Current Affairs 12th - 16th September 2019
Important Current Affairs
Current Affairs 12th - 16th September 2019
Cryodrakon boreas is the largest flying animal of all time
A new species of pterosaur called Cryodrakon boreas which was recently discovered was unveiled by scientists. The previously unknown type of pterosaur was one of the largest flying animals that ever lived.
Cryo Drakon boreas, which means frozen dragon of the north wind flew over North America 77 million years ago. The plane-sized reptile had a wingspan of 32.8 feet and it weighed 250 kilograms, researchers said in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
The fossils of Cryodrakon were initially found 3 decades ago in Dinosaur Provincial Park, located in Alberta, Canada. However, scientists thought that the fossil belonged to Quetzalcoatlus.
The fossils found include legs, neck, a rib and part of the wings. The remains were of a juvenile whose wingspan was about 16.4 feet. However, the palaeontologists studied the giant neck bone of an adult to estimate that the wingspan of a fully grown Cryodrakon would be about 32.8 feet. Cryodrakon belonged to the azhdarchids family of pterosaurs which is known for having long necks.
Cryodrakon was a carnivore and ate lizards, small mammals and even baby dinosaurs.
Even though the reptile had a wing capacity to cross oceans, the fossil records show that they stayed close to the inland.
Fragmentary remains of more than 100 known species of pterosaurs have been found across North and South America, Asia, Africa and Europe.
International Day for South South Cooperation is observed on 12 September
International Day for South-South Cooperation is observed on 12 September. South-South cooperation is a broad framework where the South Countries have collaborated in various domains including political, economic, social, cultural, environmental and technical domains. The day celebrates the political, social and economical developments made by regions and countries in the south in recent years.
Aim:
South-South Cooperation works towards achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs). It aims to boost the progress towards implementing the SDGs. It raises the awareness of the efforts taken by the United Nation to work on technical cooperation among developing countries.
Theme:
The theme for the 2019 South-South Cooperation is From Commitment to Action — Follow up to Buenos Aires Plan of Action+40. It is a follow up to the Second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation (BAPA+40) was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 20-22 March 2019. The theme focuses on implementing the commitments adopted in the summit.
History:
The Day was originally observed on December 19. The day of South-South Cooperation was fully adopted by the United Nations on 12 September 2011. The day commemorates the day when the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a plan of action in 1978 to promote and implement technical cooperation among developing countries.
Scientists introduce colour changing smart skin
Scientists in the field of photonic crystals have created a flexible smart skin that can change colour like a chameleon. The colour will change in response to the environment without changing shape.
Colour changing smart skin:
The smart skin is fragile and buckles after being exposed to varying temperatures. The researchers created it by studying time-lapse videos of chameleons' phase-shifting skin. This is achieved by embedding photonic crystal arrays into flexible, water-containing polymers. The colour change was achieved by expanding or contracting the hydrogel that changed the spacing in the arrays.
Applications:
The smart skin has its applications in various applications like camouflage, signaling, and anti-counterfeiting. MIT's color-changing ink, on the other hand, let the users change the patterns and colors of their shoes, cars and more.
Chameleons:
Chameleons can change colour using the photonic crystals in its skin. When the chameleon is relaxed or tense the muscles it reflects the light in a different pattern. This result is expressed in a change of color
India joins Global Antimicrobial Research Hub
India joined the world Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Research and Development (R&D) Hub as a new member. From 2019, India will be a member of Board of Members officially. Now India will be working with all the partners under the hub. It will focus on new research to address drug-resistant infections.
Objective:
AMR is the ability of a microorganism to treat the antimicrobial resistance that continues intense round the world. India is cheap to explore problems with antimicrobial resistance through the lens of one Health approach that ought to be supported by long-run commitments from all stakeholders.
Global AMR R&D:
The Global AMR R&D Hub was launched in 2018. It was established within the margins of the 71st session of the globe Health Assembly following a decision from G20 Leaders in 2017. The acting Chairperson of the hub's Board of Members is Bersabel Ephrem.
The operation of the world AMR R&D Hub is supported through a Secretariat. The secretariat was established in Berlin. Currently, it received its grants from the German Federal Ministry of Education and analysis (BMBF) and Federal Ministry of Health (BMG).
