comprehensive current affairs 20th jan. 2021

 Railways ministry nod to new iron ore policy.

The Ministry of Railways has approved a new iron-ore policy governing the allocation of rakes and transportation of iron-ore.

This new policy has been named as Iron-ore Policy 2021 and shall come into effect from February 10, 2021.

The provisions of the new policy will be updated in the rake allotment system module by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS).

About:

Iron ore is the second most important stream of traffic of Railways and along with steel accounts for nearly 17 per cent (53.81 million tonne of steel and 153.35 million tonne of iron ore) of total 1210 million tonne freight loading of Indian Railways in 2019-2020.

According to the Rail Ministry, this has been done to facilitate the ease of doing business.

As per the new policy, higher priority will be given to the movement of iron-ore traffic for domestic manufacturing activity.

Within the domestic movement of iron-ore traffic, priority preference will be given to steel, pig iron, sponge iron, pellet, or sinter plant owning customers having their own private sidings at both the loading as well as unloading ends.

They will be followed by customers with private siding at either loading or unloading end.

Customers without any private siding of their own relying totally on public good sheds, sidings will come next in the priority list.

Under the fresh policy, old and new plants will be treated similarly as far as allotment and loading of rakes is concerned.

The priority preferences for the customers will be self-generated by the system based on the customer profile fed in the system by the concerning zone.

Thiruvalluvar.

On 16th January Thiruvalluvar Day is celebrated in Tamil Nadu to mark the birth anniversary of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar.

He boldly advocated a life of discipline, self-control, chastity, non-violence, temperance and devotion.

He is best known as the author of Thirukkural, a collection of 1330 couplets on ethics,political and economic matters, and love.

Out of four aspects of life (Purushaarthas) Aram, Porul, Inbam and Veedu (Mokesha). Thirukkural addressesonly the first three and advocates the path to Veedu through the others and hence it is called Muppal (3Elements).

3).Chinese city reports coronavirus found on ice cream.

The coronavirus was found on ice cream produced in eastern China, prompting a recall of cartons from the same batch.

The Daqiaodao Food Co, Ltd in Tianjin, adjacent to Beijing, was sealed and its employees were being tested for the coronavirus.

There was no indication anyone had contracted the virus from the ice cream.

Most of the 29,000 cartons in the batch had yet to be sold, the government said. It said 390 sold in Tianjin were being tracked down and authorities elsewhere were notified of sales to their areas. The Chinese government has suggested the disease, first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019, came from abroad and has highlighted what it says are discoveries of the coronavirus on imported fish and other food, though foreign scientists are skeptical.

 

UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2020.

The UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2020 finds that while nations have advanced in planning, huge gaps remain in finance for developing countries and bringing adaptation projects to the stage where they bring real protection against climate impacts such as droughts, floods and sea-level rise.

According to the report, cutting greenhouse gas emissions will reduce the impacts and costs associated with climate change.

Achieving the 2°C target of the Paris Agreement could limit losses in annual growth to up to 1.6 per cent, compared to 2.2 per cent for the 3°C trajectory.

SEBI eases norms for follow-on public offers.

SEBI relaxed the framework for follow-on public offers (FPOs), a move that will help promoters of companies to raise funds more easily through this route.

The applicability of minimum promoters’ contribution norm and the subsequent lock-in requirements for the issuers making the FPO have been done away with by the regulator, as per a notification.

Earlier, promoters were mandated to contribute 20% towards a FPO.

Besides, in case of any issue of capital to the public, the minimum promoters’ contribution was required to be locked-in for three years.

SEBI said the relaxation would be available for those companies which are frequently traded on a stock exchange for at least three years. Also, such firms should have redressed 95% of investor complaints.

 

 

Vistadome coach.

Prime Minister flagged off eight trains from different parts of the country to Kevadia in Narmada district, where the Statue of Unity is located, in a bid to attract tourism to this tribal belt.

Out of these eight trains, the Janshatabdi Express from Ahmedabad-has a Vistadome coach.

The Vistadome coach is a state-of-the-art coach made by Indian Railways, designed to provide passengers with travel comfort as well as an enhanced viewing experience of their surroundings.

According to Indian Railway officials, the Vistadome coach in the Janshatabdi Express has been manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

It is for the first time that the Vistadome coach has been made on the Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) platform, made for passenger coaches for trains in India.

Some of the features of the Vistadome coach are an observation lounge with a large window for passengers to experience the scenic route to Kevadia.

The 44 recliner-180 degree rotatable seats ensure people can enjoy the view from both windows to their right and left, there are automatic sliding doors at both gates of the coach, glass rooftops offer a panoramic view, while there are five large windows on each side.

