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Type: Prelims Only

  • Yada Yada Virus

    A new virus detected in Australian mosquitoes has been provisionally named the Yada Yada virus (YYV).

    Yada Yada

    • It is an alphavirus, a group of viruses that the researchers described as small, single-stranded positive-sense RNA viruses.
    • It includes species important to human and animal health, such as Chikungunya virus and Eastern equine encephalitis virus.
    • They are transmitted primarily by mosquitoes and (are) pathogenic in their vertebrate hosts.
    • Unlike some other alphaviruses, Yada Yada does not pose a threat to human beings.

  • GSAT-30 successfully launched

    India’s first satellite of 2020, the GSAT-30 was successfully launched. The launch vehicle Ariane 5 VA-251 lifted off from Kourou Launch Base, French Guiana.

    GSAT-30 

    • GSAT-30 derives  its  heritage  from ISRO’s  earlier INSAT/GSAT  satellite  series  and  will  replace  INSAT-4A  in 
    • In the  days  ahead,  orbit-raising  manoeuvres  will  be  performed  to  place  the satellite  in  Geostationary  Orbit  (36,000  km  above  the  equator)  by  using  its  onboard  propulsion
    • During the  final  stages  of  its  orbit  raising  operations,  the  two  solar  arrays  and  the antenna  reflectors  of  GSAT-30  will  be
    • Following this,  the satellite will be  put in  its final orbital .     The satellite will  be  operational  after  the successful  completion  of  all in-orbit  tests.

    Utility of the satellite

    • GSAT-30 will provide  DTH  Television  Services, connectivity to  VSATs for  ATM,  Stock-exchange,  Television unlinking and Teleport  Services,  Digital  Satellite  News  Gathering  (DSNG)  and e-governance applications.
    • The satellite  will  also  be  used  for  bulk  data  transfer  for  a  host  of an emerging  telecommunication

  • Exercise ‘Sahyog-Kaijin’

    Exercise ‘Sahyog-Kaijin’

    • Indian and Japanese coast guards participated in a joint exercise ‘Sahyog-Kaijin’ on January 16.
    • The aim behind ‘Sahyog-Kaijin’ is to strengthen the bond between the two countries.
    • One ship of the Japanese Coast Guard and four ships and an aircraft of the Indian Coast Guard participated in the joint exercise.
    • The drill is a five-day event.

  • Eruption of Taal Volcano

     

    In the Philippines, a volcano called Taal on the island of Luzon; 50 km from Manila has recently erupted.

    Taal Volcano

    • Taal is classified as a “complex” volcano. Taal has 47 craters and four maars (a broad shallow crater).
    • It is situated at the boundaries of two tectonic plates — the Philippines Sea Plate and the Eurasian plate — it is particularly susceptible to earthquakes and volcanism.
    • A complex volcano, also called a compound volcano, is defined as one that consists of a complex of two or more vents, or a volcano that has an associated volcanic dome, either in its crater or on its flanks.
    • Examples include Vesuvius, besides Taal.
    • The Taal volcano does not rise from the ground as a distinct, singular dome but consists of multiple stratovolcanoes (volcanoes susceptible to explosive eruptions), conical hills and craters of all shapes and sizes.

    Threats posed

    • Taal’s closeness to Manila puts lives at stake. Manila is a few tens of kilometres away with a population of over 10 million.
    • The volcano is currently at alert level 4, which means that a “hazardous eruption” could be imminent within a few hours to a few days.
    • Hazardous eruptions are characterised by intense unrest, continuing seismic swarms and low-frequency earthquakes.

    Earlier records of eruption

    • Taal has erupted more than 30 times in the last few centuries. Its last eruption was on October 3, 1977.
    • An eruption in 1965 was considered particularly catastrophic, marked by the falling of rock fragments and ashfall.
    • Before that, there was a “very violent” eruption in 1911 from the main crater. The 1911 eruption lasted for three days, while one in 1754 lasted for seven months.
    • Because it is a complex volcano with various features, the kinds of eruption too have been varied. An eruption can send lava flowing through the ground, or cause a threat through ash in the air.

