28 AUGUST 2021 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS | UPSC CDS CAPF AFCAT NDA SSB

1. BH-SERIES

In order to facilitate seamless transfer of vehicles, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways vide notification dated 26 Aug 2021, has introduced a new registration mark for new vehicles i.e. “Bharat series (BH-series)”.

About:

A vehicle bearing this registration mark shall not require assignment of a new registration mark when the owner of the vehicle shifts from one State to another.
Format of Bharat series (BH-series) Registration Mark -
- YY BH #### XX
- YY – Year of first registration
- BH- Code for Bharat Series
- ####- 0000 to 9999 (randomized)
- XX- Alphabets (AA to ZZ)
This vehicle registration facility under “Bharat series (BH-series)” will be available on voluntary basis to Defense personnel, employees of Central Government/ State Government/ Central/ State Public Sector Undertakings and private sector companies/organizations, which have their offices in four or more States/Union territories.
The motor vehicle tax will be levied for two years or in multiple of two.
This scheme will facilitate free movement of personal vehicles across States/UTs of India upon relocation to a new State/UT.
After completion of the fourteenth year, the motor vehicle tax shall be levied annually which shall be half of the amount which was charged earlier for that vehicle.

Source : PIB

2. BRICS AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH PLATFORM

Union Minister for Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar announced the operationalization of BRICS Agricultural Research Platform prepared and set up in India for strengthening the cooperation in the field of agricultural research & innovations amongst the BRICS member States.

About:

The BRICS- Agricultural Research Platform, as a global platform for science-led agriculture will help in addressing the issues of world hunger, undernutrition, poverty and inequality by promoting sustainable agricultural development through strategic cooperation in agriculture and allied sector.

Source : PIB

3. ACTION PLAN 2021-24 FOR AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION AMONG BRICS COUNTRIES

Union Minister for Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar addressed the 11th meeting of BRICS Agriculture Ministers under the theme BRICS Partnership for Strengthening Agro Biodiversity for Food Security and Nutrition.

About:

The Action Plan of 2021-24 for Agricultural Cooperation of BRICS Countries was adopted in the Ministers' meeting.
The Action Plan focuses on the themes of food security, welfare of farmers, conservation of agrobiodiversity, resilience of food and agricultural production systems, promotion of digital agricultural solutions etc. which are integral to the sustainable development of agriculture.
It has been proposed to include “Conservation and promotion of agrobiodiversity for nutrition and sustainability” as a focus area for collaboration in the Action Plan 2021-2024 for Agricultural Cooperation of BRICS Countries.

Source : PIB

4. QSim

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology, launched QSim – Quantum Computer Simulator Toolkit, to enable Researchers and Students to carryout research in Quantum Computing in a cost effective manner.

About:

QSim is an outcome of the project “Design and Development of Quantum Computer Toolkit (Simulator, Workbench) and Capacity Building”.
This is one of the first initiatives in the country to address the common challenge of advancing the Quantum Computing research frontiers in India.
This project is being executed collaboratively by IISc Bangalore, IIT Roorkee and C-DAC with the support of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India.

QSim - Feature Highlights

Intuitive UI: QSim offers a robust QC Simulator integrated with a GUI based Workbench allowing students / researchers to create Quantum programs, visualize the instant circuit generation and simulated outputs.
Simulate noisy Quantum logic circuits: Helps simulate Quantum circuits with and without noise and test how well various algorithms work with imperfect quantum components. This is essential to simulate real-life conditions.
Pre-loaded Quantum algorithms and Examples: QSim comes loaded with Quantum programs and algorithms providing a head start to the users. E.g. QFT, Deutsch Jozsa, Grovers and so on.
Integrated with HPC: The quantum simulations are performed on powerful HPC resources allowing multiple users to submit jobs simultaneously with different QuBit configurations.

QSim - Offering Models

PARAM SHAVAK QSim - Standalone system with Quantum Simulator in a box
PARAM QSim Cloud - Available on cloud using HPC infrastructure PARAM SIDDHI AI (developed and deployed under NSM program)

Source : PIB

5. NEW DELHI STATEMENT ON ENVIRONMENT

At the 7th meeting of the BRICS Environment Ministerial 2021, India stressed on the need for taking concrete collective global actions against global environment and climate challenge, guided by equity, national priorities and circumstances, and the principles of “Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC)”.

About:

In the Meeting, the Environment Ministers adopted the New Delhi Statement on Environment, which is also aimed at furthering the spirit of Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation and Consensus in Environment among the BRICS Nations.
The key areas proposed in the BRICS Environment Ministers’ Statement, 2021 are guided by the issues, which may have primacy in UN Biodiversity COP 15 and UNFCCC COP 26.