India bags 34 medals in 10th Asia Pacific Youth Games
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju congratulated Indian contingent for excellent performance in the 10th Asian Pacific Youth Games in Vladivostok. India won total 16 gold, 13 silver and 5 bronze medals in seven different sports.
Indian Judokas to give strong performances yesterday as Mahesh Saini (66 kg), Vishal (81 kg) and Rohit (50 kg) won gold while Siddharth won silver. Yoshiki won gold in the girl’s singles while the girl's doubles team also won gold in Table Tennis. The Indian swimming team finished as the overall winners in their sport. Assam swimmer Astha Choudhury brought laurels to the State and country by winning five medals including two gold and three silver.
Astha bagged gold medals in 4×50 metre mixed freestyle and 4×50 mixed individual medley relay categories. The gold medals, Astha won silver medals in 100 metre freestyle, 200 metre freestyle and 100 metre individual medley categories.
Sports Authority of India National Cycling Academy won its first medal when Swasti Singh won the bronze medal in junior women’s 2 km individual pursuit. Kristina Titovskaya of Kazakhstan won the gold while Yanina Kuskova of Uzbekistan captured silver. Harshveer Singh had to deal with a disappointing end in the elite men’s 15 KM Scratch Race as he failed to finish on the podium. In a world-class field, the Indian finished fifth as the gold was captured by Muhammad Shaari of Malaysia.
China launches 3 satellites will help areas including disaster management and climate monitoring
China successfully launched three satellites including a resource satellite into planned orbits which will help in disaster prevention, urban construction and monitor polar regions and global climate change.
The resource satellite and two small satellites were launched on a Long March-4B carrier rocket at 11:26 am local time from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in north China's Shanxi Province.
The resource satellite ZY-1 02D is developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) and is an important part of China's space-based infrastructure.
It will provide observation data for natural resources asset management, ecological monitoring, disaster prevention and control, environmental protection, urban construction, transportation and contingency management.
ZY-1 02D will form a network with more satellites to follow. It will work in the solar synchronous orbit at 778-km above the Earth. It carries a near-infrared camera with a coverage width of 115-km.
It also carries a 166-band hyperspectral camera that can produce 166 pictures with different colour bands simultaneously. The camera can capture the reflected light information of various minerals, and be used to analyse complicated mineral compositions and distribution.
The satellite can also be used to observe chlorophyll concentration, water transparency and total suspended matter concentration in lakes to help monitor the environment and prevent water pollution.
One of the two small satellites launched on the same rocket belongs to Beijing Normal University, and is named BNU-1, and the other belongs to a Shanghai-based private space technology company. Both have an expected lifespan of one year.
BNU-1, developed by a Shenzhen-based company affiliated to CAST, weighs about 16 kilogrammes, and will be mainly used to monitor polar climate and environment, greatly helping research of the polar regions and global climate change.
The satellite can report sea ice changes, which could help with ship navigation and make channel risk assessments. Thursday's launch is the 310th mission of the Long March carrier rocket series.
Maitree 2019, Indo Thailand Joint Military Exercise to be held
The Defence Ministry of India announced a joint military exercise between India and Thailand as MAITREE 2019. The exercise is aimed to share the experience that are gained to counter-terrorism operations. The exercise will be conducted at Foreign coaching Node of Umroi in Meghalaya from 16 September to 29 September of 2019.
About MAITREE exercise:
About 100 Indians and Royal Thailand army RTA soldiers will participate in this joint ministry exercise. MAITREE 2019 is the third army engagement between India-Thailand. The counter operations exercise would be held in urban areas or in the jungle.
Significance of MAITREE-2019:
The annual Joint Military Exercise between India and Thailand is being conducted since 2006. It is aimed to improve the level of defence co-operation between the Indian Army (IA) and the Royal Thailand Army (RTA) that will foster defence cooperation and bilateral relations between the 2 nations.
India-Thailand Relations:
The diplomatic relations between India and Thailand were established in 1947. Each country has increased economic and business links by the exchange of high-level visits. India and Thailand were culturally joined for a hundred years and India has had a deep influence on Thai culture.
