Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 19th May 2022

INS Surat And Frigate INS Udaygiri:

The Defence Minister launched the Indian Navy destroyer warship INS Surat and frigate INS Udaygiri in Mumbai.

INS Surat:

• ‘Surat’ is the fourth ship of Project 15B Destroyers which heralds a significant makeover of the P15A (Kolkata Class) Destroyers.
• The first ship (Visakhapatnam) of this class was commissioned in 2021. The second (Mormugao) and third (Imphal) ships have been launched and are at different stages of outfitting/ trials.
• It is named after the commercial capital of the state of Gujarat and also the second largest commercial hub of western India after Mumbai.
• Surat city has a rich maritime & ship building history and vessels built at the city in the 16th and 18th centuries were known for their longevity (of more than 100 years).
• The ship Surat has been built using the Block construction methodology.
• This methodology includes hull construction at two different geographical locations and has been joined together at MDL, Mumbai.

INS Udaygiri:

• It is the third ship of Project 17A frigates.
• The ship ‘Udaygiri’ is named after a mountain range in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
• ‘Udaygiri’ is the reincarnation of erstwhile ‘Udaygiri’, the Leander Class ASW Frigate, which saw numerous challenging operations in its illustrious service to the country spanning over three decades from 1976 to 2007.

Progress under P17A:

• Under the P17A program, a total of seven ships, with 04 at Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL), Mumbai and 03 at GRSE are under construction.
• Various novel concepts and technologies like Integrated Construction, Mega Block Outsourcing, Project Data Management/ Project Lifecycle Management (PDM/PLM) etc have been adopted for the first time in indigenous Warship Design and Construction in this project.

Eklavya Model Residential Schools:

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has laid the foundation stone for the construction of Eklavya Model Residential School (EMRS) in Nashik, Maharashtra.

• The proposed EMR School aims to make quality education accessible to tribal students in remote tribal hinterlands of Nashik.
• EMRS is a scheme for making model residential schools for Indian tribals (ST- Scheduled Tribes) across India. It started in the year 1997-98.
• The Eklavya Model Residential School in Shinde (Nashik) has been planned by the Ministry Tribal Affairs to give impetus to quality education in nearby tribal areas.
• The EMR School follows the CBSE curriculum.
• Eklavya Model Residential Schools are being developed to impart quality education to tribal students, with an emphasis on not only academic education but all-round development of tribal students.
• At present, there are 384 functional schools spanned across the country established at par with Navodaya Vidyalaya with focus on special state-of-the-art facilities for preserving local art and culture besides providing training in sports and skill development.
• As per existing EMRS Guidelines of 2010, at least one EMRS is to be set up in each Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) / Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) having 50% ST population in the area.
• As per the budget 2018-19, every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal persons, will have an Eklavya Model Residential School by the year 2022.

Italian Open 2022:

The 2022 Italian Open was concluded recently on 15th May 2022

• It was classified as an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour Masters 1000 event on the 2022 ATP Tour and a non-mandatory event on the 2022 Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour.

Winners of the Italian Open 2022:

• Men’s singles: Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
• Men’s doubles: Nikola Mektić and Mate Pavić (Croatia)
• Women’s singles: Iga Świątek (Poland)
• Women’s doubles: Veronika Kudermetova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia).
• The Prize money is €6,008,725 for men and USD 2,527,250 for women.
• Italian Open 2022 was the 79th edition of the Italian Open.

Punjab ‘Lok Milni’ Scheme:

Bhagwant Mann, the Chief Minister of Punjab heard the grievances of the people of the state and issued redressal directions in ‘Lok Milni’, a first-of-its-kind public interaction programme that was launched on 16th May 2022.

• This interactive programme was launched with the aim of providing a platform to the people of the state for the redressal of the complaints that they have.
• The people of the state who had submitted various grievances and complaints with the state government in the previous two months were called to attend this programme.
• People from across the state attended this meet and placed their complaints in front of the CM.
• The complaints were regarding panchayat land encroachment, pending Shagun scheme, land disputes, etc.
• Along with the CM, the top government officials of the state were also present at this meeting.
• They attended the ‘Lok Milni’ programme so as to ensure that the complaints received were resolved immediately on the spot.