Source : PIB

6. KARMAYOGI

Union Minister of Personnel inaugurated the "Karmayogi" Digital Learning Facility for Civil Servants at the Institute of Secretariat Training & Management (ISTM), a premier Central Training Institution under the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT).

About:

This digital learning platform will help further extending the citizen centric reforms initiated by the Government under ‘Mission Karmayogi’.
The National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (‘NPCSCB’) – “Mission Karmayogi” was approved by the Government on 2nd September, 2020 with the objective of enhancing governance through Civil Services Capacity Building.
NPCSCB has been carefully designed to lay the foundations for capacity building for Civil Servants so that they remain entrenched in Indian Culture and sensibilities and remain connected, with their roots, while they learn from the best institutions and practices across the world.
The training of Civil Servants at various Academies is being restructured to include optimum use of the digital learning platform of Integrated Government Online Training (iGOT).

Source : PIB

7. G20 MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE ON WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT

The Union Minister of Women & Child Development, Smt. Smriti Irani addressed the First ever G20 Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment which was held at Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy in a hybrid format.

About:

G20 Conference on Women Empowerment acknowledged the common objectives and shared responsibilities to advance the goals of equality and development of women and girls in all spheres including STEM, Financial and Digital Literacy, Environment and Sustainability.
The members of the G20 are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union.

Source : PIB

8. ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI (AGN)

Indian researchers have discovered three supermassive black holes from three galaxies merging together to form a triple active galactic nucleus, a compact region at the center of a newly discovered galaxy that has a much-higher-than-normal luminosity.

About:

This rare occurrence in our nearby Universe indicates that small merging groups are ideal laboratories to detect multiple accreting supermassive black holes and increases the possibility of detecting such rare occurrences.
Supermassive black holes are difficult to detect because they do not emit any light. But they can reveal their presence by interacting with their surroundings.
When the dust and gas from the surroundings fall onto a supermassive black hole, some of the mass is swallowed by the black hole, but some of it is converted into energy and emitted as electromagnetic radiation that makes the black hole appear very luminous.
They are called active galactic nuclei (AGN) and release huge amounts of ionized particles and energy into the galaxy and its environment. Both of these ultimately contribute to the growth of the medium around the galaxy and ultimately the evolution of the galaxy itself.
Many AGN pairs have been detected in the past, but triple AGN are extremely rare, and only a handful has been detected before using X-ray observations.

Source : PIB

9. CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR)

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has clarified that excess Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure prior to FY21 cannot be set off against future CSR expenditure requirements and that corporate donations to government schemes cannot be counted as CSR.

What is the clarification on setting off of excess CSR expenditure?

Companies with a minimum net worth of Rs 500 crore, turnover of Rs 1,000 crore, or net profit of Rs 5 crore are required to spend at least 2 per cent of their average profit for the previous three years on CSR activities every year.
The ministry has clarified that any CSR expenditure in excess of the mandated 2 per cent expenditure can be set off against mandatory CSR expenditure in the three subsequent fiscals.
Notably however, excess expenditure prior to FY21 is not eligible to be set off against future CSR requirements. The government had in May notified that donations made to the PM CARES fund on March 31, 2020 in excess of CSR requirements could be set off against CSR expenditure requirements for FY21.

Important Info :

What are other key clarifications?

The ministry has also clarified that companies have to ensure that funds transferred to implementing agencies are actually utilised for them to be counted towards mandatory CSR expenditure.
The circular also clarifies that funding government schemes cannot be counted as CSR, noting that “CSR should not be interpreted as a source of financing the resource gaps in government schemes.”

Source : Indian Express

10. e-SHRAM portal

Minister for Labour and Employment formally launched e-Shram portal, a database of unorganised sector workers, and handed it over to the States/UTs.

About:

The government aims to register 38 crore unorganised workers, such as construction labourers, migrant workforce, street vendors and domestic workers, among others. The workers will be issued an e-Shram card containing a 12 digit unique number, which, going ahead, will help in including them in social security schemes, officials said.
Portal will help build a comprehensive National Database of Unorganized Workers (NDUW) in the country. The government had earlier missed deadlines for creating the database, inviting criticism from the Supreme Court.
The registration of workers on the portal will be coordinated by the Labour Ministry, state governments, trade unions and CSCs, officials said.
A national toll free number — 14434 — will also be launched to assist and address the queries of workers seeking registration on the portal.

Source : PIB

28 AUGUST 2021 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS | UPSC CDS CAPF AFCAT NDA SSB

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