20th November, 2021 Current Affairs

NATIONAL

Draft Food Safety & Standards (Genetically Modified or Engineered Foods) Regulations, 2021

• “Draft Food Safety and Standards (Genetically Modified or Engineered Foods) Regulations, 2021” was issued by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on November 15, 2021.

Key Facts

• The draft regulation will be applicable to:
• Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
• Genetically Engineered Organisms (GEOs)
• Living Modified Organisms (LMOs)
• It was issued for direct use as food or for processing.
• It will be applicable to Food or Processed food comprising of Genetically Modified ingredients produced from but not containing GMOs, LMOs or GEOs.

Provisions of the draft regulations

• No person will manufacture, store, sell, distribute, or import any food or food ingredient derived from Genetically Modified Organisms, in country, except with prior approval from Food Authority.
• Under the regulation, any food laboratory that has been notified in accordance with section 43 of Food Safety & Standards Act, 2006 can be designated for Genetically Modified Foods Testing.
• Form-I of the regulation specifies “Application for approval of food or processing aid comprising of Living Modified Organism (LMOs)” in the end product.
• Form-II of the regulation specifies “Application for Approval of food or processing aid derived from Genetically Modified Ingredients and not comprising of Living Modified Organism (LMOs).

Coal Ministry constitutes Sustainable Development Cell

• Ministry of coal has constituted a “Sustainable Development Cell”, in line with the commitment of clean energy.
• The Sustainable Development Cell was constituted in the backdrop of Prime Minister’s announcement on new climate targets at COP26 under ‘Panchamrit Strategy’.
• Ministry emphasized on to put major thrust on Sustainable Development in coal mining, by taking care of the environmental and social impact of the mining.
• Ministry of coal has established a full-fledged Sustainable Development Cell (SDC) to mentor, advice, and plan action of minimizing adverse impact of mining.
• It will also formulate future policy framework for environmental mitigation in Coal sector as well as Lignite sector in India.
• Coal India Ltd. (CIL) and its subsidiaries along with NLC India Ltd., &Singareni Coal Company Ltd. (SCCL) has already started the extensive work.
• Coal companies have taken up “Bio-Reclamation of mined out land”, in line with the commitment of India of reducing total projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes from 2030 onwards.
• Bio-Reclamation is being taken up through tree plantation drive.
• Under this process, companies have target to cover 12000 hectares of land for plantation in next five years.
• Massive tree plantation will help in creating carbon sink potential to the tune of one lakh tonne per annum.
• This effort is being monitored through remote sensing.

Defence industrial corridor project in Jhansi

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to lay down the foundation stone of Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor project in Jhansi on November 19, 2021.
• The Defence Industrial corridor is worth Rs. 400 crore project.
• Through this project, central government aims to achieve strategic Independence.
• Prime Minister will lay down the foundation stone on the concluding three-day ‘RashtraRakshaSamarpanParv’ event.
• Central government has decided to set up two Defence Industrial Corridors in India. One of the corridors will be set up in Tamil Nadu while other in Uttar Pradesh.
• Ministry of Defence has taken various steps to promote ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ in defence in recent years. These comprise of issue like positive indigenization lists, promotion of start-ups under Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) initiative, 64 per cent capital procurement budget for domestic industry etc.

Science & Technology

Land handed over for first LIGO project in India

• Hingoli income division handed around 225 hectares of land right in Maharashtra to the authorities of Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) venture.
• The land was handed over in order to organize primary facility within the nation.
• There are currently few such labs in the United States, at Hanford in Washington and Livingston in Louisiana. These labs examine the gravitational waves.
• This venture will provide alternatives to scientists and engineers for digging deeper into concept of gravitational waves.
• LIGO is a massive observatory to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to carry experiments. Its main objective is to make use of gravitational-wave observations in astronomical studies. This project currently operates three gravitational-wave (GW) detectors. Out of three, two are at Hanford in Washington while one is at Livingston in Louisiana.
• The LIGO India project was proposed with the aim of moving one advanced LIGO detector to India, from Hanford. This project is piloted by Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). This project in India will be coordinated and executed jointly by three Indian research institutions namely, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT) in Indore, Department of Atomic Energy organizations: Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) in Gandhinagar and Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune.

ENVIRONMENT

Delhi pledges to clean Yamuna by 2025

• Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, pledged to clean Yamuna River completely by 2025 recently.
• He announced a six-point action plan to clean the holy river.
• He also promised to make Yamuna River fit for drinking and bathing by 2025.

Six Point Action Plan
Chief Minister announced understated six-point action plan:

• Sewer Treatment– Government will construct new sewage treatment plants.
• Capacity of existing sewer treatment plants will be increased. This move will increase sewage treatment capacity from 600 million gallons of wastewater per day to 750 MGD-800 MGD. Waste water from four major drains, Najafgarh, Badshahpur, Supplementary&Ghazipur, falling in the Yamuna is being treated in-situ.
• Old treatment plants will be upgraded and its technology will be changed.
• Industries discharging industrial waste into the Yamuna will be shut down.
• Wastewater in “jhuggijhopri clusters” currently flows through stormwater and drains into the Yamuna. These drains will be connected to sewer network now.
• Sewer connections will be installed in areas where people haven’t taken sewer connections, at nominal charges. Government will provide household connections in areas having a sewer network. Earlier, people had to get such connection themselves.

 INTERNATIONAL

Japan PM unveils $490bn stimulus package

• Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, unveiled a record-breaking stimulus package which approximately equals to 56 trillion Japanese yen.
• Japanese government will also compile an extra budget by the end of 2021, to fund the stimulus programme in order to deliver necessary aid to the public.
• The plan comprises of 100,000-yen payments for people aged 18 years or younger.
• It also includes aid for ailing businesses, Kishida and other politicians.
• The package also comprises of enough content and scale for delivering a sense of security and hope to the people.
• This stimulus bucks a global trend in withdrawing crisis-mode stimulus measures. It also places further strain on Japan’s already tattered finances.

ECONOMY

India’s Economic Advisory Council’s Growth Forecast

• Members of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC-PM) met on November 18 in New Delhi to assess India’s growth prospects.
• EAC-PM members were positive regarding real and nominal growth forecasts in Fiscal Year 2022-2023.
• All the members unanimously agreed that budget for 2021-22 was well taken across all domains because of transparency and realism. They were of the view that, budget was reformist and growth-oriented.
• They agreed to establish a clear path for privatization.
• Members believe that these features should be carried in FY22-23 budget as well.
• They also signalled the use of surplus revenue in form of capital expenditure and human capital spending.
• Members also agreed that, growth orientation of budget from previous year should be maintained.

ANDHRAPRADESH

Heavy rain likely in parts of Andhra Pradesh, flood alert for Anantapur& Kadapa

• The IMD said that a depression in Bay of Bengal is moving into Anantapur-Bengaluru belt. It has also predicted heavy rainfall in parts of Karnataka, including Bengaluru, Chikkamagaluru, Hassan and Shivamogga districts.
• The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a heavy rain alert for Anantapur and Kadapa districts in Andhra Pradesh.
•  The weather department said that the depression in Bay of Bengal has completely crossed the coast near south of Chennai and is moving into Anantapur-Bengaluru belt.