Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 1st February 2023

ICC Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2023:

India beat England in the first-ever ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup final on Sunday.

• Chasing a meagre 69, India lost Shafali Verman and Shweta Sehrawat early.
• But G Trisha and Soumya Tiwari built a partnership to guide India home.
• India bowled out England for a paltry 68 after England’s batting once again faltered in a crunch game.
• Titas Sadhu did the damage early on and picked up the in-form Liberty Heap in the first over and off-spinner Archana Devi also bowled well to dent England right at the start.
• The rest of the bowlers chipped in with regular breakthroughs as the England batting lineup had no answers.
• India Women U19 won by 7 wkts

Global Report On Neglected Tropical Diseases 2023:

According to the “Global report on neglected tropical diseases 2023” report published on World NTD Day — January 30, 2023, by World Health Organization (WHO), Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) continue to disproportionately impact the most impoverished members of the international community, living in areas with inadequate water safety, sanitation and access to health care.

• Neglected Tropical Diseases are a group of 20 conditions mainly prevalent in tropical areas where people do not have access to clean water or safe ways to dispose of human waste.
• They are caused by various pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi, and toxins.
• NTDs are most common among marginalized communities in the developing regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
• 16 countries accounted for 80 per cent of the global NTD burden. Globally, nearly 1.65 billion people were estimated to require treatment for at least one NTD.
• The document also highlighted the tremendous effects COVID-19 had on community-based initiatives, access to healthcare facilities, and healthcare goods supply chains.
• As a result, between 2019 and 2020, 34 per cent fewer persons received treatment for NTDs.

Guidelines For Uplinking And Downlinking Of Television Channels In India 2022:

The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry issued a fresh advisory for the implementation of the Guidelines for Uplinking and Downlinking of Television Channels in India 2022.

• Uplink is a term used to describe a communication line used to send electronic messages to satellites.
• On the other hand, downlinking refers to the communication path utilised to receive the satellite’s electronic communications.
• The Union Cabinet had approved the 2022 Guidelines to ease the issue of permissions to the companies/ limited liability partnerships (LLPs) registered in India for –
  • Uplinking and Downlinking of TV Channels,
  • Setting up of Teleports/ Teleport Hubs,
  • Use of Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG)/ Satellite News Gathering (SNG)/ Electronic News Gathering (ENG) systems,
  • Uplinking by Indian News agencies and temporary uplinking of a live event.
• The content need not be of 30 minutes at a stretch and shall be accounted for cumulatively on a monthly basis i.e. 15 hours per month.
• The broadcasters have the liberty to modulate their content.
• The topics of national importance and social relevance embedded in the programmes broadcast by private TV channels would qualify for their obligation.
• The broadcasters would be required to submit a monthly report on the Broadcast Seva Portal on compliance.
• The broadcasters will have to keep a record of the content telecast for 90 days.

World Economic Outlook 2023:

The International Monetary Forum recently released the World Economic Outlook.

• According to the report, the Inflation in India is to reduce to 6.8% in March 2023.
• Further by the end of 2023, the inflation will reduce to 5%.
• In 2024, Indian Inflation will be 4%.
• The report also said that global inflation is to reduce to 6.6% in 2023. It was 8.8% in 2022.
• The Consumer Price Index is to decrease in more than 84% of the world’s countries
• Global inflation will fall down to 6.6% in 2023. In 2024, it will further reduce to 4.3%
• In developed economies like the US, France, and Russia the average inflation is to reduce to 4.6% in 2023.
• Further, it will reduce to 2.6% in 2024. It was 7.3% in 2022.
• In developing economies like East Asian and South Asian countries, the inflation is to reduce to 8.1% in 2023. Further, it will reduce to 5.5% in 2024. In 2022, the inflation in these economies was 9.9%
• In Low – Income countries the inflation is to reduce to 8.6% in 2024. In 2022, the inflation here was 14.2%

Bio Asia Forum 2023:

The State Government of Telangana, along with the Union Government, and several other international organizations organize the BIO ASIA forum in the Genome Valley.

