Cooperation in the field of sustainable urban development
Why in News?
- The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister was apprised of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India and Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, Government of Maldives on cooperation in the field of Sustainable Urban Development.
- A Joint Working Group (JWG) will be constituted to strategize and implement programmes on cooperation under the framework of the MoU.
- The Joint Working Group will meet once in a year, alternately in Maldives and in India.
Benefits:
- The MoU will promote strong, deep and long-term bilateral cooperation in the field of Sustainable Urban Development between the two countries.
- The MoU is expected to create employment in the areas of sustainable urban development including Urban Planning, Smart Cities Development, Solid waste management, Affordable housing, Urban Green Mobility, Urban Mass Rapid Transport, Smart Cities Development.
Details:
- The objectives of the MoU are to facilitate and strengthen India-Maldives technical cooperation in the field of sustainable urban development including Urban Planning, Smart Cities Development, Solid waste management, Affordable housing, Urban Green Mobility, Urban Mass Rapid Transport, smart cities development and any other related area mutually agreed by contracting parties.
PIB
Cooperation in the field of Mass Media
Why in News?
- The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister has given its ex-post facto approval for signing and ratification of an Agreement on “Cooperation in the field of Mass Media” between all the Member States of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
- The Agreement shall promote equal and mutually beneficial cooperation among associations in the field of Mass Media. Each Side shall, on the basis of reciprocity, facilitate the activities thereby ensuring equity.
- The Agreement would provide an opportunity for the Member States to share best practices and new innovations in the field of Mass Media.
PIB
Cooperation in the field of Mineral Resources
Why in News?
- The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister has approved the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to be signed between the Ministry of Mines, Government of India and the Secretariat of Mining Policy of the Ministry of Productive Development of the Argentine Republic.
- The MoU will provide an institutional mechanism for cooperation in the field of Mineral Resources.
- The objectives of the MoU are to strengthen the activities involved like
- Cooperation for encouraging minerals exploration and development, including extraction, mining and beneficiation of lithium;
- Possibilities of forming joint venture in the field of base metals, critical and strategic minerals for mutual benefit;
- Exchange of technical and scientific information and interchange of ideas and knowledge; training and capacity building; and promotion of investment and development in the area of mining activities.
PIB
Cooperation in the field of sustainable urban development
Why in News?
- The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister has approved the signing of Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) on Sustainable Urban Development between the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, Government of India and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Government of Japan, in supersession of existing MoU of 2007 on Urban Development.
Implementation strategy:
- A Joint Working Group (JWG) will be constituted to strategize and implement programmes on cooperation under the framework of the MoC. The Joint Working Group will meet once in a year, alternately in Japan and in India.
Major Impact:
- The MoC will promote strong, deep and long-term bilateral cooperation in the field of Sustainable Urban Development between the two countries.
Benefits:
- The MoC is expected to create employment opportunities in the areas of sustainable urban development, including Urban Planning, Smart Cities Development, Affordable Housing, (including rental housing), Urban Flood Management, Sewerage and Waste Water Management, Urban Transport (including Intelligent Transport Management System, Transit-Oriented Development and Multimodal Integration) and Disaster Resilient development.
PIB
Model Tenancy Act
Why in News?
- The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister has approved the Model Tenancy Act for circulation to all States / Union Territories for adaptation by way of enacting fresh legislation or amending existing rental laws suitably.
- It will help overhaul the legal framework with respect to rental housing across the country, which would help spur its overall growth.
Aim
- The Model Tenancy Act aims at creating a vibrant, sustainable and inclusive rental housing market in the country.
- It will enable creation of adequate rental housing stock for all the income groups thereby addressing the issue of homelessness.
- Model Tenancy Act will enable institutionalisation of rental housing by gradually shifting it towards the formal market.
- The Model Tenancy Act will facilitate unlocking of vacant houses for rental housing purposes.
- It is expected to give a fillip to private participation in rental housing as a business model for addressing the huge housing shortage.
PIB
India gets 8 new Flying Training Academies
Why in News?
