Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 21st March 2023

Kudumbashree And Project Unnati:

The President attended celebrations of Kudumbashree and Project Unnati-associated events in Kerala.

• Kudumbashree, the Kerala State Poverty Eradication Mission was launched in May 1998.
• It was inaugurated by the Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
• Objective: to eradicate absolute poverty within a definite time frame of 10 years under the leadership of Local Self Governments formed and empowered by the 73rd and 74th Amendments of the Constitution of India.
• Kudumbashree strives to develop the model of a microfinance-led financial security process into a more comprehensive model of local economic development under the aegis of local governments.
• It was launched by the State Government with the active support of the Government of India and NABARD.
• Kudumbashree is formally registered as the “State Poverty Eradication Mission” (SPEM).
• State Poverty Eradication Mission (SPEM) is a society registered under the Travancore Kochi Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies Act 1955.
• Kudumbashree is a community organization of Neighborhood Groups (NHGs) of women in Kerala.
• It has been recognized as an effective strategy for the empowerment of women in rural as well as urban areas by bringing women together from all spheres of life to fight for their rights or for empowerment.
• It is implemented through Community Development Societies (CDSs) of Poor Women, serving as the community wing of Local Governments.

Project Unnati:-

• It is under the Union Rural Development Ministry.
• It is a skill-upgrading initiative established in 2020.
• Objectives:-
  • enhancing the beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA’s skill base and enhancing their quality of life.
    to offer training to one adult household member (between the ages of 18 and 45) who has worked 100 days under the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA in the fiscal year prior to the project’s start.

Matua Dharma Maha Mela:

The Prime Minister has urged people to visit Matua Maha Mela in large numbers and paid tribute to Shri Shri Harichand Thakur Ji for showing the path of kindness and service.

• The Mela is being organised to celebrate the 212th Birth Anniversary of Shri Shri Harichand Thakur ji.
• It highlights the vibrant culture of the Matua community.
• The Matua Community is a subset of lower-class AVARNA Hindus who belong to the Namasudra Scheduled Caste group and are also referred to as “Chandalas,”.

Harishchandra Thakur:

• He began a social and religious movement in 1860 in Orakandi, now in Bangladesh, and this movement eventually led to the creation of the Matua.
• This sect opposed caste oppression and later drew members from other communities, including Malis and Telis, that was ostracised by the upper castes.
• His devotees regard him as God and refer to him as Thakur, a Vishnu or Krishna avatar. As a result, he earned the name Sri Sri Harichand Thakur.
• He passed away in Bangladesh’s Faridpur district.
• His dedication towards raising awareness, spreading education & improving the condition of women in society is a bright beacon of hope for us to remain on the path of righteousness.

Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) Platform:

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor recently said that the TReDS platform introduced in 2014 for MSMEs to finance or discount their invoices — finances around 35,000 factoring units (FUs) monthly.

• Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) platform is an electronic platform for facilitating the financing/discounting of trade receivables of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) through multiple financiers.
• These receivables can be due from corporates and other buyers, including Government Departments and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).
• Purpose: To allow MSME sellers to discount invoices raised against major corporations, which helps them manage their working capital demands.
• The platform enables MSMEs to receive payments more quickly.
• Participants:
  • Sellers, buyers, and financiers are the participants on a TReDS platform.
  • Only MSMEs can participate as sellers in TReDS.
  • Corporates, Government Departments, PSUs, and any other entity can participate as buyers in TReDS.
  • Banks, NBFC – Factors, and other financial institutions, as permitted by the RBI, can participate as financiers in TReDS.
• RBI has not made it compulsory for any buyer, seller, or financier to participate in TReDS.
• The Government has made it compulsory for certain segments of companies to mandatorily register as buyers on the TReDS platform(s).
• The government directive, however, does not make it compulsory for these entities to perform transactions in TReDS.

Tamil Nadu Kasanoi Erappila Thittam:

The state of Tamil Nadu in India has successfully reduced early tuberculosis (TB) death rate through a new initiative called the Tamil Nadu Kasanoi Erappila Thittam (TN-KET).

• The initiative was launched in April 2022 and implemented in over 2,500 public healthcare facilities in 30 districts.
• It utilizes a differentiated TB care approach, assessing whether a patient needs ambulatory care or admission to a healthcare facility at the time of diagnosis.
• This approach has helped reduce early TB deaths from over 600 in April 2022 to less than 350 in December 2022.

herSTART:

The government has launched a new platform called ‘herSTART’ to encourage and promote women entrepreneurs.

• The platform was launched in October 2022 by the Gujarat University Startup and Entrepreneurship Council (GUSEC).
• The platform aims to provide resources and training modules free of cost to aspiring women entrepreneurs.
• It also provides a digital community for them, and a digital publication to spread their success stories.

