Tuesday, November 3, 2020

Comprehensive Current affairs 3 November 2020

Andhra Pradesh celebrates its formation day.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy paid floral tributes at the statue of freedom fighter, Potti Sriramulu and Telugu Thalli on the occasion of its formation day.

This is the second year since Andhra's bifurcation that the state is celebrating the Formation Day on November 1.

On November 1, 1956, Andhra Pradesh was formed with the merger of erstwhile Andhra State and Hyderabad State.

After becoming the first chief minister of a truncated Andhra Prdesh in 2014, Chandrababu Naidu had decided to celebrate its Formation Day on June 2. The Jagan government, however, reverted to November 1 date to celebrate the Foundation Day.

 Creation of Andhra Pradesh:

Against the recommendations of Dhar Commission and JVP Committee popular movements for state’s reorganization on linguistic basis began all over the country. One such movement was Vishal-Andhra Movement – a movement for separate Andhra; it was led by Potti Sriramulu.

The Vishal-Andhra movement demanded that Telugu speaking areas of Madras province should be separated and made into a separate Andhra province. But the Central govt. vacillated.

Its leader Potti Sriramulu went on an indefinite fast in oct 1952 and died after 56 days.

This unleashed unrest and violence in Telugu speaking regions.

The govt. finally gave in and agreed to the demand for a separate Andhra state which came into existence in 1953. Simultaneously, Tamil Nadu was created as a Tamil speaking state.

After this demand from other states started coming.And for this purpose states reorganization commission was appointed in 1953 by Nehru.

IIT Bombay launched a self-help website called Bandhu .

Indian Minister of State for Education launched a self-help website – Bandhu – for students of IIT Bombay.

Bandhu has been designed in conjunction with the counsellors at IIT Bombay along with external experts.

It addresses challenges ranging from adjustment to college life, academic stress, and mental health. Bandhu has curated reads, motivational alumni journeys, expert podcasts and tools for self-exploration.

Project Bandhu was initiated by alumni of the Class of 1992, as a part of their silver jubilee reunion in 2017. They pledged to support IIT Bombay and help students enhance their emotional well-being. The self-help website is one of the first steps in this direction.

 Gilgit Baltistan will be getting Province the provincial status.

Prime Minister Imran Khan says his government will grant provisional status to a portion of the disputed territory of Kashmir, drawing condemnation from India and sparking a fresh war of words between the two countries.

• The strategically important Gilgit-Baltistan region bordering Afghanistan and China is home to an estimated population of two million people.

• Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars since gaining independence in 1947 over the mountainous territory of Kashmir, which both claim in full but administer separate portions of.

• On Sunday, Khan addressed a political rally in the city of Gilgit, capital of the Gilgit-Baltistan region that forms part of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, ahead of planned elections there later this month.

Indian Reaction on the move :

India slammed Pakistan for its attempt to accord provincial status to the “so-called Gilgit-Baltistan”, saying it is intended to camouflage the “illegal” occupation of the region by Islamabad.

India's foreign miministr has said India “firmly rejects” the attempt by Pakistan to bring material changes to a territory which is under Islamabad’s “illegal and forcible occupation” and asked the neighbouring country to immediately vacate such areas.

In a ruling earlier this year, the Pakistan Supreme Court allowed Islamabad to amend a 2018 administrative order to conduct general elections in the region.

The Gilgit-Baltistan Order of 2018 provided for administrative changes, including authorising the Prime Minister of Pakistan to legislate on an array of subjects.

 RERA order on brokerage.

In a first of its kind order, RERA last week put a cap on the commission being charged by the brokers while facilitating a land deal. Now, no real estate agent in Haryana can charge more than 0.5 per cent commission each from the buyer and the seller per deal.

The order reads:

For real estate registered projects, RERA has decided to issue restrain orders to all promoters and brokers not to charge commission more than one per centum on agreed consideration value to be paid by the seller and purchaser of the property, that is 0.5 per cent by each of them, on finalization of the deal as per their agreement entered in the register of the dealer under the valid receipt.

