30th November, 2022 Current Affairs

Sakshi Education

NATIONAL
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj VastuSangrahalaya wins UNESCO Award

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj VastuSangrahalaya (CSMVS) was conferred with the ‘Award of Excellence’ at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation-2022.
In late 2019, the museum–in the run-up to its centenary celebration on January 10, 2022—initiated comprehensive repairs, restoration and refurbishment of the main and extension building, exterior and interiors and main dome in a phased manner. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj VastuSangrahalaya was established as the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India in 1922.
Thirteen projects from six countries – Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Nepal and Thailand – have been acknowledged for awards by the jury this year. Jury deliberations were carried out in November when members reviewed 50 entries from 11 countries from the Asia-Pacific region.

NITI Aayog Releases Study Report on ‘Carbon Capture to Achieve Net Zero Emission Target by 2070

A study report, titled ‘Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage Policy Framework and its Deployment Mechanism in India’, was released. The report explores the importance of Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage as an emission reduction strategy to achieve deep decarbonization from the hard-to-abate sectors. The report outlines broad level policy interventions needed across various sectors for its application.
India has updated its NDC targets for achieving 50% of its total installed capacity from non-fossil-based energy sources, 45% reduction in emission intensity by 2030 and taking steps towards achieving Net Zero by 2070, the role of Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) becomes important as reduction strategy to achieve decarbonization from the hard-to abate sectors.
The report indicates that CCUS can provide a wide variety of opportunities to convert the captured CO2 to different value-added products like green urea, food and beverage form application, building materials (concrete and aggregates), chemicals (methanol and ethanol), polymers (including bio-plastics) and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) with wide market opportunities in India, thus contributing substantially to a circular economy

FSSAI approved Yak as a ‘food animal’

The Himalayan Yak has been approved as a ‘food animal’ by the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI). The move is expected to help slow the decline of the high-altitude bovine animal population by incorporating it into the conventional milk and meat industries, according to an official at the National Research Centre (NRC) on Yak in Dirang, West Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh. The ‘food animal’ tag will become official once it is notified in the gazette following approval by a competent authority.
YAK is a mountain cow that lives at the world’s highest altitudes. YAK originally is from Himalayas of Nepal, Tibet, and Mongolia, and were later brought to the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and parts of Europe. YAKs are animals with bigger lungs and hearts, as well as a better capacity for oxygen delivery through their blood, due to the persistence of hemoglobin throughout life.
In India, Yak is found throughout the Himalayan region — Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, North Bengal, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.

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INTERNATIONAL
Merriam-Webster announced ‘Gaslighting’ as its Word of the Year 2022

The US dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster announced that their 2022 word of the year is “gaslighting” or as Merriam-Webster defines it, “the act or practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one’s own advantage.” Interest in the term was up by 1,740% over the previous years according to searches of the online dictionary.
The term itself came into existence 80 years ago in 1938 through gas light, Gas Light is a play written by Patrick Hamilton. Two films were made on this play in the 1940s.
The dictionary defines the term as: “The act or practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one’s own advantage.”
Gaslighting refers to playing with someone on a psychological level for a long period of time, so that the victim begins to doubt the validity of their own thoughts and true sense of self.
Gaslighting can also be a corporate ploy to mislead the public.
Gaslighting, in simple language, is cheating psychologically with someone.

World’s first Intranasal vaccine iNCOVACC gets Approved by DCGI

Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) announced that iNCOVACC (BBV154), has received approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) under Restricted Use in Emergency Situations for ages 18 and above, in India, for heterologous booster doses.
iNCOVACC is the world’s first Intranasal vaccine for COVID to receive approval for the primary 2-dose schedule and the heterologous booster dose. iNCOVACC is a recombinant replication-deficient adenovirus vectored vaccine with a pre-fusion stabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. This vaccine candidate was evaluated in phases I, II, and III clinical trials with successful results.

ECONOMY
SEBI Forms a Panel Headed by Justice Vazifadar to Review the Corporate Takeover Rules

Capital markets regulator Sebi has set up a high-level panel to review the takeover norms in a move to simplify and strengthen the current rules by adopting appropriate global practices. Also, the regulator will assess the current rules in the light of past judicial pronouncements and various informal guidelines issued by the capital markets regulator.
The 20-member committee will be chaired by former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Shiavax Jal Vazifdar. Apart from Vazifdar, other members of the panel include Sundareswaran S Managing Director (MD) at Morgan Stanley Financial Advisors; Rajendra Kanoongo, Joint MD of Mark Corporate Advisors; K Srinivas MD of Saffron Capital Advisors, Ankur Verma, Senior Vice President at Tata Sons and Dolphy Dsouza Partner at E&

