24 October 2016

current affairs 22nd octomer

India has won the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup by defeating Iran by 38-29 score in the final match played at the Arena By TransStadia in Ahmedabad (Gujarat. It was India’s third consecutive Kabaddi World Cup in the Standard Style version of Kabaddi. Earlier India had won in 2004 and 2007. Captain of Indian team: Anup Kumar


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What are Masala Bonds?
The rupee-denominated bonds or masala bonds are instruments through which Indian entities can raise funds by accessing overseas capital markets, while the bond investors hold the currency risk.
Why is it important?
Masala bonds, if they take off, can be quite a significant plus for the Indian economy. They are issued to foreign investors and settled in US dollars. Hence the currency risk lies with the investor and not the issuer, unlike external commercial borrowings (ECBs), where Indian companies raise money in foreign currency loans.
While ECBs help companies take advantage of the lower interest rates in international markets, the cost of hedging the currency risk can be significant. If unhedged, adverse exchange rate movements can come back to bite the borrower. But in the case of Masala bonds, the cost of borrowing can work out much lower.

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Civil Aviation Ministry’s Regional Connectivity Scheme “UDAN” Launched
The Centre has unveiled a regional connectivity scheme, known as UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik), with flights priced at Rs.2,500 for one hour of flying time to and from regional airports.
About the scheme:udan-scheme
A “first of its kind” in the world, UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik) will be based on market mechanism as well as bidding for a minimum of 50% seats in the participating airline’s flight and the rest would be market-based pricing.
The scheme UDAN envisages providing connectivity to un-served and under-served airports of the country through revival of existing air-strips and airports. The scheme would be in operation for a period of 10 years.

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Four apes in critically endangered species
Western Gorilla
Eastern Gorilla
Sumatran Orangutan
Bornean Orangutan
Two apes in endangered list
Chimpanzee
Bonobo
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Conglomerate Hinduja Group’s flagship company Ashok Leyland has unveiled country’s first 100 per cent indigenously made electric bus which are non-polluting and have zero-emissions. These buses were unveiled in lines with National Electric Mobility Plan which aims at a 20% penetration of electric/hybrid (eco-friendly) vehicles by 2020. They enjoy a subsidy under the Central government’s Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme. Key Facts These electric buses will be offered on multiple platforms and have seating capacity ranging from 35 to 65. They can travel 150 km on a single charge. They have been integrated with a fire detection and suppression system. They are built on mass-market platform that will enable operator to cater to customers in city centres with minimal operational and maintenance costs. These buses can be used in heritage sites, metro stations, tarmacs, rural areas, hill stations and by IT firms and educational institutions. Besides, state Transport Undertakings can also use them for environment friendly mass public transportation. Way Forward In India, electric buses in future will have a big leap in mass public transport. It would support the government initiative of reducing fuel import bill. Besides, it will help to curb air pollution as these buses have zero tailpipe emissions and lower noise pollution. What is National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020? The NEMMP 2020 is one of most ambitious initiatives undertaken by Central Government to promote hybrid and electric vehicles in the country to achieve national fuel security. It has set an ambitious target to achieve 6-7 million sales of hybrid and electric vehicles year on year from 2020 onwards. The FAME India Scheme was launched under this mission to provide fiscal and monetary incentives to electric and hybrid vehicles ranging from two wheelers to buses

13 October 2016

Global Hunger Index

Global Hunger Index

According to the latest Global Hunger Index data, hunger levels in developing countries may have fallen 29% since 2000, but India is still rated as a country with ‘serious’ hunger levels in the 2016.
  • The report is released by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
  • The hunger index ranks countries based on undernourishment, child mortality, child wasting (low weight for height) and child stunting (low height for age).
  • The GHI ranks countries on a 100-point scale. Zero is the best score (no hunger), and 100 is the worst, although neither of these extremes is reached in practice.  
Highlights of the report:
  • It ranked India 97 among 118 countries, faring worse than all its neighbours China (29), Nepal (72), Myanmar (75), Sri Lanka (84) and Bangladesh (90), except for Pakistan (107) in measures of hunger.
  • The report found that one in three children in India has stunted growth, whereas 15% of the country’s population are undernourished. India’s score is 28.5.
  • Hunger levels are “alarming” in seven countries, with Central African Republic (CAR), Chad and Zambia experiencing the worst levels. Nearly half the population in CAR and Zambia and one in three people in Chad, are undernourished.
  • The report also said that another 43 countries, including India, Nigeria and Indonesia, have “serious” hunger levels.
  • At the current rate of decline, more than 45 countries – including India, Pakistan, Haiti, Yemen, and Afghanistan – will have “moderate” to “alarming” hunger scores in the year 2030.
  • Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest hunger levels, followed closely by South Asia.
global hunger-index

About Amur Falcons:

Thousands of Amur falcons, small birds of prey that undertake one of the longest migrations have started arriving in Wokha district in Nagaland and Tamenglong district of Manipur. Wokha district is a declared second home of the Amur falcons.
 About Amur Falcons:
  • Amur falcons are the longest travelling raptors in the world. They weigh just 150 grams.
  • Males are mostly grey in colour and the females have dark-streaked cream or orange underparts.
  • The species flies non-stop from Mongolia to northeast India covering 5,600 km in five days and nights, a small part of its 22,000 km circular migratory journey.
  • The birds halt briefly in Myanmar. After a month or so, they reach central and western India en route to South Africa.
  • Until recently, Naga tribesmen used to hunt thousands of Amur falcons for meat. But, after a vigorous campaign by wildlife activists, they have pledged to protect the bird and since then, not a single bird has been hunted in the area.

