24 June 2022 – Current Affairs

 

India’s First Logistics Excellence Awards

Paper 3 – Economy

Why Should You Know?

• On 23 june 2022, The Government of India hosted its first-ever National Logistics Excellence Awards in New Delhi.
• Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal along with the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Shri Som Parkash Sharma gave away the awards in 12 categories.
• The National Logistics Excellence Awards aim to acknowledge the many logistics service providers in the country that have been able to display innovation, diversity and efficiency.
• With 169 entries and 12 categories for awards in its first edition, the Ministry of Commerce and Industries undertook a year-long process of identifying, categorising, and selecting qualified applications.
• An Expert Screening Committee of 18 diverse experts and a National Jury of 9 senior dignitaries was formed to make the final deliberations.
• It is note worthy that In addition to the Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) report that measures that appreciates the endeavours of the State Governments, the Logistics Excellence Awards will continue to be an annual exercise recognizing excellence in logistics with the private sector in India.

About the Award –

• A platform recognising change-makers driving innovation and transformation in the logistics sector will bring the spotlight to the best practices that have been able to create resilient and efficient supply chains overcoming the challenges of the pandemic and supporting the growth of internal and EXIM trade in India.
• It is categorized into two groups: Service provider excellence awards and Industry excellence awards, the evaluation criteria for the awards was based on supplier ecosystem development, intralogistics and warehousing, sustainability, demand, and distribution, skill development and diversity, and technology transformation and innovation.
• The partners for the awards are the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, GOI, India Logistics, Arthur D Little (knowledge partner), and CII and FICCI (industry partner).

Key Objective –

• Catalyze systematic transformation of the Indian logistics sector by shining the spotlight on best practices in logistics
• Highlight the initiatives and achievements of top performers and create a repository for dissemination of best practices that can become benchmarks for the rest of the industry
• Acknowledge the extraordinary measures organizations have taken to address the vulnerabilities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Martyrdom day of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur

Paper 1 – History

Why Should You Know?

• National Monuments Authority is observing the great warrior Baba Banda Singh Bahadur’s martyrdom on 25thJune, 2022. (according to Indian Calendar)
• On 25th June 2022 inspirational sermons by special and distinguished dignitaries will be orgainsed at Red Fort Lawns.
• Also in the evening at Shahidi Sthal of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Sahib – Shri Guru Singh Sabha Gurudwara, Mehrauli, New Delhi, Samagam will be organised where tributes will be offered the monument of martyrdom of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur.

About Baba Banda Singh Bahadur –

• Baba Banda Singh Bahadur was a great Sikh warrior and a commander of Khalsa army who defeated the Mughals and freed a large part of North India.
• He established the Khalsa rule in Punjab.
• Banda Singh Bahadur abolished the Zamindari system, and granted property rights to the tillers of the land.
• He was a Noble ruler who introduced the Nanak Shahi coins. 
• He was captured by Mughal ruler Farrukhsiyar and brought to Delhi and put to death in a most inhuman manner.
• This martyrdom took place in Mehrauli where a monument still stands in memory of his martyrdom which is an icon of exemplary courage, bravery and deep-rooted faith in dharma. 
• He was a great and true disciple of Guru Govind Singh Ji Sahib.
• This is perhaps the first time that the republic of India is saluting the Valour and sacrifice of the great martyr.
• Red fort, New Delhi is the place from where the mughals gave firman for his killing.

National Conference on Millets

Paper 3 – Agriculture

Why Should You Know?

