World temperature record set in California's Death Valley

IN NEWS

• One of the hottest air temperatures recorded anywhere on the planet in at least a century, and possibly ever, was reached at Death Valley in California's Mojave Desert where it soared to 54.4 degrees Celsius

ABOUT

• An automated observation system run by the U.S. National Weather Service in the valley's sparsely populated Furnace Creek reported the record at 3:41 p.m. at the crest of an extreme heat wave, a more frequent occurrence due to climate change.
• A temperature of 56.7°C was recorded in Death Valley in July 1913, and Kebili, Tunisia, is said to have hit 131F in July 1931, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

FURNACE CREEK

• Furnace Creek is a census-designated place (CDP) in Inyo County, California. The population was 24 at the 2010 census, down from 31 at the 2000 census. The elevation of the village is 190 feet (58 m) below sea level. Furnace Creek holds the record for the highest recorded air temperature on Earth at 134 °F (56.7 °C) on July 10, 1913, although the reliability of this record has been disputed. Furnace Creek also holds the record for the highest recorded natural ground surface temperature on Earth at 201 °F (93.9 °C) on July 15, 1972.
• The visitor center, museum, and headquarters of the Death Valley National Park are located at Furnace Creek. Springs in the Amargosa Range created a natural oasis at Furnace Creek, which has subsequently dwindled due to diversion of this water to support the village.

CONCERNS

• Climate change has pushed global temperatures to new highs. In Europe, northern Spain broke local heat records in July, while wheat fields in France caught fire. Forests across Siberian Russia are seeing unprecedented wildfires, while the Arctic sea ice shrank to a record low for July due to melting.

Hawala Crackdown: ED Books Chinese National

IN NEWS

• The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a case of money laundering against a Chinese national in connection to a hawala racket worth an estimated Rs 1,000 crore.

ABOUT

• The ED has taken cognisance of the tax department evidence and action and a Delhi Police Special Cell FIR against Chinese national before filing the criminal case of money laundering .

PMLA

• Money laundering is the illegal process of concealing the origins of money obtained illegally by passing it through a complex sequence of banking transfers or commercial transactions. The overall scheme of this process returns the "clean" money to the launderer in an obscure and indirect way .
• Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted by the NDA government to prevent money-laundering and to provide for confiscation of property derived from money-laundering.PMLA and the Rules notified there under came into force with effect from July 1, 2005.
• Money laundering can take several forms,

• Structuring: Often known as smurfing, is a method of placement whereby cash is broken into smaller deposits of money, used to defeat suspicion of money laundering and to avoid anti-money laundering reporting requirements.
• Bulk cash smuggling: This involves physically smuggling cash to another jurisdiction and depositing it in a financial institution, such as an offshore bank, that offers greater bank secrecy or less rigorous money laundering enforcement.
• Cash-intensive businesses: In this method, a business typically expected to receive a large proportion of its revenue as cash uses its accounts to deposit criminally derived cash.
• Trade-based laundering: This method is one of the newest and most complex forms of money laundering.
• Shell companies and trusts: Trusts and shell companies disguise the true owners of money. Trusts and corporate vehicles, depending on the jurisdiction, need not disclose their true owner.
• Round-tripping: Here, money is deposited in a controlled foreign corporation offshore, preferably in a tax haven where minimal records are kept, and then shipped back as a foreign direct investment, exempt from taxation.
• Bank capture: In this case, money launderers or criminals buy a controlling interest in a bank, preferably in a jurisdiction with weak money laundering controls, and then move money through the bank without scrutiny.
• Casinos: In this method, an individual walks into a casino and buys chips with illicit cash.
• Other gambling: Money is spent on gambling, preferably on high odds games.
• Black salaries: A company may have unregistered employees without written contracts and pay them cash salaries. Dirty money might be used to pay them.
• Transaction Laundering: When a merchant unknowingly processes illicit credit card transactions for another business.

Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA-2020)

Why in NEWS ?

• Vice President of India Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu virtually announced ARIIA-2020 (Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements).

About ARIIA

• ARIIA is an initiative of Ministry of HRD, implemented by AICTE and Ministry’s Innovation Cell, Government of India to systematically rank higher education institutions and universities in India on indicators related to Innovation, Startup and Entrepreneurship Development amongst students and faculty.
• ARIIA focuses on quality and quantity of innovations coming out of the education institutes and measures the real impact created by these innovations nationally and internationally.
• ARIIA 2020 will have six Prize categories which also includes special category for women only higher educational institutions to encourage women and bringing gender parity in the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship.
• The other five categories are-

1. Centrally Funded Institutions
2. State funded universities
3. State funded autonomous institutions
4. Private/Deemed Universities and
5. Private Institutions

• ARIIA will set tone and direction for institutions for future development and making them globally competitive and in forefront of innovation.
• ARIIA ranking will certainly inspire Indian institutions to reorient their mind-set and build an ecosystem to encourage high quality research, innovation and entrepreneurship in India.

Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge

Why in NEWS ?

• Union Ministry of Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, launched "Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge" to provide impetus to start-up ecosystem.
• This challenge was launched by Union Minister of Law and Justice, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Aim

• This initiative is aimed at not only meeting India’s future requirements of strategic and industrial sectors but also has the potential to mitigate the issues of security, licensing, technology obsolescence, and most crucially, cutting dependency on imports.

What are Microprocessors ?

• Microprocessors are brain of all computing and electronic devices and are used to operate larger high-speed systems and supercomputers.

About the Challenge

• The challenge will be open to students at all levels and start-ups, and it demands contestants to not only tinker with these Swadeshi Processor IPs and facilitate them with innovating the frugal solutions for societal needs, but also make available the entire home-grown ecosystem around Swadeshi Processors to develop the complex designs for catering to both global and domestic requirements in near future.
• According to the ministry, the design, development and fabrication of these state-of-the-art processor variants at foundry in the country and abroad, is a successful step to reaching to ultimate goal of vibrant ecosystem of Electronic System Design and manufacturing in the country.
• The participants in this challenge will receive various incentives which include internship opportunities and technical guidance from leading VLSI and Electronics System Design experts.
• Besides, there will be financial assistance to the tune of Rs 4.30 crore given at various stages of the challenge for developing the hardware prototype. The challenge is spread over 10 months.
• It will start on August 18, 2020 and culminate in June 2021. The top 100 semi-finalists and 25 finalists will be receiving cash award. The top 10 teams entering the final will get a seed fund of total Rs 2.30 crore and 12 months incubation support. The participants also stand a chance to facilitate their ideas onto the marketplace.