Wednesday, March 22, 2017

CURRENT AFFAIRS REVISION FOR UPSC PRELIMINARY EXAM- 2017 (JULY-PART-2)



1.OIL DEGRADING BACTERIA TO UNDERGO FIELD TRIALS:

·         The Malabar Botanical Garden and Institute of Plant Sciences, Kozhikode, has joined hands with Bharat Petroleum Corporation  Limited (BPCL) for field trials to establish the oil-degrading properties of three new strains of bacteria.
·         The key hydrocarbon-degrading enzyme produced by the bacteria has been isolated and purified and laboratory tests have been successful.
·         This active enzyme (Catechol 2, 3- dioxygenase) produced from three new strains of oil-degrading bacteria (two species of  Burkholderia and one species of Pseudomonas) is going to be used in pilot plant in Kochi.

2.KERALA BIRD ATLAS PROJECT:

·         To map the distribution and abundance of birds of an entire Indian state.
·         This is the first time in India that birds in an entire state are being mapped. The only similar effort was in Mysore city few years back.
·         Kerala has the distinction of having six bird monitoring schemes, which includes recording common birds, heronries, water birds, pelagic (sea) birds, and forest birds.
·         The project has begun in Wayanad district.

3.GREEN HIGHWAYS POLICY:

·         The government recently launched the initial plantation drive on 1,500 km of National Highways at a cost of about Rs 300 crore under the National Green Highways Mission.
·         The Union government had last year launched Green Highways (Plantation, Transplantation, Beautification and Maintenance)  Policy 2015.
·         The policy aims to take care of the ecological needs, help the environment and local communities, and generate employment by planting trees along all the highways in the country.

·         Features:
·         Financing: 1% of the total project cost (TPC) of National Highways will be kept aside in a Green Highways Fund to be used for plantation and its maintenance.
·         Strict auditing: Release of money to the empanelled agencies only if they have achieved a survival rate of 90% in the previous year.
·         The implementation and progress of plantation will be monitored via images by ISRO and audit will involve modern IT tools  Contracts will be given to NGOs, private cos. and govt. organisations with proven track record.

4.GREEN CORRIDOR PROJECT:

·         A project for evacuation of renewable energy from generation points to the load centres by creating intra-state and inter-state  transmission infrastructure.
·         The intra-state transmission component of the project is being implemented by the respective states and the Power Grid  Corporation of India (PGCIL) is implementing inter-state component.
·         It is being implemented in two parts:
·         Power Grid is setting up the first corridor connecting states rich in renewable energy.
·         A second corridor would connect the solar parks in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
·         The present renewable capacity of the country is 40,000 MW. The Grid can handle 30,000 MW. An additional system for 10,000  MW would be issued by September of this year.

5.THREE INDIAN SITES GETS INTO WORLD HERITAGE LIST:

·         World Heritage site:
·         A World Heritage Site is place (such as a building, city, complex, desert, forest, island, lake, monument, or mountain) as notified  by UNESCO for having cultural or physical significance.
·         Convention Concerning the Protection of the World's Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted by UNESCO in 1972.
·         Heritage Sites in India:
·         Now, there are a total of 35 World Heritage Sites in India. Out of which, 27 are cultural, 7 natural and 1 mixed site.
·         The sites include Chandigarh’s magnificent Capitol Complex, Mt Khangchendzonga, and the archaeological site at Nalanda  Mahavihara (Nalanda University) in Bihar.
·         This is also the first time that India got a mixed site notified as heritage site. A mixed site is the one which exhibits qualities of both natural and cultural significance.
·         It is also the first time that any country has got three sites named as World Heritage Sites in a single session.
1.Khangchendzonga National Park (KNP), Sikkim (Kanchenjunga Biosphere Reserve)
·         It is the first and only mixed site in India to be notified as World Heritage Site.
·         It has been notified as a mixed site due to its ecological significance along with the religious and cultural practices of buddhism.