Inauguration Of ‘Sky Bridge 721’ Suspension Bridge:

After two years of construction, ‘Sky Bridge 721’ Suspension Bridge was inaugurated recently.

• It is the world’s longest suspension bridge. It broke the record of the currently longest bridge, the Arouca Bridge (516 meters long) located in Portugal.
• It is located between the crests of the Kralicky Snezník mountain in Dolní Morava village, Czech Republic.
• It spans the Mlýnský Stream valley from the ridge of Slamník Mountain to the ridge of Chlum Mountain.
• The length of the bridge is 721 meters.
• The width is 1.2 meters.
• Visitors will enter the bridge at an elevation of 1,125 meters and reach its highest point at 95 meters above ground level (1,116 above sea level).
• On the other side the bridge is 1,135 meters above sea level.
• Visitors can learn about the local history through an educational trail called The Bridge of Time, which contains elements of augmented reality (AR).
• It was prepared in cooperation with LESY ČR (Forests of the Czech Republic) and the Museum of Czechoslovak Fortifications of 1935–1938.

SRESTHA- Gujarat Project:

USD 350 million in aid has been approved by the World Bank for the “Systems Reform Endeavors for Transformed Health Achievement” in Gujarat or the SRESTHA-G project.

• This project will be costing USD 500 million and the World Bank is providing USD 350 million to support this project and the rest will be borne by the state government.
• This project aims on transforming key health delivery systems in Gujarat.
• This programme will also be focusing on the key areas of improving equity, quality, and inclusiveness of primary healthcare services for all adolescent girls in the state.
• It will also focus on the disease surveillance systems’ capacity.
• The project will also be aiming to increase the state’s quality of psychiatric and non-communicable disease services, and the quality of nutrition services for children and mothers.
• This project will be implemented by the state government of Gujarat through the Health and Family Welfare Department of the state.

India’s First 5G Testbed:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently opened India’s first 5G testbed, which will allow start-ups and industrial companies to test their products locally, eliminating reliance on international facilities.

• He added during the occasion that India’s own 5G standard, 5Gi, was a source of great pride for the country and that it will play a significant role in delivering 5G technology to the country’s villages.
• The 5G Radio Interface Technology, called 5Gi is a locally designed telecommunication network that has been designed by IIT Hyderabad, IIT Madras and the Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology.
• The technology will be an alternative to the global 5G standards.
• 5Gi offers more range at a lower frequency, which is the opposite of 5G. The latter works between the 700 MHz to 52,000 MHz bands and sacrifices on range.

Benefits of 5Gi:

• Using the 5Gi standard will allow telcos in the country to widen the 5G connectivity to villages.
• 5Gi can make sure there is no lag between the advancement of 5Gi in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and rural parts of the country.

XV World Forestry Congress:

The Seoul Forest Declaration was an outcome of the discussions held at the recently concluded XV World Forestry Congress in Seoul, South Korea.

• This was the second congress held in Asia, with Indonesia hosting the first Congress in Asia in 1978.
• Outcomes of XV World Forestry Congress:
  • The Assuring the Future of Forests with Integrated Risk Management (AFFIRM) Mechanism.
  • The Sustaining an Abundance of Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) initiative.

World Forestry Congress:

• The World Forestry Congress is held approximately once every six years.
• The first Congress was held in Italy in 1926.
• The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has helped host countries organize the Congress since 1954.
• Responsibility for the organization and financing of each Congress lies with the host country.
• Theme for 2022: Building a Green, Healthy and Resilient Future with Forests.
• The Congress is not an intergovernmental meeting; it has no formal constituencies nor country delegations.
• The Congress is a forum for the exchange of views and experiences on all aspects of forests and forestry, which may lead to the formulation of broad recommendations applicable at national, regional and global levels.

Seoul Forest Declaration:

• It identifies priority areas with potential to lead to a green, healthy and resilient future.
• It urges that responsibility for forests should be shared and integrated across institutions, sectors and stakeholders.
• Investment in forest and landscape restoration globally needs to triple by 2030.
• Move towards a circular bioeconomy and climate neutrality.

La Reunion:

The navies of India and France recently conducted their second joint patrolling in the French island of La Reunion in the South-Western Indian Ocean.

