Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 26th January 2023

SCO Meet : To Be Held In August 2023

The Shanghai Cooperation Meet is to be held in August 2023 under India’s chairmanship.

• 2023 is India’s year as the country is hosting two major international meets the SCO and the G-20.
• The Global South looks up to these meetings.
• SCO members rotate the chairmanship amongst themselves.
• As a responsible chairperson, India has invited Pakistan and China as they are also members of SCO along with Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

Theme:

• SCO meet is to be held under the theme “FOR A SECURE SCO”. Here SECURE includes the following concept:
  • S: Security for citizens
  • E: Economic Development
  • C: Connectivity
  • U: Unity
  • R: Respect
  • E: Environmental Protection

Nagaland Orange Festival:

Nagaland is celebrating the Orange Festival for two days.

• Nagaland Fruit Festival is being organized in the state to praise the hard work of orange growers.
• Revenue from oranges in the state almost doubled recently.
• The festival is to be celebrated in Rusoma village near Kohima.
• The 2023 Nagaland Fruit festival is the third edition.
• The Nagaland Fruit festival was organized by the Rusoma Village council.
• Council joined hands with the horticultural department in conducting the festival.

Skyglow : New Study

A new study has found that non-natural light had increased the brightness of Skyglow, by 9.2-10% every year between 2011 and 2022 with significant ecological, health and cultural implications.

• Researchers have analyzed a global database of what the dimmest star visible from a particular location is; the database had more than 51,000 entries submitted by citizen scientists.
• The Skyglow, is an omnipresent sheet of light across the night sky in and around cities that can block all but the very brightest stars from view.
• The brightening of the night sky over inhabited areas because of streetlights, security floodlights and outdoor ornamental lights cause the Skyglow.
• This light floods directly into the eyes of the Nocturnal (active at night) and also into the skies and misleads their path.
• ‘Skyglow’ is one of the components of light pollution.
• The Skyglow had brightened around 6.5% over Europe, 10.4% over North America, and 7.7% over the rest of the world.
• The finding is significant because it disagrees with satellite-based data, which has indicated that the rate of increase has been around 2% per year.
• The discrepancy is probably the result of the satellites being unable to ‘sense’ blue light emitted by LEDs and to study light that is emitted parallel to the ground.

WEF’s Gender Gap Reports : Changes

The World Economic Forum (WEF) will take into account the participation of women at the panchayat level to rank countries in its future Global Gender Gap reports.

• This will improve India’s position at the global level
• Currently India ranks 135 Out Of 146 in the 2022 Gender Gap report
• Global Gender Gap Index is the longest-standing index which tracks progress towards closing Gender gaps over time since its inception in 2006
• The World Economic Forum is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Switzerland.
• It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab.

National Tourism Day 2023:

National Tourism Day is celebrated every year on January 25 to recognize India’s natural beauty and raise awareness about the importance of tourism for the Indian economy.

• India is one of the top tourist attractions for visitors from all around the globe. Hence tourism holds so much importance in India, both in cultural and economic terms.
• India provides a diverse portfolio of tourism, including eco-tourism, cruises, business, sports, educational, rural, and medical travel.
• The Ministry of Tourism in India is responsible for formulating the country’s national policies for developing and promoting tourism.
• It also collaborates with local, national, and international organisations.
• India ranks 6th according to World Travel and Tourism Council in terms of Travel & Tourism total contribution to GDP in 2021.
• Travel & Tourism contributed 5.8% to GDP and the sector created 32.1 million jobs, which is equivalent to 6.9% of total jobs in 2021.

Inner Core Of The Earth : Recent Study

A recent study says that the inner core of Earth seems to have stopped spinning in the same direction as the rest of the planet.

• Inner core of the Earth is the innermost layer of the Earth.
• It is a solid metallic ball made mainly of iron.
• The inner core is solid due to the pressure caused by the weight put on it by the Earth’s other top layers.
• It is distinct from the outer core, which is a liquid.
• The inner core has an average radius of 1220 km.
• The boundary between the inner and outer cores is located at approximately 5150 km below the surface of the Earth.
• This boundary is called the Lehman Seismic Discontinuity
• Inner core temperatures reach extraordinary levels, estimated to be between 7,200–8,500ºF (4,000–4,700ºC).
• It is predicted to have very high thermal and electrical conductivity.
• The inner core generates its own magnetic field and spins a bit faster than the rest of the planet.

What Is Doomsday Clock?

Atomic scientists reset the “Doomsday Clock” recently, moving its hands to 90 seconds to midnight – closer than ever before to the threat of annihilation.

