Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 6th Jan 2022

NEWS

Border Roads Organisation breaks record at Zoji La battling extreme weather conditions

WHAT WAS DONE

• For the first time BRO has kept the formidable Zoji mountain pass (altitude 11,649 ft) open beyond 31st December.
• BRO’s frontline Projects Beacon and Vijayak have been working round the clock in extreme weather conditions to keep the logistic supply line open to the Union Territory of Ladakh.

ABOUT ZOJI LA PASS

• Located in the Kargil district of Ladakh.
• Connects Leh and Kashmir
• Links the UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
• During winters, the pass remains closed due to heavy snowfall, cutting off the region of Ladakh during this period.
• There was an emergent need for stockpiling of essential commodities in the UT of Ladakh.
• Project Beacon and Project Vijayak cleared fresh snow around Zojilla at the height of 11,500 feet and made the road motorable.
• The projects were undertaken by the BRO.

ABOUT BORDER ROADS ORGANISATION (BRO)

• Develops and maintains road networks in India’s border areas and friendly neighbouring countries.
• Officers from the Border Roads Engineering Service (BRES) and personnel from the General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF) form the parent cadre of the Border Roads Organisation.
• Staffed by officers and troops drawn from the Indian Army’s Corps of Engineers on extra regimental employment (on Deputation).
• Headquartered in New Delhi, the BRO is under the Ministry of Defence, GOI.

CHILKA LAKE

NEWS

Chilika Lake, the largest brackish water lake and wintering ground of birds in the Indian subcontinent, saw a million birds, including the uncommon Mongolian gull, visiting the waterbody this year.

ABOUT CHILKA LAKE

• Brackish water lagoon
• Spread over the Puri, Khurda and Ganjam districts of Odisha state
• On the east coast of India, at the mouth of the Daya River, flowing into the Bay of Bengal.
• Largest coastal lagoon in India and the second largest coastal lagoon in the world.
• Largest wintering ground for migratory birds on the Indian sub-continent.
• Home to a number of threatened species of plants and animals
• Important habitat and breeding ground for both resident and migratory and aquatic birds, most notably flamingos.
• The Nalaban Island within the lagoon is classified as a Bird Sanctuary under the wildlife protection act.
• Designated the first Indian wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention(In 1981)
• The lagoon is also home to 14 types of raptors. Around 152 rare and endangered Irrawaddy dolphins have also been reported. Plus, the lagoon supports about 37 species of reptiles and amphibians.
• Microalgae, marine seaweeds, sea grasses, fish and crab also flourish in the brackish water

NEWS

19th Meeting of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) held

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MEET

• Action Plan for Introduction of Cheetah in India unveiled,50 Cheetahs to be introduced in various Parks over 5 years
• Government working on a futuristic and multi-pronged strategy for next decade of tiger conservation in the country

ABOUT NTCA

• The Wildlife Protection Amendment Act, 2006 provides for the constitution of the National Tiger Conservation Authority
• Following a recommendation of the Tiger Task Force.
• Administers Project Tiger.
• Tiger reserves in India are administered by field directors as mandated by NTCA.
• No alteration in the boundaries of a tiger reserve shall be made except on a recommendation of the NTCA and the approval of the National Board for Wild Life.
• No State Government shall de-notify a tiger reserve, except in public interest with the approval of the NTCA and the approval of the National Board for Wild Life.

NTCA members

• NTCA was set up under the Chairmanship of the Minister for Environment and Forests.
• The Authority will have
  • eight experts having qualifications in wildlife conservation and welfare tribals,
  • 3 MPs,
  • The Inspector-General of Forests, in charge of project Tiger, will be ex-officio Member Secretary
  • Others

Functions of NTCA

• The Authority lays down standards, guidelines for tiger conservation in the Tiger Reserves, National Parks and Sanctuaries.
• The Tiger Conservation Authority would be required to prepare an Annual Report, which would be laid in the Parliament along with the Audit Report.
• State-level Steering Committees will be set up in the Tiger States under the Chairmanship of respective Chief Ministers.
• This has been done with a view for ensuring coordination, monitoring and protection of tigers in the States.
• A provision has been made for the State Governments to prepare a Tiger Conservation Plan.
• Provision will be made for the States to establish a Tiger Conservation Foundation, based on the good practices emanating from some tiger reserves.