• Objective: To demonstrate “joint surveillance and patrolling operations” capabilities.
• La Reunion: is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France.
• It is located approximately 950km east of the island of Madagascar and 175 km southwest of the island of Mauritius.
• Réunion is an outermost region of the European Union and is part of the eurozone.
• Réunion and the fellow French overseas department of Mayotte are the only eurozone regions located in the Southern Hemisphere.

Malviya Mission:

Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan pitched in with an idea of a “Malviya Mission” to develop enabling ecosystem across the country for teacher education/faculty development.

• Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (1861 – 1946) was an Indian educationist and a Freedom Fighter.
• He was conferred the title of ‘Mahamana’ by Mahatma Gandhi. During his school days he started writing poems under the pen name ‘Makarand’ which were published in journals and magazines.
• He was a moderate leader. He was elected as the president of Indian National Congress four times in 1909, 1918, 1932 and 1933, but owing to his arrest by the Government of India, he could not preside over the 1932 and 1933 sessions which had been banned.
• He founded Banaras Hindu University (BHU) at Varanasi in 1916, which was created under the B.H.U. Act, 1915. He was Vice Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University from 1919–1938.
• He started the ‘Abhyudaya’ as a Hindi weekly in 1907 and made it a daily in 1915. He also started the ‘Maryada’ a Hindi monthly in 1910.
• He started the ‘Leader’ an English daily in 1909. He was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the ‘Hindustan Times’ from 1924 to 1946.

Bird Count India:

Uttarakhand reported the highest number of bird species, at 293, while the highest number of checklists (lists of birds seen and heard by birdwatchers), at 192, was uploaded from Jammu & Kashmir, according to the primary report from birdwatchers in the Himalayan regions of India, Nepal and Bhutan.

• Bird Count India is an informal partnership of organisations and groups interested in documenting and monitoring India’s birds.
• The initiative encourages birdwatchers to upload their bird lists to eBird (ebird.org/india), a global platform for bird observations.
• In India, the event was confined to Ladakh, J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, northwest Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh.

What Is An Urban Heat Island?

Several parts of the country are reeling under heat wave conditions. Cities, especially, are a lot hotter than rural areas. This is due to a phenomenon called an “urban heat island”.

• An urban heat island is a local and temporary phenomenon experienced when certain pockets within a city experience higher heat load than surrounding or neighbouring areas on the same day.
• These are not the typical islands around water bodies, but urban heat islands that record higher day temperatures than other localities.
• The temperature variation can range between 3 to 5 degrees Celsius.
• For example, a greener locality like Pashan in Pune often records cooler temperatures than urban areas like Shivajinagar, Chinchwad or Magarpatta.
• The variations are mainly due to heat remaining trapped within locations that often resemble concrete jungles.
• Rural areas have relatively larger green cover in the form of plantations, farmlands, forests and trees as compared to urban spaces.
• This green cover plays a major role in regulating heat in its surroundings.
• Cities usually have buildings constructed with glass, bricks, cement and concrete — all of which are dark-coloured materials, meaning they attract and absorb higher heat content.

Integration Of e-Shram Portal With One Nation One Ration Card Scheme:

The centre is in the process of integrating the e-Shram portal of the Ministry of Labour and Employment with the One Nation One Ration Card scheme.

• A comparison of the location data with permanent address data on e-Shram shall help identify migrant workers within e-Shram.

About the e-Shram Portal:

• Launched in August 2021 by the Union Ministry of Labour & Employment.
• It is a national database to register unorganised workers.
• The portal came into being after the Supreme Court directed the Government to complete the registration process of unorganised workers.
• Each registered worker will be issued an identity card, which can be used across the country to avail any benefits announced by the Government.

One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC):

• The ONORC scheme is aimed at enabling migrant workers and their family members to buy subsidised ration from any fair price shop anywhere in the country under the National Food Security Act, 2013.
• ONORC was launched in August, 2019.
• Implementing Agency: Department for the nation-wide portability of ration cards under National Food Security Act (NFSA).
• Eligibility: Any citizen, who is declared under Below Poverty Line (BPL) category is eligible to get the benefit of this scheme across the country.