The one per centum commission is also defined under the Haryana Regulation of Property Dealers and Consultants Rules and under the Haryana Regulation of Property Dealers and Consultants Act.

The order will be applicable only to those who are registered under the Haryana Regulation of Property Dealers and Consultants Act, 2008. Registration of the property dealer to negotiate or mediate real estate deal of a registered project is done by the RERA under Section 9 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 and the registration is then granted subject to the condition that the agent shall not contravene the provisions of any other law for the time being as applicable to him.

However, if any buyer or seller complains to RERA about an unregistered property dealer or agent or RERA finds out any unregistered person acting as an agent, the violator shall be liable for penal action.

Background information:

Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act took effect in May 2016 to regulate and promote the real estate sector.

It aims to bring about transparency and efficiency in an opaque industry and has a mandate to protect consumer interest, including establishing a speedy redressal system.

 Active Zone of Himalayas.

A group of scientists from the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), Dehradun have found that the Indus-Tsangpo Suture Zone (ITSZ) of Himalaya is tectonically active.

• The suture zone of Himalaya was conventionally thought to be locked. WIHG is an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.

• Tectonics is the scientific study of the deformation of the rocks that make up the Earth’s crust and the forces that produce such deformation.

• It deals with the folding and faulting associated with mountain building, the large-scale, gradual upward and downward movements of the crust and sudden horizontal displacements along faults.

• Geological Features that Support the Finding are Sedimentary beds are tilted and thrust broken, Rivers are associated with uplifted terraces and Bedrock shows brittle deformation at much shallower depths.

• These deformed geological features were dated using the technique of Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and data of seismicity and denudation rate was also reviewed.

• Optically-Stimulated Luminescence: It is a late quaternary (geological time period that encompasses the most recent 2.6 million years) dating technique used to date the last time quartz sediment was exposed to light. As sediment is transported by wind, water or ice, it is exposed to sunlight and zeroed of any previous luminescence signal.

• Seismicity: It is the worldwide or local distribution of earthquakes in space, time, and magnitude. More specifically, it refers to the measure of the frequency of earthquakes in a region.

• It is a long term process in which the wearing and tearing of the surface of the Earth take place. It includes all those processes that lower relief and acts both chemically (chemical weathering) and physically (mechanical weathering).

• The region of the ITSZ has been neo-tectonically active since the last 78000-58000 years. It is a suture zone in the Ladakh region and marks the limit of the Indian plate where it collides with the Eurasian plate and is subducted below the latter.

 • The ITSZ can be traced for more than 200 km and a wide variety of rock association along the ITSZ indicates that the collision at the plate boundary was of very complex nature.

• The ITSZ was conventionally believed to be a locked zone till now.

• This will have major implications in terms of earthquake study, prediction, understanding the seismic structure of the mountain chains well as its evolution.

About Suture Zones:

• It is a linear belt of intense deformation, where distinct terranes, or tectonic units with different plate tectonic, metamorphic, and paleogeographic histories join together.

• These zones also provide the only record of deep oceanic crust and of ancient seafloor processes for roughly the first 90% of Earth’s history.

• Their study provides a means to understand the end-product of plate tectonic processes in time and space. In plate tectonics, sutures are seen as the remains of subduction zones together with the terranes possibly representing fragments of different tectonic plates.

• It is often represented on the surface by a mountain range comprising intensely deformed rocks. The Iapetus Suture from Great Britain, which is now concealed beneath younger rocks, and Indo-Tsangpo Suture well exposed in the Himalayas are some of the best examples of suture zones.

16 Psyche.

A recent study has found that asteroid 16 Psyche, which orbits between Mars and Jupiter, could be made entirely of metal and is worth an estimated $10,000 quadrillion — more than the entire economy of Earth.

According to the study published in The Planetary Science Journal, New images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope offer a closer view of the mysterious asteroid 16 Psyche, whose surface may mostly comprise iron and nickel, similar to the Earth’s core.

 In fact, scientists believe that the asteroid may be the leftover core of an earlier planet that lost its crust and mantle after multiple collisions during the creation of our solar system.

What is asteroid 16 Psyche?