NEWS

Telecommunication Engineering Centre(TEC) releases ‘Code of Practice for securing consumer Internet of Things(IoT)'

WHAT IS THE INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT)?

• Internet of Things is the inter-linking of digital devices, machines, people and other objects with each other through wireless networks.
• It enables anything and everything to connect and communicate with each other.
• It is the future internet. Because the first version of the internet was about data created by the internet. The next version is about the data created by things.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

• Anything that can be connected, will be connected in IoT.
• Any device that has on/off switch can be a part of the IoT.
• Most often the connected devices will have an I.P address. With Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6), allocating IP addresses to billions of devices has never been so much easier.
• Examples of things which can be connected to the internet include
  • Connected wearables – Smart glasses, Smartwatches, fitness bands etc.
  • Connected Homes – linking household appliances to the network.
  • Connected cars – Vehicles that are connected to the internet.
  • Connected cities – Connected traffic signals, Smart metres which analyse usage of water, gas, electricity etc, Smart bins which give signals when they need to be emptied etc.
• Different networks shall be connected to each other to provide inter-connectivity between different things. For example,
  • BAN (Body Area Network): Wearables.
  • LAN (Local Area Network): Smart home.
  • WAN (Wide Area Network): Connected car.
  • VWAN (Very wide area network): Smart city.

NEWS

Delhi Assembly passed an amendment Bill to the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1971, recognising Takht Damdama Sahib as the fifth Takht of Sikhs.

WHAT IS A SIKH TAKHT

• A Takht, which means a throne
• Seat of temporal authority for Sikhs
• There are five Sikh Takhts, three in Punjab and one each in Maharashtra and Bihar.

• Akal Takht:
  • Located in Amritsar
  • Oldest of the Takhts
  • Considered supreme among the five
  • Set up in 1606 by Guru Hargobind
  • Is a raised platform that he built in front of the causeway leading to the sanctum sanctorum of the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple)
  • Symbolised the coming together of the temporal authority and the political sovereignty of the Sikh community (miri) with the spiritual authority (piri).
  • Seen as the first marker of Sikh nationalism.
  • Is a five-storey building today; the first storey houses the Guru Granth Sahib.
  • The other four Takhts are linked to Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru.
• Takht Keshgarh Sahib: Located in Anandpur Sahib in Punjab. It was here that Guru Gobind Singh raised Khalsa, the initiated Sikh warriors, in 1699.
• Takht Patna Sahib: Guru Gobind Singh was born here in 1666.
• Takht Hazur Sahib: In Nanded, where Guru Gobind Singh spent time and where he was cremated in 1708.
• Takht Damdama Sahib: In Talwandi Sabo of Bathinda. Guru Gobind Singh spent several months here.

WHAT DOES THE AMENDMENT TO THE DELHI SIKH GURDWARA ACT MEAN?

• Adds one more ex officio member in the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Managament Committee (DSGMC) house.
• Earlier, there were four ex officio members in the house — the chiefs (jathedars) of the other four Sikh Takhts.
• Prior to this, the DSGMC house was of 55 member: 46 elected, two co-opted, two chosen through lottery from among the gurdwara Singh Sabhas, one nominated by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), and four jathedars of Sikh Takhts.
• If the Delhi Lieutenant Governor gives his approval to the amendment Bill and it becomes a law, it will make the chief of the Takht Damdama Sahib, too, an ex officio member in the DSGMC house, taking its strength to 56.
• Ex officio members have no voting rights in the house.

IS IT THE FIRST TIME IT HAS BEEN RECOGNISED AS THE FIFTH TAKHT?