Features:

• herSTART Incubator: Startup incubator for women entrepreneurs and innovators
• herSTART Accelerator: Accelerator programme for high-impact women-led startups.
• A monthly allowance of up to ₹20,000 for one year for women-led start-ups.
• This can be used as an example of the commitment of India to women’s entrepreneurship

Global Conference On Millets:

At the inaugural edition of the global conference on millets, the PM of India spoke about how millets, considered to be “high-fibre foods”, are effective for health.

• Based on India’s proposal, the year 2023 was declared the International Year of Millets (IYM) by the UNGA.
• In order to make the IYM 2023 a ‘people’s movement’ and position India as the ‘global hub for millets’, all stakeholders are being engaged to spread awareness about the benefits of millets for the Cultivator, Consumer and the organisation of the Global Millets (Shree Anna) Conference in India is an important programme in this context.
• It was organised by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

GPT-4 : OpenAI

OpenAI has recently launched its ChatGPT Plus subscription for Indian users, providing them with early access to the latest language model GPT-4.

• This move comes at a time when tech giants are competing to offer the best generative AI to the customers.
• According to OpenAI, GPT-4 is more advanced than its predecessors when it comes to creativity, visual comprehension and context.
• It also possesses the ability to collaborate with users on various creative projects, including music, screenplays, technical writing, etc.
• It can process up to 25,000 words of text and facilitate extended conversations.
• GPT-4 can encompass more than just text – it also accepts images as input.
• On the contrary, GPT-3 and GPT-3.5 only operated in one modality, text, allowing users only to ask questions by typing them out.
• GPT-4 is more multilingual and OpenAI has demonstrated that it outperforms GPT-3.5 and other Large Language Models (LLMs) by accurately answering thousands of multiple-choice across 26 languages.
• It handles English best with an 85.5% accuracy, but Indian languages like Telugu aren’t too far behind either, at 71.4%.

ChatGPT

• It is a variant of GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) which is a large-scale neural network-based language model developed by OpenAI.

Arrest Warrant For War Crimes For President Vladimir Putin : ICC

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for war crimes for President Vladimir Putin and a second Russian official.

• This is the first time that the ICC has issued an arrest warrant against one of the five permanent members of the United Nation Security Council.
• ICC issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for the alleged war crime of unlawfully deporting and transferring children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

International Criminal Court (ICC):

• It is an international organisation and international tribunal.
• It is headquartered in the Hague.
• The Court’s founding treaty, called the Rome Statute.
• India is not a party to Rome Statute along with US and China.
• It grants the ICC jurisdiction over four main crimes.
  • First, the crime of genocide is characterised by the specific intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group by killing its members or by other means: causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.
  • Second, the ICC can prosecute crimes against humanity, which are serious violations committed as part of a large-scale attack against any civilian population.
  • Third, war crimes are grave breaches of the Geneva conventions in the context of armed conflict.
  • The fourth includes crime falling within the ICC’s jurisdiction is the crime of aggression.

World’s First Sand Battery:

Finland has installed the world’s first sand battery that can store heat from renewable energy sources for months

• Sand Battery made of sand collected from construction sites, can solve the problem of round-the-year energy supply, a known limitation of renewable energy sources that can be harnessed intermittently.
• Sand can be heated up to 600 degrees Celsius (°C), whereas water starts to boil at 100°C.
• It also has low heat conductivity, which reduces energy loss.
• The storage system has three main components: the sand silo, an electrical air heater and an air-to-water heat exchanger.
• For charging the sand silo, the air is heated to 600°C in the electric air heater.
• The hot air is then circulated inside the silo using a heat-exchange pipe and blowers to raise the temperature of the sand at the silo’s core to 600°C.
• When the storage enters the discharging stage, the blowers are used to pump air into the pipe inside the sand silo.
• Once the air reaches 200°C, it is transferred to the air-to-water heat exchanger, where it is used to boil water. It is then sent to the heating network.
• The storage system requires electricity at all times.
• It is needed to charge the battery, monitor the temperature during standby and run the blowers when the battery is used.
• 1,000 times more power is discharged as heat than is used as electricity.

Sangita Kalanidhi Award Of The Music Academy For 2023:

Carnatic vocalist Bombay Jayashri has been selected for the Sangita Kalanidhi award of the Music Academy for 2023.

• Sangita Kalanidhi award is considered the highest award in the field of Carnatic music.
• The award is conferred by the Madras Music Academy.
• The award comprises a gold medal and a birudu patra (citation).
• It is a landmark institution in the history of the fine arts. It emerged as an offshoot of the All India Congress Session held in Madras in December 1927.
• Carnatic music is commonly associated with southern India including the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, but also practised in Sri Lanka.