Daily Current Affairs 11th September 2019

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Culture (GS Paper 1) YADADRI TEMPLE The Telangana government has ordered immediate removal of images of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and party symbols carved on the pillars of Yadadri temple after they created a furore. It issued instructions to officials that there should be no symbols other than those of religious significance in the temple complex that was being rebuilt by the government.

About:

• Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Temple is also known as Yadadri and Yadagirigutta temple.

• It is situated on a hillock in Yadagirigutta of Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, Telangana.

• It is a Hindu temple dedicated to Narasimha, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The sanctum sanctorum or Garbhagriha of the temple is located in a cave, under a huge slating rock, which covers half the abode.

• A new temple is being built at the old temple site. The work was started in 2016 and the entire temple project is expected to be completed by the end of 2019.

• The temple was renamed as Yadadri by Vaishnavaite ascetic Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, who is overseeing its construction.

• Features:

o The temple is built entirely in stone (by sculpting a hill of granite into a temple), probably the first one after the monolithic Kailasa Temple in the Ellora caves

o The centuries-old practice of using lime mortar to join different stone parts is being used. The architecture of the temple is based on Agama Shashtra. Source : Hindustan Times

Daily Current Affairs 11th September 2019

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Culture (GS Paper 1) ONAM The President of India Ram Nath Kovind greeted fellow citizens on the eve of Onam.

About:

• Onam is the biggest and the most important festival of the state of Kerala.

• Time and Duration: o It is a harvest festival, celebrated in the beginning of the month of Chingam, the first month of

Malayalam Calendar (Kollavarsham). This corresponds with the month of August-September according to Gregorian Calendar.

o Carnival of Onam lasts from four to ten days. First day, Atham and tenth day, Thiruonam are most important of all. Background: According to a popular legend, the festival is celebrated to welcome King Mahabali, whose spirit is said to visit Kerala at the time of Onam. Source : PIB

History (GS Paper 1) GOVIND BALLABH PANT President Ramnath Kovind, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tributes to Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant on his 132nd Birth Anniversary.

About:

• Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant (1887 – 1961) was a lawyer, an Indian freedom fighter and one of the architects of modern India.

• In 1921, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.

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• He was an untiring participant in both the Non-Cooperation Movement and the Civil Disobedience Movement.

• He was also a member of the Central Legislative Assembly and the Constituent Assembly.

• He served as the 2nd Chief Minister of United Provinces from 1937 to 1939.

• After independence, he served as the 1st Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1950 to 1954.

• He served as Union Home Minister from 1955–1961.

• As Home Minister, his chief achievement was the re-organisation of States along linguistic lines.

• He was also responsible for the establishment of Hindi as an official language of the central government and a few states.

• To honour his exemplary services to the nation, he received Bharat Ratna, in 1957. Source : All India Radio

Polity and Governance (GS Paper 2)

SANJAY MITRA COMMITTEE

Centre has set up a 3-member panel to oversee the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories.

Daily Current Affairs 11th September 2019

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About:

• The committee will look into the distribution of assets and liabilities of Jammu and Kashmir between two successor Union territories, which will come into existence on 31st of October this year.

• The committee will be headed by Former Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra. It will have Retired IAS officer Arun Goyal and Retired Indian Civil Accounts Service officer Giriraj Prasad Gupta as members.

• Background: On 5th of last month, the Centre had announced the abrogation of the special status given to J&K under Article 370 and bifurcation of the state into the two UTs. Source : All India Radio

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International (GS Paper 2) MOTIHARI-AMLEKHGANJ PIPELINE Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart K P Sharma Oli inaugurated the Motihari-Amalekhgunj petroleum pipeline through video conferencing.

About:

• The Motihari-Amlekhganj petroleum product pipeline is the first ever cross-border petroleum products pipeline in South Asia.

• The 69-km pipeline will transport fuel from Barauni refinery in Bihar's Begusarai district to Amalekhgunj in southeastern Nepal, situated across the border from Raxaul in East Champaran district.

• The project was first proposed in 1996, but progress was slow.

• In 2017, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) signed a petroleum trade agreement to supply about 1.3 million tonnes of fuel annually to Nepal with a promise to double the volume by 2020.