2.Chandigarh’s Capitol Complex
·         The Capitol Complex includes three buildings, three monuments and lake.
·         It was designed by French architect Le Corbusier in the 1950s.
·         This complex is part of 17 works of Le Corbusier spread across 7 countries including France and India, that have been included together in the list under a single entry.
·         The Capitol Complex comprises of the Legislative Assembly, Secretariat, High Court, Open Hand Monument, Geometric Hill and Tower of Shadows.
·         He was Swiss-French architect and urban planner, and is known as one of the pioneers of modern architecture.
·         He is known for “five points for modern Architecture” and was called a functionalist and rationalist.

3.Nalanda Mahavihara (Nalanda University), Bihar
·         It is the most ancient university of the Indian subcontinent.
·         It engaged in organized transmission of knowledge over an uninterrupted period of 800 years.
·         It comprises the archaeological remains of a monastic and scholastic institution dating from around 3rd century BC to 13th century BC.
·         It includes stupas, shrines, viharas and important art works in stucco, stone and metal.

6.RAILWAY MINISTER SURESH PRABHU LAUNCHED NIVARAN PORTAL FOR EMPLOYEES’ GRIEVANCES REDRESSAL :

·         Railway Minister proactively launched NIVARAN Portal, an online system for redressal of matters related to grievances of currently serving and former railway employees.

7.MY SPEED APP – AN OFFICIAL INTERNET SPEED CHECK APP BY TRAI:

·         The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI) has launched its official internetspeed test app called MySpeed.
·         TRAI’s My Speed App is free and measures the download and upload speed of your internet connection, for both Wi-Fi and Cellular connectivity.
·         It will also gives real time data from customers and show the mobile data speed of eachoperator in a given area on real time basis.

8.LTV VISAS FOR MINORITY COMMUNITY DIASPORA:

·         As a result of Government’s steps during the last 2 years to facilitate the stay of persons belonging to minority communities of some countries, The Union Cabinet Ministry approved the extension of facilities to people from Minority communities of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, namely Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians staying on Long Term Visa (LTV) in India.
·         This approval is aimed at the following steps :-
·         Now they can open bank account.
·         Permitting them to purchase property for self-occupation and employment.
·         Permitting to employee themselves in several occupations.
·         Now they can apply for driving license, PAN (Permanent Account Number) card and Aadhar card.
·         Allowing them for free movement within the state or union territory where they are staying.
·         They can seek transfer of LTV from one state to other.
·         Waiving the penalty on non-extension of short term visa or LTV.
·         They can apply for LTV from their present place of residence in case they have moved to that place without permission.

9.TRI-NETRA IS SET TO BE ROLLED ON FLOORS FOR EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT :

·         Indian Railway Ministry has originated an offer to introduce TRI-NETRA systems on locomotives in order to enhance the vision of  Locomotive Pilots in merciless weather conditions.
·         TRI-NETRA stands for Terrain Imaging for Diesel Drivers Infra-red, Enhanced Optical and Radar Assisted System.
·         Being forefront runner India has introduced this scheme in order to help the train pilots to steer in bad weather conditions, in averting train collisions and Preventing derailment and accidents on unmanned railway crossings.

10.MOTOR BIKE RALLY “RIDE 4 ACCESSIBILITY” FOR ACCESSIBLE INDIA CAMPAIGN ORGANIZED IN NEW DELHI :

·         Newly Renamed Divyangjan (Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities) organised a Motorcycle Rally named Ride 4 Accessibility was hit the road in Delhi.
·         The Rally was flagged off by Shri Prakash JavadekarUnion Minister- Human Resource Development and Science & Technology Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan.
·         The event saw a participation of more than 500 young men and women motorcycle riders.

11.GOVERNMENT TO SET UP NATIONAL BANANA RESEARCH CENTRE IN BIHAR:

·         Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh announced that centre is mulling to set up National  Research Centre for Banana would at Goraul in BIHAR’s Vaishali district.
·         The land for this purpose was allotted when Jitan Ram Manjhi was the Chief Minister.
·         This announcement came while inaugurating a twoday HortiSangam-2016 organised by National Horticulture Board at Hajipur.

