Daily Current affairs UPSC/IAS Exams – 14th May 2019

DNA database coming up for Indian rhino

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: The Environment Ministry has embarked on a project to create DNA profiles of all rhinos in the country.

More on the Topic:

• By 2021, the Indian rhino could be the first wild animal species in India to have all its members DNA-sequenced.
• The project’s proponents, including the World Wildlife Fund for Nature-India (WWF-India) and the Centre-funded Wildlife Institute of India (WII), said the exercise would be useful in curbing poaching and gathering evidence in wildlife crimes involving rhinos.
• There are about 2,600 rhinos in India, with over 90% of the population concentrated in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park.
• Around 60 samples of tissue have been collected so far from some rhinos living outside Kaziranga.

Indian Rhino:

• The Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), also called the greater one-horned rhinoceros and great Indian rhinoceros, is a rhinoceros native to the Indian subcontinent.
• It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, as populations are fragmented and restricted to less than 20,000 km2 (7,700 sq mi).
• Moreover, the extent and quality of the rhino’s most important habitat, alluvial grassland and riverine forest, is considered to be in decline due to human and livestock encroachment.
• The Indian rhinoceros once ranged throughout the entire stretch of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, but excessive hunting and agricultural development reduced their range drastically to 11 sites in northern India and southern Nepal. In the early 1990s, between 1,870 and 1,895 rhinos were estimated to have been alive.

Source:Hindu

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization

Topic: Important Organizations in News

In News The executive secretary of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), Lassina Zerbo, has invited India to be an observer in the CTBT.

More on the Topic:

• Being an observer would give India access to data from the IMS — a network which when complete will consist of 337 facilities (321 monitoring stations and 16 radionuclide labs) located in 89 countries.
• This system can detect even small nuclear explosions using seismology, hydroacoustics, infrasound and radionuclide technology.

About CTBT:

• The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) described as the “longest sought and hardest fought for arms control treaty in history” was opened for signature in September 1996.
• The CTBT obligates countries that sign and ratify “not to carry out any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion.”
• It provides for an extensive verification regime including an International Monitoring System (IMS) to detect nuclear explosions, a global infrastructure for satellite communications from IMS stations to an International Data Center (IDC) that processes and distributes data to State Parties, and for on-site inspections, which may be requested by any State Party to determine whether suspected cheating has occurred.
• To implement these verification arrangements, the treaty establishes a Comprehensive Test Ban Organization (CTBTO) located in Vienna.

India and CTBT:

• India’s commitment to a comprehensive ban on nuclear testing dates back to 1954 when Jawaharlal Nehru called for a “standstill agreement” whereby testing of all nuclear weapons was to be immediately suspended, pending an agreement on their complete prohibition.
• It was again at India’s initiative that the item “Suspension of Nuclear and Thermo-Nuclear Tests” was included in the agenda of the UN in 1959.
• During the course of the negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament (CD) Geneva on the CTBT, India put forward a number of proposals consistent with the mandate adopted by the CD in 1994.
• These proposals were aimed at ensuring that the CTBT would be truly comprehensive and would be part of the step-by-step process of eliminating all nuclear weapons.
• However, these proposals were regrettably ignored and instead, Article XIV on Entry. Into Force requiring India to join the treaty before it became operational was adopted in violation of basic treaty law. India was thus forced to declare its opposition to the CTBT as it emerged.

Model Mains Question: Signing comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty (ctbt) today is advantageous to India. Critically examine the statement.

Source: The Hindu

Thrissur Puram

Topic: Art and Culture

In News: Lakhs turn up for Thrissur’s Puram which held recently at Kerala.

