Current Affair 1:

Global Biofuel Alliance (GBA)

 

News:

The Global Biofuel Alliance (GBA) is an initiative by India as the G20 Chair. It is an attempt to bring countries together to co-develop, accelerate technological advances in production processes, and advocate for the use of biofuels particularly in the transport sector. The three founding members, India, the U.S. and Brazil, were joined by Argentina, Canada, Italy and South Africa, who are also G-20 member countries. The three founding members of the GBA produce 85% of global biofuels and consume about 81% of it.

1G or 2G?

In the production of first-generation, or 1G bioethanol, the source of these sugars is starch. Starch is found in feedstocks such as cereals (wheat, barley, corn and sorghum) and sugarcane.

In second-generation bioethanol, the sugar sources are cellulose and hemicelluloses. These are found in feedstocks such as wheat straw, corn stover, wood, agricultural residues and municipal solid waste. The GBA has emphasised that its focus would be to develop 2G ethanol.

Why is there a renewed focus on biofuels?

1.  severe disruptions to global crude oil supplies following the Ukraine war.
2. India, for instance, imports 87% of its crude oil, and it is the main reserve currency expenditure for the country.
3. With transport accounting for about one-quarter of global carbon emissions, there have been renewed attempts to accelerate the decarbonising of this sector.

 

Current Affair 2:

Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII)

 

The U.S., along with G7 partners the U.K., Japan, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, and the European Union (EU), had in 2021 announced the launch of the Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative with the aim of narrowing the $40 trillion infrastructure gap in the developing world. PGII is therefore, a relaunch of Mr. Biden’s B3W plan.

On 26 June 2022, the initiative was relaunched and renamed as the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) at the 48th G7 summit in Germany.

What kind of projects will the PGII undertake?

All PGII projects will be driven by “four priority pillars that will define the second half of the 21st century”. First, the G7 grouping aims to tackle the climate crisis and ensure global energy security through clean energy supply chains. Second, the projects will focus on bolstering digital information and communications technology (ICT) networks facilitating technologies such as 5G and 6G internet connectivity and cybersecurity. Third, the projects aim to advance gender equality and equity, and lastly, to build and upgrade global health infrastructure.

PGII is an initiative for funding infrastructure projects across the world, seen as a counter to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

A PGII project has been announced in India. On the other hand, India has stayed away from China’s BRI, being wary of Beijing’s aim to increase its influence in the Indian Ocean Region.

Current Affair 3:

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)

 

In May 2016, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOPNG), introduced the ‘Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana’ (PMUY) as a flagship scheme with an objective to make clean cooking fuel such as LPG available to the rural and deprived households which were otherwise using traditional cooking fuels such as firewood, coal, cow-dung cakes etc.

Usage of traditional cooking fuels had detrimental impacts on the health of rural women as well as on the environment.

An adult woman belonging to a poor household and not having LPG connection in her household, will be eligible under UJJWALA 2.0. The beneficiaries should belong to any of the following categories:

1. Eligible as per SECC 2011 list
2. Belongs to SC/ST households, be a beneficiary of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), Forest dwellers, Most Backward Classes (MBC), Tea and Ex-Tea Garden Tribes, People residing in river Islands (Beneficiary will submit supporting document)
3. If she is not falling in the above 2 categories, then she can stake her claim to be a beneficiary under Poor household by submitting 14-point declaration (as per prescribed BELOW(DON’T LEARN THIS)

Current Affair 4:

Tool developed can track cyberattacks targeting human

 

News:

A new cybercrime investigation tool would soon be able to track cyberattacks targeting humans, like insurance fraud, online matrimonial fraud and so on. The tool called TTPs (tactics, techniques and procedures)-based cybercrime investigation framework can help in tracking and classifying cybercrimes identifying chain of evidences required to solve the case and in mapping evidences onto the framework to convict criminals.

IIT Kanpur with support from Department of Science and Technology (DST) under National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems (NM-ICPS), developed a methodology and tool.

The technology can create an approximate crime execution path and suggest crime path based on user derived set of keywords. It can also compare modus operandi (Mode of Operation) used in different crimes and manage user roles and track activity for crime paths.

The TTPs-based investigation framework could be highly effective as it restricts the numbers of forms and methods the investigation can be conducted and primarily rely on criminals’ TTPs. This leads to precise and rapid conviction of cybercriminals.

Current Affair 5:

Kharif Crop sowing hectares

 

The Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare has released progress of area coverage under kharif crops as on 8th September 2023.

Just check once the data below. I observed one thing that so much millets awareness is going on, but the production area is still same.

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