Revision and practice of the mock test have incomparable importance in the UPSC Prelims examination. Considering this year’s prelims being just a week ahead, it’s high time that all of the appearing aspirants should go through the important and most repetiting topics being asked in the exam.

Looking at the demand of the examination, we have started the “Mission Nikalo Prelims’ initiative for better coverage of the syllabus. We have cherrypicked the ‘60 most important topics‘ from where a maximum number of questions have been asked by UPSC in the past 10 years. We have accompanied the mock tests so that the practice angle should also get covered.

It’s the best time to give the final touch to your preparation and cover the topics which have left due to a dearth of time. The link to the initiative is given below:

Mission Nikalo Prelims (Click here)

All the best!

UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

Context: Violence Against Women (VAW)

• VAW is a growing concern throughout the region and within South Asia, which is home to one-fifth of the world population, violence, or the risk of violence, permeates every aspect of women’s lives from birth to death.
• It is estimated that one-third of South Asian women experience violence throughout their lives and VAW is institutionalised through family structures, wider social and economic frameworks, and cultural and religious traditions.
• This violence is insidious, it is a widely accepted method for controlling women, is largely overlooked by law enforcement agencies, and is ignored by those in power.
• The violence against women is more glaring as Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the condition of women in every walk of life.

Definition of Femicide

• The term femicide was originally defined as the killing of women but has been adapted over time to represent the act of killing women because of their gender.
• In this sense, femicide is understood to be motivated by misogyny and prejudice against women.
• For a case to be considered femicide there must be an implied intention to carry out the crime and a demonstrated connection between the crime and the gender of the victim.
• Throughout India, several forms of violence against women fit within the definition of femicide including domestic violence, honour killings, dowry deaths, sex-selective abortions, infanticide, domestic violence, and witch-hunting.

A case severed by the Pandemic

• A 53% rise is seen in crime against women in 2020 from cases rising from 1411 cases/month to 2165 cases/month after a lockdown was imposed.
• In India, the mortality rate for women from Covid is 3.3 per cent compared to 2.9 per cent for men.
• This paper will focus on domestic violence, dowry deaths, and sex-selective abortions.

[A] Domestic Violence

• Domestic violence is prevalent across India and is widely accepted as a legitimate part of family life by both women and men.
• The family institution is an extremely important aspect of Indian culture and is central to the country’s social and economic frameworks.
• However, for many women the family does not represent a safe and protective unit, rather it reinforces wider patterns of gender discrimination and legitimises violence as a method for controlling and subjugating women.
• The most recent National Family Health Survey found that in India 34% of women between the ages of 15-49 have experienced violence at some point since they turned 15 and that 37% of married women have experienced violence.

[B] Dowry Deaths

• Dowry is a cultural tradition in which the family of the bride gives cash and presents to the family of the groom.
• It was originally meant to support new couples beginning their married life.
• However, India’s prevailing patriarchy as well as rising economic demands have turned dowry into a commercial transaction that is underpinned by socio-economic standing and reinforces the financial dependency of women on their husbands.
• The dowry system also reinforces discrimination against women and dowry-related deaths continue to compromise women’s safety throughout India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh.
• According to NCRB reports, on average, every hour a woman succumbs to dowry deaths in India with the annual figure rising upwards to 7000.
• Violence against women often increases when a family requests a larger dowry after marriage or shows dissatisfaction with the dowry they have received.

[C] Sex-selective abortions

• The practice of sex-selected abortions throughout South Asia, particularly in India, highlights the extent of patriarchy and misogyny throughout the region.
• It is a particularly insidious form of violence because it prevents girl children from being born purely because they are girls.
• The practice of sex-selective abortions is growing throughout the region.
• About 6.8 million lesser female births will be recorded across India by 2030 because of the persistent usage of selective abortions, researchers estimate.
• The increasing availability of prenatal technologies means that families are able to determine the sex of the foetus and are choosing to abort female foetuses at an alarming rate.
• An estimated 10 million female foetuses have been aborted over the past two decades.

Responses to Femicide

• New laws and policies as well as growing support from law enforcement agencies and civil society groups are empowering women to seek assistance in the case of violence and abuse.
• Furthermore, efforts are being made to improve the implementation of legislation that is helping to increase the rate of conviction and reducing the prevalence of gender-related crimes.

[A] Legal Protection

• Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961:  It bans the request and payment of the dowry of any form as a precondition for marriage.
• Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCIPNDT) Act, 1994: It prohibits the use of prenatal technologies to determine the sex of a foetus and several states have launched vigilance cells to curb incidences of female foeticide.
• IPC and CrPC: There is no legislation directly addressing honour killings and currently, the crime is dealt with under the Indian Penal Code or the Criminal Procedure Code.

[B] Affirmative Actions

• Women’s organisations have also worked to educate women on their rights and provide support to those who have experienced violence.
• Many NGOs across the country provide counselling, legal support, and livelihood programmes for women so that they can become more empowered and financially independent.
• This is paralleled by government initiatives to promote women’s social and political empowerment.

[C] Political Empowerment

• The reservation of 33% of seats in India’s local government increased women’s political participation and has led to more gender friendly governance.
• The development of further affirmative legislation in the State of Goa, which allocates nearly half of the state’s representative council seats for women.
• However, in the year 2020, India ranked 142 among 193 countries in terms of the per centage of women in Parliament.
• A total of 78 women MPs were elected in 2019 i.e., 14.4%.
• The number of women voters had risen from 47% (2014) to about 48% (2019) while women MPs in the 16th Lok Sabha stand at 11.2% after more than 70 years of Independence.

Unaddressed Issues

• In spite of these efforts femicide persists throughout India.
• While legislation may protect victims of violence in theory in many cases the penalties outlined within the legislation are weak.
• Furthermore, the implementation of these laws remains limited and, in many cases, ineffective in preventing femicide or prosecuting the perpetrators of this violence.
• A lack of commitment to ending VAW at the political level is evident across India and is preventing substantive action at the legislative, policy, and programmatic level.
• A lack of funding and infrastructure to address violence remains one of the biggest impediments to the effective implementation of this legislation and little budgetary allocations are directed towards the reduction of violence against women and the realisation of women’s rights.

Approaches Required to Address Femicide

• Efforts must be made to encourage and support governments to develop effective and comprehensive approaches to femicide.
• Legislation is also essential for addressing structural gender discrimination as well as cultural and social legitimisation of violence against women.
• Tackling femicide is extremely difficult especially given that gender discrimination and violence against women are so embedded within India’s social, cultural, and economic structures.
• Responses to femicide must be comprehensive and involve the development and implementation of strong legislation, gender-sensitive law enforcement policies and protocols.
• There needs to be awareness-raising at the grassroots level, support for individuals and families experiencing violence, and the realisation of women’s social, economic, and political rights.

Increase in Support Services for Women

• There is inadequate support available for women who experience violence and in many cases their lack of resources means they are forced to endure ongoing violence.
• Support programmes can strengthen infrastructure by increasing shelter homes and improving medical facilities.
• This infrastructure ensures that women who wish to leave violent situations have safe alternative accommodation, medical services, and social-support services.
• Support services can also educate women on their rights and the legislation protecting them from violence and can assist them to make positive changes in their lives and to respond to violence.
• Awareness-building programmes around women’s rights are essential to addressing the underlying causes of domestic violence.
• Currently, only approximately 1% of women report incidences of abuse and many are not aware of their rights or legislation protecting them from violence and harassment.

Conclusion: Addressing Patriarchy

• Femicide cannot be fully addressed without tackling the widespread patriarchy and misogyny that permeates much of Indian society.
• It is vital that the overwhelming culture of patriarchy is taken into consideration when developing interventions so that outdated attitudes towards women are replaced with respect and gender sensitivity.

