National Current Affairs – UPSC/KAS Exams- 31st December 2018
Maharaja Suheldev
Topic: History
IN NEWS: Prime minister has released a commemorative postage stamp on Maharaja Suheldev.
More on the Topic:
- Suhaldev is a semi-legendary Indian king from Shravasti, who is said to have defeated and killed the Ghaznavid general Ghazi Saiyyad Salar Masud at Bahraich, in the early 11th century.
- Since the 20th century, various nationalist groups have characterized him as a king who defeated
- He is mentioned in Mirat-i-Masudi, a 17th-century Persian-language historical romance. It is a historical romance,and a biography of Salar Masud, with a “gossipy feel”. It was written by Abd-ur-Rahman Chishti during the reign of the Mughal emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-1627)
Source: The Hindu
Internatinal Rice Research Institute
Topic: International Relations
IN NEWS: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated the International Rice Research Institute’s South Asia Regional Centre (ISARC) campus in Varanasi. The centre will serve as a hub for rice research and training in South Asia.
More on the Topic:
- The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is an international agricultural research and training organization with headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna in the Philippines and offices in seventeen countries.
- IRRI is known for its work in developing rice varieties that contributed to the Green Revolution in the 1960s which pre-empted the famine in Asia.
- The Institute, established in 1960 aims to reduce poverty and hunger, improve the health of rice farmers and consumers, and ensure environmental sustainability of rice farming.
- It advances its mission through collaborative research, partnerships, and the strengthening of the national agricultural research and extension systems of the countries IRRI works in.
- IRRI is one of 15 agricultural research centers in the world that form the CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers, a global partnership of organizations engaged in research on food security. It is also the largest non-profit agricultural research center in Asia.
Source:The Hindu
Mahila Police Volunteer Initiative
Topic: Government Policies
In news: Ministry of Women and Child Development in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs has envisaged engagement of Mahila Police Volunteers (MPVs) in the States/UTs who will act as a link between police and community and help women in distress.
More on the Topic:
- All Chief Secretaries of States/UTs were requested to adopt this initiative in their respective States.
- Haryana is the first state to adopt the initiative at Karnal and Mahindergarh District on a pilot basis under Nirbhaya Fund during the financial year 2016-2017.
- Further, the proposals of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh have also been approved for implementation of MPVs.
- Under the scheme, the Mahila Police volunteer is required to mobilize community to form Mahila and ShishuRakshak Dals (MASRD) to act as community watch groups.
Source: PIB
Microfactory
Topic: Environment and Ecology
In news: The world’s first e-waste microfactory went live in April 2018 on the campus of University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney in Australia, heralding a new era in waste recycling. The factory can convert waste into quality finished products. The project was started 10 years ago by Mumbai-born Scientist.
More on the Topic:
- With this technology one can recycle waste plastics and make all kinds of innovative products.
- Apart from plastics e waste,waste glasses, furniture and textiles can also be recycled. For example, acoustic panels to help reduce noise pollution. Instead of painting, you put acoustic panels on the wall, and you have your silent zone.
- A microfactory operates on a much smaller scale vi-as-vis large factories. So, the modules are very small.
- Why microfactory is economically viable is that it reduces the need for transport, and uses locally available waste material. Here, one can customise the operating parameters to change things very quickly and deliver different types of products depending upon the market need.
Source: The Hindu
Robust GDP growth to continue: CII
Topic: Indian Economy
In News: According to the Confederation of Indian Industry India will continue to be the fastest-growing major economy, with robust GDP growth expected to continue through 2019.
Favourable Factors:
- Better demand conditions, settled GST implementation, capacity expansion resulting from growing investments in infrastructure and continuing positive effects of the reform policies undertaken and improved credit offtake especially in services sector at 24% will sustain the robust GDP growth in the range of 7.5% in 2019.
What need to be encouraged:
- CII has identified seven key drivers of growth that need to be encouraged in 2019, including lowering the number of GST rate slabs, bolstering the insolvency and bankruptcy framework, simplifying business procedures, and improving agricultural productivity, among others.
- The government should continue to place high priority on simplifying business procedures in 2019, especially in terms of working with the States for grassroots improvements.
- It is important to persuade States to implement the Agriculture Produce and Livestock Marketing Model Act, which has been implemented in just four States, to strengthen agriculture produce marketing.
- RBI should look at revisiting lending restrictions of banks placed under Prompt Corrective Action, and the opening of a limited Special Liquidity Window to meet emergencies of financial institutions.
Source:PIB
New Names for Three Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Topic: Miscellaneous
In news: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced renaming of three islands of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago as a tribute to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
More on the Topic:
- The Ross Island was renamed Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Dweep, the Neil Island as Shaheed Dweep and the Havelock Island as Swaraj Dweep.
- The three islands are major tourist spots.
