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(The Gist of PIB) Jal Jeevan Mission

Jal Jeevan Mission

• The Prime Minister released the Operational Guidelines of Jal Jeevan mission (JJM).

Key highlights:

• The Union Cabinet on 13.08.2019 approved Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) to provide Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) to every rural household by 2024.
• JJM aims at providing potable water in adequate quantity i.e. 55 litre per capita per day (lpcd) of prescribed quality i.e. BIS Standard of IS: 10500 on a regular basis.
• Time bound completion of schemes taken up under National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) has been proposed by providing FHTC to every rural household.
• For the implementation of JJM, following institutional arrangement has been proposed:
• National Jal Jeevan Mission at the Central level;
• State Water and Sanitation Mission (SWSM) at State level;
• District Water and Sanitation Mission (DWSM) at district level; and
• Gram Panchayat and/ or its sub-committees i.e. Village Water Sanitation Committee (VWSC)/ Paani Samiti at village Level.

Funding:

• The total project cost is estimated to be Rs 3.6 lakh Crore. lakh Crore.
• The fund sharing pattern is 90:10 for Himalayan and North-Eastern States; 50:50 for other States and 100% for UTs.
• The fund released by Central Government to the State Governments is to be deposited in one Single Nodal Account (SNA) that will be maintained by SWSM along with State matching share to be transferred within 15 days of Central release.

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(The Gist of PIB) Dada Saheb Phalke Award

Dada Saheb Phalke Award

• The President of India presented Dada Saheb Phalke Award to Amitabh Bachchan.

Key highlights:

• Dadasaheb Phalke award, India’s highest award in cinema, is presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals (an organisation set up by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting).
• The award prize consists of a golden lotus, a cash prize of Rs.10 lakh and a shawl.
• The award is given to people for their “outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema”.
• It was first presented in 1969. The first recipient of the award was actress Devika Rani, “the first lady of Indian cinema.”
• Dadasaheb Phalke (1870–1944), was an Indian film-maker who directed India’s first full-length feature film, Raja Harishchandra (1913).
• He is regarded as the father of Indian cinema.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) Hayabusa 2 Performs Second Touchdown on Asteroid

Hayabusa 2 Performs Second Touchdown on Asteroid

• Japan’s Hayabusa 2 on 11 July 2019 performed a successful touchdown on Ryugu asteroid which is nearly 300 million km away from the Earth to collect samples from beneath the surface which can give insights into the solar system as it was at the time of its birth some 4.6 billion years ago.
• The brief landing on 11 July was the second time the spacecraft touched down on the asteroid.
• The first touchdown was in February, during which Hayabusa 2 briefly landed on the asteroid and fired a bullet into the surface to puff up dust for sample collection.
• The touchdown is the last major part of the mission and astronomers hope to understand more about the history of the solar system and the origin of life on Earth as well.

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(The Gist of PIB) Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Fund

Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Fund

• The first tripartite Memorandum of Agreement was signed between the department of Fisheries Government of India, NARBARD and the Government of Tamil Nadu for the implementation of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Fund (FIDF).
• A dedicated fund has been created namely the Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund with a total of Rs. 7522.48 crore to address the infrastructure requirement for the fisheries sector.
• Government minister urged the coastal states to pay attention to deep sea fishing, post harvesting, cage culture and export promotion.

Key findings:

• FIDF provides concessional finance to the eligible entities, cooperatives, individuals and entrepreneurs for development of identified fisheries infrastructure.
• The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), National Cooperatives Development Corporation (NCDC) and all scheduled banks are Nodal Loaning entities (NLEs) to provide concessional finance under the (FIDF).
• The Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying under the FIDF provides interest subvention up to 3% per annum for providing the concessional finance by the NLEs at the interest rate not lower than 5% per annum.
• The Government of Tamil Nadu has signed the first Tripartite MoA for availing the initial concessional finance of Rs 420 crore from NABARD for development of three fishing harbours in the State namely, (i) Tharangambadi in Nagapattinam District, (ii) Thiruvottriyur Kuppam in Thiruvallur District and (iii) Muthu Nagar in Cuddalore District.
• These will create safe landing and berthing facilities for a large number of fishing vessels plying in the area, augment fish production in the regions, facilitate hygienic post–harvest handling of fish, stimulate growth of fisheries related economic activities and employment opportunities.
• NABARD as one of the Nodal Loaning Entities (NLEs) provides concessional finance for development of fisheries infrastructure facilities through State Governments/State Entities under the FIDF, after execution of the Tripartite MoA.
• Proposals to the tune of Rs.1715.04 crore received from various State Governments and other Eligible Entities (EEs) have been recommended as date by the Central Approval and Monitoring Committee constituted in the Department for consideration under FIDF.
• The project proposals of Government of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh for development of fishing harbours in their respective States form the major part of these recommended projects.

