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Type: Prelims Only

  • India’s first ‘fruit train’

     

    A ‘fruit train’, said to be the first of its kind in India, was flagged off from Tadipatri Railway Station in Anantapur district of Andhra.

    About the fruit train

    • This is the first time in India that an entire train is being sent to the gateway port (JNPT) for export.
    • This helps save both time and fuel as 150 trucks would have been required to send a consignment of this size by road to JNPT, which is over 900 km away, before the temperature-controlled containers are loaded on ships.
    • The bananas are being exported under the brand name ‘Happy Bananas’.
    • Farmers from Putlur region in Anantapur and Pulivendula in Kadapa district are exporting ‘Green Cavendish’ bananas to many international markets.

  • Nagoba Jatara

    The month long Nagoba Jatara recently concluded in Adilabad dist. of AP.

    Nagoba Jatara

    • Nagoba Jatara is a tribal festival held in Keslapur village, Inderavelly Mandal[1] Adilabad district, Telangana, India.
    • It is the second biggest tribal carnival and celebrated by Mesaram clan of Gond tribes for 10 days.
    • Tribal people from Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh belonging to the Mesram clan offer prayers at the festival.
    • It starts in pushya masam. A ceremony of ‘bheting’ is it’s integral part where the new brides are introduced to the clan god during first jatra afer their marriage
    • The few hundred Raj Gond and Pardhan Adivasis, men clad in pure white dhoti-kurta and the pagdi headgear and women in the traditional colourful nau-vari Maharashtrian style saree.
    • The temple for which a new structure is coming up is dedicated to the serpent god, known as Shri Shek to the aboriginal people, and is the centre of all activities during the week long festivities.

  • Beating Retreat Ceremony

    The Beating Retreat ceremony recently took place at Vijay Chowk. The ceremony, which takes place on January 29 every year, marks the culmination of the four-day Republic Day celebrations.

    What is the Beating Retreat function?

    • ‘Beating Retreat’ marks a centuries old military tradition, when the troops ceased fighting, sheathed their arms and withdrew from the battlefield and returned to the camps at sunset at the sounding of the Retreat.
    • The military tradition began in 17th century England, when King James II ordered his troops to beat drums, lower flags and organise a parade to announce the end of a day of combat.
    • The ceremony was then called ‘watch setting’ and took place at sunset after firing a single round from the evening gun.
    • The ceremony is currently held by Armed Forces in the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and India, among others.

    How did it begin in India?

    • Beating the Retreat’ has emerged as an event of national pride when the Colours and Standards are paraded.
    • The ceremony traces its origins to the early 1950s when Major Roberts of the Indian Army indigenously developed the unique ceremony of display by the massed bands.
    • Section D (Ceremonials) at the Ministry of Defence conducts the event.
    • The ceremony consists of musical performances by the bands, who each year play Indian and western tunes.

  • No-fly List

    Four airlines in India have banned a stand-up comedian from taking flights after he allegedly heckled television news anchor on-flight.

    No-Fly List

    • In 2017, the government issued rules for preventing disruptive behaviour by air travellers and laid down guidelines for a no-fly list.
    • As per the rules, a complaint of unruly behaviour needs to be filed by the pilot-in-command, and this is to be probed by an internal committee to be set up by the airline.
    • During the period of pendency of the inquiry, the rules empower the concerned airline to impose a ban on the passenger.
    • The committee is to decide the matter within 30 days, and also specify the ban duration.
    • Any aggrieved person, upon receipt of communication of a ban from the airline, may appeal within 60 days from the date of issue of the order, to an Appellate Committee constituted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

    Three categories of unruly behaviour:

    • Level 1 refers to behaviour that is verbally unruly, and calls for debarment up to three months;
    • Level 2 indicates physical unruliness and can lead to the passenger being debarred from flying for up to six months;
    • Level 3 indicates life-threatening behaviour for which the debarment would be for a minimum of two years.

     

  • [pib] Operation Vanilla

    Indian navy will perform HADR operations in Madagascar under ‘Operation Vanilla’.

    Operation Vanilla

    • Indian Navy Ship Airavat whilst mission deployed in the Southern Indian Ocean has been diverted to Antsiranana based on request recieved from Madagascar.
    • The ship will undertake Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) mission as part of ‘Operation Vanilla’.
    • It has been launched to provide assistance to the affected population of Madagascar post devastation caused by Cyclone Diane.

  • Oslo Peace Accord

     

    Palestinian officials threatened to withdraw from key provisions of the Oslo Accords, which define relations with Israel, if U.S. President Donald Trump announces his Middle East peace plan next week.

    The Oslo Peace Accord

    • The Oslo Accords were a landmark moment in the pursuit of peace in the Middle East.
    • Actually a set of two separate agreements signed by the government of Israel and the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)—the militant organization established in 1964 to create a Palestinian state.
    • The negotiations between Israel and the PLO that ultimately led to the Oslo Accords began, in secret, in Oslo, Norway, in 1993.
    • The Oslo Accords were ratified in Washington, D.C., in 1993 (Oslo I) and in Taba, Egypt, in 1995 (Oslo II).
    • Sometimes called Oslo II, the interim agreement set out the scope of Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza.
    • The interim pact was only supposed to last five years while a permanent agreement was finalised but it has tacitly been rolled over for more than two decades.

