April 30th Current Affairs

1.MACS 1407

IN NEWS:

New high-yielding and pest-resistant variety of soybean can help boost countrywide production.

KEY POINTS:

• Indian Scientists have developed a high-yielding and pest-resistant variety of soybean.
• This newly developed variety called MACS 1407 is suitable for cultivation in the states of Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and North-Eastern states.
• Its seeds will be made available to farmers for sowing during the 2022 Kharif season.
• In 2019, India produced around 90 million tons of soybean, widely cultivated as oil seeds as well as a cheap source of protein for animal feed and many packaged meals and is striving to be among the world’s major producers of soybean.
• High-yielding, disease resistant varieties of the legume can help achieve this target.

MACS 1047

• MACS 1407 require an average 43 days for 50 % flowering and take 104 days to mature from the date of sowing.
• It has white coloured flowers, yellow seeds and black hilum. Its seeds have 19.81 % oil content, 41 % protein content and show good germinability.
• This high yielding, pest resistant, low water and fertiliser requiring soybean variety, suitable for mechanical harvesting has recently been released by the Central Sub-Committee on Crop Standards, Notification and Release of Varieties of Agricultural Crops under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India making it legally available for seed production and cultivation.

SOURCE:PIB

2. Converting Nitrogen Generator into Oxygen Generator

IN NEWS:

• IIT Bombay shows how to solve Oxygen shortage by converting Nitrogen Generator into Oxygen Generator
• A simple and fast solution to Oxygen crisis

KEY POINTS:

• The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has come up with a creative and ingenious solution to addressing the shortage of medical oxygen for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in the country.
• The pilot project which has been tested successfully relies on a simple technological hack: conversion of PSA (Pressure Swing Adsorption) Nitrogen Unit to PSA Oxygen Unit!
• The pilot project is a collaborative effort between IIT Bombay, Tata Consulting Engineers and Spantech Engineers, Mumbai, who deal with PSA Nitrogen & Oxygen plant production.

How can the nitrogen unit be converted into an oxygen unit?

• It has been done by fine-tuning the existing Nitrogen Plant setup and changing the molecular sieves from Carbon to Zeolite.
• Such nitrogen plants, which take air from the atmosphere as raw material, are available in various industrial plants across India.
• Therefore, each of them could potentially be converted into an oxygen generator, thus helping us tide over the current public health emergency.

SOURCE:PIB

3. first-ever electric Tractor

IN NEWS:

• Central Farm Machinery Training & Testing Institute, Budni (MP) tests the first-ever electric Tractor in the Institute.
• The Institute obtains NABL Certificate of Accreditation for CMVR Test Laboratory.

KEY POINTS:

• The institute received the application for an electric tractor under Confidential Test initially.
• Accordingly, the institute has tested the tractor & released the Draft Test Report in February, 2021.
• Electric tractor will be more environment friendly than other types of tractors.

SOURCE:PIB

4. Net Zero Producers Forum

IN NEWS:

Saudi Arabia will join the United States, Canada, Norway, and Qatar in forming ‘Net Zero Producers Forum’ for oil and gas producers to discuss how they can support the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

KEY POINTS:

• Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest crude exporter.
• The Forum will discuss ways to achieve net zero carbon emission targets to limit global warming.
• Saudi Arabia had also said that it aimed to reduce its carbon emissions by generating 50% of the country’s energy from renewables by 2030.
• US President unveiled plans to cut emissions by 50%-52% from 2005 levels recently.

SOURCE:IE

5. TIANHE MODULE

IN NEWS:

China launched the core module of its space station, kicking off a series of key launch missions that aim to complete the construction of the station by the end of next year.

KEY POINTS:

• The Long March-5B Y2 rocket, carrying the Tianhe module, blasted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of the southern island province of Hainan.
• The Tianhe module will act as the management and control hub of the space station Tiangong, meaning Heavenly Palace, with a node that could dock with up to three spacecraft at a time for short stays, or two for long
• Tianhe has a total length of 16.6 meters, a maximum diameter of 4.2 meters and a take-off mass of 22.5 tonnes, and is the largest spacecraft developed by China.
• The space station will be a T shape with the core module at the centre and a lab capsule on each side.
• The station will operate in the low-Earth orbit at an altitude from 340 km to 450 km. It has a designed lifespan of 10 years, but experts believe it could last more than 15 years with appropriate maintenance and repairs.

Important Info :

• The Chinese space station is expected to be a competitor to the aging International Space Station (ISS) which is a modular space station in low Earth orbit.
• It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies which included NASA, (US), Roscomos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).

SOURCE:TH