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Type: PIB

  • [pib] UV Blaster: A UV Disinfection Tower

    The DRDO has developed an Ultra Violet (UV) Disinfection Tower for rapid and chemical-free disinfection of high infection-prone areas.

    GYAN:

    We have a UV filter in our home based water filter.  Ever wondered, how do UV rays kill viruses/bacteria?

    UV Blaster

    • The UV blaster is a UV based area sanitizer designed and developed by Laser Science & Technology Centre (LASTEC), the Delhi based premier laboratory of DRDO.
    • It is useful for high tech surfaces like electronic equipment, computers and other gadgets in laboratories and offices that are not suitable for disinfection with chemical methods.
    • The product is also effective for areas with a large flow of people such as airports, shopping malls, metros, hotels, factories, offices, etc.

    How does it work?

    • The UV based area sanitizer may be used by remote operation through laptop/mobile phone using wifi link.
    • The equipment has six lamps each with 43 watts of UV-C power at 254 nm wavelength for 360-degree illumination.
    • For a room of about 12 x 12 feet dimension, the disinfection time is about 10 minutes and 30 minutes for 400 square feet area by positioning the equipment at different places within the room.
    • This sanitizer switches off on the accidental opening of a room or human intervention.

    Back2Basics: UV germicidal irradiation

    • UV irradiation is a disinfection method that uses short-wavelength ultraviolet rays to kill or inactivate microorganisms by destroying nucleic acids and disrupting their DNA, leaving them unable to perform vital cellular functions.
    • UVGI is used in a variety of applications, such as food, air, and water purification.
    • UVGI devices can produce strong enough UVC light in circulating air or water systems to make them inhospitable environments to microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, moulds, and other pathogens.
    • UVGI can be coupled with a filtration system to sanitize air and water.
    • It has been used primarily in medical sanitation and sterile work facilities.
    • Increasingly, it has been employed to sterilize drinking and wastewater since the holding facilities are enclosed and can be circulated to ensure a higher exposure to the UV.

  • [pib] Sariska Tiger reserve

     

    The Ministry of Tourism’s Dekho Apna Desh webinar featured a presentation and virtual tour of ‘Destination- Sariska Tiger reserve’.

    Tourism and tourist sites carry high stakes for possible prelims questions.  Take time to quickly revise the Swadesh Darshan , PRASHAD Schemes.   Click here for the repository of all such initiatives.

    Sariska Tiger Reserve

    • It is located in the Aravalli Hills, 35 km from Alwar, 250 km SW of Delhi and 110 km NE of Jaipur.
    • The former hunting reserve of the Maharaja of Alwar, the Sariska valley is home to a variety of flora and fauna.
    • The park has populations of tigers, leopards, Nilgai, Sambar, chital etc.
    • The place is a paradise for bird lovers as it shelters a large population of Indian peafowl, crested serpent eagles, sand grouse, golden-backed woodpeckers, great Indian horned owls, tree pies, vultures and many others.
    • It is the first reserve in the world with successfully relocated tigers. It is an important biodiversity area in the Northern Aravalli leopard and wildlife corridor.

    Features of this episode

    • Alwar is a city dotted with heritage buildings, Forts, tombs and palaces. Some of the important sights not to be missed are Bala Qila, Vijai Mandir Lake Palaces, Fateh Jung ki Gumbad, Moti Doongri etc.
    • The sanctuary is strewn with ruins of ancient temples dating back to the 10th and 11th centuries.
    • Some of the highlights are the ruins of the Kankwari Fort and the 10th-century Neelkanth temples, which have Khajuraho-like carvings as key features.
    • Neelkanth Mahadeva houses the ruins of over 300 Hindu and Jain temples constructed between the 8th and 12th Centuries.
    • Chand Baoli (stepwell) at Abhaneri is enormous with 3500 steep steps built by the Nikhumbha dynasty is one of the largest step-wells in the world.

    About DekhoApnaDesh

    • Under this, a series of webinars will showcase the diverse and remarkable history and culture of India through a documentary series on various cities.
    • It will be including various monuments, cuisine, arts, dance forms, natural landscapes, festivals and many other aspects of the rich Indian civilization.
    • The objective of the webinar series is to create awareness about and promote various tourism destinations of India – including the lesser-known destinations and lesser-known facets of popular destinations.
    • The webinar will be available in the public domain through the Ministry’s social media handles- “Incredible India” on Instagram and Facebook.

