PERIYAR IAS CURRENT AFFAIRS 31- JANUARY - 2018
Paper 2:
Topic: Development processes and the
development industry the role of NGOs, SHGs, various groups and associations,
donors, charities, institutional and other stakeholders.
Tamil Nadu Rural Transformation
Project
Context: India and the World Bank
have signed a $100 million loan agreement to support Tamil Nadu Rural
Transformation Project. This is expected to promote rural enterprises,
facilitate their access to finance, and create employment opportunities for
youth, particularly women, in selected blocks of Tamil Nadu across 26
districts, directly benefitting over 400,000 people.
About Tamil Nadu Rural
Transformation Project:
The Tamil Nadu Rural
Transformation Project will create an enabling environment for producer
organisations and enterprises to promote businesses across select value chains.
The project will enable producer organizations and enterprises in Tamil Nadu
build businesses that will help them access finance, markets and networks and
generate employment.
It will also specifically
support eligible households from socially and culturally disadvantaged groups
harness their existing assets, skills, and resources; break their entry
barriers to value-added economic activities; enhance their ability to access
finance, markets, technology, and related support services; help them graduate
to value-added economic activities with higher returns such as garment
manufacturing and food processing units, eco-tourism ventures, and businesses
around creative industries.
Sources: BS.
Topic: India and its neighbourhood-
relations.
Thar Link Express
Context: Thar Link Express, the
solitary rail link between India and Pakistan has received an extension for
three more years from Islamabad.
About the Thar Link Express:
The Thar Link Express connects
Khokhrapar in Pakistan and Munabao in Rajasthan. The agreement to run the Thar
Link Express was signed in 2006 and is one of the cheapest means of transport
between the two rival countries. The rail link facilitates people-to-people
contacts which Pakistan believes are essential for improving relations between
both the countries.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: Important International
institutions, agencies and fora, their structure, mandate.
India is world’s 3rd largest
steel producer
As per the latest data released
by World Steel Association, India is the world’s third-largest steel producer.
Key facts:
§ India remained the world’s
third-largest steel producer for the third year in a row in 2017. India had
grabbed the third slot in steel production in 2015 from the US after long been
holding the fourth slot.
§ In 2017, China and Japan have
occupied top two positions respectively.
About the World Steel
Association:
What is it? Worldsteel is a
non-profit organisation with headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. A second office
in Beijing, China, opened in April 2006.
Background: The World Steel
Association (worldsteel) was founded as the International Iron and Steel
Institute on 10 July 1967. It changed its name to the World Steel Association
on 6 October 2008.
Representation: Worldsteel represents
over 160 steel producers (including 9 of the world’s 10 largest steel
companies), national and regional steel industry associations, and steel
research institutes. Worldsteel members represent around 85% of world steel
production.
Goals of Worldsteel:
§ To act as the focal point for
the steel industry providing global leadership on all major strategic issues
impacting the industry, particularly focusing on economic, environmental and
social sustainability.
§ Deliver benchmarking analysis
and drive global improvement initiatives in the areas of environmental
protection, technology, safety and people development.
§ Promote global market
development opportunities for steel and promote steel to the world at large.
§ Provide on a timely basis
world-class economic data and analysis on the global steel industry and its
value chain, as well as assessments on life cycle aspects of steel.
§ Increase awareness,
understanding and support for the steel industry amongst all external
stakeholders and key target audiences worldwide.
§ Promote market competition that
is free of government interventions preventing fair trade.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: Important International
institutions, agencies and fora, their structure, mandate.
Difficult Dialogues forum
Context: The third edition in the
series of Difficult Dialogues Summit wil be held in Goa in the month of
February. This year, the forum will be held in partnership with UCL (University
College London), Goa University (GU) and the ICG.
Difficult Dialogues 2018 will
focus on how Indian gender constructs affect fundamental aspects of daily lives
and citizenship.
About Difficult Dialogues:
Difficult dialogues is an
independent, non-partisan forum for conversations around critical issues
concerning our lives in South Asia. To be held as an annual festival of
topical ideas and motions, it is premised on the conviction that knowledge
sharing is the cornerstone of progressive change in this fastest growing,
volatile region of the world.
Sources: the hindu.
Paper 3:
Topic: Infrastructure energy.
Solar capacity reaches 20 GW on
govt push
Context: India has achieved 20 GW
(giga watt) cumulative solar capacity, achieving the milestone four years ahead
of the target for 2022 originally set in the National Solar Mission. The
utility-scale cumulative installations now stand at approximately 18.4 GW, with
rooftop solar accounting for another 1.6 GW.
Key facts:
§ For the first time, solar was
the top source of new power capacity additions in India during calendar year
2017. Solar installations reached 9.6 GW and accounted for 45% of total
capacity additions.
§ The top state for solar
installations was Telangana, followed by Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and
Rajasthan.
Challenges ahead:
The country has reached the
milestone at a time when protectionist measures threaten to slow down activity
in the industry. The pace of overall solar installations is expected to be less
impressive in 2018 as several protectionist government policies appear poised
to increase costs and uncertainty.