07th Oct 2021

 

UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

 

Major Tribes in India: Arranged State-wise

Andhra Pradesh:  Andh, Sadhu Andh, Bhagata, Bhil, Chenchus (Chenchawar), Gadabas, Gond, Goundu, Jatapus, Kammara, Kattunayakan, Kolawar, Kolam, Konda, Manna Dhora, Pardhan, Rona, Savaras, Dabba Yerukula, Nakkala, Dhulia, Thoti, Sugalis, Banjara, Kondareddis, Koya, Mukha Dhora, Valmiki , Yenadis, Sugalis, Lambadis.

Arunachal Pradesh: Apatanis, Abor, Dafla, Galong, Momba, Sherdukpen, Singpho, Nyishi, Mishmi, Idu, Taroan, Tagin, Adi, Monpa, Wancho

Assam: Chakma, Chutiya, Dimasa, Hajong, Garos, Khasis, Gangte, Karbi, Boro, Borokachari, Kachari, Sonwal, Miri, Rabha, Garo

Bihar: Asur, Baiga, Birhor, Birjia, Chero, Gond, Parhaiya, Santhals, Savar, Kharwar, Banjara, Oraon, Santal, Tharu

Chhattisgarh: Agariya, Bhaina, Bhattra, Biar, Khond, Mawasi, Nagasia, Gond, Binjhwar, Halba, Halbi, Kawar, Sawar,

Goa: Dhodia, Dubia, Naikda, Siddi,Varli, Gawda.

Gujarat: Barda, Bamcha, Bhil, Charan, Dhodia, Gamta, Paradhi, Patelia, Dhanka, Dubla, Talavia, Halpati, Kokna, Naikda, Patelia, Rathawa, Siddi.

Himachal Pradesh: Gaddis, Gujjars, Khas, Lamba, Lahaulas, Pangwala, Swangla, Beta, Beda Bhot, Bodh.

Jammu and Kashmir: Bakarwal, Balti, Beda, Gaddi, Garra, Mon, Purigpa, Sippi, Changpa, Gujjar.

Jharkhand:  Birhors, Bhumij, Gonds, Kharia, Mundas, Santhals, Savar, Bedia, Ho, Kharwar, Lohra, Mahli, Parhaiya, Santal, Kol, Banjara.

Karnataka: Adiyan, Barda, Gond, Bhil, Iruliga, Koraga, Patelia, Yerava, Hasalaru, Koli Dhor, Marati , Meda, Naikda, Soligaru.

Kerala: Adiyan, Arandan, Eravallan, Kurumbas, Malai arayan, Moplahs, Uralis, Irular, Kanikaran, Kattunayakan, Kurichchan, Muthuvan.

Madhya Pradesh: Baigas,  Bhils, Bharia, Birhors, Gonds, Katkari, kharia, Khond, Kol, Murias, Korku, Mawasi, Pardhan, Sahariya,

Maharashtra:  Bhaina, Bhunjia, Dhodia, Katkari, Khond, Rathawa, Warlis, Dhanka, Halba, Kathodi, Kokna, Koli Mahadev, Pardhi, Thakur,

Manipur: Naga, Kuki, Meitei, Aimol, Angami, Chiru, Maram, Monsang, Paite, Purum, Thadou, Anal, Mao, Tangkhul, Thadou, Poumai Naga.

Meghalaya: Chakma, Garos, Hajong, Jaintias Khasis, Lakher, Pawai, Raba, Mikir.

Mizoram: Chakma, Dimasa, Khasi, Kuki, Lakher, Pawi, Raba, Synteng, Lushai

Nagaland:  Angami, Garo, Kachari, Kuki, Mikir, Nagas, Sema, Ao, Chakhesang, Konyak, Lotha, Phom, Rengma, Sangtam.

Odisha:  Gadaba, Ghara, Kharia, Khond, Matya, Oraons, Rajuar, Santhals, Bathudi, Bathuri, Bhottada, Bhumij, Gond, Juang, Kisan, Kolha, Kora, Khayara, Koya, Munda, Paroja, Saora, Shabar, Lodha.

Rajasthan: Bhils, Damaria, Dhanka, Meenas(Minas), Patelia, Sahariya, Naikda, Nayaka, Kathodi.

Sikkim:  Bhutia, Khas, Lepchas, Limboo, Tamang

Tamil Nadu: Adiyan, Aranadan, Eravallan, Irular, Kadar, Kanikar, Kotas, Todas, Kurumans, Malayali,

Telangana: Chenchus.

Tripura: Bhil, Bhutia, Chaimal, Chakma, Halam, Khasia, Lushai, Mizel, Namte, Mag, Munda, Riang,

Uttarakhand: Bhotias, Buksa, Jannsari, Khas, Raji, Tharu.

Uttar Pradesh: Bhotia, Buksa, Jaunsari, Kol, Raji, Tharu, Gond, Kharwar, Saharya , Parahiya, Baiga, Agariya, Chero

West Bengal: Asur, Khond, Hajong, Ho, Parhaiya,  Rabha, Santhals, Savar, Bhumij, Bhutia, Chik Baraik, Kisan, Kora, Lodha, Kheria, Khariam, Mahali, Mal Pahariya, Oraon,

Andaman and Nicobar:  Oraons, Onges, Sentinelese, Shompens.

Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups

The government of India follows the following criteria for the identification of PVTGs. 

• Pre-agricultural level of technology
• Low level of literacy
• Economic backwardness
• A declining or stagnant population.

Accordingly, 75 PTVGs have been identified in the country. 

State / UT Name	PVTGs Name
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana	1. Bodo Gadaba 2. Bondo Poroja 3. Chenchu 4. Dongria Khond 5. Gutob Gadaba 6. Khond Poroja 7. Kolam 8. Kondareddis 9. Konda Savaras 10. Kutia Khond 11. Parengi Poroja l2. Thoti
Bihar and Jharkhand	13. Asurs 14. Birhor 15. Birjia 16. Hill Kharia 17. Konvas 18. Mal Paharia 19. Parhaiyas 20. Sauda Paharia 21. Savar
Jharkhand	Same as above
Gujarat	22. Kathodi 23. Kohvalia 24. Padhar 25. Siddi 26. Kolgha
Karnataka	27. Jenu Kuruba 28. Koraga
Kerala	29. Cholanaikayan (a section of Kattunaickans) 30. Kadar 31. Kattunayakan 32. Kurumbas 33. Koraga
Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh	34. Abujh Macias 35. Baigas 36. Bharias 37. Hill Korbas 38. Kamars 39. Saharias 40. Birhor
Chhattisgarh	Same as above
Maharashtra	41. Katkaria (Kathodia) 42. Kolam 43. Maria Gond
Manipur	44. Marram Nagas
Odisha	45. Birhor 46. Bondo 47. Didayi 48. Dongria-Khond 49. Juangs 50. Kharias 51. Kutia Kondh 52. Lanjia Sauras 53. Lodhas 54. Mankidias 55. Paudi Bhuyans 56. Soura 57. Chuktia Bhunjia
Rajasthan	58. Seharias
Tamil Nadu	59. Kattu Nayakans 60. Kotas 61. Kurumbas 62. Irulas 63. Paniyans 64. Todas
Tripura	65. Reangs
Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand	66. Buxas 67. Rajis
West Bengal	68. Birhor 69. Lodhas 70. Totos
Andaman & Nicobar Islands	71. Great Andamanese 72. Jarawas 73. Onges 74. Sentinelese 75. Shorn Pens

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Revision and practice of the mock test have incomparable importance in the UPSC Prelims examination. Considering this year’s prelims being just a week ahead, it’s high time that all of the appearing aspirants should go through the important and most repetiting topics being asked in the exam.

