Current Affairs 13.01.2022
Current Affairs 13.01.2022
Current Affairs 13.01.2022 pdf
1. American Sanctions Over North Korea
- The US has imposed its first sanctions over North Korea’s weapons programs following a series of North Korean missile launches.
- These sanctions were aimed both to prevent the advancement of North Korea’s programs and to impede its attempts to proliferate weapons technologies.
- North Korea is continuing its missile program despite several UN Security Council resolutions and the international community’s calls for diplomacy and denuclearization.
- The present-day conflict between the US and North Korea can be traced from the Cold War between the USSR and US.
- After the defeat of Japan in World War II, the Allied forces at the Yalta Conference (1945), agreed to establish a “four-power trusteeship over Korea”.
- The fear of the spread of communism (state ownership over economic resources of a country) and the mutual distrust between the USSR and the US led to the failure of the trusteeship plan.
- Before a concrete plan could be formulated, the USSR invaded Korea.
- This led to a condition where the north of Korea was under the USSR and the south under the rest of the allies, mainly the US.
- The Korean peninsula was divided into two regions by the 38th parallel.
- In 1948 the United Nations proposed free elections across all of Korea.
- The USSR rejected this plan and the northern part was declared as Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea).
- The election took place in the American protectorate resulting in the establishment of the Republic of Korea (South Korea).
- Both North Korea and South Korea tried to enhance their reach, territorially and ideologically, which gave birth to the Korean Conflict.
2. Homeland Security Dialogue between India and US
- Homeland Security Dialogue was held between the officials of India and US.
- In October 2021 the Ministry of Defence signed a deal with the US Government for procurement of MK 54 Torpedo and Expendable (Chaff and Flares) for the Indian Navy, under Foreign Military Sale (FMS).
- In July 2021 the US Secretary of State visited India.
- The Indo-US homeland security dialogue was launched in 2010 as the mechanism to a sequel to the signing of the India-US counter-terrorism initiative.
- First Homeland Security Dialogue was held in May 2011.
- The latest virtual meeting came after in March 2021, the US President Joe Biden administration had announced the re-establishment of the Homeland Security Dialogue which was discontinued by former US President Donald Trump’s administration.
- There are six sub-groups formed under the Indo-US homeland security dialogue which cover the areas of:
-- Illicit finance, Financial fraud and counterfeiting.
-- Cyber information.
-- Megacity policing and sharing of information among federal, state and local partners.
-- Global supply chain, transportation, port, border and maritime security.
-- Capacity building.
-- Technology upgradation.
3. Krishna Water Dispute
- two judges of the Supreme Court have recused themselves from hearing a matter related to the distribution of Krishna water dispute between Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
- They cited the reason that they did not want to be the target of partiality since the dispute is related to their home states.
Recusal of Judges
- It is the act of abstaining from participation in an official action such as a legal proceeding due to a conflict of interest of the presiding court official or administrative officer.
- When there is a conflict of interest, a judge can withdraw from hearing a case to prevent creating a perception that he carried a bias while deciding the case.
- There are no formal rules governing recusals, although several SC judgments have dealt with the issue.
- In Ranjit Thakur v Union of India (1987), the SC held that the test of the likelihood of bias is the reasonableness of the apprehension in the mind of the party.
- The judge needs to look at the mind of the party before him, and decide that he is biassed or not.
About:
- In 2021 Andhra Pradesh alleged that the Telangana government had deprived it of its legitimate share of water for drinking and irrigation purposes in an “unconstitutional and illegal” manner.
- The water of the Srisailam reservoir — which is the main storage for river water between the two states — has turned out to be a major warring point.
- Andhra Pradesh protested against Telangana’s use of the Srisailam reservoir water for power generation.
- The Srisailam reservoir is constructed across the Krishna River in Andhra Pradesh. It is located in the Nallamala hills.
- It further contended that Telangana was refusing to follow decisions taken in the apex council constituted under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, directions of Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) constituted under this Act and directions of the Centre.