• The forum is one of the largest international biotech forums in the world.
• And several leading biotech companies look forward to it.
• In 2023, India joins hands with the UK government in hosting the forum.
• The theme of the 2023 Bio Asia Forum :Shaping the Next Generation: Advancing for ONE
  • ‘O’ in ONE stands for One Health. It aims to integrate different ecosystems with the aim of safeguarding the future
  • ‘N’ in ONE stands for Next Generation Health. Under this, the forum will aim to use disruptive technologies in the biotech field. The disruptive technologies are Artificial Intelligence, Block Chain, and data science
  • ‘E’ in ONE stands for Equity: Here, the aim is to provide quality health care for all

Inauguration Of Khelo India Youth Games 2022:

The Union Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs inaugurated the 5th edition of Khelo India Youth Games 2022 in Madhya Pradesh at the Tatya Tope Nagar Stadium (Bhopal).

• Around 6000 players from across the country will try their sports skills for more than 900 medals in 27 sports events of these games.
• For the first time sports like kayaking, canoeing, canoe slalom and fencing will be part of the Khelo India Youth Games.
• The theme for this edition is – ‘Hindustan Ka Dil Dhadka Do’.
• The Khelo India Youth Games was started in 2018 under the name Khelo India School Games.
• The aim of these games is to find and groom sports talents at the local level and train them for national and international sports events.

World Leprosy Day 2023:

World Leprosy Day is observed on the last Sunday of January every year.

• In India, it is observed on 30th January every year, coinciding with the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
• The theme of World Leprosy Day 2023 is “Act Now. End Leprosy.
• Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by a type of bacteria, Mycobacterium leprae.
• The disease predominantly affects the skin and peripheral nerves if left untreated, the disease may cause progressive and permanent disabilities.
• The bacteria are transmitted via droplets from the nose and mouth during close and frequent contact with untreated cases.
• The majority of annual new case detections are from South-East Asia.
• It is a neglected tropical disease (NTD) which still occurs in more than 120 countries, with more than 200 000 new cases reported each year.
• The Government Of India has launched National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP) to make India leprosy free.
• It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme under the umbrella of the National Health Mission (NHM).
• It is implemented in all the States/UTs.

Layoff Of Employees:

The International Business Machines Corp (IBM) has announced that it would be laying off about 3,900 employees.

• It is the latest in the series of Big Tech layoffs in 2022, the tech sector alone shed more than 1,50,000 employees, with several more job cuts being announced since the start of the new year, over 40,000.
• The biggest tech companies in the US (Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook-owned Meta) have accounted for 51,000 of the tech layoffs in recent months.

Reason:

• The Covid-19 Pandemic had already slowed down the growth and in 2022, when the pandemic eased, Russia invaded Ukraine and central banks around the world started sounding caution about an impending recession.
• These companies are apprehensive of potential economic recession, with inflation soaring in most parts of the world.
• Growth has indeed slowed down from pandemic levels, analysts also project that the five big tech companies, including Apple, are headed to report dismal profits for the October to December (2022) period.
• A Reuters analysis states that Amazon is expected to report that earnings fell 38% and revenue grew at the slowest pace in more than 22 years.
• Cost-cutting is one of the main reasons for lay off because the companies are not making enough profits to cover their expenses or because they need substantial extra cash to address paying off debt.
• Indian Startups have also faced this trouble with media reports saying that more than ten thousand employees have been laid off by startups in mainly the edtech and ecommerce sectors in 2022.
• Along with the ease in pandemic, peoples’ sparing more time on internet has gone down, resulting in heavy losses to these big tech companies.
• During Pandemic the overall consumption saw an upsurge following which the companies went to increase their output to meet the market requirements, which has significantly come down.

Formation Of Three Grievance Appellate Committees:

The Union government notified the formation of three Grievance Appellate Committees (GACs) that will address user complaints against social media and other internet-based platforms.

