(Current Affairs) Science & Technology, Defence, Environment | April + May: 2014

Science & Technology, Defense, Environment

‘Hejje’, mobile application

  • Tiger-tracking and wildlife conservation have a new mobile application for vigorous monitoring and better coordination of anti-poaching camp personnel at Bandipur.
  • For, “Hejje” (Pug mark), an indigenously developed Android- based application, was launched at Bandipur. It will help coordinate foot patrolling of forest staff apart from providing the range forest officers live update of their respective anti-poaching patrolling activities such as patrol time, water level in lakes, suspicious activities, tree population and forest fires.
  • The application, launched by Conservator of Forests and Director of Bandipur Tiger Reserve H.C. Kantharaj, has been developed by KeyFalcon So

HIV salvage therapy

  • India has launched third-line drug therapy for people living with HIV/AIDS and extended free anti-retroviral therapy (ART) to more of them by revising the eligibility norm.
  • The third-line therapy, sometimes called salvage or rescue therapy, is prescribed for people who have limited drug options left — after the failure of at least two drug regimens and with evidence of HIV resistance to at least one drug in each line or the latter cause alone. The highly expensive therapy will be provided free.
  • Announcing these measures at the launch of the National AIDS Control Programme Phase IV (2012-2017) here, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the third-line therapy would enhance longevity and improve the quality of life of patients.
  • For receiving free ART, the minimum CD4-count limit had been reduced from 500 to 350. The count is a measure of the viral load.
  • The government has tabled the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2014, in the Rajya Sabha. It seeks to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and protect the human rights of people living with it.
  • At present, India is estimated to have 2.39 million people living with HIV/AIDS.
  • The Bill seeks to prohibit any kind of discrimination against the infected person — for instance, denial or termination of employment or occupation, unfair treatment, denial of access to any sector and forcible HIV testing.

Solar Impulse

  • Indians are going to witness a spectacle in the skies as world’s first day and night flying solar-powered wide bodied aircraft will fly into India as part of its round the globe journey.
  • Termed as ‘Signature in the Skies,’ the flying laboratory will provide Indian clean energy and aviation enthusiasts a lifetime experience. Switzerland based Solar Impulse, world’s first day and night-abled solarpowered
    aircraft is all set to visit India in April 2015.
  • It is for the first time in history that an airplane has succeeded in flying night and day without fuel, powered by only solar energy. It is launched by Bertrand Piccard and Mr. Borschberg.

Environmental clearance to 300-MW hydroelectric power project

  • Environmental clearance was granted to a 300-MW hydroelectric power project on February 3 even as a Supreme Court order dated August 13, 2013 clearly said the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests
    (MoEF) and the State government must “not grant any further environmental clearance or forest clearance for any hydroelectric power project in the State of Uttarakhand, until further orders.”

  • The 300-MW Lakhwar project, which received the clearance from the MoEF, is located in the Upper Yamuna River Basin in Dehradun.

  • In 1986, a 420-MW Lakhwar- Vyasi hydroelectric power project was granted environmental clearance. The project was then under the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department. Work continued till about 1992. The projects are now under the Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (UJVNL). Once the projects were divided into a 120-MW Vyasi project and a 300-MW Lakhwar project, a separate environmental clearance was sought for the Vyasi project.

  • For environmental clearance, the Expert Appraisal Committee considered the Lakhwar project in November 2010. However, many unresolved issues were raised by the EAC, including those related to the construction of a barrage.

Green Energy Corridors

  • The Rs.1,593-crore Green Energy Corridors project of the Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation (TANTRANSCO) will be the State’s first power project to be funded by the KfW, a German development bank.
  • Announced in the State budget tabled in the Assembly a few days ago, the project will cover essentially southern and western districts of the State, where most of the wind mills have been established.
  • It will take care of transmitting power from wind mills, the point of generation, to sub-stations.
  • Originally, the State government had sought the Centre’s support for the project. As there was not much progress, the authorities decided to seek the assistance of the KfW.
  • The Corporation is carrying out transmission projects at a cost of Rs.5,000 crore, with loan assistance of Rs.3,572 crore from the Japan International Cooperation Agency to strengthen the transmission network, especially in Chennai.

World’s largest solar power plant

  • A windy stretch of the Mojave Desert once roamed by tortoises and coyotes has been transformed by hundreds of thousands of mirrors into the largest solar power plant of its type in the world, a milestone for a growing industry that is testing the balance between wilderness conservation and the pursuit of green energy across the American West.

  • The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, sprawling across roughly 5 square miles (13 sq. kilometers) of federal land near the California-Nevada border, opened after years of regulatory and legal tangles
    ranging from relocating protected tortoises to assessing the impact on Mojave milkweed and other plants.

  • Ivanpah is being described as a marker for the United States’ emerging solar industry. While solar power accounts for less than 1 percent of the nation’s power output, thousands of projects from large, utility-scale
    plants to small production sites are under construction or being planned, particularly across the sun-drenched Southwest.

  • In 2012, the federal government established 17 “solar energy zones” in an attempt to direct development to land it has identified as having fewer wildlife and natural—resource obstacles. The zones comprise about 450 square miles (1,165 sq. kilometers) in six states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

<< Go Back To Science & Technology, Defence, Environment Main Page

Science and Technology
Current Affairs
Civil Services EXAM
Civil Services Preliminary
Civil Services Mains
UPSC