• No. It was back in 1999 that Takht Damdama Sahib was recognised as the fifth Sikh Takht by the Union Home Ministry, which included it as such in the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925 (Punjab Act VIII of 1925) with a notification dated April 23, 1999.
• Before that, an SGPC sub-committee had declared it the fifth Takht of Sikhs back in November 1966 after Punjab was carved out as a separate state through the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966.

PERSONS IN NEWS

NEWS

PM inaugurated Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport in Tripura

WHO IS MAHARAJA BIR BAKAM

• King of Tripura from 1923 to 1947
• Belonged to Manikaya dynasty
• Enlightened and benevolent ruler
• Considered the father of modern architecture in Tripura
• Entire planning of present-day Tripura was initiated during his rule
• Had travelled extensively across globe and took several steps for all-round development of Tripura.
• Considered one of the pioneers in land reforms.
• In 1939, he reserved land for local Tripura tribals, which was later instrumental in creation of Tripura autonoumus district council.
• Built Tripura’s first airport at Agartala
• Set up one of country’s first municipality.
• Started Tripura’s first University.
• Foundation for Tripura’s high rate of literacy was laid by him
• royal family of Tripura had sent food grains to the people of Bengal during the Bangla famine.
• Played a significant role in providing refuge to the Hindu Bengalis fleeing East Bengal at the time of partition, saving lives and providing shelter people who were facing persecution.

NEWS

Sri Lanka Cabinet clears oil tank deal to jointly develop Trincomalee oil tank farms

About Trincomalee oil field

• The facility, built by the British around World War II as a refueling station, has 99 storage tanks that look like giant wells.
• They have a capacity of 12,000 kilolitres each.
• Eighty-four of those are in the 800-acre Upper Tank Farm (UTF). For a good part of a century now, these tanks have remained unused, shrouded in a forest.
• The Lower Tank Farm (LTF) has 16 tanks, spread across 50 acres.

India’s interest

• A talking point in Indo-Lanka relations since 1987.
•  Jayewardene.
• Indian Oil Corporation set up Lanka IOC, its Sri Lankan subsidiary in2003
• The agreement remained dormant for years, until the Sirisena- Wickremesinghe administration tried revisiting it through the 2017 MoU.

Significance of Trincomalee

• Home to 3.7 lakh Muslim, Tamil and Sinhala people and Trincomalee, in Sri Lanka’s post-war years.
• Emerged as a favorite destination for surfers from around the world, gradually transforming with plush resorts and restaurants dotting its coast.
• Potential transit point for international trade routes, particularly drawing India which has known strategic interests there.
• Important counterbalance to the southern Hambantota Port backed substantially by China.

• Mud Crab Reovirus (MCRV) has been found to be the reason for the mass mortality of crabs (Scylla serrate) in Andhra Pradesh.
• Capt Amy Bauernschmidt becomes the first woman to lead a nuclear carrier in US Navy history.
• P-8I aircraft began operations from the INS Hansa Naval Air Base in Goa
• Sindhutai Sapkal, Social worker and Padma Shri awardee, passes away at 74. Overcoming circumstances, Sindhutai Sapkal soon started working for the welfare of the orphan children which led them to fondly call her ‘Mai’.
• The Prime Minister has expressed sorrow on the demise of Mr Neil Nongkynrih, mentor and conductor of Shillong Chamber Choir.
• As part of the Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav (AKAM) celebrations across the country, the Smart Cities Mission, MoHUA has launched “Smart cities and Academia Towards Action & Research (SAAR)” program, a joint initiative of MoHUA, National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) and leading Indian academic institutions of the country. Under the program, 15 premier architecture & planning institutes of the country will be working with Smart Cities to document landmark projects undertaken by the Smart Cities Mission
• Indira Gandhi RashtriyaUranAkademi(IGRUA)was established by the Government of Indiain the year 1986 at Fursatganj Airfield, presently in the district of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.  IGRUA is an Autonomous Body established under the Societies Registration Act 1860 and is administered by a Governing Council under the Ex-officio Chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation. Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA)sets a new record of 19000 flying hours in 2021