Weekly Current Capsules
September(3rd week) 2022
JALDOOT App

• Launched by - Ministry of Rural Development
• Objective - It will be used across the country to capture the water level of selected wells in a village.

Know! more about the app

• The Jaldoot app will enable Gram Rojgar Sahayak (GRS) to measure the water level of selected wells twice a year (pre-monsoon and post-monsoon).
• In every village, adequate number of measurement locations (2-3) shall need to be selected.
• These will be representative of the ground water level in that village.
• The app will facilitate panchayats with robust data, which can be further
• used for better planning of works.
• The ground water data could be utilised as part of the Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) and Mahatma Gandhi NREGA planning exercises.

Location in NEWS
Zunheboto, a Nagaland District

What's the NEWS

• The Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, visited Zunheboto, a small district town in Nagaland - becoming the first Union Minister to do so in a span of four decades.
• The Minister who is currently on a three-day tour of Nagaland, reached this hilly town, after a nine-hour journey by road from Dimapur.
• He also visited the Sumi Baptist Church in Zunheboto--known as the largest Baptist church in Asia--and offered his prayers.

AVGAS 100 LL

What's the NEWS

• Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas launched AVGAS 100 LL.

Know! about AVGAS 100 LL

• It is a special aviation fuel meant for piston engine aircrafts and Unmanned Ariel Vehicles.
• Currently India is importing this product from European countries.
• The launch of indigenous AV GAS 100 LL is important to serve the needs of a thriving aviation industry with increase in footfall on airports, rise in number of aircrafts and Flying Training Organisations (FTOs) in trainee aircrafts for pilot training in future.
• At present AVGAS 100 LL is completely imported product.
• The domestic production of AVGAS 100 LL produced by Indian Oil at its Gujarat Refinery will make flying training more affordable in India.
• This product which fuels the aircraft operated by FTOs and Defense forces, is being imported for decades by India.
• Indian Oil's R&D, Refineries and Marketing teams have achieved this feat of indigenous production and have offered price advantage to the industry.
• AV GAS 100 LL produced by Indian Oil's flagship refinery at Vadodara has been tested and certified by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)

 

Location in NEWS
INS Sunayna in Seychelles

 

What's the NEWS

• INS Sunayna entered Port Victoria Seychelles on 24 Sep 22 to participate in the annual training exercise Operation Southern Readiness of Combined Maritime Forces (CMF).
• This marks the maiden participation of an Indian Navy ship in CMF exercise.
• The ship is scheduled to participate as associate partner in the capacity building exercises being conducted by CMF.
• The joint training exercise is being attended by representative delegations from USA, Italy, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and ship participation from UK, Spain & India.

Seychelles map location

Plenipotentiary Conference 2022

What's the NEWS

• The Minister of State for Communications, held a bilateral talk with Russian Counterpart on the sideline of Plenipotentiary Conference 2022 of International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in Bucharest, Romania

Know! about the Plenipotentiary Conference

• The Plenipotentiary Conference is the highest policy-making body of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
• Held every four years, it is the key event at which ITU Member States decide on the future role of the organization, thereby determining the organization's ability to influence and affect the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) worldwide.
• The Plenipotentiary Conference 2022 (PP-22) will be held in Bucharest, Romania, from Monday, 26 September to Friday, 14 October 2022.
• It will be preceded by the last meeting of the 2022 session of the Council on Saturday, 24 September 2022.

International Telecommunication Union

• It is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies.
• It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Union, making it the oldest UN agency.
• On 15 November 1947, the ITU entered into an agreement with the newly created United Nations to become a specialized agency within the UN system, which formally entered into force on 1 January 1949.
• The ITU promotes the shared global use of the radio spectrum, facilitates international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, assists in developing and coordinating worldwide technical standards, and works to improve telecommunication infrastructure in the developing world.
• Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the ITU's global membership includes 193 countries and around 900 business, academic institutions, and international and regional organizations

Bathukamma

What's the NEWS

• The Prime Minister greeted everyone, particularly the Nari Shakti of Telangana on the auspicious occasion of Bathukamma.

