Current Affair 1:

State of Food and Agriculture Report

 

 

India’s total hidden costs of agrifood systems have reached approximately $1.1 trillion, making it the third-largest contributor in the world, following China and the United States, as revealed by the State of Food and Agriculture report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

Hidden costs in agrifood systems encompass various factors, including:

1. Environmental Costs: These include expenses associated with greenhouse gas emissions, nitrogen emissions, water usage, and land-use changes.
2. Health Costs: Hidden health costs result from losses in productivity due to unhealthy dietary patterns.
3. Social Costs: These costs are linked to poverty and productivity losses associated with undernourishment among agrifood workers.

The report also mentions about these three ratios:

Measuring the hidden costs of agrifood systems at national level in GDP PPP allows the costs to be compared to national indicators, such as agricultural gross value added (GVA) in PPP terms. This report, therefore, proposes three intensity indicators calculated as ratios between different types of cost (environmental, social or health) and different macroeconomic indicators. The higher the value of these indicators, the more damaging the hidden costs being considered relative to the benefits brought about by the agrifood activities causing those costs.

You don’t need to go in detail of these ratios.

Current Affair 2:

Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE)

 

News:

Very less you need to know about this treaty. Not very important.

The original Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) was negotiated and concluded during the last years of the Cold War and established comprehensive limits on key categories of conventional military equipment in Europe and mandated the destruction of excess weaponry.

On 7 November 2023, Russia withdrew from the treaty, and in response the United States and its NATO allies suspended their participation in the treaty.

The Treaty was signed in Paris on November 19, 1990 by 22 countries. These were divided into two groups:

the then-16 NATO members: The United States, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Belgium.

the then-six Warsaw Treaty states: Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union.

Current Affair 3:

Radiative Cooling Paint

 

News:

Researchers at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) Bengaluru, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, have introduced an innovative paint that utilizes radiative cooling.

Radiative cooling technology is a method designed to dissipate heat from an object by emitting thermal radiation into the atmosphere, allowing the object to become cooler.

It leads to creation of cool surfaces by emitting thermal radiation directly into the extremely cold universe (around 3 Kelvin), using the atmospheric transmission window (8 - 13 µm).

Notably, this process occurs without any reliance on electricity.

About Paint:

Radiative Cooling Paint:

1. It is derived from a novel magnesium oxide (MgO)-polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymer nanocomposite prepared from materials that are earth abundant, cheap, non-toxic and non-harmful.
2. It showcases remarkable cooling capabilities with high solar reflectivity and infrared thermal emissivity.
3. The MgO-PVDF with dielectric nanoparticles resulted in high solar reflectance (96.3%) and exceptional thermal emission (98.5%).

Current Affair 4:

‘3,000-year-old Iron Age’ geoglyph circle discovered in Telangana

 

News:

A geoglyph is a work of art which is created by arranging or moving objects within a landscape. These objects are usually stones or earth. In creating this art form the artist or group of artists arrange objects to create the art or remove objects in a structured pattern to create lines or spaces that contrast with the surrounding terrain to form the art work.

 

 

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