Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 3rd September 2022

CERVAVAC:

India’s first indigenously developed vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, CERVAVAC, will likely cost ₹200-400 a shot and be commercially available later this year, Adar Poonawalla, CEO, Serum Institute of India (SII), said.

• CERVAVAC, developed by SII, was approved by the Drug Controller General of India in July.
• CERVAVAC is a quadrivalent vaccine, meaning it is effective against at least four variants of cancer-causing Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), and resulted from a partnership of DBT’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that supported Serum’s development efforts.
• Annually, about 1.25 lakh women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and over 75,000 die from the disease in India.
• Close to 83% of invasive cervical cancers in India and and 70% of cases worldwide are attributed to HPV-types 16 or 18.
• HPV transmission is influenced by sexual activity and age.
• Almost 75% of all sexually active adults are likely to be infected with at least one HPV type. A vast majority of the infections resolve itself.

Super Typhoon Hinnamnor:

The strongest tropical storm of 2022, dubbed Super Typhoon ‘Hinnamnor’, has been barrelling across the western Pacific Ocean and is presently hurtling back towards the islands of Japan and South Korea, packing wind speeds of upto 241 kilometres per hour.

• As of September 1, 2022, the category 5 typhoon — the highest classification on the scale — was about 230 km away from Japan’s Okinawa prefecture.
• one of the factors contributing to the Super Typhoon rapidly intensifying and expanding is the fact that it has started absorbing other local meteorological systems.
• Warm tropical waters and other pre-existing meteorological disturbances have also led to the system’s escalation.

Vostok-2022:

An Indian Army contingent comprising troops from 7/8 Gorkha Rifles is participating in the multilateral strategic and command exercise ‘Vostok-2022’ which commenced at the training grounds of the eastern military district in Russia.

• The exercise also includes participation by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
• The exercise is aimed at interaction and coordination amongst other participating military contingents and observers.
• The exercise is scheduled to be held from Sept. 01 to 07.
• Russia has stated that Vostok-2022 will be conducted in two phases.
• Participating contingents include observers from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and other partner states.

Single-Use Plastic:

In keeping with the spirit of the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, the country is taking steps to curb littered and unmanaged plastic waste pollution.

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021 on August 12, 2021.
• In keeping with the spirit of the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, the country is taking steps to curb littered and unmanaged plastic waste pollution.
• Since July 1, 2022, India has banned the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale, and use of single-use plastic (SUP) items with low utility and high littering potential.
• India is a party to the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA).
• In all, 124 nations are party to the UNEA, and India has signed a resolution to draw up an agreement in the future that will make it legally binding for signatories to address the full life cycle of plastics, from production to disposal.

UGC Proposes Clustering Of Colleges:

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has finalised guidelines for transforming colleges and universities into multidisciplinary institutions and has prescribed three different approaches which include “clustering” of establishments located in proximity to each other.

• The UGC will make public its “Guidelines for transforming higher educational institutions into multidisciplinary institutions”.
• These aim to help State governments and universities frame appropriate rules and policies. Promoting multidisciplinary institutions was a key recommendation of the National Education Policy, 2020.
• The UGC has suggested academic collaboration between institutions through “clusters” of higher education institutions (HEIs) in order to promote multidisciplinary education and research in online and offline modes.
• The cluster system will help single-stream institutions with poor enrolment due to lack of employment-oriented, innovative multidisciplinary courses and lack of financial resources and help such centres improve their grades in National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) accreditation.

Mary Roy:

Mary Roy, educator and women’s rights activist, died at the age of 89.

• She is known for winning a Supreme Court lawsuit in 1986 against the gender biased inheritance law prevalent within the Syrian Malabar Nasrani community of Kerala.
• The judgement ensured equal rights for Syrian Christian women as with their male siblings in their ancestral property. Until then, her Syrian Christian community followed the provisions of the Travancore Succession Act of 1916 and the Cochin Succession Act, 1921, while elsewhere in India the same community followed the Indian Succession Act of 1925.
• Mary Roy was denied her share of the familial property due to the Travancore Succession Act of 1916. She sued her brothers after her father’s death.
• This was the case that made its way through the Indian court system and which she won.
• She was the founder-director of Pallikoodam (formerly Corpus Christi High School) at Kalathilpady, a suburb of Kottayam town in the state of Kerala.
• Her daughter is the Man Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy.

Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE):

Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) has produced the 1st instance of the utilisation of resources in a planet’s atmosphere to meet human needs

About MOXIE:

• It was sent by NASA on the Perseverence and made by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
• It works like a tree, splitting carbon dioxide absorbed from the atmosphere to produce pure oxygen.
• The instrument produced 6 grams of oxygen per hour, similar to a moderate-sized tree.
• Inside Moxie, Martian air is first filtered in and pressurised.
• “It is then sent through the Solid OXide Electrolyzer (SOXE), which electrochemically splits the carbon dioxide-rich air into oxygen ions and carbon monoxide.
• The oxygen ions are isolated and recombined to form breathable, molecular oxygen (O2).

Crime In India:

India reported over 50,000 cases in 2021

• Maximum from Telangana, UP, Karnataka and MH.
• Overall crime in India increased by 7.6% (seven point six).
• The increase in violent crimes and suicides in 2021 point to the indirect consequences of the pandemic
• Death due to suicide in 2021 — 12 per one lakh people was the highest in the last five years.
• Crime against children passes pre-pandemic level (2021 reported 49 lakh (one point four nine) such cases)
• Death due to road accidents increased by 14.3% ( fourteen point three)

Cri-MAC:

• Launched in 2020, It is the central government’s online platform meant to share information and coordinate action among law enforcement agencies on serious criminal incidents, including human trafficking.
• Several states have not updated and reported zero alerts on the Cri-Mac
• It is run by NCRB

Stockholm Junior Water Prize:

Annabelle M. Rayson, a student from Canada received the prestigious 2022 Stockholm Junior Water Prize for her research on how to treat and prevent harmful algae blooms.

• Harmful Algal Blooms, or HABs, occur when colonies of algae grow out of control and produce toxic or harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine mammals and birds.
• Stockholm Junior Water is an international competition where students aged 15 to 20 years present solutions to major water challenges.
• It has been organized every year since 1997 by the Stockholm International Water Institute, with Xylem, an American water technology provider.
• This prize is a popular part of the World Water Week.