UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | April 29 to May 5, 2024

🚨 The Indian Express UPSC Essentials brings to you the April edition of its monthly magazine. Click Here to read. Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com🚨

Polity

A decrease in women’s unpaid care work is related to a 10-percentage point increase in women’s labour force participation rate. (Representational Image)

— Child Care Leave (CCL) Policy

• Recently, a government employee in Himachal Pradesh was denied the CCL. The Supreme Court declared this denial as a violation of working women’s “constitutional right.”
• This central government policy offers female employees up to 730 days of paid leave over their service period, allowing them to care for a maximum of two children under 18.
• To qualify for CCL, male employees of the central government must be single fathers.

— Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)

• Recently, allegations against diverse products such as infant food, “health drinks,” and spices have sparked questions regarding India’s food safety regime.
• FSSAI is a statutory body that came into existence in 2008 after the enactment of the Food Safety and Standard Act.
• It is administrated under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
• It releases the State Food Safety Index (SFSI) annually on June 7th, celebrated as World Food Safety Day.

Environment

India has experienced some of the hottest summers on record in recent years. (File photo)

—Heatwave

• The recent data from the IMD reveals that the heatwaves experienced in April surpassed those of 2023 which was recorded as the warmest year to-date.
• IMD declares a heatwave when the normal maximum temperature recorded over at least two localities in plains touches 40 degree Celsius or exceeds 4.5 degree Celsius from normal.
• In hilly and coastal regions, the heatwave is declared when temperatures cross 30 degrees Celsius and 37 degrees Celsius respectively.
• A severe heatwave is declared if the temperature departure exceeds 6 degrees Celsius from normal.

— Swell Surge

• The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) has forecasted that high sea waves, also known as swell waves, might hit the coastal areas of India.
• Swell surges, named for their origin from ocean swells, differ from waves generated by local winds.
• Ocean swells are formed by distant storms like hurricanes or prolonged intense gale winds, leading to significant energy transfer from air to water.
• These waves, capable of traveling thousands of kilometers, can strike shorelines far from the storm’s center.

People in News

Vice Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi

— Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi

• He has been appointed as the 26th chief of the Naval Staff.
• The outgoing Admiral Navy Chief is R Hari Kumar.

— Pravrajika Anandaprana Mataji

• She served as the President of Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission.
• She passed away at the age of 98 on April 30th.
• Her legacy includes significant contributions to healthcare, education, and the empowerment of women.

— Paul Auster

• Paul Auster, a prolific novelist, memoirist, and screenwriter, passed away at the age of 77 on April 30th.
• Notable works by Auster include “The New York Trilogy” (1985), “In the Country of Last Things” (1987), “Moon Palace” (1989), and “Leviathan” (1992).
• His novel “4 3 2 1” was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize, and “Baumgartner” was published in 2023.

Defence

The SMART system was launched from the Integrated Test Range off the coast of Odisha. (PTI)

— Integrated full electronic Propulsion System

• Recently, discussions have been underway between the Indian government and the UK government regarding a potential agreement to collaborate on the development of an electric propulsion system in India.
• At present, Indian warships do not have electric propulsion systems. They are currently powered by diesel engines, and gas or steam turbines.
• The Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers of the UK Royal Navy are integrated full electric propulsion vessels.

— Hangor class Submarine

• On April 26, the Pakistan Navy introduced one of the eight submarines constructed by China for Pakistan into its fleet.
• This submarine belongs to the diesel-electric attack category, serving as an export variant of China’s Type 039A Yuan class.
• Notably, it stands as a direct counterpart to India’s Kalavari class, which is based on the French Scorpene class submarines.

— Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of Torpedo (SMART) system

• On 1st May, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) tested a next-generation torpedo release system, known as the Supersonic Missile-Assisted Release of Torpedo (SMART), aimed at enhancing the Navy’s anti-submarine warfare capabilities.
• This system comprises a mechanism by which the torpedo is launched from a supersonic missile system with modifications that would take the torpedo to a far longer range than its own.

Science and Technology

Between October 2022 and September 2023, the refusal rate stood at 15 per cent, data obtained from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealed.

— Salmonella contamination

• In the last six months, United States customs authorities have rejected 31 percent of all spice-related shipments exported by Mahashian Di Hatti (MDH) Pvt Ltd due to salmonella contamination.
• Salmonella, a group of bacteria, is responsible for causing food-borne illnesses known as salmonellosis.
• Named after veterinary pathologist and surgeon Daniel Elmer Salmon, the pathogen’s existence has been recognized since at least 1880.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies Salmonella as one of the four primary global causes of diarrheal diseases.

