Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 1st December 2022

Tribal Development Report 2022:

India’s tribal communities form 8.6 percent of the country’s population according to the 2011 Census.

• The Tribal Development Report 2022, launched by the Bharat Rural Livelihood Foundation (BRLF) in two volumes, claims to be the first of its kind since 1947.
• The report stated that indigenous communities of India have been pushed farther away from alluvial plains and fertile river basins into the harshest ecological regions of the country like hills, forests, and drylands.
• The goal is to inform stakeholders, including key policymakers, practitioners, activists, and academics, to help understand the scope of tribal issues.

Mauna Loa : World’s Largest Active Volcano Erupted After 38 Years

Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, erupted after 38 years recently.

• Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that together make up the Big Island of Hawaii, which is the southernmost island in the Hawaiian archipelago.
• It’s not the tallest (that title goes to Mauna Kea) but it’s the largest and makes up about half of the island’s land mass.
• It sits immediately north of Kilauea volcano, which is currently erupting from its summit crater.
• Kilauea is well-known for a 2018 eruption that destroyed 700 homes and sent rivers of lava spreading across farms and into the ocean.
• Mauna Loa last erupted 38 years ago.

Semi-Automated Offside Technology : Football World Cup

Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is using Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT) for offside decisions in the ongoing football world cup.

• The point of the offside rule is to prevent attacking players from perpetually camping in front of the opponent’s goal.
• Semi-Automated Offside Technology is a support tool for the video match officials and the on-field officials to help them make faster, more reproducible and more accurate offside decisions.
• There are two parts to the technology — a sensor inside the match ball that is held using suspension technology, and existing tracking tools that are part of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system.
• Every time the ball is hit, data is sent in real time (at a whopping 500 frames per second) to a network of antennae installed around the playing field.
• Additionally, there are 12 Hawk-Eye cameras set up around the turf that shadow both the ball and the players, with as many as 29 separate points in the human body tracked.
• The coming together of the ball sensor and the Hawk-Eye cameras is in effect SAOT.
• These two data sets are run through artificial intelligence software which generates automated alerts about offsides to the match officials.
• This replaces the manual effort taken in poring over replays for minutes on end.

CCUS Policy Framework And Its Deployment : NITI Aayog Report

NITI Aayog has released a study report, titled ‘Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) Policy Framework and its Deployment Mechanism in India’.

• The report explores the importance of Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage as an emission reduction strategy to achieve deep decarbonization from the hard-to-abate sectors.

Key Highlights of the Report:

• CCUS can provide a wide variety of opportunities to convert the captured CO2 to different value-added products like green urea, food and beverage form application, building materials, chemicals (methanol and ethanol), polymers (including bio-plastics) and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) with wide market opportunities in India, thus contributing substantially to a circular economy.
• CCUS projects will also lead to a significant employment generation. It estimates that about 750 mtpa of carbon capture by 2050 can create employment opportunities of about 8-10 million on full time equivalent (FTE) basis in a phased manner.

Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage:

• CCUS encompasses methods and technologies to remove CO2 from the flue gas and from the atmosphere, followed by recycling the CO2 for utilization and determining safe and permanent storage options.
• CO2 captured using CCUS technologies is converted into fuel (methane and methanol), refrigerants and building materials.
• CCUS is considered an important tool to help countries halve their emissions by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050.
• These goals are crucial to meet the Paris Agreement targets for restricting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (°C), and preferable to 1.5°C, over pre-industrial levels.

What Is Fujiwhara Effect?

With typhoon Hinnamnor and another tropical storm called Gardo, meteorologists observed a phenomenon called the Fujiwhara Effect.

• Typhoon Hinnamnor, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Henry, was a very large and powerful tropical cyclone in Pacific Ocean that impacted Japan and South Korea.
• The Fujiwhara Effect is any interaction between tropical storms formed around the same time in the same ocean region with their centres or eyes at a distance of less than 1,400 km, with intensity that could vary between a depression (wind speed under 63 km per hour) and a super typhoon (wind speed over 209 km per hour).
• The interaction could lead to changes in the track and intensity of either or both storm systems.
• In rare cases, the two systems could merge, especially when they are of similar size and intensity, to form a bigger storm.

Saharsa(Bihar) : First District To Be Declared Paperless

Saharsa became the first district in Bihar to be declared paperless (e-office) with an aim to end the Great Indian Red Tape.

