8th October, 2021 Current Affairs

Sakshi Education

NATIONAL
Centre to constitute National Road Safety Board
Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways notified to set up a “National Road Safety Board” recently.

The National Safety Board will be responsible for promotion of road safety, innovation and adoption of new technology.
It will also regulate traffic and motor vehicles.
Notification also specifies provisions for the composition, eligibility for Chairman & Members of the Board, term of office, selection process, powers & functions of the board, procedure of resignation & removal, meetings of the Board etc.
The Head Office of National Road Safety Board will be established in the National Capital Region. Board might establish offices at other places as well in India.
The road safety board will comprise of the Chairman. Apart from that, these will be 3 to 7 members. All the members will be be appointed by the Central Government.

Functions of the board
Board will perform the following functions:

Board will be responsible for promotion of road safety, innovation and adoption of new technology.
It will also regulate traffic and motor vehicles.
To regulate traffic & motor vehicle, Board will formulate:
Specific standards for traffic management, road safety and road construction in hilly regions.
Guidelines for capacity building and development of skills for highway authorities, traffic police, hospital authorities, educational & research organisations etc.
Guidelines to establish and operate trauma facilities and para-medical facilities.
Board will also provide technical advice and assistance to Central, State and local authorities on road safety & traffic management.

ICMR releases MUDRA Toolbox in 5 Indian languages
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) released “Multilingual Dementia Research and Assessment (MUDRA) toolbox” in five Indian Languages on October 5, 2021.

Toolbox was launched in order to expand the care and outreach to people suffering from dementia.
Toolbox has been launched in languages including Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam.
MUDRA Toolbox project is led by the ICMR Neuro-Cognitive Tool Box (ICMR-NCTB) partnership. It seeks to improve dementia and mild cognitive impairment research & therapeutic practices in India. To implement this project, ICMR-NCTB has collaborated with AIIMS (New Delhi), NIMHANS (Bengaluru), NIMS (Hyderabad), SCTIMST (Thiruvananthapuram), Manipal Hospital (Bengaluru), Apollo Hospital (Kolkata) and Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College.
ICMR is the apex body to formulate, coordinate and promote biomedical research. It is one of the oldest and largest medical research bodies across the world. It is funded through the Department of Health Research of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

Bilateral
Denmark PM Mette Frederiksen to begin 3-day India visit from Oct 9

Prime Minister of Denmark, MetteFrederiksen will be on a three-day visit to India from tomorrow. During the visit, Ms Frederiksen will call on President Ram NathKovind and hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister NarendraModi.
This will give both sides an opportunity to discuss the entire gamut of bilateral relations and review the progress in implementation of the Green Strategic Partnership. Both sides will also discuss regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest.
India and Denmark had established a Green Strategic Partnership.
India and Denmark have strong trade and investment ties. More than 200 Danish companies are present in India and over 60 Indian companies have a presence in Denmark.
The visit is expected to further strengthen and enhance the close and friendly ties between India and Denmark.

International
India Joins High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People
India on Thursday officially joined the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, a group of more than 70 countries encouraging the adoption of the global goal to protect 30x30.
High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People members currently include a mix of countries in the global north and south, European, Latin American, Africa and Asia countries are among the members. India is the first of the BRICS bloc of major emerging economies to join the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People.

India’s announcement comes in the lead up to a high-level biodiversity meeting, hosted by China.
The virtual meeting to take place 11th to 15th of this month will tackle key aspects of the biodiversity treaty to be finalized in 2022. The global 30x30 goal is currently a centrepiece of the treaty.

ECONOMY
Moody’s upgrades outlook on India’s sovereign rating to Stable
Rating agency Moody’s Investors Service upgraded the sovereign rating outlook of India to stable from negative.

This rating was upgraded citing reduced risks from COVID-19 as well as negative feedback between real economy & financial system.
Moddy’s has retained India’s rating at Baa3. It reflects the lowest investment grade rating.
Moody’s further expects that real GDP will surpass pre-pandemic levels of 2019-20 in the year 2021 itself. This is because the ongoing economic recovery is picking up as the activity are broadening across sectors.
Moody’s expects that 2021-22 will record a growth of 9.3% in GDP.
As per Moody’s, downside risks on growth because of coronavirus infection waves are lowering because of rising vaccination rates and selective use of restrictions on economic activity. Furthermore, higher capital cushions and greater liquidity highlights that banks & non-bank financial institutions have a lesser risk to the sovereign now.

Science and Technology
UAE announces Probe targeting asteroid between Mars & Jupiter
United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced its plan to send a probe on an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter for collecting data regarding origins of the universe.

If this mission is successful, UAE will join the elite club of the European Union, Japan and the United States. These countries have already completed its mission either an asteroid or a comet.
UAE’s mission would remain behind on the asteroid and transmit back the information regarding the composition of asteroid on the Earth.
Project will be launched in 2028 and will landing on asteroid in 2033.
During a five-year journey, spacecraft will travel around 3.6 billion kilometres.
It will need to slingshot first across Venus and then Earth for gathering enough speed to reach an asteroid located around 560 million kilometres away.
This project was announced in the backdrop of first successful launch of “Hope probe” in orbit of Mars in February 2021. The car-size “Hope” mission was worth $200 million.
UAE has also planned to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon in the year 2024.
UAE has also set the ambitious goal of building a human colony on Mars by 2117.

