Memorize Current Affairs for UPSC 30 november 2020
PRAGATI
News:
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently chaired the 33rd PRAGATI interaction.
About:
- PRAGATI is Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation.
- It aims to provide pro-active governance and timely implementation of projects.
- It was launched in 2015.
- It is a multi-modal and multi-purpose platform that aims to address the grievances of a common man.
- It also monitors and reviews projects of the Government of India and also projects flagged by the State Governments.
- The PRAGATI platform bundles three latest technologies namely
- video conferencing,
- Digital data management
- Geo-spatial technology
- PRAGATI platform brings the Secretaries of Government of India and the Chief Secretaries of the Sate on one stage.
- It promotes Cooperative Federalism.
Prime Minister holds a monthly program in which he interacts with the secretaries through video conferencing.
The program is held once every month, which is on the fourth Wednesday.
Mission COVID Suraksha
NEWS:
- The Government of India recently launched Mission COVID Suraksha to accelerate the development of vaccines in the country.
- The funds allocated are to be used for the development of vaccines and licensure of vaccines that are in the clinical stage or ready to enter the clinical stage.
About:
Important roles of the mission are as follows :
- To establish clinical trial sites
- To strengthen existing immunoassay laboratories
- To strengthen suitable facilities for animal studies
- To establish clinical sites
- To support data management systems, training, regulatory submissions, accreditations, external quality management, and support development of the common harmonized protocol.
- The mission will support cell line development.
- Cell Line is a cell culture developed from a single cell.
- It will also support the manufacturing of good manufacturing practice batches for animal toxicology studies.
Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT)
NEWS:
- The GMRT observatory located in Pune has been provided with the prestigious IEEE milestone status.
- The status was provided to honor its significant technical achievement, services, its excellence as a unique product, patent, and seminal papers that aim to benefit humanity.
About
One of the major objectives of the telescope was to search for highly redshift 21-line radiation.
- It is an electromagnetic radiation spectral line.
- It is created due to the change in the energy state of neutral hydrogen atoms.
- These electromagnetic radiations fall in the wavelength of microwaves and are usually observed in radio astronomy.
- This is because these radio waves can penetrate large clouds of cosmic dust that are opaque to visible light.
These radiations are emitted from the primordial neutral hydrogen clouds.
- The hydrogen clouds are the interstellar matter where hydrogen occurs in its neutral state rather than its molecular or ionized states.
- The Hydrogen clouds are detectable at radio wavelengths as they emit characteristic energy at a wavelength of 21 cm.
The determination of these radiations will help determine the epoch of galaxy formation in the universe.
In February 2020 the telescope helped in observing the biggest explosion in the history of the Universe called the Ophiuchus Supercluster Explosion.
The extremely powerful eruption occurred in the Ophiuchus supercluster.
It is located at about 390 million light-years from the Earth.
The eruption occurred due to a supermassive black hole.
Hayabusa2 spacecraft
NEWS:
- The Hayabusa2 spacecraft of Japan is nearing the earth after a yearlong journey from the asteroid Ryugu.
- The spacecraft is expected to reach the earth carrying precious samples from the asteroid.
- This is the first time in the history of world space underground samples are collected from an asteroid.
About Ryugu
- It is a carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid.
- The carbonaceous asteroids hold the most Pristine materials in the solar system.
- The carbonaceous asteroids form around 75% of the known asteroids.
- As their composition includes a large amount of carbon, they are distinguished by a very low albedo.
- Albedo is the measure of reflection of solar radiation.
Tag:Current Affairs, UPSC
