Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 07 September 2022

::NATIONAL::

Delhi’s iconic Rajpath – stretching from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate – is all set to be renamed Kartavya Path (Path of Duty), with Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating the revamped Central Vista Avenue on September 8.

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The avenue is part of the larger Central Vista project, where a new triangular Parliament Building, along with the Central Secretariat and several other Government offices are being rebuilt.
Called Kingsway during British rule, it was built as a ceremonial boulevard by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, the architects of New Delhi, in around 1920.
Running from Rashtrapati Bhavan on Raisina Hill through Vijay Chowk and India Gate, the avenue is lined on both sides by huge lawns, canals and rows of trees.
Following the independence of India, the road was given its Hindi name of ‘Rajpath’ in place of its English designation.
This represented a mere translation than a renaming since ‘Rajpath’ in Hindi broadly means king’s way. For 75 years, it has been known as the showpiece stretch for the Republic Day parade that is held on January 26 every year.

Supreme Court has issued notice on plea seeking cancellation of registration of political partiesthat use religious symbols or names of religions in their nomenclature.

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Using religion to lure voters is strictly prohibited under Section 123 of Representation of PeopleAct (RPA), 1951.
Section 123 RPA defines corrupt practices in elections.
Section 123 (3) prohibits any electoral appeal based on religion, race, caste, community orlanguage for electoral gains.
Section 123(3) was amended in 1961 to strengthen provision and curb any sectarian appealin election campaigns.

This document outlines a roadmap for the transformation of aquatic food systems - ‘Blue Transformation’, providing a compass for the FAO’s work on aquatic food systems for the period 2022–2030.

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This roadmap for Blue Transformation aligns with the 2021 Declaration for Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022–2031.
It focuses on the elements that would maximize the contribution of aquatic food systems to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Blue Transformation roadmap recognizes the importance of aquatic food systems as drivers of employment, economic growth, social development and environmental recovery, which all underpin the SDGs.
It also recognizes the need to support the 2030 Agenda through the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable aquatic food systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

India’s Initiatives for Blue Transformation:

2015-16: Blue revolution scheme launched.
2018-19: Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF)launched and Kisan Credit Card facility extended to fish farmers.
2019-20: Separate Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying created.
2020-21: Pradhan Mantri MatsyaSampadaYojna (PMMSY) launched.

Facing the worst flooding disaster in its history, Pakistan has begun demanding reparations, or compensation, from the rich countries that are mainly responsible for causing climate change.

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The demand for compensation for loss and damage from climate disasters is an extension of the universally acknowledged “Polluter Pays” principle that makes the polluter liable for paying not just for the cost of remedial action, but also for compensating the victims of environmental damage caused by their actions.
In the climate change framework, the burden of responsibility falls on those rich countries that have contributed most of the greenhouse gas emissions since 1850, generally considered to be the beginning of the industrial age.

It was released by External Debt Management Unit in Department of Economic Affairs.
India’s external debt rose by 8.2 per cent to stand at $620.7 billion on March 31, 2022, comparedover year earlier period.

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U.S. dollar-denominated debt remained the largest component of India’s external debt.
External debt refers to money borrowed from outside the country and has to be paid back incurrency in which it is borrowed.
It can be obtained from foreign commercial banks, international financial institutions likeIMF, World Bank etc. and from foreign governments.

Key highlights:

The short-term trade credit was predominantly in the form of trade credit (96 per cent) financing imports.
The sovereign debt at USD 130.7 billion rose higher by 17.1 per cent over its level a year ago, mainly because of the additional allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during 2021-22.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) snapped a perfect shot of an ‘Einstein Ring’.

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Launched in 2021, JWST is NASA’s largest and most powerful space telescope to probe cosmosto uncover history of universe.
Einstein Ring is when light from a star or a galaxy passes another galaxy or a massive object onits way towards Earth.
Since gravitational force of large object bends the light, it develops gravitational lensing,forming a ring-like effect, making the light of galaxy appear as an almost perfect ring.