During the second ADGMIN, India and ASEAN countries have approved the India – ASEAN Digital Work Plan. ADGMIN is ASEAN Digital Ministers meet. The meet was held virtually.

About the plan

Under the plan, the countries will share their knowledge in the emerging areas of digital technologies such as 5G, Internet of Things, cyber forensics and advanced Satellite communication.

They will work together and develop technologies to fight against internet hacking, mobile phone stealing. Also, they will formulate plans to combat the wrong anti – social use of stolen mobile phones.

What is ADGMIN?

It is an annual meeting. The meeting is attended by the dialogue partners such as US, UK, Russia, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Japan, EU, China, Canada and Australia. During the 2022 ADGMIN meeting, the countries discussed about strategies to strengthen digital cooperation.

ASEAN

The ASEAN countries are Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines.

Significance

The plan will help to increase the engagement between the citizens and the state. Also, the plan will use Information and Communication technologies to promote human rights, free speech, and free flow of information. It will expand the opportunities of decision making processes. The plan will transform the lives of people in rural areas.

India – ASEAN

ASEAN is the main pillar of Act East Policy of India. India and ASEAN have five years of strategic partnership, 25 years of dialogue partnership and 15 years of summit level interaction.

Strategic Partnership: Here the countries will share resources, knowledge and expertise in different sectors. Mainly in defence, health, education, etc.

Dialogue partner: A country that receives consultative membership. The country has common interest with the group. It participates in conferences conducted by the group. Sectoral dialogue partners can participate only in few areas such as trading, taxation, IPR, etc. A full dialogue partner can participate in all areas.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found that Mars had water two billion years ago. But today all the water in the planet are evaporated. This was confirmed by MRO with the help of salt deposits on the surface of the planet.

What did MRO find?

• The MRO found that water flowed in the planet very recently. This raises the question, how long microbial life would have survived in the planet.
• The Odyssey of NASA found traces of sodium chloride that spread tens to hundreds of square kilometre. This was discovered in 2001. Later salt minerals were found in 2008.

How did MRO discover water?

• The MRO used CRISM to map the salts in the southern hemisphere of the planet. CRISM is Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer. Mars has many craters. MRO used these craters to date the terrains. If the craters were lesser in number, then the terrain was younger.
• The MRO found salt deposits along the shallow depressions of the volcanic plains. These deposits were less than three metres deep. They were formed recently, that is, 2.3 billion years ago.

Analog to the findings

The closest analog to the discovery made is Antarctica. When snow melts in Antarctica, lakes are formed. Similarly when the water in the mars craters evaporated, the salt was left behind.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

• The orbiter was launched to study the climate and geology of mars.
• In 2019, MRO discovered largest water reservoirs in Mars. The discovery was made by SHARAD (Shallow Radar).
• The six major instruments of MRO are as follows:
  • HiRISE: High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment: It is a camera. It is used to observe craters, canyons and layered deposits
  • CTX: Context Camera: It provides wide angle view
  • MARCI: Mars Color Imager: Monitors clouds and dust storms. It is a weather camera
  • MCS: Mars climate Sounder: It detects water vapour concentrations, dust and temperature variations
  • SHARAD: Shallow Radar

The University Grants Commission, UGC recently released the draft Framework for Higher Education qualification. It is a part of the National Education Policy 2020. All the higher education institutes in the country are to be brought under this new framework.

Why the new framework?

• To facilitate transparency
• To create an internationally comparable framework
• To address the increasing size of the higher education system needs in the country

What does the framework do?

It will not promote a curriculum or a common syllabus for all the higher education students. Rather, the framework will make sure all the education systems in the country are providing quality education. It will create a performance bench mark for the higher education system in the country.

What does the framework say?

The framework has created different levels to assess the learning outcome of the students. Level 5 represents the learning outcome of a first year student in a UG programme. Level 10 represents learning outcome of a student in doctoral level programme.