About Azad Hind Movement:
- On 21 October 1943, Subhas Bose, who was now popularly known as Netaji, proclaimed the formation of the provisional government of independent India (Azad Hind) in Singapore.
- Netaji went to the Andaman which had been occupied by the Japanese and hoisted there the flag of India.
- In early 1944, three units of the Azad Hind Fauj (INA) took part in the attack on the north-eastern parts of India to oust the British from India.
- According to Shah Nawaz Khan, one of the most prominent officers of the Azad Hind Fauj, the soldiers who had entered India laid themselves flat on the ground and passionately kissed the sacred soil of their motherland. However, the attempt to liberate India by the Azad Hind Fauj failed.
- The Azad Hind Fauj, with the slogan of ‘Delhi Chalo’ and the salutation Jai Hind was a source of inspiration to Indians, inside and outside the country.
- Netaji rallied together the Indians of all religions and regions, living in south-east Asia, for the cause of India’s freedom.
Source: The Hindu
M-Stripe
Topic: Environment and Ecology
In news: M-Stripe app helped to catch poachers at Katarniaghat wildlife sanctuary.
More on the Topic:
- The GPS-enabled M-Stripe, which stands for Monitoring System For Tigers-Intensive Protection and Ecological Status, allows patrol teams to keep a better tab on suspicious activity while also mapping their own patrolling, location, routes and timings for better accountability.
- It is a software-based monitoring system launched across Indian tiger reserves by the Indian government’s National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in 2010.
- The system’s objective is to strengthen patrolling and surveillance of the Endangered Bengal tiger. Forest guards in tiger reserves are equipped with personal digital assistants and GPS devices to capture data relating to tiger sightings, deaths, wild life crime and ecological observations while patrolling.
- The software system maps the patrol routes of forest guards, and the resulting data are then analyzed in a geographic information system. This is intended to enhance the effectiveness and spatial coverage of patrols.
- Additional target outcomes are the evaluation of human pressure and ongoing monitoring of habitat change.
- The android-based software will be used across all national Tiger reserves of the country.
Source: The Hindu
Complaint boxes in Bengal schools to combat trafficking
Topic: Social Justice
In news: More than a hundred schools in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district have installed boxes on their premises under the Swayangsiddha scheme, which encourages girls to report stalking or harassment faced either by them or anyone known to them.
More on the Topic:
- These boxes have opened a new channel of communication for girls in the authorities have received several complaints of stalking and have involved locals as well as the police to ensure that girls do not face any problem coming to school.
- Swayangsiddha means self-reliance and one of the important aims of the scheme is to make girls aware so that they are able to make informed choices.
Equatorial Geophysical Research Laboratory
Topic: Science and Technology
In news: Equatorial Geophysical Research Laboratory has been monitoring the Earth’s near-space environment for over 25 years.
More on the Topic:
- Located at a distance of 11 km from Tirunelveli, EGRL, spread over an area of more than 35 acres, is a regional centre of the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG), Mumbai.
- A multi-disciplinary centre with instruments to measure the Earth’s magnetic field variations and various atmospheric parameters, the facility has been continuously monitoring the Earth’s near-space environment for over 25 years now.
- Like the surface winds that we are familiar with, winds in the upper atmosphere too are highly variable. Understanding what causes those variable winds has been a primary focus of study at EGRL.
- Lower atmospheric disturbances like severe weather events can have their signatures in the upper atmosphere, too. Scientists are trying to establish the teleconnection between distant regions of the atmosphere and their impact on regions up to 100 km height and beyond.
- Another major experimental facility recently set up at EGRL is meant to monitor secondary cosmic rays. When the cosmic rays — from supernovae, colliding galaxies and spinning black holes — enter the Earth’s atmosphere, they lose their energies through collisions with our atmospheric molecules and produce a cascade of subatomic particles known as secondary cosmic rays.
- Besides the magnetometer network in Indian landmass, IIG routinely operates magnetometers in the Indian stations in Antarctica, namely, Maitri and Bharati.
Why Thirunelveli?
- Tirunelveli is in close proximity to both the geomagnetic and geographic equator. When experimental activities at the centre first commenced in 1991, the geomagnetic equator passed right through the city.
- When winds blow, electric currents are expected to be produced in the electrically charged upper layers of the atmosphere across the geomagnetic field.
- Over Tirunelveli and the adjoining regions, where the geomagnetic field is horizontal the current flowing primarily in the east–west direction would be enhanced. Scientists call this current ‘Equatorial Electrojet’ and probing this helps scientists understand the Sun–Earth connection.
Significance:
- Monitoring the electromagnetic signatures simultaneously from Indian continental landmass and the Antarctic enables the scientists to understand the hidden teleconnections between the polar and equatorial regions.
- Moreover, such studies throw light on space weather, a scientific and technological domain affecting the very many man-made satellites orbiting the Earth and the instruments on board used for a variety of purposes.
Source: The Hindu
