Today’s Current Affairs: 14th Apr 2023 for UPSC IAS exams, State PSC exams, SSC CGL, State SSC, RRB, Railways, Banking Exam & IBPS, etc
Table of Contents
Chichen Itza:
A stone scoreboard used in an ancient soccer-like ball game has been discovered at the famed Mayan Chichen Itza archaeological site in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.
- The circular piece, measuring just over 32 centimetres in diameter and weighing 40 kilograms displays hieroglyphic writing surrounding two players standing next to a ball that was discovered on this site.
- Chichen Itza was one of the greatest Mayan centres of the Yucatán peninsula.
- This city was established during the Classic period close to two natural cavities (cenotes or chenes), which gave the town its name.
- Mayan people ruled for over 1,000 years and left their mark on the city.
- It is thought to have been a religious, military, political, and commercial centre that at its peak would have been home to 35,000 people.
- It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988.
Bishnoi Community : Protest
People from the Bishnoi community are protesting against the “widespread” felling of Khejri trees for setting up solar power plants in Rajasthan.
- Bishnoi community belong to a Hindu religious sect found in the Western Thar Desert and some northern states of India.
- They trace their origins to the teachings of Guru Jambhesvara who was born to a Panwar Rajput family in 1451 AD at Peepasar village of Nagore district in Western Rajasthan.
- They strictly forbid the harming of trees and animals.
- They believe in protecting the environment and can die doing it so.
- The person of this community are inspired and gets inspiration from Amrita Devi, a Bishnoi woman who was killed in 1730 while trying to protect a grove of khejri trees.
- Khejri tree is considered a sacred tree in Rajasthan.
- It is also called jant or janti in areas like Alwar, Sikar, Jhunjhunu,
- It is a nitrogen-fixing tree which enhances the fertility of the soil.
- The fruit is used to make the very popular local dish ‘Sangri’
National Career Service Portal:
Around 35.7 lakh vacancies have been reported by employers on the National Career Service portal during the year 2022-23 compared to around 13 lakh vacancies in 2021- 22.
- National Career Service portal is one of the mission-mode projects under the umbrella of the E-Governance Plan.
- It was launched in the year 2015.
- It works towards bridging the gap between job-seekers and employers, candidates seeking training and career guidance and agencies providing training and career counselling by transforming the National Employment Service.
- It provides a host of career-related services such as dynamic job matching, career counselling, job notifications, vocational guidance, and information on skill development courses, internships and alike.
- The project is being implemented by the Directorate General of Employment, Ministry of Labour & Employment.
Juice Mission : European Space Agency
The European Space Agency is set to launch the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission to explore Jupiter and its icy moons, namely Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.
- Juice Mission launched from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 launcher.
- The mission is set to reach Jupiter in 2031.
- The spacecraft was constructed by Airbus Defence and Space, a division of the Airbus group.
- The main objective of the mission:
- To create detailed maps of the moons’ surfaces and look beneath them to probe the potential habitable environments by analyzing the water bodies underneath.
- To create a comprehensive picture of Jupiter by trying to understand its origin, history, and evolution.
- The focus will be on Ganymede (the largest moon in the Solar System, which generates its magnetic field).
- The three moons, Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa, are believed to hold immense amounts of water, potentially making them habitable.
- Juice isn’t equipped to detect life but can find out whether there could be places around Jupiter, inside the icy moons, where the necessary conditions, such as water, biological essential elements, energy, and stability, to sustain life are present.
Large Hadron Collider:
Currently, engineers are warming up the LHC for its third season of operations,with upgrades.
- Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest science experiment that smashes tiny particles called hadrons together at really high speeds. It uses protons as the particles and has a long circular pipe where they’re accelerated.
- LHC is expected to throw up evidence of “new physics” — or physics beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics, which explains how the basic building blocks of matter interact, governed by four fundamental forces.
- Working LHC studies the smallest known building blocks of matter. It fires two beams of protons almost at the speed of light in opposite directions, guided by the magnetic field of superconducting electromagnets
- Built by European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN)
- Located 27-km-long track loop buried 100m underground on the Swiss-French border
- Experiments: ATLAS, CMS
Zero Click Spyware:
An Israeli company’s (QuaDream Ltd) Spyware has been used against journalists, opposition figures and advocacy organizations across at least 10 countries – according to new research published Tuesday by Microsoft Corp and the internet watchdog Citizen Lab.
- Spyware refers to software programs that are designed to collect data from a computer or device without the user’s knowledge or consent.
- Zero Click Spyware is a no-interaction-needed hacking tool, known as “Zero-Click”, which can remotely compromise devices without an owner needing to open a malicious link or download a tainted attachment.
- Zero-click attacks are a type of cyber-attack where a device or system is compromised without any interaction or action from the user.
- Zero-click attacks often rely on zero-days, which are vulnerabilities that are unknown to the software maker and for which no fix is presently available.
Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF):
Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) in Andhra Pradesh have yielded more produce than conventional methods.
- Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) is a method of chemical-free agriculture drawing from traditional Indian practices.
- It was originally promoted by agriculturist and Padma Shri recipient Subhash Palekar.
- He developed it in the mid-1990s as an alternative to the Green Revolution’s methods driven by chemical fertilizers, pesticides and intensive irrigation.
- Objective is to bring down the cost of production to nearly zero and return to a pre-green revolution style of farming.
25 Years Of Good Friday Agreement:
American President ,Joe Biden visited Belfast to mark 25 years of Good Friday Agreement.
- The Good Friday Agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement is a historic peace agreement that ended the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.
- It was was signed on April 10, 1998.
- It was signed between factions of Northern Ireland, and the governments of Britain and Ireland.
- Objective is to end decades of violence in Northern Ireland among those who wished to remain with the United Kingdom (UK) and those who wanted to join Ireland.
- The negotiators included then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, then-Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, George Mitchell, a former Democratic senator who acted as the envoy of then-US President Bill Clinton, and eight parties from Northern Ireland.
- The aim of the agreement was to establish a power-sharing government.
- The Good Friday Agreement was put to a referendum on May 22, 1998.
- It gained the approval of 94% of voters in Ireland and 71% in Northern Ireland.