• On June 23, 2022 Union Minister of State for M/o Food Processing Industries, Shri Prahlad Singh Patel inaugurated the National Conference on Millets in new delhi.
• the theme was  ‘The Future Super Food for India’.
• it was organised by industry body ASSOCHAM with the support of M/o Food Processing Industries.
• The conference has been organised to discuss opportunities and challenges in ensuring food and nutritional security. 
• the Union Minister said that the production of coarse cereals in the country has increased to 17.96 million tonnes in 2020-21 from 14.52 million tonnes in 2015-16 and the production of bajra (pearl millet) has also increased to 10.86 million tonnes in the same period.
• due to its ability to be easily preserved for a long time even under ordinary conditions, coarse grain is also considered a storehouse in times of famine.
• Talking about advantages of Millets at the National Conference on Millets, the Minister of State for M/o FPI said that Millets have been among the oldest eatables in the country. It is a crop grown from small seeds which can be grown well in dry areas or even on lands with deficient and low fertility thus is known as the superfood of India.
• The Minister shared that due to their short growing season, millets can develop from seeds to ready-to-harvest crops in just about 65 days and this characteristic of the millets is of vital importance in thickly populated regions of the world. If stored properly, millets can keep well for two years or beyond. He stated that there is a need to mainstream millets to improve India’s nutrition outcomes.
• the Government of India has already revised the guidelines to facilitate the movement of the surplus production of millets to other states. The provision of inter-state transportation of surplus millets through the Food Corporation of India (FCI) is incorporated to cater for advance demands placed by consuming states before the start of procurement.
• The major millets producing states in India include Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
• It is noteworthy that India is now the 5th largest exporter of millets globally. year 2023 will be the international year of millets that will create value generation and promotion of sustainable products in food choices.

4th Foreign Ministry Consultation between India and New Zealand

Paper 2 – International Relations

Why Should You Know?

• during which both sides discussed bilateral issues as well as on the need for closer cooperation in the Indo Pacific region.
• The talks were led by Saurabh Kumar, Secretary (East), while the New Zealand side was led by Mark Sinclair, Deputy Secretary, Americas and Asia Group, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
• Reviewing the existing warm and friendly bilateral relations, including trade and investment, defence and security, people-to people ties, counter-terrorism, cyber security, and disarmament, both sides expressed keenness to further enhance engagement and deepen ties in various areas.
• The Foreign Ministry Consultations also provided an opportunity to exchange views on contemporary regional and global issues of mutual interest.
• Highlighting the need for closer cooperation in the region, both sides reiterated the importance of a free, open, inclusive, and stable Indo-Pacific. Discussions were also held on ways to strengthen coordination at regional and multilateral fora.

About New Zealand –

• New Zealand is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.
• It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island and the South Island and over 700 smaller islands. The two main islands are separated by Cook Strait.
• Besides the North and South Islands, the five largest inhabited islands are Stewart Island (across the Foveaux Strait), Chatham Island, Great Barrier Island (in the Hauraki Gulf), D’Urville Island (in the Marlborough Sounds) and Waiheke Island (about 22 km from central Auckland).
• New Zealand’s capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland.
• New Zealand is a developed country which ranks highly in international comparisons of national performance, such as quality of life, education, protection of civil liberties, government transparency, and economic freedom.
• It is noteworthy that New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy,although its constitution is not codified.
• New Zealand, together with Australia, is part of a region known as Australasia.[175] It also forms the southwestern extremity of the geographic and ethnographic region called Polynesia.

 

 

Jammu and Kashmir to host G-20 meetings

Paper 2- International Relations

Why Should You Know?

• Jammu and Kashmir will host the 2023 meetings of the G20, an influential group of the world’s major economies.
• JandK government has set up a five-member high-level committee for overall coordination of G20 meetings to be held in the Union Territory.
• Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal was appointed as India’s Sherpa for the G20 in September 2021.
• According to the Ministry of External Affairs, India will hold the G-20 presidency from December 1, 2022, and convene the first G20 leaders’ summit in 2023.
• India’s representation at G20 summits has been led by Prime Minister Modi since 2014.
• The G20 countries include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United States and the United Kingdom.

About G20 –

• The G20 Group is an informal grouping of representatives of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and 19 countries.
• It is a ministerial forum that was established by the G7 in collaboration with both developed and developing economies. The conference of Finance Ministers and Governors of the Central Bank is held since the year 1999.
• During the 2008 financial crisis, the world realized the need for a new consensus at the highest political level. As a result, it was decided that the leaders of the G20 nations would meet once a year.
• Finance ministers and central bank governors of G20 nations meet twice a year in which representatives of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund also participate.
• The G20 group includes Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. Are included.
• Spain is invited as a permanent, non-member to participate in the G20 conference each year.
• The G20 grouping brings together countries from the world’s major advanced and emerging economies. It represents 75% of global trade, 85% of global investment, 85% of global GDP and two-thirds of the world’s population.

