PERIYAR IAS CURRENT AFFAIRS 12-AUGUST-2018
Paper 2:
Topic:
e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential.
SFOORTI Application
What is it? To help plan the traffic
flows and optimize freight operations, Ministry of Railways have launched Smart
Freight Operation Optimisation & Real Time Information (SFOORTI) App for
Freight Managers which provides features for monitoring and managing freight business
using Geographic Information System (GIS) Views and Dashboard.
Salient features of SFOORTI Application are as below:
§ With
this application, movement of freight trains on Geographic Information System
(GIS) view can be tracked.
§ Both
passenger and freight trains can be tracked over Zones/Divisions/ Sections in
single GIS View.
§ Freight
business can be monitored.
§ Comparative
Analysis of Zonal/Divisional Traffic.
§ Analysis
of new traffic captured and traffic lost.
§ This
app provides a Bird’s eye view of all Freight Assets in a single window.
§ Provides
end to end Rake movement on Geospatial view
§ Expected
Traffic at Interchange points to evaluate daily performance can be viewed.
§ Performance
of each zone and divisions with respect to loading and utilization of freight
assets can be viewed.
§ Sectional
performance monitoring for sections, divisions and zones shall help in traffic
routing.
§ Freight
terminal and sidings can be better monitored to ensure better turnaround of
rakes.
Importance of Freight traffic:
Freight
traffic is the major source of revenue for Indian Railways. Only one-third of
the 13000 trains running daily on IR are freight trains, but it accounts 65% of
total revenue of IR. Railway Freight traffic is vital for economic and
industrial progress of the country.
Sources:
pib.
Topic:
Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services
relating to Health.
Kala Azar
Context: India has missed the 2017
deadline that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced for elimination of
Kala Azar (black fever) in his Budget speech last year. In fact, endemic blocks
have increased from 61 to 68 in 17 districts of Bihar and Jharkhand.
Background:
Kala-azar
is endemic to the Indian subcontinent in 119 districts in four countries
(Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal). This disease is the
second-largest parasitic killer in the world. Elimination is defined as
reducing the annual incidence of Kala Azar (KA) to less than 1 case per 10,000
people at the sub-district level.
Kala-azar:
What
is it? Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), also known as kala-azar, black fever, and
Dumdum fever, is the most severe form of leishmaniasis and, without proper
diagnosis and treatment, is associated with high fatality.
Spread:
Caused by protozoan parasites of the Leishmania genus. migrates to the internal
organs such as the liver, spleen (hence “visceral”), and bone marrow
Signs
and symptoms include fever, weight loss, fatigue, anemia, and substantial
swelling of the liver and spleen.
Sources:
the hindu.
Paper 3:
Topic: Awareness
in the fields of IT, Space.
ISRO Launches Its 100th Satellite
Space
agency ISRO has successfully sent up a rocket carrying India’s 100th satellite
along with 30 others, four months after failed launch. The Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle or PSLV lifted off from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
Facts for Prelims:
§ The
PSLV-C40 placed 31 satellites, originating from seven countries. This is the
42nd flight of the PSLV. The 30 other satellites onboard include two other
satellites from India and 28 satellites from six countries — Canada, Finland,
France, Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States.
§ The
Cartosat-2 satellite, the third in the series, was deployed to relay high
resolution scene specific spot imageries. The images will be useful for
cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and
regulation, road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use
maps and change detection to bring out geographical Land Information Systems
and Geographical Information System applications.
§ The
mission is a unique one, since the satellites were launched in two orbits. Thirty
of the satellites were launched in an orbit 550 km about, and one 359-km above
the Earth. This was done through what scientists call the “multiple burn
technology” under which the rocket’s engine is switched off and then switched
on to control its height.
§ This
is ISRO’s first launch in 2018 and it is also the first after the unsuccessful
mission of IRNSS-1H in August last year.
Sources:
the hindu.
Topic:
Awareness in the fields of IT, Space.
BeiDou
Context: China has sent twin
satellites into space on a single carrier rocket, as part of efforts to enable
its BeiDou system to provide navigation and positioning services to countries
along the Belt and Road by the end of 2018.
This
is the first launch of the BeiDou satellites in 2018. The twin satellites are
coded the 26th and 27th satellites in the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System
(BDS).
Background:
The
BeiDou Navigation Satellite System is a Chinese satellite navigation system.
BeiDou has been described as a potential navigation satellite system to
overtake GPS in global usage, and is expected to be more accurate than the GPS
once it is fully completed. The current third generation of BeiDou claims to
reach millimeter-level accuracy (with post-processing), which is ten times more
accurate than the finest level of GPS.
Facts for Prelims: List of Global Navigation Satellite Systems:
§ GPS
of the United States of America.
§ GLONASS
or Global Navigation Sputnik System of Russia.
§ Galileo
of the European Union.
