July 26th Current Affairs

1. NESAC.

IN NEWS:

• NESAC (North Eastern Space Applications Centre) Society Meeting was recently held at NESAC, Shillong, Meghalaya.
• Union Home Minister is the President of the NESAC Society and the Chairman of the North Eastern Council (NEC).

KEY POINTS:

• NESAC has released North Eastern Spatial Data Repository (NeSDR) with about 950 datasets.
• These datasets are related to infrastructure, land and water resources, disaster management support inputs.
• All the States are to take advantage of these data sets by signing MoUs with NESAC for specific activities such as detecting encroachments, and epidemic planning.
• Activities of NESAC are focused on the practical applications of space technology in agriculture, and allied fields like silk farming where it can help in early detection of diseases.

Achievements of NESAC?

• NESAC (North Eastern Space Applications Centre) has enabled the States to address issues and challenges of North Eastern region with the support of space technology.
• The organisation can also provide the required strategic inputs for the entire region for its overall development and strategic planning.
• NESAC has helped preserve forests by assessing forest fires and protecting endangered wildlife such as rhinos by studying the changing land cover.
• NESAC has used satellite communication for telemedicine, and tele-education
• NESAC has helped in weather prediction, and forecasting thunderstorms, lightning, and providing early flood warning.

SOURCE:TH

2. Ramappa Temple

IN NEWS:

UNESCO has recently declared Kakatiya Ramappa Temple a World Heritage site.

KEY POINTS:

• About Kakatiya Ramappa Temple
• The Ramappa Temple showcases the craftsmanship of Kakatiya dynasty.
• It also known as the Rudreshswara (Lord Siva) temple and is located in Hyderabad, Telangana
• The temple is a Sivalayam, where Lord Ramalingeswara is worshipped.
• Marco Polo, during his visit to the Kakatiya Empire, allegedly called the temple “the brightest star in the galaxy of temples”
• The hall in front of the sanctum has numerous carved pillars that have been positioned to create an effect that combines light and space wonderfully.
• The temple is named after the sculptor Ramappa, who built it, and is perhaps the only temple in South India to be named after a craftsman who built it.
• Columns of the temple are carved as mythical animals or female dancers or musicians, and are “the masterpieces of Kakatiya art, notable for their delicate carving, sensuous postures and elongated bodies and heads.”

Important Information:

About UNESCO World Heritage Site

• A World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by UNESCO for its special cultural or physical significance.
• The list of World Heritage Sites is maintained by the international ‘World Heritage Programme’, administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.
• UNESCO seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.
• This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972.
• India now has 39 world heritage sites.

SOURCE:TH

3. India’s Forex reserves.

IN NEWS:

In the week ended 16th July, India’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $835 million to touch a record high margin of $612.73 billion. In the week ended 9th July the reserves had surged to $611.895 billion from $1.883 billion.

KEY POINTS:

• The increase in Forex reserves was due to the rise in foreign currency assets (FCA). This was shown in the data of Reserve Bank of India.
• In the reporting week FCA rose to $568.748 billion from $463 million.
• Expressed in terms of dollar, foreign currency assets also include the effect of depreciation or appreciation of all the non-US units like pound, euro and yen which are held in the foreign exchange reserves of the country.
• In the reporting week gold reserves were up by $377 million to reach $37.333 billion.
• The special drawing rights (SDRs) that are held with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were up by $1 million to reach $1.548 billion.
• In the reporting week India’s reserve position with the IMF declined by $7 million to fall to $5.1 billion.

Important Information:

Forex Reserves

• Foreign exchanges are the assets which are held by a country’s central bank, RBI in India. These reserves are used to influence monetary policy and back liabilities of a country.
• Holding of foreign reserves by a country’s central bank is a common practice, and it is mainly done so that the government has backup funds to be used during emergencies.

SOURCE:IE

4. 97th CONSTITUTION AMENDMENT.

IN NEWS:

The recent Supreme Court verdict striking down a part of the 97th Constitution Amendment, insofar as it dealt with cooperative societies under the domain of the States, has brought the focus on the extent to which the Centre can seek to lay down policy for the functioning of cooperative societies.

KEY POINTS:

• Recognising that ‘cooperative societies’ came under Entry 32 of the State List in the Seventh Schedule, the Amendment proposed to create a framework for the functioning of cooperative societies.
• It introduced Part IXB in the Constitution so that the concept of cooperative societies gains constitutional recognition.
• The idea was to empower Parliament to frame laws for cooperative societies that function across States (multi-State cooperative societies) and State legislatures to make laws for all other cooperative societies falling under their jurisdiction.
• The Amendment set out basic rules such as
• a maximum of 21 directors in a society,
• a fixed term of five years for elected members,
• a six-month cap on the time limit for which a society’s board of directors can be kept under supersession or suspension, and
• reservation of one seat for the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes, and two seats for women on the board of every cooperative society, that is, every society that has members from these sections.

SOURCE:TH

5. Microplastics.

IN NEWS:

Delhi-based NGO Toxics Link released a study this week titled, “Quantitative analysis of Microplastics along River Ganga”, which has found that the river – which flows through five states covering about 2,500 km before flowing into the Bay of Bengal – is heavily polluted with microplastics.

KEY POINTS:

• Among the range of plastic debris that is found in water bodies, microplastics are the most notorious because of their small size, on average microplastics are less than 5 mm in length or roughly equal to five pinheads.
• Apart from humans, microplastics are harmful to marine species as well. More than 663 marine species are affected by marine debris and 11 percent of them are said to be related to microplastic ingestion, the study says.
• Because microplastics are so small, they are ingested by marine habitants including fish, corals, planktons and sea mammals and are then carried further into the food chain.
• In the case of humans, most of the microplastics can be found in food, water and food containers and their ingestion can cause health problems.

Important Information :

What are the efforts being made to clean the Ganga?

• In May 2015, the government approved the Namami Gange (which receives a 100 percent funding from the central government) programme to clean and protect the river.
• Programmes launched before this include the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) in 1985, the IIT Consortium (2011) for water diversion and effective treatment, and the National Mission for Clean Ganga in 2011.

SOURCE:IE