At every level, the students are assessed based on the following:

• Decision making abilities
• Application of knowledge and skills
• Cognitive and technical skills
• Employment ready skills
• Entrepreneurship skills
• Knowledge and understanding

Every year, the World Leprosy Day is celebrated on the last Sunday of January. This year, the day was celebrated on January 30, 2022. It is marked by the World Health Organization and also by several other international organizations. The day aims to create awareness about the disease. It calls to end leprosy related discrimination.

Unity in dignity campaign

In 2022, the WHO launched the “United in Dignity” campaign to honour the people suffering from the disease. The campaign will share empowering stories and also will advocate mental well being.

World Leprosy Day in India

In India, the World Leprosy Day is celebrated on January 30. It is celebrated as the Anti – Leprosy Day in India. This is to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhiji. Gandhiji had compassion towards the people affected by leprosy throughout his life.

• Leprosy is also called Hansen disease. It is caused by bacterial infection. It is caused by the bacteria called Mycobacterium Leprae. It is a rod shaped bacteria. Leprosy is one of the oldest diseases and has still not been eradicated. The first occurrence of leprosy was reported as 600 BC. It has been mentioned in the oldest civilisations of the world such as India, Egypt and China.
• Leprosy is air borne. It affects peripheral nerves, skin, and respiratory tract. It takes three to five years for the symptoms to appear. If not treated on time, leprosy leads to disfigurement, disability and permanent nerve damage.
• Leprosy can be cured by Multi – Drug therapy.

Steps taken by GoI

• In 1955, the National Leprosy Control Programme was started.
• In 1993 – 93, the World Bank supported National Leprosy Elimination Project.
• National Leprosy Eradication Programme: It aimed to reduce the leprosy levels to less than one per 10,000 at national level by 2005.
• In 2019, Lok Sabha passed a bill on leprosy. The bill sought to remove leprosy as a ground for divorce.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella was again elected for second term, during a joint session of Parliament and eighth round of voting.

Key Points

• Mattarella was re-elected with a broad majority. He got 759 votes in favour out of 983 lawmakers and regional representatives.
• His candidacy emerged prominently at the end of a tense week, in which the center-left and the center-right political blocs failed to agree on different common candidature.
• Thus, seven rounds of voting were held. All the rounds delivered inconclusive results and exposed deep fractures within both coalitions.

Background

The re-election of President in Italy is rare. Till date, only Giorgio Napolitano, predecessor of Mattarella, had served a second term. He served only for less than two years.

2022 Italian presidential election

The 2022 Italian presidential election was concluded between January 24 to January 29, 2022 in Rome. The president was elected by a joint session of Italian Parliament and regional representatives. Election process was extended over multiple days. The process culminated the incumbent president Sergio Mattarella for a second term. He received 759 votes on the eighth ballot, making it the second most votes ever received by a Presidential candidate, after Sandro Pertini in 1978.

Second term of Sergio Mattarella

Sergio Mattarella had ruled out a second term, initially. He agreed to serve a second term on January 29, following the request of most party leaders and prime minister of Italy (Mario Draghi). He had already received significant and growing support previously, in several rounds of voting. He received 125 votes on the third ballot, 166 votes on the fourth, 336 votes on the sixth while 387 votes on the seventh ballot. It was the highest number of ballots since 1992, among Italian presidential elections. In 1992, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro was elected on the 16th ballot.

On January 27, 2022, NASA’s HERMES mission passed a critical mission review.

Highlights

• HERMES mission is a four-instrument suite, which will be mounted outside NASA’s Moon-orbiting Gateway.
• The review, called Key Decision Point C, evaluated the preliminary design and program plan of the mission, in a bid to achieve launch by its target launch readiness date of November 2024.
• With the successful review, the mission now moves into Phase C, which includes final design of HERMES mission.

About HERMES Mission

• HERMES Mission will be a critical part of Artemis mission as well as NASA’s goals of creating a permanent presence on the Moon.
• HERMES stands for “Heliophysics Environmental and Radiation Measurement Experiment Suite”.
• It will be mounted outside the “Habitation and Logistics Outpost module” of Gateway outpost of NASA.

