PERIYAR IAS CURRENT AFFAIRS 2-APRIL-2018
Topic: Indian culture will cover the
salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to
modern times.
Konark
Sun Temple
Context: An aesthetically designed
interpretation centre with world-class facilities that showcases the unique
architectural features of Kalingan era was recently inaugurated at Sun Temple,
Konark. The Indian Oil Foundation has
developed the interpretation centre and the tourist facilitation centre at a cost of Rs. 45
crore.
Key
facts for Prelims:
§ Built in the 13th century, the
Konark temple was conceived as a gigantic chariot of the Sun God, with 12 pairs
of exquisitely ornamented wheels pulled by seven horses.
§ It was built by King
Narasimhadeva I, the great ruler of Ganga dynasty.
§ The temple is included in UNESCO
World Heritage Site in 1984 for its architectural greatness and also for the
sophistication and abundance of sculptural work.
§ The temple is perfect blend
of Kalinga architecture, heritage, exotic beach and
salient natural beauty.
§ It is protected under the
National Framework of India by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites
and Remains (AMASR) Act (1958) and its Rules (1959).
§ The Konark is the third
link of Odisha’s Golden Triangle. The first link is Jagannath
Puri and the second link is Bhubaneswar (Capital city of Odisha).
§ This temple was also known
as ‘BLACK PAGODA’ due to its dark color and
used as a navigational landmark by ancient sailors to Odisha. Similarly, the
Jagannath Temple in Puri was called the “White Pagoda”.
§ It remains a major pilgrimage
site for Hindus, who gather here every year for the Chandrabhaga
Mela around
the month of February.
Sources: pib.
Topic: Indian culture will cover the
salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to
modern times.
Kalamkari
art
Context: A ‘Kalamkari art museum’
has been opened at Pedana in Andhra Pradesh. The museum traces the history of
the art and displays the process of extraction of natural colours from various
sources.
Kalamkari:
Kalamkari is an
ancient style of hand painting done on cotton or silk fabric with a tamarind
pen, using natural dyes. The word Kalamkari is derived from a Persian word where ‘kalam‘
means pen and ‘kari‘ refers to craftsmanship.
There are two
identifiable styles of Kalamkari art in India – Srikalahasti style and
Machilipatnam style.
§ In the Machilipatnam style of
Kalamkari, motifs are essentially printed with hand-carved traditional blocks
with intricate detailing painted by hands.
§ On the other hand, Srikalahasti
style of painting draws inspiration from the Hindu mythology describing scenes
from the epics and folklore. This style holds a strong religious connect
because of its origin in the temples.
What’s
important?
For Prelims and Mains:
Kalamkari and its subtypes.
Sources: the hindu.
Paper
2:
Topic: Statutory, regulatory and
various quasi-judicial bodies.
Fast
track task Force
Context: The
fast track task Force, a body under Ministry of Electronics and IT, has set target to achieve
around 500 million mobile phone production in India by 2019, with value
estimated to be around USD 46 billion.
About
Fast track task force:
Department
of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) formed a Fast Track Task Force to re-establish growth in
the country’s mobile handset and component manufacturing eco-system.
§ It has members
from industry and government.
§ It promotes
large-scale manufacturing/assembling activity to achieve production of 500
million units by 2019. This can create additional employment opportunities for 1.5
million approximately.
§ The task force has to create a
roadmap to align technology, demand, standards and regulations for enhancing
the competitiveness of domestic manufacturing across the supply chain for
manufacturing mobile phone.
What’s
important?
For Prelims: Fast Track Task
Force and its objectives.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: Salient features of the
Representation of People’s Act.
National
Register of Citizens (NRC)
Context: The verification of
citizenship documents of 29 lakh married women, mostly migrant Muslims, for the
Supreme Court-monitored exercise to update the 1951 National Register of Citizens
(NRC) has begun in Assam. The verification of family trees and the documents of
married women has to be completed by May 31, the deadline set by the court.
What
is National Register of Citizens (NRC)?
The NRC was introduced to
identify illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and recognise the Indian citizens
in Assam. It was first prepared in 1951 and Assam is the only state having this
arrangement.
Under NRC, immigrants who have
documents proving that they entered Assam before 1971 will be considered Indian
citizens and others have to show that they their ascendants have lived in Assam
even before 1971.
Why
is the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is being updated in Assam?
National Register of Citizens
(NRC) updation basically means the process of enlisting the names of those
persons (or their descendants) whose names appear in any of the Electoral Rolls
up to 1971, 1951 NRC or any of the admissible documents stipulated.
The NRC will be updated as per
the provisions of The Citizenship Act, 1955 and The Citizenship (Registration
of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.
Significance
of the move:
The publication of the updated
NRC is indeed a positive step in so far as it puts to rest wild speculations
about the extent of the illegal migrant population in Assam and the resulting
polarisation that political parties have been exploiting to make electoral
gains.
Way
ahead:
The absence of any clear policy
as to how to deal with the proclaimed illegal migrants has created a sense of
unease in the minds of many presently residing in Assam. Further, while the NRC
is being updated for Assam, there is no plan to prepare similar NRCs for the
other states in the North East where illegal migration continues to be a
volatile issue.
The need of the hour therefore
is for the Union Government to allay apprehensions presently in the minds of
the people of Assam and take steps to contain any adverse fallout after the
publication of the final draft of the NRC. At the same time, it also needs to
spell out what it intends to do with the persons whose names do not figure in
the final NRC.
What’s
important?
§ For Prelims: NRC.
§ For Mains: Need for policy on
migrants.
Sources: the hindu.
Paper
3:
Topic: Infrastructure: Energy,
Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.
