Current Affairs 15-07-2020

PRAGYATA Guidelines on Digital Education:

What is in news?

Union Human Resource Development Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank'  released PRAGYATA Guidelines on Digital Education through online medium.

About:

• The guidelines stress upon the use of alternative academic calendar of NCERT, for both, learners having access to digital devices and learners having limited or no access.

• The PRAGYATA guidelines include eight steps of online/ digital learning that is, Plan- Review- Arrange- Guide- Yak(talk)- Assign- Track- Appreciate. These steps guide the planning and implementation of digital education step by step with examples.

The guidelines outlines suggestions for administrators, school heads, teachers, parents and students on the following areas:

• Need assessment

• Concerns while planning online and digital education like duration, screen time, inclusiveness, balanced online and offline activities etc level wise

• Modalities of intervention including resource curation, level wise delivery etc.

• Physical, mental health and wellbeing during digital education

• Cyber safety and ethical practices including precautions and measures for maintaining cyber safety

• Collaboration and convergence with various initiatives

• The Guidelines also emphasize the need to unify all efforts related to digital/ online/on-air education, benefitting school going children across the country. The initiative includes DIKSHA, SWAYAM Prabha, SWAYAM MOOCS, Radio Vahini, Shiksha Vaani, Special content for children with special needs and ITPAL

World Skill day :

What is in news?

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will deliver a video address on the occasion of World Youth Skills Day 15 July .

The day marks the 5th anniversary of the launch of Skill India Mission. A Digital Conclave is being organized by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship .

About:

• Skill India is an initiative of the Government of India which has been launched to empower the youth of the country with skill sets which make them more employable and more productive in their work environment.

• Skill India offers courses across several sectors which are aligned to the standards recognised by both, the industry and the government under the National Skill Qualification Framework.

• The courses help a person focus on practical delivery of work and help him enhance his technical expertise so that he is ready for day one of his job and companies don’t have to invest into training him for his job profile.

Supercapacitor

What is in news?

Scientists at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), have developed a simple, low-cost, environmentally friendly, and sustainable supercapacitor electrode derived from industrial waste cotton which can be used as an energy harvester storage device.

About :

• Supercapacitor is a next-generation energy storage device that has received extensive research attention owing to advantages such as high power density, long durability, and ultrafast charging characteristic as compared to conventional capacitors and lithium-ion batteries (LIB)

• The research team’s new, sustainable and green supercapacitor device shows great potential for practical application, and perhaps most importantly, the integrated solar cell with seawater-based supercapacitor as low cost, eco-friendly, efficient and self-powering device.

 The successful demonstration of the device revealed that solar-powered supercapacitors can not only store the electrical energy but also overcome the drawbacks of the intermittent nature of the solar irradiation.

• Hence, the integrated solar cell with supercapacitor can be used as an energy harvester storage device due to their long cycle life and maintenance-free power supply.

What is capacitor?

• A capacitor is a two-terminal electrical device that possesses the ability to store energy in the form of an electric charge. It consists of two electrical conductors that are separated by a distance.  The space between the conductors may simply be a vacuum or is filled with an insulating material known as a dielectric. The ability of the capacitor to store charges is known as capacitance.

• C = Q /V

• Capacitance is the ratio of the change in the electric charge of a system, to the corresponding change in its electric potential.

what is supercapacitor?

• A supercapacitor (SC), also called an ultracapacitor, is a high-capacity capacitor with a capacitance value much higher than other capacitors, but with lower voltage limits, that bridges the gap between electrolytic capacitors and rechargeable batteries.

There are many applications that use capacitors as energy sources and a few of them are as follows:

• Audio equipment

• Camera Flashes

• Power supplies

• Magnetic coils

• Lasers

Airborne transmission of covid-19

What is in news?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has formally acknowledged the possibility that the novel coronavirus can remain in the air in crowded indoor spaces, where “short-range aerosol transmission cannot be ruled out”.

What are aerosols?

• Aerosol is a term used to broadly refer to particles suspended in the air; they could include fine dust, mist, or smoke.

• In the context of transmission of viruses, as in this case, aerosols are read as micro droplets, much smaller (5 microns or lesser) than respiratory droplets, and take a longer time to drop to the floor.

• They will be expelled by people breathing, laughing or singing, as against respiratory droplets that are expelled with forceful acts such as sneezing or coughing.

What is Airborne transmission?

• Airborne transmission is defined as the spread of an infectious agent caused by the dissemination of droplet nuclei (aerosols) that remain infectious when suspended in air over long distances and time.

• It is different from droplet transmission as it refers to the presence of microbes within droplet nuclei, which are generally considered to be particles <5μm in diameter, can remain in the air for long periods of time and be transmitted to others over distances greater than 1 m.

