Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Exercise ‘Sahyog-Kaijin’
Mains level: NA
Exercise ‘Sahyog-Kaijin’
- Indian and Japanese coast guards participated in a joint exercise ‘Sahyog-Kaijin’ on January 16.
- The aim behind ‘Sahyog-Kaijin’ is to strengthen the bond between the two countries.
- One ship of the Japanese Coast Guard and four ships and an aircraft of the Indian Coast Guard participated in the joint exercise.
- The drill is a five-day event.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Taal Volcano
Mains level: Volcanism and its impact
In the Philippines, a volcano called Taal on the island of Luzon; 50 km from Manila has recently erupted.
Taal Volcano
- Taal is classified as a “complex” volcano. Taal has 47 craters and four maars (a broad shallow crater).
- It is situated at the boundaries of two tectonic plates — the Philippines Sea Plate and the Eurasian plate — it is particularly susceptible to earthquakes and volcanism.
- A complex volcano, also called a compound volcano, is defined as one that consists of a complex of two or more vents, or a volcano that has an associated volcanic dome, either in its crater or on its flanks.
- Examples include Vesuvius, besides Taal.
- The Taal volcano does not rise from the ground as a distinct, singular dome but consists of multiple stratovolcanoes (volcanoes susceptible to explosive eruptions), conical hills and craters of all shapes and sizes.
Threats posed
- Taal’s closeness to Manila puts lives at stake. Manila is a few tens of kilometres away with a population of over 10 million.
- The volcano is currently at alert level 4, which means that a “hazardous eruption” could be imminent within a few hours to a few days.
- Hazardous eruptions are characterised by intense unrest, continuing seismic swarms and low-frequency earthquakes.
Earlier records of eruption
- Taal has erupted more than 30 times in the last few centuries. Its last eruption was on October 3, 1977.
- An eruption in 1965 was considered particularly catastrophic, marked by the falling of rock fragments and ashfall.
- Before that, there was a “very violent” eruption in 1911 from the main crater. The 1911 eruption lasted for three days, while one in 1754 lasted for seven months.
- Because it is a complex volcano with various features, the kinds of eruption too have been varied. An eruption can send lava flowing through the ground, or cause a threat through ash in the air.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Artemis Mission
Mains level: Manned mission on Moon
NASA wants to send the first woman and the next man to the Moon by the year 2024, which it plans on doing through the Artemis lunar exploration program. An Indian American astronaut named Raja Chari is set to accompany the crew in this mission.
Artemis Mission
- In 2011, NASA began the ARTEMIS (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s Interaction with the Sun) mission using a pair of repurposed spacecraft and in 2012 the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft studied the Moon’s gravity.
- For the program, NASA’s new rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS) will send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft a quarter of a million miles away from Earth to the lunar orbit.
- The astronauts going for the Artemis program will wear newly designed spacesuits, called Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or xEMU.
- These spacesuits feature advanced mobility and communications and interchangeable parts that can be configured for spacewalks in microgravity or on a planetary surface.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Major species found in Kaziranga NP
Mains level: NA
Kaziranga, home of the world’s most one-horned rhinos, has 96 species of wetland birds — one of the highest for wildlife preserves in India.
Kaziranga National Park
- It is a protected area in the northeast state of Assam.
- Spread across the floodplains of the Brahmaputra River, its forests, wetlands and grasslands are home to tigers, elephants and the world’s largest population of Indian one-horned rhinoceroses.
- Much of the focus of conservation efforts in Kaziranga are focused on the ‘big four’ species— rhino, elephant, Royal Bengal tiger and Asiatic water buffalo.
- The 2018 census had yielded 2,413 rhinos and approximately 1,100 elephants.
- The tiger census of 2014 said Kaziranga had an estimated 103 tigers, the third highest population of the striped cat in India after Jim Corbett National Park (215) in Uttarakhand and Bandipur National Park (120) in Karnataka.
