Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 3rd October 2022

Encyclopedia On Tribal Communities:

Odisha became the first state in the country to start an encyclopedia on tribal communities.

• Unveiled by chief minister Naveen Patnaik, the five edited volumes of ‘Encyclopedia of Tribes in Odisha’ has 418 research articles on the tribals, including 13 particularly vulnerable groups
• The encyclopaedia was published by Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Research and Training Institute (SCSTRTI) and Odisha State Tribal Museum.
• The purpose of this book is to preserve the rapidly changing cultural identity of tribal communities in the state.
• It brings together both published and unpublished data regarding the tribes’ ethnography and development over the years, covering their past as well as the present.

Global Methane Pledge:

Global Methane, Climate and Clean Air (GMCCA) Forum 2022 is being held in Washington, DC, USA to discuss opportunities to protect the climate and improve air quality with a special focus on methane by adhering to the Global Methane Pledge.

• The Forum is a joint event sponsored by the Global Methane Initiative (GMI) and the UNEP-convened Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC).
• GMI is an international public-private partnership focused on reducing barriers to the recovery and use of methane as a clean energy source.
• It provides technical support to deploy methane-to-energy projects around the world that enable Partner Countries to launch methane recovery and use projects.
• India is a partner country of GMI.
• High-level plenary sessions will be held on global efforts to reduce methane and other short-lived climate pollutants.
• The forum will outline policy, political and scientific arguments for global ambition on methane action. They also aim to define a path forward.
• The Global Methane Pledge was launched at COP (Conference of Parties) 26 in November 2021 to catalyse action to reduce methane emissions.
• It was led by the United States and the European Union.
• It has 111 country participants who together are responsible for 45% of global human-caused methane emissions.
• India, which is not a part of the Global Methane Pledge, is among the top five methane emitters globally.
• Most emissions can be traced back to agriculture.
• By joining the Pledge, countries commit to work together in order to collectively reduce methane emissions by at least 30% below 2020 levels by 2030.

36th National Games:

The 36th National Games was inaugurated by the Prime Minister in Gujarat.

• The Olympic movement, which garnered the attention of the nation in the 1920s, includes the National Games.
• The National Games in India were first envisioned as the Indian Olympic Games with the goal of promoting Olympic sports in the nation.
• The first edition of the Indian Olympic Games at Lahore in an undivided Punjab in 1924.
• The Indian Olympic Games were named as National Games beginning in 1940.
• This competition sets athletes from several Indian states with one another in a variety of sporting disciplines.
• 36th National Games:
  • The National Games, being held after seven years, will witness India’s best athletes compete in 36 disciplines in six cities of Gujarat.
  • Mascot: The Official mascot for the 36th National Games is “SAVAJ”, it portrays a sportsman’s most prominent personality traits of self-confidence, vigour, a strong sense of motivation, an inner desire to succeed, a strong sense of focus, a natural leader, and a goal setter

UNESCO Lists 50 Iconic Textile Crafts:

UNESCO released a list of 50 exclusive and iconic heritage textile crafts of the country.

• One of the major challenges to the safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in South Asia is lack of proper inventory and documentation.

Some of the Important Textiles Crafts Listed:

• Toda embroidery and Sungudi from Tamil Nadu
• Himroo weaves from Hyderabad
• Bandha tie and dye weaving from Sambalpur in Odisha
• Kunbi weaves from Goa
• Mashru weaves and Patola from Gujarat
• Himroo from Maharashtra
• Garad-Korial from West Bengal
• Ilkal and Lambadi or Banjara embroidery from Karnataka
• Sikalnayakanpet Kalamkari from Tamil Nadu
• Khes from Haryana
• Chamba rumals from Himachal Pradesh
• Thigma or wool tie and dye from Ladakh
• Awadh Jamdani from Varanasi

M777 Ultra Light Howitzer:

The Indian Army is inducting the M777 Ultra Light Howitzer on the northern borders.

• The M777s are a key component of the army’s field artillery rationalisation plan (FARP), cleared in 1999.
• The 155 mm/39-caliber M777 howitzers have a range of up to 30km, but it is capable of striking targets at ranges of more than 40 km in some areas where the geography allows the shells to fly in rarefied air.
• Built with titanium and aluminum alloys, the howitzers weigh 4,218 kg.
• In contrast, 155mm towed guns weigh twice as much.
• The Indian Air Force’s CH-47F Chinook helicopters can carry the howitzers as underslung load for swift deployment in high-altitude areas.

Telecom Technology Development Fund Scheme:

Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) recently launched Telecom Technology Development Fund scheme.

• Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) aims to fund R&D in rural-specific communication technology applications and form synergies among academia, start-ups, research institutes, and the industry to build and develop the telecom ecosystem.
• Additionally, the Scheme aims to promote technology ownership and indigenous manufacturing, create a culture of technology co-innovation, reduce imports, boost export opportunities and creation of Intellectual Property.
• Under the scheme, USOF is also targeting to develop standards to meet countrywide requirements and create the ecosystem for research, design, prototyping, use cases, pilots, and proof of concept testing, among others.
• The scheme entails grants to Indian entities to encourage and induct indigenous technologies tailor-made to meet domestic needs.

Swachh Survekshan 2022:

President Droupadi Murmu presents awards as part of Azadi@75 Swachh Survekshan 2022.

• Indore has been adjudged the cleanest city of India for the sixth year in a row, while Madhya Pradesh is the cleanest state in the country.
• Surat is the second cleanest city and Navi Mumbai comes a close third in the category of cities with a population more than a lakh.
• Visakhapatnam was adjudged the fourth cleanest city in the country (In over 10 lakh population category).
• In the population category of less than one lakh, Panchgani and Karad from Maharashtra bagged the first and third positions respectively, while Patan from Chhattisgarh bagged the second position.
• Tirupati received the best city award in Safai Mitra Suraksha category, while Haridwar in Uttarakhand received the award for the best Ganga town in more than one lakh population cities.
• Bijnor ranked first among Ganga towns with less than one lakh population, followed by Kannauj and Garhmukhteshwar.
• Maharashtra’s Deolali was adjudged the country’s cleanest Cantonment Board.
• Shivamogga in Karnataka received the fast mover city award.
• Tripura got the cleanest State award in the “less than 100 urban local bodies category”.

China’s Zhurong Rover:

China’s Zhurong rover has peered under the surface of Mars and has found evidence of two huge floods that shaped the landscape.

• Since May 2021, Zhurong has been exploring Utopia Planitia, in Mars’s northern hemisphere.
• Images from the rover’s ground-penetrating radar found layered patterns under the surface, which are made of sedimentary rocks carried in by two major floods around 1.6 billion years ago.
• China’s Zhurong rover landed in the Utopia Planitia, a 2,000-miles-wide (3,300 kilometers) basin in the Northern Hemisphere of Mars, in May 2021.
• Since then, the rover has been studying local geology, chemical composition of rocks, and local weather conditions using its six scientific instruments.
• Zhurong has already completed its primary mission of 90 sols. But the rover is continuing its way to the south of its landing site, collecting data as it goes.