 

Three-day workshop on ‘Gender Responsible Governance’

Paper 2- Social justice

Why Should You Know?

• A three-day workshop on ‘Gender Responsible Governance’ is being organized in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh from June 22, 2022.
• About 116 women MLAs from five states and one union territory are participating in this workshop.
• The workshop is being organized in association with Women’s Commission and Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie.
• The workshop will also consider inclusive government and the future of women legislators in India.

About National Commission for Women –

• The National Commission for Women was set up as statutory body under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990
• It was established on 31 January 1992.
• The objective of the NCW is to represent the rights of women in India and to provide a voice for their issues and concerns.
• The subjects of their campaigns have included dowry, politics, religion, equal representation for women in jobs, and the exploitation of women for labour. They have also discussed police abuses against women.
• The National Commission for Women has played an important role in making laws for the relief and rehabilitation of rape victims. The role of the Commission in providing legal recourse to women who have been oppressed and deceived or abandoned by non-resident Indian husbands has also been highly commendable.

US bans imports from China’s Xinjiang region

Paper 2- International Issues

Why Should You Know?

• This ban was imposed due to the introduction of new rules.
• As per these rules, importing companies have to prove that there is no bonded labor for this production in the area concerned.
• US officials said members of the minority Uyghur community are forced into labor in the Xinjiang region.
• China has repeatedly denied allegations that it has held Uyghur community captives in camps to make them work in Xinjiang.
• The US has already banned the import of cotton and other products from this resource-rich region.

Where is Xinjiang?

• Like Tibet, it is autonomous, meaning – in theory – it has some powers of self-governance. But in practice, both regions are subjected to major restrictions by the central government.

Who are the Uyghurs?

• There are about 12 million Uyghurs, mostly Muslim, living in Xinjiang, which is officially known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
• The Uyghurs speak their own language, which is similar to Turkish, and see themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations. They make up less than half of the Xinjiang population.
• Recent decades have seen a mass migration of Han Chinese (China’s ethnic majority) into Xinjiang, allegedly orchestrated by the state to dilute the minority population there.
• China has also been accused of targeting Muslim religious figures and banning religious practices in the region, as well as destroying mosques and tombs.
• Uyghur activists say they fear that the group’s culture is under threat of erasure.
• Several countries, including the US, UK, Canada and the Netherlands, have accused China of committing genocide – defined by international convention as the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

 

Women’s Prize for Fiction

Paper 1- Art and Culture

Why Should You Know?

• Renowned American-Canadian author, filmmaker and Zen priest Ruth Ozeki won the Women’s Fiction Award this year for her novel “The Book of Form and Emptiness”. Ojeki’s fourth novel.
• The Book of Form and Emptiness, tells the story of a thirteen-year-old boy who, after the tragic death of his father, begins to hear the sounds of objects talking to him.
• She was announced as the winner of the £30,000 prize at a ceremony in London with nominees including Elif Schaffak, Meg Mason and Louise Erdrich.
• Ozeki, 66, is also an English professor, as well as a filmmaker and Zen Buddhist priest.
• The 2021 winner was English author Susanna Clarke for her book “Piranesi,” about a lonely figure living in a place of wonders referred to as the House, who discovers dark secrets. Other past winners include Zadie Smith, Tayari Jones and Maggie O’Farrell.

About the prize –

• The aim of the prize is always to celebrate women’s creative achievements and international writing, whilst also stimulating debate about gender and writing, gender and reading, and how the publishing and reviewing business works.
• The idea for the award came about in 1992 when a group of booksellers, journalists, librarians and others in the British publishing industry set out to do something about the fact that prior to that year, only 10% of the novelists shortlisted for the Booker Prize had been women — despite the fact that 60% of the books on the market were written by women.
• The group initiated a new prize to recognize female fiction writers and inspire more readers, especially men, to pick up books written by women.
• Since its founding, the Women’s Prize for Fiction has become one of the top awards in the literary field. The judging panel is also entirely made up of women, as “the founders wanted to celebrate women’s critical views as well as their creative achievements,”.