4. Lok Adalat
- Lok Adalat has emerged as the most efficacious tool of Alternative Dispute Resolution.
- A total number of 1,27,87,329 cases were disposed of in 2021. Due to technological advancement like E-Lok Adalats, Lok Adalats have reached the doorsteps of parties.
- The term ‘Lok Adalat’ means ‘People’s Court’ and is based on Gandhian principles.
- As per the Supreme Court, it is an old form of adjudicating system prevalent in ancient India and its validity has not been taken away even in the modern days too.
- It is one of the components of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system and delivers informal, cheap and expeditious justice to the common people.
- The first Lok Adalat camp was organized in Gujarat in 1982 as a voluntary and conciliatory agency without any statutory backing for its decisions.
- In view of its growing popularity over time, it was given statutory status under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987. The Act makes the provisions relating to the organization and functioning of the Lok Adalats.
5. Challenges in India's Rooftop Solar Program
- According to the data available on the website of the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), India could install just 6GW of Rooftop Solar (RTS) power by the end of October 2021 under the rooftop solar scheme.
- Although utility-scale solar has seen tremendous progress with leading players lining up for projects, tariffs spiralling down and government agencies pushing mega projects, RTS has continued to remain neglected.
- Rooftop solar is a photovoltaic system that has its electricity-generating solar panels mounted on the rooftop of a residential or commercial building or structure.
- Rooftop mounted systems are small compared to ground-mounted photovoltaic power stations with capacities in the megawatt range.
- Rooftop PV systems on residential buildings typically feature a capacity of about 5 to 20 kilowatts (kW), while those mounted on commercial buildings often reach 100 kilowatts or more.
- The major objective of the scheme is to generate solar power through the installation of solar panels on the roof of the houses.
- Also, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has announced the implementation of Phase 2 of the grid-connected Rooftop Solar Scheme.
- The aim of the scheme is to achieve the final capacity of 40 GW from Rooftop Solar Projects by 2022.
- The 40GW goal is part of India's ambitious target to achieve 175GW renewable energy (RE) capacity that includes 100GW of solar power by 2022.
- According to a report released in September, 2021, the lockdowns slowed renewable energy installations in the country and the pace of such installations is lagging India’s 2022 target.
6. Global Risks Report 2022
- The Global Risks Report 2022, an annual report, was released by the World Economic Forum. It tracks global risk perceptions among risk experts and world leaders in business, government, and civil society.
- It examines risks across five categories: economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal, and technological.
- Impact of Covid-19: The societal and environmental risks have worsened the most since the start of the pandemic.
- “Social cohesion erosion”, “livelihood crises” and “mental health deterioration” are three of the five risks seen as the most concerning threats to the world in the next two years.
- Apart from this, it has significantly contributed to “debt crises”, “cybersecurity failures”, “digital inequality” and “backlash against science”.
- Global Economic Outlook: It majorly perceived the short-term economic outlook to be volatile, fractured, or increasingly catastrophic.
- The most serious challenge persisting from the pandemic is economic stagnation.
- Environmental Risks: “Extreme weather” and “climate action failure”—appear as top risks in the short-, medium-and long-term outlooks.
- Governments, businesses, and societies are facing increasing pressure to transition to net-zero economies.
- Geopolitical and Technological Risks: In the longer-term horizon, geopolitical and technological risks are of concern too—including “geoeconomic confrontations”, “geopolitical resource contestation” and “cybersecurity failure”.
- International Risks: Artificial intelligence, space exploitation, cross-border cyberattacks and misinformation and migration and refugees were rated as the top areas of international concerns.
- Growing insecurity in the forms of economic hardship, worsening impacts of climate change and political persecution will force millions to leave their homes in search of a better future.
- The prospect of 70,000 satellite launches in coming decades, in addition to space tourism, raises risks of collisions and increasing debris in space, amid a lack of regulation.