§ IRNSS
or NAVIC of India.
§ Quasi-Zenith
Satellite System (QZSS) of Japan.
Sources:
the hindu.
Topic:
Awareness in the fields of IT, Space.
SPARCS
Context: Scientists are planning
to launch a small telescope into the Earth’s orbit that will monitor the flares
and sunspots of small stars to assess how habitable the environment is for
planets orbiting them. The spacecraft is known as the Star-Planet Activity Research
CubeSat, or SPARCS.
About SPARCS:
SPARCS
is a new NASA-funded space telescope and will be launched in 2021. The mission,
including spacecraft design, integration and resulting science, is led by
Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE).
§ The
stars that SPARCS will focus on are small, dim, and cool by comparison to the
Sun. Having less than half the Sun’s size and temperature, they shine with
barely one per cent its brightness.
§ The
heart of the SPARCS spacecraft will be a telescope with a diameter of nine
centimetres plus a camera with two ultraviolet-sensitive detectors to be
developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
§ Both
the telescope and camera will be optimised for observations using ultraviolet
light, which strongly affects the planet’s atmosphere and its potential to
harbour life on the surface.
Background:
Astronomers
have discovered that essentially every M dwarf star has at least one planet
orbiting it, and about one system in four has a rocky planet located in the
star’s habitable zone. This is the potentially life-friendly region where
temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for life as we know it, and
liquid water could exist on the planet’s surface.
Since
M dwarfs are so plentiful, astronomers estimate that our galaxy alone contains
roughly 40 billion rocky planets in habitable zones around their stars. This
means that most of the habitable-zone planets in our galaxy orbit M dwarfs.
Sources:
the hindu.
Topic:
Awareness in the fields of IT, Space.
James Webb Space Telescope
Context: NASA’s James Webb Space
Telescope the world’s premier infrared space observatory of the next decade —
has successfully completed critical testing in a massive thermal vacuum
chamber, enabling it to function properly in the extremely cold and airless
environment in space in 2019.
James webb space telescope:
The
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the largest space telescope ever built.
It is an international collaboration between of about 17 countries including
NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). When it
is launched in 2019, it will be the world’s biggest and most powerful
telescope.
When
it is launched into space it will be able to peer back in time 3.5 billion
years, teaching us more than ever before about the start of the universe. The
telescope will be used to look back to the first galaxies born in the early
universe more than 13.5 billion years ago, and observe the sources of stars,
exoplanets, and even the moons and planets of our solar system.
Sources:
et.
Topic:
conservation.
Chiru goat
Context: India’s environment
ministry has ruled out the possibility of conservation breeding of the Chiru
goat, a ‘near threatened’ species whose underfur is used for making the famous
Shahtoosh shawls.
What’s the concern?
Chiru
goat, which is also known as the Tibetan antelope, has long been hunted for its
underfur (Shahtoosh), which is renowned for its quality and has traditionally
been transported to Srinagar, where it is woven into an extremely fine fabric
used to make shawls.
Background:
Last
year, the parliamentary standing committee on science & technology,
environment & forests had recommended to the ministry of environment,
forest and climate change (MoEFCC) to conserve and breed the Chiru goat, which
can then be given to the shawl makers. The panel said this would provide a
sustainable livelihood opportunity to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Why the government is not in favour of conservation breeding of
Chiru goat?
In
2017, the Chiru goat species was assessed as ‘near threatened’ by the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) because their current
population can only be maintained with continued high levels of protection in
its natural range and strict controls on trade of the shawls made from its
underfur. The government believes that any relaxation in the protection regime
of the animal would lead to a rapid population decline due to commercial
poaching.
Also,
Chiru inhabits the high-altitude Tibetan plateau and requires large a expanse
of land for its movement and ranging patterns to fulfil its feeding and
breeding requirements. Rearing the goat in captivity is extremely difficult.
Besides, any attempt to do conservation breeding of Chiru at very high altitude
regions of Ladakh (more than 3,800m) may neither be economical nor feasible as
humans cannot be posted there continuously for more than 2-3 months.
Facts for Prelims:
§ Chiru,
or Tibetan antelope, is assessed as ‘Near Threatened’ by the International
Union for Conservation of Nature 2017.
§ The
Tibetan antelope is the sole species in the genus Pantholops.
§ Endemic
to the Tibetan Plateau, the Tibetan antelope inhabits open alpine and cold
steppe environments between 3,250 and 5,500 m (10,660 and 18,040 ft) elevation.
Sources:
the hindu.
Facts for Prelims:
In a first, collegium selects woman advocate for SC judge:
Senior
Advocate Indu Malhotra will be the first woman lawyer to be directly elevated
from the Bar to the Supreme Court as a judge. Her name was recently cleared
unanimously by the Supreme Court Collegium. Malhotra will be the seventh woman
judge since Independence to make it to the Supreme Court.
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