November 2024
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Culture
Release of Dictionary of Martyrs of India's Freedom Struggle (1857-1947)
Relevance IN - Prelims( about the dictionary) + Mains - ( GS I - Indian art ans culture + freedom struggle)
What's the NEWS
• The Prime Minister, released the Dictionary of Martyrs of India's Freedom Struggle.
Know! about the dictionary
• This five-volume dictionary contains an account of the martyrs from India's First War of Independence in 1857, to India's Independence in 1947.
• This includes the martyrs of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the non-cooperation movement, the Quit India Movement, and those soldiers of the Azad Hind Fauj, who attained martyrdom, among many others.
• The effort of the Union Government is to nurture and recall the brave deeds of the heroes of our freedom struggle.
Know! more about the project
• The project for compilation of "Dictionary of Martyrs" of India's Freedom Struggle was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, to the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) to commemorate the 150th anniversary of uprising of 1857.
• In this dictionary a martyr has been defined as a person who died or who was killed in action or in detention, or was awarded capital punishment while participating in the national movement for emancipation of India.
• It includes ex-INA or ex-military personnel who died fighting the British.
• It includes the martyrs of 1857 Uprising, Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (1919), Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22), Civil Disobedience Movement (1930-34), Quit India Movement (1942-44), Revolutionary Movements (1915-34), Kissan Movements, Tribal Movements, Agitation for Responsible Government in the Princely States (Prajamandal), Indian National Army (INA, 1943-45), Royal Indian Navy Upsurge (RIN, 1946), etc. Information of about 13,500 martyrs has been recorded in these volumes.
Infrastructure Development
PM lays foundation stone of Integrated Command and Control Centres in Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura
Relevance IN - Prelims( about the command centre and smart city ) + Mains (GS III infrastructure development)
What's the NEWS
• The Prime Minister,laid the foundation stone of Integrated Command and Control Centres at five North Eastern Smart Cities
• The Command and Control Centres at Namchi and Gangtok in Sikkim, Itanagar and Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh and Agartala in Tripura.
Know! about Integrated Command and Control Centres
• One of the key components of the system is the CCTV Surveillance system for Citizen Safety.
• This system is designed to help tackle crime. The Intelligent Traffic Management System will help ease traffic flow.
• The Solid Waste Management component in the Command and Control Centre will boost cleanliness in these cities.
• Smart Street Lighting will make our streets safer and citizen friendly. It will also improve energy efficiency through the conversion to LED systems.
• Smart cities are also installing Public-Address Systems and Variable Message Signs to communicate important civic information.
• Digital access is an important component of Digital India Mission. Public Wi-Fi system will provide free internet access to Citizens.
• The North-East is an environmentally sensitive region. The Environmental Monitoring System and Disaster Management modules will give real time information to Citizens and Government.
• The North-East will have its first completed Smart Command and Control Centre as early as October 2019.
Science and Technology
Cabinet approves Continuation of Atal Innovation Mission
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about AIM) + Mains ( GS III awareness in the field of science and technology)
What's the NEWS
• The Union Cabinet has approved Continuation of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), and for incurring expenditure up to Rs. 1000 crore till 2019-20 by Atal Innovation Mission for expanding Atal Tinkering Labs to 10,000 schools in view of their huge success at school level.
Atal Innovation Mission
• AIM has multiple programs to encourage and support innovation in the country.
• State of the art Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) are being established in thousands of schools, world class Atal Incubation Centres (AIC) and Atal Community Innovation Centers (ACIC) are being established for universities and industry,
• Promotion of product development in areas of national relevance and social importance is being supported through Atal New India Challenges (ANICs).
Impact:
• The Mission has undertaken many bold and forward-looking initiatives such as Alal Tinkering Labs (ATL) and Atal Incubation Centres (AIC), which have received great traction;
• Many Ministries/Departments of Government of India have initiated innovation related activities with the help and technical support of AIM.
• Under the ATL program, more than 10,000 schools are expected to establish these labs by 2020.
• More than 100 Atal Incubation Centres (AICs) are likely to established around the country, supporting at least 50-60 startups each over the first five years.
• More than 100 innovators/startups are expected to receive some support for productizing their innovations.
• Each incubator is expected to foster 50-60 technology driven innovative Startups every four years.
Implementation Strategy and targets
• Corporate and international partners are connected to AIM beneficiaries, to ensure flow of information and technology between academia, innovation, and the start-up ecosystem as well as provide mentoring support to ensure success of AIM's initiatives.
• AIM's Mentor of Change Programme is mandated to ensure the success of the ATLs.
• Through this programme, well-qualified mentors from different professional backgrounds are selected to provide pro-bono mentoring to ATL students over a range of skills.
• Mentors also collaborate with the School administrators to ensure the ATLs operate in the manner
Objective of AIM
• AlM's objectives are to create and promote an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship across the country at school, university, research institutions, MSME and industry levels.
• The Mission has been set up under NITI Aayog, in accordance with the Hon'ble Finance Minister's declaration in the 2015 Budget Speech.
Culture
National Council of Science Museums of Culture Ministry collaborates with Google Arts & Culture for largest interactive online exhibition on inventions and discoveries
Relevance IN - Prelims( about NCSM and its collaboration) + Mains ( GS I Indian heritage and culture)
What's the NEWS
• The National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), an organization under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India has collaborated with Google Arts & Culture for ‘Once Upon a Try': Epic journeys of invention and discovery - the largest online exhibition about inventions and discoveries ever curated, as an attempt to explore humanity's greatest inventions and discoveries in an interactive online exhibition.
