UPSC Civil Services Daily Current Affairs 27th February 2022
Topics for the day
- What is fair and remunerative pricing ?
- Central Vista project
- Non fungible tokens
- Nasa’s lucy mission
- Lachit Borphukan
- Narsinh Mehta
What is fair and remunerative pricing ?
Context :
- The Maharashtra government has issued a government resolution which will allow sugar mills to pay the basic fair and remunerative price (FRP) in two tranches.
- Sugar mill owners have welcomed the move. However, farmers are not happy with it.
How is FRP decided?
- The FRP is based on the recovery of sugar from the cane.
- For the sugar season of 2021-22, FRP has been fixed at Rs 2,900/tonne at a base recovery of 10 per cent. Sugar recovery is the ratio between sugar produced versus cane crushed, expressed as a percentage.
- The higher the recovery, the higher is the FRP, and higher is the sugar produced.
Announced by:
- The Central Government announces Fair and Remunerative Prices which are determined on the recommendation of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) and announced by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). CCEA is chaired by the Prime Minister of India.
Why are farmers in Maharashtra protesting?
- Farmers argue that this method would impact their incomes.
- They point out that while FRP will be paid in installments, their bank loans and other expenses are expected to be paid for as usual.
- Also, farmers mostly require a lumpsum at the beginning of the season (October-November), because their next crop cycle depends on it.
Sugarcane necessary conditions to grow:
- Temperature: Between 21-27°C with hot and humid climate.
- Rainfall: Around 75-100 cm.
- Soil Type: Deep rich loamy soil.
- Top Sugarcane Producing States: Uttar Pradesh > Maharashtra > Karnataka > Tamil Nadu > Bihar.
- India is the second largest producer of sugarcane after Brazil.
Central Vista project
Context :
- Union Ministries that have offices in Shram Shakti Bhavan and Transport Bhavan were asked by the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry this week to prepare to shift out of the buildings which are proposed to be demolished as part of the central vista project.
The project envisages :
- Constructing a triangular Parliament building next to the existing one.
- Constructing Common Central Secretariat.
- Revamping of the 3-km-long Rajpath from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate.
- North and South Blocks are to be repurposed as museums
- As an archaeological asset of the country the existing Parliament building will be conserved
- Constructing new homes for the vice-president and prime minister and multi-storey office blocks
The new parliament :
- It will be three times bigger than the existing 93-year-old heritage building.
- It is likely to have a triangular shape with a built-up area of 65,000 sq.m. and is scheduled to be completed in 2022, in time for the 75th Independence Day celebrations and the Global G-20 summit.
- The present Parliament building is 85-years-old and suffers from inadequacy of space to house members and their staff.Parliament House building was designed by both Lutyens and Baker.
- The new Parliament building will have high-quality acoustics and audio-visual facilities, improved and comfortable seating arrangements, effective and inclusive emergency evacuation provisions, with high-level security for the members.
Non fungible tokens
Context :
- NFTs are gaining massive popularity now because they are becoming an increasingly popular way to showcase and sell your digital artwork
What are NFTs?
- An NFT is a unique, irreplaceable token that can be used to prove ownership of digital assets such as music, artwork, even tweets and memes.
- Anything that can be converted into a digital form can be an NFT.
- Everything from your drawings, photos, videos, GIF, music, in-game items, selfies, and even a tweet can be turned into an NFT, which can then be traded online using cryptocurrency
What makes NFTs unique from other digital forms?
- It is backed by Blockchain technology.
- NFT transactions are recorded on blockchains, which is a digital public ledger, with most NFTs being a part of the Ethereum blockchain.
Differences between NFT and Cryptocurrency:
- Cryptocurrency is a currency and is fungible, meaning that it is interchangeable. For instance, if you hold one crypto token, say one Ethereum, the next Ethereum that you hold will also be of the same value.
