6th October, 2021 Current Affairs

Sakshi Education

Nobel-prize-physics — October 6th Current Affairs - Nobel Prize Physics

NATIONAL

Textiles Ministry approves continuation of Comprehensive Handicrafts Cluster Development Scheme

Ministry of Textiles has approved continuation of Comprehensive Handicrafts Cluster Development Scheme with a total outlay of 160 crore rupees.
The scheme will continue up to March 2026. Infrastructural support, market access, design and technology up-gradation support etc will be provided to handicrafts artisans under this scheme.
Comprehensive Handicrafts Cluster Development Scheme aims to create world-class infrastructure that caters to the business needs of the local artisans and small and medium-sized enterprises to boost production and export.
The main objective of setting up these clusters is to assist the artisans and entrepreneurs to set up world-class units with modern infrastructure, latest technology, and adequate training and human resource development inputs, coupled with market linkages and production diversification.
Under Comprehensive Handicrafts Cluster Development Scheme, soft interventions like Baseline Survey and Activity Mapping, Skill Training, Improved Tool Kits, Marketing events, Seminars, Publicity, Design workshops, Capacity Building, etc will be provided.

Electronic Pension Payment Order gets integrated with Digi Locker

Department of Ex-servicemen welfare under Ministry of Defence has integrated the Electronic Pension Payment Order EPPO generated by Principal Controller of Defence Accounts PCDA Pension, Allahabad with Digi Locker in order to enhance Ease of Living of Defence Pensioners.
This will enable all Defence Pensioners to obtain instantly the latest copy of the Pension Payment Order from Digi Locker.
This initiative will create a permanent record of Pension Payment Order in Digi Locker and at the same time eliminate delays in reaching the Pension Payment Order to new pensioners as well as the necessity of handing over a physical copy.
Accordingly, Principal Controller of Defence Accounts PCDA Pension, Allahabad has been registered as a Service Provider for providing Electronic Pension Payment Orders of over 23 lakhs Defence Pensioners through Digi Locker platform, enabling the Defence Pensioners to access their Electronic Pension Payment Order from anywhere in the world.

Guduchi safe to use but similar looking plants like Tinosporacrispa may be harmful: Ministry of AYUSH

Ministry of AYUSH has said that Guduchi is safe to use but some similar looking plants like Tinosporacrispa may be harmful.
Guduchi is a popularly known herb, familiar as Giloy and is being used in therapeutics since long in AYUSH system.
Ministry of Ayush has recently noticed safety concerns on use of Guduchi that were published in social media and in some scientific journals.
It said that there are good number of studies published in peer reviewed indexed Journals to substantiate safety and efficacy of Guduch.
Its hepato-protective properties are also well established.
Guduchi is known for its immense therapeutic applications and the practices are regulated in accordance with various applicable provisions.

INTERNATIONAL

5th edition of India - Japan Maritime Bilateral Exercise begins in Arabian Sea

The fifth edition of India - Japan Maritime Bilateral Exercise JIMEX between the Indian Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force begins in Arabian Sea.
JIMEX series of exercises commenced in January 2012 with special focus on maritime security cooperation.
The last edition of JIMEX was conducted in September 2020.
Indigenously built Guided Missile Stealth Destroyer Kochi and Guided Missile Frigate Teg, under the command of Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet Rear Admiral Ajay Kochhar will represent the Indian Navy in the three day exercise.
The Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force will be represented by JMSDF ships Kaga, an Izumo Class Helicopter Carrier and Murasame, a Guided Missile Destroyer, led by Commander Escort Flotila - 3 Rear Admiral IkeuchiIzuru.
In addition to ships, P8I Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft, Dornier Maritime Patrol Aircraft, integral helicopters and MiG 29K fighter aircraft will also participate in the exercise.
JIMEX-21 aims to develop common understanding of operational procedures and enhance inter-operability through conduct of a multitude of advanced exercises, across the entire spectrum of maritime operations.