Water discovered for the first time in atmosphere of habitable exoplanets K2-18b
The first time discovered water in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting within the habitable zone of a distant star.The finding makes the world is called K2-18b - a plausible candidate in the search for alien life.
The new space telescopes might be able to determine whether K2-18b's atmosphere contains gases that could be produced by living organisms.
The details were published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy.The lead scientist, Prof Giovanna Tinetti of University College London (UCL), described the discovery as mind blowing.This is the first time that we have detected water on a planet in the habitable zone around a star where the temperature is potentially compatible with the presence of life.
The habitable zone is the region around a star where temperatures are considered sufficiently benign for water to exist in liquid form on the surface of a planet.
The new planet is just over twice the size of Earth - in a planet category known as a super Earth and has a temperature cool enough to have liquid water, between zero and 40C.
K2-18b
K2-18b is 111 light-years - about 650 million million miles - from Earth, too far to send a probe. So the only option is to wait for the next generation of space telescopes to be launched in the 2020s and to look for gases in the planet's atmosphere that could only be produced by living organisms.The first exoplanet was discovered in 1992, orbiting a pulsar (a neutron star that emits electromagnetic radiation)
The researchers determined some of the chemicals in their atmosphere by studying the changes to the starlight as the planets orbited their suns. The light filtered through the planets' atmospheres was subtly altered by the composition of the atmosphere.
K2-18b cannot be classified as a mini-Neptune, it is more likely to be a planet with an interior of rock and ices. These types of planets are sometimes called 'ocean planets'.
Rajasthan Government launches Jan Soochna Portal 2019
The first-ever public information portal launched in Rajasthan promising to provide information about government authorities and departments suo motu to the public in the true spirit of the Right To Information Act. The portal has brought yet another distinction to Rajasthan, where the RTI movement started in 1990s.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot inaugurated the portal at B.M. Birla Auditorium in the presence of former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, former Law Commission chairman Justice A.P. Shah and a galaxy of RTI activists, including Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy.
The State government collaborated with the civil society groups to develop the portal, the first of its kind in the country, initially giving information pertaining to 13 departments on a single platform. The different sections divided into districts, blocks and panchayats, the portal empowers the common people with access to useful information.
The new web portal, named the Jansuchna Portal-2019, would ensure compliance with Section 4(2) of the RTI Act mandating the public authorities to disclose information in the public domain, so that people need not file applications under the law to obtain information.
The statute erode the resolve to bring transparency and accountability in administration.This portal displays our government's resolve for strict enforcement of RTI Act.
The people as well as a strong instrument for ensuring transparency in governance. She applauded the State Government's action to combine technology, justice and information.
The State government will set up information kiosks in village panchayats and self-service e-mitra centres in the towns to enable the people to access the information useful for them. Initially, the information pertaining to 13 government departments such as the number of beneficiaries of schemes, works undertaken in different areas, land records and social security pensions will be available on the portal.
UNESCO to publish an anthology of Guru Nanak Devs writing in world languages
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) decided to translate and publish an anthology of the writings of Guru Nanak Dev in world languages to mark his 550th birth anniversary.
The main aim is to commemorate 550th birth anniversary of GuruNanak Devji, UNESCO decided to translate and publish an anthology of his writings into world languages.
The government holding a series of events They initiated projects to mark 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.
The main aim is to construction of Kartarpur Corridor from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district in Punjab to the international border, the development of the historic town of Sultanpur Lodhi as a heritage town on the smart city principle. The upgradation of Sultanpur Lodhi railway station and release of commemorative coins and postage stamps.
UNESCO - History
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has 195 Members and 8 Associate Members and is governed by the General Conference and the Executive Board. The Secretariat is headed by the Director-General, implements the decisions of these two bodies. The Organization has more than 50 field offices around the world. The headquarters are located in Paris.
Aim:
UNESCO’s mission is to contribute to the building of a culture of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information.
How it works?
UNESCO works to create the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures and peoples, based upon respect for commonly shared values. It is through this dialogue that the world can achieve global visions of sustainable development encompassing observance of human rights, mutual respect and the alleviation of poverty, all of which are at the heart of UNESCO’s mission and activities.