Looking at the demand of the examination, we have started the “Mission Nikalo Prelims’ initiative for better coverage of the syllabus. We have cherrypicked the ‘60 most important topics‘ from where a maximum number of questions have been asked by UPSC in the past 10 years. We have accompanied the mock tests so that the practice angle should also get covered.

It’s the best time to give the final touch to your preparation and cover the topics which have left due to a dearth of time. The link to the initiative is given below:

Mission Nikalo Prelims (Click here)

All the best!

Revision and practice of the mock test have incomparable importance in the UPSC Prelims examination. Considering this year’s prelims being just a week ahead, it’s high time that all of the appearing aspirants should go through the important and most repetiting topics being asked in the exam.

Looking at the demand of the examination, we have started the “Mission Nikalo Prelims’ initiative for better coverage of the syllabus. We have cherrypicked the ‘60 most important topics‘ from where a maximum number of questions have been asked by UPSC in the past 10 years. We have accompanied the mock tests so that the practice angle should also get covered.

It’s the best time to give the final touch to your preparation and cover the topics which have left due to a dearth of time. The link to the initiative is given below:

Mission Nikalo Prelims (Click here)

All the best!

UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

Context

• For the second month in a row, output from India’s eight core sectors has shown acceleration.
• It rose by 11.6%, in August, compared to a 6.9% contraction a year ago.
• Although crude oil and fertiliser output has declined, 4 out of 8 core sectors registered strong double-digit growth according to the Index of Eight Core Industries released by DPIIT.

Growth in Core Industries

• The ICI measures the combined and individual production in 8 core industries that include Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement and Electricity.
• These 8 Core Industries make up 40.27 per cent weight of the items included in the IIP or the Index of Industrial Production.
• The August output of ICI was 3.9% higher than pre-COVID levels, compared to July that recorded a 1.1% uptick above 2019 levels.
• Cement production jumped 36% compared to a 14.5% contraction in August 2020, while coal and natural gas registered a 20.6% surge.

What are the Core Industries in India?

• The main or the key industries constitute the core sectors of an economy.
• In India, there are eight sectors that are considered the core sectors.
• They are electricity, steel, refinery products, crude oil, coal, cement, natural gas and fertilizers.

Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) vs Index of Industrial Production (IIP)

[A] Index of Eight Core Industries

• The monthly Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) is a production volume index.
• ICI measures collective and individual performance of production in selected eight core industries viz. Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement and Electricity.
• Prior to the 2004-05 series six core industries namely Coal, Cement, Finished Steel, Electricity, Crude petroleum and Refinery products constituted the index basket.
• Two more industries i.e. Fertilizer and Natural Gas were added to the index basket in 2004-05 series. The ICI series with base 2011-12 will continue to have eight core industries.

Components covered in these eight industries for the purpose of compilation of index are as follows:

• Coal – Coal Production excluding Coking coal.
• Crude Oil – Total Crude Oil Production.
• Natural Gas – Total Natural Gas Production.
• Refinery Products – Total Refinery Production (in terms of Crude Throughput).
• Fertilizer – Urea, Ammonium Sulphate (A/S), Calcium Ammonium Nitrate (CAN), Ammonium chloride (A/C), Diammonium Phosphate (DAP), Complex Grade Fertilizer and Single superphosphate (SSP).
• Steel – Production of Alloy and Non-Alloy Steel only.
• Cement – Production of Large Plants and Mini Plants.
• Electricity – Actual Electricity Generation of Thermal, Nuclear, Hydro, imports from Bhutan.

[B] Index of Industrial Production

• The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is an index for India which details out the growth of various sectors in an economy such as mineral mining, electricity and manufacturing.
• The all India IIP is a composite indicator that measures the short-term changes in the volume of production of a basket of industrial products during a given period with respect to that in a chosen base period.

Difference between the two

• IIP is compiled and published monthly by the National Statistics Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation six weeks after the reference month ends.
• However, ICI is compiled and released by Office of the Economic Adviser (OEA), Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), and Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
• The Eight Core Industries comprise nearly 40.27% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
• These are Electricity, steel, refinery products, crude oil, coal, cement, natural gas and fertilisers.

Importance of Core Industries

• The core sectors have a major impact on the Indian economy and significantly affect most other industries as well.
• Their measures help account the physical volume of production in India.
• Their analysis offers clearer and realistic assessment of what’s happening in the economy
• Their progress is used by government agencies for policy-making purposes.
• They remain extremely relevant for the calculation of the quarterly and advance Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimates.
• The core sector is also known as Infrastructure output as they represent the basic industries that form the base of the economy.

Revision and practice of the mock test have incomparable importance in the UPSC Prelims examination. Considering this year’s prelims being just a week ahead, it’s high time that all of the appearing aspirants should go through the important and most repetiting topics being asked in the exam.

Looking at the demand of the examination, we have started the “Mission Nikalo Prelims’ initiative for better coverage of the syllabus. We have cherrypicked the ‘60 most important topics‘ from where a maximum number of questions have been asked by UPSC in the past 10 years. We have accompanied the mock tests so that the practice angle should also get covered.

It’s the best time to give the final touch to your preparation and cover the topics which have left due to a dearth of time. The link to the initiative is given below:

Mission Nikalo Prelims (Click here)

All the best!

04th Oct 2021

 

UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

 

Nai Manzil Scheme

OBJECTIVES –

• To address the educational and livelihood needs of minority communities lagging behind in terms of educational attainments.
• It aims to provide educational intervention by giving the bridge courses to the trainees and getting them Certificates for Class XII and X from distance medium educational system.
• It seeks to provide trade basis skill training in four courses at the same time of formal education, in field of (i) Manufacturing (ii) Engineering (iii) Services (iv) Soft skills. It intends to cover people in between 17 to 35 age group from all minority communities as well as Madrasa students.
• Nodal Ministry –The Union Ministry of Minority Affairs

Nai Roshni

OBJECTIVES –

• Empower and install confidence in women of minority communities by equipping them with knowledge, tools and techniques to interact with government systems, banks and intermediaries
• Nodal Ministry –The Union Ministry of Minority Affairs

USTAAD Scheme

OBJECTIVES –

• The scheme aims at preserving and promoting the rich heritage of the traditional arts & crafts of the Minority communities. 2.In the light of globalisation & competitive market, these crafts have gradually lost their employability. 3.It also envisages at boosting the skill of craftsmen, weavers and artisans who are already engaged in the traditional ancestral work.
• Nodal Ministry –The Union Ministry of Minority Affairs

Hunar Haat

OBJECTIVES –

• It is aimed at promoting and supporting artisans from Minority communities and providing them domestic as well as international market for display and sell their products.
• The Hunar Haat exhibition has been organised by the National Minorities Development & Finance Corporation (NMDFC) under “USTTAD” scheme In it about 184 master artisans from across the country are showcasing their traditional art and skills at about 100 stalls at the international platform.
• It seeks to provide an excellent platform to artisans belonging to Minority communities from across nation to display their art and skills before domestic and international visitors.
• Nodal Ministry –The Union Ministry of Minority Affairs

Stanapan Suraksha Scheme

OBJECTIVES –

• To promote breastfeeding and keep a tab on “inappropriate” promotion of baby food items. Stanpan Suraksha is first-of-its-kind app deveopled for promoting breastfeeding and baby food promotion reporting mechanism.
• Using it any person can click a photograph of inappropriate baby food promotion around them and related equipment and send it to BPNI.
• The app also has a city-wise database of trained breastfeeding counsellor to educate and provide assistance to mothers during antenatal and postnatal period. It has sign up option for mothers who wish to become a breastfeeding counsellor, pledging for petition and donation.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Tribal Affairs

