Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 10th June 2021

By : The Economist

Details:

• The index takes into account more than 30 qualitative and quantitative factors spanning five broad categories: stability (25%), health care (20%), culture and environment (25%), education (10%), and infrastructure (20%).
• While the categories were not amended this year, a number of indicators were taken into account, such as stress on health care resources and restrictions on local sporting events, when calculating scores for the health care, culture and environment, and education categories.
• However, the way in which each city handled the pandemic, how quickly vaccines were rolled out and the level of border restrictions put in place has led to major changes in the rankings.
• Auckland came out on top on The Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Index of 140 cities around the world.
• New Zealand's capital Wellington was fourth on this year's list, tying with Japan's Tokyo, and four cities of Australia, where tough border controls have been in place throughout the crisis, occupy the top 10.
• The cities that have risen to the top of the rankings this year are largely the ones that have taken stringent measures to contain the pandemic.
• Austria's Vienna, number one in both 2018 and 2019, has completely dropped out of the top 10 after being heavily effected by Covid, and now sits in 12th place.

Details :

• A monal is a bird of genus Lophophorus of the pheasant family, Phasianidae.
• The males all have colorful, iridescent plumage. Their physique is rather plump. Their diet consists of plants such as roots and bulbs and insects. During mating the males are polygamous where they mates with several females. The females in turn only mate with the selected male and enter into a monogamous relationship. Due to habitat destruction and hunting, they have become rare and their population is endangered.

SUB CATEGORIES

• The Himalayan monal (Lophophorus impejanus), also known as the Impeyan monal and Impeyan pheasant, is a pheasant native to Himalayan forests and shrublands at elevations of 2,100–4,500 m (6,900–14,800 ft). It is part of the family Phasianidae and is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. It is the national bird of Nepal, where it is known as the danphe or danfe, and state bird of Uttarakhand, India, where it is known as the monal. It was also the state bird of Himachal Pradesh until 2007
• Sclater's monal, Lophophorus sclateri, also known as the crestless monal, is a large, approximately 68 centimetres (27 in) long, pheasant of the east Himalayan region. As other monals, the male is a colorful bird. It has a highly iridescent purplish-green upperparts plumage, short and curly metallic green crown feathers, copper neck, purplish-black throat, white back, blue orbital skin, yellowish-orange bill and brown iris. In the nominate subspecies, the tail is white with a broad chestnut band, while the tail is entirely white in L. s. arunachalensis from western Arunachal Pradesh in India. The crestless female is mostly a dark brown bird with a white throat and tail-tip, dull bluish orbital skin and a pale yellow bill.
• The Chinese monal or Chinese impeyan (Lophophorus lhuysii) is a pheasant. This monal is restricted to mountains of central China. The plumage is highly iridescent. The male has a large drooping purple crest, a metallic green head, blue bare skin around the eyes, a reddish gold mantle, bluish green feathers and black underparts. The female is dark brown with white on its throat.

What is the news : Two species of monals were sighted together by local wildlife enthusiasts in upper Siang district of central Arunachal Pradesh.

Siang District

It is 21st district of Arunachal Pradesh . It derives the name from river Siang which flows through this district. Siang is believed to be originated from Angsi glacier on northern side of Himalayas. District is predominantly inhabited by Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh.

ADDU ATOLL

What is in news : The Maldives has made no decision on opening an Indian consulate in its southern Addu Atoll

Details

• Addu Atoll, also known as Seenu Atoll, is the southernmost atoll of the Maldives.
• Administratively, Addu Atoll is the location of Addu City, one of the two cities of the Maldives. Addu City consists of the inhabited areas of Addu Atoll, namely the natural islands of Hulhudhoo, Meedhoo, Maradhoo, Feydhoo, and Hithadhoo.
• Addu Atoll, together with Fuvahmulah, extend the Maldives into the Southern Hemisphere.

What is the news : Union government announced hike in MSP for Paddy, Pulses, Oilseeds

Details

• What is MSP - Minimum Support Price is the rate at which the government purchases crops from farmers, and is based on a calculation of at least one-and-a-half times the cost of production incurred by the farmers. 
• Who calculates MSP - The Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP) recommends MSPs for 22 mandated crops and fair and remunerative price (FRP) for sugarcane
• Factors considered for estimation of MSP - paid-out costs directly incurred by the farmer, imputed value of unpaid family labour, rentals and interest forgone on owned land and fixed capital assets

What is in news : The Union government  extended the subsidy benefits under the amended New Investment Policy 2012 to Ramagundam Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd (RFCL), located in Telangana.

NEW INVESTMENT POLICY FOR UREA 2012

• The Government had announced New Investment Policy (NIP) – 2012 on 2nd January, 2013 and its amendment on 7th October, 2014 to facilitate fresh investment in the urea sector and to make India self-sufficient in the urea sector
• The commercial production of CFCL-III started on 1st January, 2019.

• Dr Ananda Giri Shankar, a public health doctor hailing from Bengaluru and working in the United Kingdom, has been awarded an honorary Membership of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE).

• Educationist and former vice-chancellor of Mangalore University Prof M I Savadatti (89) breathed his last.
• Bengali filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta has died in Kolkata of age-related complications. The celebrated director had won National Film Award for Best Feature Film five times in his career
• With an aim to extend banking services to its member milk producers, diary giant Amul  launched its micro ATM services.It has been developed with joint efforts by GCMMF, fin tech firm Digivridhi with banking partner Federal Bank. As part of the arrangement, the Federal Bank would deliver cash to the Anandpar village cooperative society on 9, 19 and 29 of every month and secretary of the village cooperative would function as its banking correspondent while Digivridhi will act as bridge between the bank and the village cooperative society.
• El Salvador has become the first country to formally adopt bitcoin as legal tender
• The 31stedition of India-Thailand Coordinated Patrol (Indo-Thai CORPAT) between the Indian Navyand the Royal Thai Navy was recently conducted . Indian Naval Ship (INS) Saryu, an indigenously built Naval Offshore Patrol Vessel and His Majesty’s Thailand Ship (HTMS) Krabi, anOffshore Patrol Vessel, along with Dornier Maritime Patrol Aircraft from both navies are participating in the CORPAT.
• US Senate recently passed "SWEEPING PACKAGE OF LEGISLATION” in a bid to boost USA’s ability to compete with Chinese technology.
• Russia is building its first naval ship which will be fully equipped with stealth technology. Stealth technology will to make it hard to detect. It is named as Hull of the Mercury naval corvette
• Mohali-based Walnut Medical has developed a 5L and 10L portable medical grade oxygen concentrators based on Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology in India with an oxygen purity of above 96% at a pressure of 55-75 kpa.
• NITI Aayog and Piramal Foundation launched ‘Surakshit Hum Surakshit Tum Abhiyaan’ to provide home-care support to asymptomatic covid-19 patients or patients with mild symptoms.
• On the line of Bharat Ratna and Padma Awards, Assam cabinet has decided to institute Asom Ratna Award.

• Pressure Swing Adsorption : PSA is a non-cryogenic air separation (near ambient temperature separation processes) process that is commonly used in commercial practice.
• Stealth Technology : This sub-discipline of military tactics is also called as low observable technology. It covers a range of methods used to make personnel, ships, aircraft, missiles, submarines, satellites, ground vehicles, infrared, sonar etc. Modern stealth technologies were started being developed in 1958 in United State