Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

Context: Recently, the Union Minister of Science & Technology addressed the beginning of Mission Innovation 2.0.

• Mission Innovation (MI) is a global initiative of 24 countries and the European Commission (on behalf of the European Union) working to reinvigorate and accelerate global clean energy innovation with the objective to make clean energy widely affordable.
• It was announced at COP21 on November 30, 2015, as world leaders came together in Paris to commit to ambitious efforts to combat climate change.
• As part of the initiative, participating countries have committed to double their governments’ clean energy research and development (R&D) investments over five years, while encouraging greater levels of private sector investment in transformative clean energy technologies.
• Mission Innovation has identified eight Innovation Challenges which are global calls to action aimed at accelerating research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) in technology areas.

Explanation :

Context: As per the 2019 Crime in India Report by the National Crime Records Bureau, only 2.2 % of cases registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act between the years 2016 and 2019 ended in convictions by court.

• Passed in 1967, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) aims at effective prevention of unlawful activities associations in India.
• The Act assigns absolute power to the central government, by way of which if the Centre deems an activity as unlawful then it may, by way of an Official Gazette, declare it so.
• It has death penalty and life imprisonment as highest punishments.
• Under UAPA, both Indian and foreign nationals can be charged. It will be applicable to the offenders in the same manner, even if crime is committed on a foreign land, outside India.
• Under the UAPA, the investigating agency can file a charge sheet in maximum 180 days after the arrests and the duration can be extended further after intimating the court.
• The 2004 amendment, added “terrorist act" to the list of offences to ban organisations for terrorist activities, under which 34 outfits were banned.Till 2004, “unlawful" activities referred to actions related to secession and cession of territory.

As per 2019 amendments -

• The Act empowers the Director General of National Investigation Agency (NIA) to grant approval of seizure or attachment of property when the case is investigated by the said agency.
• The Act empowers the officers of the NIA, of the rank of Inspector or above, to investigate cases of terrorism in addition to those conducted by the DSP or ACP or above rank officer in the state.
• It also includes the provision of designating an individual as a terrorist.

Explanation :

Context: Recently, Stardust 1.0 has been launched from USA, which became the first commercial space launch powered by biofuel.

Explanation:

Biofuels

• Any hydrocarbon fuel that is produced from an organic matter (living or once living material) in a short period of time is considered a biofuel.
• Biofuels may be solid, liquid or gaseous in nature.

First Generation Biofuels

• Fuels produced from sugar, starch, vegetable oil, or animal fats utilizing conventional technology.
• Examples: Bioalcohols, Biodiesel, Vegetable Oil, Bioethers, Biogas.

Second Generation Biofuels

• Fuels made from non-food crops such as cellulosic biofuels and waste biomass i.e. stalks of wheat and corn, and wood).
• Example: cellulose ethanol

Third Generation Biofuels

• Fuels made from micro-organisms such as algae.
• It doesn’t require cultivable/arable land for production.
• Example: Butanol

Fourth Generation Biofuels

• In the production of these fuels, crops that are genetically engineered to take in high amounts of carbon are grown and harvested as biomass.
• The crops are then converted into fuel using second generation techniques.
• Like the third generation, fourth-generation biofuels are made using non-arable land. However, unlike the third, they do not need the destruction of biomass.
• Examples: electrofuels and photo-biological solar fuels

Explanation :

संदर्भ : हाल ही में, केरल सरकार ने वायनाड अभयारण्य के आसपास पर्यावरण के प्रति संवेदनशील क्षेत्र के बारे में अधिसूचना पर केंद्र से हस्तक्षेप करने की मांग की है।

• केरल में स्थित, वायनाड वन्यजीव अभयारण्य (Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary- WWS) नीलगिरी बायोस्फीयर रिज़र्व का एक अभिन्न अंग है। इसकी स्थापना वर्ष 1973 में हुई थी।
• वायनाड वन्यजीव अभयारण्य कर्नाटक के नागरहोल और बांदीपुर तथा तमिलनाडु के मुदुमलाई के बाघ अभयारण्य से लगा हुआ है।
• यह केरल का एकमात्र अभयारण्य है जहाँ चार सींग वाले मृगों के देखे जाने की सूचना मिली है।
• वन्यजीव क्षेत्र के जंगल काबानी नदी की सहायक नदियों के लिए प्रमुख जलग्रह निर्मित करते हैं।
• इसमें दक्षिण भारतीय नम पर्णपाती वन, पश्चिमी तटीय अर्ध-सदाबहार वन और सागौन, नीलगिरी और ग्रेवेलिया के वृक्षारोपण शामिल हैं।