12.KERALA GOVT TO BAN E-CIGARETTES:

·         Newly formed LDF led Kerala government has decided to ban Electronic-Cigarettes alias ecigarette in the state keeping the studies in mind that claiming that its use can cause various health issues, including cancer and heart ailments.
·         The drugs enforcement authorities in the state observed that the device is extensively used for smoking ganja, hashish and other narcotic substance.
·         E-cigarettes are devices that emit doses of vaporised nicotine.

13.CENTRE FORMS ‘DISHA’ FOR TIMELY IMPLEMENTATION OF CENTRAL SCHEMES :

·         Union government announced the formation of District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DDCMC) to be named Disha.
·         The move comes from the government for effective development coordination of almost all the programmes form the government, be it infrastructure development or Social and human resource development.
·         The Committee would monitor the implementation of 28 schemes of Rural Development Ministry and other Ministries and will coordinate with Central and State and local Panchayat Governments, for successful implementation of the same.

14.RBI TO STUDY BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY TO CURTAIL PAPER CURRENCY :

·         India’s Central Bank “Reserve Bank of India mulling to set up a committee to study the use of Blockchain technology”.
·         It will be used to reduce the use of paper currency.
·         The Technology is made by distributed database that maintains a continuously growing list of data records secured against tampering and revision.
·         The system’s database consists of blocks that hold time-stamped batches of valid transactions which is seen as the main technical innovation of bitcoin.

15.INDIA’S FIRST SME BANK OPENED BY HDFC BANK :

·         HDFC bank launched a full-fledged digital banking service for small and medium enterprises (SME).
·         This will help the customers to utilize a complete set of services on their choice at anytime and at anywhere in India.
·         SME Bank is the second leg of the ‘Bank Aapki Mutthi Mein’ campaign that was launched for the Bank’s retail customers in December 2014 at Varanasi.

16.MEGHALAYA GOVERNOR LAUNCHED THE PRADHAN MANTRI SURAKSHIT MATRITVA ABHIYAN (PMSMA) :

·         Meghalaya Governor V.Shanmuganathan inaugurated the launch of Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) in the East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya at a programme organized by the office of the District Medical & Health Officer, East Khasi Hills District,under the aegis of the National Health Mission.
·         Addressing the concern over the high Maternal Mortality Rate in the state of Meghalaya, the Governor in his speech called upon all stake holders including the government, social and religious organizations, youth bodies and the general public to come together to ensure safe and secure delivery of children.
·         The inaugural programme was followed by a daylong Free Medical Camp for Pre-Natal and Post-Natal care which was availed by hundreds of women and children.

PMSMA:
·         PMSMA Scheme is a new initiative of the central government aimed at boosting the health care facilities for pregnant women especially the poor.
·         The scheme provides that pregnant women would be given health check-up and required treatment for free on the 9th of every month in all government hospitals and health centers across India.

17.PRADHAN MANTRI KAUSHAL VIKAS YOJANA (PMKVY):

·         Cabinet approves Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) with an outlay of Rs.12000 crore In order to impart skilling to One Crore Indian population in the next four years.
·         This scheme will impart new skills to 60 lakh people and also make certifications to 40 lakh peopleacquired under the Recognition of Prior Learning.
·         In this Scheme, the training and assessment cost will be directly given to the training providers and assessing bodies as per the common norms.
·         The financial assistance to the trainees is to be disbursed through the DBT – Direct Benefit Transfer scheme in the form of travel allowance, boarding and lodging fee.
·         At the same time, the subsidy disbursement mandates the link of Aadhar and Biometric for transparency and better transmission.
·         In a nest step of addressing the skill requirements in different states, State Governments would be involved through a project based approach under the PMKVY 2016-20 with 25% of the total training targets as both physical and financial forms.
·         General guidance, supervision and job arrangements for the trained people will be made through  Rozgar Melas (placement camps) Kaushal Shivirs (mobilization camps).
·         This target allocation between fresh training’s and RPL will be flexible and interchangeable depending on functional and operational requirements.