- But NFTs are non-fungible, that means the value of one NFT is not equal to another. Every art is different from other, making it non fungible, and unique.
Risks associated with buying NFTs:
- In the recent past, several incidents of NFT scams have been reported including: emergence of fake marketplaces, unverified sellers often impersonating real artists and selling copies of their artworks for half prices.
- NFRs unquestionably have negative impact on the environment. In order to validate transactions, crypto mining is done, which requires high powered computers that run at a very high capacity, affecting the environment ultimately.
Nasa’s lucy mission
Context :
- Eurybates is one of a handful of asteroids that Lucy mission will visit over the next 12 years.
- Recently, astronomers at Las Vegas were observing a star which appeared to briefly blink out because the asteroid Eurybates had passed in front of it.
- As Eurybates eclipsed the star, a phenomenon scientists call an “occultation,” a shadow the size of the asteroid passed over the region.
- This information will be used by Lucy researchers to supplement data gathered by the Lucy spacecraft’s close flyby of Eurybates in 2027.
About ‘Lucy’ Mission:
- This is NASA’s first mission to explore the Jupiter Trojan asteroids.
- It is a solar-powered mission.
- It is estimated to be over 12 years long, during which the spacecraft will visit eight asteroids covering a distance of about 6.3 billion km to deepen the understanding of the “young solar system”.
Aim of the mission:
- The mission is designed to understand the composition of the diverse asteroids that are a part of the Trojan asteroid swarms, to determine the mass and densities of the materials and to look for and study the satellites and rings that may orbit the Trojan asteroids
Lachit Borphukan
Context :
- Earlier this week, Chief Minister of Assam had announced a number of projects in connection with the 400th birth anniversary of Lachit Borphukan.
- Along with the Alaboi war memorial at Dadara, a Lachit Samadhi would be built
Who was Lachit Borphukan?
- He was a commander in the Ahom kingdom.
- Known for his leadership in the 1671 Battle of Saraighati that thwarted a drawn-out attempt by Mughal forces to take over Ahom kingdom.
- The battle of Saraighat was fought on the banks of the Brahmaputra in Guwahati.
- The National Defence Academy (NDA), ever since 1999 has been conferring the best passing out cadet with the Lachit Borphukan gold medal.
More about ahoms :
- Ahoms created a new state by suppressing the older political system of the bhuiyans (landlords).
- The Ahom state depended upon forced labour. Those forced to work for the state were called paiks.
- Ahom society was divided into clans or khels. A khel often controlled several villages. Ahoms worshipped their own tribal gods, yet they accepted the Hindu religion and the Assamese language.
- However, the Ahom kings did not completely give up their traditional beliefs after adopting Hinduism.
- Poets and scholars were given land grants and theatre was encouraged.
- Important works of Sanskrit were translated into the local language.
- Historical works, known as buranjis, were also written, first in the Ahom language and then in Assamese.
Narsinh Mehta
Context :
- Recently a spider species was named after him and thus a controversy has erupted
Who is narsinh mehta?
- Mehta is believed to have been born in Talaja in present-day Bhavnagar district in 1410 and died in Junagadh in 1480s. The family members were called Mehta (one who keeps books of accounts) which later on became the family name.
- His father died when Mehta was just 5 and it is believed that Mehta
- Mehta used to spend time in Krishna-bhakti (devotion to Lord Krishna).
- Later, Mehta relocated with his family to Junagadh. There too, he used to remain submerged in Krishna bhakti, writing and singing bhajan-kirtans and was a man of no means.
His work :
- Mehta penned more than 750 poems, called padd in Gujarat. They mainly deal with devotion to Lord Krishna
- Works like Shalmshano Vivah, Kunvarbainu Mameru, Hundi and Harmala are believed to be autobiographical accounts of different occasions in his life.
- Vaishanavajan to tene kahiye, Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite bhajan is Mehta’s creation.
UPSC Civil Services Daily Current Affairs 27th February 2022
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