Army''s 4th round of emergency procurement to be from India

• The Indian Army, which has made three tranches of Emergency Procurements (EP) in the last few years, is preparing for a fourth round of EP which will be entirely from the domestic industry.
• Three tranches of EPs were executed under which 68 contracts worth ₹6,000 crore were placed.
• Emergency financial powers were granted to the armed forces by the Defence Ministry in the past under which they could procure weapons systems up to ₹300 crores on an “urgent basis without any further clearances to cut short the procurement cycle.
• It also gives them an opportunity to test various systems in the field before going in for larger acquisition through the capital budget route.

In Kerala, ‘honesty shops’ on school campuses help inculcate virtues among children

• It was launched in 2008.
• It is part of the Student Police Cadet (SPC) project.
• It was conceived to inculcate better civic sense among students and mould them as responsible youth who will react positively to the demands of society.
• There is no salesman at these counters and students can drop the money for each item in the collection box kept on a table.

German Chancellor says Russia using ‘scorched-earth tactics’: What is this strategy

• Scorched earth tactics form part of a military strategy which seeks to destroy anything that could be of use to the enemy, including energy supplies, bridges, provision stores, agricultural fields, road and railway links, etc.
• The destruction could be carried out by the enemy, or by the retreating army of a country which does not want invaders to use its resources.
• Harming civilians as part of this strategy has been banned under the 1977 Geneva Convention.
• The strategy seeks to deplete the enemy’s resources to sustain warfare, and also break their morale by inflicting heavy hardships on combatants and non-combatants alike.
• According to the Oxford Reference, the “term was first used in English in 1937 in a report of the Sino-Japanese conflict, and is apparently a translation of Chinese jiāotŭ”.

Past Instances:

• Scorched earth policy has been part of warfare since ancient times, with the nomad Scythians using the tactics in their war against the Persian Achaemenid Empire led by King Darius the Great (who ruled 522 BCE to 486 BCE).
• A notable example of the use of this tactic came during the American civil war in 1864, when Union General William Tecumseh Sherman and his soldiers burnt everything in sight as they marched through Confederate areas.
• In India, the armies of Maratha leader Chhatrapati Shivaji were known for their scorched earth tactics.

Actor Anna May Wong, The Asian-American To Be Featured On US Currency

• Her birth name was Wong Liu-Tsong.
• She was born to second-generation Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles, Wong started her film career at the age of 14 as an extra in The Red Lantern (1919).
• She gained critical acclaim only three years later when she played the leading role in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first Technicolour films.
• She was also the first Asian American leading actor in a television show, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong (1951).
• The American Women Quarters Program is a four-year program that celebrates the accomplishments and contributions made by women to the development and history of U.S.A.
• Beginning in 2022, and continuing through 2025, the U.S. Mint will issue up to five new reverse designs each year.
• The American Women Quarters may feature contributions from a variety of fields, suffrage, civil rights, abolition, government, humanities, science, space, and the arts. The women honored will be from ethnically, racially, and geographically diverse backgrounds.

October storm in Bay of Bengal after 3 years: When, where it is likely to hit

• The months of October-November and May-June see storms of severe intensity develop in the North Indian Ocean — comprising the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea — with an average of five developing in a calendar year.
• In the past 131 years, October saw 61 storms develop in the Bay of Bengal, according to the Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre (RSMC).
• The east coast, notably Odisha, has faced many of its severest storms in October, including the Super Cyclone of 1999.
• After the withdrawal of the Southwest monsoon, there is a rise in ocean heating, which leads to rise in sea surface temperature over the Bay of Bengal.
• The atmospheric moisture availability over the ocean region, too, is higher.
• So, when remnant systems from the South China Sea reach the Bay of Bengal, they get conducive conditions, aiding the formation and intensification of cyclones in October.
• In some years, ocean-atmospheric factors hinder this phenomenon.
• For instance, in 2020, weak La Nina conditions along the equatorial Pacific Ocean prevented a cyclonic formation near India’s coasts.
• In comparison with the Bay of Bengal, only 32 storms have developed in the Arabian Sea in October since 1891.
• Climatologically too, the IMD states that of the five storms formed in the North Indian Ocean in a calendar year, four are in the Bay of Bengal and one in Arabian Sea.

