27 & 28 Aug 2023 – Current Affairs

Daily Current Capsules

27 and 28 August 2023

Shivshakti Point

The Prime Minister of India recently visited the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network Mission Control Complex in Bengaluru
In August 2023, the location on the Moon’s South Pole where Chandrayaan-3 successfully touched down will bear the title “Shivshakti Point,” while the area where the Chandrayaan-2 lander unfortunately crashed in 2019 will now be referred to as “Tiranga Point.”
Prime Minister Modi further announced that August 23, the date of Chandrayaan-3’s landing, will be designated as National Space Day in India.

Know! about Shivshakti Point

The naming choice draws from Hindu mythology, where the term “Shivshakti” finds its roots.
Prime Minister Modi highlighted the inherent connection between humanitarian determination and the concept of Shiva.
He pointed out that from Shakti arises the capability to actualize these humanitarian ambitions.
The “Shakti” component within “Shiv Shakti” is a tribute to the diligence, inspiration, and empowerment of women scientists.
The ‘Shiv Shakti’ point holds immense significance for humanity and space exploration as this is the first time any country has reached the far side of the Moon.The data gathered by Vikram Lander and the Pragyan rover will be key to understanding the atmospheric composition of the moon, its surface and other details about its environment.

Chandrayaan-3 mission

India accomplished a significant breakthrough by successfully guiding the Chandrayaan-3 lander module to a successful landing on the Moon’s South Pole.
This achievement marks India as the inaugural nation to attain this historic milestone, putting an end to the previous setback experienced with the Chandrayaan-2 crash landing four years ago.
This achievement solidifies India’s position as the fourth nation, following the United States, China, and Russia, to have achieved a triumphant landing on the lunar surface.

How are points on lunar surface named?

The International Astronomical Union (IAU), founded in 1919, is the nodal body to standardise the nomenclature of celestial objects, its website states.
It has various task forces such as an executive committee, divisions, commissions, and working groups, which comprise professional astronomers from across the world.
When the first images of the surface of a planet or satellite are obtained, new themes for naming features are chosen and names of a few important features are proposed, usually by the appropriate IAU Task Group in collaboration with the mission team.
After following the protocols, the IAU’s Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) ultimately approves proposed names in these cases.
Upon successful review by vote of the members of the WGPSN, the proposed names are considered approved as official IAU nomenclature, and then used on maps and in publications
Earlier in 2020, a Moon crater spotted by Chandrayaan-2, was named after Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian space programme.
Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter captured the images of ‘Sarabhai Crater’ which has a depth of around 1.7 kilometres

5th Edition Of Ausindex-23

5th edition of biennial AUSINDEX maritime exercise between Indian Navy and Royal Australian Navy (RAN) was conducted from 22-25 August 23 at Sydney, Australia.
INS Sahyadri and INS Kolkata participated in the exercise along with HMAS Choules and HMAS Brisbane from RAN.
Besides ships and their integral helicopters, the exercise also witnessed participation of fighter aircraft and maritime patrol aircraft.
Conducted over 4 days, AUSINDEX included a series of complex exercises in all three domains of maritime operations.
The exercise ended on a high note revalidating the common procedures and reaffirming the close linkages and interoperability between Indian Navy and RAN.

White tigress SITA’s twin cubs, Avni and Vyom

National Zoological Park celebrated the first birthday of the adorable white tigress SITA’s twin cubs, Avni and Vyom
At present National Zoological Park have 12 numbers of tigers of 02 varieties, and among these there are 7 normal coloured Royal Bengal Tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) and 5 White Tigers (Panthera tigris tigris color_mutation ).

Know! about White Tiger

The white tiger or bleached tiger is a leucistic pigmentation variant of the mainland Asian tiger.
It is reported in the wild from time to time in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, in the Sunderbans region and especially in the former State of Rewa.
It has the typical black stripes of a tiger, but its coat is otherwise white or near-white.

