In order to facilitate the identification of civil drones and drone operators, a one-time opportunity for voluntary disclosure of such drones and drone operators is now being provided by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA). The persons in possession of drones are required to submit the information to the government, starting from 14th January 2020 by visiting the Digital Sky portal at https://digitalsky.dgca.gov.in.
Drones and Drones operators have to obtain Unique Identification Number (UIN), Unmanned Aircraft Operator Permit (UAOP) and other operational requirements as per the guidelines issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) which regulates the use of drones in the Indian Airspace.
It was brought to the notice of the Government of India that such drones and drone operators are not complying with the CAR mentioned abovThe conditions of No Permission-No Takeoff (NPNT) as envisaged in the aforesaid CAR are not mandatory for this purpose whereas if drones are operated without due permission, the aforesaid process of CAR is violated. The deadline to submit the required information to the Government is 31st January 2020.
On successful submission of voluntary disclosure of possessing drone, a Drone Acknowledgement Number (DAN) and an Ownership Acknowledgement Number (OAN) will be issued online which will assist in validation of operations of drones in India. However, the DAN or OAN does not confer any right to operate a drone(s) in India, if it does not fulfill the provisions given in the CAR. Further, ownership of drone(s) in India without a valid DAN or OAN shall invite penal action as per applicable laws.
Since 2017, Armed Forces Veterans Day is observed each year on 14th January as a mark of respect and recognition of the services rendered by Filed Marshal KM Cariappa OBE - the first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Armed Forces who retired on 14 Jan 53. Commemoration of Armed Forces Veterans Day acknowledges and honours the selfless devotion and sacrifice of our veterans in the service of the nation.
This year, the 4th Armed Forces Veterans Day at Delhi will commence with a homage ceremony at the National War Memorial, where wreaths will be laid by CISC, serving three star officers as well as veteran officers and JCOs from all three services.
The Bill was passed by Parliament in November 2019.
Impact: This will benefit a large number of transgender persons, mitigate the stigma, discrimination and abuse against this marginalized section and bring them into the mainstream of society. This will lead to inclusiveness and will make the transgender persons productive members of the society.
New definition: According to the new definition, a transgender person is somebody “whose gender does not match the gender assigned to that person at birth and includes trans-men or trans-women, persons with intersex variations, gender-queers, and persons having socio-cultural identities such as kinnar, hijras, aravani, and jogta”.
Highlights of the Bill: The Act aims to stop discrimination against a transgender person in various sectors such as education, employment, and healthcare. It also directs the central and state governments to provide welfare schemes for them.
It states that a person will be recognised as transgender on the basis of a certificate of identity issued through the district screening committee. This certificate will be a proof of identity as transgender and confer rights under this Bill.
Going by the Act, a person would have the right to choose to be identified as a man, woman or transgender, irrespective of sex reassignment surgery and hormonal therapy.
It also requires transgender persons to go through a district magistrate and “district screening committee” to get certified as a transperson. Composition: The committee would comprise a medical officer, a psychologist or psychiatrist, a district welfare officer, a government official, and a transgender person.
Criticisms: The Act is silent on granting reservations to transgender persons. It has prescribed punishments for organised begging. However, the
Act doesn’t provide anything to better to condition in those areas, it doesn’t provide for reservation.
It also does not mention any punishments for rape or sexual assault of transgender persons as according to Sections 375 and 376 of the Indian Penal Code, rape is only when a man forcefully enters a woman.
National Youth Day is celebrated on this day. Celebrated since 1984. The main objective is to promote rational thinking among the youth, believed to be the future of the country.
About Swami Vivekananda: He was a true luminary, credited with enlightening the western world about Hinduism.
He was an ardent disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa and a major force in the revival of Hinduism in India. He pushed for national integration in colonial India, and his famous speech remains as the one that he gave in Chicago in 1893.
Early life- contributions: Born in Kolkata on January 12, 1863 in Kolkata, Swami Vivekananda was known as Narendra Nath Datta in his pre-monastic life. He is known to have introduced the Hindu philosophies of Yoga and Vedanta to the West.
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had called Vivekananda the “maker of modern India.” In 1893, he took the name ‘Vivekananda’ after Maharaja Ajit Singh of the Khetri State requested him to do so, changing from ‘Sachidananda’ that he used before.
He formed the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897 “to set in motion a machinery which will bring noblest ideas to the doorstep of even the poorest and the meanest.”
In 1899, he established the Belur Math, which became his permanent abode. He preached ‘neo-Vedanta’, an interpretation of Hinduism through a Western lens, and believed in combining spirituality with material progress.
Books written by him: ‘Raja Yoga’, ‘Jnana Yoga’, ‘Karma Yoga’ are some of the books he wrote.
About H9N2: H9N2 is a subtype of the influenza A virus, which causes human influenza as well as bird flu. The H9N2 subtype was isolated for the first time in Wisconsin, US in 1966 from turkey flocks.
H9N2 viruses are found worldwide in wild birds and are endemic in poultry in many areas.
