Current Affair 1:

EU-India Trade and Technology Council

 

News:

The TTC was launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and President of the European Commission during the latter’s visit to India in April 2022. The inaugural Ministerial meeting of TTC was held in Brussels on 16 May 2023.

The EU-India Trade and Technology Council is the second such bilateral forum for the EU and the first one established with any partner for India. The EU and the US launched a TTC in June 2021.

The Trade and Technology Council will allow the EU and India to tackle strategic challenges at the nexus between trade, technology and security, and to deepen their bilateral cooperation. It should help ensuring the implementation of the political commitments in these key areas.

Working Groups: The TTC consists of three Working Groups (WGs) that report on roadmaps for future cooperation:

1. WG on Strategic Technologies, Digital Governance, and Digital Connectivity:
2. WG on Green and Clean Energy Technologies:
3. WG on Trade, Investment, and Resilient Value Chains

Trade: The EU is India’s 2nd-largest trading partner (after the US) and India’s 2nd-largest export market. India is the EU's 10th largest trading partner, accounting for 2% of EU total trade in goods.

Current Affair 2:

Central Geological Programming Board

 

News:

The Central Geological Programming Board (CGPB) is the apex body at the national level to overview the programme of geoscientific activities including mineral exploration in the country. It was established through Government of India Resolution dt. 27th July, 1966, and subsequently revamped vide Ministry of Mines in 2009.

The revamped CGPB coordinates activities on geological mapping, mineral prospecting, exploration and exploitation in the country.

The CGPB was constituted primarily to co-ordinate activities on geological mapping and mineral prospecting, exploration and exploitation in the country, with the Geological Survey of India (GSI) as the nodal department and the State Geology and Mining departments and Central Government institutions as the participating members.

 

Current Affair 3:

About IInvenTiv

 

News:

For the first time, all the 23 IITs of the country have come together for a mega Research & Development Fair which was held from October 14-15, 2022 at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi premises.

IInvenTiv is the first-of-its-kind, mega R&D fair, where all IITs, NITs, IISERs, IIITs and other top 50 ranked NIRF Institutions in the country are coming together to showcase the R&D happening there.

The IInvenTiv-2024 R & D Innovation Fair will present a diverse array of innovative projects, showcasing a total of 120 groundbreaking initiatives from 53 esteemed institutes.

The event is targeting five pivotal domains, including Affordable Healthcare, Agriculture & Food Processing, Sustainable Technologies including Climate change, E-mobility, Clean Energy, Defence and Space, and Industry 4.0, aligning with the thrust areas for Atma Nirbhar and Viksit Bharat.

Current Affair 4:

What is glacial lake outburst flooding and how does it affect the Himalayas?

 

GLOF is the term scientists use to describe the incident when the water levels of glacial lakes breach their boundaries, causing large amounts of water to flow into nearby streams and rivers. These also create flash floods. Experts attribute GLOFs to climate change and the increase of anthropogenic footprints on glaciers.

A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is a release of meltwater from a moraine- or ice-dam glacial lake due to dam failure.

GLOFs have three main features:

• They involve sudden (and sometimes cyclic) releases of water.
• They tend to be rapid events, lasting hours to days.
• They result in large downstream river discharges (which often increase by an order of magnitude).

Why are glaciers in the Himalayas shrinking?

There are 2,000 glacial lakes in the Himalayas of which over 200 are vulnerable to outbursts.

According to scientists:

There are varied reasons for the increase of GLOF threats in the Himalayas.

1. Glaciers in the Himalayas are shrinking very fast at the rate of 20 metre per year due to global warming.
2. This increases the threat of a GLOF.  Some glaciers may vanish in a few decades. In Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, most water requirements are met by glaciers.
3. Glaciers are retreating due to climate change and increase in the anthropogenic footprint in the glaciers.

How does a GLOF impact the surrounding areas?

There are normal glaciers which are also called land terminating glaciers and they just release water, but do not pose any threat as a GLOF. But there are some glaciers which have a frontal region and  also a bowl-shaped depression with accumulated water. When the volume of water in the lake increases; the confining moraine wall (accumulation of debris or material left by a moving glacier), is unable to contain the huge body of water and bursts, thus resulting in sudden release of water.

 

 

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