Eklavya Model Residential Schools

• Eklavya Model Residential School Scheme was started in 1998
• First school was started in the year 2000 in Maharashtra.
• EMRSs have been functioning as institutions of excellence for tribal students.
• In order to further educational opportunities for more ST children, Government has sought to extend the facility of EMRSs in all the 672 Blocks where ST population is more than 50% of the total population in a span of next five years.
• Funds for establishing the school are arranged by both Centre and State government together.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Tribal Affairs

Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme

OBJECTIVES –

• To decrease the dropout rate in the transition from elementary to the secondary stage. Given for Class 9th and 10th.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

Babu Jagjivan Ram Chhatrawas Yojana

OBJECTIVES –

• Educational empowerment of Scheduled castes.
• Central assistance is provided to the implementing agencies viz. State Governments/UT Administrations/ Central and State Universities/ Non-Governmental Organisations/Deemed Universities in the private sector, for construction of fresh hostels/expansion of existing hostel facilities for Scheduled Castes students.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

National Overseas Scholarship Scheme.

OBJECTIVES –

• Financial support to SC and ST students pursuing Master’s level courses and PhD/Post-Doctoral courses abroad.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

Scheme for up-gradation of merit of SC students.

OBJECTIVES –

• Upgrade the merit of SC students by providing them remedial and special coaching in classes IX to XII.
• Income Ceiling: Rs. 3.00 Lakh per annum .
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS)

OBJECTIVES –

• To rehabilitate all the remaining manual scavengers and their dependents in alternative occupations.The main features of the Scheme include one-time cash assistance, training with stipend and concessional loans with subsidy for taking up alternative occupations.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

Sugmay Bharat Abhiyaan

OBJECTIVES –

• The target of this scheme is to make at least fifty government buildings disabled-friendly under the campaign in each of the state till the end of 2016 and make 25 per cent of the public transport vehicles under the government as disabled-friendly till mid-2017.
• A remarkable feature of the scheme is that a website will also be made where the people can put their views on the accessibility of any building.
• The international airports in the country and railway stations which come under A1, A and B categories will be made fully disabled-friendly.
• Special set-top boxes will be made available to make watching TV more convenient for the visually impaired. In the next 5 years, almost 200 persons will be trained to speak in sign languages on government TV channels. Government websites will also be made friendlier by using text to speech option.
• Under the scheme, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment will give free motorized tricycles to persons with 70-90% disability.
• A Sugamya Bharat mobile app which can provide information on disabled-friendly public facilities in a city, will be launched under the scheme.
• For awareness, a team of experts will conduct workshops for sensitizing the main parties including builders and activists.
• Nodal Ministry – Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

Disha

OBJECTIVES –

• Early Intervention and School Readiness Scheme.
• This is an early intervention and school readiness scheme for children upto 10 years with the disabilities covered under the National Trust Act.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

VIKAASDay Care

OBJECTIVES –

• A day care scheme for persons with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities, above 10 years for enhancing interpersonal and vocational skills.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

SAMARTH Respite Care

OBJECTIVES –

• A scheme to provide respite home for orphans, families in crisis, Persons with Disabilities (PwD) from BPL, LIG families with at least one of the four disabilities covered under the National Trust Act.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

GHARAUNDA

OBJECTIVES –

• Group Home for Adults.
• This scheme provides housing and care services throughout the life of the person with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

NIRMAYA Health Insurance Scheme.

OBJECTIVES –

• This scheme is to provide affordable Health Insurance to persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

SAHYOGI Caregiver training scheme

OBJECTIVES –

• A scheme to set up Caregiver Cells (CGCs) for training and creating skilled workforce of caregivers to care for Person with Disabilities (PwD) and their families.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

GYAN PRABHA Educational support

OBJECTIVES –

• Scheme to encourage people with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities for pursuing educational/ vocational courses.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment.

PRERNA Marketing Assistance.

OBJECTIVES –

• A marketing scheme to create viable & widespread channels for the sale of products and services produced by persons with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities
• Nodal Ministry – Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