Know! about the fest

• This festival is celebrated for nine days during Durga Navratri in Telangana.
• ‘Bathuku'means the life and Amma means the Mother. On a whole, it is a festival to worship the ‘Life Giver', the universal energy - Goddess Shakti.
• Bathukamma is made up of seven concentric layers of flowers that are arranged in a pyramid shape. The arrangement signifies the mother goddess.
• As it is a festival of women, they dance around it singing Bathukamma Paatalu (i.e. songs praising Bathukamma).
• The Goddess is worshipped for the nine days and on the tenth day of the celebration, the goddess is immersed in the local waters after performing the rituals.

ROSH HASHANAH

What's the NEWS

• The Prime Minister extended his warmest greetings to the Prime Minister of Israel, Yair Lapid and the Jewish people around the world on the occasion of Rosh Hashanah.

Know! about it

• Rosh HaShanah is the Jewish New Year. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah, literally "day of shouting or blasting."
• It is the first of the Jewish High Holy Days that occur in the late summer/early autumn of the Northern Hemisphere.
• The High Holy Days comprise of Rosh HaShanah Yom Kippur, Pesach, (Passover), and Sukkot.
• Rosh Hashanah customs include sounding the shofar, as prescribed in the Torah, following the prescription of the Hebrew Bible to "raise a noise" on Yom Teruah.

RH-200 sounding rocket

What's the NEWS

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning the 200th successful launch of the Rohini RH-200 sounding rocket in a row.

Know! about RH 200

• RH signifies Rohini
• 200 refers to rocket's diameter in mm
• It is a two-stage rocket capable of reaching a height of 70 kms while carrying scientific payloads.
• The first and second stages of RH-200 are powered by solid motors.
• RH-200 of the Rohini sounding rocket family has completed 198 consecutive successful flights.
• The 199th launch will happen in October 2022 during the World Space Week (4th-10th October) celebrations.
• The 200th will take place either towards the end of October or the beginning of November 2022.

Know! about Sounding Rockets

• Sounding rockets are one or two stage solid propellant rockets used for probing the upper atmospheric regions and for space research.
• They also serve as easily affordable platforms to test or prove prototypes of new components or subsystems intended for use in launch vehicles and satellites.
• Also used in investigating eclipse phenomena.
• With the establishment of the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) in 1963 at Thumba (a location close to the magnetic equator), there was a quantum jump in the scope for aeronomy and atmospheric sciences in India.
• The launch of the first sounding rocket (American Nike-Apache) from Thumba in 1963, marked the beginning of the Indian Space Programme.
• After that, two-stage rockets imported from Russia (M-100) and France (Centaure) were flown.
• ISRO started launching indigenously made sounding rockets from 1965 and experience gained was of immense value in the mastering of solid propellant technology.
• In 1975, all sounding rocket activities were consolidated under the Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) Programme.

Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) Programme

• Rohini is a series of sounding rockets developed by the ISRO for meteorological and atmospheric study.
• These sounding rockets are capable of carrying payloads of 2 to 200 kgs between altitudes of 100 to 500 kms.
• RH-75 (with a diameter of 75mm) was the first truly Indian sounding rocket, which was followed by RH-100 and RH-125 rockets.
• The ISRO currently uses RH-200, RH-300 Mk-II and RH-560 Mk-II rockets, which are launched from the TERLS and the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
• The sounding rocket program served as the foundation for ISRO's launch vehicle technology.

 

Su-30MKI fighter aircraft

What's the NEWS

• Having taken delivery of all Su-30MKI fighter aircraft and the deal for contracting 12 more Su-30s meant to replace those lost over the years deferred against the backdrop of the Ukraine war, the Indian Air Force (IAF) is working to speed up the long-delayed upgrade of these frontline fighters.

Know! about Sukhoi Su - 30MKI

• The Sukhoi Su-30MKI is a twinjet multirole air superiority fighter developed by Russia's Sukhoi and built under licence by India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force (IAF).
• A variant of the Sukhoi Su-30, it is a heavy, all-weather, long-range fighter.
• The IAF is looking to add new weapons, avionics and sensors and engines on the Su-30MKIs to keep them contemporary for the next few decades.
• India had procured 272 Su-30s from Russia, a majority of which were assembled by HAL and around 11 jets were lost.
• The IAF has 12 Su-30 squadrons in service, and 40-50 aircraft are at HAL for overhaul repairs

Internal Democracy In Parties

What's the NEWS

• After taking action against registered unrecognised political parties (RUPPs) for failing to comply with norms, the Election Commission is likely to take up the issue of internal democracy within parties next