- Kaziranga is also home to nine of the 14 species of primates found in the Indian subcontinent.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kolkata Port
Mains level: Ports in India
PM Modi has renamed the Kolkata Port Trust after Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, at an event to mark its 150th anniversary.
History of Kolkata’s port
- In the early 16th century, the Portuguese first used the present location of the port to anchor their ships, since they found the upper reaches of the Hooghly river beyond Kolkata, unsafe for navigation.
- Job Charnock, an employee and administrator of the East India Company, is believed to have founded a trading post at the site in 1690.
- Since the area was situated on the river with jungle on three sides, it was considered safe from enemy invasion.
- After the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833, this port was used to ship lakhs of Indians as ‘indentured labourers’ to far-flung territories throughout the Empire.
- During World War II, the port was bombed by Japanese forces.
Its administration
- As Kolkata grew in size and importance, merchants in the city demanded the setting up of a port trust in 1863.
- The colonial government formed a River Trust in 1866, but it soon failed, and administration was again taken up by the government.
- Finally, in 1870, the Calcutta Port Act (Act V of 1870) was passed, creating the offices of Calcutta Port Commissioners.
- In 1869 and 1870, eight jetties were built on the Strand. A wet dock was set up at Khidirpur in 1892. The Khidirpur Dock II was completed in 1902.
- As cargo traffic at the port grew, so did the requirement of more kerosene, leading to the building of a petroleum wharf at Budge Budge in 1896.
- In 1925, the Garden Reach jetty was added to accommodate greater cargo traffic. A new dock, named King George’s Dock, was commissioned in 1928 (it was renamed Netaji Subhash Dock in 1973).
- In 1975, the Commissioners of the port ceased to control it after the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963, came into force.
Significance
- After Independence, the Kolkata Port lost its preeminent position in cargo traffic to ports at Mumbai, Kandla, Chennai, and Visakhapatnam.
- The Kolkata port is the only riverine port on R. Hooghly in the country, situated 203 km from the sea.
- The Farakka Barrage, built in 1975, reduced some of the port’s woes as Ganga waters were diverted into the Bhagirathi-Hooghly system.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Swami Vivekananda
Mains level: Swami Vivekananda and his philosophy
January 12 is the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, the famous spiritual leader and intellectual from the late 19th century. In his honour, the government of India in 1984 declared his birthday as National Youth Day.
Swami Vivekananda early life
- Vivekananda was born in Kolkata on January 12, 1863, as Narendra Nath Datta.
- From an early age, he nurtured an interest in Western philosophy, history, and theology, and went on to meet the religious leader Ramakrishna Paramhansa, who later became his Guru.
- He remained devoted to Ramakrishna until the latter’s death in 1886.
- In 1893, he took the name ‘Vivekananda’ after Maharaja Ajit Singh of the Khetri State requested him to do so, changing from ‘Sachidananda’ that he used before.
- After Ramakrishna’s death, Vivekananda toured across India, and set after educating the masses about ways to improve their economic condition as well as imparting spiritual knowledge.
The Chicago address
- Vivekananda is especially remembered around the world for his speech at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1893.
- The speech covered topics including universal acceptance, tolerance and religion, and got him a standing ovation.
- He began delivering lectures at various places in the US and UK, and became popular as the ‘messenger of Indian wisdom to the Western world’.
Return to India
- After coming back to India, he formed the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897 “to set in motion a machinery which will bring noblest ideas to the doorstep of even the poorest and the meanest.”
- In 1899, he established the Belur Math, which became his permanent abode.
His legacy
- Through his speeches and lectures, Vivekananda worked to disseminate his religious thought.
- He preached ‘neo-Vedanta’, an interpretation of Hinduism through a Western lens, and believed in combining spirituality with material progress.
- ‘Raja Yoga’, ‘Jnana Yoga’, ‘Karma Yoga’ are some of the books he wrote.
- An important religious reformer in India, Swami Vivekananda is known to have introduced the Hindu philosophies of Yoga and Vedanta to the West.
- Subhas Chandra Bose had called Vivekananda the “maker of modern India.”