    Back2Basics: Project Tiger

    • Project Tiger is a tiger conservation programme launched in April 1973 by during PM Indira Gandhi’s tenure.
    • It is administered by the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
    • The project aims at ensuring a viable population of Bengal tigers in their natural habitats, protecting them from extinction, and preserving areas of biological importance as a natural heritage forever represented as close as possible the diversity of ecosystems across the distribution of tigers in the country.
    • The project’s task force visualized these tiger reserves as breeding nuclei, from which surplus animals would migrate to adjacent forests.
    • The government has set up a Tiger Protection Force to combat poachers and funded relocation of villagers to minimize human-tiger conflicts.

  • Kashmir saffron gets GI tag

    Kashmir saffron has been given the Geographical Indication (GI) tag by the Geographical Indications Registry.

    Must read:

    GI Tags in news for 2020 Prelims

    All time GI tags in news

    Kashmir saffron

    • It is cultivated and harvested in the Karewa (highlands) in some regions of Kashmir, including Pulwama, Budgam, Kishtwar and Srinagar.
    • It is a very precious and costly product. Iran is the largest producer of saffron and India is a close competitor.
    • It rejuvenates health and is used in cosmetics and for medicinal purposes.
    • It has been associated with traditional Kashmiri cuisine and represents the rich cultural heritage of the region.
    • Saffron cultivation is believed to have been introduced in Kashmir by Central Asian immigrants around 1st Century BCE. In ancient Sanskrit literature, saffron is referred to as ‘bahukam’.

    3 Types

    The saffron available in Kashmir is of three types —

    • ‘Lachha Saffron’, with stigmas just separated from the flowers and dried without further processing;
    • ‘Mongra Saffron’, in which stigmas are detached from the flower, dried in the sun and processed traditionally; and
    • ‘Guchhi Saffron’, which is the same as Lachha, except that the latter’s dried stigmas are packed loosely in air-tight containers while the former has stigmas joined together in a bundle tied with a cloth thread

    Whats’ so special about Kashmir Saffron?

    • The unique characteristics of Kashmir saffron are its longer and thicker stigmas, natural deep-red colour, high aroma, bitter flavour, chemical-free processing, and high quantity of crocin (colouring strength), safranal (flavour) and picrocrocin (bitterness).
    • It is the only saffron in the world grown at an altitude of 1,600 m to 1,800 m AMSL (above mean sea level), which adds to its uniqueness and differentiates it from other saffron varieties available the world over.

  • [pib] River erosion in Ladakh Himalayas

    Indian researchers have studied rivers in Ladakh Himalaya, bringing out 35 thousand-year histories of river erosion and identified hotspots of erosion and wide valleys that act buffer zones.

    Click here to read more about the Himalayan river systems and its orogeny

    Erosion hotspot: Ladakh region

    • The Ladakh Himalaya forms a high altitude desert between Greater Himalayan ranges and Karakoram Ranges.
    • The Indus and its tributaries are major rivers flowing through the terrain.
    • The Zanskar River is one of the largest tributaries of the upper Indus catchment, draining orthogonally through highly deformed Zanskar ranges.

    Zanskar: A major river in Ladakh

    • Two prominent tributaries of Zanskar River are the Doda and Tsrap Lingti Chu, which confluence at Padam village in the upper valley to form the Zanskar River.
    • Zanskar catchment was explored to understand the landform evolution in the transitional climatic zone, using morpho-stratigraphy and study of landforms like valley fill terraces, alluvial fans (triangle-shaped deposit of gravel, sand, and even smaller pieces of sediment, such as silt).

    Zanskar Padam

    • Zanskar river makes a deep gorge in its lower reaches with the headwaters in upper Zanskar makes wide basin called as Padam.
    • The basin stores large amount of sediments in form of fans and river terrace deposits
    • The research suggested that the wide valley of Padam, with an area of 48 square km, in the upper Zanskar, has stored a vast amount of sediments in these landforms.
    • Thus Padam valley is a hotspot of sediment buffering in the Zanskar.

    Sediment study reveals the erosion

    • The study suggested that most sediments were derived from Higher Himalayan crystalline that lies in the headwater region of Zanskar.
    • It was found out that dominant factors responsible for sediment erosion were deglaciation and Indian Summer Monsoon derived precipitation in the headwaters despite the presence of a geomorphic barrier (the deep, narrow gorge).

    Significance of the study

    • The scientists have traced where the rivers draining Himalaya and its foreland erode the most and identify the zones that receive these eroded sediments and fill up.
    • The study will help understand river-borne erosion and sedimentation, which are the main drivers that make large riverine plains, terraces, and deltas that eventually become the cradle to evolving civilizations.
    • It will also help study the dynamics of devastating floods created by these Himalayan rivers in recent times.
    • Thus, the understanding of water and sediment routing becomes crucial while developing infrastructure and for other development works in the river catchment area.