Know! about it

• Though the Representation of the People Act does not mandate internal elections, the EC's guidelines for parties applying for registration under the Act state that the applicant should submit a copy of the party constitution.
• According to EC guidelines - There should be a specific provision in the Constitution/rules and regulations/memorandum of the party regarding organisational elections at different levels and the periodicity of such elections and terms of office of the office-bearers of the party
• The EC would nudge parties to follow the internal democracy commitments.
• However, the Commission does not have the power to deregister parties that fail to comply with the rules.
• Though it has asked the Law Ministry for the power to deregister political parties in the past, the proposal has not been implemented so far.
• The focus on internal democracy of parties comes after the EC's extensive drive since May to de-list RUPPs that had not kept the Commission informed of change in address, PAN, names of office-bearers and other details.

 

World's Largest Encyclopaedic Sanskrit Dictionary

What's the NEWS

• After several years, the doors of the scriptorium and the editorial room of the prestigious Encyclopaedic Sanskrit Dictionary at Pune's Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute in Pune were opened for students and the general public.

Know! about the dictionary

• The year of completion of this gigantic dictionary project, which commenced in 1948, remains unknown. But the final word count is estimated to touch 20 lakh and would be the world's largest dictionary of Sanskrit.
• Linguist and Sanskrit Professor SM Katre, founder of India's oldest Department of Modern Linguistics in Deccan College, conceived this unique project in 1948 and served as the dictionary's first General Editor. It was later developed by Prof. AM Ghatage.
• The Project, KoshaSHRI, under which the website for online access of the Dictionary will be made, also consists of a customised software which is presently under testing and development.

Location in NEWS
INS TARKASH IN PORT GENTIL, GABON

What's the NEWS

• INS Tarkash made a port call at Port Gentil, Gabon as part of her ongoing deployment in the Gulf of Guinea for anti-piracy patrol.
• This marks the first visit by any Indian Naval Ship to Gabon.

Sample Registration System (SRS) Statistical Report 2020

 

 

What's the NEWS

• As per the Sample Registration System (SRS) Statistical Report 2020 released on 22nd September 2022 by Registrar General of India (RGI), the country has been witnessing a progressive reduction in IMR, U5MR and NMR since 2014 towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets by 2030.

Registrar General of India's (RGI) Sample Registration System Statistical Report 2020 (Highlights)

• Under 5 Mortality Rate (U5MR) for the country has shown significant decline of 3 points (Annual Decline Rate: 8.6%) from 2019 (32 per 1000 live births in 2020 against 35 per 1000 live births in 2019). It varies from 36 in rural areas to 21 in urban areas.
• Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has also registered 2-point decline to 28 per 1000 live births in 2020 from 30 per 1000 live births in 2019 (Annual Decline Rate: 6.7%). The Rural-Urban difference has narrowed to 12 points (Urban 19, Rural-31).
• Neonatal Mortality Rate has also declined by 2 points from 22 per 1000 live births in 2019 to 20 per 1000 live births in 2020 (Annual Decline Rate: 9.1%). It ranges from 12 in urban areas to 23 in rural areas.
• Six States/UT have already attained SDG target of NMR (<=12 by 2030): Kerala (4), Delhi (9), Tamil Nadu (9), Maharashtra (11), Jammu & Kashmir (12) and Punjab (12).
• Eleven States/UT have already attained SDGs target of U5MR (<=25 by 2030): Kerala (8), Tamil Nadu (13), Delhi (14), Maharashtra (18), J&K (17), Karnataka (21), Punjab (22), West Bengal (22), Telangana (23), Gujarat (24), and Himachal Pradesh (24).

Sex ratio at birth:

• The overall sex ratio at birth in the country increased to 907 in 2018-20 (907 in the rural and 910 in the urban areas) from 904 in 2017-19.
• Overall - Uttarakhand has the worst (844) sex ratio (number of females per 1,000 males) at birth in the country and Kerala has the best (974).
• Kerala (973) and Uttarakhand (853), respectively, had the highest and lowest sex ratios at birth in rural areas.
• In urban areas, the sex ratio at birth ranged from 975 in Kerala to 821 in Uttarakhand.

