The four-tonne spacecraft will be launched into orbit by Esa’s rocket Ariane 5 from the European spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, on 20 October.
It will then make a 5.2bn mile (8.5bn km) journey over seven years to reach its destination by 2025.
About BepiColombo: BepiColombo is a joint mission between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), executed under ESA leadership.
The mission comprises two spacecraft: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). The MPO will study the surface and internal composition of the planet, and the MMO will study Mercury’s magnetosphere, that is, the region of space around the planet that is influenced by its magnetic field.
Need: The scientific interest in going to Mercury lies in the valuable information that such a mission can provide to enhance our understanding of the planet itself as well as the formation of our Solar System; information which cannot be obtained with observations made from Earth.
Challenges: Europe’s space scientists have identified the mission as one of the most challenging long-term planetary projects, because Mercury’s proximity to the Sun makes it difficult for a spacecraft to reach the planet and to survive in the harsh environment found there.
Significance: Mercury is a poorly explored planet. So far, only two spacecraft have visited the planet: NASA’s Mariner 10, which flew past three times in 1974–5 and returned the first close-up images of the planet, and NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, which performed three flybys (two in 2008 and one in 2009) before entering orbit around the planet in March 2011. The information obtained when BepiColombo arrives will throw light not only on the composition and history of Mercury, but also on the history and formation of the inner planets in general, including Earth.
Key facts: An AQI in the range of 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’. The Supreme Court has empowered the Environment Pollution Control Authority(EPCA) to take various measures to tackle pollution. Under the order, the EPCA has mandated enforcement of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in the city.
Graded Action plan: An emergency protocol under the Graded Response Action Plan which involve a series of measures on basis of the Air Quality Index are set to be implemented. When the mark is between moderate and poor category, the burning of garbage will be stopped and pollution control regulations will be enforced.
If the air quality drops to very poor category, additional measures will be taken including stopping of diesel gensets, enhancing parking fees and increasing frequency of metro and buses. For severe and very severe category air quality, additional measures would include frequent mechanised cleaning of roads and sprinkling of water, stopping entry of trucks, stopping construction activities and appointment of task force to take decisions like shutting of schools.
Background: Over the last several years, air quality in Delhi begins sliding from October-November as winds slow down and temperature drops. Pollutants like sand particles and smoke get trapped, turning the national capital virtually into a gas chamber.
The particulate matter in Delhi’s air went off charts last year, pushing up the level of pollutants to 10 times more than Chinese capital Beijing, known as the world’s most polluted city.
About Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA): EPCA was constituted with the objective of ‘protecting and improving’ the quality of the environment and ‘controlling environmental pollution’ in the National Capital Region. The EPCA also assists the apex court in various environment-related matters in the region.
EPCA is Supreme Court mandated body tasked with taking various measures to tackle air pollution in the National Capital Region. It was notified in 1998 by Environment Ministry under Environment Protection Act, 1986.
Composition: Besides the chairman, the EPCA has 14 members, some of whom are the environment secretary of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT), chairperson of the New Delhi Municipal Council, transport commissioner of the NCT, the commissioners of various municipal corporations of Delhi and professors at IIT Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Functions: To protect and improve quality of environment and prevent and control environmental pollution in National Capital Region. To enforce Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in NCR as per the pollution levels.
Why in News? The southeast flank of Mount Etna in Sicily is sliding towards the sea at a rate of several centimetres a year.
What’s causing this? It’s likely caused by gravity pulling on Etna’s lower underwater slopes, far from the summit.
Concerns: The kind of stress that this movement creates inside volcanoes can cause devastating landslides. This means Etna is more susceptible to catastrophic collapse than had previously been realised.
About Mt. Etna: Mount Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe and one of the world’s most frequently erupting volcanoes. It is also the volcano with the longest record of continuous eruption. Located near the east coast of the island of Sicily in Italy, Mount Etna is 10,900 feet (3,329 meters) tall with a base circumference of about 93 miles (150 kilometers).
