Current Affairs 12th-14th August 2019
Important Current Affairs
Current Affairs 12th-14th August 2019
World elephant day celebrated on August 12
World Elephant Day is celebrated to create awareness and bring attention to the urgent plight (dangerous situation) of Asian and African elephants. The day was first launched on August 12, 2012.
Human activities like poaching, human-elephant conflict, and mistreatment in captivity have become a great threat to both African and Asian elephants’ survival.
The African elephants are listed as ‘vulnerable’ and Asian elephants are listed as ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) red list of threatened species.
Singapore announced on World elephant day that ivory sales will be banned from the country from 2021.
The announcement followed two years of consultation with non-Government groups, ivory retailers and the public.
Significance
Last month, the authorities seized their largest ivory ever weighing 9tonnes of contraband tusks from 300 African elephants valued at $12.9 million which was discovered in a container from the Democratic Republic of Congo being shipped to Vietnam via Singapore. It also included pangolin scales in the huge stash. All forms of ivory products are banned since 1990. Traders can, however, sell ivory only if they prove that the ivories they sell were acquired prior to the ban by the govt. The national parks in Singapore ban elephant ivory and products with effect from September 1, 2021.
International Youth Day was observed on 12 August
The International Youth Day was observed on 12 August 2019. The day is observed every year. The Day was first instituted by UN General Assembly in 1999. The day celebrates the role of young women and men as essential partners in change. The days aims to create opportunities for the youth to raise awareness of challenges and problems facing the world’s youth.
2019 theme:
The theme of the day was Transforming education. The day highlights efforts to make education more inclusive and accessible for all youth, including efforts by youth themselves. Goal 4 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
A UN report said that among the 1.8 billion young people (aged between 10 and 24) in the world, more than half of all children (aged 6-14) lack basic reading and math skills. This threatens the progress towards the SDGs. Therefore, on this day, the United Nation tried to put an emphasis on making education more relevant to everyday problems so that the youth will be more involved in the process.
In India:
The Indian government also ensured that young minds explore and tap their full potential. On this day, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports conferred the National Youth Awards on individuals and organisations. The award was distributed by Minister for Youth Affairs & Sports Shri Kiren Rijiju. The award was conferred upon 20 individuals and 3 organizations.
The award comprises of:
♦ For individual:
A medal, a certificate and a cash prize of Rs.50,000.
♦ For youth organization:
A cash prize of Rs.2,00,000, a medal and a certificate.
The award recognizes the excellent work and contribution of youth in the fields of development and social service, such as health, promotion of human rights, active citizenship, community service, etc. It also motivates the young persons, aged between 15-29 years, to achieve excellence in the field of national development and social service. It also recognizes the outstanding work done by voluntary organizations working with the youth for national development including social service.
Photo Exhibition: The Ministry also conducted a Photo Exhibition on China through Eyes of Indian Youth - 2019. The photos taken by youth delegates who participated in the recent Youth Exchange Program to China were exposed in the exhibition.
RPF launched Operation Number Plate
Railway Protection Force (RPF) of Indian Railways launched Operation “Number Plate”, a Special Drive to curb unidentified vehicles. The operation was launched under the direction of DG/RPF, Sh. Arun Kumar. All Local Police and Commercial Department of Railways showed their active interest in the operation.
Aim:
The unidentified vehicles pose a serious threat to the security and safety of passengers and other stakeholders of the railway.
RPF will identify and verify all vehicles parked in Railway premises, circulating area, parking and even in the No Parking areas for a longer duration.
The drive was conducted from 9th August to 11th August at 466 Railway Stations all over Indian Railways. A penalty of Rs.59000 have been recovered as the charges for unauthorized parking and 549 vehicles were towed away.
All RPF and Zonal Railways were instructed to continue the activity looking into threats related to the security of Railways.
MoHUA launched Swachh Survekshan 2020
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched the Swachh Survekshan 2020 on 13th August. It is the fifth edition of the annual cleanliness survey conducted by the Ministry. The scheme was launched by Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, the Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs.
Swachh Survekshan 2020:
The project Swachh Survekshan 2020 focus on sustaining and monitoring the ground and service level performance on cleanliness. The redesigned Swachh Survekshan will ensure and focus on sustaining the changed behaviors on key areas.