Russian film crew in orbit to make first movie in space

A Russian actor and a film director rocketed to space on a mission to make the world’s first movie in orbit, a project the Kremlin said will help the nation’s space glory.
Actor YuliaPeresild and director KlimShipenko blasted off for the International Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft together with cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, a veteran of three space missions. Their Soyuz MS-19 lifted off yesterday from the Russian space launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan and arrived at the station after about 3½ hours. The trio reported they were feeling fine and spacecraft systems were functioning normally.
Peresild and Klimenko are to film segments of a new movie titled “Challenge,” in which a surgeon played by Peresild rushes to the space station to save a crew member who needs an urgent operation in orbit.
After 12 days on the space outpost, they are set to return to Earth with another Russian cosmonaut. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the mission will help showcase Russia’s space prowess.
Before Russia took the lead in feature filmmaking in space, NASA had talked to actor Tom Cruise about making a movie in orbit.

ECONOMY

RBI grants licence to NARCL

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) granted the licence to the Rs 6,000 crore National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL).
This move will help in starting operations of the bad bank.
NARCL was incorporated in Mumbai in July 2021 after registration with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).
IBA has been entrusted with the task to set up the bad bank.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Budget 2021-22 had noted that, high level of provisioning of the stressed assets by public sector banks calls to initiate measures to clean up bank books. In that light, she announced to set up as “Asset Reconstruction Company Limited” and “Asset Management Company” to consolidate and take over existing stressed debt. Both was to set up for managing and disposing assets to alternative investment funds
Cabinet had cleared a proposal to provide government guarantee of worth Rs 30,600 crore for security receipts issued by NARCL. NARCL will pay 15% of the agreed value for bad loans in cash while the remaining 85% will be government-guaranteed security receipts. 51% of the value will be owned by PSBs while remaining by private sector lenders.
Recently, SBI, Indian Bank and Union Bank of India picked up 13.27% stake each in the NARCL. Punjab National Bank also acquired about 12% stake.
NARCL is a proposed bad bank to take over stressed assets of lenders. Government had planned to create a bad bank to house bad loans of Rs 500 crore and above. It also comprises of an asset reconstruction company (ARC) and an asset management company (AMC) for managing and recovering assets. It was created in collaboration with public and private sector banks.

S&T

NASA’s Psyche Mission

American Space Agency, NASA, is set to send its “Psyche Mission” to visit a giant asteroid called Psyche, which could be the frozen remains of molten core of a bygone world.
Psyche asteroid orbits around the Sun in main asteroid belt, in between Mars and Jupiter.
According to data gathered through Earth-based radar and optical telescopes, Psyche is made largely of metal.
Psyche could be part or all, of the iron-rich interior of any earlier planetary building block which got stripped of its outer rocky shell because of repeated collision with other large bodies during the initiation phases of formation of the solar system.
The asteroid is about 280 kilometres at its widest point.
NASA will send its Psyche Mission in August 2022 launch. This spacecraft will orbit around the asteroid for two years. In two years, it will take pictures, map the surface, and look for evidence of an ancient magnetic field. Aircraft will also study the neutrons and gamma rays coming from the asteroid’s surface in order to determine its elemental composition.
This is the first mission to explore an asteroid with a surface comprising of substantial amounts of metal rather than rock or ice. It seeks to understand iron cores, which is an unexplored building block of formation of planet. It also provides first opportunity to examine the interiors of a rocky planet.

AWARDS

Nobel Prize for physics awarded to scientists from Japan, Germany, Italy

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded with one half jointly to SyukuroManabe of Princeton University USA and Klaus Hasselmann from Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany “for the physical modelling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming” and the other half to Giorgio Parisi from Sapienza University of Rome, Italy “for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales”.
Three Laureates share this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics for their studies of chaotic and apparently random phenomena. Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann laid the foundation of our knowledge of the Earth’s climate and how humanity influences it. Giorgio Parisi is rewarded for his revolutionary contributions to the theory of disordered materials and random processes.
Complex systems are characterised by randomness and disorder and are difficult to understand. This year’s Prize recognises new methods for describing them and predicting their long-term behaviour.
Around 1980, Giorgio Parisi discovered hidden patterns in disordered complex materials. His discoveries make it possible to understand and describe many different and apparently entirely random materials and phenomena, not only in physics but also in other very different areas, such as mathematics, biology, neuroscience and machine learning.