Ten relevant news updates from across the world, useful for examinations
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Headlines - 28 - 07 - 2021
- Education - National Institutes of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management Bill, 2021 - The Parliament passed the National Institutes of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management Bill, 2021, as both houses approved it, and it will become an Act once the President gives his assent to it. Through this, the two educational institutes, under the Ministry of Food Processing Industries now become Institutions of National Importance (INI). These two are - (i) National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM), Kundali (Haryana) and (ii) the Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT), Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu). The bill provides these institutes more autonomy, so they can start new and innovative courses, as well as attract excellent faculty and students. Global standards can also be adopted in academic and research work.
- Indian Economy - Kandla first Green SEZ - Kandla in Gujarat became the first Green SEZ, as it achieved CII’s IGBC (Indian Green Building Council) Green Cities Platinum Rating. The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), part of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) was formed in the year 2001. Its vision is “to enable a sustainable built environment for all and facilitate India to be one of the global leaders in the sustainable built environment by 2025”. The council offers a wide array of services such as developing new green building rating programmes, certification services and green building training programmes. It organises Green Building Congress, its annual flagship event on green buildings. It is committee-based, member-driven and consensus-focused. All stakeholders of the construction industry participate in the council activities through local chapters. The council works with several State Governments, the Central Government, World Green Building Council, bilateral multi-lateral agencies in promoting green building concepts in India.
- Governance and Institutions - Steel scrap recycling policy - The "Steel Scrap Recycling Policy" provides a framework to facilitate and promote establishment of metal scrapping centers in India for scientific processing & recycling of ferrous scrap generated from various sources. The policy framework provides standard guidelines for collection, dismantling and shredding activities in an organized, safe and environmentally sound manner. It fixes responsibilities for setting up collection, dismantling centre and scrap processing centre, and the roles of aggregators and responsibilities of the govt., manufacturer and owners. It does not envisage setting up of scrap centres by the Government, but the role is to be an enabler and provide a framework to facilitate the eco-system of metal scrapping in India. The decision to set up scrap centres is of entrepreneurs based on commercial considerations. The scrapping centres are approved and monitored by authorized agencies of the State/Union Territory governments. The policy does not envisage any additional monitoring mechanism thereby ensuring that there is no additional compliance burden.
- Environment and Ecology - Gross Environment Product (GEP) - The Uttarakhand government announced it will initiate valuation of its natural resources in the form of ‘Gross Environment Product’ (GEP). It was established back in 1997 by ecological economists like Robert Costanza at the global level, and is an assessment system to measure ecological status. It is considered as the product and service value that the ecosystem provides for human welfare and economic and social sustainable development, including provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services. Overall, GEP accounts for the economic value of the ecosystem in providing products and services, and it is one of the components of green GDP. "Green GDP" is an indicator of economic growth with environmental factors taken into consideration. It factors biodiversity losses and costs attributed to climate change. Ecosystems that can be measured include natural ecosystems such as forests, grassland, wetland, desert, freshwater and ocean, and artificial systems.
- History - Dholavira recognised as UNESCO WHS - Dholavira, the archaeological site of a Harappan-era city, received the UNESCO world heritage site tag. While Dholavira became the fourth site from Gujarat and 40th from India to make the list, it is the first site of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) in India to get the tag. The IVC acropolis is located on a hillock near present-day Dholavira village in Kutch district, from which it gets its name. After Mohen-jo-Daro, Ganweriwala and Harappa in Pakistan and Rakhigarhi in Haryana of India, Dholavira is the fifth largest metropolis of IVC. The site has a fortified citadel, a middle town and a lower town with walls made of sandstone or limestone instead of mud bricks in many other Harappan sites. Some of the unique features of the Dholavira site are a cascading series of water reservoirs, outer fortification, two multi-purpose grounds — one of which was used for festivities and as a marketplace — nine gates with unique designs, and funerary architecture featuring tumulus — hemispherical structures like the Buddhist Stupas. While unlike graves at other IVC sites, no mortal remains of humans have been discovered at Dholavira. Remains of a copper smelter indicate that Harappans, who lived in Dholavira, knew metallurgy.
- Healthcare and Medicine - When in Puri, drink straight from the tap - Puri became the first city in India where people can avail high quality drinking water directly from the tap on 24-hour basis. Henceforth, people need not have to store or filter drinking water! No metropolitan city in India has such a facility yet. Similar facilities are available only in world-class cities like London, New York and Singapore. The project would benefit 2.5 lakh citizens of Puri and 2 crore tourists who visit the tourist place every year. Puri would no more be burdened with 400 metric tonne of plastic waste. Water fountains have been developed at 400 locations in Puri. A similar project is under various stages of implementation in 16 other urban centres of Odisha.
- Social Issues - Helpline for women affected by violence - The Union Minister for Women and Child Development inaugurated the National Commission for Women’s 24/7 helpline number - 7827170170. It aims to provide 24/7 online support to women affected by violence through referral by linking them with appropriate authorities such as police, hospitals, District Legal Service Authority, psychological services etc. The helpline will function with a team of trained experts. Any girl or woman aged 18 years and above can seek help by calling on this Helpline which will be operated from the premises of the National Commission for Women, New Delhi.
- Science and Technology - James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) - NASA is set to launch the large infrared James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) touted as the “premier observatory” of the coming decade later in 2021. Considered the successor of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), JWST will study various phases in the history of the universe, from the formation of solar systems to the evolution of our own Solar System. But before it launches, NASA has an important decision to make — whether to rename the $8.8-billion telescope. These considerations stem from allegations that NASA’s former government-appointed administrator James Webb, after whom JWST is named, had persecuted homosexuals when he had worked for the government! In May, four prominent astronomers wrote that Webb (1906-92) purged LGBT individuals from the workforce after he arrived at NASA in 1961 (he served until 1968). The debate marks a rare instance of astronomers making a political statement. Amazing world, this.
- World Politics - South Korean artillery interception system - South Korea has approved plans to develop an artillery interception system, similar to Israel’s Iron Dome. This new defence system will be designed and built specifically to thwart attacks by rockets and long-range missiles launched by North Korea. The South Korean government had announced in June '21 that it would be spending approximately $2.5 billion on research and development of this new system, with a target to deploy it by 2035. North Korea deploys around 1,000 artillery pieces along the Military Demarcation Line that divides the Korean Peninsula.
- World Economy - Kings of the World rising to heaven - Big Tech’s earning season began in stellar fashion, with Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft all posting handsome quarterly results. Apple smashed expectations, reporting a profit of $21.7bn in the three months to June, nearly doubling last year’s equivalent figure. Sales of the new iPhone were particularly strong. The firm’s share price fell slightly as it tamped down expectations of a repeat performance this quarter. Profits at Microsoft reached $19.1bn, up 42% on last year, as demand for cloud-computing soared. Not to be outdone, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, nearly tripled its net income, to $18.5bn.
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