Current Affairs 5th September 2023 for UPSC Prelims Exam

Urban Infrastructure Development Fund (UIDF)

Context: The first part of loans to fund ongoing projects in tier-2 and tier-3 cities under the Urban Infrastructure Development Fund (UIDF) announced in the FY24 Budget will likely be disbursed soon.

About Urban Infrastructure Development Fund (UIDF)

Definition: The Central Government has set up an Urban Infrastructure Development Fund (UIDF) for creating infrastructure in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.
- UIDF is established through the use of priority sector lending shortfall.
- It is established on the lines of the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF).
Goal: The focus will be on basic services like sewerage and Solid Waste Management, water supply and sanitation, construction and improvement of drains/storm water drains, etc., and impact-oriented projects will be prioritized.
Implementation: It is managed by the National Housing Bank.
Budget: The initial corpus for this Fund is ₹10,000 crore.
- States will be encouraged to leverage resources from the grants of the 15th Finance Commission, as well as existing schemes, to adopt appropriate user charges while accessing the UIDF.
Coverage: It currently covers 459 tier-2 cities and 580 tier-3 cities.
UIDF Loans:
- The interest rate on UIDF loans has been kept at Bank Rate minus 1.5%.
- The loan (Principal) will be repayable in five equal annual instalments within seven years from the date of the draw, including a moratorium period of two years.
- Interest will be payable on a quarterly basis.

Current Affairs 4th September 2023 for UPSC Prelims Exam

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

Context: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said that no progress has been made by Iran on outstanding issues, including reinstalling cameras to monitor Tehran’s nuclear programme and explaining uranium traces.

About International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

Definition: The International Atomic Energy Agency is the world’s central intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical cooperation in the nuclear field.
- The IAEA was created in 1957 in response to the deep fears and expectations generated by the discoveries and diverse uses of nuclear technology.
- IAEA was initially set up as the world’s “Atoms for Peace” organization within the United Nations family.
Aim: It works for the safe, secure and peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology, contributing to international peace and security and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Functions: The IAEA, although it submits reports to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), reports primarily to the General Assembly directly, and may also report to the Security Council whenever necessary.
Governance: The policy making bodies include the General Conference of all Member States and the 35-member Board of Governors.
Total Membership: 177 countries including India.
Headquarters: It is based in Vienna.

Preeclampsia & DNA-Methylation

Context: As per a study, liquid-biopsy approach that measures DNA-methylation levels in the blood may improve the detection of pregnancies at risk of developing preeclampsia at early stages.

What is Preeclampsia?

Definition: Preeclampsia is one high blood pressure (hypertension) disorder that can occur during pregnancy.
- Preeclampsia typically develops after the 20th week of pregnancy.
- It can also affect other organs in the body and be dangerous for both the mom and her developing fetus.
- Preeclampsia is a major cause of morbidities during gestation. Early-onset preeclampsia — occurring before 34 weeks of gestation — is associated with a higher risk of severe disease and foetal mortality.
Cause: No one is entirely sure.
- Preeclampsia is believed to come from a problem with the health of the placenta (the organ that develops in the uterus during pregnancy and is responsible for providing oxygen and nutrients to the fetus).
- The blood supply to the placenta might be decreased in preeclampsia, and this can lead to problems with both you and the fetus.

Cause: No one is entirely sure.
- Preeclampsia is believed to come from a problem with the health of the placenta (the organ that develops in the uterus during pregnancy and is responsible for providing oxygen and nutrients to the fetus).
- The blood supply to the placenta might be decreased in preeclampsia, and this can lead to problems with both you and the fetus.
Symptoms: Some of the first signs of preeclampsia are high blood pressure, protein in the urine and retaining water.
- Changes in vision, including temporary loss of vision, blurred vision or light sensitivity.
Treatment: There isn’t a cure for preeclampsia. It can be managed by:
- Medication: The best clinical evidence for the prevention of preeclampsia is the use of low-dose aspirin.
- Lifestyle and healthy choices: If one had preeclampsia before, it’s a good idea to be as healthy as you can be.

What is Liquid Biopsy?

A liquid biopsy is a simple and non-invasive alternative to surgical biopsies which enables doctors to discover a range of information about a tumour through a simple blood sample.

What is DNA Methylation?

DNA methylation involves the attachment of small chemical groups called methyl groups (each consisting of one carbon atom and three hydrogen atoms) to DNA building blocks.
When methyl groups are present on a gene, that gene is turned off or silenced, and no protein is produced from that gene.
The recent study about Preeclampsia profiled blood DNA-methylation data from 498 pregnant women, about one third of whom developed preeclampsia.
- The authors detected differences in DNA methylation in the control pregnancies versus the pregnancies that developed preeclampsia.
- The preliminary results suggest that cell-free DNA methylation profiling is a promising tool for presymptomatic PE risk assessment and has the potential to improve treatment and follow-up in the obstetric clinic.

Hubble Constant

Context: Scientists from ICTS Bangalore have proposed a new way to measure the Hubble constant.

What is the Hubble constant?

The Hubble constant, denoted as “H0,” is a fundamental cosmological parameter that measures the current rate of the expansion of the universe.
It quantifies how fast galaxies are moving away from each other as the universe expands.
The Hubble constant is named after the American astronomer Edwin Hubble.
Mathematically, the Hubble constant is expressed in units of kilometers per second per megaparsec (km/s/Mpc).
- This means that for every megaparsec (a unit of distance used in cosmology, approximately 3.09 million light-years) of space, the velocity of galaxies is increasing by a certain number of kilometers per second.
The exact value of the Hubble constant is a subject of ongoing research and debate in the field of cosmology.
- The current best direct measurement of the Hubble constant is 73.8 km/sec/Mpc (give or take 2.4 km/sec/Mpc including, both random and systematic errors), corresponding to a 3% uncertainty.
Significance:
- The Hubble constant is a crucial parameter in cosmology because it helps determine the age of the universe and the scale of cosmic distances.
- Additionally, the Hubble constant is used to understand the overall geometry and evolution of the universe, which informs our understanding of its past and future.

Hubble Tension

“Hubble tension” refers to a discrepancy in the measurements of the Hubble constant (H0) between different methods of observation and calculation.
This tension arises because different approaches to measuring H0 have produced slightly different results, and these discrepancies have become more significant as measurements have improved over time.