UPSC QUIZ 01.02.2024

Explanation:

• The Indian government has set up a high-level committee, led by the Cabinet Secretary, to address the issue of dominant Scheduled Caste (SC) communities receiving more benefits than the most backward ones.
• This development comes particularly in response to the Madiga community's demands in Telangana.

Mandate of the Newly Formed Committee

• The committee's primary objective is to explore alternative methods for addressing grievances faced by various SC communities across the country.
• While initiated in response to the Madiga community's concerns, the committee's scope extends beyond one community or state.
• It aims to evaluate and work out a method for the equitable distribution of benefits, schemes and initiatives to the most backward communities amongst the over 1,200 Scheduled Castes across the country, that have been crowded out by relatively forward and dominant ones.

Explanation:

• Digital University Kerala has introduced State’s maiden silicon-proven Artificial Intelligence (AI) chip—Kairali AI Chip, that offers Speed, Power Efficiency and Scalability for various applications.

Kairali AI Chip

• This chip leverages edge intelligence (or edge AI) to deliver high performance and low power consumption for a wide range of applications.
• Edge artificial intelligence (AI), or AI at the edge, is the implementation of AI in an edge computing environment, which allows computations to be done close to where data is actually collected, rather than at a centralized cloud computing facility or an offsite data center.
• It entails deploying Machine Learning algorithms on the edge device where the data is generated, rather than relying on cloud computing.

Explanation:

• Indian Prime Minister launched the 'Pradhan Mantri Suryodaya Yojana,' a pioneering government initiative aimed at installing rooftop solar power systems in one crore households across the nation.

Rooftop Solar Panels

• Rooftop solar panels are photovoltaic panels installed on the roof of a building that is connected to the main power supply unit.
• Benefit: It reduces the consumption of grid-connected electricity and saves electricity costs for the consumer.
• Surplus solar power units generated from the rooftop solar plant can be exported to the grid as per the metering provisions.
• The consumer can receive monetary benefits for the surplus exported power as per the prevailing regulations

Explanation:

• India has identified 6 key sectors – electronics, engineering goods, textiles, marine and agriculture, toys and pharmaceuticals – that can help the country achieve about 70% of its merchandise export target of $1 trillion by fiscal 2030.
• According to a study by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, these sectors have the potential to reach $670 billion in exports by FY2030, while India's total merchandise exports stood at $451 billion in FY2023.

Engineering goods

• Exports are expected to grow from $107 billion in FY2023 to $300 billion by FY2030, led by categories like drones, solar modules, turbo jets, automotive and electric vehicles.
• India's strength in auto components, growing global demand for EVs and India's push towards self-reliance in defense and space technologies will drive growth.

Explanation:

• On January 28, Iran had successfully launched three satellites into space.
• The launch involved the successful use of Iran's Simorgh rocket, the state-run IRNA news agency said.
• This is the latest development in its program, which the West believes is improving its ballistic missiles.
• The three satellites launched were named Mahda, Kayhan-2, and Hatef-1.
• Mahda is a research satellite, while Kayhan and Hatef are nanosatellites focused on global positioning and communications, respectively.
• Expert analysis of the footage revealed that it was launched from the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Iran's rural Semnan province.
• Simorgh rocket is a part of Iran's civilian space program.
• It is a two-stage, liquid-fueled rocket designed to launch satellites into low Earth orbit.The current update is based on data collected from banks up to March 31, 2023, and the growing systemic importance of HDFC Bank following the merger of erstwhile HDFC Ltd into HDFC Bank on July 1, 2023.