The Gateway Program

• Gateway will be where Artemis astronauts work and live while orbiting the Moon, support scientific experiments & technology development which are applicable to lunar and future deep space human exploration.
• The Gateway Program is collaborating with SMD on the HERMES payload.
• This partnership will enable HERMES in successfully achieving science objectives from cislunar viewing location of the Gateway spacecraft.

Purpose of HERMES Mission

The HERMES Mission will help in monitoring space weather and fluctuating conditions in space driven by the Sun. Space weather comprise of:

1. Continuous stream of particles and magnetic fields, called as solar wind.
2. Blasts of billion-ton gas clouds, called as coronal mass ejections.
3. Flashes of ultra-bright light from solar flares and
4. Disturbances each of these create in near-Earth environment.

Some of these space weather events pose dangers to astronauts and robotic missions. HERMES will study these weather events, in an especially variable environment. HERMES will be flooded by magnetic fields and particles, which have interacted with Earth.

Veteran Indian hockey goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, recently won ‘World Games Athlete of the Year, 2021.

Key Facts

• PR Sreejesh was part of men’s team, which claimed a bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics.
• He became only the second Indian to receive this award.
• He is the first man and second hockey player to win it. He followed the footsteps of compatriot and India women’s captain Rani.
• Captain Rani had won the award in 2019.

Total votes to Sreejesh

The global fan vote was conducted on “TheWorldGames.org”. He finished well clear at the top out of 24-strong nomination list. His won 1,27,647 votes, it was almost twice the number of votes to second-placed athlete, Albert Gines Lopez from Spain. Lopez won 67,428 votes.

The World Games

World Games is a multi-sport event, which is organised every four years by “International World Games Association” in association with the support of International Olympic Committee. The games are organised for over a period of 11 days, comprising of more than 30 sports on the programme.

When was Hockey featured?

Indoor Hockey was featured at the World Games, as an invitational sport in 2005. It took place in Duisburg, Germany. Hockey will also mark its presence with sports demonstrations during The World Games 2022, which is scheduled to take place in Birmingham, the USA from July 7 to July 17, 2022.

Who is Parattu Raveendran Sreejesh?

Parattu Raveendran Sreejesh is an Indian professional field hockey player. He plays as a goalkeeper. He was former captain of the Indian national team. He plays in Hockey India League for Uttar Pradesh Wizards. He played a significant role in Indian national team’s bronze medal win at 2020 Summer Olympics men’s field hockey tournament. He won FIH Player of the Year Awards in 2020–21, for best male goalkeeper.

As per Chinese Zodiac, also called as “Shengxiao” we are assigned a powerful animal called Shuxiang, on the basis of year we are born.

Highlights

Shuxiang is assigned on the basis of Luni-Solar calendar, which is having a close tie with Chinese Philosophy, including:

1. Theory of three harmonies- heaven, earth, and water.
2. Principles of Yin and Yang.
3. Wuxing: five phases of the flow of elements – water, wood, fire, earth, and metal.
4. Ten Heavenly Stems – Yin and Yang qualities of the Wuxing.
5. Twelve Earthly Branches – The twelve Chinese animal signs.

History of Chinese Zodiac

Earliest records of Chinese astrology date back to the Zhou Dynasty during 1046 – 256 BCE. however, it flourished during Han Dynasty from 002 BCE to 002 AD. It was formalised and aligned with principles of Confucianism, traditional alchemical practices and Chinese Medicine.

Chinese Zodiac 2022: The Year of Tiger

Tigers are extremely competitive animals. They are known for their courage and ambitions. The Tiger year is all about making big changes, in world within us and world around us. Tiger years bring in an overall increase in enthusiasm.

Mantra of Tiger year

Ultimate mantra of the Tiger year is ‘YOLO’.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is also called as Lunar New Year. It is the festival celebrating the beginning of new year on traditional lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar. In Chinese and other East Asian cultures, this festival is commonly called as Spring Festival. The festival marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring season. Its observances traditionally take place from New Year’s Eve. First day of Chinese New Year starts on new moon, appearing between January 21 and February 20.