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IUCN , Red List, Chinese paddlefish
Mains level: IUCN mechanism of listing
One of the largest freshwater species, Chinese paddlefish has been declared extinct.
Chinese paddlefish
- The Chinese paddlefish (Psephurus gladius) was an iconic species, measuring up to 7 m in length, dating back from 200 million years ago, and therefore swimming the rivers when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.
- Its ancestral home was the Yangtze River.
- It was once common in the Yangtze, before overfishing and habitat fragmentation — including dam building — caused its population to dwindle from the 1970s onwards.
- Between 1981 and 2003, there were just around 210 sightings of the fish. The researchers estimate that it became functionally extinct by 1993, and extinct sometime between 2005-2010.
How did the study determine that it has gone extinct?
- Chinese researchers made this conclusion based on the Red List criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
- The Red List has several categories for extinction, or for how endangered a species is.
- For example, “extinct in the wild” means a species survives only in a captive environment while “locally extinct” means a species has ceased to exist in a particular area but may exist in other areas.
- Then there is “functionally extinct”, which means the species continues to exist but it has too few members to enable to reproduce meaningfully enough to ensure survival.
- To be “globally extinct”, it means a species has no surviving member anywhere. Such a conclusion is reached when there is no reasonable doubt left that its last member has died.
How does extinction status matters for conservation?
- Declaring a species extinct is an elaborate process.
- It involves a series of exhaustive surveys, which need to be taken at appropriate times, throughout the species’ historic range and over a time-frame that is appropriate to the species’ life cycle and form.
- When these surveys fail to record the existence of any individuals belonging to that species, a species may be presumed to be extinct.
- Once declared extinct, a species is not eligible for protective measures and conservation funding; therefore, the declaration has significant consequences.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Coronavirus, Pneumonia
Mains level: NA
A new virus has been identified by Chinese researchers which is responsible for a new pneumonia-like illness.
Coronavirus
- Coronaviruses are a specific family of viruses, with some of them causing less-severe damage, such as the common cold, and others causing respiratory and intestinal diseases.
- A coronavirus has many “regularly arranged” protrusions on its surface, because of which the entire virus particle looks like an emperor’s crown, hence the name “coronavirus”.
- Apart from human beings, coronaviruses can affect mammals including pigs, cattle, cats, dogs, martens, camels, hedgehogs and some birds.
- So far, there are four known disease-causing coronaviruses, among which the best known are the SARS coronavirus and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus, both of which can cause severe respiratory diseases.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Goldilocks Zone
Mains level: Not Much
NASA has reported the discovery of an Earth-size planet, named TOI 700 d, orbiting its star in the “habitable zone”.
Goldilocks Zone
- A habitable zone, also called the “Goldilocks zone”, is the area around a star where it is not too hot and not too cold for liquid water to exist on the surface of surrounding planets.
- Our Earth is in the Sun’s Goldilocks zone. If Earth were where the dwarf planet Pluto is, all its water would freeze; on the other hand, if Earth were where Mercury is, all its water would boil off.
- Life on Earth started in water, and water is a necessary ingredient for life as we know it.
- So, when scientists search for the possibility of alien life, any rocky exoplanet in the habitable zone of its star is an exciting find.
TOI 700 d
- The newest such planet was found by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, which it launched in 2018.
- The star, TOI 700, is an “M dwarf” located just over 100 light-years away in the southern constellation Dorado, is roughly 40% of our Sun’s mass and size, and has about half its surface temperature.
- The find was confirmed by the Spitzer Space Telescope, which sharpened the measurements that TESS had made, such as orbital period and size.
- TOI 700 d measures 20% larger than Earth. It orbits its star once every 37 days and receives an amount of energy that is equivalent to 86% of the energy that the Sun provides to Earth.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: HSRA
Mains level: HSRA and its revolutionary activities
The Uttar Pradesh cabinet has approved a proposal for a zoological garden spread across 121 acres in Gorakhpur, to be named after the freedom fighter and revolutionary Ashfaqullah Khan.