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(The Gist of PIB) Year End Review 2019 – Ministry of Textiles

Year End Review 2019 – Ministry of Textiles

• Following initiatives are being taken by the Ministry of Textiles for promotion of this sector.

Key highlights:

• Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has published an Indian Standard for identification, marking and labelling of Pashmina products to certify its purity in August this year.
• Two new National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) campuses will be set up at Panchkula (Haryana) and Ranchi (Jharkhand).
• At present, NIFT has 16 Campuses all over India.
• The Government is implementing the Scheme for Integrated Textile Park (SITP) which provides support for creation of world-class infrastructure facilities for setting up of textile units, with a Government of India grant up to 40% of the project cost. the share is 90% in North-east and hilly states.
• The Government has approved a skill development scheme titled SAMARTH, a Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector, covering the entire value chain of the textile sector on pan India basis for a period of three years from 2017-18 to 2019-20.
• Under Powertex India 4797 looms have been upgraded under the in-situ Upgradation Scheme for Plain Powerloom.
• For the welfare of jute farmers the JUTE – ICARE (Improved Cultivation and Advanced Retting Exercise) has been launched to promote scientific practices related to Jute Cultivation for Quality & Quantity improvements.
• The Comprehensive Handloom Cluster Development Scheme (CHCDS) is targeted at development of Mega Handloom Clusters in clearly identifiable geographical locations covering at least 15000 handlooms with the Government of India.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) New Rain Loving Species of Snake

New Rain Loving Species of Snake

• A team of Indian scientists has discovered a “rain-loving” new snake species Smithophis temporalis in Mizoram.
• The species is non-venomous, aquatic and its maximum size is 2.5 ft.
• They have a unique character as scales are absent in the “temporal” region of their head.
• The species has been named “Smithophis” after the well-known British herpetologist, Malcolm Arthur Smith.
• The discovery is an outcome of more than six years of collaboration between scientists from leading Indian and international institutes.
• The finding was published in the New Zealand-based journal Zootaxa.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) World Most Powerful Electric Eel

World Most Powerful Electric Eel

• Scientists at Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History discovered an approximately eight-feet-long eel (Electrophorus volta ) in the Amazon basin with a record-breaking voltage of 840 volts of electricity which is more than 650 volts discharged by earlier electric eel found.
• According to the study, the conductivity of water in which the eel lived may have influenced the voltage; the high voltage may be an adaptation to the poor conductivity of water.
• These eels use their shock method for self-defence, hunting prey and navigation.
• The study was published in Nature Communications.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) 15 Giant Planet Orbiting Dead Dwarf Star

15 Giant Planet Orbiting Dead Dwarf Star

• Astronomers from the University of Warwick’s Department of Physics and the Millennium Nucleus for Planet Formation (NPF) at the University of Valparaiso have discovered a giant planet orbiting around a dead white dwarf star.
• The planet has been found in the form of a disc of gas formed from its evaporating atmosphere.
• The planet is Neptune-like and orbits a star four times its size once in ten days and leaves a comet-like tail of gas comprising hydrogen, oxygen and sulphur after its action.
• The discovery is the first ever of its kind and suggests that there could be more planets orbiting around dwarf stars yet to be discovered.
• The star WDJ0914+1914 was recognised in a study of ten thousand white dwarfs observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
• Till now there is no such evidence that any planet has withstood a star’s transition to a white dwarf.
• The discovery was published in the journal Nature.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) 14 Black Hole Devouring Neutron

14 Black Hole Devouring Neutron

• Star Detected for the First Time Astronomers from the Australian National University (ANU) detected a black hole devouring a neutron star for the first time.
• In August 2019, gravitational-wave discovery machines in the US and Italy spotted ripples in space and time from a cataclysmic event.
• “About 900 million years ago, this black hole ate a very dense star, known as a neutron star, like Pacman - possibly snuffing out the star instantly,” said Professor Scott, Leader of the General Relativity Theory and Data Analysis Group at ANU and Chief Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), in a ANU statement.

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(The Gist of PIB) SDG India Index and Dashboard 2019

SDG India Index and Dashboard 2019

• NITI Aayog released the second edition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index.

