18th October, 2021 Current Affairs

Sakshi Education

NATIONAL

Indian Army wins gold medal at Cambrian Patrol Exercise

A team from 5th Battalion-4 (5/4) Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force) representing the Indian Army won gold medal at the prestigious Cambrian Patrol Exercise which was held in United Kingdom.

About Cambrian Patrol Exercise

Exercise was held from October 13th to 15th 2021 at Brecon, Wales in United Kingdom.
Exercise Cambrian Patrol was organized by the UK Army.
It considered as the ultimate test of human endurance and team spirit.
It is sometimes also referred as "Olympics of Military Patrolling"among militaries of the world.
Out of 96 participating teams, only three international patrols were awarded a gold medal this year, till the 6th phase of this Exercise.

Over 4 cr unorganized workers registered on e-Shram Portal: Union Minister Bhupender Yadav

Union Minister for Labor and Employment Bhupender Yadav has said that more than four crore unorganized workers have registered at e-Shram Portal which is the country's first National Database on Unorganized Workers.
The unorganized workers will be able to get the benefits of government schemes easily. Of the total registered workers, around 50 per cent beneficiaries are female and 49.98 are male.
The States like Odisha, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh are at the fore front with highest number of registrations on the e-Shram Portal launched by the Labor Ministry. The largest number of workers registered is from agriculture and construction, given the sheer volume of these two sectors in employment generation in India.This registration would facilitate delivery and accessibility to crucial welfare programmes and various entitlements meant for the workers in the unorganized sector and employment.
For online registrations, individual workers can use E-Shram's mobile application or the website. They can also visit the Common Service Centers (CSC), State Seva Kendra, Labor Facilitation Centers, selected post offices of the Department of Posts' Digital SevaKendras, to register themselves on this portal.
After registration at the portal, the unorganized workers will receive a digital e-SHRAM card and they can their profiles through portal or mobile app. If a worker is registered at the e-Shram portal and meets with an accident, the person will be eligible for two lakh rupees in case of death or permanent disability and one lakh rupees on partial disability.

Anthem on India's Covid-19 vaccination drive launched

Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya today launched the anthem on India's Covid 19 vaccination. The song has been sung by eminent singer Padma Shri Kailash kher.
Under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi the production and distribution of Covid 19 vaccine is going on successfully and soon the nation will be able to touch the one billion mark of administering vaccine doses.
It is not a mere government programme but a mass movement.
Mansukh Mandaviya said, the government has already administered more than 97 crore corona vaccines in the country. He said, it will soon be able to administer 100 crore vaccine doses.
Transporting the vaccine from one place to another was also a big challenge and this was made possible by everyone's efforts.

Indian Project wins Eco Oscars

An Indian Project, Takachar's Innovation, that recycles agricultural waste into fuel has won the "Prince William's inaugural Earthshot Prize", which is also called as "Eco Oscars.
Eco Oscars honor people who are trying to save the planet Earth.
This award is presented with the aim of providing assistance to and inspire innovative local solutions as the climate crisis is growing globally.
World generate around USD 120 billion of agricultural waste per year. When farmers fail to sell, they often burn the waste. Burning of waste have catastrophic consequences for human health as well as environment. Burning causes air pollution, which has reduced life expectancy in some areas by a decade. Thus, this technology is significant in mitigating this challenge.

INTERNATIONAL

Italy unveils G20 Innovation League

The Italian Presidency of the G20 grouping has unveiled "G20 Innovation League", in a bid to create a sustainable future.
It is a new and unique initiative that have been designed to drive forward innovative projects, which in turn will help in creating a sustainable future.
It will bring together the most promising start-ups from G20 countries, with the investment funds and institutions in order for them to collaborate on and develop "innovative sustainable business projects".
G20 Innovation event was held in Sorrento, Italy. It was supported by Ministry of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation of Italy, Ministry of Economic Development of Italy and Ministry of Technological Innovation & Digital Transition of Italy. This event was inaugurated by Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio. Italy is also set to host G20 Summit in Rome on October 30-31, 2021.

ECONOMY

IMF commends India's swift and substantial response to Corona pandemic

International Monetary Fund has commended Indian government's swift and substantial response to the Covid-19 pandemic and noted that there is possibility of faster than expected recovery. IMF said its Directors commended the Indian government's response to the pandemic which includes scaled-up support to vulnerable groups, monetary policy easing and liquidity provision, accommodative financial sector and regulatory policies, and continued structural reforms.

IMF's executive board held consultations with India to assess the state of its economy and finances. IMF said, despite the pandemic, India continued to introduce structural reforms, including labor reforms and a privatization plan. IMF noted that India is among the fastest-growing economies in the world in the decade before the pandemic, lifting millions out of poverty.

Science and Technology

NASA launches Lucy spacecraft, first space mission to study Trojans AsteroidsNASA launched Lucy spacecraft, the first space mission to study the Trojans Asteroids. Lucy will journey for 12 years, observing one main belt asteroid and seven Trojan asteroids.

The swarms of Trojan asteroids associated with Jupiter are thought to be remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets. These primitive bodies hold vital clues to deciphering the history of the solar system.
The Jupiter Trojan asteroids are leftover raw materials from the formation of our Solar System's giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) over 4 .5 billion years ago.
They hold a record of the composition and physical conditions in the protoplanetary disk from which all the Sun's planets, including Earth, formed. At some time in the distant past, the Trojan asteroids became trapped in their current locations, orbiting the Sun approximately at the distance of Jupiter in two broad swarms associated with the L4 and L5 Lagrange points.
These are locations where the combined effects of the Sun's gravity, Jupiter's gravity, and orbital motion create an equilibrium, such that objects orbiting near these points will stay near them indefinitely. The "L4 swarm" leads, one-sixth of a lap ahead of Jupiter, while the "L5 swarm" trails one-sixth of a lap behind. Current scientific theories indicate that the Trojan asteroids could have been trapped in these stable orbits early in the Solar System's history, at the end of an era of giant planet "migration" during which the planets' orbits shifted substantially.
The foremost theory for how the Trojan asteroids came to be where they are involves a dynamical instability which caused sudden, large changes in the orbits of the giant planets. In this scenario, small objects from across the outer Solar System were widely scattered, most being ejected to the far reaches of the Solar System or beyond, and a few lucky survivors making their way into Trojan orbits near the Lagrange points or other stable niches like the Kuiper Belt.
Lucy will encounter objects that originally formed in different parts of the Sun's outer protoplanetary disk, where the first solid bodies condensed. Lucy will give us insights into the dynamical and physical processes that affected these planetary building blocks and will help us untangle the Solar System's early history at the time when planet formation was ending, and the planets were moving into the orbital configuration we see today.