Recently, eight captive-bred pygmy hogs, the world’s rarest and smallest wild pigs, were released in the Manas National Park of Assam. v This is the second batch to have been reintroduced into the wild under the Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme (PHCP) in a year. Important points: The PHCP is a …
Read More »Yearly Archives: 2021
RAMGARH VISHDHARI WILDLIFE SANCTUARY
Recently, the Ramgarh Vishdhari wildlife sanctuary received a nod from the National Tiger Conservation Authority’s (NTCA) technical committee to become the 4th Tiger reserve of Rajasthan. This will be the 52nd Tiger Reserve of India. The Global Tiger Day, celebrated on 29th July, is an annual event marked to raise …
Read More »PASSEX
Indian naval ships will join maritime patrol and other aircraft to participate in a Passage Exercise or PASSEX with the US Navy’s Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group during its transit through Indian Ocean Region (IOR). A passage exercise is normally undertaken whenever an opportunity arises, in contrast to pre-planned maritime …
Read More »DRONE SURVEY
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has made use of drones mandatory for video recording of the national highway projects during different stages of development, construction, operation and maintenance. These videos will be saved on NHAI’s portal “Data Lake” to assess the progress made on the projects. Important points: …
Read More »EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE (EVD)
Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared that the Ebola outbreak, that started in February 2021 in Guinea, is over now. In its first deadly wave in 2013-2016, the Ebola outbreak killed 11,300 people, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. The WHO in its list of “Ten threats …
Read More »SURGE IN TAX COLLECTIONS
Important points: It includes Corporation Tax collections of Rs. 74,356 crore and Personal Income Tax inflows, which include the Security Transaction Tax of Rs. 1.11 lakh crore. The jump in the direct tax collections reflects healthy exports and a continuation of various industrial and construction activities. It is expected that …
Read More »X-BAND DOPPLER WEATHER RADARS (DWR)
Recently, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) announced that it will install seven new doppler radars in Maharashtra, including Mumbai in 2021. In January 2021, the Union Minister for Earth Sciences commissioned two of the ten indigenously built X-Band Doppler Weather Radars (DWR) to closely monitor the weather changes over the …
Read More »River runoff, glacier melt and seasonality of flow in rivers projected to increase in future
Snow and glaciers are melting rapidly in the Himalayan range due to climate change, altering water supplies in the rivers like Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra in the Himalaya-Karakoram (HK) ranges. The HK region in South Asia, often called the water tower of Asia or the Third Pole is one of …
Read More »BRICS nations agree on innovation co-operation
BRICS Nations have unanimously agreed on an innovation co-operation at the 11th BRICS S&T Steering Committee Meeting. The proposal put forward by India would be considered at the BRICS Science, Technology and Innovation Entrepreneurship (STIEP) working group for elaborating the action plan. The concept note and Action Plan for BRICS Innovation …
Read More »Scientists trace the mystery behind abundance of heavy metals in oldest metal-poor stars
The abundance of heavy metals in oldest metal-poor stars that are born from the ejecta of first stars has intrigued astronomers for long as already known processes of reaction of chemical elements by nuclear fusion within stars (nucleosynthesis) could not explain it. Scientists have now found a clue to this …
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