7. Animal to Human Transplants (Xenotransplantation)
- In a medical first, doctors transplanted a pig heart into a patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life in the US.
- Xenotransplantation involves the transplantation of nonhuman tissues or organs into human recipients.
- This is the first successful transplant of a pig’s heart into a human being. However, it’s too soon to know if the operation really will work.
- This time, a heart from a pig that had undergone gene-editing has been used to remove a sugar in its cells that’s responsible for that hyper-fast organ rejection.
- Genome editing (also called gene editing) is a group of technologies that give scientists the ability to change an organism's Deoxy-Ribonucleic Acid (DNA).
- Prior attempts at such transplants — or xenotransplantation have failed. One of the biggest obstacles to transplantation is organ rejection.
- This has re-sparked a debate over the use of pigs for human transplants, which many animal rights groups oppose.
8. National Youth Day 2022
- National Youth Day (NYD) is held every year on 12th January to observe the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.
- In 1999, the United Nations decided to commemorate International Youth Day every year on 12th August.
- In 1984, the Indian Government first declared to celebrate the birthday of Swami Vivekananda as National Youth Day. Since then the day has been celebrated as National Youth Day all over the country.
- The day is celebrated to highlight the youths who are the future of our country and to commemorate the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda who always motivated the youth of the country and spoke about the right use of the youth in the development of the country.
- Theme 2022: It's all in the mind.
25th National Youth Festival:
- The Prime Minister inaugurated the 25th National Youth Festival which is a five-day festival.
- The main purpose to celebrate the festival is to increase bonding between the diverse cultures of the country to strengthen the unity of the nation.
- The festival is organized by National Service Scheme (NSS) and Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) under the aegis of Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
9. Advance Version of BrahMos
- an extended range sea-to-sea variant of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was test fired from stealth guided missile destroyer INS Visakhapatnam.
- BrahMos is a joint collaboration between India and Russia.
- The BrahMos missile was initially developed with a range capped at 290 km.
- The range of the missile was originally capped at 290 km as per obligations of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).
- However, following India’s entry into the MTCR club in June 2016, the range is planned to be extended to 450 km and to 600km at a later stage.
- BrahMos is a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organisation of India (DRDO) and the NPOM of Russia.
- BrahMos is named on the rivers Brahmaputra and Moskva.
- It is a two-stage (solid propellant engine in the first stage and liquid ramjet in second) missile.
- It is a multiplatform missile i.e it can be launched from land, air, and sea and multi capability missile with pinpoint accuracy that works in both day and night irrespective of the weather conditions.
- It operates on the "Fire and Forgets" principle i.e it does not require further guidance after launch.
- Brahmos is one of the fastest cruise missile currently operationally deployed with speed of Mach 2.8, which is nearly 3 times more than the speed of sound.
10. Henley Passport Index 2022
- India has been ranked 83rd in the most powerful passport report ‘Henley Passport Index 2022’.
- India’s passport power has improved this quarter compared to 2021 climbing seven places from 90th rank last year.
- The current rankings are for the first quarter of 2022.
- The Henley Passport Index is the original ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.
- Originally created by Dr. Christian H. Kaelin (chairman of Henley & Partners), the ranking is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which maintains the world’s largest and most accurate database of travel information.
- It was launched in 2006 and includes 199 different passports.
- It is updated in real time throughout the year as and when visa policy changes come into effect.
- Japan and Singapore top the index
- Germany and South Korea held onto the joint second spot on the latest ranking, while Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, and Spain shared third place.
- Afghanistan and Iraq continue to be in the 'worst passports to hold' category.
- In 2020, India stood at 84 while in 2016, India was ranked 85th along with Mali and Uzbekistan.
- India (83rd in 2022) shares the position with Sao Tome and Principe in Central Africa, behind Rwanda and Uganda.
- India now has visa-free access to 60 destinations worldwide with Oman and Armenia being the latest additions. India has added 35 more destinations since 2006.
Current Affairs 13.01.2022 pdf
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