• Doomsday clock is a symbolic timepiece showing how close the world is to ending.
• The hands of the clock are moved closer to or further away from midnight based on the scientists’ reading of existential threats at a particular time.
• It warns how many metaphorical “minutes to midnight” humanity has left.
• It is intended to warn the public and inspire action.
• A Chicago-based non-profit organization called the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists updates the time annually based on information regarding catastrophic risks to the planet and humanity
• The clock was created in 1947 by a group of atomic scientists, including Albert Einstein, who had worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the world’s first nuclear weapons during World War Two.
• When it was created in 1947, the placement of the Doomsday Clock was based on the threat posed by nuclear weapons.
• In 2007, the Bulletin began including catastrophic disruptions from climate change in its hand-setting deliberations.
• The furthest the clock has been set was 17 minutes to midnight, in 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Many Olive Ridley Turtle Found Dead In The Godavari Region:

Hundreds of Olive Ridley turtles were found dead in their breeding grounds between Kakinada and Antarvedi in the Godavari region of India’s east coast.

• The Olive Ridley turtles are the smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in the world.
• They are best known for their unique mass nesting called Arribada, where thousands of females come together on the same beach to lay eggs.
• They are carnivores and get their name from their olive-colored carapace, which is heart-shaped and rounded.
• They are mainly found in the warm waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans.
• Odisha’s Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary is known as the world’s largest rookery (a colony of breeding animals) of sea turtles.
• Conservation status:
  • IUCN Red List:Vulnerable
  • Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Schedule 1
  • CITES Appendix I
• The initiative was taken to protect the Olive Ridley turtle
• Operation Olivia: Every year, the Indian Coast Guard’s “Operation Olivia”, initiated in the early 1980s, helps protect Olive Ridley turtles as they congregate along the Odisha coast for breeding and nesting from November to December.

Norovirus : Cases Detected In Kerala

The Kerala Health Department recently confirmed two cases of the gastrointestinal infection Norovirus in class 1 students in the Ernakulam district.

• The Norovirus, also known as the “winter vomiting bug,” causes vomiting and diarrhoea.
• The most common infective agent is contaminated water or food.
• The virus spreads via faeces to the mouth.
• Consuming contaminated food or liquids, touching contaminated surfaces or objects, or coming into direct contact with an infected person.
• Symptoms: Acute gastroenteritis is caused by inflammation of the stomach or intestine. Diarrhoea, vomiting, nausea, and stomach ache are also symptoms. Fever, headaches, and muscle pain may also persist.
• The symptoms usually appear 12 to 48 hours after the virus has been exposed.
• It affects particularly children, the elderly, and people suffering from other illnesses.

What Are Green Comets?

Astronomers recently spotted a comet using the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) in the US, which is appearing near earth after nearly 50,000 years.

• Comets are frozen rocky or gas-filled objects that are remnants of the formation of the solar system.
• The solid portions of a comet which is mostly water ice with embedded dust particles.
• When near the sun, the icy cometary surfaces vaporise and emit large amounts of gas and dust, resulting in a massive atmosphere and tails.
• The fluorescence of these gases, and especially the reflection of sunlight from the minute dust particles in the comet’s atmosphere and tail, is what gives these objects their visual impact.
• Just like other bodies in space, comets also have orbits.
• They are sometimes pulled in close to the sun because of the sun’s gravity acting on them.
• The orbit indicates this comet comes from the edge of our solar system, a distant reservoir of comets we call the Oort cloud.
• The Oort cloud is thought to be a big, spherical region of outer space enveloping our sun, consisting of innumerable small objects, such as comets and asteroids.
• Laboratory research has linked this green-like aura to a reactive molecule called dicarbon, which emits green light as sunlight decays it.

BharOS : Mobile Operating System

BharOS, an indigenous mobile operating system was developed by JandK Operations Private Limited, a non-profit organization incubated at IIT Madras and funded by the Department of Science and Technology.

Features of BharOS:

• BharOS is a mobile operating system similar to Android or iOS; it is based on an AOSP (Android Open Source Project) operating system and does not use any Google apps or services.
• It would support Native Over The Air (NOTA) updates as well as No Default Apps (NDA).
• It has a minimalistic home screen with the Indian flag, a list of app categories, and a selection of apps that have passed the OS’s trust and security standards.
• It will employ the Private App Store Services (PASS) system to examine and curate apps that are safe for users.
• These systems enable smartphone users to interact with their devices and access their features while also ensuring their safety.
• The current version of BharOS includes third-party apps such as DuckDuckGo and Signal by default.

13th National Voters Day : Theme

The Election Commission of India is celebrating the 13th National Voters’ Day on 25th January 2023.

• National Voters’ Day has been celebrated on January 25 every year since 2011, all across the country to mark the foundation day of the Election Commission of India, i.e. 25th January 1950.
• The main purpose of the celebration is to create electoral awareness amongst citizens and encourage them to participate in the electoral process.
• Dedicated to the voters of the country, National Voters’ Day is also used to facilitate the enrolment of voters, especially the newly eligible young voters.
• The theme for 2023: Nothing Like Voting, I Vote for Sure.