12th Sep. Prelims Sure Shot for USPC IAS Exam

Prelims News by Arora 

Cryodrakon boreas, the largest flying animal was a plane-sized reptile: study

• With a wingspan of 10 m and weighing 250 kg, Cryodrakon boreas rivals another pterosaur as the largest flying animal of all time. They are a part of a new species of pterosaur, the plane-sized reptiles that lorded over primeval skies. Its remains were first discovered more than 30 years ago in Alberta, Canada.
• boreas was carnivorous and probably fed on lizards, small mammals and even baby dinosaurs. There are more than 100 known species of pterosaurs.
• Despite their large size and wide distribution — across North and South America, Asia, Africa and Europe — only fragmentary remains have been unearthed, making the new find especially important.

 

The case of the butterfly with the False head

• The Common Silverline (spindasis vulcanus) is a small-sized, colourful butterfly with orange and white bands lined with black on the underside of the wings and prominent black and orange markings on the upper-side. It belongs to the family Lycaenidae, the largest family with more than 6,000 species in the world.
• Considering the Silverline’s vibrant appearance and visual brilliance, they are extremely susceptible to predatory attacks as most predators depend on vision to find their prey.

The butterfly also employs a ‘false head’ as a decoy near the base of the hindwing in order to cloud the predator’s judgement on their attack strategies. The hindwing features a prominent ‘eye’ with one or more pairs of threadlike ‘tails’ making them appear like antennae. This fools the predator into attacking the less vital parts of its body like the base of its hindwing, thinking this is the head.

 

Gig Economy

• A gig economy is a free market system in which temporary positions are common and organizations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements.
• Workers are paid for each individual gig they do – such as food delivery or a car journey – instead of monthly salary/days wage/hourly wage.

 

Army to Hold “Himvijay” in October

• The Army is scheduled to conduct a major Exercise ‘Himvijay’ beginning October in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam with its newly created Integrated Battle Groups (IBG) involving 15,000 troops.
• “The Panagarh based 17 Mountain Strike Corps will conduct Exercise Himvijay spread over a month and half with three newly created IBGs from October.
• Each IBG is tailor made based on Threat, Terrain and Task and resources will be allotted based on the three T’s. They are tailored to mobilise within 12-48 hrs based on their location.

 

E-cigarettes

• Electronic cigarette (or e-cig) is a battery-powered vaporizer that mimics tobacco smoking. It works by heating up nicotine liquid, called “juice.”
• Nicotine juice (or e-juice) comes in various flavours and nicotine levels. e-liquid is composed of five ingredients: vegetable glycerin (a material used in all types of food and personal care products, like toothpaste) and propylene glycol (a solvent most commonly used in fog machines.) propylene glycol is the ingredient that produces thicker clouds of vapour.

 

Stolen Nataraja idol on the way back to Tamil Nadu after 37 years

• A Nataraja idol, which was stolen 37 years ago from a temple at Kallidaikurichi in Tirunelveli district and smuggled outside the country, is on its way back from Australia.
• The two-and-a-half-foot idol, the 600-year-old idol, weighing around 100 kg was taken away from the Kulasekaramudayar Aramvalartha Nayaki Amman temple in 1982, was traced to Australia.

 

Man Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MPATGM)

• MPATGM is third-generation anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) indigenously developed by DRDO.
• It has strike range of 2.5 km. It weighs around 14.5 kg to maintain man portability. It is capable of being fired from shoulder and can be used during day and night. It has minimum lateral centre and gravity offset.
• It works on fire and forgets principle and is known for its top attack capabilities. It is effective against both stationary and moving targets. It will be deployed in infantry and parachute battalions of Indian Army.