Daily Current Capsules
14th July 2022

Factoids
Dhammacakka Day 2022

What's the NEWS

• The President of India, addressed the Dhammacakka Day 2022 celebrations at Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh.
• The Ministry of Culture in association with the International Buddhist Confederation is celebrating the Āshaḍha PÅ«rṇima Divas, as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav

• It is the second most important sacred day of observance for Buddhists after Vaishakha Buddha PÅ«rṇima.
• It commemorates Buddha's First Sermon or the First Turning of the Wheel of Dhamma, when he taught the Dhammacakka-pavattana Sutta (Pāli) or Dharmacakra pravartana SÅ«tra (Sanskrit).
• Seven weeks after his Enlightenment, he gave this discourse to pañcavargiya - the first five ascetic disciples- at the ‘Deer Park', Ṛṣipatana Mrigadāya in the current day Sarnath, which is in Varanasi.
• It is here that the Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Paths and the Middle Path: avoiding the two extremes, i.e., life of extreme indulgence and the life of extreme penance.

• Buddhism has been one of the greatest spiritual traditions of India.
• Many holy sites associated with the life and teachings of Lord Buddha are located in India.
• Among those many places, there are four main places - first Bodh Gaya, where he attained enlightenment; second Sarnath, where he gave his first sermon; third Shravasti where he spent most Chaturmases and gave most of the sermons; and the fourth Kushinagar, where he attained the Mahaparinirvana.
• After the Mahaparinirvana of Lord Buddha, many monasteries, places of pilgrimage, universities associated with his teachings were established which have been centers of knowledge.
• Our democracy has been deeply influenced by Buddhist ideals and symbols.
• The national emblem is taken from the Ashoka Pillar at Sarnath, which also has the Dharma Chakra engraved on it.
• Behind the chair of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the sutra "Dharma Chakra Pravartanaya" is inscribed.

Health

Antimicrobial Resistance Vaccines

What's the NEWS

• The World Health Organization has stressed the need to accelerate trials for antimicrobial resistance-related vaccines in late-stage development and maximise the use of existing ones.
• WHO released the first-ever report on the pipeline of the vaccines currently developing to prevent infections by AMR bacterial pathogens.

• AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines.
• When an individual becomes infected with these microbes, the infection is said to be resistant to antimicrobial medicines.
• These infections are often difficult to treat

• The analysis identifies 61 vaccine candidates in various stages of clinical development.
• Vaccines are available against four priority bacterial pathogens: Pneumococcal disease (Streptococcus pneumonia), Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b), Tuberculosis (mycobacterium tuberculosis), and Typhoid fever (Salmonella Typhi).
• Current Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccines against tuberculosis (TB) do not adequately protect against TB. The remaining three vaccines are effective.
• It calls for equitable and global access to existing vaccines, accelerate trials for AMR-related vaccine, especially among populations that need them most in limited-resource settings.

Defence
AI-Based Mandarin Translation Devices For Army

What's the NEWS

• Indian soldiers patrolling on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), when they come face to face with Chinese soldiers, will soon be able to understand Mandarin and reply instantly.

• This will be possible with the help of a 600gm Artificial Intelligence (AI) based device developed by an Indian start-up and currently under advanced trials with feedback from the Army.
• This was one of the 75 AI-enabled products and applications unveiled by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at the ‘AI in defence' symposium.
• It is an offline hand-held language translation system which works based on AI.
• It is bidirectional with a range of 5-10 feet and gives converts Mandarin to English.

Space Awareness
JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE

What's the NEWS

• NASA officials have unveiled the first full-colour images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the largest and most powerful orbital observatory ever launched.
• The $9 billion infrared telescope is expected to revolutionise astronomy by allowing scientists to peer farther than before and with greater clarity into the cosmos, to the dawn of the known universe.
• The introductory assortment of pictures had been a closely guarded secret until July 8, when the space agency posted a list of five celestial subjects chosen for its big reveal on July 12.
• These are: the Carina Nebula, the Stephan's Quintet galaxies, the Southern Ring Nebula, the exoplanet WASP-96b, and the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723.

• A partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, the JWST was launched on Christmas Day 2021, and reached its destination in solar orbit nearly 1.6 million km from Earth a month later.
• The crowning debut image was a "deep field" photo of a distant galaxy cluster, SMACS 0723, revealing the most detailed glimpse of the early universe recorded to date.
• Among the other Webb subjects were two enormous clouds of gas and dust blasted into space by stellar explosions to form incubators for new stars - the Carina Nebula and the Southern Ring Nebula, each thousands of light years away from Earth.
• The collection also included fresh images of another galaxy cluster known as Stephan's Quintet, first discovered in 1877.

Factoids
‘Youth In India 2022' report by Ministry of Statistics

What's the NEWS

• India's favourable demographic dividend is at an inflection point of sorts, with the population share of the youth starting to taper off even as the share of the elderly is expected to steadily surge during 2021-2036.

• Youth in the age group of 15-29 years comprise 27.2 per cent of the population for 2021, which is expected to decrease to 22.7 by 2036.
• The more populous states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which experienced a rise in proportion of youth population to total population till 2021, are expected to see a decline from hereon.
• States such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh are projected to see a higher elderly population than the youth by 2036.
• Reap the demographic dividend by utilising the coming few years to create more productive employment to enhance savings and growth.

Factoids
Census Towns

What's the NEWS

• Meghalaya government has launched the MGNREGS in Census towns of the state.

• Census towns are areas that are not defined as a town by state governments but have urban characteristics.
• Due to the ambiguity in the their classification benefits from neither the urban schemes nor the rural schemes could realise.

• Population of 4,000 and more,
• Population density of at least 400 persons per square kilometer.
• Male non-farm workforce of more than 75 percent.