NI-KSHAY MITRA

As part of the Indian Air Force’s endeavour to contribute towards social causes that foster nation building, the service has committed its involvement in the “Ni-kshay Mitra” scheme.
This is an initiative under the “Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan (PMTBMBA), implemented by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare that seeks to eliminate TB by 2025 – five years ahead of the global goal of 2030.
First articulated by the Hon’ble Prime Minister in 2018, “Ni-kshay Mitra” is an initiative that provides for additional diagnostic, nutritional, and vocational support by elected representatives, corporates, organisations, NGOs, and individuals to those undergoing TB treatment.
This in turn, would help them on their journey towards a successful recovery.
The IAF has committed to support 765 patients undergoing treatment in the State of Delhi for a duration of six months.

Know! about TB

Tuberculosis commonly known as TB is a highly infectious disease caused by a bacterium known as Mycobacterium Tuberculosis.
It is an airborne disease that spreads from one person to the other through coughing, sneezing, or talking.
Under the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP), patients are supported with free diagnostics and medicines.
The goal of elimination seems to be impracticable without community participation.
Active community participation plays a vital role in the TB elimination goal.
On the 9th of September 2022, the Hon’ble President of India launched a nationwide campaign of PMTBMBA.
Under this programme a donor is called Nikshay-Mitra. Nikshay-Mitras can be Individuals, NGOs, Co-operative societies, Faith-based organizations, Cooperates, Political parties, and others.
A Mitra can adopt a minimum of one consented TB patient on treatment for a minimum period of six months for any kind of support they want to give to the patient.

Aatmanirbharta in Missile Repairs & Indigenisation Technologies (AMRIT-2023)

The Missile Technology Conclave-cum-Symposium themed ‘Aatmanirbharta in Missile Repairs & Indigenisation Technologies (AMRIT-2023)’, was organised by INS Kalinga at Samudrika Auditorium, Naval Base, Visakhapatnam
The seminar provided and fostered a symbiotic environment for all stakeholders viz. Indian Public & Private Industries, DRDO Labs, Academia and Indian Navy in line with the Government of India’s initiative – ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ mission.
Going forward it is envisaged to benefit the Indian Navy in particular and the Armed Forces in general to minimise dependence on Foreign OEMs and also strengthen the core competencies of our Defence Industry and ultimately lead the nation towards Aatmanirbharta.

6th census on minor irrigation schemes

The Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation today released the report on the 6^th census on minor irrigation schemes.

Report Highlights

As per the report, 23.14 million minor irrigation (MI) schemes have been reported in the country, out of which 21.93 million (94.8%) are Ground Water (GW) and 1.21 million (5.2%) are Surface Water (SW) schemes.
Uttar Pradesh possesses the largest number of MI schemes in the country followed by Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Leading States in GW schemes are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
In SW schemes Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha and Jharkhand have the highest share.
GW schemes comprise dugwells, shallow tube wells, medium tube wells and deep tube wells.
The SW schemes comprise surface flow and surface lift schemes.
There has been increase of about 1.42 million in MI schemes during 6th MI census as compared to 5th Census.
Dug-wells have highest share in MI schemes followed by shallow tube-wells, medium tube-wells and deep tube-wells.
Maharashtra is the leading State in dug-wells, surface flow and surface lift schemes.
Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Punjab are the leading States in shallow tube-wells, medium tube-wells and deep tube-wells, respectively.
Out of all MI schemes, 97.0% are ‘in use’, 2.1% are ‘temporarily not in use’ whereas 0.9% are ‘permanently not in use’.
Shallow tube-wells and medium tube-wells lead in the category of ‘in use’ schemes.
A majority of MI schemes (96.6%) are under private ownership.
In GW schemes, the share of private entities in the ownership is 98.3% whereas in SW schemes the respective share is 64.2%.
For the first time, the information about gender of the owner of MI scheme was also collected in case of individual ownership.
Out of all the individually owned schemes, 18.1% are owned by women.

