China’s Zhurong rover has peered under the surface of Mars and has found evidence of two huge floods that shaped the landscape.

• Since May 2021, Zhurong has been exploring Utopia Planitia, in Mars’s northern hemisphere.
• Images from the rover’s ground-penetrating radar found layered patterns under the surface, which are made of sedimentary rocks carried in by two major floods around 1.6 billion years ago.
• China''s Zhurong rover landed in the Utopia Planitia, a 2,000-miles-wide (3,300 kilometers) basin in the Northern Hemisphere of Mars, in May 2021.
• Since then, the rover has been studying local geology, chemical composition of rocks, and local weather conditions using its six scientific instruments.
• Zhurong has already completed its primary mission of 90 sols. But the rover is continuing its way to the south of its landing site, collecting data as it goes.

Second coup in Burkina Faso as military officers dismiss junta leader

• Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and the Ivory Coast to the southwest.
• It was previously called Republic of Upper Volta.
• Its capital and largest city is Ouagadougou.
• The country owes its former name of Upper Volta to three rivers which cross it: the Black Volta (or Mouhoun), the White Volta (Nakambé) and the Red Volta (Nazinon).

October 1 is observed as the International Day of Older Persons across the globe.

• This year, the theme for the International Day of Older Persons is “Resilience of Older Persons in a Changing World”
• The day was introduced by the United Nations General Assembly with an aim of honouring the contribution of older persons and looking into the problems that they face.
• The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution on December 14, 1990, to establish October 1 as the International Day of Older Persons.
• The day came into being after the Vienna International Plan of Action on Ageing initiative, which was adopted by the World Assembly on Ageing in 1982.
• The UN General Assembly in 1991 approved the United Nations Principles for Older Persons. Later in 2002, the Second World Assembly on Ageing embraced the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing.
• It was done to address and understand the opportunities and challenges faced by the older generation in the 21st century and to promote the development of a society for all ages.

Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) launches Telecom Technology Development Fund scheme

• Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) aims to fund R&D in rural-specific communication technology applications and form synergies among academia, start-ups, research institutes, and the industry to build and develop the telecom ecosystem.
• Additionally, the Scheme aims to promote technology ownership and indigenous manufacturing, create a culture of technology co-innovation, reduce imports, boost export opportunities and creation of Intellectual Property.
• Under the scheme, USOF is also targeting to develop standards to meet countrywide requirements and create the ecosystem for research, design, prototyping, use cases, pilots, and proof of concept testing, among others.
• The scheme entails grants to Indian entities to encourage and induct indigenous technologies tailor-made to meet domestic needs.

President of India Announces Results of Swachh Survekshan 2022

• Indore has been adjudged the cleanest city of India for the sixth year in a row, while Madhya Pradesh is the cleanest state in the country.
• Surat is the second cleanest city and Navi Mumbai comes a close third in the category of cities with a population more than a lakh.
• Visakhapatnam was adjudged the fourth cleanest city in the country (In over 10 lakh population category).
• In the population category of less than one lakh, Panchgani and Karad from Maharashtra bagged the first and third positions respectively, while Patan from Chhattisgarh bagged the second position.
• Tirupati received the best city award in Safai Mitra Suraksha category, while Haridwar in Uttarakhand received the award for the best Ganga town in more than one lakh population cities.
• Bijnor ranked first among Ganga towns with less than one lakh population, followed by Kannauj and Garhmukhteshwar.
• Maharashtra’s Deolali was adjudged the country’s cleanest Cantonment Board.
• Shivamogga in Karnataka received the fast mover city award.
• Tripura got the cleanest State award in the “less than 100 urban local bodies category”.

Army deploys M777 Howitzers to ramp-up firepower at northern frontiers

• In the next five years, the Army’s Regiment of Artillery will see major force accretion with the induction of several guns, including indigenous ones.
• It includes the Dhanush, Sharang, M777 Ultra Light Howitzer (ULH), additional K9-Vajra howitzers and the Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS).
• The M777s are a key component of the army’s field artillery rationalisation plan (FARP), cleared in 1999.
• The 155 mm/39-caliber M777 howitzers have a range of up to 30km, but it is capable of striking targets at ranges of more than 40 km in some areas where the geography allows the shells to fly in rarefied air.
• Built with titanium and aluminum alloys, the howitzers weigh 4,218 kg.
• In contrast, 155mm towed guns weigh twice as much.
• The Indian Air Force’s CH-47F Chinook helicopters can carry the howitzers as underslung load for swift deployment in high-altitude areas.

Fourth leak found on Nord Stream pipelines

• Nord Stream 1 is a 1,224 km underwater gas pipeline running from Vyborg in northwest Russia to Lubmin in northeastern Germany via the Baltic Sea.
• The majority owned by the Russian energy giant Gazprom, it is the primary network through which gas reaches Germany.
• Most of the gas goes directly to Germany, while the rest travels west and southwards through onshore links to other countries and into storage caverns.
• The 1,200-km Nord Stream 2 pipeline was to run from Ust-Luga in Russia to Greifswald in Germany through the Baltic Sea and carry 55 billion cubic metres of gas per year.
• It was meant to run along with the Nord Stream 1 system. Germany is Russia’s biggest European gas consumer, and most of it comes through the Nord Stream.

UGC clears ‘professors of practice’ in all colleges, universities

• No formal educational qualification such as a PhD is needed to apply for a position.
• To be eligible for appointment, an individual will have to be a “distinguished expert” who has “made remarkable contributions in their professions”, and has at least 15 years of service or experience.
• The idea is to bring practical experience into classroom teaching.
• It is open to the institutions themselves to decide the sector from which they want to rope in professionals.
• A professor of practice can be anyone with a background in a diverse range of areas from technology, science, social sciences, media, literature, armed forces, law, fine arts, etc.
• However, the position is not open for those in the teaching profession — either serving or retired.
• Currently, under the UGC’s minimum qualifications for appointment of teachers and other academic staff, an individual needs a PhD to be recruited as a professor or associate professor, and also needs to have cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET).
• It can be either a full-time or a part-time engagement for at least four years. Initially, the hiring will be for one year. Based on performance, extensions may be given.
• The remuneration will be decided at the level of the institutes and the experts being hired.

RBI''s Credit & Debit Card Tokenisation Rules From 1 October 2022

• Tokenisation here refers to replacement of actual credit and debit card details with an alternate code called the “token”.
• A token is a 16-digit number unique for a combination of card, token requestor and merchant.
• By tokenising the card with a merchant, the actual card details of the customer are replaced with token credentials, which can be used only for the merchant for which the token has been created.
• Tokenisation can be performed only by the authorised card network and recovery of original Primary Account Number (PAN) should be feasible for the authorised card network only.
• Adequate safeguards have to be put in place to ensure that PAN cannot be found out from the token and vice versa, by anyone except the card network.
• A tokenised card transaction is considered safer as the actual card details are not shared with the merchant during transaction processing.

Prime Minister to launch 5G Services in India at 6th India Mobile Congress 2022

• 5G is the next generation of mobile communication networks, which is supposed to offer much faster speeds and wider use cases than 4G.
• It is believed that the rollout of 5G will accelerate the adoption of cloud gaming, AR/VR technology, Internet of Things, etc. 5G also has several enterprise use cases.
• It enables a new kind of network that is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices.
• 5G wireless technology is meant to deliver higher multi-Gbps peak data speeds, ultra-low latency, more reliability, massive network capacity, increased availability, and a more uniform user experience to more users.
• In 5G the latency will be ten times less than in 4G, being able to perform remote actions in real time.