The project focuses on key areas such as:
♦ Collect segregated waste and maintain till processing site
♦ Utilize capacity Of wet waste processing facilities
♦ Treat aid re-use wastewater
♦ Follow 3R Principles: Reduce. Reuse and Recycle
♦ Curtail solid waste based Air pollution
♦ Uplift social condition of informal Waste Pickers
♦ Promote procurement through GeM
♦ Assess Ganga Towns separately to accelerate action
♦ Engage Technology-driven Monitoring
Other launches:
The Ministry also launched Swachh Survekshan 2020 Toolkit, SBM Water plus Protocol and Toolkit, Swachh Nagar Mobile App and AI-enabled mSBM App.
Swachh Survekshan 2020 Toolkit contains the detailed survey methodology and component indicators with scores. It aims to help the cities to prepare themselves for the final survey which will be released on January 2020.
SBM Water plus Protocol and Toolkit aims to ensure that no untreated wastewater is released into the environment thereby enabling the sustainability of the sanitation value chain.
Swachh Nagar Mobile App has features to track waste collection by ULBs through route and vehicle monitoring, notify citizens, an online collection of user fee for waste collection and an effective grievance redressal mechanism
AI-enabled mSBM App is a mobile application developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). It will help the beneficiary to get approval from the ULB nodal officer to verify and approve the application. It will reduce the processing time for applicants.
Kajin Sara lake has set a new record of being the worlds highest lake
Mountaineers discovered the Kajin Sara lake in Manang district of Nepal a few months ago. This lake in Nepal has set a new record of being the world's highest lake and replaced Tilicho Lake of Nepal.
Kajin Sara lake:
Kajin Sara lake is situated at an altitude of 4,919 meters in the Himalayan nation. It is located at Singarkharka area of Chame rural municipality. The measurement of the lake which is located at an altitude of 5,200 meters, is estimated to be 1,500 meters (1.5 km) long and 600 meters wide. The water of the Kajin’s lake is formed out mainly by melting waters from Himalaya.
Tilicho lake:
Tilicho lake is the current world’s largest lake situated at an altitude of 4,919 meters it is 4 km long and 1.2 km wide and around 200 meters deep in Nepal.
Nepal:
Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia. Nepal is the 48th largest country for the population. The capital of Nepal is Kathmandu. The President of Nepal is Bidhya Devi Bhandari. The current Prime Minister of Nepal is KP Sharma Oli. The Currency is Nepalese rupee. Nepal's official language is Nepali.
Researchers found the stunning supermassive black hole ever
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute, Germany have found the largest black hole ever. It was named Holmberg 15A. The researchers are to further continue studying the massive black hole and will conduct more complex and detailed modeling surrounding it. The study will help them figure out how exactly these black holes are formed and how many such massive black holes are yet to be discovered.
Holmberg 15A:
The black hole was observed at the center of Holm 15A, the central galaxy of Abell 85 which is about 700 million light-years away. The radius of the black hole is about radius is about 790 Astronomical unit (AU).
Holm 15A is more than twice as large as the previously observed record-setter at 40 billion times the mass of the Sun, and 10,000 times the mass of the black hole at the core of the Milky Way. The black hole was spotted by using data from the Very Large Telescope array.
Astronomical Unit:
An Astronomical Unit (AU) is a unit of length, roughly equal to 150 million kilometers, that is used to measure the average distance between Earth and the Sun. AUs are generally used to measure distances within our Solar System.
UP govt creates a world record by planting over 22 crore saplings in one day on 77th anniversary of the Quit India Movement
Uttar Pradesh(UP) chief minister(CM) Yogi Adityanath launched the mega greenery plantation drive called “Vriksharopan Mahakumbh” sets a world record by planting over 22 crore saplings in a day.
The state entered the Guinness World Records’ for distributing 76,823 saplings simultaneously in six hours across the state. The first record made for planting Five crore saplings in the first hour i.e. from 9 am to 10 am. The 2nd record was made for planting 1.1 lakh saplings in Kasganj in presence of UP governor, Anandi Ben Patel. The 3rd record was made in Prayagraj for distribution of a record of 66,000 saplings at the same place in a certain time frame and the 4th record was made for planting 22 crore saplings in a day. The state announced to plant 25 crore saplings in the Van Mahotsav in 2020. Adityanath unveiled the logo of ‘Vriksharopan Mahakumbh’ and handed saplings of ‘Sahjan’ (Drumstick) to 5 rural women. The CM launched the drive by planting Harishankari, a combination of three sacred trees (peepul, pakar and banyan) at Jaitikheda area in Lucknow.
