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Tuesday, March 08, 2022

THE HINDU NEWSPAPER IMPORTANT ARTICLES 08.03.2022

09:06
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Monday, March 07, 2022

Daily Current Affairs, 07th March 2022

09:46

 


1)  Jan Aushadhi Diwas celebrates on 7th March 2022

•The Jan Aushadhi Diwas is celebrated on 7 March 2022 by the Pharmaceuticals & Medical Devices Bureau of India (PMBI). The day is observed to spread awareness about the usages of generic medicines and the benefits of Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana. The theme of the 4 Janaushadhi Diwas is “Jan Aushadhi-Jan Upyogi”.


•On this occasion, Doctors, Health Workers, Nurses, Pharmacists, and Jan Aushadhi Mitra will discuss the Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana. The government has set a target to increase the number of Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Kendras (PMBJKs) to 10,500 by March 2025.


•Janaushadhi Kendras is the world’s biggest retail pharma chain having around 6,200 outlets in 700 districts of the country. It also provides a good source of self-employment with sustainable and regular earnings. The first Jan Aushadhi Diwas was celebrated on 7th of March 2019.


2)  CISF observed its 53rd Raising Day on March 06

•The 53rd Raising Day ceremony of Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) was organised on March 06, 2022, in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has attended and addressed the Raising Day ceremony of CISF at Ghaziabad’s Indirapuram. The CISF, which functions under the Union Home Ministry,  is a central armed police force and among one of the six paramilitary forces of India. Over 30 lakh passengers in Delhi Metro and 10 lakh passengers in airports across the country pass through the security of CISF.


3)  Study in India meet 2022 inaugurated in Dhaka

•The two-day-long Study in India (SII) 2022 meeting was inaugurated in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The event organised by the High Commission of India was inaugurated by the Education Minister of Bangladesh Dr Dipu Moni and the High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Vikram Doraiswami. Education Minister of Bangladesh said the educational exchange between the two countries will further strengthen the friendly relations between the two countries. She said that students of today have the responsibility to find solutions for the common issues like poverty that are faced by the countries of South Asia.


4)  Minister of Electronics & IT inaugurates Tech Conclave 2022

•National Informatics Centre (NIC) has partnered with governments on digital initiatives. We’ve constructed state-of-the-art PAN-India ICT infrastructure, digital platforms, and solutions for the government’s exclusive usage over the years. We’ve helped the federal and state governments automate their procedures and deliver public services electronically.


5)  India’s first FSRU Hoegh Giant Arrives at Jaigarh Terminal 2022

•H-Jaigarh Energy’s Terminal in Maharashtra has received India’s first floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU). On April 12, 2021, the FSRU Höegh Giant arrived at Jaigarh Terminal in Maharashtra after sailing from Keppel Shipyard in Singapore. This will be India’s first FSRU-based LNG receiving terminal, as well as Maharashtra’s first year-around LNG facility.


6)  India’s first indigenous Flying Trainer HANSA-NG completes sea level trials

•India’s first indigenously developed Flying Trainer, ‘HANSA-NG’, successfully completed the sea-level trials at Puducherry. HANSA-NG was flown from Bengaluru to Puducherry on February 19, covering a distance of 140 nautical miles in 1.5 hours at a cruising speed of 155 km/hr. The objectives of sea level trials is to evaluate handling qualities, climb / cruise performance, balked landing, structural performance including positive & negative G, power plant and other systems performance.


7)  PM Narendra Modi inaugurates Rs 11,400 Crore Pune Metro Rail Project

•The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi has inaugurated Pune Metro Rail Project on March 06, 2022, and also interacted with differently-abled, visually impaired students present inside the metro coach, during his 10-minute ride in the Pune Metro. Pune Metro Rail Project has been built at a total cost of INR 11,420 Crore. It has a total length of 33.2 km and 30 stations.


•Pune Metro is the first metro project in the country to have Aluminum body coaches, indigenously manufactured under the Make in India policy of GoI. PM Modi also unveiled the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at the premises of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and laid the foundation stone and inaugurated multiple developmental projects in Pune.


8)  Telangana topped the Country in terms of Per Capita Net State 2022

•Telangana became the top-performing state in India with a population over one crore in terms of the growth rate of Per Capita Net State Domestic Product at Current Prices by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). It succeeded other states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.


9)  A book titled ‘The Blue Book’ authored by Journalist Amitava Kumar

•Indian writer and journalist, Amitava Kumar has come out with a new book titled ‘The Blue Book: A Writer’s Journal’. The book has been published by HarperCollins India. The Blue Book is the outcome of the diary-keeping by the author during the time of lockdown due to pandemics. The author has used watercolour drawings as well as words to depict the experience, both individual and collective, of the pandemic.