- India is set to get 8 new Flying Training Academies under the liberalised Flying Training Organisation (FTO) policy of the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
- These academies will be set up at Belagavi, Jalgaon, Kalaburagi, Khajuraho and Lilabari.
- The set-up of these 8 FTOs is aimed at making India a global flying training hub and to prevent the exodus of Indian cadets to foreign FTOs.
- Also designed to cater the flying training requirements of cadets in India’s neighbouring countries.
PIB
Lithium
Why in News?
- Scientists from the Indian Institute of astrophysics have pinned down the mechanism behind the Lithium production in low mass red clump stars.
- Having found lithium excess to be common among the low mass red clump giants, they have now traced Helium (He)-flashing phase of the star’s evolution as the site for high lithium production.
- Recently, a group of Astronomers at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, found observational evidence for Li enhancement during the helium-flashing phase of 2 million years, followed by a rapid decrease in Li abundances of such stars.
- According to their work, it seems Li excess in giants is a transient phenomenon.
- The researchers used asteroseismology (seismic study of stars using time-resolved photometry from Kepler space telescope) combined with spectroscopic abundances of elements to track the evolution of lithium in a sample of giant stars.
- In addition to the evidence for Li production site, a first-of-its-kind correlation between the two independent observed quantities Li abundance and stellar oscillations (gravity mode period spacing) will serve to track the He-flashing phase of converting RGB giant of an inert, electron-degenerate He-core into a fully convective He-burning core by a series of core He-flashes, a theory developed in the 1960s.
PIB
Safe & healthy drinking water
Why in News?
- Modern technology and Indian traditional knowledge of Ayurveda have been combined for a solution to disinfect water completely and also offer possible health benefits of natural oils.
- Disinfection of water is essential for removing pathogenic microorganisms that are responsible for causing a number of water-borne diseases.
- However, the common drawbacks of chemical methods such as chlorination include formation of harmful/ carcinogenic disinfection by-products.
New Technology
- Scientists has developed the novel hybrid technology called SWASTIIK’ that involves boiling of a liquid as a result of pressure reduction (cavitation) and also uses natural oils having antimicrobial properties.
- This technology can eliminate harmful bacteria, including antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, economically.
- It not only integrates Indian traditional knowledge of Ayurveda for complete disinfection of water but also may offer possible health benefits of natural oils.
- The technique used —hydrodynamic cavitation combines chemistry, biology, and chemical engineering along with natural resources in the form of natural oils and plant extracts.
- The process, which draws inspiration from Indian traditional knowledge, has resulted in increased efficiency and reduced cost of water treatment.
- The team achieved complete elimination for gram-negative E. coli and gram-positive S. aureus bacteria and even AMR bacteria/ difficult opportunistic pathogenic bacteria typically in 5-10 minutes.
- It was observed that increased rates of disinfection using oil can drastically reduce the time of operation and consequently reduce cost as compared to other advanced treatment processes.
PIB
SDG India Index & Dashboard
Why in News?
- The third rendition of India’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Index will soon be launched by NITI Aayog.
- First launched in December 2018, the index has become the primary tool for monitoring progress on the SDGs in the country and has simultaneously fostered competition among the States and Union Territories by ranking them on the Global Goals.
SDG India Index & Dashboard, 2020-21: Partnerships in The Decade of Action
- The Index, developed in collaboration with the United Nations in India, measures the progress at the national and sub-national level in the country’s journey towards meeting the Global Goals and targets.
- This edition of the index report focuses on the significance of partnerships and is titled “SDG India Index & Dashboard, 2020-21: Partnerships in The Decade of Action”.
Split rural jobs scheme wages into separate categories for SCs, STs, others
Why in News?
- The Centre has asked the States to split wage payments under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme into separate categories for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and others from this financial year.
- Government of India has decided to provide separate budget heads for SC and ST categories under MGNREGS from the financial year 2021-22 for wage payment. The existing system for wages under the scheme is for only one type that is there is no category wise provision of wage payment.
THE HINDU
Fossil plant study
- About 14,500 to 5,000 years ago, North Africa was green with vegetation and the period is known as the Green Sahara or African Humid Period.
- Until now, researchers have assumed that the rain was brought by an enhanced summer monsoon.
