Current Affairs for 17 April 2026
Urban Challenge Fund
- Scheme Type: Centrally Sponsored Scheme
- Fund Allocation: 1 Lakh crore (this will facilitates a total investment of ₹4 lakh crore in next five years)
- Funding pattern:
- 25% of the project cost will be provided through the fund.
- At least 50% must be mobilised from market sources, ensuring private participation.
- The remaining 25% can be contributed by States/UTs/ULBs or raised from the market.
- Focus areas: Creative development of cities’, Cities as growth hubs’, and Water and sanitation’.
About Chiru
- Scientific name: Pantholops hodgsonii.
- Habitat: Average annual temperature is below freezing like Tibetan plateau and in the Xinjiang and Qinghai provinces of western China.
- The population of chiru in India are migratory.
- There have been many attempts to breed the chiru with no success.
- Conservation status:
- WPA, 1972: Schedule I and IV.
- CITES: Appendix I.
- IUCN Red List: Near Threatened.
- Threat: Illegal poaching, loss of habitat, harsh natural environment they live in.
Labour codes and associate key issues
- Code on Wages, 2019 : Sets minimum wages to all workers.
- Too low wage can cause wage suppression. Eg. Noida protests or job cuts.
- Code on Social Security, 2020 : Expands Social security to unorganized workers, defines Gig workers etc.
- Lack of Universal Coverage: Due to size thresholds for coverage. Eg. 20 for EPFO and 10 for ESIC
- Issues Faced by GIG workers
- Opaque algorithms: Ratings, pay without transparency, limiting workers’ ability to challenge penalties or changes.
- Precarious Earnings which do not account for fuel costs, or loss of incentive for rejected order.
- Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020: Improves workplace safety, health, and working conditions
- Disproportionate burden: Small/Medium enterprises face heavier compliance burdens than large firms, offsetting gains.
- Industrial Relations Code, 2020: Regulates Unions, disputes, employment conditions.
- Dwarf Firms: Threshold-based rules incentivise firms to stay small, reducing productivity e.g. minimum 300 workers needed for prior government approval for layoff, retrenchment or closure.
- Weak enforcement: Informal sector comprises more than 90% of workforce where these codes are hardest to monitor.
Semaglutide
- Classification: Belongs to a class of medications known as GLP-1 receptor agonists (Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists).
- They mimic natural GLP-1 hormone, helping regulate blood sugar levels and appetite.
- Treatment: Used for treatment of Type 2 Diabetes, Weight loss, Kidney and cardiovascular diseases.
- Administration: Can be injected or taken as tablet
- Brand Name: Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus
Red Sea
- It is a fiord type marginal sea.
- A fjord is a long, deep, narrow body of water that reaches far inland.
- It is connected to the Gulf of Aden via Strait of Bab El Mandeb and to the Mediterranean sea via Suez Canal.
- Bordering Nations: Egypt ,Sudan and Eritrea (West), Israel & Jordan (North East) via the gulf of Aqaba and Saudi Arabia & Yemen (East).
- It receives very little precipitation and no water enters the Red Sea from rivers.