•The Blue Book is a rare species of magical realism where words become paintings, and paintings turn into beguiling (charming) literary anthropology of ‘reality and surreality’ that leaves us stunned. Known for his visceral post-colonial novels of exile and homelessness with shape-shifting itinerant memories of cities, places and people, Kumar uses the alchemical power of the drawings in his genre-defying diary to evoke a world that is together redemptive and regressive in the most frightening times of a global pandemic.


10)  Mobile World Congress 2022 held in Barcelona

•The Global System for Mobile Communications Association(GSMA) has organised the 2022 Mobile World Congress (MWC), which took place in Barcelona, Spain from 28 February to 3 March. The focus on 5G and maximizing its potential for benefiting countries and economies is the centrepiece of MWC this year which is taking place amid an ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
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The HINDU Notes – 07th March 2022

09:14

 


📰 Locally made trainer aircraft finishes sea trials

The HANSA-NG, developed by CSIR-NAL, is reportedly one of the most advanced trainers

•A first of its kind, indigenously developed aircraft trainer, HANSA-NG, developed by the CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL) has completed sea level trials at Puducherry, a necessary prelude to it being evaluated by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

•The HANSA-NG, or HANSA-New Generation, is reportedly one of the most advanced flying trainers, powered by a Rotax Digital Control Engine with features such as a composite light weight airframe, a glass cockpit, a bubble canopy with a wide panoramic view, and electrically operated flaps, among other features. The CSIR-NAL says that the HANSA-NG is designed to meet the need for trainer aircraft by flying clubs in India. “It is an ideal aircraft for Commercial Pilot Licensing (CPL) due to its low cost and low fuel consumption. NAL has already received more than 80 nos. of LoIs [Letters of Intent] from various flying clubs,” the organisation said in a statement.

•The HANSA-NG had so far completed 37 flights and 50 hours of flying and a few more were necessary before securing “type certification” from the DGCA. This certification process is likely to be completed by April 2022, and thereafter will begin to be manufactured industry.

•For the sea trials, the aircraft was flown to Puducherry covering 140 nautical miles in one-and-half-hours at a cruising speed of 155 km per hour on February 19, 2022. The objectives of the sea level trials were to evaluate handling qualities, climb/cruise performance, balked landing, and structural performance, including positive and negative G-forces, power plant and other systems performance. The CSIR-NAL said in a statement that “all the objectives of the sea level trials are met” and the aircraft was being ferried back to Bengaluru, the headquarters of the CSIR-NAL.

•The two-seater Hansa-NG, a revamped version of the original Hansa developed three decades ago, had a successful maiden flight on September 4 when it took off from the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) airport and flew for about 20 minutes. The CSIR-NAL has said it has already received 72 Letters of Intent from various flying clubs. The aircraft will be certified within the next four months, before it gets inducted into service.

📰 In conflict, a ‘settings change’ for social media

A clear protocol that governs such platforms is a must given their intersection with global public life in critical situations

•The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has brought multiple questions to the fore on the validity of international law. Fingers have been pointed at the accepted norms of state behaviour. Cyberspace is no alien to these questions, where ad hoc has brought multiple questions to the fore on the validity of international law. Fingers have been pointed at the accepted norms of state behaviour. Cyberspace is no alien to these questions, where ad hoc standard setting has been practised as a norm for decades now. 

Cover of ‘tech neutrality’

•The challenges specific to the case now — the Ukraine conflict, where Russia is clearly the aggressor state — are not new either. Armed conflicts within and between states have played out in cyberspace for years. It is no surprise then to see the same dynamics play out on social media platforms. The increased attention is undoubtedly a function of the location of the conflict — Europe. The struggles of the Ukrainian population facing Russian aggression are by no means to be ignored, but the world outside Europe and North America has seen more than its share of conflicts, materialising and exacerbating the troubles of kinetic conflict through cyberspace. Social media platforms have gone by the mantra of “tech neutrality” to avoid taking decisions that may be considered political for too long.

•The years that have passed have seen an active ignoring of the concerns around social media platforms during a conflict. It does not help that the harbingers of a free and open world did little to create norms for social media as a new dimension of conflicts. This worrying but unaddressed concern has been a looming threat since the world learned about its use by the Islamic State in the early 2010s, and continues to complicate our understanding of the limits of warfare. The lack of clear systems within social media companies that claim to connect the world is appalling. It is time that they should have learned from multiple instances, as recent as the Israeli use of force in Palestine.