More on the topic:

• Thrissur Pooram is an annual festival held in Kerala, India.It is held at the Vadakkunnathan Temple in Thrissur every year on the Pooram day – the day when the moon rises with the Pooram star in the Malayalam Calendar month of Medam. It is the largest and most famous of all poorams.
• Known as the festival of festivals, Thrissur Pooram has a tradition of more than 200 years. This spectacular event was started by Sakthan Thampuran, the erstwhile ruler of Kochi.
• The pooram festival mainly happens between two groups representing the geographic divisions of Paramekkavu and Thiruvambadi.
• They will compete in their respective presentations of richly caparisoned elephants, traditional orchestra called panchavadyam, the swift and rhythmic changing of brightly coloured and sequined parasols called kudamattom and the dazzling fireworks in the early morning hours are the festival highlights.

Source: The Hindu

CPI Inflation

Topic: Economy

In News: Retail inflation quickened to a six-month high of 2.92% in April, driven in large part by accelerating food and fuel inflation, according to official data.

More on the Topic:

• Consumer often directly buys from retailer. So the inflation experienced at retail shops is the actual reflection of the price rise in the country. It also shows the cost of living better.
• In India, the index which shows the inflation rate at retail level is known as Consumer Price Index (CPI).
• CPI is based on 260 commodities, but includes certain services too. There were four Consumer Price Indices covering different socio-economic groups in the economy.
• These four indices were Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW); Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPI-AL); Consumer Price Index for Rural Labourers (CPI -RL) and Consumer Price Index for Urban Non-Manual Employees (CPI-UNME).
• CPI is now using a new series on the base 2010=100 for all-India and States/UTs separately for rural, urban and combined.
• The Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation releases Consumer Price Indices (CPI). CPI is based on retail prices and this index is used to calculate the Dearness Allowance (DA) for government employees.

Source:PIB

YUVIKA 2019

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: The ISRO Young Scientist Programme YUVIKA 2019, which received an astounding response from students across the country, was inaugurated recently.

More on the Topic:

• Diverse science topics ranging from Environment science, Renewable Energy, Astronomy, Rocket engineering, Space applications as well soft skill improvement modules such as team work, communication, leadership etc. have been selected as part of two week course curriculum.
• Students will also get to personally visit ISRO laboratories and interact with senior ISRO scientists. What is all the more exciting is that students will also visit the launch pad and integration facilities at SDSC, SHAR to understand space port operations.
• The Young Scientist Programme will be conducted across 4 centres of ISRO, which includes the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Space Application Centre and Bangalore.
• This year, 3 students from each State or Union Territory have been selected to participate in this programme covering CBSE, ICSE and State syllabus.
• The selection of the students is based on their performance in the 8th Standard, which includes both academic and extracurricular activities.

Source:Hindu

MANAV: Human Atlas Initiative

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: Department of Biotechnology (DBT) working under ministry of science and technology has recently launched human tissue mapping project called MANAV: Human Atlas Initiative. It has been launched to improve understanding on human physiology.

More on the Topic:

• Objective of this initiative is to map every single tissue of human body to find out deepest information and roles of tissues and cells linked to a variety of ailments.
• This project is funded by Department of Biotechnology (DBT) that would make a database network of all human body tissues. Those students part of this project will be trained and instructed with skills to perform annotation.
• Through physiological and molecular mapping this programme involve in getting better biological insights, develop disease models through predictive computing and have a holistic examination and at last drug discovery.
• The project can be signed up by students who are in their final year of graduation and above. Students of various streams like biochemistry, systems biologists, pharmacologists, zoology,, biotechnology, botany, microbiology, bioinformatics, health sciences, and data sciences can associate with this project.
• Those students can also join who doesn’t have science background or not involved in active scientific research.

The Hindu

FCRA license

Topic: Economy

In News: The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) registration of Bengaluru-based NGO Infosys Foundation has been cancelled by the Home Ministry recently.

More on the Topic:

• As per the FCRA Act 2010, all NGOs are required to be registered under the Act to receive foreign funding, and also have to furnish the same.
• An FCRA applicant can be a Trust or Society or a Section 8 Company.
• The not-for-profit entity must have also been in existence for a minimum of 3 years while making the FCRA application.
• It should not have received any foreign contribution prior to that without the Government’s approval.
• Organisations have to submit their annual return to the government within 9 months from the closure of the previous financial year.

Source: The Hindu