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Type: Prelims Only

  • Thanjavur Art Plates

    The makers of the Thanjavur Art Plate, with its roots in a craft that dates back to the Marathas of the 1800s, are banding together for its cultural and commercial rejuvenation.

    Must read:

    All time GI tags in news

    Thanjavur Art Plates

    • The Thanjavur Art Plate is an artefact which is exclusively made in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India.
    • It is a circular plate made as a gift item. It is a handicraft consisting of metals such as silver, bronze, and copper embossed with figures of gods and goddesses at its centre.
    • Patronised by Maratha ruler Serfoji II (1777-1832), Thanjavur Kalai craftsmen were kept busy with orders for royal gifts, mostly decorative salvers, jewel boxes and vessels like water pots and ewers.
    • In its contemporary version, the craft has been commercially reinterpreted as ‘Thanjavur kalai thattu’ or Thanjavur Art Plate, a ceremonial platter made with silver, copper and brass layers in three stages.
    • The base is plated with alternate copper and silver panels, a bigger embossed silver motif on the central section, and the setting of globular jigna or sequins in the secondary relief.
    • It was given a Geographical Indications (GI) tag in 2007, as a proof of its long heritage.

    Back2Basics: Geographical Indications in India

    • A Geographical Indication is used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.
    • Such a name conveys an assurance of quality and distinctiveness which is essentially attributable to its origin in that defined geographical locality.
    • This tag is valid for a period of 10 years following which it can be renewed.
    • Recently the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry has launched the logo and tagline for the Geographical Indications (GI) of India.
    • The first product to get a GI tag in India was the Darjeeling tea in 2004.
    • The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 (GI Act) is a sui generis Act for the protection of GI in India.
    • India, as a member of the WTO, enacted the Act to comply with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
    • Geographical Indications protection is granted through the TRIPS Agreement.

  • Places in news: Mullaperiyar Dam

    The Mullaperiyar dam has recently turned 125.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q. What is common to the places known as Aliyar, Isapur and Kangsabati?

    (a) Recently discovered uranium deposits

    (b) Tropical rain forests

    (c) Underground cave systems

    (d) Water reservoirs

    Mullaperiyar Dam

    • It is a masonry gravity dam on the Periyar River in the Indian state of Kerala.
    • It is located 881 m above mean sea level, on the Cardamom Hills of the Western Ghats in Thekkady, Idukki District of Kerala.
    • It was constructed between 1887 and 1895 by John Pennycuick and also reached in an agreement to divert water eastwards to the Madras Presidency area (present-day Tamil Nadu).
    • Pennycuick is widely worshipped as a hero by farmers in the four districts of southern Tamil Nadu, where water from the dam meets the drinking water needs and irrigates thousands of hectares.

    Why is the dam special?

    • The dam was constructed surmounting many odds, with malaria and thick jungles taking a toll on workers. It was a huge challenge before him to construct the dam and divert the river course.
    • Pennycuick sowed the seeds of river interlinking to bring barren and rain-starved areas under cultivation.
    • To fund dam construction, gold ornaments were donated by Chettiar families and farmers in Cumbom valley also gave their meagre savings to Pennycuick.
    • Pennycuick even sold his ancestral property in Britain and spent the amount for completing the works of the dam when the expenses exceeded the allotted funds.
    • The British government endowed him with the ‘Companion of Star of India’, a high civilian honour. He died on March 9, 1911, at Frimley in Britain.

  • What are Hybrid Funds?

    This newscard is an excerpt from an originally FAQ published in TH.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Which of the following is issued by registered foreign portfolio investors to overseas investors who want to be part of the Indian stock market without registering themselves directly?

    (a) Certificate of Deposit

    (b) Commercial Paper

    (c) Promissory Note

    (d) Participatory Note

    Hybrid Fund

    • A hybrid fund is one that invests in both equity and bonds. So, such funds ought to help investors with their asset allocation decision.
    • This refers to how you allocate your annual savings between equity and bond investments.
    • Suppose you are unsure of the proportion of equity and bond investments to have in your portfolio.
    • By investing in a hybrid fund, you could outsource your asset allocation decision to the manager of the fund, so the argument goes.
    • The issue is that each goal you pursue requires different asset allocation. For instance, the asset allocation for your child’s education portfolio must be different from your retirement portfolio.
    • Hybrid funds cannot consider your individual goal requirement as it is a collective investment vehicle.

    Tax efficiency of the fund

    • Based on current tax laws, a hybrid fund that holds 65% or more in equity is considered as an equity fund.
    • So, if you redeem your units in such hybrid funds after a holding period of more than 12 months, you have to pay long-term capital gains tax of 10%.
    • If a hybrid fund holds less than 65% in equity, you have to pay 20% capital gains tax with indexation if you sell your units after a holding period of more than 36 months.