11 October 2016

Noble prize 2016 in sciences

Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos
The award should also be seen as a tribute to the Colombian people, said the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 has been awarded to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his efforts to end his country's 50-year civil war.
Mr Santos negotiated a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) guerrilla group but the peace deal was rejected by a narrow majority of Colombians when it was put to referendum.
“The award should also be seen as a tribute to the Colombian people who, despite great hardships and abuses, have not given up hope of a just peace, and to all the parties who have contributed to the peace process,” said a statement by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
”Thank you from the bottom of my heart and in the name of all the Colombians, especially the victims.” President Santos said on being awarded the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.
On hearing the news, President Santos immediately emphasised that he received the award on behalf of his fellow citizens. We reached him straight after he had received the call from the Norwegian Nobel Committee: ”It’s simply a matter of believing in a cause and there is no better cause for any society, for any country, than living in Peace.”
One of the five prizes instituted by Alfred Nobel, the Peace Prize is awarded to those who have “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
Last year’s Peace Prize went to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet for “for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011.”



Physics Nobel awarded to three
They get the award "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter."
The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2016 has been divided, one half awarded to David J. Thouless, the other half jointly to F. Duncan M. Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter."
Announcing the Prize on Tuesday in Stockholm, a statement by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said that “This year’s Laureates opened the door on an unknown world where matter can assume strange states. They have used advanced mathematical methods to study unusual phases, or states, of matter, such as superconductors, superfluids or thin magnetic films. Thanks to their pioneering work, the hunt is now on for new and exotic phases of matter.”
Last year, Physics Nobel was awarded to Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. MacDonald for their work with neutrinos.


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Why the Nobel Prize winning discovery of autophagy matters
Disruption of autophagy processes of the cell has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes.
Nobel laureate Yoshinori Ohsumi’s work on mechanisms underlying autophagy — a fundamental process of degrading and recycling cellular components — has generated much interest in the science behind the biological process. In this article, we will aim to explain the significance of this discovery and the earlier work in this area.
What is autophagy?
The word autophagy originates from Greek words auto, meaning “self”, and phagein, meaning “to eat”, according to the release put up on the Nobel Prize website. The concept emerged during the 1960s, when researchers first observed that the cell could destroy its own contents by enclosing it in membranes – autophagosomes - for degradation.
Scientists discovered during the 1950s that the cell contained specialised compartments, with enzymes that digest proteins, carbohydrates and lipids. These compartments also helped with degradation of cellular constituents. During the 1970s and 1980s, researchers explained the working of a system used to degrade proteins.
Experiments on autophagy
Professor Ohsumi started working on protein degradation in the vacuole (the fluid-filled pocket found in the cell) in 1988. At that time scientists used yeast cells as a model for human cells. But he faced a major challenge; yeast cells are small and their inner structures are not easily distinguished under the microscope and thus he was uncertain whether autophagy even existed in this organism.
But he reasoned that if he could disrupt the degradation process in the vacuole while the process of autophagy was active, then autophagosomes should accumulate within the vacuole and become visible under the microscope. He cultured mutated yeast lacking vacuolar degradation enzymes and simultaneously stimulated autophagy by starving the cells. Within hours, the vacuoles were filled with small vesicles that had not been degraded. His experiment proved that authophagy existed in yeast cells. He had also figured out the method to identify and characterise key genes involved in this process. This was a major breakthrough.
Within a year of his discovery of autophagy in yeast, Professor Ohsumi had identified the first genes essential for autophagy. He studied thousands of yeast mutants and identified 15 genes that are essential for autophagy. Subsequently, he characterised the proteins encoded by these genes according to their function. The results showed that autophagy is controlled by a cascade of proteins and protein complexes, each regulating a distinct stage of autophagosome initiation and formation.
Professor Ohsumi studied the function of the proteins encoded by key autophagy genes. He outlined how stress signals initiated autophagy and the mechanism by which proteins and protein complexes promoted distinct stages of autophagosome formation.
Physiological functions
Autophagy can rapidly provide fuel for energy and building blocks for renewal of cellular components, and is, therefore, essential for the cellular response to starvation and other types of stress. After infection, autophagy can eliminate invading intracellular bacteria and viruses. Autophagy contributes to embryo development and cell differentiation. Cells also use autophagy to eliminate damaged proteins and organelles, a quality control mechanism that is critical for counteracting the negative consequences of aging.
Disruption of the autophagy processes of the cell has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes and other disorders that appear in the elderly. Mutations in autophagy genes can cause genetic disease. Disturbances in the autophagic machinery have also been linked to cancer. Efforts are on to develop drugs that can target autophagy in various diseases.
If not for ProfessorOhsumi’s research in the 1990s, the world would not have known the fundamental importance of autophagy in physiology and medicine.
Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi smiles as he answers a reporter's question after learning that he won this year's Nobel Prize in medicine at the Tokyo Institute of Technology campus in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, on Monday.