Ashfaqullah Khan
- Khan was a freedom fighter who, along with Ram Prasad Bismil, was sentenced to death for the Kakori train robbery, commonly referred to as the Kakori conspiracy of 1925.
- He was born on October 22, 1900, in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
- He grew up at a time when Mahatma Gandhi had launched the non-cooperation movement and urged Indians not to pay taxes to the government or co-operate with the British.
Moved by NCM withdrawal
- Within about 1.5 years of the movement’s launch, in February 1922, the Chauri Chaura incident took place in Gorakhpur — a large number of non-cooperation protestors clashed with the police and set the police station on fire, killing roughly 22 policemen.
- Opposed to violence, Gandhi called off the movement.
- The youth of the country were greatly disappointed and disillusioned with this. Khan was one among these youths.
- Subsequently, he joined the revolutionaries and became acquainted with Bismil.
Ashfaqullah Khan and the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association
- In the mid-1920s, Khan and Bismil went on to found the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), with the aim of winning freedom for the country through an armed revolution.
- HSRA published its manifesto titled “The Revolutionary” in 1925.
- It held that the immediate object of the revolutionary party in the domain of politics is to establish a federal Republic of United State of India by an organized and armed revolution.
- The final constitution of this Republic shall be framed and declared at a time when the representatives of India shall have the power to carry out their decision.
- But the basic principles of this Republic will be universal suffrage and abolition of all system which make the exploitation of man by man possible, e.g. the railways, the mines and other industries such as the manufacture of steel and ships all these shall be nationalised.
The Kakori Conspiracy
- In August 1925, an armed robbery took place on board the Kakori Express, going from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow, carrying money that had been collected at various railway stations and was to be deposited in Lucknow.
- In this planned robbery, carried out to fund the activities of the HSRA, Bismil, Khan and over 10 other revolutionaries stopped the train and fled with the cash they found in it.
- Within a month of the robbery, many members of the HSRA were arrested.
- In September 1926, Bismil was arrested however Khan was on the run and was later arrested.
- The trial for the case went on for about 1.5 years. It ended in April 1927, with Bismil, Khan, Rajendra Lahiri and Roshan Singh sentenced to death, and the others given life sentences.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Epiphany Festival
Mains level: NA
The Epiphany festival was celebrated in parts of India, such as Goa and Kerala. In Goa, the celebration is known by its Portuguese name ‘Festa dos Reis’, and in parts of Kerala by its Syriac name ‘Denha’.
Epiphany or Three Kings’ Day
- Epiphany is among the three oldest and major festival days in Christianity, the two others being Christmas and Easter.
- It is celebrated on January 6 by a number of Christian sects, including Roman Catholics, and on January 19 by some Eastern Orthodox churches.
- In the West, the duration between December 25 and January 6 is known as the Twelve Days of Christmas.
- Epiphany is a feast day, or a day of commemoration, which in Christianity marks the visit of the Magi (meaning the Three Wise Men or Three Kings) to the Infant Jesus (Christ from his nativity until age 12).
- According to Christian belief, the Magi — Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar (or Casper), the kings of Arabia, Persia, and India, respectively — followed a miraculous guiding star to Bethlehem to paid homage to the Infant Jesus.
- The day also commemorates the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River.
Celebrations in India
- In Goa, the Magi or Three Kings are called ‘Reis Magos’ in Portuguese.
- The Reis Magos fort, and church, in Bardez, and the Three Kings Chapel in Cansaulim, get their name from the belief.
- Communities in Bardez, Chandor, Cansaulim, Arossim, and Cuelim are known to celebrate Epiphany.
- In Kerala, at the St. Mary’s Orthodox Syrian Cathedral in Piravom, ‘Denha’ is an important annual celebration, in which a big congregation takes part.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Nankana Sahib
Mains level: Significance of Nankana Sahib in Sikhism
Recently tension mounted in Pakistan after few goons vandalized the Nankana Sahib Gurdwara.
