CURRENT AFFAIRS 10 JAN 2021
1. CHERRY BLOSSOM MAO FESTIVAL
In Manipur, the Cherry Blossom Mao Festival was held at Senapati district marking the beginning of pink season in the district.
About:
- The Mao area of Senapati district in Manipur is known for Cherry Blossom, a plant which is popularly known as Sakura in Japan.
- The Manipur government started organizing the festival every year from 2017 onward.
- The festival features the picturesque landscape of Mao town adorned with beautiful Cherry Blossom flowers.
Important Info :
- A cherry blossom is a flower of many trees of genus Prunus.
- Prunus cerasoides, called wild Himalayan cherry, Indian wild cherry, and sour cherry, is known in Hindi as padam, pajja, or padmakashtha.
Source : All India Radio
2. NATIONAL YOUTH PARLIAMENT FESTIVAL – 2021
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the National Youth Parliament Festival - 2021 on January 12, 2021.
About:
- The Festival is organised on 12th January on the occasion of the National Youth Day in order to encourage the youth in the age group of 18-25 years to engage with public issues and understand the common man’s point of view.
- The First National Youth Parliament Festival was organized in January-February, 2019.
Important Info :
- National Youth Day is celebrated on 12 January being the birthday of Swami Vivekananda.
- In 1984 the Government of India declared this day as National Youth Day and since 1985 the event is celebrated in India every year.
Source : All India Radio
3. GOLDEN QUADRILATERAL
Indian Railway has started the New Year by achieving a landmark achievement by drastically enhancing the maximum speed to 130 kmph for 1,280 km length out of 1,612 Km in Golden Quadrilateral - Golden Diagonal (GQ-GD) route.
About:
- This covers the entire GQ-GD route over South Central Railway, except Vijayawada - Duvvada section, where signalling up-gradation work is in progress.
- The enhanced speed limits could be achieved due to the systematic and planned strengthening of track & its infrastructure by removing bottlenecks in these sections on a fast pace.
- This included heavier rails, laying of 260 meters Long welded rail panels, improvement of curves and gradients among others.
- Already, the maximum speed limits in the High-Density Network (HDN) between Secunderabad – Kazipet (132 Kms distance) had been enhanced to 130 kmph.
Source : LiveMint
4. SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE
A supermassive black hole, which is estimated to weigh up to 100 billion times the mass of the Sun, is seemingly missing, leaving astronomers perplexed.
About:
- Scientists have been looking for the black hole using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope, and have so far found no evidence that it is anywhere to be found.
- The black hole is supposed to be located in Abell 2261, an enormous galaxy cluster that is about 2.7 billion light-years away from our planet.
- At 2.7 billion light-years away, the Abell galaxy is at an overwhelmingly large distance away from us.
Important Info :
- Every large galaxy in the universe has a supermassive black hole at its centre, whose mass is millions or billions of times that of the Sun.
- The black hole at the centre of our galaxy– the Milky Way– is called Sagittarius A*, and is 26,000 light-years away from Earth.
Source : Indian Express
5. H-1B VISAS
The US administration has once again amended the H-1B visa norms by changing the rules to give priority to higher wages and skills for selection of deserving candidates. The old lottery system of work visa selection will not be followed now.