Current Affair 1:

World Restoration Flagships: Namami Ganga Initiative

 

The United Nations has recognized 10 ground-breaking efforts from around the globe for their role in restoring the natural world. The winning initiatives were unveiled at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal.

The initiatives were declared World Restoration Flagships and are eligible to receive UN-backed promotion, advice or funding.

They were selected under the banner of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global movement coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It is designed to prevent and reverse the degradation of natural spaces across the planet.

Important is Namami Gange initiative is under 10 selected.

In revealing the World Restoration Flagships, the UN Decade seeks to honour the best examples of large-scale and long-term ecosystem restoration, embodying the 10 Restoration Principles of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

 

Current Affair 2:

Carbon Capture Technologies:

 

Carbon capture technologies rely mainly on two basic principles, chemical absorption and physical separation. Both constitute the basis of technologies that are well-known in the oil and gas industry for natural gas processing such as amine solvents and solid adsorbents.

The technologies focusing on CO2 removal before combustion are classified as Precombustion capture technologies, the most advanced ones, present in the Oil and Gas industry.

Post-combustion capture technologies, on the other hand, focus on CO2 removal from flue gas, where the concentration of CO2 is lower, a challenge that recent technology developments have been focusing on to overcome in an increasingly efficient manner.

Lastly, oxyfuel combustion focuses on modifying the combustion process so that the flue gas has a high concentration of CO2 to enable an easier separation. These technologies can be further sub-divided depending on the applied separation mechanism:

Current Affair 3:

Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM)

 

The Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM) is being implemented for development and conservation of indigenous bovine breeds since December 2014. The scheme is important in enhancing milk production and productivity of bovines to meet growing demand of milk and making dairying more remunerative to the rural farmers of the country.

The scheme is also continued under umbrella scheme Rashtriya Pashudhan Vikas Yojna from 2021 to 2026 with a budget outlay of Rs.2400 crore. The RGM will result in enhanced productivity and benefit of the programme, percolating to all cattle and buffaloes of India especially with small and marginal farmers. This programme will also benefit women in particular since over 70% of the work involved in livestock farming is undertaken by women.

Objectives

1. 1. To enhance productivity of bovines and increasing milk production in a sustainable manner using advance technologies.
   2. To propagate use of high genetic merit bulls for breeding purposes.
   3. To enhance Artificial insemination coverage through strengthening breeding network and delivery of Artificial insemination services at farmers doorstep.
   4. To promote indigenous cattle & buffalo rearing and conservation in a scientific and holistic manner.

Funding Pattern

1. All the components of Scheme will be implemented on 100% grant-in-aid basis except the components of:
2. accelerated breed improvement programme under the component subsidy of Rs 5000 per IVF pregnancy will be made available to participating farmers as GoI share;
3. promoting sex sorted semen under the component subsidy up to 50% of the cost of sex sorted semen will be made available to participating farmers and
4. establishment of breed multiplication farm under the component subsidy up to 50% of the capital cost maximum up to Rs.2.00 crore of the project will be made available to entrepreneur.

 

Current Affair 4:

India launches ‘Group of Friends’ to promote accountability for crimes against peacekeepers

 

India has launched a ‘Group of Friends’ to promote accountability for crimes against peacekeepers.

Mr. Jaishankar said that the Group of Friends represents the "political will" of member states, particularly of the troop and police contributing countries, to champion the implementation of the provisions of U.N. Security Council resolution 2589, which was adopted in August last year under India’s Presidency of the Council.

Resolution 2589 had called upon member states, hosting or having hosted United Nations peacekeeping operations, to take all appropriate measures to bring to justice perpetrators of the killing of, and all acts of violence against United Nations personnel, including, but not limited to, their detention and abduction.

Mr. Jaishankar said the UNSC resolution was co-sponsored by more than 80 member states and unanimously adopted by the Council.

It is, therefore, very befitting that this ‘Group of Friends’ being launched today under India’s ongoing Presidency of the UNSC, will seek to promote accountability in practical terms both within and outside the UNSC.

The resolution had also called on member states to take all necessary measures to investigate such acts and arrest and prosecute perpetrators of such acts in line with their national law, consistent with applicable international obligations, including under international humanitarian law.

 

Current Affair 5:

What are dark patterns on the Internet?

 

Some Internet-based firms have been tricking users into agreeing to certain conditions or clicking a few links. The unsuspecting users would not have accepted such terms or clicked URLs (uniform resource locator), but for the deceptive tactics deployed by tech firms. Such acceptances and clicks are flooding inboxes of the users with promotional emails they never wanted, making it hard to unsubscribe or request deletion. These are examples of “dark patterns,” also known as “deceptive patterns.”

What are dark patterns?

Such patterns are unethical user interface designs that deliberately make your Internet experience harder or even exploit you. In turn, they benefit the company or platform employing the designs.

By using dark patterns, digital platforms take away a user’s right to full information about the services they are using, and reduce their control over their browsing experience.

How do companies use dark patterns?

Social media companies and Big Tech firms such as Apple, Amazon, Skype, Facebook, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Google use dark or deceptive patterns to downgrade the user experience to their advantage.

Amazon came under fire in the EU for its confusing, multi-step cancellation process for the Amazon Prime subscription. After communicating with consumer regulators, Amazon this year made its cancellation process easier for online customers in European countries.

In social media, LinkedIn users often receive unsolicited, sponsored messages from influencers. Disabling this option is a difficult process with multiple steps that requires users to be familiar with the platform controls.

Google-owned YouTube nudges users to sign up for YouTube Premium with pop-ups, obscuring the final seconds of a video with thumbnails of other videos — a way of disrupting what should have been an otherwise smooth user experience.

<< Previous Next >>