  • Artemis Mission

    NASA wants to send the first woman and the next man to the Moon by the year 2024, which it plans on doing through the Artemis lunar exploration program. An Indian American astronaut named Raja Chari is set to accompany the crew in this mission.

    Artemis Mission

    • In 2011, NASA began the ARTEMIS (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s Interaction with the Sun) mission using a pair of repurposed spacecraft and in 2012 the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft studied the Moon’s gravity.
    • For the program, NASA’s new rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS) will send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft a quarter of a million miles away from Earth to the lunar orbit.
    • The astronauts going for the Artemis program will wear newly designed spacesuits, called Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or xEMU.
    • These spacesuits feature advanced mobility and communications and interchangeable parts that can be configured for spacewalks in microgravity or on a planetary surface.

  • Kaziranga National Park

    Kaziranga, home of the world’s most one-horned rhinos, has 96 species of wetland birds — one of the highest for wildlife preserves in India.

    Kaziranga National Park

    • It is a protected area in the northeast state of Assam.
    • Spread across the floodplains of the Brahmaputra River, its forests, wetlands and grasslands are home to tigers, elephants and the world’s largest population of Indian one-horned rhinoceroses.
    • Much of the focus of conservation efforts in Kaziranga are focused on the ‘big four’ species— rhino, elephant, Royal Bengal tiger and Asiatic water buffalo.
    • The 2018 census had yielded 2,413 rhinos and approximately 1,100 elephants.
    • The tiger census of 2014 said Kaziranga had an estimated 103 tigers, the third highest population of the striped cat in India after Jim Corbett National Park (215) in Uttarakhand and Bandipur National Park (120) in Karnataka.
    • Kaziranga is also home to nine of the 14 species of primates found in the Indian subcontinent.

  • Places in news: Kolkata Port

    PM Modi has renamed the Kolkata Port Trust after Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, at an event to mark its 150th anniversary.

    History of Kolkata’s port

    • In the early 16th century, the Portuguese first used the present location of the port to anchor their ships, since they found the upper reaches of the Hooghly river beyond Kolkata, unsafe for navigation.
    • Job Charnock, an employee and administrator of the East India Company, is believed to have founded a trading post at the site in 1690.
    • Since the area was situated on the river with jungle on three sides, it was considered safe from enemy invasion.
    • After the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833, this port was used to ship lakhs of Indians as ‘indentured labourers’ to far-flung territories throughout the Empire.
    • During World War II, the port was bombed by Japanese forces.

    Its administration

    • As Kolkata grew in size and importance, merchants in the city demanded the setting up of a port trust in 1863.
    • The colonial government formed a River Trust in 1866, but it soon failed, and administration was again taken up by the government.
    • Finally, in 1870, the Calcutta Port Act (Act V of 1870) was passed, creating the offices of Calcutta Port Commissioners.
    • In 1869 and 1870, eight jetties were built on the Strand. A wet dock was set up at Khidirpur in 1892. The Khidirpur Dock II was completed in 1902.
    • As cargo traffic at the port grew, so did the requirement of more kerosene, leading to the building of a petroleum wharf at Budge Budge in 1896.
    • In 1925, the Garden Reach jetty was added to accommodate greater cargo traffic. A new dock, named King George’s Dock, was commissioned in 1928 (it was renamed Netaji Subhash Dock in 1973).
    • In 1975, the Commissioners of the port ceased to control it after the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963, came into force.

    Significance

    • After Independence, the Kolkata Port lost its preeminent position in cargo traffic to ports at Mumbai, Kandla, Chennai, and Visakhapatnam.
    • The Kolkata port is the only riverine port on R. Hooghly in the country, situated 203 km from the sea.
    • The Farakka Barrage, built in 1975, reduced some of the port’s woes as Ganga waters were diverted into the Bhagirathi-Hooghly system.

  • Person in news: Swami Vivekananda

    January 12 is the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, the famous spiritual leader and intellectual from the late 19th century. In his honour, the government of India in 1984 declared his birthday as National Youth Day.