About:

• The index documents the progress made by India’s States and Union Territories towards achieving the 2030 SDG targets.
• It has been developed by NITI Aayog in collaboration with the Ministry of Statistics, United Nations in India, and Global Green Growth Institute.
• The 2019 Index spans 16 out of 17 SDGs with a qualitative assessment on Goal 17. This marks an improvement over the 2018 Index, which covered only 13 goals.

Classification criteria based on SDG India Index score is as follows:

• Aspirant: 0–49
• Performer: 50–64
• Front Runner: 65–99
• Achiever: 100
• If a State/UT achieves a score of 100, it signifies it has achieved the 2030 national targets. The higher the score of a State/UT, the closer it is towards achieving the targets.

Key findings:

• India’s composite score has improved from 57 in 2018 to 60 in 2019, thereby showing.
• The maximum gains were made in Goals 6 (clean water and sanitation), 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure) and 7 (affordable and clean energy).
• Kerala achieved the first rank in the composite SDG Index with a score of 70, followed by Himachal Pradesh at 69.
• The biggest improvers since 2018 are UP (which has moved from the 29th position to the 23rd), Orissa (23rd to 15th), and Sikkim (15th to 7th).

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(The Gist of PIB) Biometric enabled Centralised Access Control System

Biometric enabled Centralised Access Control System

• Minister of State (I/C) for Civil Aviation launched the Biometric enabled Centralised Access Control System (CACS) and e-BCAS Project Training Module.

Key highlights:

• The two projects launched are important milestones to enhance security and ease of doing business at airports.
• Covering 43 Airports of AAI and 5 Joint Venture airports at present, the CACS project is aimed to digitize the employee movement process at the airports.
• This multi-layered security system encompasses the uniqueness of the Airport Entry Permit (AEP) users, biometric authentication in addition to PIN-based identity verification through contactless smart card technology, which manages access of personnel along with RFID based automated vehicle access control system according to the region, terminal, zone, and gate access privileges.
• The cost of the card is Rs. 225, which shall be valid for three years. Biometric ID (Biometric enabled Centralised Access Control System having chip embedded smart AEPs) thus issued, is non-duplicable.
• An MoU was signed between ECIL and BCAS on 17th December 2015 with an overall investment of Rs.34.92 crore. The project aimed to digitize the existing mechanism at the airports and reduce human intervention systematically as until now employees were issued laminated paper based Aerodrome Entry Permit.
• Airports Authority of India successfully conducted SAT (Site Acceptance Test) at various airport i.e. Ahmedabad, Chennai and Kolkata recently.
• The ‘e-BCAS Project: Training Module’ aimed at helping more than 1.5 lac employees of various stakeholders by migrating from manual process of training to digital platform.
• The objective of the e-BCAS project is to make all the activities in the BCAS transparent, user-friendly, and efficient and above all, the project intends to provide an ease of doing business with the stakeholders.
• All 29Aviation Security Training Institutes (ASTIs) have been registered as User Entities and now they can make nominations for various courses online.
• Moreover, the system will also allow its users to check the approval by BCAS, declaration of results and QR coded online certificate generation will also be done through this project only.
• This would result in making the entire training ecosystem of BCAS transparent as well as efficient.

e-BCAS Project:

• The ‘e-BCAS’ project envisaged to achieve a “paperless office” under e-Governance initiative of GoI.
• It’s aimed at facilitating external stakeholders to access the BCAS system by digital automation of all internal office procedures in 2016, the project was approved by Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) at an estimated cost of Rs.21.69 crore.
• The e-BCAS project included Training module, Quality Control and Operational module and Administration etc.
• After modifications, the current training module part has been completed at an estimated cost of Rs.30.00 lakhs approx. only.In due course of time, with the integration of all three modules into the platform of e-BCAS, the processing time in giving clearances and approval will be reduced considerably.
• These steps will ease the process of training, audit/inspections, enhance the throughput as well as a lot of time, energy and precious man hours of all stakeholders.

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(The Gist of PIB) Patola Saree

Patola Saree

• In a historic initiative taken by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), a first Silk Processing Plant was inaugurated today at Surendranagar in Gujarat which would help cut down the cost of production of silk yarn drastically and increase the sale and availability of raw material for Gujarati Patola Sarees locally.
• The plant has been set up by a khadi institution at a cost of Rs 75 lakh in which KVIC has contributed Rs 60 lakh. The unit has employed 90 local women, 70 of which belong to the Muslim community.