Schemes and Policies for Women

SCHEME	OBJECTIVES	SALIENT                                   FEATURES	MINISTRY
Nirbhaya Fund		-Nirbhaya Fund is an Indian rupee 10 billion corpus announced by the Government of India in its 2013 Union Budget. -According to the then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, this fund is expected to support initiatives by the government and NGOs working towards protecting the dignity and ensuring the safety of women in India. -Nirbhaya (fearless) was the pseudonym given to the 2012 Delhi gang-rape victim to hide her actual identity.	Earlier Ministry of Home Ministry, Now Ministry of Women & Child
ICDS	-To prevent and reduce young child under-nutrition (% underweight children 0- 3 years) by 10 percentage points, -Enhance early development and learning outcomes in all children 0-6 years of age, -improve the care and nutrition of girls and women and reduce anaemia prevalence in young children, girls and women by one fifth by the end of the 12th five-year plan.	-It is a centrally sponsored scheme -The engagement of the Anganwadi worker and helper from the same village -It is a universal and self-selecting scheme i.e. anyone can visit the Aanganwadi centre and enrol these services. -Package of six services i.e. o SNP – supplementary nutrition programme o Pre-school education o Health and nutrition education, o Immunization, o Health check-up and o Referral services to the beneficiaries AEC-cum-crèche, AWC-cum counsellor.	Ministry of Women & Child
Mahila Police Volunteer		It envisages the creation of a link between the police authorities and the local communities in villages through police volunteers who will be women specially trained for this purpose. Under this scheme, it is expected to have at least one such volunteer in every village whose primary job will be to keep an eye on situations where women in the village are harassed or their rights and entitlements are denied or their development is prevented. Joint initiative b/w Min. of WCD and Home Min.	Ministry of Women & Child and Home Ministry
UJJAWALA Yojana		A comprehensive scheme for prevention of trafficking and rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration of victims of trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation	Ministry of Women & Child
One-Stop centre scheme	1. To provide integrated support and assistance to women affected by violence, both in private and public spaces under one roof. 2. To facilitate immediate, emergency and non-emergency access to a range of … support under one roof to fight against any forms of violence against women	1. These centres will provide immediate access to a range of services including medical, legal, psychological and counselling support to the victims. 2. The OSC will support all women including girls below 18 years of age affected by violence, also for girls below 18 years of age, institutions and authorities established under Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 will be linked with the OSC. 3. In addition to this, a single uniform number –181 will provide 24-hour emergency response to all women affected by violence, through referral (linking with appropriate authorities such as Police, OSC or hospital); funding thru’ Nirbhaya fund	Ministry of Women & Child
Swadhar Grehs		Homes for relief and rehabilitation of women in difficult circumstances including survivors of rape/assault etc. Provision for food clothing, counselling. training, clinical and legal aid; long term	Ministry of Women & Child
She-Box		Online complaint Management System for women working in both public and private organizations to ensure effective implementation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act	Ministry of Women & Child
Universalization of Women Helpline			Ministry of Women & Child
The mission for Protection and Empowerment for Women	: To achieve holistic empowerment of women through the convergence of schemes/programmes of different Ministries/ Department of Government of India as well as State Governments	-It aimed at improving the declining Child Sex Ratio; ensuring survival. & protection of the girl child; ensuring her education, and empowering her to fulfil her potentials social sector welfare schemes for care, protection and development of women. -It will provide an interface for rural women to approach the government for availing their entitlements and for empowering them through training and capacity building.	Ministry of Women & Child
Mahila Shakti Kendra		-Mahila Shakti Kendras will converge all Govt. Schemes for women at National, State, District and Block level Skill Development, Employment, Digital Literacy, Health and Nutrition. -Through this scheme, the government plans to reach 115 most backward districts in the country with 920 Mahila Shakti Kendra…	Ministry of Women & Child
PRIYADARSHINI SCHEME(discontinued in 2016)		Women’s Empowerment and Livelihoods Programme in the Mid Gangetic Plains	Ministry of Women & Child
Sabla	-Enable the adolescent girls for self-development and empowerment -Improve their nutrition and health status. -Promote awareness about health, hygiene, nutrition, adolescent reproductive and sexual health (ARSH) and family and child care. -To educate, skill and make them ready for life’s challenges	Nutrition provision – Iron and folic acid (IFA) supplementation – Health check-up and referral services – Nutrition & health education (NHE) -Counselling/guidance on family welfare, ARSH, child care practices and home management. -Upgrade home-based skills, life skills and integrate with the national skill development program (NSDP) for vocational skills. -Mainstream out of school adolescent girls into formal/non-formal education. -Provide information/guidance about existing public services such as PHC, CHC, post office, bank, police the station, etc.	Ministry of Women & Child
Saksham			Ministry of Women & Child
Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana	-Empower women in agriculture by making systematic investments to enhance their participation and productivity, -Create and sustain agriculture-based livelihoods of rural women.	-a sub-component of the Deendayal Antodaya Yojana-NRLM (DAY-NRLM) – Under the Pariyojana, projects are conceived in such a manner that the skill base of the women in agriculture is enhanced to enable them to pursue their livelihoods on a sustainable basis. -Under MKSP sustainable agriculture, 58 projects from 14 States have been sanctioned which will benefit 24.5 lakhs Mahila Kisans during the period.	Ministry of Rural Development
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao		1.Prevent Female infanticide 2.Ensure Every Girl Child is Protected 3.Ensure every Girl Child is educated Enforcement of PC & PNDT Act, nation-wide awareness and advocacy campaign and multi-sectoral action in select 100 districts (low on Child Sex Ratio) in the first phase. -Under this scheme, there is a strong emphasis on mindset change through training, sensitization, awareness-raising and community mobilization on ground.	It is a tri-ministerial effort of Ministries of Women and Child Development, Health & Family Welfare and Human Resource Development.
Sukanya samriddhi yojana		1.(Minor) bank account for girl child below the age of 10. 2.She can withdraw 50% of the money after reaching the age of 18 e.g. for higher education. 18 years deadline will also help to prevent child-marriages. For initial account opening, minimum deposit Rs.1000 required. Later, any amount in multiples of 100 can be deposited, but maximum Rs. 1.5 lakh per year. Interest rate: 9.1% compounded annually.	Ministry of Women & Child
Pocso-e Box		1, POCSO e-box is a unique endeavour by NCPCR for receiving an online complaint of Child Sexual Abuse directly from the victim. 2. Through a well-defined procedure, complaints are directly followed up by a team which counsels the victim, providing further guidance for required legal action. Through a short animation film embedded in the e-box, it assures the victim not to feel bad, helpless or confused as it’s not her fault. With the e-box, it is easy to register a complaint through a step-by-step guided process.	The Ministry of Women & Child It is an initiative of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), for Direct online Reporting of Child Sexual Abuse.
NARI		Due to scattered information on various women-centric schemes/legislations, there is a lack of awareness among people regarding the same. To address this problem the government launched NARI portal as a single window access to information and services	Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology
e-samvaad Portal		It is a platform for NGOs and civil society to interact with the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) by providing their feedback, suggestions, put up grievances, share best practices etc. • This will help in the formulation of effective policies and measures for the welfare of women and children.	Ministry of Women & Child
Stree Swabhiman		-It aims to create a sustainable model for providing adolescent girls and women access to affordable sanitary products in rural areas. -Under this project, sanitary napkin micro manufacturing units (semi-automatic and manual process production unit) are being set up at CSCs across India, particularly those operated by women entrepreneurs. -The product will be sold under the local brand name and marketed by village-level entrepreneurs. -Each facility will employ 8-10 women and educate women of their society to overcome this social taboo. -It also has a menstrual hygiene related awareness generation component and is also expected to reduce drop-out rates in girls on reaching puberty.	Ministry of Electronics and Information technology (MeITY)
PROGRAM TO TRAIN ELECTED WOMEN REPRESENTATIVES OF PANCHAYATI RAJ INSTITUTIONS		-The program aimed at capacity building of EWRs is being organized by the National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD) of the MoWCD. -It is the first-ever initiative which will train approximately twenty thousand EWRs covering nearly 50 EWRs from each district (by March 2018) who will go out and administer the villages professionally. – It will help in creating model villages, ensure their effective participation in the governance process and help preparing women as political leaders of the future.	Ministry of women and Child
Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP)		-To provide competencies and skill that enable women to become self-employed/entrepreneurs. -The scheme is intended to benefit women who are in the age group of 16 years and above across the country.	Ministry of women and Child
Rashtriya Mahila Kosh		-RMK is a national credit fund for women under the aegis of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. -It was established in 1993 for socio-economic empowerment of women. -It aims to provide financial services with backward and forward linkages for women in the unorganized sector through Intermediary Micro Finance Organizations (IMOs) and Women Self Help Groups (SHGs) and to augment their capacities through multi-pronged efforts. -RMK also extends micro-credit to the women in the informal sector through a client-friendly, without collateral and in a hassle-free manner for income generation activities	Ministry of women and child

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NASA’s ICESat-2 maps Antarctic ice sheet melting

ICESat-2 

• NASA’s ICESat-2 launched less than three months ago has mapped melting ice sheets in Antarctica and the resulting sea level rise across the globe, which could help improve climate forecasts.
• The ICESat-2 stands for Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 .
• It is measuring the height of sea ice to within an inch, tracing the terrain of previously unmapped Antarctic valleys, surveying remote ice sheets, and peering through forest canopies and shallow coastal waters.
• With each pass of the ICESat-2 satellite, the mission is adding to datasets tracking Earth’s rapidly changing ice.
• As ICESat-2 orbits over the Antarctic Ice Sheet, the photon returns reflect from the surface and show high ice plateaus, crevasses in the ice 20 metres deep, and the sharp edges of ice shelves dropping into the ocean.

Unified Geologic Map of the Moon

• The first-ever digital, unified, global, geological map of the moon was released virtually by the  United States Geological Survey (USGS), NASA and the Lunar Planetary Institute.
• The UGM will serve as a blueprint for future human missions and a source of research and analysis for the educators and the general public interested in lunar geology.
• The map is a ‘seamless, globally consistent, 1:5,000,000-scale geologic map’.
• The mapped surface features of the moon included crater rim crests, buried crater rim crests, fissures, grabens, scarps, mare wrinkle ridges, faults, troughs, rilles, and lineaments.

Its’ significance

• The moon’s South Pole is especially interesting because the area is much larger than the North Pole and there could be a possibility of the presence of water in these permanently shadowed areas.
• Further, the South Pole region also contains the fossil record of the early Solar System.
• These present and future moon missions’ success can be further helped by the digital map of the moon.
• The Chandrayaan 2, an active mission also targets the Lunar South Pole for exploration

GRACE-FO Mission

• The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission is a partnership between NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).
• GRACE-FO is a successor to the original GRACE mission, which orbited Earth from 2002-2017.
• It carries on the extremely successful work of its predecessor while testing a new technology designed to dramatically improve the already remarkable precision of its measurement system.