Indian Army launches 'Mission Reach Out' in Jammu and Kashmir
The Indian Army launched "Mission Reach Out" in Jammu to ensure basic necessities and essential services are available in the region post the abrogation of the provisions of Article 370 and reorganization of Jammu and Kashmir.
A high level "Mission Reach Out" conference to review the prevalent situation in the region. This was held in the Nagrota Military Station chaired by White Knight Corps Commander Lt Gen Paramjit Singh.
The Corps commander lauded the absolute synergy between the Army, civil administration and other security establishments in maintaining peace, harmony and a conducive environment, the officials said.
It was attended by Jammu Divisional Commissioner Sanjeev Verma, members of the civil administration, representatives of the J&K Police, CRPF, BSF, and intelligence agencies. The prevailing security scenario and preparedness of security agencies and civil administration were discussed during the conference. It emerged during the conference that the situation in the Jammu region had been peaceful with no untoward incident taking place post the revocation of Article 370 on the 5th of August.
The Corps commander informed about the numerous initiatives undertaken by the Army under 'Mission Reach Out'.
These are mobile medical care units with essential medicines and lady medical officers, wherever necessary, providing water in locations where the supply was disrupted, provision of essentials, including rations, assistance in transportation of patients to hospitals, facilitating people to speak to their near and dear ones through Army exchange and creating a safe environment for ATMs, banks and hospitals to function, the spokesperson said.
During the conference, the divisional commissioner assured of adequate availability of all basic necessities and essential services to meet the requirements of the people. He further informed that due to normalcy in the region, the general public had requested for the opening of schools and educational institutes, which was agreed upon and schools in the city were opened from 10 August.
Shri Venkaiah Naidu inaugurates Mukhyamantri Krishi Ashirwad Yojana
Vice President Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated a scheme Mukhyamantri Krishi Ashirwad Yojana for the farmers having farmlands of less than 1 acre to 5 acres will be provided by Rs5,000-25,000. The launching ceremony was held in 23 districts apart from Ranchi. The benefit of the scheme is about 3000 crores will be sent to the account of 35 lakh farmers. The government has promised the farmers to double their income by 2020. As soon Mukhyamantri Krishi Ashirwad Yojana will launch and the amount will transfer to the beneficiary accounts. The state government will spend an amount of 2250 crores for increasing the income of farmers
About money Distribution
The Department of Agriculture has many percentages of schemes of money distribution based on land acres. The farmers having land of 1acre will have 5000 rupees. The farmers having land of 2acre will have 10,000 rupees
The farmers having land of 3 acres will have 15,000rupees. The farmers having land of 4 acres will have 20,000 rupees. The farmers having land of 5 acres will have 25,000rupees
Chandrima Shaha to be the first woman president of INSA
Biologist Chandrima Shaha will become the first woman to head the Indian National Science Academy (INSA). She previously the vice-president of INSA and the director of the National Institute of Immunology in Delhi.
She will prioritize communicating science “aggressively” and combat pseudoscience. She and the elected council of 30 members will take charge on January 1, 2020. Shaha was a cricketer and also worked as a commentator for All India Radio. Shaha’s research focused on understanding cell death pathways. Her laboratory has worked on finding the precise mechanisms of cell death and how this process is regulated by “diverse signaling pathways” in unicellular (Leishmania parasite) and multicellular (cancer cells) models. The main aim is to provide a deeper understanding of cell death events that can help in the development of improved therapeutics for diseases associated with anomalous cell death. The Indian Science Congress come under fire after prominent scientists have suggested that events mentioned in Indian mythological texts have scientific explanations. Several politicians have also made pseudo-scientific claims in the past.
Vice President book Listening, Learning and Leading released
Vice President Shri Venkaiah Naidu released a book titled “Listening, Learning and Leading” of his two years in office. The abrogation of Article 370 should not be considered as a political issue in the interest of the security of the nation and the future of people of Jammu and Kashmir. The Book “Listening, Learning and Leading” released by Union Minister of Home Affairs Shri Amit Shah. Vice President Shri Venkaiah Naidu received the first copy.
The event was hosted by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu’s popular alliteration and witty remarks, created a cordial atmosphere in the Rajya Sabha. A part of the book release, Regional Outreach Bureau, Chennai organized a photo exhibition highlighting the journey of the Vice President from a student leader. Shri. Venkaiah Naidu’s interaction with a cross-section of society, meeting with world leaders and visits to Universities, Research institutions were also pictured.