WHO approves world’s first Malaria vaccine
The World Health Organization (WHO) on October 6, 2021 endorsed the Malaria Vaccine called “RTS,S/AS01”.

RTS,S/AS01 is the world’s first vaccine against the mosquito-borne disease which kills around 400,000 people in a year. Most of the deaths are report among African children.
This decision was taken following a review of a pilot programme deployed since 2019 across the countries like Kenya, Ghana, and Malawi where more than two million doses of the vaccine were given.
This vaccine was first made in 1987 by pharmaceutical company GSK.
As per findings, vaccine resulted into reduction of severe malaria cases by 30 percent
WHO has recommended that, children up to the age of two, in sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions having moderate to high malaria transmission should get four doses.
R21/Matric-M is the most effective malaria vaccine discovered so far. It has the efficacy of 77%. This is the first vaccine which meets WHO’s goal of a malaria vaccine with at least 75% efficacy.

NASA to Launch Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission
American Space Agency, NASA has announced to launch “asteroid-killing Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft” on November 24, 2021.

The spacecraft will be launched, aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
It will be launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
Under this mission, NASA will build advanced technologies which would protect the Earth from hazardous asteroid collision.
NASA is planning for this spacecraft because astronomers and scientists have been warning that; asteroids might cause most damage if proper defence system is not developed against them. For instance, an asteroid collision caused the extinction of dinosaurs from planet 66 million years ago.
The DART mission is based on the idea of developing a defence system against asteroid collision. It has reached to its final stages of development. Under the mission, spacecraft will be sent towards Didymos asteroid system, approximately 109.4 crore kilometres away from Earth. Didymos system comprise of two asteroids namely, Didymos and Dimorphos. The spacecraft will ram into Dimorphos in order to determine if kinetic impactor technology can be a reliable method to deflect asteroids. Kinetic impactor technology requires flying the spacecraft directly into a small Solar System body.
This suicidal spacecraft will collide into the system at the speed of 24,140 kmph.

SPORTS
Anshu Malik:1st Indian woman wrestler to reach World Championship final
On October 6, 2021, Anshu Malik has become the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the final of 2021 World Wrestling Championships.

She created this history after outclassing junior European champion SolomiiaVynnyk.
The 19-year-old wrestler from India and reigning Asian champion, Anshu, controlled the semi-final from the beginning. She won by technical superiority in the 57 kg category.
Till date, only four Indian women wrestlers have won medals at the Worlds, namely GeetaPhogat in 2012, BabitaPhogat in 2012, PoojaDhanda in 2018 while VineshPhogat in 2019. All of them have clinched bronze medal.
Anshu has also became only the sixth Indian ever to make the Worlds gold medal match. Before her, Bishambar Singh, Sushil Kumar, AmitDahiya, BajrangPunia and Deepak Punia have made to the gold medal match.
India has only one world Champion, named Sushil Kumar.

AWARDS
Novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah wins Nobel prize for literature
Tanzanian Novelist AbdulrazakGurnah has won the 2021 Nobel Prize in literature for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugees in the gulf between cultures and continents. The Nobel Prize in literature is awarded by the Swedish Academy of Stockholm, Sweden.

AbdulrazakGurnah was born in 1948 and grew up on the island of Zanzibar in Tanzania in the Indian Ocean but reached England as a refugee at the end of the 1960’s. Until recently, he was Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent, Canterbury. 73 year old Gurnah has published ten novels, including Paradise and Desertion and a number of short stories.
The theme of the refugee’s disruption runs throughout AbdulrazakGurnah's work. He began writing as a 21-year-old in English exile, and although Swahili was his first language, English became his literary tool.

Environment
The State of Climate Services 2021: Water report
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released its new report titled “The State of Climate Services 2021: Water” on October 5, 2021.

According to report, increasing temperatures are resulting in global & regional precipitation changes. It will also lead to shifts in rainfall patterns as well as agricultural seasons.
According to WHO, climate change increases the risk of water-related hazards such as floods and droughts.
Climate change will also increase the number of people affected by water scarcity.
As per report, in 2018, 3.6 billion people worldwide had inadequate access to water at least one month per year.
This number is expected to exceed five billion by 2050.
Report also notes that, this situation is worsening as only 0.5 per cent of water on the Earth is useable and available freshwater.
Water-related hazards have increased in past 20 years.
Flood-related disasters have increased by 134 per cent since 2000, as compared to past two decades. However, number & duration of droughts have increased by 29 per cent during the same period.
In Africa, about two billion people live in water-stressed countries. They suffer a lack of access for safe drinking water and sanitation.
Report also highlights that, most of the drought-related deaths occurred in Africa. Thus, more robust end-to-end warning systems is needed for drought in African region. Most of the flood-related deaths & economic losses were witnessed in Asia.
WMO recommends that countries should increase investment in integrated water resources management and drought & flood early warning systems. WMO also urged countries to fill the gap in capacity of collecting data for basic hydrological variables.