18.MADHAV CHITALE COMMITTEE CONSTITUTED TO PREPARE GUIDELINES FOR DESILTATION OF RIVER GANGA :

·         A committee has been constituted to gear up the guidelines for the desiltation (clearing odd the silts) of the river Ganga by the Union Ministry of Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.

19.WORLD BIGGEST AND SENSITIVE RADIO TELESCOPE “FAST” COMPLETED IN CHINA:

·         World’s largest and sensitive radio telescope, FAST (Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope) Has been installed in Pingtang county, South west China.
·         The final Installation finished on 3rd july,2016.
·         As the name indicates, it will have a diameter of 500 metres.
·         FAST will have an effective dish size of 300 m and is capable of covering the sky within ±40° from the zenith.

20.RESEARCHERS DEVELOP ELECTRONIC NOSE TO SNIFF OUT PESTICIDES AND NERVE GAS:

·         An international team of researchers led by Ivo Stassen and Rob Ameloot from KU Leuven, Belgium has developed an Electronic nose that smells pesticides and nerve gas.
·         It is a very sensitive electronic nose with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).
·         MOFs are like microscopic sponges which can absorb quite a lot of gas into their minuscule pores.
·         MOFs can measure very low concentrations, so it can be very easy to identify the diseases like lung cancer at an earlier stage.

21.DIGITAL ATTIC:

·         Digital Attic – a new masterpiece in the field of Data Storage revealed by a Scientist in Washington Scientist at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington, is working to make that sci-fi fantasy a reality.
·         The Scientist named Karin Strauss has created a digital attic — a place which stores the old data like when she published her math paper wrote in high school, and computer science schoolwork from college.
·         For long-term storage it’s typically disks or a specialized kind of tape, wound up in cartridges about three inches on a side and less than an inch thick.
·         A single cartridge containing about half a mile of tape can hold the equivalent of about 46 million books of 200 pages.

22.INS VIRAAT, NAVY’S ‘GRAND OLD LADY’, SETS SAIL FOR ONE LAST TIME:

·         India’s majestic aircraft carrier, INS Viraat aka“Grand Old Lady” of Indian Navy set sail for one last time from Mumbai to Kochi which will be decommissioned later this year (2016).
·         The 750-feet long ‘giant’ served the Indian Navy with distinction for almost three decades.
·         The second aircraft carrier of the country has spent 29 years under the Indian flag and 27 years with the Royal Navy (United Kingdom).
·         The ship holds the Guinness Record for being the oldest serving warship.

23.FIRST SQUADRON OF LCA TEJAS INDUCTED INTO INDIAN AIR FORCE:

·         The first squadron of indigenously designed and manufactured Light Combat Aircraft(LCA) Tejas was inducted into Indian Air Force (IAF).
·         The Tejas is a fourth-generation one which is lightweight, multi-role supersonic single-engine aircraft designed and developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) jointly with India’s largest defence PSU, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bengaluru.

·         Admiral Sunil Lanba Commissions Marine Commandos Unit ‘INS Karna’
Indian Navy launched a dedicated base for its Special Operation Forces – MARCOS (MarineCommandos) named INS Karna was commissioned in Visakhapatnamby Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba.
·         The first base for Indian Navy’s elite force with capability to operate in all three dimensions of warfare – air, land and sea in the homeport of the Navy on the Eastern Seaboard.
·         The MARCOS East unit has developed in terms of manpower, infrastructure, equipment holding and other resources.

24.DRDO SUCCESSFULLY TEST FIRED ATAGS – A PURE INDIGENOUS COMBAT SYSTEM:

·         DRDO successfully test fired the purely indigenous 155 mm x 52 caliber Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS), which the Indian Army is all set to get the much needed weapon for user trials by early 2017.
·         Giving the ‘Make in India’ initiative for the defense sector yet another boost, DRDO (Defense Research and Development Organization) built this 155 mm x 52 caliber Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS) in India itself.
·         The specialties of ATAGS are, the gun will have a firing range of 40 kms and boasts of advanced features such as high mobility, quick deploy ability and auxiliary power mode, advanced communication system, automatic command and control system with night firing capability in direct fire mode.

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