Red Tape:

• It is a derisive term for excessive regulation or rigid conformity to formal rules that is considered redundant or bureaucratic and hinders or prevents action or decision-making.
• It is usually applied to the government but can also be applied to other organisations like corporations.
• It generally includes the filling out of seemingly unnecessary paperwork, obtaining of unnecessary licenses, having multiple people or committees approve a decision and various low-level rules that make conducting one’s affairs slower and/or more difficult.
• In addition to time and money spent filling out forms, red tape reduces productivity and innovation in businesses.
• Small businesses are particularly burdened by this and may discourage people from starting up a new business.
• Because of red tape, contracts are not enforced consistently, and administration is delayed, resulting in delayed justice, especially for the poor.
• The burden of red tape requirements prevents many to enjoy their rights due to delayed governance and delayed distribution of welfare measures.
• The delays caused by government processing and the costs associated with them remain a source of dissatisfaction among citizens.
• Red Tapism leads to a sense of loss of trust in the government’s process most of the time, leaving citizens with unresolved problems.
• Each new government scheme is met with red tape that eventually kills the larger objective for which it was launched.
• Lack of proper monitoring, delayed release of funds, etc., are common associated issues connected to Red Tapism.
• According to a World Bank study, corruption increases with increasing red tape.
• By complicating the normal flow of businesses, bureaucracy breeds corruption and lowers growth.

First Pilot For The Retail Digital Rupee : RBI

The Reserve Bank of India announced the launch of the first pilot for the retail digital Rupee on 1st December 2022.

• Eight banks have been identified for phase-wise participation in this pilot.
• The first phase will begin with four banks including State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank in four cities across the country.
• Four more banks, including Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank will join this pilot subsequently.
• The pilot would initially cover four cities, including Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar and later extend to Ahmedabad, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna and Shimla.
• The scope of the pilot may be expanded gradually to include more banks, users and locations as needed.
• The pilot would cover select locations in a closed user group – CUG comprising participating customers and merchants.
• The digital Rupee would be in the form of a digital token that represents legal tender.
• Users will be able to transact with digital Rupee through a digital wallet offered by the participating banks and stored on mobile phones.
• Transactions can be both Person to Person and Person Merchant.
• Payments to merchants can be made using QR codes displayed at merchant locations.

iNCOVACC : World’s First Intranasal Vaccine Gets Approval

World’s first Intranasal Vaccine iNCOVACC has recently received approval for Covid booster doses from Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).

• It is developed by Bharat Biotech International Limited.
• It was developed in partnership with Washington University, St Louis, which had designed and developed the recombinant adenoviral vectored construct and evaluated in pre-clinical studies for efficacy.
• The approval is under Restricted Use in Emergency Situation for ages 18 and above in India, for heterologous booster doses.
• iNCOVACC is a recombinant replication deficient adenovirus vectored vaccine with a pre-fusion stabilised SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
• It is the world’s first intranasal vaccine to receive both primary series and heterologous booster approval.
• The vaccine candidate was evaluated in Phases I, II and III clinical trials with successful results and has been specifically formulated to allow intranasal delivery through nasal drops.
• It is stable at 2-8 degrees Celsius for easy storage and distribution.

International Jaguar Day 2022:

The National Zoological Park, New Delhi (Delhi Zoo) recently celebrated the International Jaguar Day.

• International Jaguar Day is observed annually on November 29.
• International Jaguar Day was created to raise awareness about the increasing threats facing the jaguar and the critical conservation efforts ensuring its survival.
• It celebrates the Americas’ largest wild cat as an umbrella species for biodiversity conservation and an icon for sustainable development and the centuries-old cultural heritage of Central and South America.
• This is the third largest Cat Predator of the World and an important species of Amazon Rainforest.
• International Jaguar Day also represent the collective voice of jaguar range countries, in collaboration with national and international partners, to draw attention to the need to conserve jaguar corridors and their habitats as part of broader efforts to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Jaguars (Panthera onca):

• Jaguars (Panthera onca) are often mistaken for leopards, but can be differentiated due to the spots within the rosettes on their coats.
• While many cats avoid water, jaguars are great swimmers, and have even been known to swim the Panama Canal.
• They’re typically found in tropical rainforests but also live in savannas and grasslands.
• Conservation:
  • Jaguars are classified as Near-threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
  • The species has national protections in almost every country it’s found, and trade in its parts is banned by CITES.

Exercise ‘Samanvay 2022’:

Indian Air Force is conducting the Annual Joint Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Exercise “Samanvay 2022” from 28th to 30th November 2022 at Air Force Station in Agra.

• The exercise aims to provide a unique platform for the exchange of domain knowledge, experience and best practices with the participating Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries.
• Various representatives of the ASEAN countries are participating in the exercise.
• The aim of the exercise includes assessing the efficacy of institutional Disaster Management structures and contingency measures.
• The exercise will promote a synergistic approach by involving various institutions like the Armed Forces, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Border Roads Organisation (BRO), India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Civil Administration.
• The exercise would aid in the evolution of institutional frameworks for effective communication, interoperability, cooperation and their application for the successful conduct of HADR.
• In India, NDMA is the apex statutory body for disaster management.
• It was formally constituted on 27th September 2006, in accordance with the Disaster Management Act, 2005 with Prime Minister as its Chairperson.
• Indian defence forces, under the aegis of Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQ IDS), have been carrying out HADR operations within the country as well as outside the country.
• The defence forces can deliver during various HADR contingencies because of their expertise in damage assessment, evacuation, setting up of relief infrastructure, restoring communication and providing medical facilities, distributing ration supplies, clothing etc.