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs)

• FRBs are super intense, millisecond-long bursts of radio waves produced by unidentified sources in the space.
• Their discovery in 2007 by American astronomer Duncan Lorimer led to the term ‘Lorimer Bursts’.
• Since then, just a few dozen similar events have been observed in data collected by radio telescopes around the world, building evidence that points to a variety of potential causes.
• Only a handful of emissions have been traced to specific areas of the sky, indicating sources in other galaxies.
• The flash of radio waves is incredibly bright if distant, comparable to the power released by hundreds of millions of suns in just a few milliseconds.
• This intensity suggests powerful objects like black holes and neutron stars could be involved.
• The events were once considered to be largely transient – they seemed to happen once, without obvious signs of a repeat emission. However, a number of such bursts have been identified since then.

Why are they significant?

• First noticed in 2018 by the Canadian observatory the waves have created ripples across the globe for one reason — they arrive in a pattern.
• This gave birth to theories that they could be from an alien civilization.
• Initially, it was believed that the collision of black holes or neutron stars triggers them.
• But the discovery of repeating FRBs debunked the theory of colliding objects.

NASA’s new Mars rover: Perseverance

• The Perseverance rover weighs less than 2,300 pounds and is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.
• The rover’s mission will be to search for signs of past microbial life. It will also collect samples of Martian rocks and dust, according to the release.
• The rover will also be tasked with studying the red planet’s geology and climate.
• All of NASA’s previous Mars rovers — including the Sojourner (1997), Spirit and Opportunity (2004) and Curiosity (exploring Mars since 2012) — were named in this way.

2020 CD3

• The mini-moon was discovered by some astronomers at NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) in Arizona.
• It is actually an asteroid, about the size of a car; its diameter is about 1.9-3.5 m.
• And unlike our permanent Moon, the mini-moon is temporary; it will eventually break free of Earth’s orbit and go off on its own way.
• Orbit integrations indicate that this object is temporarily bound to the Earth.
• 2020 CD3 was captured into Earth’s orbit over three years ago.
• For CSS, it is only the second such discovery. It previously discovered 2006 RH120, which orbited Earth for some time that year, before it escaped in 2007.

NASA’s InSight Mission

• The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport mission is a robotic lander designed to study the deep interior of the planet Mars.
• It is the first mission dedicated to looking deep beneath the Martian surface.
• Among its science tools are a seismometer for detecting quakes, sensors for gauging wind and air pressure, a magnetometer, and a heat flow probe designed to take the planet’s temperature.
• The InSight mission is part of NASA’s Discovery Program.
• It is being supported by a number of European partners, which include France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA).

Habitable-zone Planet Finder

• NASA’s Kepler mission observed a dip in the host star’s light, suggesting that the planet was crossing in front of the star during its orbit.
• To confirm, researchers turned to an instrument called Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF). It has confirmed that there is indeed an exoplanet.
• HPF is an astronomical spectrograph, built by Penn State University scientists, and recently installed on the 10m Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory in Texas.
• The instrument is designed to detect and characterize planets in the habitable zone — the region around the star where a planet could sustain liquid water on its surface — around nearby low-mass stars.
• The newly confirmed planet, called G 9-40b, is the first one validated by HPF. It is about twice the size of Earth and orbits its star once every six Earth-days.

 Betelgeuse

• Using the European Space Organization’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have noticed the unprecedented dimming of Betelgeuse.
• It is a red supergiant star (over 20 times bigger than the Sun) in the constellation Orion.
• Along with the dimming, the star’s shape has been changing as well, as per recent photographs of the star taken using the VISIR instrument on the VLT.
• Instead of appearing round, the star now appears to be “squashed into an ova”.

NASA announced it has selected four Discovery Program investigations to develop concept studies for possible new missions.

What are the new missions?

• Two proposals are for trips to Venus, and one each is for Jupiter’s moon Io and Neptune’s moon Triton.
• After the concept studies are completed in nine months, some missions ultimately may not be chosen to move forward.

DAVINCI+

• DAVINCI+ stands for Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging Plus.
• This will analyse Venus’s atmosphere to understand how it was formed and evolved, and if it ever had an ocean.
• This will advance understanding of the formation of terrestrial planets.

IVO

• Io Volcano Observer is a proposal to explore Jupiter’s moon Io, which is extremely volcanically active.
• This will try to find out how tidal forces shape planetary bodies.
• The findings could further knowledge about the formation and evolution of rocky, terrestrial bodies and icy ocean worlds in the Solar System.

TRIDENT

This aims to explore Neptune’s icy moon, Triton, so that scientists can understand the development of habitable worlds in the Solar System.

VERITAS

Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy will aim to map Venus’s surface to find out why Venus developed so differently from Earth.

Pale Blue Dot

• The ‘Pale Blue Dot’ is one of the most iconic images in the history of astronomy.
• It shows Earth as a single bright blue pixel in empty space within a strand of sun rays, some of which are scattering from and enlightening the planet.
• The original image was taken by the Voyager 1 mission spacecraft on February 14, 1990 when it was just beyond Saturn.
• At the behest of astronomer Carl Sagan, the cameras were turned towards Earth one final time to capture the image.
• After this, the cameras and other instruments on the craft were turned off to ensure its longevity.

About Voyager 1

• Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977.
• Having operated for more than 42 years, the spacecraft still communicates with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and to transmit data to Earth.
• At a distance of 148.67 AU (22.2 billion km) from Earth as of January 19, 2020 it is the most distant man-made object from Earth.
• The probe’s objectives included flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, and Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.

The Family Portrait of the Solar System

• The Pale blue dot image was a part of a series of 60 images designed to produce what the mission called the ‘Family Portrait of the Solar System’.
• This sequence of camera-pointing commands returned images of six of the solar system’s planets, as well as the Sun.

Solar Orbiter (SolO) Probe

• The Solar Orbiter, a collaborative mission between the European Space Agency and NASA to study the Sun, took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
• Carrying four in situ instruments and six remote-sensing imagers, the Solar Orbiter (called SolO) will face the sun at approximately 42 million kilometres from its surface.
• Before SolO, all solar imaging instruments have been within the ecliptic plane, in which all planets orbit and which is aligned with the sun’s equator.
• The new spacecraft will use the gravity of Venus and Earth to swing itself out of the ecliptic plane, passing inside the orbit of Mercury, and will be able to get a bird’s eye view of the sun’s poles for the first time.

Spitzer Space Telescope

• The Spitzer Space Telescope is a space-borne observatory, one of the elements of NASA’s Great Observatories that include the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray.
• Using different infrared wavelengths, Spitzer was able to see and reveal features of the universe including objects that were too cold to emit visible light.
• Apart from enabling researchers to see distant cold objects, Spitzer could also see through large amounts of gas using infrared wavelengths to find objects that may otherwise have been invisible to human beings.
• These included exoplanets, brown dwarfs and cold matter found in the space between stars.
• Spitzer was originally built to last for a minimum of 2.5 years, but it lasted in the “cold” phase for over 5.5 years. On May 15, 2009 the coolant was finally depleted and the “warm mission” began.

Thirty Metre Telescope

• The TMT is a proposed astronomical observatory with an extremely large telescope (ELT) that has become the source of controversy over its planned location on Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii in the US state of Hawaii.
• It is being built by an international collaboration of government organisations and educational institutions, at a cost of $1.4 billion.
• “Thirty Metre” refers to the 30-metre diameter of the mirror, with 492 segments of glass pieced together, which makes it three times as wide as the world’s largest existing visible-light telescope.
• The larger the mirror, the more light a telescope can collect, which means, in turn, that it can “see” farther, fainter objects.
• It would be more than 200 times more sensitive than current telescopes and would be able to resolve objects 12 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope.

