Daily Current Capsules

11 May 2023

Science and Technology

National Technology Day 2023 – 11 May 2023

Relevance IN – Prelims ( about National Technology Day) + Mains ( GS III awareness in the field of science and technology)

What’s the NEWS

• Prime Minister inaugurate the programme marking National Technology Day 2023 on 11th May 2023
• The programme will also mark the commencement of the celebration of the 25th year of National Technology Day, which will be held from the 11th to the 14th of May.

On this occasion, Prime Minister laid the foundation stone of

• Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory – India (LIGO-India), Hingoli
• Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Jatni, Odisha
• Platinum Jubilee Block of Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai.
• Fission Molybdenum-99 Production Facility, Mumbai
• Rare Earth Permanent Magnet Plant, Visakhapatnam
• National Hadron Beam Therapy Facility, Navi Mumbai
• Radiological Research Unit, Navi Mumbai

Know! about

LIGO-India

• LIGO-India, to be developed in Hingoli, Maharashtra, will be one of the handfuls of Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave observatories in the world.
• It is an extremely sensitive interferometer of 4 km arm length capable of sensing gravitational waves generated during the merger of massive astrophysical objects such as black holes, and neutron stars.
• The LIGO-India will work in synchronisation with two observatories operating in the United States; one in Hanford, Washington and the other in Livingston, Louisiana.

Rare Earth Permanent Magnets

• Rare Earth Permanent Magnets are produced primarily in developed countries.
• The facility for the production of the Rare Earth Permanent Magnet has been developed on the campus of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at Visakhapatnam.
• The facility has been established based on indigenous technology and using indigenous Rare Earth material extracted from indigenous resources.
• With this facility, India will join a select group of nations with the capacity to produce Rare Earth Permanent Magnets.

National Hadron Beam Therapy

• The National Hadron Beam Therapy Facility of Tata Memorial Centre, Navi Mumbai is a state-of-the-art facility which works to undertake highly precise delivery of radiation to the tumour with minimal dose to the surrounding normal structures.
• The precise delivery of dose to target tissue reduces the early and delayed side effects of radiation therapy.

Fission Molybdenum-99 Production Facility

• Fission Molybdenum-99 Production Facility is located on the Trombay Campus of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.
• Molybdenum-99 is the parent of Technetium-99m, which is used in more than 85% of imaging procedures for the early detection of cancer, heart disease etc.
• The facility is expected to enable about 9 to 10 lakh patient scans per year.

National Technology Day

• The celebration of National Technology Day was started by former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999 to honour Indian scientists, engineers and technologists, who worked for India’s scientific and technological advancement and ensured the successful conduct of Pokhran tests in May 1998.
• Since then, National Technology Day is observed every year on May 11. It is celebrated with a new and different theme every year.
• This year’s theme is ‘School to Startups- Igniting Young Minds to Innovate’.

Prelims Factoids

Kadwa Patidar Samaj

Relevance IN – Prelims (about Kadwa Patidar Samaj)

What’s the NEWS

• The Prime Minister addresses the 100th anniversary of Kadwa Patidar Samaj

Know! about Kadwa Patidar Samaj

• The Kadava Patidar (also variously spelt Kadwa, Kadva) are a sub-caste of the Patidars in Gujarat.
• They are mainly found in North Gujarat and Ahmedabad.
• They were dependent on cash-crop agriculture and occupied a lower status than the wealthy Leva Patidars.

Government Agencies

Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA )

Relevance IN – Prelims ( about the role of CCPA)

What’s the NEWS

• In view of the violation of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has issued orders against the top five e-commerce platforms for selling car seat belt alarm stopper clips.
• Rule 138 of Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989 makes it mandatory to wear seat belts.

Know! about CCPA

• Central Consumer Protection Authority is a regulatory authority set up under Section 10(1) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 in relation to matters affecting the rights of consumers by individuals or entities following improper trade practices or by the display of inappropriate or wrong advertisements affecting the public interest and helps promoting consumer trust by enforcing the rights of consumers through effective guidelines.
• Central Consumer Protection Authority replaced the previous The Consumer Protection Act, of 1986 and is formed as per The Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
• The new act has been incorporated with additional consumer concerns like treating misleading advertisements and providing wrong information regarding the quality or quantity of goods or provision of services as an offence.

Prelims Factoids – Places in NEWS

Ratnipora Halt

What’s the NEWS

• The Railway Ministry has tweeted that the long-pending demand for the Ratnipora Halt between Awantipora and Kakapora has finally been fulfilled.
• Ratnipora is a village in the Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, situated equally distant from three towns, Awantipora, Pulwama and Pampore, making it an important conjunction.
• Ratnipora Halt Station in Baramula-Banihal Rail Section (Kashmir Valley) has been opened.
• The Ratnipora Halt Station is strategically located in the Baramula-Banihal Rail Section, which is an important route connecting the Kashmir Valley with the rest of India.
• The opening of this station will not only improve connectivity but also create new opportunities for economic development in the region.

Environment

Carbon Credit Trading Scheme

Relevance IN – Prelims ( about ICM and CCTS) + Mains ( GS III Environment conservation)

What’s the NEWS

• The government plans to develop the Indian Carbon Market (ICM) where a national framework will be established with the objective to decarbonise the Indian economy by pricing the Green House Gas (GHG) emissions through trading of the Carbon Credit Certificates.
• The Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Power, along with the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change are developing the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme for this purpose.
• The ICM will enable the creation of a competitive market that can provide incentives to climate actors to adopt low-cost options by attracting technology and finance towards sustainable projects that generate carbon credits.

Know! about Carbon Trading Scheme

• The carbon trading scheme was introduced through the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 which provides for empowering the central government to specify such a scheme.
• The concept of emissions trading is that countries sell excess emission units – emissions that they are permitted to have but not used – to other countries which need the excess units to meet their emission targets.
• The draft of CCTS lays out the organisational architecture needed to set up and operationalise a domestic carbon market in India.
• It identified the role composition of key constituents – the regulator (India Carbon Market Governing Board), the administrator, the registry (the Grid Controller of India), the trading administrator (Central Electricity Regulatory Authority), exchanges and specifications for empanelling auditors and developing methodologies.
• The draft says that the Bureau of Energy Efficiency will be the administrator for the Indian Carbon Market and also work as the secretariat for Indian Carbon Market Governing Board (ICMGB).
• It will discharge several responsibilities, from developing standards and processes for registering projects under a voluntary mechanism to developing trajectories and targets for the entities under the compliance mechanism.
• The Bureau will also issue carbon credit certificates (CCC) and develop market stability mechanisms for carbon credits.

India’s NDC

• India has been at the forefront of climate action to meet climate goals through its ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC)
• To facilitate the achievement of India’s enhanced climate targets and to meet future goals, the government is developing the ICM.
• By accelerating the transition to a low carbon economy, the ICM will facilitate achieving the NDC goal of reducing the Emissions Intensity of the GDP by 45 per cent by 2030 against 2005 levels.

KEEP Learning KEEP Evolving

TEAM CL/GKP