• These panels will also be empowered to oversee and revoke content moderation-related decisions taken by these platforms.
• Each of the three GACs will have a chairperson, two whole-time members from different government entities and retired senior executives from the industry for a term of three years from the date of assumption of office.
• The First Panel: It will be chaired by the chief executive officer of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• The Second Panel: It will be chaired by the joint secretary in charge of the Policy and Administration Division in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
• The Third Panel: It will be chaired by a senior scientist at the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY).
• The GACs will deal with two categories of disputes:
  • Violation of law and rights of users including the right to free speech and privacy
  • Contractual dispute between a platform’s community guidelines and a user
• The GACs will act also act as a layer of a tech-sector regulator that the MeitY is expected to prescribe under the upcoming Digital India Bill, which is the successor to the Information Technology Act, 2000.
• The GACs will adopt an online dispute resolution mechanism where the entire appeal process, from its filing to the final decision, will be done online.
• Any person aggrieved by a decision of the grievance officer of a social media intermediary will be allowed to file an appeal to the GAC within a period of thirty days.
• The GAC will have to deal with the appeal and resolve it within a month of receipt of the appeal.

Project ELLORA:

Microsoft Research is helping preserve ‘rare’ Indian languages with its Project ELLORA (Enabling Low Resource Languages) in India.

• Microsoft researchers under this project have been working toward creating digital ecosystems for Indian languages that do not have enough presence online,
• The main goal of the Project is to impact underserved communities through enabling language technology by creating economic opportunities, building technological skills, enhancing education and preserving local languages and cultures for future generations.
• Microsoft Research (MSR) has chosen to focus on three languages namely; Gondi, Mundari and Idu Mishmi.

Senna Spectabilis : Plan To Eradicate

The Nodal Centre for Biological Invasions (NCBI) at the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) has recently come out with a management plan to eradicate Senna spectabilis.

• Based on the results of the experimental study done at the Periyar Tiger Reserve, the plan envisages landscape-level management of the tree.
• The two key factors considered in developing the management protocol were the fast nature of the spread of the tree in natural forests, and the restoration of natural forests based on landscape.
• Senna spectabilis is an invasive species.
• It is introduced as an ornamental species and for use as firewood from South and Central America.

Sariska Tiger Reserve : Relocation Of Sloth Bears

After successful reintroduction of tigers at the Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR), the forest department is planning to relocate a pair of sloth bears at the reserve.

• It is located in the Aravalli hills in the Alwar district of Rajasthan
• It was declared as a wildlife reserve in 1955 and then a Tiger Reserve in 1978 under Project Tiger.
• It is the first reserve in the world which successfully relocated tigers.
• Sariska is also famous for old temples, palaces and lakes such as Pandu Pol, Bhangarh Fort, Ajaibgarh, Pratapgarh, Siliserh Lake and Jai Samand Lake.
• Flora: salar, kadaya, dhak, gol, ber , Banyan , gugal , bamboo , kair , adusta etc
• Fauna: Bengal tigers, leopard, jungle cat, Indian jackal, chital, chinkara, four-horned antelope, Indian peafowl, grey partridge, Indian peafowl, Indian eagle-owl etc.

Sloth Bear:

• Sloth bears are one of the eight bear species found across the world.
• Scientific name: Melursus ursinus
• They mainly inhabit the region of India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.
• They have long, shaggy dark brown or black fur and curved claws, which are the longest out of any of the bear species.
• Conservation Status:
  • IUCN: “Vulnerable”
  • Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Schedule 1

D4 Drone System : To Be Showcased At Aero India 2023

The D4 anti-drone system which was used for security during the Republic Day parade is one of the products to be showcased at Aero India 2023.

• The Drone Detect, Deter and Destroy system (D4S) is the first indigenously developed anti-drone system to be inducted into the Indian Armed Forces.
• It is developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).
• Purpose is to detect rogue drones that are likely to attack most vulnerable places.
• D4 system can instantly detect and jam micro drones (Soft kill) and use a laser-based kill mechanism to terminate targets (Hard kill).
• It uses DRDO’s RF/Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) to detect the frequency which is being used by the controller and the signals are then jammed.
• It can detect and jam micro-drones at a distance of up to 3 km.
• It can lase a target 1-1.25 km far depending on the wattage of the laser weapon.

Aero India:

• It is a biennial air show and aviation exhibition held in Bengaluru, India at the Yelahanka Air Force Station.
• It is organised by the Defence Exhibition Organisation, Ministry of Defence.