Census of minor irrigation schemes – other facts

Government of India has been conducting census of minor irrigation schemes.
So far, five censuses have been conducted with reference year 1986-87, 1993-94, 2000-01, 2006-07 and 2013-14 respectively.
The 6th minor irrigation census with reference year 2017-18 was completed in 32 States/ UTs.
The 6th MI census work was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The census work has been successfully completed now and the All India and State-wise report on 6thMI census has been published.
The census was conducted under the centrally sponsored scheme “Irrigation Census”.

State of India’s Bird Report 2023

The State of India’s Birds 2023, report was released, which is based on 30 million observations contributed by 30,000 birdwatchers across the country to assess the survival of the birds in India.
The State of India’s Birds (SoIB) report showed worrisome declines, with 178 species of wild birds identified as needing immediate priority for conservation.
The report analysed data collated from India’s birdwatchers and conservation organisations on 942 bird species, including several previously thought to be common and widespread.
It recommended an urgent reassessment of the status of 14 of these species, including the Indian roller, which is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of “least concern”.

State of India’s Birds (SoIB) report Highlights

It found that nearly 60% of the 348 species studied over a period of 25 years showed long-term declines, and 40% of the 359 species assessed over the short term (since 2015) had also declined.
Raptor and duck populations had declined the most, while numbers of several common species, such as the great grey shrike, were also falling.
Migratory birds were found to be declining more rapidly than non-migratory ones.
Categorised by diet, carnivorous, insectivorous and grain-eating birds were found to have declined more rapidly than fruit- and nectar-eating types.
Birds in specific habitats like grasslands and shrublands, classified in India as wastelands, had also declined more rapidly than those in open habitats.

Reasons For Decline

land-use changes, urbanisation, ecosystem degradation, monocultures, infrastructure development, pollution and climate breakdown as threats. 90 are classified as globally of Least Concern by the IUCN Red List 2022.

SVAMITVA Scheme

SVAMITVA (Survey of Villages Abadi and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas) Scheme of Ministry of Panchayati Raj has been conferred with the prestigious National Award for e-Governance 2023 (Gold) for Application of Emerging Technologies for Providing Citizen Centric Services at the 26^th National Conference on e-Governance (NCeG) organized by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Government of India

26^th NCeG Highlights

The two-day National Conference on e-Governance (NCeG) was organised on the theme ‘Viksit Bharat, Empowering Citizens’ jointly by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Government of India and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India in collaboration with the Government of Madhya Pradesh

The National e-Governance Awards were presented under 5 categories viz.

Government process re-engineering for digital transformation
application of emerging technology for providing citizen-centric services
district-level initiative for e-Governance
research on citizen-centric services by academic and research institutions
application of emerging technology in e-Governance by start-ups.

The 26^th NCeG provided an appropriate platform for effective and meaningful brainstorming on the latest technologies for promoting e-Governance and for sharing knowledge and insights on the theme identified for the National e-Governance Conference.

SVAMITVA Scheme

SVAMITVA Scheme of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj provides ownership to property owners in village-inhabited area by using latest drone and GIS technology.
The Property Cards facilitate monetization of rural residential assets for bank loan and other financial benefits and help in the settlement of land-related disputes through the preparation of 5cm accuracy maps.
The Scheme is implemented with the collaborative efforts of Survey of India being the technology implementation partner, State Revenue and Panchayati Raj Departments, and NIC–GIS.

Exercise Bright Star-23

The Indian Air Force will participate in the biennial multilateral tri-services exercise to be held from August 27 to September 16, 2023 at Cairo Air Base in Egypt.
The Indian Air Force is participating for the first time in this Exercise Bright Star-23 event which will also see the participation of air force contingents from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Greece and Qatar.
The purpose of this exercise is to implement the exercise plan of joint operations in action.

KEEP Learning KEEP Evolving

TEAM CL/GKP