- Now, a study of pollen and leaf waxes extracted from sediments have shown that there were two monsoon systems.
- We have winter rain on the northern margin of the Sahara, the monsoon on the southern margin, and between the two areas an overlap of the two rain systems which provides rains there during both summer and winter, albeit rather sparsely.
THE HINDU
Trust the wild bird
- A new study on Siberian jay, a group-living bird, showed that these birds have great trust in the warning calls from members of their own group, but ignore calls from conspecifics in the neighbouring territory.
- The researchers note that this finding is interesting as similar mechanisms could have played a role in the formation of human languages and dialects.
THE HINDU
Timed pause
- Just like humans, electric fish also take a small pause before communicating important news, notes a new study.
- Human auditory systems respond more strongly to words that come right after a pause, and during normal, everyday conversations, humans tend to pause just before speaking words with especially high-information content.
- Saw parallels in fish where they respond more strongly to electrosensory stimuli that come after a pause.
- Fish tend to pause right before they produce a high-frequency burst of electric pulses, which carries a large amount of information.
THE HINDU
China’s ‘artificial sun’ experimental fusion reactor
Why in News?
- China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), which mimics the energy generation process of the sun, set a new record after it ran at 216 million degrees Fahrenheit (120 million degrees Celsius) for 101 seconds.
- For another 20 seconds, the “artificial sun” also achieved a peak temperature of 288 million degrees Fahrenheit (160 million degrees Celsius), which is over ten times hotter than the sun.
So, what is China’s ‘artificial sun’ EAST?
- The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) reactor is an advanced nuclear fusion experimental research device located at the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) in Hefei, China.
- The purpose of the artificial sun is to replicate the process of nuclear fusion, which is the same reaction that powers the sun.
- The EAST is one of three major domestic tokamaks that are presently being operated across the country. Apart from the EAST, China is currently operating the HL-2A reactor as well as J-TEXT.
- The EAST project is part of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) facility, which will become the world’s largest nuclear fusion reactor when it becomes operational in 2035.
- The project includes the contributions of several countries, including India, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the United States.
How does the ‘artificial sun’ EAST work?
- The EAST Tokamak device is designed to replicate the nuclear fusion process carried out by the sun and stars. Nuclear fusion is a process through which high levels of energy are produced without generating large quantities of waste.
- Previously, energy was produced through nuclear fission — a process in which the nucleus of a heavy atom was split into two or more nuclei of lighter atoms.
- While fission is an easier process to carry out, it generates far more nuclear waste. Unlike fission, fusion also does not emit greenhouse gases and is considered a safer process with lower risk of accidents. Once mastered, nuclear fusion could potentially provide unlimited clean energy and very low costs.
- For nuclear fusion to occur, tremendous heat and pressure are applied on hydrogen atoms so that they fuse together. The nuclei of deuterium and tritium — both found in hydrogen — are made to fuse together to create a helium nucleus, a neutron along with a whole lot of energy.
- Fuel is heated to temperatures of over 150 million degrees C so that it forms a hot plasma “soup” of subatomic particles.
- With the help of a strong magnetic field, the plasma is kept away from the walls of the reactor to ensure it does not cool down and lose its potential to generate large amounts of energy.
- The plasma is confined for long durations for fusion to take place.
IE
H10N3 bird flu
Why in News?
- A 41-year-old man in China’s eastern province of Jiangsu has been confirmed as the first human case of infection with a rare strain of bird flu known as H10N3.
What do we know about H10N3?
- Little is known about the virus, which appears to be rare in birds and does not cause severe disease.
- There was no indication of human-to-human transmission yet.
What are the risks?
- The risk of further infection with H10N3 is currently believed to be very low.
- Such cases occur occasionally in China which has huge populations of both farmed and wild birds of many species.
- In February, Russia reported the first human infection with the H5N8 virus that caused huge damage on poultry farms across Europe, Russia and East Asia last winter.
- Flu viruses can mutate rapidly and mix with other strains circulating on farms or among migratory birds, known as “reassortment,” meaning they could make genetic changes that pose a transmission threat to humans.
IE