  • [pib] Year of Awareness on Science & Health (YASH) Program

    National Council for Science & Technology Communication (NCSTC) has launched a programme on health and risk communication ‘Year of Awareness on Science & Health (YASH)’ with focus on COVID-19.

    There are various initiatives named with Hindi acronyms. YASH is newer among them. It is very unlikely to frame a prelim question on it. Still, we should know it for the sake of general awareness.

    YASH Program

    • YASH is a comprehensive and effective science and health communication effort for promoting grass-root level appreciation and response to health.
    • The current pandemic scenario has posed concerns and challenges all around, where scientific awareness and health preparedness play a significant role to help combat the situation.
    • This requires translation and usage of authentic scientific information to convey the risks involved and facilitates communities to overcome the situation.
    • The programme will encompass the development of science, health, and risk communication software, publications, audio-visual, digital platforms, folk performances, trained communicators, especially in regional languages to cater to various cross-sections of the society in the country.
    • It would help to save and shaping the lives of people at large, as well as build confidence, inculcate a scientific temper and promote health consciousness among them.

    Activities under YASH

    • The programme is aimed at minimizing risks at all levels with the help of public communication and outreach activities.
    • It would promote public understanding of common minimum science for community care and health safety measures like personal sanitation and hygiene, physical distancing, maintaining desired collective behaviour and so on.
    • It also includes information dissemination mechanisms to reduce the fear of risks and build confidence with necessary understanding for adopting sustainable healthy lifestyles and nurturing scientific culture among masses and societies.

  • [pib] Kisan Sabha App to Connect Farmers to Supply Chain and Freight Transportation

    Kisan Sabha App developed by CSIR to connect farmers to supply chain and freight transportation management system was recently launched.

    Initiatives as such are less likely to be asked in the prelims as the name and purpose create no different analogy. But for the sake of information and mains perspective, it is vital to remember such technology interventions while emphasizing on Agricultural marketing reforms.

    Kisan Sabha App

    • Kisan Sabha aims to provide the most economical and timely logistics support to the farmers and increase their profit margins by minimizing the interference of middlemen and directly connecting with the institutional buyers.
    • It will also help in providing the best market rates of crops by comparing nearest mandis, booking of freight vehicle at the cheapest cost thereby giving maximum benefit to the farmers.
    • The portal connects the farmers, transporters, Service providers (like pesticides/ fertilizer/ dealers, cold store and warehouse owner), mandi dealers, customers and other related entities for a timely and effective solution.
    • The app has 6 major modules taking care of Farmers/Mandi Dealers/Transporters/Mandi Board Members/ Service Providers/Consumers.

    Facilities provided by the app

    • The portal acts as a single stop for every entity related to agriculture, be they a farmer who needs better price for the crops or mandi dealer who wants to connect to more farmers or truckers who invariably go empty from the mandis.
    • It provides a platform for people who want to buy directly from the farmers.
    • It would also prove to be useful for those associated with cold store(s) or godown(s).

  • [pib] Earth’s Magnetosphere and its dynamics

    Scientists at the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG) have developed a generalized one-dimensional fluid simulation code capable of studying a wide spectrum of coherent electric field structures of earth’s magnetosphere which can be useful in the planning of future space missions.

    The newscard talks of not so new phenomenon but a basic terminology of space sciences. Kindly make a note of what the Magnotesphere is, how it is formed, role of solar winds, Geodynamo etc.

    Earth’s Magnetosphere

    • The magnetosphere is the region of space surrounding Earth where the dominant magnetic field is the magnetic field of Earth, rather than the magnetic field of interplanetary space.
    • It is generated by the interaction of the solar wind with Earth’s magnetic field.

    Features of the Earth’s magnetosphere

    1) Bow shock,

    2) Magnetosheath,

    3) Magnetopause,

    4) Northern tail lobe,

    5) Southern tail lobe,

    6) Plasmasphere,

    7) Solar wind.

    How is it formed?

    • Sun is the major source of plasma deposition in space around the Earth. Sun forces some of its plasma towards the earth in the form of the solar wind.
    • The speed of this wind varies between 300 to 1500 km/s, which carries with it solar magnetic field, called as Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF).
    • The magnetic field is generated by electric currents due to the motion of convection currents of a mixture of molten iron and nickel in the Earth’s outer core.
    • These convection currents are caused by heat escaping from the core, a natural process called a geodynamo.