Daily Current Affairs 11th September 2019

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Significance:

• The pipeline will help in tackling the oil storage problem in Nepal. The Amalekhgunj fuel depot will have the capacity to store up to 16,000 kilolitres of petroleum products.

• It will drastically reduce the cost of transporting fuel to landlocked Nepal from India by doing away with transportation of petroleum products through tankers (as part of an arrangement which is in place since 1973). Source : Times of India

International (GS Paper 2) FIVE STAR MOVEMENT (M5S)

As populist movements gain strength across the world, attention has turned to Italy, where members of Italy's Five Star Movement (M5S) voted in favour of forming a coalition government with the centre-left Democratic party (PD).

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About: • The Five Star Movement (M5S) is a political party in Italy.

• It was founded in 2009 by Beppe Grillo and quickly grew. It was borne out of apparent

frustration with the political establishment in a country with a stagnant economy and widespread corruption at the highest echelons.

• The "five stars" are a reference to five key issues for the party: (1) public water, (2) sustainable transport, (3) sustainable development, (4) right to Internet access, and (5) environmentalism.

• The M5S is variously considered populist, anti-establishment, environmentalist, anti-globalist and Eurosceptic.

• Since its inception in 2009, the M5S has risen to become one of the most voted-for parties in Italy. In the 2018 general election, the M5S became the largest individual party in the Italian Parliament and entered government. Source : The Hindu

Indian Economy (GS Paper 3)

CHC FARM MACHINERY

Union Minister of State for Agriculture launched a multilingual Mobile App “CHC Farm Machinery” during a conference on Crop Residue Management in New Delhi.

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About: • The Mobile App “CHC Farm Machinery" will allow farmers to avail custom hiring services of

CHCs located in a radius of 50 km.

• The App connects the farmers with Custom Hiring Centers (CHCs) in their area. with this, farmers can now get affordable access to cutting-edge technology at their doorsteps.

• It can be downloaded on any android phone from Google Play Store. Source : All India Radio

Indian Economy (GS Paper 3)

Market Intervention Price Scheme

The government is planning to procure almost 12 lakh metric tonnes of apple this season, under the MISP.

About the Market Intervention Price Scheme:

1. It is a price support mechanism implemented on the request of State Governments.

2. It is for procurement of perishable and horticultural commodities in the event of a fall in market prices.

3. The Scheme is implemented when there is at least 10% increase in production or 10% decrease in the ruling rates over the previous normal year.

4. Its objective is to protect the growers of these horticultural/agricultural commodities from making distress sale in the event of bumper crop during the peak arrival period when prices fall to very low level.

5. The Department of Agriculture & Cooperation is implementing the scheme.

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Funding:

• Under MIP, funds are not allocated to the States.

• Instead, central share of losses as per the guidelines of MIP is released to the State Governments/UTs, for which MIP has been approved, based on specific proposals received from them.

• The area of operation is restricted to the concerned state only.

• The MIS has been implemented in case of commodities like apples, kinnoo/malta, garlic, oranges, galgal, grapes, mushrooms, clove, black pepper, pineapple, ginger, red-chillies, coriander seed etc.

Sources: the Hindu.

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Indian Economy (GS Paper 3)

Fall Armyworm (FAW)

Maize crops falling victim to fall armyworm in Bihar. Reports of the pest attacking crops have

been reported from a number of districts in the state, India’s third-largest maize producer.

FAW:

• It is a native of the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the Americas.

• First detected in the African continent in 2016. Since then, it has spread to other countries such as China, Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

• It was reported in India for the first-time in Karnataka. Within a span of only six months, almost 50 per cent of the country, including Mizoram, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal, has

reported FAW infestations.

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It’s Attack and Spread

• It is the polyphagous(ability to feed on different kinds of food) nature of the caterpillar and the ability of the adult moth to fly more than 100 km per night.

• Given its ability to feed on multiple crops — nearly 80 different crops ranging from maize to sugarcane — FAW can attack multiple crops.

• Similarly, it can spread across large tracts of land as it can fly over large distances. This explains the quick spread of the pest across India.

Sources: the Hindu.

