Tatva Current Affairs

Viswanathan Anand wins World Chess title 2017             Chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand (48) won World Rapid Chess Championship Title 2017 held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In the final tie-breaker mini-match, Anand defeated Russia’s Vladimir Fedoseev by 2-0 score to reclaim title he had won in 2003.             Earlier he defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway and went on to finish on top with 10.5 Points at the end of 15th and final round. But, he had tied with Vladimir Fedoseev and Ian Nepomniachtchi, both of Russia, who also had scored same number of points, a tie-breaker was required to decide the winner.           The women’s title was won by China’s Ju Wenjun. Indai’s Dronavalli Harika was the best-placed Indian finishing 19th followed by Padmini Rout placed at  22nd place, S Vijayalakshmi at 34th position and Eesha Karavde at 35th. Viswanathan Anand            He was born on 11 December 1969 in Chennai. He became India’s first grandmaster in 1988. He is

Government launches Livestock Disease Forewarning–Mobile Application           The Union Ministry of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has launched Livestock Disease Forewarning –-  It was launched b During the launch, the Minister also informed that dreaded Rinderpest disease has been eradicat ed from India. Key Facts         LDF-Mobile App was developed by ICAR-National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics (ICAR-NIVEDI), Bengaluru.  This app will be beneficial for consumers and stakeholders engaged in disease control programmes.            The app will provide early diseases warning and also information about clinical samples for diagnosis in case of epidemic so that immediate action  case of epidemic. This app works on all kind of android smartphones and takes up 2.5 MB space.        ICAR-NIVEDI had identified 13 priority diseases based on their past incidence patterns and built strong database of these diseases on app. The app  conside

25th National Children Science Congress held in Gujarat              The 25th edition of National Children Science Congress (NCSC-2017) was held Gandhinagar, Gujarat from 27 to 31 December, 2017. It was inaugurated by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Ahmedabad.               The theme of the five-day Congress this was ‘Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development’ with the special focus on persons with disabilities. Key Facts             The NCSC is ideal and innovative programme for children to inspire, empower and expand their minds to world. It is a flagship programme of department of Science & Technology, Union Ministry of Science and Technology, Union Ministry of Science and Technology. This year 50 children and teachers from Asian nations had participated in the event. Apart from science  exhibition, the event also witnessed various activities such as presentations by child scientists, hands-on demonstrations, poster session and  cultural programmes.

China successfully launches remote sensing satellites of Yaogan-30 project                         China has successfully launched remote sensing satellites to conduct electromagnetic environmental probes. They are part of third batch of the Yaogan- 30 project. The number of launched satellites was not disclosed.                        They launched on board of Long March-2C carrier rocket from Xichang Satellite launch centre in the southwest Sichuan province. It was the 260th  mission of the Long March rocket family. Yaogan-30 project          Yaogan-30 is Remote Sensing Satellite programme of China. The electro-optical digital imaging satellites  developed under it by China Academy of Space  Technology (CAST). China claims that these satellites as intended for “scientific experiments,  land survey, crop yield assessment, and disaster monitoring. Western security experts suspect that they are also used for military purposes. Remote sensing: It generally refers to use of

2017 Sahitya Akademi Award winners             India’s national academy of letters Sahitya Academy has announced names of 24 poets and authors who will be conferred the prestigious 2016 Sahitya  Akademi Award in 24 different Indian languages.           The award has recognised premier works in 24 Indian languages that includes seven novels, five poetries, five short stories, five literary criticism,  and one play and one essay            The awards will be conferred during ceremony to be held on 12 February 2018. The award is given for books published between January 2011 and December  2015. It will include casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs 1 lakh. Awardees are Essay: Jagdish Lachhani (Sindhi).  Play: Rajen Toijamba (Manipuri).  English: Mamang Dai for his novel The Black Hill.  Hindi: Ramesh Kuntal Megh for his literary criticism work Vishw Mithak Sarit Sagar. Sanskrit: Niranjan Mishra for his novel Gangaputravadanam.  Malayalam

DARPAN Project launched to improve financial inclusion of Rural Population          The Union Ministry of Communications has launched DARPAN (The Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for A New India) to improve quality of service, add value to services and achieve financial inclusion of un-banked rural population.           DARPAN is Information Technology (IT) modernization project aimed at realising financial inclusion of un-banked rural population. It offers core  banking services to the account holders. DARPAN Project           The project intends to provide low power technology solution to each branch postmaster (BPM). This will enable each of approximately 1.29 lakhs branch  post offices (BOs) to improve service delivery.            It aims to increase rural reach of Department of Posts (DoP) and enable BOs to increase traffic of all financial remittances, savings accounts, Rural Postal Life Insurance and Cash Certificates. It also aims to improve mail operations pr