    Why study the magnetosphere?

    • The Earth’s magnetosphere is a vast region which has a finite number of satellites hurtling through this realm.
    • The morphology of the plasma processes around the satellite can be understood quite well.
    • However, when they leave the observational domain of one satellite to enter into another, a vast blind arena is created.
    • How the morphology of these processes changes over space and time can be ideally deciphered only through computer simulations.

    Outcome of the study

    • Almost 99% of matter in the universe is in the form of plasma, Earth’s magnetosphere, too, contains this material and the plasma.
    • They have the ability to hamper the working of a number of satellites that have been placed in orbit in the magnetospheric region.

    Significance

    • Apart from the well being of these expensive satellites, the academic understanding of this region is quite essential to comprehend the cosmos in its entirety.
    • The study will help advance the knowledge of plasma waves, instabilities, and coherent effects associated with wave-particle interactions that are useful in planning of future space missions.
    • It can also lead to precisely controlled fusion laboratory experiments for ever-expanding energy needs of humanity.

  • [pib] HCARD robot to assist frontline COVID-19 healthcare warriors

    HCARD, a robot, to assist frontline COVID-19 healthcare warriors has been developed by a CSIR lab.

    It is very unlikely to create a prelim question on HCARD. However, developments as such help in exemplifying the scientific developments which helped contain such highly contagious outbreaks.

    What is HCARD?

    • The robotic device HCARD, an acronym for Hospital Care Assistive Robotic Device, can help frontline healthcare workers in maintaining physical distance from those infected by the coronavirus.
    • The device is equipped with various state-of-the-art technologies and works both in automatic as well as manual modes of navigation.
    • This robot can be controlled and monitored by a nursing booth with a control station having such features as navigation, drawer activation for providing medicines and food to patients, sample collection and audio-visual communication.
    • The cost of this device is less than Rs 5 lakh and the weight is less than 80 kilograms.

  • [pib] Super-luminous Supernova SN 2010kd

    Indian researchers have found that SN 2010kd, a super-luminous supernova stands out with the amount of mass as well as Nickel ejected during explosion.

    Space science-related terms these days are often focused on Gravitational waves, Black holes etc. But basic terminologies are very important and need to be taken care of. For example, a layman may hardly find any difference between Novae-Supernovae, Neutron star, Nebula etc. UPSC often tries to bust you with such basic differences.

    What are Supernovae?

    • Supernovae are kind of energetic explosions were the core of massive stars (a few times to that of the mass of our Sun) goes to a catastrophic phase of explosion liberating huge amounts of energy and mass.
    • These events are visible through very far away distances much beyond our own solar system.
    • Super-luminous supernovae are a special type of stellar explosions having energy output 10 or more times higher than that of standard supernovae.

    What is so distinct about SN 2010kd?

    • The mass ejection from SN 2010kd is metallic and is much more than seen in case of normal core-collapse supernovae.
    • The scientists found that SN 2010kd exploded with a larger velocity but decayed slower than other similar supernovae.
    • The observations show that parameters like rotation and metallicity play a crucial role in stellar explosions.

  • [pib] Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) rates and its fixation

    Union Cabinet has approved fixation of Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) rates for Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) fertilizers for the year 2020-21.

     

    Fertilizer subsidy  accounts for large fiscal subsidies (about 0.73 lakh crore or 0.5 per cent of GDP), the second-highest after food.  We can expect a question like – “Discuss the role of NBS in ensuring land fertility and farm productivity in India.”

     

    About Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) Scheme

    • The NBS Scheme for fertilizer was initiated in the year 2010 and is being implemented by the Department of Fertilizers.
    • Government is making available fertilizers, Urea and 21 grades of P&K fertilizers to farmers at subsidized prices through fertilizer manufacturers/importers.

    What NBS provides?

    • The scheme allows the manufacturers, marketers, and importers to fix the MRP of the Phosphatic and Potash fertilizers at reasonable levels.
    • The MRP will be decided considering the domestic and international prices of P&K fertilizers, inventory level in the country and the exchange rates.
    • The NBS ensures that adequate quantity of P&K is made available to the farmers at a statutory controlled price.

    Fertilizers covered

    • Under this, a fixed amount of subsidy decided on an annual basis is provided on each grade of subsidized Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) fertilizers, except for Urea based on the nutrient content present in them.
    • It is largely for secondary nutrients like N, P, S and K and micronutrients which are very important for crop growth and development.
    • In India, urea is the only controlled fertilizer and is sold at a statutory notified uniform sale price.