UPSC Prelims News of 18 November 2022
LeadIT Summit
Context: India and Sweden hosted the LeadIT Summit on the side-lines of COP27 in Egypt.
More on the News:
- India emphasized that the low carbon transition of the industrial sector will not only contribute towards low greenhouse gas emissions, it has several co-benefits such as enhanced energy security, innovation, socio-economic development and job creation.
- Activities of LeadIT, with a special focus on the road mapping exercise, was undertaken for India’s cement and steel sector.
About LeadIT Summit:
- The Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT) brings together countries and companies that are committed to action to achieve the Paris Agreement.
- The initiative was launched by the governments of Sweden and India at the UN Climate Action Summit in 2019 and is supported by the World Economic Forum.
- LeadIT members believe that energy-intensive industry can and must progress on low-carbon pathways, aiming to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.
Baliyatra
Context: Indian Prime Minister mentioned the historical Baliyatra of Odisha while interacting with Indian diaspora in Bali.
About Baliyatra:
- Baliyatra is an annual festival held on the banks of the Mahanadi in Cuttack, which celebrates the ancient trade relations between India and Indonesia.
- Baliyatra literally means ‘voyage to Bali’ and is one of the country’s largest open-air fairs, which is begins on Kartik Purnima every year.
- The festival commemorates the 2,000-year-old maritime and cultural links between ancient Kalinga (Odisha) and Bali and other South and Southeast Asian regions like Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Burma (Myanmar) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
- Historical significance: The festival can be traced back more than 1,000 years. The sadhavas (traders) of the Bay of Bengal region traditionally began their voyage across the sea on this auspicious day, when the winds were favourable for the boats to sail.
- Celebration: People across Odisha sail decorative miniature boats made of banana stems, paper, or thermocol to celebrate boita bandana, or the worshipping of the boats, to mark the festival.
Digital Shakti 4.0
Context: National Commission for Women (NCW) launched the fourth phase of the Digital Shakti Campaign.
About Digital Shakti:
- It is a pan-India project on digitally empowering and skilling women and girls in cyberspace.
- Digital Shakti 4.0 is focused on making women digitally skilled and aware of standing up against any illegal/inappropriate activity online.
- NCW launched it in collaboration with CyberPeace Foundation and Meta.
- It was started in June 2018 to help women across the nation to raise the awareness level on the digital front, to build resilience, and fight cybercrime in the most effective ways.
- It has been accelerating the digital participation of women and girls by training them to use technology to their advantage and to keep themselves safe online.
- Through this project, over 3 lakh women across India have been made aware of cyber safety tips and tricks, reporting and redressal mechanisms, data privacy and usage of technology for their benefit.
About National Commission for Women (NCW):
- It was set up in 1992 under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990.
- It was established to review the constitutional and legal safeguards for women.
- It recommends the remedial legislative measures, facilitates redressal of grievances and advises the government on all policy matters affecting women.
- It enjoys all the powers of a civil court.
Artemis-1
Context: After multiple delays, NASA’s Artemis-1 moon mission was launched successfully from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
About the Artemis-1 Mission:
- Artemis 1, formerly known as Exploration Mission-1, is an uncrewed Moon-orbiting mission and the first spaceflight in NASA’s Artemis mission.
- It is also the first flight of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the complete Orion spacecraft.
About the NASA’s Artemis Mission:
- Nomenclature: NASA’s Artemis mission is named after the twin sister of Apollo from Greek mythology. Artemis is also the goddess of the moon.
- Short-term goal: With the Artemis programme, NASA aims to land humans on the moon by 2024, and it also plans to land the first woman and first person of colour on the moon.
- Long-term goal: NASA will establish a permanent Artemis Base Camp on the Moon surface and a gateway in lunar orbit to aid exploration by robots and astronauts and ultimately facilitating human missions to Mars.
- Major Components: The Space Launch System (SLS), Orion spacecraft, Lunar Gateway space station and the commercial Human Landing Systems, including Starship HLS.
- Collaborations: Other space agencies are also involved in the Artemis programme.
- The Canadian Space Agency has committed to providing advanced robotics for the gateway,
- The European Space Agency will provide the International Habitat and the ESPRIT module, which will deliver additional communications capabilities among other things.
- The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency plans to contribute habitation components and logistics resupply.
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