Know! about the Sample Registration System (SRS)

• It is one of the largest demographic surveys in the world
• It is carried out by the Office of Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India.
• Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India is a permanent department under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.
• SRS is joint effort of the Central and State Governments
• SRS has been serving as the main source of information on fertility and mortality both at the State and National levels

 

LG agrees to declare Maharaja Hari Singh's birth anniversary as public holiday in J-K

What's the NEWS

• The Jammu and Kashmir BJP on Thursday said Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has agreed its demand to declare the birth anniversary of Maharaja Hari Singh on September 23 as a public holiday in the Union Territory.
• He signed the Instrument of Accession with India in 1947, and later shifted outside J&K in 1949.

Maharaja Sir Hari Singh

• He was the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.
• He signed the Instrument of Accession on 26 October 1947, joining the whole of his princely state to the Dominion of India.

 

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SIGN LANGUAGES (IDSL)

What's the NEWS

• Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre, an autonomous body under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, celebrated 'Sign Language Day'.

Know! about IDSL

• International Day of Sign Languages (IDSL) is celebrated annually across the world on 23 September.
• This year's theme was "Sign Language Unite Us."
• Objective of this day is to protect the linguistic identity and cultural diversity of all deaf people and other sign language users.
• ISLRTC launched the Indian Sign Language Dictionary (ISL Dictionary) in 2021 which is being used by deaf people, special teachers, parents of deaf children, linguists etc.
• To make this ISL dictionary easily accessible, ISLRTC along with Federal Institute of Science and Technology (FISAT), Kerala has developed an Indian Sign Language Dictionary APP known as 'Sign Learn'.

 

MEHAR BABA COMPETITION - II

What's the NEWS

• To provide a boost to the growing indigenous drone industry, Raksha Mantri had launched the "MEHAR BABA COMPETITION-II"
• The competition is aimed at developing technology for a "Swarm Drone Based System to Detect Foreign Objects on Aircraft Operating Surfaces".
• The competition is named after the legendary Air Commodore Mehar Singh, MVC, DSO - affectionately also known as Mehar Baba.
• The first edition of the competition was launched in October 2018 and had culminated in October 2021.

 

Case of excommunication within Dawoodi Bohras

What's the NEWS

• The Supreme Court (SC) will examine whether the excommunication of the Dawoodi Bohra community's members can be continued.

Know! about the case

• The Dawoodi Bohras are members of the Muslim community's Shia sect.
• Their leader is known as the Al-Dai-Al-Mutlaq.
•  For over 400 years, the leader has been based out of India, including the current and the 53rd leader, His Holiness Dr Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin.
• Around 1 million members of the community are spread across the world.
• The leader of the community is recognised by the members as having the right to excommunicate its members.
• In practice, being excommunicated includes not being allowed to access a mosque belonging to the community or a burial dedicated to the community.

Bombay Prevention of Excommunication Act, 1949

• It was enacted to stop the practice of excommunication prevalent in certain communities, as it led to the deprivation of legitimate rights and privileges of its members and in "keeping with the spirit of changing times and in public interest".
• The 51st leader of the community, Sardar Syedna Taher Saifuddin Saheb, challenged the constitutional validity of the act in 1962, stating it violated fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution under Article 25 (Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion) and Article 26 (Freedom to manage religious affairs).
• The SC held in 1962 held that the power to excommunicate is an essential part of the community.
• It's objective is to enforce discipline and preserve the denomination, not to punish.

 

Recent SC observation

• The court said that it would consider whether the practice protected by the 1962 constitutional bench order can continue.

 

CARBON DATING

What's the NEWS

• A district court in Varanasi allowed a petition seeking carbon dating of the structure inside the Gyanvapi mosque that the Hindu side has claimed is a ‘Shivling'.

Know! about Carbon dating

• Carbon dating is a widely-used method applied to establish the age of organic material, things that were once living. Living things have carbon in them in various forms.
• The dating method makes use of the fact that a particular isotope of carbon called C-14, with an atomic mass of 14, is radioactive, and decays at a rate that is well known.
• Carbon-14 is radioactive and reduces to one-half of itself in about 5,730 years. This is what is known as its ‘half-life'.
• Because plants and animals get their carbon from the atmosphere, they too acquire carbon-12 and carbon-14 isotopes in roughly the same proportion as is available in the atmosphere.
• So, after a plant or animal dies, the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14 in the body, or its remains, begins to change.
• This change can be measured and can be used to deduce the approximate time when the organism died.

 

KEEP Learning KEEP Evolving
TEAM CL