— Chakisaurus nekul

• A new-medium-sized bipedal herbivorous dinosaur was discovered by paleontologists in Argentina.
• It was found in the Pueblo Blanco Natural Reserve, in the southern province of Río Negro.
• Its name, Chakinekul, is derived from “Chaki” in the Aonikenk language, meaning “old guanaco,” a nod to a similar-sized herbivore mammal native to the region.
• “Nekul” originates from the Mapudungún language, spoken by the local Mapuche people, signifying “fast” or “agile.”

(Source: Reuters)

— Long March 5

• The Long March 5, China’s largest rocket, successfully launched the Chang’e 6 lunar exploration mission.
• This marks China’s second lunar mission to the far south.
• If successful, it will be the world’s first mission to retrieve samples from the Moon’s unseen side.

— Phi-3-mini

• Microsoft has launched Phi-3-mini as a lightweight artificial intelligence model.
• It is the first of the three small language models (SLM) to be released by the company.
• Meta has launched the Llama 3 Large Language Model (LLM).

— Tiangong space station

• This Chinese space station is scheduled to launch three astronauts via the Shenzhou-18 crewed spaceship.
• It is operated by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

Diseases in News

Child with mumps (Image source: Wikipedia)

— Mumps

• In Delhi, there has been a rise in the number of mumps cases, and experts attribute this spike to a decline in vaccination rates, possibly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Mumps is caused by the paramyxovirus, belonging to the Rubulavirus family.
• The virus primarily affects the parotid glands, responsible for saliva production, located on both sides of the face. Transmission occurs through infected saliva.
• Symptoms include swollen and painful salivary glands, sore throat, fever, headache, fatigue, and loss of appetite.

— MPox

• The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) grapples with its largest Mpox outbreak, posing significant challenges for containment.
• Mpox, caused by the monkeypox virus, belongs to the orthopoxvirus genus, including the variola (smallpox) and vaccinia virus (used in smallpox vaccine).
• Monkeypox is classified as a zoonosis, meaning it transmits from infected animals to humans.
• Symptoms of monkeypox onset with fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, and fatigue.

— Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS)

• AstraZeneca reported that its AZD1222 vaccine, known as Covishield in India, might lead to TTS in extremely rare instances.
• It is a medical condition characterised by abnormally low levels of platelets and the formation of blood clots.
• The symptoms include breathlessness, pain in the chest or limbs, pinhead-size red spots or bruising of the skin in an area beyond the injection site, headaches and numbness in body parts.

Important Days

World Press Freedom Day 2024. (Canva)

— World Press Freedom Day

• World Press Freedom Day, observed annually on May 3, highlights the vital role of journalism in society.
• In 2024, the Government of Chile and UNESCO hosted the 31st World Press Freedom Day Conference in Santiago.
• The theme for 2024 is “A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the Face of the Environmental Crisis.”
• The first newspaper ever published in India was Hicky’s Bengal Gazette, whose inaugural edition went out on January 29, 1780. Ireland-born James Augustus Hicky served as its founder-editor.

— Labour Day

• May 1 is globally recognized as “May Day,” also known as “International Workers’ Day.”
• The designation commemorates the Haymarket Affair in Chicago on May 4, 1886, marked by a violent clash between police and labor protesters.
• In India, May Day was first celebrated on May 1, 1923, following the initiation of the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan and led by Comrade Singaravelar (Singaravelu Chettiar).

Sports

Indian recurve men’s team of Tarundeep Rai, Dhiraj Bommadevara and Pravin Jadhav after winning the gold medal in Archery World Cup Stage 1 in Shanghai. (Special Arrangement)

— World Cup Stage I title in Shanghai

• Indian archers Tarundeep Rai, Dhiraj Bommadevara, and Pravin Jadhav achieved a historic victory by defeating archery powerhouse South Korea to secure gold at the Archery World Cup Stage 1 in Shanghai.
• This win marks the first time the Indian men’s Recurve team has emerged as champions at any Archery World Cup since 2010.
• India topped the medals table in Shanghai, claiming a total of eight podium finishes, including five gold, two silver, and one bronze across compound and recurve events.

— BWF World Junior Championships

• The Badminton Federation has declared Guwahati, India, as the host city for the BWF World Junior Championships in 2025.
• This marks a significant return for India as the host country, with the last World Junior Championships held in Pune in 2008.

Project in News

— New National Museum

• Recently, the Ministry of Culture has decided against relocating the artefacts at the National Museum to a temporary location, opting to wait until a new complex is constructed.
• The new museum complex is part of the Central Vista Redevelopment Project.
•  It will be named Yuge Yugeen Bharat National Museum.
• India will partner with France in developing the new museum, which is expected to be completed in two years.
• It will cover an area of 1.17 lakh sq meters and is slated to be the world’s largest museum.

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