Know! more about the online exhibition
• The online exhibition was launched yesterday and contains collections, stories and knowledge from over 110 renowned institutions from across 23 countries, highlighting millennia of major breakthroughs and the great minds behind them.
• Everybody can now explore more than 400 interactive exhibitions that pay tribute to humanity's greatest leaps in science and technology, and the visionaries that shaped our world, as well as tales of epic fails and happy accidents.
• National Council of Science Museums contributes six interactive stories that share some key insights into the long and glorious Science and Technology Heritage of India.
• The treasure which was lesser known to the world is now open to all. Explore National Council of Science Museums on Google Arts & Culture at: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/national-council-of-science-museums
• Google Arts & Culture puts the collections of more than 1,800 museums at your fingertips.
National Council of Science Museums (NCSM)
• National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), a premiere institution in the field of science communication, is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
• Primarily engaged in popularizing Science and Technology through a network of science centres, Mobile Science Exhibitions (MSE) units that visit rural schools and plethora of activities for public and students in particular, NCSM has now become a trend setter in the field of science communication both at national and international level.
• Presently NCSM, with its Headquarters in Kolkata, administers and manages 25 science museums/centres spread across the country and is the world's largest network of science centres and museums that functions under a single administrative umbrella with an annual reach to about 15 million people.
Infrastructure Development
Cabinet approves Kiru Hydro Electric (HE) Project (4 X 156 MW) in Jammu and Kashmir
Relevance IN - Prelims( about the Kiru dam location )
What's the NEWS
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the investment sanction for construction of Kiru Hydro Electric(HE) Project in Jammu & Kashmir.
Know! more about the project
• The project is located on River Chenab in Kishtwar district of Jammu & Kashmir.
• It envisages construction of a 135 m high concrete gravity Dam above deepest foundation level
• The project shall provide much needed power in northern grid and shall accelerate process of development of remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir. The Project is scheduled to be completed in a period of 4 1/2 years.
• Kiru HE Project is envisaged as a Run of River (RoR) Scheme, designed complying with the requirements of Indus Water Treaty 1960
Government Schemes
Indore gets cleanest city tag for third year in a row
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Swachh Survekshan awards )
What's the NEWS
• Indore was adjudged India's cleanest city for the third year in a row in the Centre's ‘Cleanliness Survey'.
• The second and third positions were bagged by Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh and Mysuru in Karnataka.
Know! more about the award
• The Swachh Survekshan awards 2019 were conferred by President Ram Nath Kovind in New Delhi.
• While the New Delhi Municipal Council was given award for the ‘Cleanest Small City' award, Uttarakhand's Gauchar bagged the ‘Best Ganga Town'.
• The ‘Cleanest Big City' award has been bagged by Ahmedabad, while Raipur is the ‘Fastest Moving Big City'.
• Ujjain has been the adjudged the ‘Cleanest Medium City' and Mathura-Vrindavan bagged the tag of the ‘Fastest Moving Medium Cities'.Bhopal has been named the cleanest capital.
• Raipur won the ‘Fastest Moving Big City'. Mathura-Vrindavan won the tag of Fastest Moving Medium City.
• Chhattisgarh has bagged the top spot in the category of best performing states. Jharkhand is at the second spot while Maharashtra is at the third.
• Swachh Survekshan covered all urban local bodies in the country, making it the largest such cleanliness survey in the world.
Science and Technology
ISRO, French agency seal agreement on maritime security
Relevance IN - Prelims( about the agreement) + Mains ( GS III awareness in the field of space)
What's the NEWS
• National space agency ISRO and its French counterpart CNES on Wednesday sealed an agreement to set up a joint maritime surveillance system in the country in May.
Know! more about the agreement
• The two nations will explore putting up a constellation of low-Earth orbiting satellites that will identify and track movement of ships globally - and in particular those moving in the Indian Ocean region where France has its Reunion Islands.
• The agreement intends to supply an operational system for detecting, identifying and tracking ships in the Indian Ocean, provides for a maritime surveillance centre to be set up in India
• The CNES-ISRO agreement [intends] to supply an operational system for detecting, identifying and tracking ships in the Indian Ocean.
• It provides for a maritime surveillance centre to be set up in India in May this year; sharing of capacity to process existing satellite data and joint development of associated algorithms
• The two agencies have put up two climate and ocean weather monitoring satellites Megha-Tropiques (of 2011) and SARAL-AltiKa (2013) that are considered a model.
• This fleet will be augmented with the launch of Oceansat-3-Argos mission in 2020 along with a joint infrared Earth-observation satellite
• ISRO and CNES will build a constellation of satellites for maritime surveillance intended to identify and track ships in the Indian Ocean.
• ISRO and CNES have signed an agreement to train Indian Scientists for the ‘Gaganyaan' project at the Toulouse Space Centre in France.
• Indian Scientists will also be trained at CADMOS, the centre for development of microgravity applications and space operations, and the MEDES Space Clinic in France.
• India has also signed an agreement with Russia for the Gaganyaan Project.
Prelims Practise Question
Consider the following statements
1. National space agency ISRO and its French counterpart CNES on Wednesday sealed an agreement to set up a joint military surveillance system in the country.
2. National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), a premiere institution in the field of science communication, is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Science and technology, Government of India.
3. Atal innovation Mission's objectives are to create and promote an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship across the country at school, university, research institutions, MSME and industry levels.
Find the correct statement from the option given below
a. 1 and 2
b. 3 only
c. 2 only
d. All
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