Environment and Ecology (GS Paper 3)

Snow leopard

• Conservation of snow leopards and preservation of people’s cultural values can prevent land degradation of the Himalayan ecosystem, said experts at the ongoing 14th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

• The snow leopard is the apex predator in the region. Saving it will mean that we will need to save the prey base of herbivores too and to save the prey base will mean preserving the grassland that they feed on. This will automatically lead to the prevention of land degradation.

Facts:

• Listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

• Inhabit alpine and subalpine zones at elevations from 3,000 to 4,500 m (9,800 to 14,800 ft).

• State animal of Uttarakhand and the National Heritage Animal of Pakistan.

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• Habitat extends through twelve countries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. China contains as much as 60% of all snow leopard habitat areas.

• Listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES).

• Global Snow Leopard Forum, 2013:12 countries encompassing the snow leopard’s range (Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan).

• Bishkek Declaration:To protect the species and it’s environment.

• Global Snow Leopard and Eco-system Protection Program:It is a joint initiative of range country governments, international agencies, civil society, and the private sector.

Miscellaneous VOLFEFE INDEX American investment firm JPMorgan has created ‘Volfefe’ index to track the impact of Donald Trump’s tweets on US interest rates and stock market.

About:

• JPMorgan’s “Volfefe Index," named after Trump’s mysterious covfefe tweet from May 2017, suggests that the President’s tweets have increasingly moved the US rates markets immediately after they were published.

• Analysts also found that the number of market-moving tweets from Trump’s handle rose in the past month, with those including words such as ‘China,’ ‘billion,’ ‘products,’ ‘democrats,’ and ‘great,’ most likely to affect prices.

• JPMorgan isn’t alone in attempting to calculate the impact of the president’s Twitter activity on markets. Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch published a note last week concluding that days where President Trump tweets relatively frequently tend to see negative returns of 9 basis points on average. Source : Indian Express

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Cryodrakon Boreas:

• Paleontologists have identified a new species, named it Cryodrakon boreas, and declared that it

could be one of the largest flying animals.

• With a wingspan of over 10 metres, it is believed to have flown over the heads of dinosaurs.

• The reptile lived over 77 million years ago in what is western Canada today.

India’s second riverine Multi Modal terminal built at Sahibganj in Jharkhand:

• This is being constructed on National Waterway-1 (River Ganga) under Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP) aided by World Bank.

• The First MultiModal Terminal has been constructed at Varanasi over River Ganga.

• Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system from Allahabad to Haldia was declared as National Waterway No.1. The NW-1 passes through Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal and serves major cities and their industrial hinterlands.

Editorials Summary

Awareness in Space (GS Paper 3)

Space Industry and Future Goals

CONTEXT: Vikram lander appears to have made a hard-landing because of which ISRO is not able to establish any contact so far.

Daily Current Affairs 11th September 2019

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Past experience

There have been occasions in the past when declared “dead” satellites/space probes have suddenly come alive. NASA’s IMAGE satellite launched in early 2000 stopped transmitting in late 2005 and was declared dead. NASA declared this satellite alive again in 2018.

ISRO – What lies ahead

• With various successes in the domain of space, ISRO has raised the stature of the country internationally.

• India should make an assessment of the technical resources and expertise available with ISRO to carry forward a major space programme.

• It is important to factor in the nature of the private space industry to support a space programme of this size.

• International collaborations have become an important element in the present times. • Going to the Moon and Mars is important for multiple reasons, including the quest for minerals

and energy security (Helium 3). • India should avoid getting swayed by the “Space Race”. • Space should emerge as an important constituent of foreign policy. Missions to the Moon and

Mars offer India opportunities for bilateral or multilateral collaboration. Such collaborations could allow technology sharing and they could also prove to be more cost-effective and time-saving.

• India needs to make more investments in its strategic programme: Efforts made to conduct an ASAT (anti-satellite test) should be capitalised upon. Today, the armed forces require many more satellites for various purposes. There is a need to evolve a separate agency for this purpose.

CONCLUSION

Investments in this domain should be done only for social reasons, for science and for security. If India has to emerge as a space power, then it should be via a combination of soft and hard power. Missions like the ones to the Moon offer such opportunities.

Source: IE