Competitive Exam Training

30 July 2019 Current Affairs:  Indian Railways Northeast Frontier Railway zone  started an initiative to bring a special portion of the SLR coach with pink colour.  It is mainly introduced in order to bring women passengers with better safety and security. This special colour will help the  women passenger  to easily  identify the coach  in rush hours. Around eight trains in Rangiya division of the Northeast Frontier Railway has begun operations with some pink coaches. The section 58 of the Railways Act, 1989 provides for earmarking of accommodation for female passengers in trains.  Indian Railways planned to provide second class accommodation for women in the second Class-cum-Luggage-cum Guard’s Coach (SLR) . SLR coaches with especially Pink colored portion for lady passengers were placed into operation by the Rangiya Division of NFR in passenger trains bearing number 55817 / 55818, 55803 / 55804 and 55809 / 55810  They are operated bet...

30 July 2019 Current Affairs:  India-Nepal Logistics Summit 2019  was held in  Kathmandu, Nepal.  The summit was inaugurated by  Nepal Prime minister KP.Sharma Oli.  The theme of the Logistics Summit 2019 was  'Transforming Logistics Landscape'. Participants: In this summit all trade community and government representatives from both Nepal and India represented the whole summit function.  N.Sivasailam,  Special Secretary (Logistics), Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry,  CMD V. Kalyana Rama,  Container Corporation of India (CONCOR),  Bhawani Rana,  Preident of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) President participated in the summit. Focus: The summit focused on discussing the transport delays of import cargo from  Kolkata Port to Kathmandu,  delays in rail transport and additional costs in handling cargo. They also discussed on need for reducing transit time between Nepal an...

29 July 2019 Current Affairs:  Iran  is to restart the activities at the  Arak heavy water nuclear reactor, western Iran. The announcement was made by  Ali Akbar Salehi , the head of Iran’s  Atomic Energy Organization. Heavy water are used in reactors to produce plutonium. Plutonium is a fuel used in  nuclear warheads. Iran's meeting with the European countries: Regarding this  US Sanctions on Tehran , a meeting was conducted between Iranian officials and the  UK, France and Germany, in Vienna . In the meeting Iran persuaded the European states to provided more effective relief from US sanctions.  The move is after the US's withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and the introduction of sanctions on Tehran, Iran stopped complying with some commitments in the  2015 nuclear deal.

28 July 2019 Current Affairs: Hundred charging stations for electric vehicles are in the offing for Noida The authority is planning a tie-up with a government-backed agency for setting up infrastructure for mobility based on clean energy. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) expected to be signed between Noida Authority and EESL. The MoU will be signed in the presence of NOIDA Chairperson Alok Tandon, CEO Ritu Maheshwari and EESL Managing Director Saurabh Kumar The authority is also planning to lease five electric vehicles from EESL to be used for official purposes. Three of these stations will be on the road, while three off-road. Vehicle - Features Vehicle growth in the country has been rapid in recent years. The need for switching to cleaner technology in the transport sector, around ₹1.2 lakh crore could be saved in imported crude oil. The central government issued a set of guidelines to set up charging stations for electric vehicles across the country, outlining ways to build s...

U.S. scientists who challenged a new rule that would require them to register their basic studies of the human brain and behavior in a federal database of clinical trials have won another reprieve. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, says it now understands why some of that kind of research won’t easily fit the format of ClinicalTrials.gov, and the agency has delayed the reporting requirements for another 2 years. The controversy dates back to 2017, when behavioral and cognitive researchers realized that new requirements for registering and reporting results from NIH-funded clinical studies would also cover even basic studies of human subjects, experiments that did not test drugs or other potential treatments. The scientists protested that including such studies would confuse the public and create burdensome, unnecessary paperwork. A year ago, NIH announced it would delay the requirement until September and seek further input. The responses p...