UKPSC-2016 NOTIFICATION IS OUT.

UKPSC-2016 NOTIFICATION IS OUT.
New batch for UKPCS -2016 : 18th & 25th October
सम्मिलित राज्य सिविल/प्रवर अधीनस्थ सेवा परीक्षा-2016 हेतु विज्ञापन, पाठ्यक्रम एवं ऑन लाईन आवेदन पत्र
http://www.ukpsc.gov.in/files/PCS_-2016__Advt..pdf

 

Salient features of the National policy for women empowerment:

The Union Cabinet Minister for Women & Child Development Maneka Gandhi has unveiled a draft of National Policy for Women, 2016, which will replace the National Policy for the Empowerment of Women, 2001. The draft has been unveiled for comments and consultation. Apart from the safety issues, the draft also seeks to address the emerging challenges confronting Indian women.
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Salient features of the National policy for women empowerment:
To create a society with women working as equal partners in all spheres of life
To develop a framework to ensure equal rights and opportunities for women
To make cyber space a safe place for women and to address "redistribution of gender roles, for reducing unpaid care work, review of personal and customary laws in accordance with the Constitutional provisions and many more."
It also seeks to review the criminalisation of marital rape keeping women's rights in mind
Health and education of women have been kept a priority in the proposed draft
The draft has proposed to "improve access to pre-primary education, enrolment and retention of adolescent girls."
To carry out skill development and provide equal employment opportunities
To provide suitable benefits related to maternity and child care services
The draft plans to increase women's participation in the political, administration, civil services and corporate boardrooms arena
To address all forms of violence against women
To improve child sex ratio (CSR)
To prevent trafficking at source, transit and destination areas for effective monitoring of the networks
Operational strategies
To enable safety and security of women with the help of "One Stop Centres, Women Helpline, Mahila Police Volunteers, Reservation of women in police force, Panic buttons in mobiles, Surveillance mechanisms in public places."
To create eco-systems to encourage entrepreneurship amongst women. This has been proposed to be done through podiums like Mahila E-Haat etc
Aiding women in workplace through "flexi timings, increased maternity leave, provision of child care/creches at workplace, life cycle health care facilities."

India will host the 8th BRICS Summit, in Goa on 15-16 October 2016

India will host the 8th BRICS Summit, in Goa on 15-16 October 2016 during its Chairmanship of BRICS, which it assumed on 15 February 2016.
As the precursor the same, the 4th BRICS Science, Technology and Innovation Ministerial Meeting was convened on 8 October, 2016 at Jaipur to further strengthen the collaboration amongst the BRICS countries in the areas of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI). The meeting was chaired by the Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan. The Vice Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation of Brazil, Mr. Álvaro Toubes Prata; Deputy Minister of Federation of Russia, Mr. Alexey Lopatia; Vice Minister of S&T of Peoples Republic of China, H.E.Mr. Jiang Hua; Minister of Science and Technology of South Africa H.E. Madam Naledi Pandor led their respective country delegations.
While welcoming the BRICS country Ministerial delegates, Dr Harshvardhan elucidated; “During our Chairmanship we are adopting a five-pronged approach, viz. Institution Building, Implementation, Integration, Innovation and Continuity. Our emphasis is on institution building, implementation of previous commitments, tapping synergies of the existing BRICS cooperation mechanisms, exploring some new areas of cooperation and maintaining continuity in the existing areas.”
In alignment with the theme of India’s Chairmanship - Building, Responsive Inclusive and Collective Solutions, the Jaipur Declaration was unanimously adopted by all the BRICS countries. The member countries resolved to intensify, diversify and institutionalize STI cooperation through the BRICS research & innovation initiative.
During India’s Chairmanship, significant progress have been achieved in joint knowledge creation in the areas of Photonics; Material Science & Nanotechnology; Biotechnology & Biomedical Sciences; Energy; Geospatial Technology; Astronomy; Prevention & Mitigation of Natural Disaster, Water and Solid State Lighting.
In fulfillment of Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi’s special attention on engagement of youth, who comprises 65% of workforce of BRICS countries together, India hosted the 1st BRICS Young Scientists Conclave at Bengaluru and Hampi last week. More than 40 young scientists from BRICS countries participated in the event and discussed some exciting ideas in the field of affordable healthcare, energy solutions and computational intelligence. In order to stimulate and encourage young minds, BRICS Innovative Idea Prize for Young Scientists has been instituted.
In order to harness the innovativeness of the youth, India’s proposal to establish a BRICS Science and Technology driven Entrepreneurship and Innovation Partnership Programme was agreed by all the member countries.

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