Current Affair 1:

Greening India's Wastelands with Agroforestry (GROW) Report

 

News:

Greening and Restoration of Wasteland with Agroforestry (GROW) report and portal was launched by NITI Aayog.

The "Greening and Restoration of Wasteland with Agroforestry (GROW) allows universal access to state and district-level data. Currently, agroforestry covers 8.65% of India's total geographical area, totalling about 28.42 million hectares. Current report underscores the potential benefits of converting underutilized areas, especially wastelands, for agroforestry.

The GROW initiative aligns with national commitments, aiming to restore 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030 and create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

As per the report, there is need for promotion of agroforestry esp. for 3 things i.e. reducing import of wood and wood products, carbon sequestration to combat climate change at global and national level and addressing sub-optimal use of arable land. 

Something more:

Due to the significance of goods and services provided by agroforestry, the Union Budget of Government of India (FY-2022-23) has underlined the promotion of agroforestry and private forestry as a priority.

India, the seventh-largest country globally, faces issues like increased build-up areas, degraded land, and imbalanced resources.

Approximately 16.96% of the Total Geographical Area (TGA) is wasteland, requiring transformation for productive use. Geospatial technologies and GIS are employed to map and prioritize these wastelands for agroforestry interventions.

India, the pioneer of the National Agroforestry Policy in 2014, aims to enhance productivity, profitability, and sustainability through this agroecological land use system.

Agroforestry integrates trees, crops, and livestock, addressing food, nutrition, energy, employment, and environmental challenges.

This aligns with global commitments like the Paris Agreement, Bonn Challenge, UN Sustainable Development Goals, United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD), Doubling Farmers Income, Green India Mission and more.

 

Current Affair 2:

The Jammu and Kashmir Local Bodies Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024

 

News:

The Bill amends three laws applicable in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).   These are: (i) the J&K Panchayati Raj Act, 1989, (ii) the J&K Municipal Act, 2000 and (iii) the J&K Municipal Corporation Act, 2000.  Key features include:

Current Affair 3:

The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024

 

News:

Public examinations refer to examinations conducted by authorities specified under the Schedule to the Bill, or notified by the central government.  These include: (i) Union Public Service Commission, (ii) Staff Selection Commission, (iii) Railway Recruitment Board, (iv) National Testing Agency, (v) Institute of Banking Personnel Selection, and (vi) Departments of the central government and their attached offices for recruitment.

The Bill defines several offences in relation to public examinations.  It prohibits collusion or conspiracy to facilitate indulgence in any unfair means. It specifies unfair means to include:

1. unauthorised access or leakage of question paper or answer key,
2. assisting a candidate during a public examination
3. tampering with computer network or resources
4. tampering with documents for shortlisting or finalising of merit list or rank, and
5. conducting fake examination, issuing fake admit cards or offer letters to cheat, for monetary gain. 

It also prohibits: (i) disclosing exam-related confidential information before time, and (ii) unauthorised people from entering exam centres to create disruptions. 

Above offences will be punishable with imprisonment between three and five years, and a fine up to Rs 10 lakh.

Current Affair 4:

A new algorithm to study ultracold atoms

 

News:

A research group at the Raman Research Institute (RRI) have designed a new image-correction technique capable of getting better images during the study of cold atoms or atoms at absolute zero temperature. 

In condensed matter physics, an ultracold atom is an atom with a temperature near absolute zero. At such temperatures, an atom's quantum-mechanical properties become important.

 

The technique can get rid of 50% unwanted interference fringes in the images which are important for understanding the intriguing quantum mechanics governed properties of atoms at cold temperature better.

What was problem with commonly used techniques?

The commonly used techniques for the study of ultracold atoms is by deploying magneto-optical traps with high-power laser cooling techniques.

However, the images obtained using these techniques often suffer due to unwanted interference fringes which are unwanted dark-bright patterns imprinted on the actual images, thus lowering the quality of results obtained. The presence of unwanted interference fringes has the potential to derail the accurate calculation of important parameters -- the atom number, temperature, dynamics in smaller timescales, etc.

About RRI:

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