Daily Current Capsules
28 February 2023

National Science Day

What's the NEWS

• In 1986, the Government of India, under then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, designated February 28 as National Science Day to commemorate the announcement of the discovery of the "Raman Effect".
• This year's edition is being celebrated under the theme of "Global Science for Global Wellbeing", in light of India's G20 presidency.
• Raman Effect was the discovery which won physicist Sir CV Raman his Nobel Prize in 1930.
• Raman discovered that when a stream of light passes through a liquid, a fraction of the light scattered by the liquid is of a different colour.

 

The Raman Effect

• It refers to the phenomenon in which when a stream of light passes through a liquid, a fraction of the light scattered by the liquid is of a different colour.
• This happens due to the change in the wavelength of light that occurs when a light beam is deflected by molecules.
• In general, when light interacts with an object, it can either be reflected, refracted or transmitted.
• One of the things that scientists look at when light is scattered is if the particle it interacts with is able to change its energy.
• The Raman Effect is when the change in the energy of the light is affected by the vibrations of the molecule or material under observation, leading to a change in its wavelength.

 

14TH RASHTRIYA SANSKRITI MAHOTSAV

 

What's the NEWS

• The President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu graced and addressed the 14th Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav at Bikaner, Rajasthan
• Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav organized annually in different states of India to promote National Unity and integrity through cultural exchange.
• The Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav 2023 event is being conducted in co-operation with Ministry of Culture, Govt. of Maharashtra.
• National Culture Festival is being organized since the year 2015 with the active participation of seven Zonal Culture Centres.
• It was started with an aim to showcase the country's rich cultural heritage in all its rich and diverse dimensions like handicrafts, cuisine, paintings, sculpture and performing arts - folk, tribal, classical and contemporary, all at one place.

 

Shivamogga airport

 

What's the NEWS

 

• The Prime Minister of India inaugurated the newly constructed Shivamogga Airport along with various development projects that cost over Rs 3,600 crore in Shivamogga, Karnataka
• The new airport is developed at a cost of around Rs 450 crore.
• The new airport is going to open doors of development for Shivamogga, the land of nature, culture, and agriculture

 

Silver treasures from India and Denmark

 

What's the NEWS

 

• The special exhibition titled ‘Silver treasures from India and Denmark' was inaugurated at the National Museum, New Delhi celebrating the rich silver legacy from India and Denmark.
• The exhibition is a melting pot for a diverse variety of Silver artworks from the two distinctive countries.
• It showcases more than 250 extraordinary silver objects segregated into five different themes that explores the craftsmanship and silversmith techniques of two countries from various aspects.
• The exhibition is part of a cultural exchange programme, which continues until 2026 - so there is much to look forward to with exchanges in culture, crafts, music and literature.

 

 

CISO Deep Dive Training Programme

 

What's the NEWS

 

• Cyber Surakshit Bharat initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) was conceptualised with the mission to spread awareness about cyber-crime and build capacities of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and frontline IT officials, across all government departments, for ensuring adequate safety measures to combat the growing menace - Organizations need to defend their digital infrastructures and become future-ready in tackling cyber-attacks.
• National e-Governance Division (NeGD), under its Capacity Building scheme, organised the 34th CISO Deep-Dive training programme from January 20-24, 2023 with 44 participants from Central Line Ministries and States/UTs at the Netaji Subhas Administrative Training Institute, Kolkata.
• The deep-dive training specifically aims at educating and enabling CISOs to understand cyber-attacks comprehensively and thoroughly, get necessary exposure in latest technologies of safeguard, and translate the benefits of a resilient e-infrastructure to individual organizations and citizens at large.
• Launched in 2018, the CISO training is the first-of-its-kind of partnership between the Government and industry consortium under Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.

 

Delhi excise policy

What's the NEWS

 

• Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was arrested, by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is probing alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.

 

Know! about the new liquor policy was very much in news-why?