The new bird species, Cyornis and Zosterops, were discovered recently from Borneo. These species were inhabiting Meratus Mountains in south-eastern Borneo.

About Cyornis Genus

• Cyornis is a genus of passerine birds, belonging to Old-World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.
• This genus comprises of 25 currently recognized species. It also includes some species which were previously placed in Rhinomyias genus.
• It is distributed across southern Asia, from Indian subcontinent to Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Characteristics of Cyornis Flycatchers

Most of Cyornis flycatchers are sexually dimorphic in plumage. Males are blue above and blue & white or orange & white below. However, few species are sexually monomorphic and lack bright colours. This species is most closely related to Dayak blue flycatcher, but morphologically different due to lighter blue on the upper parts and less reddish & more whitish on the underparts.

About Zosterops

Zosterops is a genus of passerine birds. It comprises of typical white-eyes in family Zosteropidae. This genus comprises of more than 100 species. These species are distributed across Afrotropical, Australasian and Indomalayan, realms. These birds are supreme island colonizers. This is why, so many different white-eye species have evolved rapidly.

Feature of Zosterops species

Most characteristic feature of Zosterops white-eyes is its conspicuous white feather ring around eye. However, some species lack it. This species is most closely related to lemon-bellied white-eye, but different due to olive upperparts and darker underparts.

Species found in Borneo

The avian biodiversity and endemism of Borneo is significant. Around 50 endemic species have been described from the island under taxonomic arrangements. Many of these are montane specialists, while around 27 species are endemic to Borneo’s highlands.

On February 1, 2022, the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman presented the Union budget 2022-23. The budget focuses on macro economic growth, energy transition, promoting digital economy, climate action, tech enabled development, crowding in private investment. Here are the highlights of the budget.

Key Highlights

The Economic Survey 2021-22 was tabled in Parliament on January 31, 2022 by Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Who prepared the Economic Survey?

• Economic Survey 2021-22 was prepared by a team led by principal economic adviser Sanjeev Sanyal.
• The survey is a single volume with separate set of statistical tables, as opposed to two volume formats seen in previous years.

How economic survey has evolved?

In 1950s, the survey started as a less than 50-page document. Now, it is running into hundreds of pages, to provide a detailed analysis of the economy and recommend policy measures to deal with challenges.

Growth Forecast

• Economic survey forecasts economy to grow 8-8.5 per cent in the fiscal year 2022-23.
• In current year, economy is likely to grow at 9.2 per cent.
• Agriculture & allied sectors are likely to grow by 3.9 per cent.
• India’s economic growth in fiscal year 2022-23 will still be the fastest among major economies.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced to introduce a corporate tax from mid-2023, in a bid to diversify its income.

Key Points

• The financial centre of Gulf, is long known as a tax haven. It is the regional headquarters for multinationals.
• But the financial centre will start taxing business profits over 375,000 AED at 9.0 percent from June 2023.
• This announcement is the latest significant move by the country, which recently switched from Friday-Saturday weekends to Saturdays and Sundays in order to align closer with global markets.

UAE Corporate Tax Regime

The corporate tax regime of UAE will be amongst most competitive worldwide. There will be a corporate tax of 9% for businesses with net annual profit over AED 375,000, and a 0% for businesses with net annual profits of less than AED 375,000.

Will there be personal income tax?

As per ministry, there are no plans to introduce capital gains tax or personal income tax from real estate or other investments.

Diversification of income in UAE

The UAE is a major oil exporter. It is also a big player in trade, business, transport and tourism. Now, it is diversifying to reduce its dependency on crude oil.  It is also facing increased competition from neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which is the biggest oil exporter worldwide. Saudi Arabia is already pursuing its own drive for diversifying its economy and attract foreign businesses.

The National Statistical Office recently released the first revised GDP estimates for the fiscal year 2021. According to the estimates, the GDP contracted by 6.6%. Earlier, the GDP had contracted by 7.3%. The contraction is mainly due to COVID pandemic and the lockdown imposed.