RBI to Launch a Pilot Project on Retail Digital Rupee on 1 December 2022

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a trial for retail digital rupee (e ₹-R) beginning 1 December, with four banks in as many cities participating in the pilot programme, a month after testing the wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC).
RBI said the pilot would cover select locations in a closed user group (CUG) comprising participating customers and merchants. While it has identified eight banks for gradual participation in the pilot, the first phase will begin with four: State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank.
The remaining four—Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank—will subsequently join the trial.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
NASA Sets New Space Flight Record with Artemis 1 Orion Capsule

NASA’s Artemis 1 Orion Capsule has set a new space flight record for spacecraft designed to carry humans by traveling 4,01,798 kilometers from Earth. The record was previously held by Apollo 13 which logged the record on 14th April 1970 by traveling 400,171 kilometers.
Artemis 1 Orion Capsule was designed to stress the systems Orion and NASA sent the capsule into distant retrograde orbit.
Since, Orion is not staffed, the Apollo 13 crew still holds the record for the farthest distance from Earth reached by humans.
The Orion is carrying a manikin named “Commander Moonikin Campos”, after the late Arturo Campos.
Arturo Campos was the man responsible for the emergency procedures that ensured Apollo 14 had enough power to safely splash down on earth.
“Moonikin” is outfitted with sensors to measure radiation levels and physical stress a crew would feel on a similar flight to the moon and back.
Apollo 13 was not originally designed to travel that far, and the craft was only supposed to complete a moon landing.
The plan was quickly aborted when a mid-air explosion damaged the craft’s service module and the focus then shifted to bringing the crew back safely.

Monkeypox Disease Name Changed to Mpox by WHO

The World Health Organisation has changed the name of the disease Monkeypox to Mpox, as they receive complaints about the word Monkeypox conjuring up racist tropes and stigmatizing patients. The recommendation follows outbreaks that began about six months ago in Europe and the United States.
Mpox has circulated in the rural development parts of Central Africa and West Africa for decades.
WHO will adopt the term Mpox in its communications and encourages others to follow these recommendations.
This decision was taken to minimize the ongoing negative impact of the current name and from the adoption of the new name.
The name was inspired by a colony of caged lab monkeys in Denmark, where the virus was first identified by researchers.
The WHO has promoted new criteria for naming infectious diseases.

Agnikul Cosmos Sets Up India’s First Private Launchpad

India’s first private launchpad and mission control center has been established within the ISRO campus at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota. The launchpad is designed and operated by Chennai-based space-tech startupAgniKul Cosmos. The facility was inaugurated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman and Secretary in the Department of Space, S Somanath, on 25th November 2022.
AgniKul, incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT Madras), plans to guide and control its upcoming launches from this facility.
The system is compliant to support liquid stage-controlled launches, monitor key flight safety parameters by ISRO’s range operations teams during launches and share the data with ISRO’s Mission Control Centre.

ENVIRONMENT
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef TO be listed as a World Heritage Site

UN panel has recommended that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef should be listed as a World Heritage site that is in danger. The UN also informed that the world’s biggest coral reef ecosystem was significantly impacted by climate change and the warming of oceans.
Frequent bleaching events are threatening the reef, including four over the last seven years and the first during a La Nina phenomenon.
A report by UNESCO informed that the resilience of the Reef to recover from climate change impacts is substantially compromised.
The report was expected to be released ahead of the UNESCO World Heritage committee meeting however it was postponed due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Australian Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said that the government would push UNESCO to not list the reef as endangered because climate change was threatening all coral reefs across the world.
The Australian government announced a billion-dollar package to protect the reef in January.

SPORTS
Paralympic medallist Lekhara receives Para Sports Person of Year award

At the Turf 2022 and India Sports Awards of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), former Ranji cricketer Sarkar Talwar was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement of the Year award. Talwar, the Director-Sports, Manav Rachna Education Institutions, is also the recipient of the Dronacharya Lifetime Award, given by the President of India.
Apart from Talwar, AvaniLekhara, who won two medals at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, was recognized as the Para Sports Person of the Year, while ShreyKadyan was recognized as the Special Sportsperson of the Year. Best Male Coach to R.B. Ramesh and Best Female Coach to Nonita Lal Qureshi.

AWARDS
IFFI 53: Iranian film ‘Nargesi’ wins ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal

Iranian film Nargesi by Director Payam Eskandari has won the ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal at the 53rd edition of International Film Festival of India, given for a film that best reflects Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals of peace, tolerance and non-violence.
The film is about a man with Down’s syndrome and the burden and consequences it creates in his life. Compassion and tenderness are the two qualities depicted in this award-winning film.
Every year at IFFI, ICFT Paris and UNESCO come together to present the Gandhi medal to one film. The films competing for the ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Award are screened at IFFI first and then, the ICFT jury evaluates the films based on the ideals of UNESCO.
The UNESCO issued commemorative medal in 1994, marking the 125th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi. Since then the ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Award is being given to a film that best reflects Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals of peace, tolerance and non-violence.

Published date : 30 Nov 2022 06:25PM