Daily UPSC/IAS Prelims current affairs
Prelims Section : Environment
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Two more species added to India’s list of butterflies
- Lepidopterists in Arunachal Pradesh have added two species to India’s expanding list of butterflies. India now has 1,327 species, up from 1,318 in 2015.
- 1. Striped Hairstreak: was first recorded by Japanese entomologists in the Hainan province of China. It was located in Vijaynagar bordering Myanmar.
- 2. Elusive Prince: has a Vietnamese connection and was thought to be the more familiar Black Prince found in the Eastern Himalayas. It was located on the periphery of the NamdaphaNational Park.
- The recording of the two butterflies follows the rediscovery of the Assam Keelback,a non-venomous snake from the Gelling area of Arunachal Pradesh after 129 years.
Prelims Section : Environment
2.Globbaandersonii: Rediscovered Plant Species
Why in News
- A team of researchers have “rediscovered” a rare plant species called Globbaandersonii from the Sikkim Himalayas. The species has been found near the Teesta river valley region after a gap of nearly 136 years.
Features:
- The plant, known commonly as ‘dancing ladies’ or ‘swan flowers’ was thought to have been extinct until its “re-collection”, for the first timesince 1875. The species has been listed as “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Habitat:
- It is also termed as “narrowly endemic” as the species is restricted mainly to the TeestaRiver Valley region which includes the Sikkim Himalayas and Darjeeling hill ranges.
- The plant usually grows in a dense colony as a lithophyte(plant growing on a bare rock or stone) on rocky slopes in the outskirts of evergreen forests. It is especially prevalent near small waterfalls along the roadside leading to these hill forests, which are 400-800 m. above sea level.
Prelims Section : Environment
3.Tillari Conservation Reserve Notified
Why in News
- The Maharashtra Government has declared 53 sq km area of Dodamarg forest range in Sindhudurg district as ‘Tillari Conservation Reserve’.
About Tillari Conservation Reserve.
- Tillari is the seventh wildlife corridor in the state to be declared as a‘conservation reserve’. The area covering nine villages in the forest range is known to serve as a corridor and even as a habitat for the population of tigers and elephants moving between the three states of Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
- It connects Mhadeisanctuary in Goa and Bhimgad in Karnataka. It has semi-evergreen forest, tropical moist deciduous forests, and a number of unique trees, butterflies, and flowers.
Conservation Reserves in Maharashtra:
- Maharashtra has 62 conservation reserves, of which 13 are in the western ghats. Tillari is a reserve in western ghats.
Conservation Reserves in India:
- Conservation reserves and community reserves act as buffer zones to or connectorsand migration corridors between established national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserved and protected forests.
- Such areas are designated as conservation areas if they are uninhabited and completely owned by the Government of India but used for subsistence by communities and community areas if part of the lands areprivately owned.
- These protected area categories were first introduced in the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act of 2002 − the amendment to the WildlifeProtection Act of 1972.
Prelims Section : History & Culture
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IndiraGandhi National Centre for the Arts
Why in News
- The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) is planning to highlight the work of artists who have been entertaining and boosting the public’s morale during the Covid-19 pandemic (referred as silent Covid warriors).
About Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA)
- The IndiraGandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) was established in 1987 as an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Culture, as a centre for research, academic pursuit and dissemination in the field of the arts.
- The IGNCA has a trust (i.e. Board of Trustees), which meets regularly to give general direction about the Centre’s work. The Executive Committee, drawn from among the Trustees, functions under a Chairman. It is a research unit under Project Mausam. Project ‘Mausam’ is a Ministry of Culture project with Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), New Delhi as the nodal agency.
- The central themes that hold Project ‘Mausam’ together are those of cultural routes and maritime landscapes that not only linked different parts of the Indian Ocean littoral, but also connected the coastal centresto their hinterlands.
Prelims Section : Health
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National Doctor’s Day
Why in News
- National Doctor’s Day is celebrated on 1 July every year to recognise the invaluable work done by doctors and physicians and thank them for their dedicated service.
- The day also marks the birth and death anniversary of Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy who was one of the most renowned physicians in the country.
- 2020 Theme: ‘Lessen the mortality of Covid-19’ which includes awareness about asymptomatic hypoxia and early aggressive therapy.
About Bidhan Chandra Roy
- Dr BidhanChandra Roy (1882-1962) served as a physician, a freedom fighter, an educationist and a politician.
- He was born in Patna Bengal Presidency, British India,in 1882 He was a follower of Brahmo Samaj.
- He also led the Civil disobedience movement (began in 1930) in Bengal.
- The British Medical Journal, in its obituary of Roy, called him the “first medical consultant in the subcontinent of India, who towered over his contemporaries in several fields”.
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Prelims Section : Tit bits
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Diana Award
Why in News
- A 13-year-old schoolgirl from Delhi has been selected among the recipients of the 2020Diana Award, an honourgiven on the birth anniversary of Princess Diana (of Wales) to youngsters for humanitarian efforts.
More Information
- She received the award for developing Recycler App, a web-based mobile application to connect users with waste-handlers. The door-to-door pick up service helps in easy disposal of recyclable waste for those who may not have the means or time to travel to drop their waste.
- Her work on sustainable recycling is a valuable contribution towards achieving the United Nation-mandated Sustainable Development Goals of poverty alleviation, innovation, infrastructure, responsible consumption and climate action. Diana Awards were established in 1999 and it is considered one of the highest accolades a young person can receive for social action or humanitarian efforts.
Prelims Section: Govt Scheme
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Accelerate Vigyan
Why in news
- The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) haslaunched a new scheme called ‘Accelerate Vigyan’ (AV).
- The idea behind the launch of this scheme is to provide a single platform for research internships, capacity building programs, and workshops across the country.
More Information
The vision of the scheme is to expand the research base, with three broad goals:
- Consolidation
- Aggregation of all scientific programs, initiating high-end orientation workshops
3.Creating opportunities for research internships for those who do not have access to such resources/facilities
Components under the AV:
- ABHYAAS Program: It is an attempt to boost research and development in the country by enabling and grooming potential PG/PhD students by means of developing their research skills in selected areas across different disciplines or fields. It has two components: High-End Workshops (‘KARYASHALA’) and Research Internships (‘VRITIKA’). This is especially important for those researchers who have limited opportunities to access such learning capacities/facilities/infrastructure.
- SAMMOHAN: Under this, there are two subcomponents: SAYONJIKA: It is an open-ended program to catalogue the capacity building activities in science and technology supported by all government funding agencies in the country.
- SANGOSHTI: It is a pre-existing program of SERB.
Source- https://pib.nic.in/TagbasedSearch.aspx?Tag=Ministry%20of%20Defence
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