What do the estimates say?

• The real GDP for 2020-21 is 135.58 lakh crores of rupees. The real GDP for 2019-20 is 145.16 crores. The values were calculated based on 2011-12 prices.
• Nominal GDP for the 2020-21 is 198.01 lakh crores of rupees. In 2019-20, the nominal GDP was 200.75 lakh crores. This shows the nominal GDP has contracted by 1.4%.
• The Nominal GVA at basic prices reduced by 4.8%. It had grown by 6.9% in 2019-20.
• The real GVA at basic prices contracted to 4.8% in 2020-21 and had grown by 3.8% in 2019-20.

Inference

The contraction of GDP in 2021 creates a less approving base for the fiscal year 2022. This is to further contract the growth to 8.8% in 2022. The NSO expects this might change in 2023 and the GDP might jump ahead.

Growth rates of different sectors

The growth rates for 2020-21 are as follows:

• Primary sector: Quarrying, Mining, Fishing, agriculture and forestry: (-2.8%). Previous year, this was 1.6%.
• Secondary sector: Water Supply, electricity, manufacturing, gas: -7.8%. Previous year the growth was 1.9%.
• Tertiary sector: Services: -6.8%. Previous year it was -8.4%.

 Income

• The National Net Income for 2020-21 was 171.94 lakh crores. It was 177.94 crores in 2019-20. This says that the NNI has contracted by 2.9% in 2020-21. But in the previous year it had grown by 6%.
• The per capital income at current prices for 2020-21 was Rs 1,26,855. The previous year it was Rs 1,32,115.

Real Price: It is the recent price of goods and service in the country. It is the market price. It is an adjusted price.

Nominal Price: It is an unadjusted price. It does not include inflation.

The Economic Survey released by the Department of Economic Affairs recently said that India ranks third in the world in terms of forest gain area. India has added 2,66,000 hectares of forest area every year between 2010 and 2020.

What did the survey say about forest area in India?

24% of the total geographical area of India is covered with forest. The Indian forests accounts to 2% of the forests in the world.

Top countries

According to the survey, the countries with maximum forest are Brazil, Congo, Peru and Russia. 59% of total land mass of Brazil is covered with forest. It is 57% in Peru, 56% in Congo, 50% in Russia. Around ten countries contributed 66% of global forests.

Forest cover in Indian States

Madhya Pradesh had the highest forest cover. The state has 11% of total forest cover in India. It was followed by Arunachal Pradesh. The state has 9% of the country’s total forest cover. Chhattisgarh has   8%, Odisha has 7% and Maharashtra has 7%.

Highest proportion of forest cover

The highest proportion of forest, that is, area covered under forest as compared to the geographical area of the state is as follows:

• Mizoram: 85%
• Arunachal Pradesh: 79%
• Meghalaya: 76%
• Manipur: 74%
• Nagaland: 74%

The very dense forest cover in India has increased by 20% between 2011 and 2021. The open forest cover increased by 7%.

The World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day is celebrated on January 30. The day is marked to create awareness on the neglected tropical diseases.

Theme

In 2022, the World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day is celebrated under the following theme:

Achieving health equity to end the neglect of poverty related diseases

History

The first World Neglected Tropical Diseases was marked in 2020. The proposal to celebrate the day was made by UAE (United Arab Emirates). The proposal was made at the 74^th World Health Assembly.

Why on January 30?

To commemorate the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases. It was launched in January 30, 2012. It was the first road map on Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Significance

The day calls to end the suffering from 20 diseases. These diseases are caused by bacteria, virus, fungi and other toxins. The 20 neglected tropical diseases are Buruli ulcer, Chagas disease, Dengue and Chickengunya, Dracunculiasis, Yaws, Foodborne trematodiases, human African trypanosomiasis, Leishmaniasis, Leprosy, Lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis. Rabies, schistosomiasis, soil – transmitted helminthiasis, taeniasis or cysticercosis, trachoma, chromoblastomycosis, scabies, snakebite envenoming.