Threats and concerns: H9N2 viruses could potentially play a major role in the emergence of the next influenza pandemic.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), with avian influenza viruses circulating in poultry, there is a risk for sporadic infection and small clusters of human cases due to exposure to infected poultry or contaminated environments. Therefore, sporadic human cases are not unexpected.
The team includes an Indian American- Raja Chari.
About Artemis: NASA wants to send the first woman and the next man to the Moon by the year 2024, which it plans on doing through the Artemis lunar exploration program. ARTEMIS stands for Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of Moon’s Interaction with the Sun.
The mission was named Artemis after the Greek mythological goddess of the Moon and twin sister to Apollo, namesake of the program that sent 12 American astronauts to the Moon between 1969 and 1972.
Objective: The main objective is to measure what happens when the Sun’s radiation hits our rocky moon, where there is no magnetic field to protect it.
The mission: For the Artemis program, NASA’s new rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS) will send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft a quarter of a million miles away from Earth to the lunar orbit.
Once astronauts dock Orion at the Gateway — which is a small spaceship in orbit around the moon — the astronauts will be able to live and work around the Moon, and from the spaceship, astronauts will take expeditions to the surface of the Moon.
Lunar missions- key facts: Before the US sent the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon, it sent three classes of robotic missions between 1961 and 1968. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission.
After July 1969, 12 American astronauts walked on the surface of the Moon until 1972. In 1959, the Soviet Union’s uncrewed Luna 1 and 2 became the first rover to visit the Moon. Since then, seven nations have followed suit. In the 1990s, the US resumed lunar exploration with robotic missions Clementine and Lunar Prospector.
In 2009, it began a new series of robotic lunar missions with the launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS).
In 2011, NASA began the ARTEMIS (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s Interaction with the Sun) mission using a pair of repurposed spacecraft and in 2012 the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft studied the Moon’s gravity.
Apart from the US, the European Space Agency, Japan, China, and India have sent missions to explore the Moon. China landed two rovers on the surface, which includes the first-ever landing on the Moon’s far side in 2019.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently announced India’s third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3, which will comprise a lander and a rover.
The villas are constructed in the Vembanad backwaters — a Ramsar site. The wetland is of international importance and protected by the Ramsar Convention.
What are CRZ norms? In India, the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Rules govern human and industrial activity close to the coastline, in order to protect the fragile ecosystems near the sea. They restrict certain kinds of activities — like large constructions, setting up of new industries, storage or disposal of hazardous material, mining, reclamation and bunding — within a certain distance from the coastline.
Background: After the passing of the Environment Protection Act in 1986, CRZ Rules were first framed in 1991. After these were found to be restrictive, the Centre notified new Rules in 2011, which also included exemptions for the construction of the Navi Mumbai airport and for projects of the Department of Atomic Energy.
In 2018, fresh Rules were issued, which aimed to remove certain restrictions on building, streamlined the clearance process, and aimed to encourage tourism in coastal areas.
What is the regulation zone? In all Rules, the regulation zone has been defined as the area up to 500 m from the high-tide line.
What are the restrictions? The restrictions depend on criteria such as the population of the area, the ecological sensitivity, the distance from the shore, and whether the area had been designated as a natural park or wildlife zone.
The latest Rules have a no-development zone of 20 m for all islands close to the mainland coast, and for all backwater islands in the mainland.
For the so-called CRZ-III (Rural) areas, two separate categories have been stipulated. In the densely populated rural areas (CRZ-IIIA) with a population density of 2,161 per sq km as per the 2011 Census, the no-development zone is 50 m from the high-tide level, as against the 200 m stipulated earlier. CRZ-IIIB category (rural areas with population density below 2,161 per sq km) areas continue to have a no-development zone extending up to 200 m from the high-tide line.
Implementation: While the CRZ Rules are made by the Union environment ministry, implementation is to be ensured by state governments through their Coastal Zone Management Authorities.
Centre has renamed the Kolkata Port Trust after Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee.
Key facts: In the early 16th century, the Portuguese first used the present location of the port to anchor their ships, since they found the upper reaches of the Hooghly river, beyond Kolkata, unsafe for navigation.
After the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833, this port was used to ship lakhs of Indians as ‘indentured labourers’ to far-flung territories throughout the Empire.
The Kolkata port is the only riverine port in the country, situated 203 km from the sea. The river Hooghly, on which it is located, has many sharp bends, and is considered a difficult navigational channel.
The Farakka Barrage, built in 1975, reduced some of the port’s woes as Ganga waters were diverted into the Bhagirathi-Hooghly system.
The Centre unveils Mission Purvodaya to develop eastern region into an integrated steel hub.
The eastern belt has the potential to add over 75 percent of the country’s incremental steel capacity envisioned by the National Steel Policy.
Through this programme, the government aims to transform logistics and utilities infrastructure which would change the socio-economic landscape in the eastern India.
The steps, under mission, also include growth of steel industry along with employment opportunities across the entire value chain.