The coach also has foldable snack tables similar to what is provided in flights, seat numbers with Braille language, an in-built entertainment system integrated with digital display screens and speakers along with a GPS-based public-address-cum passenger information system, access to ‘content on demand’ for passengers through Wi Fi facility on their personal gadgets, a mini pantry with coffee maker, water cooler, hot oven and refrigerator, separate multi-tier luggage compartment, along with a separate cabin for train staff who will brief passengers regarding the coach in each ride.

The coach will also have CCTV surveillance, fire alarm system and an LED destination board.

 

 

Mukundpura CM2.

A new study by the Geological Survey of India, Kolkata has shed light on the mineralogy of the meteorite.Carbonaceous chondrite.

The meteorite named Mukundpura CM2 was classified to be a carbonaceous chondrite. “This is a type of stony meteorite, considered the most primitive meteorite and a remnant of the first solid bodies to accrete in the solar system.

The composition of carbonaceous chondrites are also similar to the Sun.

The meteorites are broadly classified into three groups – stony (silicate-rich), iron (Fe–Ni alloy), and stony-iron (mixed silicate–iron alloy).

Chondrites are silicate -droplet -bearing meteorites, and this Mukundpura chondrite is the fifth carbonaceous meteorite known to fall in India.

Degrees of alteration;

The study revealed that Mukundpura CM2 had experienced varying degrees of alteration during the impact. Some minerals like forsterite and FeO olivine, calcium aluminium rich inclusion (CAI) minerals escaped alteration.

Few magnetites, sulphides and calcites were also found. Detailed spectroscopic studies revealed that the meteorite had very high (about 90%) phyllosilicate minerals comprising both magnesium and iron.

Further X-ray studies showed it also had aluminium complexes.

Asian Water Bird Census .

Recently, the two-day Asian Waterbird Census-2020 has commenced in Andhra Pradesh under the aegis of experts from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).

• AWC is an integral part of the global waterbird monitoring programme, the International Waterbird Census (IWC), coordinated by Wetlands International.

 

• The IWC is a monitoring programme operating in 143 countries to collect information on the numbers of waterbirds at wetland sites.

• Wetlands International is a global not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the conservation and restoration of wetlands.

• It runs in parallel with other regional programmes of the International Waterbird Census in Africa, Europe, West Asia, the Neotropics and the Caribbean.

• It was initiated in 1987 in the Indian subcontinent and has grown rapidly to cover major regions of Asia, from Afghanistan eastwards to Japan, Southeast Asia and Australasia.

• The census covers the entire East Asian - Australasian Flyway and a large part of the Central Asian Flyway.

• The East Asia - Australasia Flyway extends from Arctic Russia and North America to the southern limits of Australia and New Zealand.

• It encompasses large parts of East Asia, all of Southeast Asia and includes eastern India and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

• The Central Asian Flyway (CAF) covers a large continental area of Eurasia between the Arctic and Indian Oceans and the associated island chains.

AWC in India:

• It is jointly coordinated by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and Wetlands International. BNHS is a pan-India wildlife research organization, which has been promoting the cause of nature conservation since 1883.

• India has 42 Ramsar sites, the latest one included is Tso Kar Wetland Complex of Ladakh.

 

 

 

BirdLife's Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) Programme identifies, monitors and protects a global network of priority sites for the conservation of birds and other wildlife. India has more than 450 sites.

• The 13th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of

Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP13) concluded in Gandhinagar, Gujarat in February 2020.

• India submitted its Sixth National Report (NR6) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Dec. 2018.

Yakshagana .

Recently, Yakshagana a traditional art form is sometimes seen in news.

• It is a Traditional Theatre form of Karnataka.

• It is a temple art form that depicts mythological stories and Puranas.

• It is performed with massive headgears, elaborate facial make-up and vibrant costumes and ornaments.

• It is also performed in Malayalam as well as Tulu (the dialect of south Karnataka).

• Tulu is a Dravidian language whose speakers are concentrated in the region of Tulu Nadu, which comprises the districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in Karnataka and the northern part of Kasaragod district of Kerala.

• The oldest available inscriptions in Tulu are from the period between 14th to 15th century AD.

• It is performed with percussion instruments like chenda,maddalam, jagatta or chengila (cymbals) and chakratala or elathalam (small cymbals).

• The most popular episodes are from the Mahabharata i.e. Draupadi swayamvar, Subhadra vivah, etc. and from Ramayana i.e Rajyabhishek, Lav-Kush yuddh, etc.