Somewhere in the middle of New Zealand, there is a kauri tree stump ( Agathis australis ) that should not be alive. But it is, thanks to the root systems of surrounding trees, which have kept the almost-dead stump on life support by sharing water and nutrients. For years, scientists have suspected such sharing networks exist, thanks to other living stumps. But such resource transfers have never been proved, and reports by other researchers are decades old and mostly anecdotal. Researchers first found the stump in question (above) on a hike in a rainforest in the Waitakere Ranges on New Zealand’s North Island. They were surprised to see it was alive despite missing both branches and leaves. To see whether the surrounding kauri trees could be playing a role, they measured sap and water flow in both the stump and its neighbors. The researchers found that the water flow in the stump increased as water flowed from the surrounding trees, meaning the stump was taking water from ...

25 July 2019 Current Affairs: Scientists in  Bangladesh  developed a method to convert Jute fibre into low cost biodegradable cellulose sheets named Sonali  It is used to wrap material along with a carry bag.  Mubarak Ahmad Khan  Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC)  developed the new 'sonali'  It denotes the physical qualities of the invented jute fibre and plastic are quite similar. The Eco-friendly jute poly bags made up of Sonali can be used in garments and food packaging work. The commercial production of these bags is likely to start by the year end. Government of Bangladesh approved 9 lakh dollars in April to help in large-scale production of these bags. The main challenge in the large scale adoption of Sonali sheet is the relatively high cost of production which is almost double that of polythene.  Bangladesh Capital: Dhaka Prime minister: Sheikh Hasina

24 July 2019 Current Affairs:  Maharashtra  state-reported around 233 cases of  ATM fraud  in 2018-19. Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) data revealed a data showed that Delhi grabbed the second spot with 179 cases this is followed by Tamil Nadu with 147 cases In Maharashtra, people lost Rs 4.8 crore to bank fraud in Delhi people around Rs 2.9 crore is involved in bank fraudAssam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura are the only three states a single incident. The money lost came down from Rs 65.3 crore in 2017-18. The commonly used trick is installing skimmer devices on ATMs and point-of-sale machines. This data is then put on blank cards and illegal transactions. Last year, customers were asked to replace their existing debit/credit cards with new ones.RBI mandated banks to replace all existing magnetic stripe-only cards with EMV chip cards. Chip-based cards use higher standards of data encryption and storage technology Banks to implement anti-skimming solutions by March...

கே.கஸ்தூரிரங்கன் தலைமையிலான குழு சமர்ப்பித்திருக்கும் புதிய கல்விக் கொள்கையின் வரைவு கல்வியாளர்கள் வட்டங்களில் மட்டுமின்றி அரசியல் வெளியிலும் கடும் விவாதப் பொருளாக மாறியிருக்கிறது. கல்வித் துறையில் இக்கொள்கை கொண்டுவரவிருக்கும் மாற்றங்களின் சாதக, பாதகங்களையும் அதன் பின்னால் உள்ள அரசியலையும் பற்றி தமிழகக் கல்வியாளர்கள் மற்றும் கட்சித் தலைவர்களின் கருத்துகள் இவை... எல்லாப் பிரிவினருக்குமான கல்விக் கொள்கை பேராசிரியர் ப.கனகசபாபதி மேல்நாட்டுக்கோட்பாடுகளை அப்படியே தழுவாமல், நம் நாட்டுக்கு ஏற்ப, அதிக பயன்தரக்கூடிய வகையில் அமைந்துள்ளது புதிய கல்விக் கொள்கை. நிறைய சிறப்பம்சங்கள் இருந்தாலும் அதில் நான் முக்கியமானதெனக் கருதுபவை இவை. முதல் முறையாக பள்ளிக்கல்வி, உயர்கல்வி என்று தனித்துப் பார்க்காமல் ஒருங்கிணைந்த கொள்கையாக இது உருவாகியிருக்கிறது. சாலையோரத்தில் தங்கிக் கட்டுமானப் பணிகளில் ஈடுபடும் நிரந்தர முகவரியற்றவர்கள், தாழ்த்தப்பட்டவர்கள், பழங்குடியினர், மாற்றுப் பாலினத்தவர் என எல்லாப் பிரிவினரையும் கருத்தில்கொண்டு கொள்கை உருவாக்கப்பட்டிருக்கிறது. இன்று ஒரு மாணவனிடம் ஒரு விஷயத்தைச் சொன்னால...