Corporations and problems

•In the context of conflict, social media platforms have multiple challenges that go unaddressed. Content moderation remains a core area of concern, where, essentially, information warfare can be operationalised and throttled. These corporations do not have the obligation to act responsibly as is expected of a state. Yet, their sheer magnitude and narrative-building abilities place a degree of undeniable onus on them. After years of facing and acknowledging these challenges, most social media giants are yet to create institutional capacity to deal with such situations. Ad hoc the context of conflict, social media platforms have multiple challenges that go unaddressed. Content moderation remains a core area of concern, where, essentially, information warfare can be operationalised and throttled. These corporations do not have the obligation to act responsibly as is expected of a state. Yet, their sheer magnitude and narrative-building abilities place a degree of undeniable onus on them. After years of facing and acknowledging these challenges, most social media giants are yet to create institutional capacity to deal with such situations. Ad hoc responses to many predictable scenarios do not create an image of responsible action from such corporations.

•Additionally, they also act as a conduit for further amplification of content on other platforms. Major social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter also provide space for extremist views from fringe platforms, where the degree of direct relation to the user generating such content is blurred. Even though these big platforms create special teams to handle such content, the magnitude overwhelms the teams that are sparingly staffed. It is also a concern that the mascots of the liberal world where such fringe social media platforms are registered do little to regulate them.

Technology falls short

•Misinformation and disinformation are thorny challenges to these platforms. Algorithmic solutions are widely put to use to address them. These include identification of content violative of their terms, reducing the visibility of content deemed inappropriate by the algorithm, and in the determination of instances reported to be violative of the terms by other users. More often than not in critical cases, these algorithmic solutions have misfired, harming the already resource-scarce party. This reiterates human ingenuity and sensitivity to context. It is an essential ingredient to thwarting nefarious activity on social media platforms that cannot be outsourced to technology.

•Instances such as these are an opportunity for these corporations to demonstrate their commitment to the values they profess. They should not stop at the point of creating small-overworked teams with minimal understanding of the geographical and cultural dimensions of problems. The operational realities of these platforms require that the safety of users be prioritised to address pressing concerns, even at the cost of profits.

•There was no unpredictability over conflicts in the information age spilling over to social media platforms. It did not even require pre-emption, since these have been recurrent events in the past decade. The international community and the liberal world order had to be proactive but failed to do so. We have missed the chance to have established a clear protocol on balancing the business interests of social media platforms and their intersection with global public life in critical situations. Though late, it would be valuable to have insights and clear frameworks to guide the behaviour of states and these corporations in cases of conflict, which will inevitably spill over to social media platforms in today’s information age. 

India has a role

•For India, there are many lessons. India’s strategic position in the global order appears to be diminishing. The time is ripe to set that right and gain currency in the developing world order. The ruling party seems to be adept at using social media platforms to set a domestic narrative to its liking. However, India is yet to demonstrate any such aptitude before the international community. It will be useful to add that to the Indian agenda on all matters international.

•The lack of coherent norms on state behaviour in cyberspace as well as the intersection of business, cyberspace, and state activity is an opportunity for India. Indian diplomats can initiate a new track of conversations here which can benefit the international community at large. India should ensure that it initiates these conversations through well-informed diplomats. Ultimately, this will contribute to maintaining a rule-based word order that can greatly benefit India.

Transparency, accountability

•Finally, it is necessary to reassess the domestic regulatory framework on social media platforms. Transparency and accountability need to be foundational to the regulation of social media platforms in the information age. The moral standing for initiating any change to the global order must stem from a domestic policy that reflects the protection of the interests of the people over that of the political masters. We must stray away from the trend of regulatory norms that are deeply infringing on the rights accorded in a democracy.

•Uncertainties of conflict overwhelm people and institutions. The dangerous conflation of social media as the civilian public square and site of international conflict will not bode well. A protocol that outlines the norms of behaviour on social media during such situations can help in addressing the multitude of evolving factors. It is in our national interest and that of a rule-based global polity that social media platforms be dealt with more attention across spheres than with a range of reactionary measures addressing immediate concerns alone.

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THE HINDU NEWSPAPER IMPORTANT ARTICLES 07.03.2022

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Sunday, March 06, 2022

Only IAS Prelims 2022 Test 05 With Solution PDF

08:24

Only IAS Prelims 2022 Test 05 With Solution PDF

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Saturday, March 05, 2022

VISION IAS Prelims 2022 Test 10 Hindi With Solution PDF

16:34

VISION IAS Prelims 2022 Test 10 Hindi With Solution PDF

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Daily Current Affairs, 05th March 2022

16:27

 


1)  World Obesity Day 2022 Observed globally on 04th March

•World Obesity Day is observed every year on March 04. It is observed to spread awareness about obesity and encourage action towards its elimination. The day is organised by the World Obesity Federation, a non-profit body that is in official relations with the World Health Organisation.