    Swami Vivekananda early life

    • Vivekananda was born in Kolkata on January 12, 1863, as Narendra Nath Datta.
    • From an early age, he nurtured an interest in Western philosophy, history, and theology, and went on to meet the religious leader Ramakrishna Paramhansa, who later became his Guru.
    • He remained devoted to Ramakrishna until the latter’s death in 1886.
    • In 1893, he took the name ‘Vivekananda’ after Maharaja Ajit Singh of the Khetri State requested him to do so, changing from ‘Sachidananda’ that he used before.
    • After Ramakrishna’s death, Vivekananda toured across India, and set after educating the masses about ways to improve their economic condition as well as imparting spiritual knowledge.

    The Chicago address

    • Vivekananda is especially remembered around the world for his speech at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1893.
    • The speech covered topics including universal acceptance, tolerance and religion, and got him a standing ovation.
    • He began delivering lectures at various places in the US and UK, and became popular as the ‘messenger of Indian wisdom to the Western world’.

    Return to India

    • After coming back to India, he formed the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897 “to set in motion a machinery which will bring noblest ideas to the doorstep of even the poorest and the meanest.”
    • In 1899, he established the Belur Math, which became his permanent abode.

    His legacy

    • Through his speeches and lectures, Vivekananda worked to disseminate his religious thought.
    • He preached ‘neo-Vedanta’, an interpretation of Hinduism through a Western lens, and believed in combining spirituality with material progress.
    • ‘Raja Yoga’, ‘Jnana Yoga’, ‘Karma Yoga’ are some of the books he wrote.
    • An important religious reformer in India, Swami Vivekananda is known to have introduced the Hindu philosophies of Yoga and Vedanta to the West.
    • Subhas Chandra Bose had called Vivekananda the “maker of modern India.”

  • Species in news: Chinese paddlefish

    One of the largest freshwater species, Chinese paddlefish has been declared extinct.

    Chinese paddlefish

    • The Chinese paddlefish (Psephurus gladius) was an iconic species, measuring up to 7 m in length, dating back from 200 million years ago, and therefore swimming the rivers when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.
    • Its ancestral home was the Yangtze River.
    • It was once common in the Yangtze, before overfishing and habitat fragmentation — including dam building — caused its population to dwindle from the 1970s onwards.
    • Between 1981 and 2003, there were just around 210 sightings of the fish. The researchers estimate that it became functionally extinct by 1993, and extinct sometime between 2005-2010.

    How did the study determine that it has gone extinct?

    • Chinese researchers made this conclusion based on the Red List criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
    • The Red List has several categories for extinction, or for how endangered a species is.
    • For example, “extinct in the wild” means a species survives only in a captive environment while “locally extinct” means a species has ceased to exist in a particular area but may exist in other areas.
    • Then there is “functionally extinct”, which means the species continues to exist but it has too few members to enable to reproduce meaningfully enough to ensure survival.
    • To be “globally extinct”, it means a species has no surviving member anywhere. Such a conclusion is reached when there is no reasonable doubt left that its last member has died.

    How does extinction status matters for conservation?

    • Declaring a species extinct is an elaborate process.
    • It involves a series of exhaustive surveys, which need to be taken at appropriate times, throughout the species’ historic range and over a time-frame that is appropriate to the species’ life cycle and form.
    • When these surveys fail to record the existence of any individuals belonging to that species, a species may be presumed to be extinct.
    • Once declared extinct, a species is not eligible for protective measures and conservation funding; therefore, the declaration has significant consequences.

  • Coronavirus

    A new virus has been identified by Chinese researchers which is responsible for a new pneumonia-like illness.

    Coronavirus

    • Coronaviruses are a specific family of viruses, with some of them causing less-severe damage, such as the common cold, and others causing respiratory and intestinal diseases.
    • A coronavirus has many “regularly arranged” protrusions on its surface, because of which the entire virus particle looks like an emperor’s crown, hence the name “coronavirus”.
    • Apart from human beings, coronaviruses can affect mammals including pigs, cattle, cats, dogs, martens, camels, hedgehogs and some birds.
    • So far, there are four known disease-causing coronaviruses, among which the best known are the SARS coronavirus and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus, both of which can cause severe respiratory diseases.