April 19th Current Affairs

1. Sri Ramanujacharya:

IN NEWS:

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu paid tributes to the great philosopher, saint & social reformer, Shri Ramanujacharya Ji on his Jayanti.

About Sri Ramanujacharya:

• Born in 1017 CE in Tamil Nadu.
• He is the most respected Acharya in the philosophy of Sri Vaishnavism.
• He was also referred to as Ilaya Perumal which means the radiant one.
• His philosophical foundations for devotionalism were influential to the Bhakti movement.
• He is famous as the chief proponent of Vishishtadvaita subschool of Vedānta.
• He wrote influential texts, such as bhāsya on the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita, all in Sanskrit.

What is Vishishtadvaita?

• It is a non-dualistic school of Vedanta philosophy. It is non-dualism of the qualified whole, in which Brahman alone exists, but is characterized by multiplicity.
• It can be described as qualified monism or qualified non-dualism or attributive monism.
• It is a school of Vedanta philosophy which believes in all diversity subsuming to an underlying unity.

SOURCE:PIB

• 2.Aditya-L1 Support Centre (ASC)

IN NEWS:

The Indian programme to study the Sun and the region between the Sun and the Earth from space – Aditya-L1 – is due to be launched next year.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• It will carry seven payloads which have been developed by various institutions across the country.
• Once the mission is launched, there will be a need for a ground support centre to monitor and coordinate the work on its various payloads.
• This role will be played by the ARIES facility (short for Aryabhata Research Institute for observational Sciences), situated near Nainital.
• The Aditya-L1 Support Centre (ASC) will provide training through regular workshops for the guest users.
• Apart from this, it will provide ready-to-use Python and Java apps for the satellite data and demos and handouts to facilitate the guest users.

Challenges in Launching the Mission:

• The distance of the Sun from Earth (approximately 15 crore kms on average, compared to the only 3.84 lakh kms to the Moon). This huge distance poses a scientific challenge.
• Aditya L1 will have some moving components which increases the risks of collision.
• Due to the risks involved, payloads in earlier ISRO missions have largely remained stationary in space.
• Other issues are the super hot temperatures and radiation in the solar atmosphere.
• However, Aditya L1 will stay much farther away, and the heat is not expected to be a major concern for the instruments on board.

SOURCE:TH

• 3.Disk-footed Bat.

IN NEWS:

India’s first bamboo-dwelling bat with sticky disks, has been found near Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary in Meghalaya.

Key Points

About:

• The bat species Eudiscopus denticulus, aptly called disk-footed bat, is very distinctive in appearance with prominent disk-like pads in the thumb and bright orange colouration.
• It has been found roosting in internodal spaces of bamboo stems.
• This species is known to thrive in a few localities in Southern China, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar.
• In Meghalaya, it was recorded in the Lailad area near the Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary, about 1,000 km west of its nearest known habitat in Myanmar.
• IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern.

SOURCE:TH

• 4.International Day for Monuments and Sites.

IN NEWS:

• Every year, the United Nations marks April 18 as the International Day for Monuments and Sites, in many countries also celebrated as World Heritage Day.
• The theme for this year is “Complex Pasts: Diverse Futures”.

KEY POINTS:

• Globally, the day is promoted by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).
• ICOMOS in 1982 had decided to celebrate April 18 as the International Day for Monuments and Sites or World Heritage Day.
• Approved by UNESCO in 1983 during its 22nd General Conference, the day is dedicated to recognising sites of historical importance, raising awareness regarding them, and stressing the need to restore and preserve them.

IMPORTANT VALUE ADDITION:

What is a World Heritage site?

• These sites are officially recognised by the UN and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, also known as UNESCO. UNESCO believes that the sites classified as World Heritage are important for humanity, and they hold cultural and physical significance.
• The list is maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 UNESCO member states which are elected by the General Assembly.
• Each World Heritage Site remains part of the legal territory of the state wherein the site is located and UNESCO considers it in the interest of the international community to preserve each site.

Eligibility:

To be selected, a World Heritage Site must be an already classified landmark, unique in some respect as a geographically and historically identifiable place having special cultural or physical significance.

Heritage sites in India:

• India is home to 38 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, out of the 1121 such spots identified around the world.
• Of these, 30 are ‘cultural’ and 7 are ‘Natural’. One is classified as ‘Mixed’, the Khangchendzonga National Park.
• In 2019, ‘Jaipur City’ became the 38th addition to the India list under Culture.
• So far, only China, Italy, Spain, Germany, and France have more locations on the list than India.

SOURCE:IE