 

• Proposed in 2020, it came into effect in November 2021.
• It marked the exit of the government from selling liquor - only private liquor shops would run in the city, and each municipal ward would have 2-3 vends.
• It aimed to end the liquor mafia and black marketing, increase revenue and improve the consumer experience, and ensure equitable distribution of liquor vends.
• The government also made the rules flexible for licensees, such as allowing them to offer discounts and set their own prices instead of selling on MRP fixed by the government.
• After protests by the opposition, the excise department withdrew the discounts for some time.

 

Great Nicobar project

What's the NEWS

 

• Citing a "strategic" imperative, the Union Home Ministry wanted the 8.45-square-km airport component of the Great Nicobar Development project to be kept confidential.
• However, the Environment Ministry, in an unprecedented move, has withheld all discussions on the forest clearance to the entire 166.10-sq km project recommended by the statutory Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) in which the airport falls.

 

Forest Advisory Committee (FAC)

 

• The FAC is a statutory body constituted under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 to advise the government on granting approvals for forest clearance.
• It meets at least once a month to discuss proposals from an agenda pre-published by the ministry which also uploads the minutes of FAC meetings on its designated website.

 

Know! about the Greater Nicobar island

 

• It is occupied by the Shompen and Nicobarese tribes.
• The project area falls near two national parks - Galathea Bay National Park and Campbell Bay National Park.
• The Greater Nicobar region is home to leatherback sea turtles and other important species such as Nicobar macaque, Nicobar megapode and saltwater crocodiles and rare and endemic plant species such as tree ferns and orchids.
• The project was given a go-ahead keeping in mind the strategic importance of the port to be developed.

 

PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme

What's the NEWS

 

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the 13th instalment under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme in Belagavi, Karnataka

 

Know! about PM Kisan scheme

 

• It was launched on February 24, 2019, in Gorakhpur, UP by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Under this scheme, Rs 6,000 per year is transferred to the bank accounts of farmers' families across the country - subject to certain exclusion criteria relating to higher income status - through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.
• The amount is transferred in three equal installments of Rs 2,000 every four months, every financial year.

 

Atmanirbhar Clean Plant Program

 

What's the NEWS

 

• With the demand for foreign planting materials of fruits like apple, avocado and blueberry rising over the years, the Centre plans to set up 10 ‘Clean Plant Centres', on the lines of those in developed countries such as the US, Netherlands and Israel, to boost domestic production of the selected crops.
• These centers will be set up under the ‘Atmanirbhar Clean Plant Program', which was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Union Budget 2023-24.
• Clean Plant Centres will be fully funded by the Centre.
• It will be implemented in a PPP mode in partnership with research organisations, agriculture universities and private sector partners and the National Horticulture Board (NHB) will anchor the clean plant programme.

 

Atmanirbhar Clean Plant Program

 

• The Atmanirbhar Clean Plant Program was proposed by the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, during the Union Budget 2022-23.
• According to the budget speech, an Atmanirbhar Clean Plant Program will be launched with an outlay of Rs. 2,200 crore to boost the availability of disease-free, quality planting material for high-value horticultural crops.
• An Agriculture Accelerator Fund will be established to encourage agri-startups by young entrepreneurs in rural areas.
• The Fund will aim to bring innovative and affordable solutions to farmers' challenges, as well as modern technologies to transform agricultural practises and increase productivity and profitability.

 

Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA)

What's the NEWS

 

• The Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) - a radio telescope comprising 66 antennas located in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile - is set to get software and hardware upgrades that will help it collect much more data and produce sharper images than ever before, the journal Science reported recently.
• The upgrades would take around five years to finish and cost $37 million.
• The most significant modernisation made to ALMA will be the replacement of its correlator, a supercomputer that combines the input from individual antennas and allows astronomers to produce highly detailed images of celestial objects.
• ALMA is situated at an altitude of 16,570 feet (5,050 metres) above sea level on the Chajnantor plateau in Chile's Atacama Desert as the millimetre and submillimetre waves observed by it are very susceptible to atmospheric water vapour absorption on Earth.
• The Atacama desert is the driest place in the world, meaning most of the nights here are clear of clouds and free of light-distorting moisture - making it a perfect location for examining the universe.

 

KEEP Learning KEEP Evolving
TEAM CL