It is located around 370 million kilometres away from Earth, asteroid 16 Psyche is one of the most massive objects in the asteroid belt in our solar system. The somewhat potato-shaped asteroid has a diameter of around 140 miles, according to NASA.

It was first discovered on March 17, 1853, by the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis and was named after the ancient Greek goddess of the soul, Psyche.

Unlike most asteroids that are made up of rocks or ice, scientists believe that Psyche is a dense and largely metallic object thought to be the core of an earlier planet that failed in formation.

NASA scientists believe that the asteroid is made up of almost entirely of iron, nickel and several other rare materials like gold, platinum, cobalt, iridium and rhenium. Hypothetically, if it was to be transported to Earth, NASA Psyche mission’s lead scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton has calculated that the iron alone would be worth more than $10,000 quadrillion.

What is known about NASA’s Psyche mission?

Scientists will only learn about the true composition of asteroid 16 Psyche if it is studied up close. NASA plans to do just that two years from now, when it will launch a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to orbit the asteroid for around 21 months.

The unmanned spacecraft will reach the asteroid in January, 2026. The first objective of the mission is to capture a photograph of the metallic asteroid, after which the spacecraft will study and map it from a distance.

Another objective of the mission, led by Arizona State University, is to determine whether the asteroid is, in fact, the core of an earlier planet or if it is merely made up of unmelted material. Based on the data collected, scientists will also ascertain the age and origins of the mammoth metallic asteroid.

 The mission was originally slated to take place in 2023, but was later moved up to 2022.

Superconductor.

The researchers have recently created a material that is superconducting at room temperature, however, it only works at a pressure of 267 Gigapascals (GPa), which is equivalent to about three-quarters of pressure at the centre of Earth (360 GPa).

Highlights:

• A mixture of carbon, hydrogen and sulfur was put in a microscopic niche carved between the tips of two diamonds (diamond anvil) and laser light was used on them to trigger chemical reactions.

• As the experimental temperature was lowered, resistance to a current passed through the material dropped to a vanishingly small value below the critical temperature (Tc).

• The transition of the sample to become superconductive occurred the best at transition temperature of around 15°C at 267 GPa.

• To verify that this phase was indeed a superconductor, the group ascertained that the magnetic susceptibility of the superconductor was that of a diamagnet.

• A superconducting material kept in a magnetic field expels the magnetic flux out its body when cooled below the critical temperature and exhibits perfect diamagnetism.

• It is also called the Meissner effect which simply means that magnetic lines do not pass through superconductors in a magnetic field.

• A superconductor is a material that can conduct electricity or transport electrons from one atom to another with no resistance.

• No heat, sound or any other form of energy would be released from the material when it has reached critical temperature (Tc), or the temperature at which the material becomes superconductive.

 • The critical temperature for superconductors is the temperature at which the electrical resistivity of metal drops to zero.

• Prominent examples include aluminium, niobium, magnesium diboride, etc.

• From magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines, low-loss power lines, ultra-powerful superconducting magnets to mobile-phone towers.

• Researchers are also experimenting with them in high-performance generators for wind turbines.

• Their usefulness is still limited by the need for bulky cryogenics (production of and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures) as the common superconductors work at atmospheric pressures, but only if they are kept very cold.

• Even the most sophisticated ones like copper oxide-based ceramic materials work only below −140°C.

• If researchers can stabilise the material at ambient pressure, applications of superconductivity at room temperatures could be achieved and will be within reach.

• Superconductors that work at room temperature could have a big technological impact, for example in electronics that run faster without overheating.

• It is a very weak form of magnetism that is induced by a change in the orbital motion of electrons due to an applied magnetic field.

• This magnetism is non-permanent and persists only in the presence of an external field.

• The magnitude of the induced magnetic moment is very small, and its direction is opposite to that of the applied field.

• When a material makes the transition from the normal to the superconducting state, it actively excludes magnetic fields from its interior and this is called the Meissner effect.

• This constraint to zero magnetic fields inside a superconductor is distinct from the perfect diamagnetism which would arise from its Zero Electrical Resistance.

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