be retaken without an exchange of conventional fire.

What are Microwave Weapons?

• “Microwave weapons” are supposed to be a type of direct energy weapons, which aim highly focused energy in the form of sonic, laser, or microwaves, at a target.

• The report claimed that the microwave weapons used beams of high-frequency electromagnetic radiation to heat the water in a human target’s skin, causing pain and discomfort.

• The concerns have been raised on whether they can damage the eyes or have a carcinogenic impact in the long term.

Working of a Microwave

• In a microwave oven, an electron tube called a magnetron produces electromagnetic waves (microwaves) that bounce around the metal interior of the appliance, and are absorbed by the food.

• The microwaves agitate the water molecules in the food, and their vibration produces heat that cooks the food.

Possession of Microwave Weapons

• A number of countries are thought to have developed these weapons to target both humans and electronic systems.

• According to a report in the ‘The Daily Mail’, China had first put on display its “microwave weapon”, called Poly WB-1, at an air show in 2014.

• The United States has also developed a prototype microwave-style weapon, which it calls the “Active Denial System”.

  • The Active Denial System is needed because it’s the first non-lethal, directed-energy, counter-personnel system with an extended range greater than currently fielded non-lethal weapons.

Source: Indian Express

6.Arunachal Pradesh Records Best Sex RatioArunachal Pradesh Records Best Sex Ratio

According to a 2018 report on the ‘vital statistics on India based on the Civil Registration System’, Arunachal Pradesh recorded the best sex ratio in the country.

• The report was published by the Registrar General of India.

Key Highlights of Report

• The ratio was determined on the basis of data provided by 30 States and Union Territories.

• The requisite information from six States namely Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal is not available.

• The number of registered births increased to 2.33 crore in 2018 from 2.21 crore registered births in 2017.

• The report highlighted that the level of registration of births has increased to 89.3% in 2018 from 81.3% in 2009.

Performance of States and Union Territories

• Arunachal Pradesh recorded 1,084 females born per thousand males, followed by Nagaland (965) Mizoram (964), Kerala (963) and Karnataka (957).

• The worst was reported in Manipur (757), Lakshadweep (839), Daman & Diu (877), Punjab (896) and Gujarat (896).

• Delhi recorded a sex ratio of 929, Haryana 914 and Jammu and Kashmir 952.

What is Civil Registration System?

 

The history of Civil Registration System (CRS) in India dates back to the middle of the 19th century.

 

In 1886 a Central Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act was promulgated to provide for voluntary registration throughout British India.

 

CRS in India is the unified process of continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the vital events (births, deaths, still-births) and characteristics thereof.

 

The data generated through a complete and up-to-date CRS is essential for socio-economic planning.

 

Source: The Hindu

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