Artemis Mission

• 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.
• For the 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.
• The astronauts going for the Artemis program will wear newly designed spacesuits, called Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or xEMU.
• These spacesuits feature advanced mobility and communications and interchangeable parts that can be configured for spacewalks in microgravity or on a planetary surface.

Bhibha Constellation and Santamasa Planet

Bhibha

• The star has been named in honour of a pioneering Indian woman scientist Bibha Choudhury, who discovered subatomic particle, pi-meson.
• ‘Bhibha’ also means “a bright beam of light” in Bengali.
• It is located in the constellation of Sextans. It is as hot as the sun, with a surface temperature of about 6,000 degrees Kelvin. It is 1.55 times bigger, 1.21 times massive, and 1.75 times brighter.
• It is so far away that light from it takes 310.93 years to reach Earth and hence it is visible only with a telescope.

Santamasa

• The planet has been named S’antamasa’ to reflect the cloudy nature of its atmosphere. ‘Santamasa’ is the Sanskrit term for ‘clouded’.
• ‘Santamasa’, which is its only planet, is estimated to have a mass of 1.5 times that of Jupiter, going around the central star in a nearly circular orbit just in 2.1375 days.
• Revolving so near the host star, the planet is expected to be very hot.

Arrokoth

• The International Astronomical Union and Minor Planets Center, the global body for naming Kuiper Belt objects have given this name.
• It was discovered in 2014 with the Hubble Space Telescope, which is operated by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
• Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft flew by the snowman figured ice mass in December 2018, some 1.6 billion kilometres beyond Pluto.
• The New Horizons team of NASA proposed the name to the International Astronomical Union and Minor Planets Center.
• For the New Horizons team it took some months to finalise this name. In the language of the Powhatan tribe, Arrokoth means “sky”.
• The team got the approval from the elders of the Powhatan tribe to assign it to their newfound “baby”.

About New Horizons mission

• NASA launched the New Horizons mission in January 2006.
• After crossing by Pluto in 2015, in 2019 it flew by Arrokoth. This remains the “farthest flyby ever conducted.”

Maxwell

• The Maxwell is the latest in a line of experimental aircraft the NASA.
• It has been developed over many decades for many purposes, including the bullet-shaped Bell X-1 that first broke the sound barrier and the X-15 rocket plane flown by Neil Armstrong before he joined the Apollo moon team.
• The two largest of 14 electric motors that will ultimately propel the plane are powered by specially designed lithium ion batteries.
• The Maxwell will be the agency’s first crewed X-plane to be developed in two decades.
• The lift propellers will be activated for take-off and landings, but retract during the flight’s cruise phase.

Voyager 2

• Voyager 2 was launched in 1977, 16 days before Voyager 1, and both have travelled well beyond their original destinations.
• The spacecraft were built to last five years and conduct close-up studies of Jupiter and Saturn.
• As the spacecraft flew across the solar system, remote-control reprogramming was used to endow the Voyagers with greater capabilities than they possessed when they left Earth.
• It carries a working instrument that will provide first-of-its-kind observations of the nature of this gateway into interstellar space.
• It is slightly more than 18 billion kilometres from Earth. Its twin, Voyager 1, crossed this boundary in 2012.
• Their five-year lifespans have stretched to 41 years, making Voyager 2 NASA’s longest-running mission.

Ionospheric Connection Explorer

• NASA has launched a satellite to explore the mysterious, dynamic region where air meets space.
• The satellite — called ICON, short for Ionospheric Connection Explorer — rocketed into orbit following a two-year delay.
• The refrigerator-size ICON satellite will study the airglow formed from gases in the ionosphere and also measure the charged environment right around the spacecraft which is at a level of 580 kilometres above the Earth’s surface.
• The ionosphere is the charged part of the upper atmosphere extending several hundred miles (kilometres) up.
• It’s in constant flux as space weather bombards it from above and Earth weather from below, sometimes disrupting radio communications.

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

• The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite missions began on June 18, 2009.
• It is a robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon.
• It studies the Moon’s surface, clicks pictures, and collects data that help in figuring out the presence and possibility of water ice and other resources on the Moon, as well as plan future missions to it.
• The primary mission of the LRO, managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, located in Greenbelt, Maryland, was to measure the entire lunar surface to create a high-resolution 3-D map of the Moon.
• The map with ~50-centimeter resolution images would aid in the planning of future robotic and crewed missions.
• In addition, LRO would map the Polar Regions and search for the presence of water ice

K2-18b

• About 110 light years from Earth, an exoplanet eight times the mass of Earth orbits a star. Called K2-18b, it was discovered in 2015 by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft.
• The researchers used 2016-17 data from the Hubble Space Telescope and developed algorithms to analyse the starlight filtered through K2-18b’s atmosphere.
• The results revealed the molecular signature of water vapour, also indicating the presence of hydrogen and helium in the planet’s atmosphere.
• It resides in a habitable zone — the region around a star in which liquid water could potentially pool on the surface of a rocky planet.
• Scientists have found signatures of water vapour in the atmosphere of K2-18b. The discovery of water vapour is not the final word on the possibility of life.
• That makes it the only planet orbiting a star outside the Solar System that is known to have both water and temperatures that could support life.

Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA)

• It is an ambitious double-spacecraft mission to deflect an asteroid in space, to prove the technique as a viable method of planetary defence.
• The mission, which includes NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), is known as the Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA).
• The target is the smaller of two bodies in the “double Didymos asteroids” that are in orbit between Earth and Mars.
• Didymos is a near-Earth asteroid system. Its main body measures about 780 m across; the smaller body is a “moonlet” about 160 m in diameter.
• The project aims to deflect the orbit of the smaller body through an impact by one spacecraft.
• Then a second spacecraft will survey the crash site and gather the maximum possible data on the effect of this collision.

Parker Solar Probe

• It is part of NASA’s “Living with a Star” programme that explores different aspects of the Sun-Earth system.
• The probe seeks to gather information about the Sun’s atmosphere and NASA says that it “will revolutionise our understanding of the Sun”.
• It is also the closest a human-made object has ever gone to the Sun.
• During the spacecraft’s first two solar encounters, the instruments were turned on when Parker was about 0.25 AU from the Sun and powered off again at the same distance on the outbound side of the orbit.
• For this third solar encounter, the mission team turned on the instruments when the spacecraft was around 0.45 AU from the Sun on the inbound side of its orbit.
• It will turn them off when the spacecraft is about 0.5 AU from the Sun on the outbound side.

TOI 270

• It is the name of the dwarf star and the planetary system recently discovered by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
• TOI 270 is about 73 light years away from Earth, and is located in the constellation Pictor.
• Its members include the dwarf star, which is 40 per cent smaller than the Sun in size and mass, and the three planets or exoplanets (planets outside the solar system) that have been named TOI 270 b, TOI 270 c, and TOI 270 d.
• These three planets orbit the star every 3.4 days, 5.7 days, and 11.4 days respectively. In this system, TOI 270 b is the innermost planet.

About Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)

• TESS is NASA’s latest satellite to search for planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets.
• The mission will spend the next two years monitoring the nearest and brightest stars for periodic dips in their light.
• TESS is expected to transmit its first series of science data back to Earth in August, and thereafter periodically every 13.5 days, once per orbit, as the spacecraft makes it closest approach to Earth.
• These events, called transits, suggest that a planet may be passing in front of its star.
• TESS is expected to find thousands of planets using this method, some of which could potentially support life.

