7th Sep. Prelims Sure Shot Based on The Hindu Newspaper

Indus Valley settlers had a distinct genetic lineage’

• Throwing fresh light on the Indus Valley Civilisation, a study of DNA from skeletal remains excavated from the Harappan cemetery at Rakhigarhi argues that the hunter-gatherers of South Asia, who then became a settled people, have an independent origin. The researchers who conducted the study contend that the theory of the Harappan having Steppe pastoral or ancient Iranian farmer ancestry thus stands refuted. The finding also negates the hypothesis about mass migration during Harappan times from outside South Asia.
• The researchers also suggest that there was a movement of people from east to west as the Harappan people’s presence is evident at sites like Gonur in Turkmenistan and Sahr-i-Sokhta in Iran.
• India had a heterogeneous population right from the beginning of settled life. In Europe, ancient-DNA studies have shown that agriculture tended to spread through an influx of people with ancestry in Anatolia, in modern day Turkey. In South Asia, however, the story appears quite different.
• Not only did the researchers find an absence of Anatolian-related ancestry, they saw that Iranian-related ancestry in South Asians comes from a lineage that separated from ancient Iranian farmers and hunter-gatherers before those groups split from each other, nearly 9,000 years ago.
• The researchers, therefore, concluded that farming in South Asia was not due to the movement of people from the farming cultures of the west and that local foragers adopted it.

Rover Pragyan

• Chandrayaan spacecraft, with a mass of 3.8 tonne, will have three modules comprising of the Orbiter, Lander (Vikram) and Rover (Pragyan).
• The Rover, a six-wheeled solar-powered vehicle, will detach itself and slowly crawl on the surface, making observations and collecting data.
• It will be equipped with two instruments, the primary objective is to study the composition of the surface near the lunar landing site, and determine its abundance of various elements.
• It is designed in such a way that it will have power to spend a lunar day or 14 Earth days on Moon’s surface.

National Commission for Protection of Child Rights

• NCPCR is a statutory body set up in 2007 under Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005.
• Its objective is to protect, promote and defend child rights in India including rights adopted in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children, 1989, ratified by India in 1992. (This convention defines child as a human being below 18 years of age).
• It falls under the administrative control of the Ministry of Women & Child Development
• The Child is defined as a person in the 0 to 18 years age group

Great Indian Bustard

Habitat

• Arid and semi-arid grasslands with scattered short scrub, bushes and low intensity cultivation in flat or gently undulating terrain. It avoids irrigated areas
• Found in India and the adjoining regions of Pakistan
• In India, the bird was historically found in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Today the bustard is restricted to isolated pockets in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

• It is the Heaviest of the flying birds.
• These birds are often found associated in the same habitat as blackbuck.
• Protected areas- Desert National Park Sanctuary — Rajasthan, Rollapadu Wildlife Sanctuary – Andhra Pradesh, Karera Wildlife Sanctuary– Madhya Pradesh