Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 13th January 2023

White Tufted Royal Butterfly:

A team of butterfly observers and researchers have found White Tufted Royal Butterfly, a rare butterfly species at Kalliyad in Kannur district of Kerala.

• White Tufted Royal Butterfly is a rare species and is protected under Schedule 2 of the Wildlife Protection Act.
• The wingspan of the butterfly is just 32-40 mm.
• Its larvae feed on Scurrula parasitica, a plant belonging to the Loranthaceae family.
• The species had been previously spotted in Agasthyakoodam in 2017 and the Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary in 2018.

Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme:

The Union government has informed the Supreme Court that significant progress has been made in the computerization of land ownership records, as cadastral maps of 35% of over six lakh villages have so far been geotagged.

As per the Management Information System of Digital India land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP), out of 6,56,793 villages, Cadastral Maps have been Geo-referenced in 2,31,026 villages (35. 17%) and 1,17,38,272 number of maps have been digitized.

What is Digital India Land Record Modernisation Programme (DILRMP)?

• It is a Central Sector scheme that has been extended to 2023-24, to complete its original targets as well as expand its ambit with a slew of new schemes.In 2008, two schemes viz, Computerisation of Land Records (CLR) and Strengthening of Revenue Administration and Updating of Land Records (SRA&ULR) were merged into a modified scheme named DILRMP.
• It is being implemented by the Department of Land Resources under the Ministry of Rural Development.
• Aim: It attempts to build upon the commonalities that exist in the arena of land records in various States to develop an appropriate Integrated Land Information Management System (ILIMS) across the country.
• The ILIMS integrates all the processes and lands records databases with the banks, financial institutions, circle rates, Registration Offices and other sectors.
• Major components: Computerization of land records, Survey/re-survey, Computerization of Registration.

26th National Youth Festival:

Prime Minister of India will inaugurate the 26th National Youth Festival in Hubballi, Karnataka on 12 January 2023.

• The National Youth Festival is being held on National Youth Day, which is celebrated on the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, to honour and cherish his ideals, teachings, and contributions.
• Since 1985, the Indian Government is celebrating the birthday of Swami Vivekananda as National Youth Day.

Key facts about National Youth Festival 2023

• Theme of the festival 2023: Viksit Yuva Viksit Bharat.
• Adventure sports activities like scuba diving are included. Exhibitions of traditional sports like Kalaripayatu (Kerala), Silambam (Tamil Nadu), Gatka (Punjab), and Mallakhamb (Maharashtra) are being organized.
• Competitive cultural events like folk dance and folk song are organized where troupes from different states participate.
• Interesting non-competitive events include the social development fair ‘Yuva Kriti’. ‘Adventure Festival’, ‘Suvichar’, ‘Young artists camp’ among others.
• Many events in the festival will be live-streamed across the nation so that crores of young people can also be engaged with the entire festival.
• This year the festival is being celebrated as Green Youth Festival where only reusable cutlery, napkins etc are being used.

Digital India Awards 2022

President Droupadi Murmu recently conferred the Digital India Award 2022 – Gold to CBSE in the Data Sharing and Use for Socio-Economic Development category.

• CBSE’s pioneering IT initiative “Digital Academic Repository – Parinam Manjusha was selected for the Gold category.
• Other winners:
  • Platinum: E-NAM: for creating a unified national market for agriculture
  • Platinum Award: E-Vivechna App (MP): To help in Crime investigation in the State Crime Records Bureau of Madhya Pradesh
  • Mine Mitra (UP) for online approval of mining plan
  • Duare Sarkar (West Bengal) for doorstep delivery of services.

Digital India Awards:

• DIA aims to encourage and honour innovative digital solutions and initiatives by various government entities and startups (included in 2022 awards)
• Nodal Agency: Ministry for Electronics and Information Technology
• Implementation Agency: National Portal of India

What Is Generative AI?

Generative AI has become a ‘hot topic’ for technologists, investors, policymakers and society at large.

• Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that involves creating new, original content or data using machine learning algorithms.
• It can be used to generate text, images, music, or other types of media

Uses of Generative AI:

• Create realistic images and animations
• Text-to-image programs such as Midjourney, DALL-E and Stable Diffusion have the potential to change how art, animation, gaming, movies and architecture, among others, are being rendered
• Generative AI can be used to compose music and create art
• Create brand logo: E.g. many startups are exploring services like DALL.E2, Bing Image Create, Stable Diffusion, and MidJourney to create their brand logo
• Generate text messagesg. ChatGPT to generate news articles, poetry, and even code.
• Generative AI can be used to design and control robotic systems
• Automate things e.g. Microsoft-owned GitHub Copilot, which is based on OpenAI’s Codex model, suggests code and assists developers in autocompleting their programming tasks

Ottan Thullal : Dance Art Form Of Kerala

Ottan Thullal is a recite-and-dance art form of Kerala, India. It was introduced in the eighteenth century by Kunchan Nambiar, one of the Prachina Kavithrayam

• Seen at temple festivals and cultural programs, these performances use elaborate expressions and stories recited in verses to bring important mythological tales and stories to life.
• It is epitomized by humor, satire, and social criticism
• The costume and makeup of the performer are similar to that of a Kathakali artist
• The thullal performer is supported by a singer who repeats the verses and is accompanied by an orchestra of mridangam or thoppimaddalam (percussions) and cymbals.
• It has spawned into three separate versions which include- Ottanthullal, Seethankan thullal and Parayan thullal.

Ceiling Fans: Mandatory Star Labelling

Ceiling fans have come under the ambit of mandatory star labelling from January 1, as per the revised Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) norms.

• As high energy-efficient five-star rated fans will require new imported motors and electronic components, they would get costlier by 8% to 20%
• Star labelling denotes energy savings of a minimum of 30% for one-star rated fans to over 50% for five-star rated fans.
• Under the new mandate, manufacturers would have to display the star ratings on their fans.
• The star rating is dependent on service value (air delivery in cubic metres per minute divided by energy consumption in wattage in the case of fans).
• Star rating was introduced under the Standards and Labelling Program ( in 2006) for the visual representation of an appliance’s efficiency.
• Standards and Labelling Program comes under Energy Conservation Act, 2001.
• It is mandatory for many appliances to have star ratings such as Frost Free and Direct Cool Refrigerators, LED lamps, Rooms AC, Color TV, Refrigerators, TFL etc.

Reports On Child Mortality And Stillbirths:

Two global reports on child mortality (Levels and Trends in Child Mortality) and stillbirths (Never Forgotten) were released by United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME).

Findings of the Report:

• Globally, 5 million children died before their fifth birthday (under-five mortality) in 2021.
• Over half of these (2.7 million) occurred among children aged 1-59 months, while the remainder (2.3 million) occurred in just the first month of life (neonatal deaths).
• India’s share in these child mortalities was estimated around 7 lakhs under-five deaths; 5.8 lakhs infant deaths (death before first birthday); and 4.4 lakhs neonatal deaths.
• The global under-5 mortality rate fell by 50% since the start of the century, while mortality rates in older children and youth dropped by 36%, and the stillbirth rate decreased by 35%.
• This can be attributed to more investments in strengthening primary health systems to benefit women, children and young people.
• However, gains have reduced significantly since 2010, and 54 countries will fall short of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals target for under-5 mortality.
• Sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia continue to have the highest rates of child mortality, with children born in sub-Saharan Africa having the lowest chances of surviving.
• Access to and availability of quality health care continues to be a matter of life or death for children globally.
• Most child deaths occur in the first five years, of which half are within the first month of life.
• For these youngest babies, premature birth and complications during labour are the leading causes of death.
• For children that survive past their first 28 days, infectious diseases like pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria pose the biggest threat, the global health agency found.
• Globally, an estimated 1.9 million stillbirths happened in 2021.
• In 2021, the absolute estimated number of stillbirths in India (2,86,482) was greater than the death amongst children in 1-59 months of age (2,67,565).