Bharatmala
Programme
Context: In order to keep up the
pace to implement ambitious Bharatmala Programme, the NHAI is planning to award
3,000-odd km of projects in the next couple of months of the new fiscal. The
increase in awarding of the project in FY18 is due to Bharatmala Programme.
What
is Bharatmala project?
Bharatmala Project is the
second largest highways construction project in the country since NHDP, under which almost 50,000 km
or highway roads were targeted across the country. Bharatmala will look to
improve connectivity particularly on economic corridors, border areas and far
flung areas with an aim of quicker movement of cargo and boosting exports.
Bharatmala includes economic
corridors of around 9,000 km, inter-corridor and feeder routes of around 6,000
km, 5,000 km roads under the National Corridors Efficiency Program, border and
international connectivity roads of around 2,000 km, coastal and port
connectivity roads of around 2,000 km, expressways of around 800 km and 10,000
km of NHDP roads. The total length in phase 1 comes to around 34,800 km.
Significance
of the project:
The project is expected to
create nearly 100 million man days of jobs during the road construction and
subsequently 22 million jobs as a result of the increased economic activity
across the country.
About
NHAI:
The
National Highways Authority of India was constituted by an act of Parliament,
the National Highways Authority of India Act,1988. It is responsible for the
development, maintenance and management of National Highways entrusted to it
and for matters connected or incidental thereto. The Authority was
operationalised in Feb, 1995.
What’s
important?
§ For Prelims: Bharatmala, NHAI.
§ For Mains: Infrastructure
development- need, challenges and solutions.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: Awareness in space.
RemoveDebris
system
Context: RemoveDebris
system, a UK-led experiment to tackle space junk is set to head into
orbit. The system is going to the International Space Station where astronauts
are expected to set the experiment running in late May.
About
the RemoveDebris mission:
RemoveDebris is an EU (European
Union) research project to develop and fly a low cost in-orbit demonstrator
mission that aims to de-risk and verify technologies needed for future ADR
(Active Debris Removal) missions.
RemoveDebris is aimed at
performing key ADR technology demonstrations (e.g., capture, deorbiting)
representative of an operational scenario during a low-cost mission using novel
key technologies for ADR. The project is based on and aimed at contributing to
global/European ADR roadmaps.
How
it works?
A microsatellite called here
RemoveSAT, will release, capture and deorbit two space debris targets, called
DebrisSats, in sequence using various rendezvous, capture and deorbiting
technologies thus demonstrating in orbit, key ADR technologies for future
missions in what promises to be the first ADR technology mission
internationally.
Background:
Space junk is an ever-growing
problem with more than 7,500 tonnes of redundant hardware now thought to be
circling the Earth. Ranging from old rocket bodies and defunct spacecraft
through to screws and even flecks of paint – this material poses a collision
hazard to operational missions.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: awareness in space.
Point
Nemo
Context: Scientists were initially
planning to push the Tiangong-1 satellite to Point Nemo. However, they could
not do so as they lost control of it. China’s defunct Tiangong-1 space lab
mostly broke up on re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere above the South Pacific.
About
Point Nemo:
Point Nemo, or “ocean point of
inaccessibility,” is a region in the South
Pacific that is the loneliest place on the planet. It is used as a graveyard for
controlled re-entries and a place where space junk can be dropped safely.
Where is it located?
Point Nemo, named after the
submarine captain in Jules Verne’s classic science fiction novel 20,000 Leagues
Under The Sea, is about 2,688 kilometers from the nearest land – Pitcairn
Islands – which lies to the north of this point. Also, Motu Nui — one of the
Easter Islands — lies to the northeast and Maher Island, part of Antarctica, to
the south.
Why
this place?
The region is safe to land all
kinds of waste because there is also not much life in the water here.
Coincidentally, it is also biologically not very diverse. So it gets used as a
dumping ground — ‘space graveyard’ would be a more polite term — mainly for
cargo spacecraft.
What
is China’s Tiangong 1?
The Tiangong 1 module is
China’s first spacecraft designed for orbital docking tests and space research.
It’s name translates to “Heavenly Palace” in English. The Tiangong 1 space lab
intended to serve as a space station module prototype for China, which is the
third country (after Russia and the United States) to develop the capability to
launch astronauts into space and return them safely to Earth.
Sources: et.
Facts
for Prelims:
India’s
longest elevated road:
Context: India’s longest
elevated road was recently inaugurated in Uttar Pradesh.
Key facts:
§ The expressway is a 10.3 km
long elevated road, making it the longest elevated road in the country.
§ The Hindon Elevated Road will
be connecting Raj Nagar Extension in Ghaziabad to UP Gate.
India
is now second largest mobile phone producer:
Context: India has emerged as
the second largest mobile phone producer in the world after China.
Key facts:
§ According to the data shared by
ICA, annual production of mobile phones in India increased from 3 million units
in 2014 to 11 million units in 2017.
§ India replaced Vietnam to
become second largest producer of mobile phones in 2017.
§ With the rise in mobile phone
production, imports of the devices in the country also reduced to less than
half in 2017-18.
“Thank
You India” Campaign 2018:
What is it? The exiled government
of Tibet has launched a year-long ‘Thank you India” campaign to mark the 60th
year of the arrival of the spiritual leader Dalai Lama to India.
Walong
tri-junction:
Context: Indian troops have
increased their patrolling at a tri-junction of India, China and Myanmar to
prevent a repeat of a Doklam-like standoff.
Where is it? The tri-junction
is located around 50 km from Walong, India’s easternmost town in Arunachal
Pradesh, near the Tibet region. It is situated on the bank of Lohit river.
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