Kaziranga National Park:

What is in news?

Wildlife officials and rescue workers at the flooded Kaziranga National Park (KNP)had to provide a “safe passage” for three tigers in less than two days, guiding them to the relative safety of the hills beyond a highway along the southern edge of the park.

About :

• About 95% of the park has been flooded this year, with 173 of the 223 antipoaching camps inundated.

• So far, 51 animals have been killed and 102 rescued during two waves of flood .

• A majority of the animals either drowned or were hit by vehicles while crossing the highway. The rescued animals include a rhino and a tiger.

Kaziranga National Park

• It is located in the State of Assam and covers 42,996 ha. It is the single largest undisturbed and representative area in the Brahmaputra Valley floodplain.

• It was declared as a National Park in 1974.

• It has been declared a tiger reserve since 2007. It has a total tiger reserve area of 1,030 sq km with a core area of 430 sq. km.

• It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

• It is recognized as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International.

• It is the home of the world's most one-horned rhinos.

• Much of the focus of conservation efforts in Kaziranga are focused on the 'big four' species— rhino, elephant, Royal Bengal tiger and Asiatic water buffalo.

• The 2018 census had yielded 2,413 rhinos and approximately 1,100 elephants.

• As per the figures of tiger census conducted in 2014, Kaziranga had an estimated 103 tigers, the third highest population in India after Jim Corbett National Park (215) in Uttarakhand and Bandipur National Park (120) in Karnataka.

• Kaziranga is also home to 9 of the 14 species of primates found in the Indian subcontinent.

• The National Highway 37 passes through the park area.

• The park also has more than 250 seasonal water bodies, besides the Diphlu River running through it.

SpikeLR (long range) AntiTank Guided Missiles

What is in news?

The Army is set to place a repeat order for SpikeLR (long range) AntiTank Guided Missiles from Israel as part of emergency procurement.

What is SpikeLR?

• Spike LR is a fourth-generation missile that has the capability of engaging with any target with precision up to a range of 4 km. The newly-acquired technology is expected to boost the Indian Army’s firepower capability.

Key Features

• The advanced Spike LR missile does not only have the capability to fire and forget but also the ability to fire, observe and update.

• The missile would help provide substantial flexibility to the shooter to pinpoint the exact impact point.

• The missile also has the ability to switch to a different target mid-flight, if the shooter decides to do so. It also offers the shooter, the option to fire from either low or high trajectory.

• The Spike LR has an inbuilt seeker that gives the shooter the flexibility to use any of the two modes: Day (CCD) and Night (IIR). The dual seeker increases the missile's reliability.

• The missile was already assessed to be more than 90 percent reliable during a field evaluation by the Indian Army in 2011.

• This was the first practice firing of the missile by the soldiers from the Indian Army since induction and training and all missiles successfully engaged with the target despite the difficulty level.

Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019

What is in news?

After facing flak from the community, the Union government has done away with the requirement of a medical examination for trans persons applying for a certificate of identity in its latest draft rules framed under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.

Key Features

• Definition of a transgender person: The Bill defines a transgender person as one whose gender does not match the gender assigned at birth. It includes transmen and trans-women, persons with intersex variations, gender-queers, and persons with socio-cultural identities, such as kinnar and hijra.

• Certificate of Identity: A transgender person may make an application to the District Magistrate for a certificate of identity, indicating the gender as ‘transgender’.

• Prohibition against discrimination: The Bill prohibits discrimination against a transgender person, including denial of service or unfair treatment in relation to:

• Education, employment, healthcare.

• Access to or enjoyment of goods, facilities, opportunities available to the public.

• Right to movement, right to reside, rent, or otherwise occupy property.

• Opportunity to hold public or private office.

• Access to a government or private establishment in whose care or custody a transgender person is.

KAZI 106F

What is in news?

‘Kazi 106F’, described as the country’s only Golden Tiger, has emerged as the social media sensation right after its picture tweeted by an IFS officer went viral.

About:

• Kazi 106 F, the tigress, resides in world heritage Kaziranga National Park of Assam. It is also known as ‘Tabby tiger’ or ‘Strawberry tiger’.

• The skin of tigers is orange-yellow with black stripes and whitish abdominal region.

• The yellowish background is controlled by a set of ‘agouti genes’ and their alleles and the black colour stripes are controlled by ‘tabby genes’ and their alleles. Suppression of any of these genes may lead to colour variation in tiger.

• Agouti genes interacts with the pigment cells to produce yellow to red or brown to black expression. This interaction is responsible for making distinct light and dark bands in the hairs of animals such as the agouti here same is happening in our tigress - Kazi 106 F.