ART AND CULTURE                                                                         

1. Ladakhi New Year being celebrated with traditional fervor & enthusiasm                                                                                      

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE                                                        

1. 7 Young Innovators’ Program (YIP)                                                   

ECONOMY                                                                                          

1. Financial system stable despite slowdown:RBI report                         

2. Commercial trial runs begin on freight corridor                                   

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY                                                     

1. To control strays, Centre pushes new technology to produce only female calves                                                                                  

SECURITY                                                                                           

1. DefExpo 2020 mobile app                                                                 

ART AND CULTURE

Ladakhi New Year being celebrated with traditional fervor & enthusiasm

GS PAPER - 01 ART AND CULTURE - Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

Context :

• Union Territory of Ladakh is celebrating Losar Festival on 27 December 2019.

Losar Festival :

• Losar is Tibetan word for new year.Losar festival is celebrated to mark the Ladakhi or Tibetan New Year.

• The festival is regarded as the most important socio-religious event of Ladakh.

• The festival is held annually on the 1st Day of the Eleventh Month of Tibetan Calendar correlating to a date in the Gregorian calendar.

• During the festival,Ladakhi Buddhists make religious offering before their deities in the domestic shrines or in the Gompas.

• The festival also organises various cultural events, ancient rituals and also traditional performances.

                                                                                                                             Source :- PIB

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

7 Young Innovators’ Program (YIP)

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology(CCMB) has launched its 7 Young Innovators’ Program (YIP).

Young Innovators’ Program(YIP):

• The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology(CCMB) Young Innovators is a program for school children.

• The program aims to emphasize that creativity, keen interest and enthusiasm are the main components of success in science by giving access to active research labs via this program.

• It identifies talented young students of grades VIII to X and encourages them to appreciate scientific methodologies through this program.

• The selected students carry out experiments such as preparation and analysis of their own DNA, preparation and examination of nanoparticles, grow bacteria and count them.

• Apart from this, they also interact with various scientists and discuss their work during the program.On successful completion of the program, students are awarded with a certificate.           

                                                                                                                                                              Source :- The Hindu

ECONOMY

Financial system stable despite slowdown:RBI report

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - growth, development and employment

Context :

• The Reserve Bank of India has released its biannual Financial Stability Report,2019.

Key Highlights :

• The Reserve Bank has said that the country’s financial system remains stable despite slowing economic growth.

• The aggregate demand has slowed down in the second half of the current financial year ending March 2020 adding to an already slowing economic growth.

• The Global factors such as a delay in Brexit deal, trade tensions, impending recession, oil-market disruptions and geopolitical risks has caused uncertainties leading to a significant deceleration in growth.

• The reviving of the twin engines of India’s economic growth namely private consumption and investment while being vigilant about developments in global financial markets remain a critical challenge for RBI.

• The Banks capital adequacy ratio has improved significantly after the recapitalisation of public sector banks(PSBs) by the government.

• Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) has tackled the issue of bad loans which had slowed down the performance and growth of private, public-sector banks and even non-banks.

• RBI has also taken several policy measures to improve the condition of the financial system such as

  • introducing a liquidity management regime for NBFCs

  • improving the banks’ governance culture

  • resolution of stressed assets and

  • for the development of payment infrastructure.

• However,RBI expects the banks gross non-performing asset(GNPA) ratio to increase from 9.3% in September 2019 to 9.9% by September 2020.

• This is primarily due to change in macroeconomic scenario, marginal increase in slippages and the denominator effect of declining credit growth.

• Further,the frauds reported by the banks touched an all time high of around Rs 1.13 lakhs in the FY19.The frauds reported between 2001-18 accounted to 90% of the frauds registered in 2019 alone.

                                                                                                                                   Source :- Economic Times

Commercial trial runs begin on freight corridor

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

Context :

• Opening of a section of the western freight corridor for commercial trial runs.

Western Dedicated Freight Corridor :

• The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd. (DFCCIL) opened the more than the 300-km section between Rewari, Haryana to Madar, Rajasthan, for commercial trial runs.

• This is the first section to be opened on the under-construction 1,500-km western freight corridor.

Significance :

• The opening of this stretch will benefit various industries in the surrounding areas leading to Industrial development and the subsequent economic development of the area. Such an approach will also help envisage a more distributed model of growth.

• Once the section is opened for commercial operations, about 80% of the freight train movements will be shifted to the dedicated corridor, resulting in a much faster movement of goods trains, vacating track space for passenger trains.

• This will result in immediate relief for both freight and passenger movements via Indian Railways.

• With a dedicated corridor and advanced wagons, one train will be able to carry a load of about 13,000 tonnes, which is equal to what 1,300 trucks would carry. Goods movement will be faster and cheaper.

                                                                                                                                                            Source :- The Hindu

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

To control strays, Centre pushes new technology to produce only female calves

GS PAPER - 03 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology

Context :

• The Centre has found an innovative solution to control stray animal population.

  • It is implementing the sex-sorting semen technology for artificial insemination which will produce only female animals.

Sexed Semen:

• Sexed semen technology is about preselecting the sex of offspring by sorting or separating the X-sperms from Y-sperms.

• The aim is to deliver freedom from male calves by ensuring that cows are inseminated by semen containing only X-chromosome-bearing sperms.This will ensure that only a female calf is born.

Working :

• The reproductive system of cattle is similar to humans.Cows carry XX chromosomes while bull semen carries both X and Y.

• If the egg fertilized with an ‘X’ chromosome,a female calf is born and if with ‘Y’, a male is born.

• There are two techniques to produce sexed semen

  • One is the ‘sorting process’ in which ‘X’ and ‘Y’ chromosomes are separated. ‘X’ are retained and ‘Y’ discarded and

  • The other is in which ‘Y’ chromosomes are altogether killed.

• After this,Cows are impregnated using sexed semen through the artificial insemination process with consumption of one straw per cow.

• Artificial insemination is the technique in which semen with living sperm is collected from the male and introduced into female reproductive tract at the proper time with the help of instruments.

Significance :

• This method is being used as male calves are considered a financial burden.They are either killed or abandoned on the roads by farmers as they do not give milk.

• This has led to an increasing number of cattle roaming the streets which has caused fatal road accidents as well.

• Hence,this technology would help dairy farmers ensure production of only female calves which would eventually put an end to the practice of abandoning the male calves that later posing a major threat to human life in the form of the stray cattle.

                                                                                                                            Source :- The Hindu

SECURITY

DefExpo 2020 mobile app

GS PAPER - 03 SECURITY - Security challenges and their management in border areas; linkages of organized crime with terrorism Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate

Context :

• Defence Minister launched the mobile app of the forthcoming DefExpo 2020

DefExpo 2020:

• The app has been developed by the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence (MoD) with the aim to engage with the visitors as well as exhibitors.

• The 11th biennial edition of DefExpo India-2020 is scheduled to be held in Uttar Pradesh’s capital Lucknow.

• The main theme of the DefExpo India-2020 will be ‘India: The Emerging Defence Manufacturing Hub’.

Significance :

• The DefExpo will provide an opportunity to the major foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to collaborate with the Indian defence industry and help promote ‘Make in India‘ initiative.

                                                                                                                 Source :- PIB

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