    Back2Basics: Stocks vs. Bonds vs. Equity

    • A stock represents a collection of shares in a company which is entitled to receive a fixed amount of dividend at the end of the relevant financial year which are mostly called Equity of the company.
    • Bonds term is associated with debt raised by the company from outsiders which carry a fixed ratio of return each year and can be earned as they are generally for a fixed period of time.
    • Bonds are actually loans that are secured by a specific physical asset.
    • It highlights the amount of debt taken with a promise to pay the principal amount in the future and periodically offering them the yields at a pre-decided percentage.
    • Equity is ownership of assets that may have debts or other liabilities attached to them. Equity is measured for accounting purposes by subtracting liabilities from the value of an asset.

  • What are ‘Chapter Proceedings’ by Police?

    The Mumbai police last week began “chapter proceedings” against the Editor-in-Chief of a news channel.

    Can you relate the philosophy behind chapter proceedings and preventive detention?

    What exactly are “chapter proceedings”?

    • Chapter proceedings are preventive actions taken by the police if they fear that a particular person is likely to create trouble and disrupt the peace in society.
    • These proceedings are unlike punitive action taken in case of an FIR with an intention to punish.
    • Here, the police can issue notices under sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure to ensure that the person is aware that creating nuisance could result in action against him.

    What are the sections using which these notices are served?

    • Generally, a notice is issued to a person under section 111 of the CrPC whereby he is asked to present himself before the Executive Magistrate – an ACP-rank officer in a Commissionerate of a Dy. the collector in rural areas – who has issued the notice.
    • The person has to explain why he should not be made to sign a bond of good behaviour.
    • If the Executive Magistrate is not satisfied with the answer, the person is asked to sign a bond of good behaviour and produce sureties vouching for his/her good behaviour.
    • A fine amount is also decided – in accordance with the crime and the person’s financial capability – which the person would have to pay if he violates the conditions set in the bond.

    Legal immunities against such proceedings

    • On receiving the notice under section 111, a person can appeal the notice before the courts.
    • In fact, in the past, courts have come down strongly against chapter proceedings in some cases.

  • National Authority of Ship Recycling (NASR)

    The Central government has notified the Director-General of Shipping as the national authority for recycling of ships under the Recycling of Ships Act, 2019.

    The ‘Hong Kong Convention’ is the odd man out here. Read more about the convention at:

    https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/pib-hong-kong-international-convention-for-safe-recycling-of-ships-2009/

    About NASR

    • The national authority of ship recycling will be set up in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
    • The location of the office will benefit the ship recycling yard owners situated in Alang, Gujarat which is home to the largest ship recycling industry in the world.
    • DG Shipping is authorized to administer, supervise and monitor all activities relating to ship recycling in the country.
    • DG Shipping will oversee the sustainable development of the ship recycling industry, monitoring the compliance to environment-friendly norms and safety and health measures for the stakeholders.
    • DG Shipping will be the final authority for the various approvals required by the ship-recycling yard owners and state governments.

    Recycling of Ships Act, 2019

    • Under the Ship Recycling Act, 2019, India has acceded to the ‘Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships’.
    • This was adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
    • DG Shipping is a representative of India in the IMO and all the conventions of IMO are being enforced by DG Shipping.

  • New Shephard Rocket System

    New Shephard, a rocket system meant to take tourists to space successfully completed its seventh test launch.

    Note the features of the Karman Line. It is a new terminolgy in our recent space vocab.

    What is New Shephard?

    • New Shephard has been named after astronaut Alan Shephard, the first American to go to space, and offers flights to space over 100 km above the Earth and accommodation for payloads.
    • Essentially, it is a rocket system that has been designed to take astronauts and research payloads past the Karman line – the internationally recognised boundary of space.
    • The idea is to provide easier and more cost-effective access to space meant for purposes such as academic research, corporate technology development and entrepreneurial ventures among others.
    • It is built by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Space Company called Blue Origin.
    • In 2018, Blue Origin was one of the ten companies selected by NASA to conduct studies and advance technologies to collect process and use space-based resources for missions to the Moon and Mars.

    How does it work?

    • The rocket system consists of two parts, the cabin or capsule and the rocket or the booster.
    • The cabin can accommodate experiments from small mini payloads up to 100 kg.
    • The cabin is designed for six people and sits atop a 60-feet tall rocket and separates from it before crossing the Karman line, after which both vehicles fall back to the Earth.
    • The system is a fully reusable, vertical takeoff and vertical landing space vehicle that accelerates for about 2.5 minutes before the engine cuts off.
    • After separating from the booster, the capsule free falls in space, while the booster performs an autonomously controlled vertical landing back to Earth.
    • The capsule, on the other hand, lands back with the help of parachutes.