Nankana Sahib
- Nankana Sahib is a city of 80,000 in Pakistan’s Punjab province, where Gurdwara Janam Asthan (also called Nankana Sahib Gurdwara) is located.
- The shrine is built over the site where Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, was believed to be born in 1469.
- It was constructed by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, after he visited Nankana Sahib in 1818-19 while returning from the Battle of Multan.
- It is 75 kms to the west of Lahore, and is the capital of Nankana Sahib district.
- The city was previously known as Talwandi, and was founded by Rai Bhoi, a wealthy landlord.
- Rai Bhoi’s grandson, Rai Bular Bhatti, renamed the town ‘Nankana Sahib’ in honour of the Guru. ‘Sahib’ is an Arabic-origin epithet of respect.
Historical significance
- During British rule, the Gurdwara Janam Asthan was the site of a violent episode when in 1921, over 130 Akali Sikhs were killed after they were attacked by the Mahant of the shrine.
- The incident is regarded as one of the key milestones in the Gurdwara Reform Movement, which led to the passing of the Sikh Gurdwara Act in 1925 that ended the Mahant control of Gurdwaras.
- In 2014, Pakistan had a memorial for the massacre built.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Drosophila
Mains level: Not Much
Pune is set to host the fifth edition of the Asia Pacific Drosophila Research Conference (APDRC5) is being organised in the country for the first time by the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER).
Drosophila
- Drosophila is a genus of two-winged flies commonly known as fruit flies that are used in evolutionary and developmental studies.
- It is a genus of flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called “small fruit flies” or pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species to linger around overripe or rotting fruit.
- It is one of the most widely-used and preferred model organisms in biological research across the world for the last 100 years.
- Several discoveries in biology have been made using this. Its genome is entirely sequenced and there is enormous information available about its biochemistry, physiology and behaviour.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Op Save Kurma
Mains level: Wildlife conservation in India
A first-of-its-kind rehabilitation centre for freshwater turtles will be inaugurated in Bihar’s Bhagalpur forest division in January 2020.
About the rehab centre
- The centre, spread over half a hectare, will be able to shelter 500 turtles at a time.
- Earlier, rescued turtles were released into rivers without much treatment in the absence of any facility.
- In the rehab centre they will be properly monitored before being released in their natural habitat.
Why need such centre?
- The need to build such a centre was felt after several turtles were found severely wounded and sick when rescued from smuggles by rescue teams.
- This centre will play a significant role in treating these animals and their proper upkeep before being returned to their natural habitat.
Why Bhagalpur?
- Eastern Bihar has been an ideal breeding ground for turtles.
- In Bhagalpur, the flow of water in the Ganga is ample. Also, there are many sandbanks in the middle of the river, which are ideal breeding ground for turtles.
Significance of turtles
- According to environmentalists, the turtles play a significant role in the river by scavenging dead organic materials and diseased fish.
- They control fish population by their predation and control aquatic plants and weeds.
- They are also described as indicators of healthy aquatic ecosystems.
Various threats
- According to a recent study conducted by Traffic India, around 11,000 turtles are being smuggled in India every year. In the past 10 years, as many as 110,000 turtles have been traded.
- These species are now under severe threats due to habitat fragmentation and loss through dams and barrages, pollution, illegal poaching, accidental drowning through fishing nets and threats to their nesting habitats etc.
- The turtles have come under serious threat primarily for two reasons — food and the flourishing pet trade.
- Turtles are being frequently targeted for meat due to the prevailing belief that it gives an energy boost and keeps various diseases away.
Back2Basics
Operation Save Kurma
- It is a periodic species specific operation on turtles conducted by Wildlife Crimes Control Bureau since 2017.
- Under this, a total of 15,739 live turtles were recovered from 45 suspects, having inter-state linkages.
- It helped the enforcement agencies to focus on the existing trade routes and major trade hubs in the country, which will be continued in future.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: WHO
Mains level: Role of nurses and midwives , ASHA
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has selected the year 2020 as the international “Year of the Nurse and Midwife”.
