10th-January-2020-UPSC-current-affairs

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The US administration has once again amended the H-1B visa norms by changing the rules to give priority to higher wages and skills for selection of deserving candidates. The old lottery system of work visa selection will not be followed now

What is the new wage-based H-1B work visa regime?

• The new wage-based work visa regime will now give priority in selection of visas to applications of those employers where the “proffered wage equals or exceeds” the prevailing level in that area of employment.
  
• The proffered wage is the wage that the employer intends to pay the beneficiary.
  
• This will be done for both the 65,000 regular visas and the 20,000 advanced degree exemption visas.
  
• This regime will also take into account the skill set that the respective worker brings to the country and cross check it whether such skill set is available at the same cost among the US workers.
  

Source : Indian Express

A supermassive black hole, which is estimated to weigh up to 100 billion times the mass of the Sun, is seemingly missing, leaving astronomers perplexed

• Scientists have been looking for the black hole using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope, and have so far found no evidence that it is anywhere to be found.
  
• The black hole is supposed to be located in Abell 2261, an enormous galaxy cluster that is about 2.7 billion light-years away from our planet.
  
• At 2.7 billion light-years away, the Abell galaxy is at an overwhelmingly large distance away from us.
  

Important Info :

• Every large galaxy in the universe has a supermassive black hole at its centre, whose mass is millions or billions of times that of the Sun.
• The black hole at the centre of our galaxy– the Milky Way– is called Sagittarius A*, and is 26,000 light-years away from Earth.

Source : Indian Express

After culling of ducks and chickens in Kerala, the Haryana government has decided to cull poultry birds in Barwala after some of them tested positive for the avian influenza

• Mass slaughter of domestic poultry birds, such as chickens and ducks, to contain the spread of bird flu is called culling.
  
• During culling operations, all domestic birds in an infected area, i.e., an area in which a case of bird flu has been detected, are slaughtered and their remains buried.
  
• Though wild and other birds may also carry the bird flu, only domestic poultry birds are culled since they are present in close proximity with people, raising the chances of transmission of the virus to humans.
  

Important Info :

• In India, culling is done in a radius one kilometre from the site of infection, which is called the ‘infected zone’. This means all domestic birds present in commercial farms, backyard farms or live bird markets in the infected zone are culled.

Source : Indian Express

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the National Youth Parliament Festival – 2021 on January 12, 2021

• The Festival is organised on 12th January on the occasion of the National Youth Day in order to encourage the youth in the age group of 18-25 years to engage with public issues and understand the common man’s point of view.
  
• The First National Youth Parliament Festival was organized in January-February, 2019.
  

Important Info :

• National Youth Day is celebrated on 12 January being the birthday of Swami Vivekananda.
• In 1984 the Government of India declared this day as National Youth Day and since 1985 the event is celebrated in India every year.

Source : All India Radio

In Manipur, the Cherry Blossom Mao Festival was held at Senapati district marking the beginning of pink season in the district

• The Mao area of Senapati district in Manipur is known for Cherry Blossom, a plant which is popularly known as Sakura in Japan.
  
• The Manipur government started organizing the festival every year from 2017 onward.
  
• The festival features the picturesque landscape of Mao town adorned with beautiful Cherry Blossom flowers.
  

Important Info :

• A cherry blossom is a flower of many trees of genus Prunus.
• Prunus cerasoides, called wild Himalayan cherry, Indian wild cherry, and sour cherry, is known in Hindi as padam, pajja, or padmakashtha.

Source : All India Radio

Assam government will provide khadi shirt, eri shawl and eri stole to Grade IV employees in a phased manner, in a move to pay tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and his movement for Khadi

• Eri silk comes from the caterpillar of Samia ricini, found in northeast India and some parts of China, Japan.
  
• The name “eri” is derived from the Assamese word “era”, which means “castor”, as the silkworm feeds on castor plants.
  
• Eri silk is also known as endi or errandi in India.
  
• The woolly white silk is often referred to as the fabric of peace when it is processed without killing the silkworm. This process results in a silk called Ahimsa silk. Moths leave the cocoon and then the cocoons are harvested to be spun.
  
• The eri silkworm is the only completely domesticated silkworm other than Bombyx mori.
  

Source : All India Radio

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