    Back2Basics: Karman line

    • The Karman line is an attempt to define a boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.
    • The line is named after Theodore von Kármán (1881–1963), a Hungarian American engineer and physicist, who was active primarily in aeronautics and astronautics.
    • He was the first person to calculate the altitude at which the atmosphere becomes too thin to support aeronautical flight and arrived at 83.6 km (51.9 miles) himself.

    Locating the line

    • The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) defines Karman Line as the altitude of 100 kilometres (62 miles; 330,000 feet) above Earth’s mean sea level.
    • However, other organizations do not use this definition. There is no international law defining the edge of space, and therefore the limit of national airspace.
    • For instance, the US Air Force and NASA define the limit to be 50 miles (80 km) above sea level.
    • The line is approximately at the turbopause, above which atmospheric gases are not well-mixed.

  • Mars ‘Opposition’ Event

    Due to an event referred to as “opposition”, which takes place every two years and two months, Mars will shine the brightest.

    Try this question from CSP 2017:

    Q.Which region of Mars has a densely packed river deposit indicating this planet had water 3.5 billion years ago?

    (a) Aeolis Dorsa (b) Tharsis (c) Olympus Mons (d) Hellas

    What is the Opposition Event?

    • ‘Opposition’ is the event when the sun, Earth and an outer planet (Mars in this case) are lined up, with the Earth in the middle.
    • The time of opposition is the point when the outer planet is typically also at its closest distance to the Earth for a given year, and because it is close, the planet appears brighter in the sky.
    • An opposition can occur anywhere along Mars’ orbit, but when it happens when the planet is also closest to the sun, it is also particularly close to the Earth.
    • It will outshine Jupiter, becoming the third brightest object (moon and Venus are first and second, respectively) in the night sky during the month of October.

    When does opposition happen?

    • Earth and Mars orbit the sun at different distances (Mars is farther apart from the sun than Earth and therefore takes longer to complete one lap around the sun).
    • In fact, the opposition can happen only for planets that are farther away from the sun than the Earth.
    • In the case of Mars, roughly every two years, the Earth passes between sun and Mars, this is when the three are arranged in a straight line.
    • Further, as the Earth and Mars orbit the sun, there comes a point when they are on the opposite sides of it, and hence very far apart. At its farthest, Mars is about 400 million km from the Earth.
    • In case of opposition, however, Mars and Sun are on directly opposite sides of the Earth. In other words, the Earth, sun and Mars all lie in a straight line, with the Earth in the middle.

    Logic behind the name

    • As per NASA, from an individual’s perspective on the Earth, Mars rises in the east and after staying up all night, it sets in the west just as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
    • Because from the perspective on Earth, the sun and Mars appear to be on the opposite sides of the sky, Mars is said to be in “opposition”.
    • Essentially, the opposition is a reference to “opposing the sun” in the sky.

  • National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)

    The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has launched the second phase of the ambitious National Supercomputing Mission (NSM).

    Tap to read more about National Supercomputing Mission (NSM):

    [pib] National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)

    National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)

    • NSM is a proposed plan by GoI to create a cluster of seventy supercomputers connecting various academic and research institutions across India.
    • In April 2015 the government approved the NSM with a total outlay of Rs.4500 crore for a period of 7 years.
    • The mission was set up to provide the country with supercomputing infrastructure to meet the increased computational demands of academia, researchers, MSMEs, and startups by creating the capability design, manufacturing, of supercomputers indigenously in India.
    • Currently, there are four supercomputers from India in the Top 500 list of supercomputers in the world.

    Aims and objectives

    • The target of the mission was set to establish a network of supercomputers ranging from a few Tera Flops (TF) to Hundreds of Tera Flops (TF) and three systems with greater than or equal to 3 Peta Flops (PF) in academic and research institutions of National importance across the country by 2022.
    • This network of Supercomputers envisaging a total of 15-20 PF was approved in 2015 and was later revised to a total of 45 PF (45000 TFs), a jump of 6 times more compute power within the same cost and capable of solving large and complex computational problems.

    What is a Supercomputer?

    • A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer.
    • The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instructions per second (MIPS).
    • Since 2017, there are supercomputers which can perform over a hundred quadrillion FLOPS (petaFLOPS).
    • Since November 2017, all of the world’s fastest 500 supercomputers run Linux-based operating systems.

    Why do we need supercomputers?

