Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE
Topics Covered
- Swachhata Green Leaf Rating
- Rupay and UPI
- Event Horizon Telescope
- Facts for Prelims
1 . Swachhata Green Leaf Rating
Context: States silent on Swachhata Green Leaf Rating, which was launched in November last year by the Union Tourism Ministry.
About the Rating
- It is a ranking scheme which was launched in 2023 by the Union Tourism Ministry in collaboration with the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation.
- It would rate hospitality facilities of the country based on their compliance to safe sanitation practices in alignment with the Travel for Life commitment of the Ministry of Tourism under Mission LiFE of NITI Aayog.
- The launch of the rating system has been initially piloted in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and thereafter will be scaled up for a nationwide rollout.
- A joint policy document has been developed by DDWS and the Ministry of Tourism, as a prelude and guiding document for pioneer implementation of the rating system in Jammu and Kashmir.
- The campaign is voluntary for hospitality facilities and the Rating System is intended for all tourist facilities, with or without restaurants (both public and private) including hotels, resorts, homestays, lodges, Dharamshalas, camps and trekking groups including those with portable toilet facilities.
- It will have three phases – Orientation, Voluntary Declaration, and Verification. It will be monitored by state and district committees and the verification sub-committee.
Benefits
- Safe sanitation practices under the rating are expected to enhance awareness and collaborative achievements for common goals in the tourism and hospital sector leading to safe and adequate sanitation facilities for men, women and the differently abled;
- segregation of solid waste at source with sustainable forward linkages;
- litter-free facilities, adoption of 3Rs in greywater management for circularity and resource sustainability;
- promotion of alternatives to single use plastics.
2 . Rupay and UPI
Context: RuPay, UPI rolled out in Mauritius, Sri Lanka.
About the news
- An Indian traveller to Mauritius will now be able to pay a merchant in Mauritius using UPI. Similarly, a Mauritian traveller will be able to pay a merchant in India using the Instant Payment System (IPS) app of Mauritius.
- Further, with the adoption of RuPay technology, the MauCAS card scheme of Mauritius will enable banks in Mauritius to issue RuPay cards domestically. Such cards can be used at ATMs and PoS terminals locally in Mauritius as well as in India.
- The digital payments connectivity with Sri Lanka will enable Indian travellers to make QR code-based payments at merchant locations in Sri Lanka using their UPI apps.
About Rupay
- RuPay is a multinational financial services and payment service system, conceived and launched by the National Payments Corporation of India( NPCI) in 2014.
- It was created to fulfil the Reserve Bank of India‘s (RBI) vision of establishing a domestic, open and multilateral system of payments.
- It facilitates electronic payment at all Indian banks and financial institutions.
About UPI
- Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a system by NPCI that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood.
- It also caters to the “Peer to Peer” collect request which can be scheduled and paid as per requirement and convenience.
Features
- Immediate money transfer through mobile device round the clock 24*7 and 365 days.
- Single mobile application for accessing different bank accounts.
- Single Click 2 Factor Authentication – Aligned with the Regulatory guidelines, yet provides for a very strong feature of seamless single click payment.
- Virtual address of the customer for Pull & Push provides for incremental security with the customer not required to enter the details such as Card no, Account number; IFSC etc.
- QR Code
- Best answer to Cash on Delivery hassle, running to an ATM or rendering exact amount.
- Merchant Payment with Single Application or In-App Payments.
- Utility Bill Payments, Over the Counter Payments, QR Code (Scan and Pay) based payments.
- Donations, Collections, Disbursements Scalable.
- Raising Complaint from Mobile App directly.
Benefits of launching them in foreign countries
- It connects historical ties digitally. With fintech connectivity, not just cross border payments, but cross border connectivity will also strengthen.
- It aids in uniting partners with India.
- Both countries will benefit from UPI as it will increase the speed of digital transformation and will benefit tourism in both countries.
- People from foreign countries coming to India will have to buy fewer hard currencies and we can transact in our own currencies in real-time at a lower cost.
- It provides a fillip to India’s Neighbourhood First Policy: Given India’s robust cultural and people-to-people linkages with Sri Lanka and Mauritius, the launch will benefit a wide cross-section of people through a faster and seamless digital transaction experience and enhance digital connectivity between the countries.
3 . Event Horizon Telescope
Context: Scientists have unveiled new details of a colossal black hole 53 million lightyears away first photographed by the earth-wide Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) in 2017.
About the Telescope
- The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a large telescope array consisting of a global network of radio telescopes.
- The EHT project combines data from several very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) stations around Earth, which form a combined array with an angular resolution sufficient to observe objects the size of a supermassive black hole‘s event horizon.
- The project’s observational targets include the two black holes with the largest angular diameter as observed from Earth: the black hole at the center of the supergiant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87*, pronounced “M87-Star”), and Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*, pronounced “Sagittarius A-Star”) at the center of the Milky Way.
- The EHT is not a single telescope but a worldwide network of radio telescopes that work together to study a common object in space. They benefit from a technique called very-long baseline interferometry, where the data each telescope collects about the object is correlated with data from the others using extremely precise clocks.
- In this setup, the maximum distance between the telescopes defines the network’s resolution.
- In 2017, the EHT reported detecting a bright, asymmetric ring of light consistent with the presence of a supermassive black hole. Independent analyses of EHT data also supported the ring’s presence.
- Based on these observations, scientists improved the EHT by increasing its data-recording rate, its ability to track spatial information, and by adding the Greenland Telescope to the array. The last one “improved the resolution of the EHT in the north-south direction,”
Key Findings
- In a new paper published on January 18, EHT scientists have reported capturing details at the level of the behemoth’s event horizon — the boundary beyond which light from the other side can’t reach an observer — showcasing the formation of a distinct ring around it.
- The EHT’s previous run had revealed the black hole’s ‘shadow’, a result of the event horizon’s gravitational effects and a signature of its presence. The picture also helped constrain the black hole’s mass and find that its size and shape align with the predictions of the general theory of relativity. The image was hailed at the time as a matter of “astonishment and wonder” for revealing “a part of the universe that was off limits”.
- The new data, obtained after improving the telescope’s coverage and resolution, reiterated the shadow’s size and shape.
4 . Facts for Prelims
NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL)
- In pursuance of NPCI Board & RBI approval, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) has been incorporated (“Company”) on April 3, 2020 as a wholly owned subsidiary of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). NIPL is devoted for deployment of RuPay (domestic card scheme) and UPI (mobile payment solution) outside of India.
- NIPL is focused on transforming payments across the globe with use of technology and innovation. It will not only enable payment for Indians but also uplift other countries by enhancing their payment capabilities through technological assistance, consulting and infrastructure. These countries have potentials but lack in resources i.e. financial, technological etc. NIPL is ready to fill this gap with its rich experience and advance understanding of payments.