    A final nail in the coffin

    • World powers have long agreed that Jerusalem’s fate should be settled through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
    • The Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and believe Trump’s plan buries the two-state solution that has been for decades the cornerstone of international Middle East diplomacy.

  • Species in news: Natrialba Swarupiae

    • Scientists at the National Centre for Microbial Resource — National Centre for Cell Science (NCMR-NCCS) in Pune have reported a new archaeon (a kind of microorganism), which they discovered in Sambhar Salt Lake in Rajasthan.
    • The new archaeon has been named Natrialba swarupiae, after Dr Renu Swarup, secretary, Department of Biotechnology, for her initiative in supporting microbial diversity studies in the country.

    Archaea

    • Archaea (singular archaeon) are a primitive group of microorganisms that thrive in extreme habitats such as hot springs, cold deserts and hypersaline lakes.
    • These slow-growing organisms are also present in the human gut, and have a potential relationship with human health.
    • They are known for producing antimicrobial molecules, and for anti-oxidant activity with applications in eco-friendly waste-water treatment.
    • Archaea are extremely difficult to culture due to challenges in providing natural conditions in a laboratory setting.
    • As archaea are relatively poorly studied, very little is known about how archaea behave in the human body.
    • The organism has potential gene clusters that helps maintain the metabolism of the archaea to survive in extreme harsh conditions.

    Search and discovery

    • Sambhar Lake has been poorly studied for microbial ecology studies.
    • With a salt production of 0.2 million tonnes per annum, it is also a hypersaline ecosystem which provides an opportunity for microbial ecologists to understand organisms that thrive in such concentrations.

  • Specialized Supervisory and Regulatory Cadre (SSRC)

    The RBI has decided to recruit 35% of the specialised supervisory and regulatory cadre from the market while the remaining 65% will be recruited via internal promotions.

    Specialized Supervisory and Regulatory Cadre (SSRC)

    • The SSRC will comprise officers in Grade B to Executive Director level.
    • In Nov. last year RBI decided to reorganize its regulation and supervision departments.
    • It merged the three regulatory departments (department of banking, non-banking and cooperative bank) into one and did likewise for the three supervisory departments.
    • As a result, there is only one supervisory department which looks after supervision of banks, NBFCs and cooperative banks and only one regulatory department for these three.
    • The move is aimed at dealing more effectively with potential systemic risk that could come about due to possible supervisory arbitrage and information asymmetry.

  • Vyom Mitra: ISRO’s half-humanoid

     

    ISRO unveiled its first ‘woman’ astronaut during the event ‘Human Spaceflight and Exploration’.

    Vyom Mitra

    • The AI-based robotic system is being developed at a robotics lab at the VSSC in Thiruvananthapuram.
    • Vyom Mitra will be used for an unmanned flight of ISRO’s GSLV III rocket in December 2020, which, along with a second unmanned flight in July 2021.
    • This will serve as the test of ISRO’s preparedness for its maiden manned space mission, Gaganyaan, being targeted for 2022 to mark 75 years of India’s independence.

    Functions of the humanoid

    • Vyommitra, equipped with a head, two arms and a torso, is built to mimic crew activity inside the crew module of Gaganyaan.
    • Attaining launch and orbital postures, responding to the environment, generating warnings, replacing carbon dioxide canisters, operating switches, monitoring of the crew module, receiving voice commands, responding via speech (bilingual) are among its functions listed.
    • It will have a human-like face, with lips synchronised for movement to mimic speech.
    • Once it is fully developed, Vyommitra will be able to use equipment on board the spacecraft’s crew module, like safety mechanisms and switches, as well as receive and act on commands sent from ground stations.

  • Blue Corner Notice

    Interpol has issued a Blue Corner notice to help locate an infamous fugitive self-styled godman weeks after the Gujarat Police sought the agency’s intervention for this.

     ‘Blue Corner’ notice

    • According to the Interpol website, “Notices are international requests for cooperation or alerts allowing police in member countries to share critical crime-related information.”
    • There are seven types of notices — Red Notice, Yellow Notice, Blue Notice, Black Notice, Green Notice, Orange Notice, and Purple Notice.
    • The Blue Notice is issued to “collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a crime.”

    Blue notices a/c to CBI

    • The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) website refers to Blue Notices as ‘B Series (Blue) Notices’.
    • It says, “The ‘B’ series notices are also called ‘enquiry notices’ and may be issued in order to have someone’s identity verified; to obtain particulars of a person’s criminal record; to locate someone who is missing or is an identified or unidentified international criminal or is wanted for a violation of ordinary criminal law and whose extradition may be requested.”