Also, experts say Centre’s
revised solar installation target of 100 GW by 2022 has recently been clashing
with Make in India Initiative to promote domestic manufacturing. The recently
announced 70% preliminary safeguard duty recommendation, the ongoing
anti-dumping case, and a 7.85% port duty on imported modules are together
creating an atmosphere of regulatory uncertainty that is taking a toll on the
industry and slowing down installation activity.
Way ahead:
The 20 GW of solar
installations is a laudable achievement for India. However, it took eight long
years to reach 20 GWs and hopefully the pace will pick up soon.
About the National Solar
Mission:
National Solar Mission,
launched in 2010, aims to establish India as a global leader in solar energy by
creating the policy conditions for its diffusion across the country as quickly
as possible. The mission is one of the several initiatives that are part of the
National Action Plan on Climate Change. Initial target was to achieve 20GW by
2022 which was later increased to 100 GW in the 2015 Union budget of India.
The objective of the National
Solar Mission is to establish India as a global leader in solar energy, by
creating the policy conditions for its diffusion across the country as quickly
as possible.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: awareness in space.
60th anniversary of first US
satellite into space
Context: United States is
celebrating the 60th anniversary of the launch of the first spacecraft sent
into space.
Explorer 1:
Explorer 1, a two-metre long
satellite carrying a scientific instrument, was launched from Cape Canaveral in
Florida on 31 January 1958. Explorer 1 was around two metres in length. Within
that the science instrument took up about 95cm.
The main instruments were a
cosmic-ray detection package; internal, external and nose-cone temperature
sensors; a micrometeorite impact microphone; a ring of micrometeorite erosion
gauges; and two transmitters. There were two antennas in the body of the
satellite and its four flexible whips that formed a turnstile antenna.
Electrical power was provided by batteries that made up 40% of the total
weight.
Explorer 1 and missions that
came after it were responsible for the first space-based discovery – radiation
belts around the Earth called the Van Allen Belts.
Facts for Prelims:
Overall, Explorer 1 was
not the first object launched into space, as almost a year earlier the USSR
successfully put a small metal satellite, Sputnik 1, into orbit. A month
later, they also successfully launched a second, Sputnik 2.
Sources: et.
Topic: Awareness in the fields of
IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology.
India commissions high
performance computer system Mihir
India recently commissioned its
High Performance Computer (HPC) system – named ‘Mihir’ (meaning Sun) – at the
National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting at Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
About Mihir:
The new system will be India’s
largest HPC facility in terms of peak capacity and performance and will
propel India’s ranking from the 368th position to the 30th in the list
of top 500 HPC facilities in the world. The country will now also be ranked 4th
– after Japan, UK and USA – for dedicated HPC resources for weather/climate
community.
The new HPC facility is
expected to improve the following services:
§ Weather forecasts at block
level over India which can predict extreme weather events.
§ High resolution
seasonal/extended range forecasts of active/break spells of Monsoon.
§ Very high resolution coupled
models for prediction of cyclones with more accuracy and lead time.
§ Ocean state forecasts including
marine water quality forecasts at very high resolution.
§ Tsunami forecasts with greater
lead time.
§ Air quality forecasts for
various cities.
§ Climate projections at very
high resolution.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: indigenization of technology.
Scorpene-class submarine Karanj
Context: The third Scorpene-class
submarine – INS Karanj has been launched.
About Karanj:
Karanj is the third of the six
Scorpene-class submarines being built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited
(MDL) under the Project 75 programme of Indian navy. It is designed to operate
in all theatres, including the tropics. It is provided with all means and
communications to ensure interoperability with other components of a naval
task.
It has superior stealth
features such as advanced acoustic silencing techniques, low radiated noise
levels and hydrodynamically optimized shape. These stealth features give it an
invulnerability, unmatched by most submarine.
Background:
The Scorpene submarines are a
primary modernization requirement of the Indian Navy, which is currently faced
with an ageing submarine fleet. MDL has the contract for the construction and
transfer of technology for six Scorpene submarines. The submarines are being
built in collaboration with French shipbuilding major Naval Group (formerly
DCNS).
The first one, INS Kalvari, a
diesel-electric attack submarine was commissioned by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi on December 14 last year. The second one, INS Khandari, was launched on
January 12 this year is currently undergoing sea trials.
Sources: the hindu.
Facts for Prelims:
Nilgiri Marten:
Context: A recent study has
found that Pampadum Shola National Park located on the southern portion of
Western Ghats is a safe haven of rare and most elusive Nilgiri Marten.
About Nilgiri Marten: Endemic
to the Western Ghats, Nilgiri Marten looks like a civet or a mongoose and it
most prefers higher altitudes. The species is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN
Red List of Threatened Species and Schedule II, Part 2 of the Indian Wildlife
(Protection) Act 1972.
About Pampadum shola national
park: Coming under Munnar Wildlife Division, Pampadum Shola enjoys proximity of
Kurunjimala Wildlife Sanctuary and Palani hills of Tamil Nadu. It is the
smallest national park in Kerala state.
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