Here are 2 Back2Basics collections from today’s news items

B2B #1: From news- Western Ghats forest cover vital for Tamil Nadu’s South-West monsoon rainfall

Western Ghats

1. It is also known as Sahyadri (Benevolent Mountains) is a mountain range that runs parallel to the western coast of the Indian peninsula, located entirely in India
2. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the eight “hottest hot-spots” of biological diversity in the world It is sometimes called the Great Escarpment of India
3. The range runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain, called Konkan, along the Arabian Sea
4. A total of thirty-nine properties including national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forests were designated as world heritage sites – twenty in Kerala, ten in Karnataka, five in Tamil Nadu and four in Maharashtra

B2B #2: From news- Niti Aayog partners with Google to grow India’s artificial intelligence ecosystem

Machine Learning

1. Machine learning is the science of getting computers to act without being explicitly programmed.
2. It is an application of artificial intelligence (AI) that provides systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed.
3. Machine learning focuses on the development of computer programs that can access data and use it learn for themselves.
4. The process of learning begins with observations or data, such as examples, direct experience, or instruction, in order to look for patterns in data and make better decisions in the future based on the examples that we provide.
5. In the past decade, machine learning has given us self-driving cars, practical speech recognition, effective web search, etc.
6. Examples: Google Assistant, Google Allo etc.

As a part of revision for Prelims 2018, Here’s a Factoid to brush up your concepts

Name : International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS)

Recently in News because : Neeru Chadha won a crucial election to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), becoming the first Indian woman to be elected as judge to the tribunal

Objective : To adjudicate disputes arising out of the interpretation and application of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

Members : The Tribunal is composed of 21 independent members elected by secret ballot by the States Parties to the Convention

Headquarters : Hamburg, Germany

Year Founded : Created by UNCLOS in 1982 (Came in force in 1994)