Current Affairs
1. WORLD ANTI-DOPING REPORT 2022 –
- The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) anti-doping report, 2022, released by the WADA reveals alarming statistics on global doping violations, emphasising the need for stringent measures to safeguard the integrity of sports.
India Leads Globally in Doping Offences:
- India emerged with the highest percentage of doping offenders, accounting for 3.26% of tested
- Out of 3,865 samples tested by India’s National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), 125 returned Adverse Analytical Findings (AAFs), making India the only country with over 100 positive results and the highest among nations testing more than 2,000
- An AAF is a report from a WADA-accredited laboratory that identifies the presence of a prohibited substance and/or its metabolites or markers in a sample.
- Despite being 11th in the number of samples tested, India’s doping violations surpassed major sporting nations like Russia, the USA, Italy, and
- South Africa followed India with 09% of samples testing positive among nations collecting over 2,000 samples.
- China tested the most samples (17,357), producing only 0.25% AAFs, while the USA (84) and Russia (85) closely followed India in the number of positive results.
- WADA reported a 6.4% increase in the total number of samples analysed and reported into its Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS) in 2022 compared to 2021, signalling a positive trend towards maintaining the integrity of
- ECENTLY, THE TATA GROUP COLLABORATED WITH TAIWAN’S PSMC TO ESTABLISH A 300 MM (MILLIMETRE) WAFER FABRICATION PLANT IN GUJARAT –
- Experts believe the attack was likely carried out by IS Khorasan (IS-K), the group’s Afghanistan- Pakistan
- IS-K, the Afghanistan-based arm of the IS, has been responsible for recent attacks, including the twin bombings in Kerman,
- Established in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province in 2015, IS-K comprises Central Asian militants and has gained prominence since the Taliban’s return to power in August
- IS-K targets Afghanistan’s Shia minority and seeks to recruit radicalised youths from Central Asia and Afghanistan’s Tajik and Uzbek
- IS-K utilises anti-Russian and anti-Iranian propaganda to recruit among Central Asians, Afghans, and Pakistanis.
3. ATOMIC CLOCKS FOR ONE-NATION, ONE-TIME –
- India aims to deploy its own atomic clocks across the nation, to enhance its timekeeping infrastructure and national defence capabilities for the
- The deployment of atomic clocks across India aims to synchronise all digital devices with Indian Standard Time (IST) , ensuring
- These atomic clocks are being installed by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) under the Ministry of Science and
Technology and the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.
- An atomic clock, is a clock, known for its exceptional accuracy, and functions by utilising specific resonance frequencies of atoms, typically cesium or rubidium. It was invented in 1955 by Louise Essen.
- The extreme precision levels of the atomic clocks can be interpreted by the fact that they will lose one second approximately every 100 million years. Currently, atomic clocks in India are operational in Ahmedabad and
- The electronic components of atomic clocks are governed by microwave electromagnetic radiation (EM). Maintaining this radiation’s precise frequency is essential to induce quantum transitions in cesium or rubidium
- The quantum transition (energy change) of cesium or rubidium atoms is induced solely when the radiation is maintained at an exceptionally specific
- In an atomic clock, these quantum transitions are then observed and maintained in a feedback loop. The waves generated in these quantum transitions are then counted to arrive at the value of a