Tiangong-2

• Tiangong means “Heavenly Palace”. It was 10.4 metres long and 3.35 metres wide at its widest point, and weighed 8.6 metric tonnes.
• It was launched on September 15, 2016 and, in late 2016, hosted two Chinese astronauts for 30 days in what was China’s longest manned space mission so far.
• The recently decommissioned space lab followed the Tiangong-1, China’s first space station, which crashed into the southern Pacific Ocean on April 1, 2018 after Chinese scientists lost control of the spacecraft.
• China had launched Tiangong-1 in 2011 as proof-of-concept of technologies for future stations. The lab was visited by two teams of Chinese astronauts for 11 days and 13 days respectively.

About Hayabusa2

• Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft, which successfully made its second touchdown on asteroid Ryugu has become the first ever space probe to gather material from beneath the surface of an asteroid.
• Launched in December 2014, the probe is a follow-up of Hayabusa, which explored the asteroid Itokawa in 2005.
• Hayabusa was the first mission to return an asteroid sample to Earth.
• The asteroid mission first reached Ryugu — a kilometre-wide asteroid, with a relatively dark surface and almost zero gravity — in June 2018 and made its first touchdown on the surface in February 2019.
• A month later the spacecraft hit the surface of Ryugu with a pellet and created a 10-metre-wide crater.
• It also exposed the materials under the asteroid’s surface that were so far protected from the harsh effects of cosmic rays and charged particles of solar wind blasting through space.

About PUNCH Mission

• NASA has selected an US-based Indian researcher to lead its PUNCH mission which will image the Sun.
• PUNCH stands for “Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere,” is focused on understanding the transition of particles from the Sun’s outer corona to the solar wind that fills interplanetary space.
• It will consist of a constellation of four microsatellites that through continuous 3D deep-field imaging, will observe the corona and heliosphere as elements of a single, connected system.
• This is a landmark mission will image regions beyond the Sun’s outer corona.
• The Sun and the solar wind are one interconnected system, but these have until recently been studied using entirely different technologies and scientific approaches.

Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) Telescope

• The telescope will be launched into space on a Russian-built Proton-M rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in June 2019.
• The four-year mission will survey the entire sky eight times and track the evolution of the universe and dark energy, a mysterious repulsive force that is accelerating its expansion.
• Besides, it also aims to detect up to three million supermassive black holes — many of which are unknown — and X-rays from as many as 700,000 stars in the Milky Way.
• The telescope is the first to be sensitive to high-energy ‘hard’ X-rays and map the entire sky.
• The SRG will also find how dark matter — the main engine of galaxy formation — is spread in the universe.
• X-ray sky surveys have also been conducted by previous missions, but they were not able to map the entire sky, the report said.

MeerLICTH Optical Telescope

• Scientists in South Africa have launched the world’s first optical telescope linked to a radio telescope, combining “eyes and ears” to try to unravel the secrets of the universe.
• The latest move combines the new optical telescope MeerLITCH — Dutch for ‘more light’ — with the recently-completed 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope, located 200 kilometres away.
• This is the eye, with the MeerKAT being the ears as a radio telescope.
• The MeerLITCH uses a main mirror just 65 cm in diameter and a single 100 megapixel detector measuring 10 cm x 10 cm.
• Astronomers have previously had to wait for a cosmic incident to be picked up by a radio telescope and then carry out optic observations afterwards.
• The project has been six years in the making by a joint-team of South African, Dutch and British scientists.

Ultima Thule

• NASA has found evidence for a unique mixture of methanol, water ice, and organic molecules on Ultima Thule’s surface — the farthest world ever explored by mankind.
• Ultima Thule is a contact binary, with two distinctly differently shaped lobes.
• At about 36 kilometres long, it consists of a large, strangely flat lobe — nicknamed “Ultima” — connected to a smaller, somewhat rounder lobe — dubbed “Thule” — at a juncture.
• Officially named (486958) 2014 MU69, it earned the nickname Ultima Thule following a public contest in 2018.
• It is located in the Kuiper Belt, a disc in the outer Solar System (beyond Neptune) that consists of small bodies including Pluto.
• 2014 MU69 was discovered in June 2014 by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope but is so distant that many of its characteristics remain to be understood.

About the mission

• New Horizons, a space probe that was launched in 2006, became the first mission to visit Pluto in 2015.
• Travelling farther into the Kuiper Belt, the nuclear-powered space probe has come within 3,500 km of Ultima Thule.
• Images taken revealed that the object may have a shape similar to a bowling pin, or a “snowman”, or a peanut spinning end over end, or could be two objects orbiting each other.
• Flyby data showed that Ultima Thule is spinning like a propeller with the axis pointing approximately toward New Horizons.
• NASA released a composite of two images taken by New Horizons’ high-resolution Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager.

Chang’e-4

• In January, the Chinese spacecraft Chang’e-4 — named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology — became the first ever craft to touch down on the far side of the lunar surface.
• The team landed its probe in the Von Karmen Crater in the Aitken Basin at the Moon’s south pole — home to one of the largest impact craters known in the solar system.
• Scientists have said they could be a step closer to solving the riddle behind the Moon’s formation, unveiling the most detailed survey yet of the far side of Earth’s satellite.

Cassini Mission

• Launched in 1997, the Cassini mission is a cooperation between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.
• It has sent back thousands of stunning images and made numerous discoveries about the ringed planet and its moons.
• Cassini–Huygens is an unmanned spacecraft sent to the planet Saturn.
• Cassini is the fourth space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter orbit. Its design includes a Saturn orbiter and a lander for the moon Titan.
• The lander, called Huygens, landed on Titan in 2005.

China’s BeiDou navigation satellite, a rival to US GPS, starts global services

• China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), touted as a rival to the widely-used American GPS, has started providing global services.

BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS)

• Named after the Chinese term for the ‘Big Dipper’, the BeiDou system started serving China in 2000 and the Asia-Pacific region in 2012.
• It will be the fourth global satellite navigation system after the US GPS, Russia’s GLONASS and the European Union’s Galileo.
• The positioning accuracy of the system has reached 10 metres globally and five metres in the Asia-Pacific region.
• Its velocity accuracy is 0.2 metres per second, while its timing accuracy stands at 20 nanoseconds, he said.
• Pakistan has become the first country to use the BeiDou system ending its reliance on the Global Positioning System (GPS).

GRAPES-3 Experiment

• For the first time in the world, researchers at the GRAPES-3 muon telescope facility in Ooty have measured the electrical potential, size and height of a thundercloud that passed overhead on December 1, 2014.
• GRAPES-3 (Gamma Ray Astronomy PeV EnergieS phase-3) is designed to study cosmic rays with an array of air shower detectors and a large area muon detector.
• It aims to probe acceleration of cosmic rays in the following four astrophysical settings.
• It is located at Ooty in India and started as a collaboration of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India and the Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan.

Asteroid ‘99942 Apophis’

• On April 13, 2019, a near-Earth asteroid will cruise by Earth, about 31,000 km above the surface.
• The asteroid, called 99942 Apophis, is 340 m wide.
• At one point, it will travel more than the width of the full Moon within a minute and it will get as bright as the stars in the Little Dipper, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
• It is rare for an asteroid this size to pass by Earth so close.
• Although scientists have spotted small asteroids, on the order of 5-10 metres, flying by Earth at a similar distance, asteroids the size of Apophis are far fewer in number and so do not pass this close to Earth as often.
• Among potential lessons from Apophis, scientists are hoping they can use its flyby to learn about an asteroid’s interior.
• Apophis is one of about 2,000 currently known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids, and scientists also hope their observations might help gain important scientific knowledge that could one day be used for planetary defence.

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