World Obesity Day 2022 theme


•The theme of World Obesity Day 2022 is ‘Everybody Needs to Act’. The campaign aims to improve the world’s understanding, prevention and treatment of obesity.


2)  MEA Unveils Special Logo for 75 Years of Indo-Dutch Diplomatic Relation

•The 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and the Netherlands is being commemorated this year. Sanjay Verma, Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs, and Marten van den Berg, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to India, launched a joint logo on March 2, 2022, to commemorate the occasion.


3)  Hero MotoCorp named New EV Brand ‘Vida’ 2022

•Hero MotoCorp has unveiled a new brand “Vida”, (Vida means life) for its emerging mobility solutions and upcoming electric vehicles. Vida brand has been unveiled by Dr Pawan Munjal, Chairman and CEO of Hero MotoCorp, on March 3, 2022, in Dubai. He also announced a $100 million Global Sustainability Fund that will help the company to nurture more than 10,000 entrepreneurs on ESG solutions.


•The first electric vehicle under the Vida brand will be officially unveiled on July 1, 2022, to coincide with the birth anniversary of Dr Brijmohan Lall, Chairman Emeritus of Hero MotoCorp.


4)  Jet Airways named Sanjiv Kapoor as CEO 2022

•Sanjiv Kapoor has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Jet Airways. Prior to this, Kapoor was the president of Oberoi Hotels and has also worked as a chief operating officer at SpiceJet and chief strategy and commercial officer at Vistara. He has worked as the Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer of Vistara Airlines for three years, and Chief Operating Officer of SpiceJet for two years. The Jalan Kalrock Consortium is the new promoter of Jet Airways.


5)  UPI transactions value dips

•According to the data from the National Payments Corporation of India, India’s cashless retail transactions on the UPI platform were Rs 8.27 lakh crore in February, a little decrease from the previous month’s total (NPCI). In February 2022, there were 452 crores (4.52 billions) in transactions.


6)  ICC Women’s World Cup New Zealand 2022 begins

•The ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 has kicked off on March 04, 2022, in New Zealand. This is the 12 edition of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, being held in New Zealand from March 04 to April 03, 2022. The opening match of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 was held at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui between West Indies and New Zealand, in which West Indies women beat New Zealand by 3 runs. India will open against Pakistan on the 6th of March.
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The HINDU Notes – 05th March 2022

15:35

 


📰 New gin berry species discovered in southern Western Ghats

Glycosmis albicarpa bears distinct large white fruit

•A team of scientists from the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) has discovered a new gin berry species from the Kanyakumari Wildlife Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu. The species, named  Glycosmis albicarpa with a distinct large white fruit, is endemic to the southern Western Ghats. The species belongs to the Orange family, Rutaceae.

•The findings have been published in the latest issue of Nordic Journal of Botany, published from Sweden .

•Many of the related plants of these taxonomic groups are being utilised for their medicinal values and food. Most commonly related species of these plants are collected from the wild, mainly for local use as food and medicine.

•Berries of Glycosmis species have the unique characteristic of ‘gin aroma’ and has gained in popularity as an edible fruit. The species is also a larval host plant for butterflies like other species of Glycosmis, said K. A. Sujana, the leader of the scientific team said.

•The species, an evergreen small tree, was found as undergrowth in Tirunelveli semi-evergreen forests at the Panagudi forest section of the wildlife sanctuary as a single population that covers an area of approximately 2 sq.km., said  Dr. Sujana.

•“While exploring the study site, four sub-populations of the species were located in the valley between two hillocks, with each having three–seven mature individuals in groups,” she said. Though flowering, natural regeneration and seedling recruitment of this taxon is found to be fairly good within the locality, while habitat modification causes a major threat to the survival of this species, she added.

•“A special conservation effort for this particular region is the need of the hour”, said Dr. Sujana.

•The discovery not only re-emphasises the uniqueness and endemism in Western Ghats’ flora but also add to the growing inventory of the region’s flora, said Ragesh Gopala Vadhyar, co-author.

•“Since the world is losing precious habitats that are home to many unique and endemic species, it is high time we protected the Western Ghats to conserve such species before they are lost forever,” said Dr. Vadhyar.

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Only IAS Prelims 2022 Test 04 With Solution PDF

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THE HINDU NEWSPAPER IMPORTANT ARTICLES 05.03.2022

08:36
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