    • Tackle problems: Developed and almost-developed countries have begun ensuring high investments in supercomputers to boost their economies and tackle new social problems.
    • These high-performance computers can simulate the real world, by processing massive amounts of data, making cars and planes safer, and more fuel-efficient and environment-friendly.
    • They also aid in the extraction of new sources of oil and gas, development of alternative energy sources, and advancement in medical sciences.
    • Disaster Management: Supercomputers have also helped weather forecasters to accurately predict severe storms, enable better mitigation planning and warning systems.
    • They are also used by financial services, manufacturing and internet companies and infrastructure systems like water-supply networks, energy grids, and transportation.
    • Future applications of artificial intelligence (AI) also depend on supercomputing.
    • Due to the potential of this technology, countries like the US, China, France, Germany, Japan, and Russia have created national-level supercomputing strategies and are investing substantially in these programmes.

    When did India initiate its efforts to build supercomputers?

    • India’s supercomputer programme initiated in the late 1980s, when the United States ceased the export of a Cray Supercomputer due to technology embargos.
    • This resulted in India setting up C-DAC in 1988, which in 1991, unveiled the prototype of PARAM 800, benchmarked at 5 Gflops. This supercomputer was the second-fastest in the world at that time.
    • Since June 2018, the USA’s Summit is the fastest supercomputer in the world, taking away this position from China.
    • As of January 2018, Pratyush and Mihir are the fastest supercomputers in India with a maximum speed of Peta Flops.

  • Greater Male Connectivity Project (GMCP)

    Following up on India’s announcement of a $500 million package to the Maldives, the Exim Bank of India and the Maldives’s Ministry of Finance signed an agreement for $400 million in Male.

    Try this question from 2014:

    Q.Which one of the following pairs of islands is separated from each other by the ‘Ten Degree Channel’?

    (a) Andaman and Nicobar

    (b) Nicobar and Sumatra

    (c) Maldives and Lakshadweep

    (d) Sumatra and Java

    Greater Male Connectivity Project

    • The GMCP consists of a number of bridges and causeways to connect Male to Villingili, Thilafushi and Gulhifahu islands that span 6.7 km.
    • It would ease much of the pressure of the main capital island of Male for commercial and residential purposes.
    • When completed, the project would render the Chinese built Sinamale Friendship bridge connecting Male to two other islands, thus far the most visible infrastructure project in the islands.
    • At present, India-assisted projects in the region include water and sewerage projects on 34 islands, reclamation project for the Addl island, a port on Gulhifalhu, airport redevelopment at Hanimadhoo, and a hospital and a cricket stadium in Hulhumale.

  • Indian Sat: Another satellite made by students

    An experimental satellite developed by three students of Karur (TN) has been selected for launch in sub-orbital space by NASA.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.The term ‘IndARC’, sometimes seen in the news, is the name of:

    (a) An indigenously developed radar system inducted into Indian Defence

    (b) India’s satellite to provide services to the countries of Indian Ocean Rim

    (c) A scientific establishment set up by India in Antarctic region

    (d) India’s underwater observatory to scientifically study the Arctic region

    Indian Sat

    • The Indian Sat is made of reinforced graphene polymer. It is 3 cm in size and weighs 64 gm.
    • It has its own radio frequency communication to transmit and receive a signal from earth to outer space. The solar cells attached to the satellite generate power for it.
    • The photographic film will absorb and measure the cosmic radiation inside the rocket.
    • It would study the effect of reinforced graphene polymers in microgravity. It would be in sub-orbital space flight for a few minutes before landing in the ocean.

    What is micro-gravity?

    • The term micro-g environment is more or less synonymous with the terms weightlessness and zero-g, but with an emphasis on the fact that g-forces are never exactly zero—it is just very small.
    • On the ISS, for example, the small g-forces come from tidal effects, gravity from objects other than the Earth, such as astronauts, the spacecraft, and the Sun, and, occasionally, air resistance.

    Back2Basics: Femto-satellites

    • Femto-satellites are satellites with a mass lower than 100 grams.
    • These new categories of satellites are, by concept, low cost devices if they are based on Commercial-of-the-Shelf (COTS) components.
    • Some examples of applications are related to low-cost missions with a short time of development.

     Kalamsat

    • Kalamsat was a communication satellite with a life span of two months launched in 2017.
    • The nanosatellite is a 10cm cube weighing 1.2 kg.
    • It will be the first to use the rocket’s fourth stage as an orbital platform.
    • The fourth stage will be moved to higher circular orbit so as to establish an orbital platform for carrying out experiments.
    • It is named after former Indian president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and was built by an Indian high school student team, led by Rifath Sharook, an 18-year-old from the Tamil Nadu town of Pallapatti.
    • It is the world’s lightest and first-ever 3D-printed satellite.