Year of the Nurse and Midwife
- It was decided in the honour of 200th birthday of Florence Nightingale.
- WHO said that nurses and midwives are the people who devote their lives to caring for children and mothers, looking after senior citizens and giving lifesaving immunizations.
- The declaration will help to strengthen nursing and midwifery for Universal Health Coverage.
- The declaration will also help to endorse “The NursingNow!” a three-year campaign (2018-2020) to improve health globally by raising the status of nursing.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Arabica and RObusta
Mains level: Coffee production in India
India’s Arabica production has hit an all-time low this coffee-picking season.
Coffee Production in India
- Coffee is grown in three regions of India with Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu forming the traditional coffee growing region.
- It is followed by the new areas developed in the non-traditional areas of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa in the eastern coast of the country and with a third region comprising the NE states.
- Indian coffee, grown mostly in southern states under monsoon rainfall conditions, is also termed as “Indian monsooned coffee”.
- The two well known species of coffee grown are the Arabica and Robusta.
History of Coffee in India
- In the Indian context, coffee growing started with a saint, Baba Budan who, while returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, smuggled seven coffee beans from Yemen to Mysore in India.
- He planted them on the Chandragiri Hills now named after the saint as Baba Budan Giri in Chikkamagaluru district of Karnataka.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: MANI app
Mains level: Eliminating counterfeit currency notes
With an eye to aid the differently-abled, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has launched a mobile app to identify currency notes.
MANI App
- ‘MANI’, is an acronym for Mobile Aided Note Identifier.
- The visually challenged can identify the denomination of a note by using the application, which can also work offline once it is installed.
- A user will have to scan the notes using the camera and it will give the audio output to give out results in Hindi and English.
- RBI has clarified that the app does not authenticate a note as either genuine or counterfeit.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Millimeter Spectrum
Mains level: Rolling out of 5G services in India
The DoT plans to auction the 24.75 – 27.25 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum in the 5G band in March-April 2020.
Millimeter Spectrum
- The new spectrum under the 5G band called the ‘millimeter-wave bands’ is separate from the 8,300 megahertz (MHz).
- The millimeter-wave band or extremely high-frequency frequency spectrum is mainly designed for usage in airport security scanners, closed-circuit television, scientific research, machine-to-machine communication, and military fire control.
What’s so special with this MM spectrum?
- As the wavelength becomes smaller, the cell size becomes less, which is the footprint of the relay station. This will be used more by the industry.
- If we you already have fiber connection and want to reach houses, this will be through millimeter bands.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Senna spectabilis
Mains level: Impacts of the invasive alien species
The Kerala Forest Department is planning to adopt steps to arrest the rampant growth of invasive plants, especially Senna spectabilis, in the forest areas of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR).
Senna spectabilis
- The Senna spectabilis species was planted as avenue trees in Wayanad. The vayal ecosystem (marshy land) of the forest area now has this plant in large numbers.
- The spread is posing a major threat to the forest areas of the reserve, owing to its quick growth and coppicing character.
- The tree species was found in nearly 10 sq km area of the 344.44 sq km sanctuary around five years ago.
- The plant has started to invade the adjacent Bandipur and Nagarhole tiger reserves in Karnataka and the Mudumalai tiger reserve in Tamil Nadu.
- Now, it had invaded to more than 50 sq km of the sanctuary Wayanad WLS.
- A recent study of the Ferns Nature Conservation Society recorded the presence of the plant in 78.91 sq km area of the sanctuary.
Impact
- An adult tree grows up to 15 to 20 metres in a short period of time and every year distributes thousands of seeds after gregarious flowering.
- The thick foliage arrests the growth of other indigenous tree and grass species and causes food shortage for the wildlife population, especially herbivores.
- Moreover, wildlife will not feed on the leaf of the treeas it is not palatable for them.
- The allelochemicals produced by this plant adversely affect the germination and growth of the native species.
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