Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 8th Sep 2023

Africa Climate Summit 2023:

Africa Climate Summit 2023 was inaugurated.

• Highlighting the urgent need for regional and global action, President William Ruto reminded us while inaugurating the Africa Climate Summit, 2023 (ACW23) on September 4, 2023, in Nairobi, Kenya.
• Africa Climate Summit 2023 was From 4th to 6th September 2023.
• Venue: Nairobi, Kenya. (Africa)
• The summit aims to address the increasing exposure to climate change and its associated costs, both globally and particularly in Africa.
• At the Africa Climate Summit, leaders will be called upon to make ambitious pledges and commitments.
• A comprehensive “Pledging and Commitment Framework” will be developed to guide these actions.
• The outcomes of the summit are critical for the African continent to arrive at a consensus and mobilize action in the lead-up to the upcoming 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to be hosted in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
• Theme & Focus Areas:-
  • Climate Action Financing.
  • Green Growth Agenda for Africa.
  • Climate Action and Economic Development.
  • Global Capital optimization.

Gramodyog Vikas Yojna : Distribution Of Honey Bee-Boxes And Toolkits

The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena, distributed Honey Bee-Boxes and Toolkits under the ‘Gramodyog Vikas Yojna’ recently.

• The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena, distributed Honey Bee-Boxes and Toolkits to 130 beneficiaries.
• The program was organized under the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, State Office Delhi, Government of India.
• Addressing the occasion, Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena emphasized the vital role played by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission in generating employment opportunities in rural India.

Gramodyog Vikas Yojna:-

• Launched: March 2020.
• Ministry: Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME)
• Objective: assisting and developing of agarbatti industry and its artisans.
• The programme aims to enhance the production of ‘Agarbatti’ in the country.
• It aims to create sustainable employment for the traditional Artisans, by providing them with regular employment and an increase in their wages.

National Teachers Award 2023:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with the winners of the National Teachers Award 2023.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with the winners at his official residence in New Delhi on the eve of Teachers’ Day.
• Seventy-five award winners participated in the interaction.
• The Prime Minister appreciated the efforts of teachers in nurturing the young minds of the country.

National Teachers Award 2023:-

• Objective is to recognize the distinctive contributions of some of the finest faculty members in the country and honor them.
• The Award seeks to recognize and honour the unique and path-breaking achievements of faculty members in teaching, research, institutional service, community outreach, and novelty of work in the field of higher education.
• The ceremony is held on 5th September every year.
• The award is open to all the faculty members of colleges/universities/higher educational institutions in India, satisfying the following conditions:-
  • Should be a regular faculty member.
  • Should have at least five years of full-time teaching experience at the Undergraduate and/or Post-graduate level.
  • Should not be above 55 years of age as of the last date of receiving application for the awards.

Rayagada Shawls And Koraput’s Kala Jeera Rice : GI Tag

Rayagada shawls, and Koraput’s kala jeera rice are most likely to get GI tags.

Rayagada shawls:-

• From Rayagada district in Odisha.
• It is also called Kapdaganda.
• It is the handwoven shawls weaved by the Dongria Kondhs of Odisha.
• Dongria Kondhs: Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) community in Odisha.
• The shawl is weaved and embroidered with their tribal motifs.
• It has been an age-old practice in the Dongria Kondh tribal community.
• It has become an important source of income for 1,800 tribal women in Rayagada district.
• These traditional shawls are being sold far and wide. (Pashmina Shawls)

Koraput’s kala jeera rice:-

• From Koraput district in Odisha.
• The rice is grown in Koraput district’s Tolla, Patraput, Pujariput, Baliguda, and Mohuli areas.
• The farmers of Koraput district have domesticated Kalajeera rice over generations.
• It is called the ‘Prince of Rice’.
• It is an aromatic variety of rice.

CSIR PRIMA ET11 : Electric Tractor

CSIR-CMERI developed a Compact Electric Tractor- CSIR PRIMA ET11.

• CSIR PRIMA ET11 is an indigenously designed, compact, 100% Pure Electric Tractor. ( First-ever Electric Tractor)
• It can tow a 8-ton capacity trolley with a max speed of 25 mph. (Tractor industry)
• Objective is to cater to small and marginal farmers of India.
• It caters to the demands of agriculture field applications.
• Its dynamics, weight distribution, transmission engagements, then lever and pedal position everything has been well designed.
• It has been made women-friendly with all the levers, switches, etc. being placed for an easy approach to the women.
• Many mechanical systems are also being replaced with electronic switches for easy operations.
• It has a state-of-the-art Lithium-ion battery with Prismatic cell confirmation.
• When the tractor is not in operation, its battery power can be utilized for other secondary applications like pump and irrigation, etc.
• The farmers can charge the tractor using a conventional home charging socket in 7 to 8 hours and operate the tractor for more than 4 hours at the field.

Malaviya Mission:

The Union Minister for Education unveiled the Malaviya Mission – Teacher Training Programme initiated by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.

• The program aims to enhance the quality of education by providing customised training for teachers in higher educational institutions.
• It aspires to equip 15 lakh teachers across India with the skills needed to meet the goals of the National Education Policy (NEP).
• Renaming of Human Resource Development Centres (HRDCs) as Madan Mohan Malaviya Teachers’ Training Centres was also announced.

Same-Sex Partnerships : Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s top court has ruled in favour of recognising same-sex partnerships but stopped short of granting full marriage rights to the city’s LGBTQ community.

• The court gave the government two years to come up with a legal framework for legal recognition of same-sex partnerships.
• In 133 countries homosexuality decriminalised, but only in 32 of them same-sex marriage is legal.
• Hong Kong does not allow or grant same-sex marriage or unions, even though homosexuality has been decriminalized in the city since 1991.
• Activists had been hoping the court would declare that the denial of same-sex marriage breached equal rights protections in the city’s mini-constitution.
• Judges ruled the freedom to marry was guaranteed under the mini-constitution but that it only referred “to heterosexual marriage.”
• Instead, the judges ruled in a majority verdict that there was a need for “an alternative framework” granting legal recognition to same-sex couples “to provide them with a sense of legitimacy, dispelling any sense that they belong to an inferior class of persons whose relationship is undeserving of recognition.”

Kuiper Belt:

Astronomers have recently found compelling evidence suggesting the existence of an Earth-like planet in the distant Kuiper Belt of our solar system.

• Kuiper Belt also called the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, is a flat ring of small icy bodies that revolve around the Sun beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune.
• It is named after Gerard Kuiper, a Dutch-American astronomer who hypothesised the existence of such a region in the 1950s.
• There are millions of these icy objects, collectively referred to as Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) or trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), in this belt.
• The Kuiper Belt is a region of leftovers from the solar system’s early history.
• It is thought to be the source of most of the observed short-period comets, particularly those that orbit the Sun in less than 20 years.
• The Kuiper Belt is primarily composed of small icy bodies, such as dwarf planets, asteroids, and comets.
• Pluto, once considered the ninth planet in our solar system, is one of the most well-known Kuiper Belt objects.
• In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet, partly because of its location within the Kuiper Belt.