The mountain’s largest feature is the Valle del Bove (Valley of the Ox), a large horseshoe-shaped caldera on the eastern slope. Etna sits on the active fault between the African plate and the Ionian microplate, which are both being subducted together beneath the Eurasian plate.
In June 2013, it was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Due to its history of recent activity and nearby population, Mount Etna has been designated a Decade Volcano by the United Nations.
Context: Indian American Professor Abhay Ashtekar has been conferred with prestigious Einstein Prize for numerous and seminal contributions to general relativity, including the theory of black holes, canonical quantum gravity, and quantum cosmology.
About Einstein Prize: The Einstein Prize is a biennial prize awarded by the American Physical Society. The recipients are chosen for their outstanding accomplishments in the field of gravitational physics.
The prize carries an award of $10,000. The prize is special because is it the highest honour bestowed by APS in the broad area of gravitational science.
The first Einstein prize was awarded jointly to Peter Bergmann and John Wheeler, who introduced general relativity to American universities by creating research groups.
A historic announcement by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 8th November 2016 - Demonetization of high denomination currency notes of Rs.500 and Rs.1000. Aims to curb the menace of black money, corruption, circulation of fake Indian currency notes, terrorist financing and money laundering.
In the longer term to make India’s GDP bigger, cleaner and real with greater formalization of economy.
Gave a major fillip to the digital transactions and unearthing of substantial amounts of black money.
50 lakh new bank accounts opened to enable cashless transaction of wages. 29.17% increase in number of new return filers added from FY 2015-16 to FY 2016-17 and 25.1% from FY 16-17 to FY17-18
25% increase in number of e-returns filed from FY 2016-17 to FY 2017-18. 81% increase from FY 2013-14 to FY 2017-18
Value of IMPS transactions increased almost 59% from August 2016 to August 2017.
2.26 Lakh shell companies were struck off, undisclosed income worth Rs. 29,213 crores was detected and admitted and revenues of the ULBs across the country increased.
Income Tax Department (ITD) launched Operation Clean Money (OCM) on 31st January 2017 to leverage technology for e-verification of cash deposits made during the demonetization period i.e. 9th November to 30th December 2016.
20,500 returns selected for scrutiny. About 3 lakh notices issued to non-filers having large cash deposit. 2.1 Crore returns filed out of 3 lakh notices.
Mera mobile, mera bank, mera batua: BHIM app (based on United Payments Interface (UPI), to promote cashless economy brings payments to people’s phones.
BHIM Phone Mein, Cash Jeb Mein Campaign to promote use of digital payments.
Over 2.64 crore BHIM App downloads (As on 31st March,2018) Transaction worth Rs. 4,972.69 crore (As on 18th April,2018) 89 Banks Live on BHIM
· Rolled out on the midnight of 30th June 2017 & came into effect from 1st July 2017.
· GST is administered by both Centre and States and has subsumed several state and central indirect taxes such as State VAT, Central Excise Duty, Purchase Tax and Entry Tax.
· 4 Tax Rates- 5%, 12%, 18%, 28% · Reduction in overall taxes on goods, estimated to be 25-30%
· National Anti-Profiteering Authority set up so that benefits of lower prices of goods and services are passed on to the consumers.
· Led to ease of doing business and increase in tax revenue collections.
Decrease in Inflation due to Reduction in Cascading effect of Taxes Overall Reduction in Prices Ease of Doing Business due to
Common National Market Benefits to Small Taxpayers India has moved up from 130 to 100th rank in the Ease of Doing Business ranking of the World Bank. Decrease in “Black” Transactions due to
Self-Regulating on line Tax System Non-Intrusive and transparent Tax System More informed consumer due to
Simplified Tax Regime Reduction in Multiplicity of Taxes Poorer States to gain due to
GST being a destination based Tax Consumer States to benefit the most Abolition of CST Make in India boost due to
Exports to be Zero Rated Protection of Domestic Industry – IGST