 

Sickle Cell Disease

Paper 2 – Health

Why Should You Know?

• Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders.
• Healthy red blood cells are round and they move through small blood vessels carrying oxygen to all parts of the body.
• In SCD, the red blood cells become hard and sticky and look like a C-shaped farm tool called a “sickle”.
• Sickle cells die early, which causes a constant shortage of red blood cells.

Causes

• Point mutation in beta globulin gene changing Glu→Val at position 6 in the Beta Globin chain of hemoglobin, results in Hb S.

Who is affected by sickle cell disease?

• SCD affects millions of people throughout the world and is particularly common among those whose ancestors come from sub-Saharan Africa; regions in the Western Hemisphere; Saudi Arabia; India; and Mediterranean countries such as Turkey, Greece, and Italy.
• Sickle cells can get stuck in small blood vessels and block the flow of blood and oxygen to organs in the body. These blockages cause repeated episodes of severe pain, organ damage, serious infections, or even stroke.

Investigation of sickle cell disease

• Complete Blood Picture: Low hemoglobin
• HPLC/ Hb electrophoresis: Diagnostic test which quantifies different types of hemoglobin.
• Genetic testing: To detect the defective gene.

Treatment –

• The goals of treating SCD are to relieve pain and to prevent infections, eye damage, and strokes.
• Parental education about the disease and information about preventing complications.
• There is no single best treatment for all people with SCD. Treatment options are different for each person depending on the symptoms. Treatments can include receiving blood transfusions, maintaining a high fluid intake (drinking 8 to 10 glasses of water each day), receiving IV (intravenous) therapy (fluids given into a vein), medications to help with pain and Folic acid and Calcium to support the high turnover of the bone marrow.
• Prevention of infection by prophylactic pencillin.
• Regular immunisation; additional vaccines against encapsulated organisms especially pneumococcus.
• A medicine Hydroxyurea is recommended for many SCD patients. It reduces the number of painful episodes and the recurrence of ACS. It also reduces hospital stays and the need for blood transfusions among adults who have SCD.
• HSCT: To date, the only cure for SCD is a bone marrow or stem cell transplant. It is indicated in CNS crisis, chest crisis or pain crisis not responding to regular transfusions. Hematology, Oncology and BMT department at Rainbow Children Hospital, provides medical management and stem cell transplant therapy for children with sickle cell disease.

 

Goa’s Sao Joao festival

Paper 1 – Culture

Why Should You Know?

• San Janv or Sao Joao is an annual Catholic festival celebrated on June 24 in Goa in an unusual manner.
• After Mass, young Goan Catholic men leap into and swim in local wells, streams and ponds as a tribute to St. John the Baptist.
• Traditionally, there are spirited Sao Joao festivities in the villages of Cortalim in South Goa and Harmal, Baga, Siolim and Terekhol in North Goa. However, over the years, pool parties and private Sao Joao parties in Goa have been a “complete package of merriment and joy” for tourists, according to the Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC).

Celebration –

• The celebrations included revellers sporting crowns made of fruits, flowers and leaves, and the major draw of the feast is the water bodies – wells, ponds, fountains, rivers – in which the revellers take the “leap of joy”.
• Enjoyed by children and adults alike, the festival also includes playing the traditional gumott (percussion instrument), a boat festival, servings of feni, and a place of pride for new sons-in-law.

Significance of Sao Joao –

• According to Christian scriptures, when Mary told his mother Elizabeth that she was expecting Jesus, St. John The Baptist jumped with delight in her womb.
• As a result, this celebration is also known since the Festival of Fertility, as young, expectant mothers bring offerings to God in the hopes of having a child.
• The leap into the well is thought to symbolise the womb, while the jump represents the pleasure and happiness associated with Jesus Christ’s birth.