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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 10 December 2021

::NATIONAL::

The Indian Air Force helicopter that crashed, with Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and others on board, belonged to the 109 Helicopter Unit, based out of Sulur air base in Tamil Nadu.

About:

It was an MI-17 V5 variant, which is one of the latest versions of this Russian-made military transport helicopter available around the world. It belongs to the MI-8/17 family of military helicopters.
It has a digital flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder on board to monitor flight parameters and cockpit conversations respectively.
This one was part of the first 2008 contract for 80 MI-17V5 medium lift helicopters.

Background:

General Bipin Rawat (16 March 1958 - 08 December 2021)joined the army in 1978 and went on to become General of Indian Army in 2016 and first Chiefof Defence Staff (CDS) in 2019.
CDS is in the rank of a four-star General to provide“effective leadership at the top level” to the threewings of the armed forces.
His contributions include the modernisations of the armed forces, controlling insurgency in thenorth east, leading a United nations peacekeeping mission.

Personality Traits:

An outstanding soldier, he is known for virtues of integrity, strong determination,selfless service, courage and honour.

Operation of Polavaram Dam project due in 2022 has raised theconcern of development induced displacement.
It is a multi-purpose irrigation project located on river Godavari nearRamayyapet village of West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh.
It provides diversion of Godavari River waters to Krishna River Basin.
It will irrigate in districts of Krishna, East and West Godavari andVisakhaptnam through two major canals.

Concern:

Under-evaluation of Compensation to locals.
Problems in resettlement sites (not suitable to tribals needs), livelihood, lacks local consultation, submergence of settlement area, project lies in notified scheduledareas-recognition of their forest rights.

Indian-origin physician, Anil Menon has been selected by NASA along with nine others to be astronauts for future missions, the American space agency has announced.
He is a lieutenant colonel at the US Air Force, was SpaceX’s first flight surgeon, helping to launch the company’s first humans to space during Nasa’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission.

Key highlights:

Nasa announced that it has chosen 10 new astronaut candidates from a field of more than 12,000 applicants to represent the US and work for humanity’s benefit in space.
Menon previously served Nasa as the crew flight surgeon for various expeditions taking astronauts to the International Space Station.
Earlier, aeronautical engineer Sirisha Bandla in July became the third Indian-origin woman to fly into space after Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.
Till now, Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma is the only Indian citizen to travel in space. The former Indian Air Force pilot flew aboard Soyuz T-11 on April 3, 1984, part of the Soviet Interkosmos programme.

The arms sales of the Top 100 arms companies in 2020 were 17 per cent higher than in 2015—the first year for which SIPRI included data on Chinese firms. This marked the sixth consecutive year of growth in arms sales by the Top 100.

About:

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is an independent international institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament.
As per report, 3 Indian companies (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Indian Ordnance Factories, andBharat Electronics Limited) has 1.2% share of global arms sale in 2020.
USA companies top at $285 billion or 54%, followed by China (13%) and UK (7.1%).
In 2020, India announced a phased ban on imports of more than a hundred different types of militaryequipment to support domestic companies and enhance self-reliance in arms production.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) virtually launched “Certification Course on Home Energy Audit (HEA)”.

About:

The certification program will create awareness on importance and benefits of energy audit and energy efficiency and conservation among students from engineering/diploma colleges.
This willincrease employability of youth in the domain of energy efficiency, climate change mitigation, and sustainability.

The Certification Course would enable:

Creation of a pool of professionals to perform home energy audits based on the needs of the consumer (s);
Domestic consumers to get Home Energy Audit carried out through respective SDA Certified Home Energy Auditor(s);
Dissemination of information and raising awareness among engineering/diploma/ITI students, energy professionals, and industry partners about the importance and benefits of energy auditing, energy efficiency, and conservation.

These two species of plants are now Extinct in the Wild (EW)under IUCN which were discovered around 125 years ago.
Boesenbergiarubrolutea was endemic to Khasi Hill- Meghalayawhile Boesenbergiaalbolutea was endemic to Andaman Island.
Classified under the genus Boesenbergia, the species belong to the family Zingiberaceae, the ginger family of flowering plants.
Possible reasons for their disappearance include climate change,human interference and over-exploitation, or natural calamities.