Lok Sabha passed the Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Bill 2019 on 19 July 22 July 2019 Current Affairs: Lok Sabha, the lower house, passed  The Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Bill 2019  on 19 July. It amends the  Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.  The Bill aims to strengthen the Human Rights Commission. Amendments of the Bill: The Bill aims to speed up the process of appointment of the chairperson and members of the  National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). 1) About the Chairperson: The Bill ameds that besides Chief Justice of India (CJI),  even a Judge of the Supreme Court  can be the chairperson of the NHRC. Earlier, the Human Rights Act said that only a person who has been the Chief Justice of India can be made the NHRC chairperson. At State level:  The Bill amends to enable any person who has been a judge of a High Court to be the chairperson of SHRC. 2)About Members: The Bill appoints the members of the NHRC t...

India’s water crisis: The clock is ticking We need to promote a decentralised approach, with a key focus on water conservation, source sustainability, storage and reuse wherever possible India is facing one of its major and most serious water crisis. After two consecutive years of weak monsoons, 330 million people — a quarter of the country’s population — are affected by a severe drought. With nearly 50 per cent of India grappling with drought-like conditions, the situation has been particularly grim this year in western and southern states that received below average rainfall. According to the Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) report released by the Niti Aayog in 2018, 21 major cities (Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and others) are racing to reach zero groundwater levels by 2020, affecting access for 100 million people. However, 12 per cent of India’s population is already living the 'Day Zero' scenario, thanks to e...

Context : Studies show that India’s road transport emissions are  small in global comparison but increasing exponentially . In fact, the  Global Carbon Project  reports that India’s carbon emissions are rising more than  two times as fast as the global rise in 2018 .   Background : Globally,  the transport sector accounts for a quarter of total emissions , out of which  three quarters are from road transport .   Why reduce CO2 emissions from road transport? Reducing CO2 emissions of road transport leverages multiple co-benefits, for example, improving air quality and increasing physical activity, which are critical for well-being, particularly in urban areas.   What needs to be done? The action requires an understanding of how  emissions vary with spatial context . In India,  income and urbanisation are the key determinants of travel distance and travel mode choice and, therefore, commuting emissions . Mayor...

Context :  Spektr-RG  is a Russian–German high-energy astrophysics space observatory launched recently. It follows on from the Spektr-R satellite telescope launched in 2011.   About Spektr- RG: The  Spektrum-Röntgen-Gamma mission , also known as  Spektr-RG , is a joint  project between the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, and the German space agency, DLR .  Position : Spektr-RG will be placed in a stable orbit in space called  a Lagrange point (specifically, L2) , where the gravitational forces of two large objects — in this case, the sun and the Earth — balance each other out. This location will allow Spektr-RG to perform its observations while using a minimal amount of fuel. Objectives : The spacecraft is expected to detect 100,000 galaxy clusters, 3 million supermassive black holes, tens of thousands of star-forming galaxies, the presence of plasma (superheated gas) and many more types of obje...

Context : Against a target of covering 14306 police stations, a total of 14874 police stations (excluding police stations in Bihar) have been covered under  the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) , which includes new police stations.   What is CCTNS project? Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) is a project initiated in June 2009 which aims at creating a  comprehensive and integrated system for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of policing at the Police Station level . This will be done through adoption of principles of e-Governance, and creation of a nationwide networked infrastructure for evolution of IT-enabled state-of-the-art tracking system around “investigation of crime and detection of criminals”. CCTNS is  a Mission Mode Project (MMP)  under the National e-Governance Plan of Govt. of India.   What it does? The Project will  interconnect about 15000 Police Stations and additional 5000 o...

Introduction: Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF)  is a set of farming methods, and also a grassroots peasant movement, which has spread to various states in India. It has attained wide success in southern India, especially the southern Indian state of Karnataka where it first evolved.  The movement in Karnataka state was born out of collaboration between  Mr Subhash Palekar , who put together the ZBNF practices, and the state farmers association Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS).   Importance of ZBNF highlighted in Economic Survey 2018-19: The Economic Survey  mentioned  Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF)  along with Vedic Farming, Homa Farming and Cow Farming and how these  “climate friendly”  agricultural practices can  enable “elimination of chemical pesticides”  and restoration of  soil organic matter and fertility. But an even bigger push for ZBNF and in the Union Budget speech of Finance Minister, where ...