Key highlights:

• Patola, the trademark Saree of Gujarat, is considered to be very costly and worn only by the Royals or the Aristocrat.
• The reason being the raw material silk yarn is purchased from Karnataka or West Bengal, where silk processing units are situated, thus increasing the cost of the fabric manifolds.
• Surendranagar district is a backward district in Gujarat where KVIC has invested Rs. 60 Lakhs to build the Silk Processing Plant, in order to generate livelihood and boost sales of Patola Sarees by making silk more readily available at a low cost, for the Patola Saree manufacturers in the nearby area.
• Traditionally, every region in India has had its own unique weave for the Silk Saree. It is quite notable that Patola Silk Saree is amongst the top five silk weaves which are desired in every Indian Saree Lover’s wardrobe.

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(The Gist of PIB) UJALA and Street Lighting National Programme

UJALA and Street Lighting National Programme

• Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) and Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP) of the central government has completed five successful years on January 5, 2020.

About:

• Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP) is the world’s largest streetlight replacement program and Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) is the world’s largest domestic lighting project.
• Both have been spearheaded and implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of PSUs under the Ministry of Power, Government of India.
• Under the SLNP program, over 1.03 crore smart LED streetlights have been installed to date, enabling an estimated energy savings of 6.97 billion kWh per year.
• Through the UJALA initiative, over 36.13 crores of LED bulbs have been distributed across India. This has resulted in estimated energy savings of 46.92 billion kWh per year and an estimated GHG emission reduction of 38 million tonne CO2 annually.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) Universe’s First Molecule Spotted in Space

Universe’s First Molecule Spotted in Space

• After decades of searching, NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) detected the first elusive molecule that ever formed in the universe for the first time.
• The discovered molecule is Helium Hydride (HeH+) on a planetary nebula namely NGC-7027, a remnant of the sun-like star, situated 3,000 light-years away near the constellation Cygnus.
• The molecule is considered to be formed some 380,000 years after the Big Bang and is regarded as the first molecular bond.
• The discovery was published in Nature.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) K2-288Bb — Discovered in a Low Mass Binary System

K2-288Bb — Discovered in a Low Mass Binary System

• NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope unveiled a super-earth planet K2-288Bb which is roughly twice the size of Earth orbiting a star in the low-mass binary system.
• K2-288 in the constellation of Taurus about 226 light-years from Earth.
• The newly discovered world could be rocky or gaseous similar to Neptune.
• The discovery was reported in the Astronomical Journal.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) “Forbidden Planet” — Neptune Size Exoplanet

“Forbidden Planet” — Neptune Size Exoplanet

• Using the state-of-the-art Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) observing facility, an international collaboration of astronomers led by the University of Warwick, UK, discovered a rare sub Neptune-sized transiting exoplanet.
• The newly discovered planet formally named as NGTS-4b is 20% smaller than Neptune and about three times the size of the earth orbiting its host star in the harsh conditions of the Neptunian Desert.
• Due to its rare existence astronomers have nicknamed it the “Forbidden Planet”.
• NGTS-4b is 920 light-years away from the earth revolving around the host star in only 1.3 days equivalent to the earth’s orbit around the sun in one year.
• The planet is 1000 degrees Celsius and hotter than Mercury.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) Bedin 1, Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy Found

Bedin 1, Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy Found

• With the help of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have found a new dwarf galaxy in our cosmic neighbourhood which has been named as Bedin 1.
• The newly discovered galaxy is approximately 30 million light-years away and is classified as a dwarf spheroidal galaxy as it measures only around 3,000 light-years at its greatest extent and is roughly a thousand times dimmer than our own Milky Way Galaxy.

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Weekly Current Affairs Update for IAS Exams Free Sample

VOL. - 309 (01 January 2020 to 07 January 2020)

Covered Topics:

• National

• International

• Business And Economy

• Science and Technology

• Important Article From Various Newspapers

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) Marsquake Detected

Marsquake Detected

• NASA’s InSight lander on 6 April 2019 for the first time ever detected a seismological tremor on Mars which was recorded as “Marsquake” (The Martian Sol 128) — a natural trembling from the Mars interior.
• It is the first seismic activity ever recorded on a planetary body outside of the earth or the moon.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) NASA’s Kepler Confirms First Exoplanet

NASA’s Kepler Confirms First Exoplanet

• Ten years ago, despite being the very first exoplanet revealed by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, Kepler-1658b was marked as a false positive as it was not really pointing to a planet.
• But in March 2019, new software was used to refine the data and reexamine it, which changed it from a data anomaly to a possible planet.
• The newly-confirmed Kepler-1658b is a massive hot Jupiter that whips around its star every 3.85 days.

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