Context:

• Recently, NASA launched its new Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) — the agency’s first-ever laser communications system from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA.
• The LCRD will help the agency test optical communication in space.
• Currently, most NASA spacecraft use radio frequency communications to send data. Optical communications will help increase the bandwidth 10 to 100 times more than radio frequency systems.

• LCRD will demonstrate all of the advantages of using laser systems and allow us to learn how to use them best operationally.
• With this capability further proven, we can start to implement laser communications on more missions, making it a standardized way to send and receive data.

Context:

• The Centre has informed Parliament that India supports UNCLOS and the country is committed to promoting a free, open and rules-based order rooted in international law and undaunted by coercion.
• As a State party to the UNCLOS, India promoted utmost respect for the UNCLOS, which established the international legal order of the seas and oceans.
• India developed its maritime cooperation with regional partners in consonance with the Government’s vision of Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR).
• The steps taken include ‘Mission based Deployments’ of naval ships and aircraft to enhance Maritime Domain Awareness, promote maritime security and address contingencies that may arise.
• In addition, India proactively engaged with regional and extra-regional maritime forces through multilateral exercises, joint surveillance, coordinated patrols among others to promote maritime security in the region in an inclusive and cooperative manner.

• The latest figures on global carbon dioxide emissions call into question the world’s efforts to tackle the climate crisis.
•  CO2 emissions are set to soar 4.9% in 2021, compared with the previous year, according to a study published earlier this month by the Global Carbon Project (GCP), a group of scientists that track emissions.
• During the COP26 climate  summit, advocates have been arguing about the importance of Nuclear energy as comprehensive alternatives.

Is nuclear power a zero-emissions energy source?

• Nuclear energy isalso responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, no energy source is completely free of emissions, but more on that later.
• When it comes to nuclear, uranium extraction, transport and processing produces emissions. The long and complex construction process of nuclear power plants also releases CO2, as does the demolition of decommissioned sites.
• And, last but not least, nuclear waste also has to be transported and stored under strict conditions and here, too, emissions must be taken into account.

Context:

• The Ministry of Labour and Employment provided details about the State-wise number of beneficiaries under ABRY.

About the Scheme

• Last year, the Union Cabinet gave its approval for Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana (ABRY).
• Under ABRY, the government will provide subsidy for provident fund contributions for adding new employees to establishments registered with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
• The Centre will provide the subsidy for two years for workers who lost jobs between March 1 to September 30 and for new workers employed on or after October 1.

• The killing of 14 civilians in a botched military operation in Nagaland has led to fresh calls for repealing The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), a stringent law that allows the armed forces to use maximum force in an area declared as ‘disturbed’.

Origin of AFSPA

• In the wake of the partition riots, four ordinances were promulgated in 1947.
  • The first was the Bengal Disturbed Areas (Special Powers of Armed Forces) Ordinance;
  • this was followed by ordinances for Assam, East Punjab and Delhi , and the United Provinces.
  • These were replaced by a common legislation, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1948. This was meant to be in force for one year, but was repealed only in 1957.
• Thereafter, the President promulgated the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Ordinance in May 1958.
• This was subsequently replaced by an act of Parliament. Initially known as the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act, 1958, it was subsequently adapted appropriately after the creation of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.

Context:

• The pandemic has revealed the limits of our wherewithal to look after the collective needs of children during a calamity. A child in the family has a radically different status from that accorded to children as a collective entity in our country.
• The pandemic has revealed that society and state institutions prefer to ignore the conditions under which the family copes with the demands of childhood.

Peripheral concern

Children’s education and health are two major domains in which welfare policies of the modern state are expected to support and enhance the family’s role.

• In both these domains, the policy framework reflects a minimalist stance, both in terms of financial investment and institutional strength. In policies as well as in their execution, there is considerable diversity and disparity among the States. The overall picture suggests that childhood is of peripheral concern. Gains made in this context have proved difficult to sustain.

Context:

The threat posed by Omicron is tenuous and it will still be a few weeks before a comprehensive understanding of it emerges, but what is known unambiguously is that this latest variant of the coronavirus is extremely infectious.

What we know till now

• Nearly 50 countries now have reported its presence within their borders but insight into its effects is available only fromSouth Africa. A preliminary analysis of patients in Tshwane district, in Gauteng Province of South Africa, which has been the global epicentre of the Omicron-led fourth wave, suggests that despite its infectiousness, Omicron is less deadly than other variants that have led the country’s previous three waves. When 166 new admissions were analysed, there were 10 deaths in the past two weeks, making up 6.6% of the 166 admissions. By comparison, the death rates in previous waves ranged from 17%-23%.
  • The major caveat, as scientists who are part of the South African Medical Research Council point out, is that patterns could rapidly change in the next two weeks as it takes nearly a month for infection to reveal its worst-case outcome of death, and so the current data of two weeks are insufficient. Trends in hospitalisation too are encouraging, the scientists say.

Context:

• At the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) held in Glasgow countries did commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and put forth a record-shattering U.S.$356 million in new support from contributing national and regional governments to protect the most vulnerable.
• But this is not enough to stay below the limit of 2°C above pre-industrial levels. COP26 fell far short of the ground-breaking successmany had hoped for.

Climate crisis and hunger

Climate crisis and hunger are linked inextricably-

• Analysis by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) shows that a 2°C rise in average global temperature from pre-industrial levels will see a staggering 189 million additional people in the grip of hunger.
• Vulnerable communities, a vast majority of whom rely on subsistence agriculture, fishing, and livestock and, who contribute the least to the climate crisis, will continue to bear the brunt of the impacts with limited means to cushion the blow.
• The absence of social protection measures such as food safety nets forces the food insecure to depend on humanitarian aid for survival.
• Across the world, up to 811 million people do not have enough food and as per the recent WFP estimates, 41 million people in 43 countries are at risk of sliding into famine.
• Crop failures, water scarcity, and declining nutrition threaten millions who rely on agriculture, fishing, and livestock

Context:

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) late last month decided to keep on hold the implementation of a recommendation made by an internal working group to issue banking licences to large industrial groups. Many view the RBI’s decision as a prudent step to preserve financial stability.

More on the news-

An internal working group of the RBI headed by P.K. Mohanty last year recommended, that the RBI allow large industrial groups to set up banks.

• The group’s recommendation was seen by analysts as an effort to bring more private capital into the banking system and help increase lending.
• The proposal was met with criticism from many experts, including former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and former RBI deputy governor Viral Acharya.
• International practices -Many countries across the world either completely ban industrial groups from owning banks or heavily restrict such ownership.

RBI decided to put on hold the major recommendation to allow industrial groups to own and operate banks.

Context:

The Union Cabinet recently approved the funding and implementation of the Ken-Betwa river interlinking project at a cost of ₹44,605 crore at the 2020-21 price level.

Key Highlights of the project

• The Centre would fund ₹39,317 crore for the project, with ₹36,290 crore as a grant and ₹3,027 crore as a loan.
• The project involves transferring of water from the Ken river to the Betwa river through the construction of Daudhan dam and a canal linking the two rivers, the Lower Orr Project, Kotha Barrage and the Bina Complex Multipurpose Project.
• The project is slated to irrigate 10.62 lakh hectares annually, provide drinking water supply to 62 lakh people and generate 103 MW of hydropower and 27 MW of solar power. The project is proposed to be completed in eight years.