Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 23 April 2021

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 23 April 2021

::NATIONAL::

Government allows Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct study on use of drones to deliver COVID-19 vaccine

The Civil Aviation Ministry permitted the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct a feasibility study on using drones to deliver Covid-19 vaccine, according to an official statement.
The ICMR will conduct this study in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, the ministry's press release said.
The ministry said it has granted "conditional exemption" from the "Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Rules, 2021" so that it can conduct a feasibility study on using drones to deliver Covid-19 vaccine.
This exemption will be valid for a period of one year or until further orders, it noted.
India registered over 3.14 lakh new coronavirus cases in a day, the highest-ever single-day count recorded in any country, taking the the total tally of Covid-19 cases in the country to 1,59,30,965.

::INTERNATIONAL::

PM Modi announces launch of 'India-US Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership' with US President Joe Biden

Prime Minister NarendraModi announced on Thursday that India and the US are launching an "agenda 2030" partnership on green collaborations as he pitched for concrete action at a "high speed" and on a "large scale" globally to combat climate change.
Addressing a virtual summit on climate change convened by US President Joe Biden,Modi said a guiding philosophy of "back to basics" must be an important pillar of the economic strategy for the post-COVID era and asserted that India has taken "many bold steps" on clean energy, energy efficiency and bio-diversity, despite its development challenges.
The summit is being attended by some 40 world leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Japanese counterpart YoshihideSuga.
"As a climate-responsible developing country, India welcomes partners to create templates of sustainable development in the country.

::ECONOMY::

#FOSS4GOV Innovation Challenge announced to accelerate adoption of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Government

India is well positioned to become a vibrant hub for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) innovations, due to the large number of 4G data subscribers in India, 96% of whom access the digital world via open-source based mobile operating systems (primarily Android). Some of India’s largest-government projects (including Aadhaar) and many technology start-ups have also been built using FOSS. Acknowledging the huge potential of FOSS, the Government of India had issued a Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software in 2015.
To increase awareness about the usage of FOSS in governance and Government functioning, and adoption of FOSS, a virtual roundtable discussion ‘Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Government’ was organized by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) in collaboration with Omidyar Network India on April 22, 2021.
Speaking at the occasion, Shri Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, appraised the steps taken by MeitY like Policyfor Open Source Software in 2015 to Open Source Collaborative development of AarogyaSetu.
“I am delighted to see the interest in further advancing the adoption of FOSS in Government among a wide range of Government leaders, Academia and FOSS innovators. MeitYwill continue to play a key role in this journey. We are also pleased to announce the #FOSS4GOV Innovation Challenge, which will harness the innovation potential of the FOSS community and start-ups to solve for critical issues in GovTech. More such efforts will be forthcoming.”
Making a presentation on the Potential of FOSS in India, ShriVaradPande, Partner, Omidyar Network India, said “We see FOSS as a key component of GovTech 3.0, which is about building secure and inclusive Open Digital Ecosystems (ODEs) that harness the potential of social innovators to help solve India’s toughest problems. We are excited to see MeitY advancing the adoption of FOSS in Government in a thoughtful and strategic manner and are delighted to partner with them on this journey.”

::SCIENCE AND TECH::

NASA's Perseverance Rover Planet Creates Oxygen on Mars

NASA’s Perseverance rover has been marking milestones on Mars since landing on the Red Planet in February. Its latest historic accomplishment is the first creation of oxygen from carbon dioxide in the thin Mars atmosphere. Mission time is measured in sols, or Martian days. Oxygen production was achieved early in the evening of April 20, or early morning on Sol 60 in Jezero Crater.
MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-situ Resource Utilization Experiment), a small, gold box-shaped instrument on the rover, successfully demonstrated a solid oxide electrolysis technology for converting the Martian atmosphere to oxygen. The atmosphere on Mars is about 95% carbon dioxide.
MOXIE’s first oxygen run produced 5.4 grams of oxygen in an hour. The power supply limits potential production to 12 g/hr — about the same amount that a large tree would produce.

::SPORTS::

Indian Women Win 7 Gold Medals In AIBA Youth World Boxing Championship

Seven Indian women boxers clinched gold medals in their respective weight categories on the penultimate day of the 2021 AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships in Kielce, Poland on Thursday.
Gitika (48kg), NaoremBabyrojisanaChanu (51kg), Poonam (57kg), Vinka (60kg), ArundhatiChoudhary (69kg), T SanamachaChanu (75kg) and AlfiyaPathan (+81kg) will return home as champions.
The Indian women boxers thus finished as the No. 1 team in the ongoing championship. Their previous best effort at the youth world meet was five golds in the 2017 edition in Guwahati.