This September was 5th warmest in 143 years: NOAA report

• According to NOAA latest report, this year’s September was the fifth warmest in 143 years, with the recorded global average temperature rising by 0.88 degree Celsius over the 20th century average.
• September 2022 marked the 46th-consecutive September and the 453rd-consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th-century average.
• Higher than normal temperatures were recorded over Africa, north America, southern Asia, Atlantic, and northern South America regions.
• Near normal or cooler temperatures were recorded over Europe, northern Asia, most parts of India, and south-eastern Pacific Ocean.
• This was mainly due to above average rainfall over northern and southern Asia, Australia, central Europe, Caribbean islands and south-eastern US.
• In September 2022, the sea-ice extent coverage dropped to the eighth lowest ever.
• The Arctic sea ice now cover 5.95 lakh square miles below the 1981-2010 average, whereas the Antarctica sea ice is 1.90 lakh square miles below average.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA):

• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a U.S. government agency that was formed in 1970 as a combination of several different organizations.
• The purpose of NOAA is to study and report on the ocean, atmosphere, and coastal regions of Earth.

National Media Award for best campaign on voter’s education & awareness-2022

• The awards are to recognise the outstanding contribution by Media Houses to promote electoral participation by creating awareness about accessible elections, educating people about the electoral process and raising awareness among the general public about the relevance and importance of voting and registration.
• The awards will be in the form of a citation, plaque and cash prize and will be presented on the National Voter’s Day (25th January, 2023).
• The awards will be given in the following four categories:
  • Print Media
  • Electronic (Television) Media
  • Electronic (Radio) Media and
  • Online (Internet)/Social Media

Nearly 46 tonnes single-use plastic items seized, Rs 41 lakhs fined during special drive

• In a bid to reduce plastic pollution, India from July 1, 2022 banned 19 SUP items.
• Plastic carry bags of thickness less than 75 microns are also prohibited under the Plastic Waste Management Rules. Their thickness will have to be increased to 120 microns from December 31, 2022.
• Plastic wrapping material less than 50 microns in thickness and plastic sachets used for selling and storing tobacco, pan masala and gutkha are also not allowed.

Single-use plastics:

• Single-use plastics, often also referred to as disposable plastics, are commonly used for plastic packaging and include items intended to be used only once before they are thrown away or recycled.
• Application:These include, among other items, grocery bags, food packaging, bottles, straws, containers, cups and cutlery
• Benefits:Single-use plastic bags are widely used because they are strong, cheap and hygienic ways to transport goods.
• Environmental impact:They can take up to thousands of years to decompose, contaminating soil and water, and posing significant ingestion, choking and entanglement hazards to wildlife on land and in the ocean.

Mission DefSpace launched by PM Modi in Gujarat

• The space programme aims to develop innovative solutions for the Defence Forces through industry & startups.
• Importantly, the initiative will prepare India for future possibilities in space domain and will also increase the country’s preparation further.
• Under Mission DefSpace, 75 challenges are being opened to get innovative solutions, based on the defence requirements in the space domain.
• The programme will focus on various challenges in this area that have been reviewed and identified by the three defence services.
• There are more than 60 developing countries with whom India is sharing its space science. Many African countries and many other small countries are benefiting from this.
• The ‘South Asia satellite’ is an effective example of this. By next year, ten ASEAN countries will also get real-time access to India’s satellite data.

PM & UNSG Launch Mission LiFE at Statue of Unity, Gujarat

• It was first proposed by the Prime Minister at COP 26, Mission LiFE.
• It envisioned as an India-led global mass movement that will nudge individual and collective action to protect and preserve the environment.
• The global movement will showcase sustainable goals and climate actions taken by countries and individuals around the world.
• It makes the fight against climate change democratic, in which everyone can contribute with their respective capacities.
• It emboldens the spirit of the P3 model, i.e. Pro Planet People.
• It functions on the basic principles of ‘Lifestyle of the planet, for the planet and by the planet’.
• It aims at following a three-pronged strategy for changing people''s collective approach towards sustainability.
• This includes nudging individuals to practice simple yet effective environment-friendly actions in their daily lives (demand), enabling industries and markets to respond swiftly to the changing demand (supply), and to influence government and industrial policy to support both sustainable consumption and production (policy).