Lok Sabha passes Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property (Amendment) Bill, 2017           The Lok Sabha has passed Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property (Amendment) Bill, 2017 to make it easier for government to  acquire immovable property for “national security and defense purpose”.            The Bill amends the Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property Act, 1952 and changes rules for payment of compensation.  Key Features of Bill             The bill seeks to amend a provision to allow Center to re-issue the notice of acquisition in order to ensure that the property’s owner gets an  to be heard. Through it, government intends to pay fair and just compensation to land owner. In cases where notice has been re-issued, property owner will be entitled to interest on compensation payable to them. The re-issue of notice will not  apply to cases where compensation has already been awarded and accepted by the  claimants. The bill will have r

Indian Railways plans to make all stations 100% LED lit by March 2018         The Union Ministry of Railways in an eco-friendly measure to reduce power consumption, has planned to make all stations 100% LED lit by March 2018.       Under this initiative, the national transporter will provide 100% LED lighting for energy needs in railway staff colonies, stations and platforms. Key Facts            This is huge initiative to provide energy efficient lighting will help in conservation of environment as well. It will help to reduce  consumption by about 10% of total energy being utilized for its non-traction uses. It will conserve about 240 million units of electricity and will  save Indian Railways about Rs.180 crore annually.  Background           Till November 2017, about 3,500 railway stations have already been provided with 100% LED lights. About 20 lakh such lights were installed.  The national transporter also aims at providing these lights on all coaches and EMUs (Elec

Kepler-90i: Eighth planet in Kepler-90 solar system discovered                            The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has discovered eighth planet circling Kepler-90, a Sun-like star which is 2545 light-years  far from Earth. It was dubbed as Kepler-90i.                The eight planet was discovered by Researchers Christopher Shallue and Andrew Vanderburg by applying  Google’s machine-learning technology to data collected by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope.   Machine learning               It is an approach towards artificial intelligence (AI). In this case of planetary exploration, machine-learning approach was based on networks of  neurons that populate human brain. The computers have learned to identify planets by finding instances of light readings recorded in Kepler data where  telescope recorded signals from exoplanets, planets beyond our solar system.The light readings were tiny changes in brightness captured when a  planet passes in fron

Union Cabinet approves North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme                                               The Union Cabinet approved new Central Sector Scheme of North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme” (NESIDS) from 2017-18. It will be 100%  funded by Central Government to fill up gaps in creation of infrastructure in specified sectors in  North east till March, 2020. Features of NESIDS                 The scheme will broadly cover creation of infrastructure under following sectors (i) Physical infrastructure relating  to water supply, power, connectivity and specially the projects promoting tourism. (ii) Infrastructure of social sectors of education and health. Benefits of NESIDS              The assets to be created under NESIDS will not only strengthen education and health care facilities in northeast region but will also encourage  tourism thereby employment opportunities for local youth. The scheme will act as catalyst in overall develop

NITI Aayog launches ATL Community Day The National Institute of Transforming India (NITI) Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission launched the Atal Tinkering Lab’s Community Day in New Delhi.                   The day marks Community Drive Initiative in which 25 young Mentors engaged with more than 200 students who are not enrolled in formal education system. These mentors will visit four locations in New Delhi to conduct brief sessions with children from various NGOs, on how innovations can help resolve  problems in the communities. Atal Tinkering Lab Community Drive Initiative  The initiative is aimed at maximizing impact of Atal Tinkering Labs by extending innovation to children in community who do not have access to formal educational institutions. Its purpose is to provide these children with same  educational tools as the students in Atal Tinkering Labs to enable them to become problem solvers. The NGOs participating in it include organizations  working with disabled children, st

Rajasthan becomes first state to offer  e-mail IDs in Hindi Rajasthan has become the first state in India to launch free email addresses in Hindi for its residents. The facility will be  available at name@rajasthan.bharat (in Devanagari script). The initiative aims to ensure maximum participation of people towards e-governance and  ensure that maximum government facilities are available in vernacular language. Key Facts  The project is being implemented by state IT department with partnership in form of in-sourcing with private IT companies. This initiative is small  part of ‘Rajasthan DigiKit’ which has  seen enrollment of more than one crore people from the state.  The first e-mail ID from this initiative was created by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje with id casundhara@rajasthan.bharat (in Devnagari). All  government personnel in state will soon have an email id in Hindi too. The Hindi email ID will be offered to all the Internet users.