CLIMATE AMBITION SUMMIT 2020
The United Nations, United Kingdom and France co-hosted the Climate Ambition Summit 2020, held virtually, on December 12.
About:
- The Climate Ambition Summit, held virtually, marked the five years of the adoption of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
- PM Modi, while addressing the summit said that India is not only on track to achieve its Paris Agreement targets, but to exceed them beyond expectations.
- India has reduced emission intensity by 21% over 2005 levels. Solar capacity has grown from 2.63 GigaWatts in 2014 to 36 GigaWatts in 2020. Renewable energy capacity is the fourth largest in the world.
- It will reach 175 GigaWatts before 2022. India has set an even more ambitious target now - 450 GigaWatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030.
- And, on the world stage, India has pioneered two major initiatives:
- The International Solar Alliance, and
- Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.
- SPECIAL ASSISTANCE TO STATES FOR CAPITAL EXPENDITURE SCHEMEAll the states except Tamil Nadu have availed benefits of the newly announced scheme for “Special Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure”.
About:
- The scheme was announced by the Finance Minister on 12th October as a part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat package.
- The Scheme is aimed at boosting capital expenditure by the State Governments who are facing a difficult financial environment this year due to the shortfall in tax revenue arising from the COVID 19 pandemic.
- Capital Expenditure has a higher multiplier effect, enhancing the future productive capacity of the economy, and results in a higher rate of economic growth.
- Therefore, despite the adverse financial position of the Central Government, it was decided to extend a special assistance to the State Governments in respect of capital expenditure in 2020-21.
HANDICRAFT AND GI TOYS EXEMPTED FROM QUALITY CONTROL ORDERGovernment has exempted handicraft and GI Toys from Quality Control Order.
About:
- Taking steps towards the Prime Minister's vision of making India a global manufacturing hub for sale and export of toys, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, DPIIT has devised a comprehensive action plan.
- Quality Control order has been issued by the Department for standardization and quality adherence of Toys. The order will come into effect from 1st January next year.
- Now, DPIIT has released Toys (Quality Control) Second Amendment Order, 2020.
- It exempts goods manufactured and sold by artisans registered with Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), from use of Standard Mark under licence from Bureau of Indian Standards.
- The Amendment Order also exempts products registered as Geographical Indications from following Indian Toy Standards and compulsory use of Standard Mark licence.
HD106906 bA strange exoplanet, orbiting a double-star 336 light years away, has caught the interest of astronomers. The oddball behaviour of the planet, HD106906 b, provide clues about our own mysterious Planet Nine — if it exists.
About:
- HD106906 b is not a new discovery: It appears in archival images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2004.
- Planet Nine is an elusive, distant planet in our own Solar System. Although it has not been found yet, it has been predicted by a series of studies over the last few years, and has been described by astronomers as “hiding in plain sight”. If it exists, Planet Nine is 10 times as massive as Earth.
5th NATIONAL FAMILY HEALTH SURVEY (NFHS)Health minister Harsh Vardhan released the 5th National Family Health Survey (NFHS) which contains detailed information on population, health and nutrition for India and its states and union territories.
About:
- The results of 17 States and 5 UTs have been released Phase-I. Phase II covering the remaining 12 States and 2 UTs had their fieldwork suspended due to Covid-19, which has been resumed from November and is expected to be completed by May 2021.
- Substantial improvement in maternal and child health indicators over NFHS-4 (2015-16) was recorded in the present survey.
- The fertility rate has further declined, contraceptive use has increased and unmet need has been reduced in most phase I states.
- The survey found considerable improvement in vaccination coverage among children age 12-23 months across all states and UTs.
- But malnutrition indicators have worsened, with the proportion of children with stunting rising in 11 out of 18 states for which data was available, of those with wasting going up in 14, and of those with anaemia in 17.
INTERNATIONAL MOUNTAIN DAYMountain biodiversity is the theme of this year’s International Mountain Day, which was observed on December 11.
About:
- Mountains are home to 15% of the world´s population and host about half of the world's biodiversity hotspots. They provide freshwater for everyday life to half of humanity. Their conservation is a key factor for sustainable development and is part of Goal 15 of the SDGs.
- The increasing attention to the importance of mountains led the UN to declare to 2002 the UN International Year of Mountains. The first international day was celebrated for the first time the following year, 2003.
- Its roots date back to 1992, when the document “Managing Fragile Ecosystems: Sustainable Mountain Development” (called Chapter 13), was adopted as part of the action plan Agenda 21 of the Conference on Environment and Development.
QUANTUM KEY DISTRIBUTION (QKD) TECHNOLOGYDRDO developed Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology underwent trials in Hyderabad between two DRDO labs, DRDL and RCI, to show secure communication. Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh congratulated the DRDO team for successful demonstration of QKD communication.
About:
- The technology is developed by CAIR, Bengaluru and DYSL-QT, Mumbai.
- Quantum Communication using time-bin Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) scheme was performed under realistic conditions. The setup also demonstrated the validation of detection of a third party trying to gain knowledge of the communication.
- Quantum based security against eavesdropping was validated for the deployed system at over 12kms range and 10dB attenuation over fibre optic channel.
- Continuous wave laser source was used to generate photons without depolarization effect. The timing accuracy employed in the setup was of the order of picoseconds.
- The Single photon avalanche detector (SPAD) recorded arrival of photons and key rate was achieved in the range of kbps with low Quantum bit error rate.SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR AWARDAshraf Patel has recently won the Social Entrepreneur of the Year award instituted by the Schwab Foundation and Jubilant Bhartia Foundation. The award was presented by Smriti Zubin Irani, Minister of Women and Child Development and Textiles at a virtual ceremony.
About:
- Ashraf Patel is the co-founder of Pravah and ComMutiny Youth Collective.
- In partnership with UNICEF ROSA, they developed an appreciative enquiry tool to assess the impact of COVID 19 on the lives of adolescents in 8 South Asian countries.
- ComMutiny members across 17 states reached 30 thousand vulnerable households with relief supplies in the times of COVID 19 crisis.
INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE DAYInternational Universal Health Coverage Day was observed on 12 December.
About:
- On 12 December 2012, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed a resolution urging countries to accelerate progress toward universal health coverage (UHC) – the idea that everyone, everywhere should have access to quality, affordable health care - as an essential priority for international development.
- On 12 December 2017, the United Nations proclaimed 12 December as International Universal Health Coverage Day (UHC Day) by resolution 72/138.
- In view of the global pandemic, the theme of this year is Health For All - Protect Everyone.
ELURUUnion Health Secretary apprised the Vice President of the latest health situation in Eluru, Andhra Pradesh in the backdrop of many people being hospitalized with an undiagnosed illness. The people there reportedly suffered from dizziness, fainting spells, headache and vomiting.
About:
- Eluru is a city and the district headquarters of West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh.
- The city is on the Tammileru river. The Eluru canal from Krishna empties into Kolleru Lake near the city.
- The city is well known for its wool-pile carpets and hand woven products.
- Ashraf Patel is the co-founder of Pravah and ComMutiny Youth Collective.
- The scheme was announced by the Finance Minister on 12th October as a part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat package.
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