28th Sep – Prelims Sure Shot

 

Elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus

Elephant endotheliotropic herpesviruses (EEHV) or Elephantid betaherpesvirus 1 (ElHV-1) is a type of herpesvirus, which can cause a highly fatal hemorrhagic disease when transmitted to young Asian elephants. In African elephants, related forms of these viruses, which have been identified in wild populations, are generally benign.

The EEHVs are members of the Proboscivirus genus. To date, scientists have identified 14 genetically different elephant herpesviruses (EEHV), most of which are known to cause hemorrhagic disease. EEHV does not pose a health risk to humans, though humans are host to their own strains of herpesviruses. No Drug has been developed to deal with EEHV.

 

Nandankanan Zoological Park

Nandankanan, literally meaning The Garden of Heaven, is located near Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

Unlike other zoos in the country, Nandankanan is built right inside the forest and set in a completely natural environment.

Features

            – First zoo in the World to breed White tiger and Melanistic tiger.

– Only conservation breeding centre of Indian Pangolin in the world.

            –  Only zoological park in India to become an institutional member of World Association of Zoos and Aquarium (WAZA).

              Gharials have bred for the first time in captivity in the world at Nandankanan Zoological Park in 1980.

• The first zoo in India where endangered Ratel was born in captivity.
• The second largest heronry for Open Billed Storks in Odisha.

Bauxite

80 % of bauxite [ore of aluminium] ore is used for making aluminium.

Found mainly as hydrated aluminium oxides. Bauxite is primarily a metallic mineral though it is also used as an industrial mineral. It is the only ore used for large scale aluminium production. Although aluminium is the most abundant metallic element in the earth’s crust constituting about 8%, it usually occurs in clays, soil and rocks that cannot be utilized for its extraction.

Bauxite is used in a lot of industries like the chemical industry, refractory, abrasive, cement, steel, and petrol industry amongst others.  Bauxite is the main constituent material in the airplane making industry, electric industry, machinery and civil tool-making industry.

It is also used as a desiccating agent, adsorbent, catalyst and in the manufacture of dental cement. It is also used in Building Material and Road Aggregates

 

Bauxite Reserves in India

 

 

Ishawarchandra Vidyasagar

• He was the 19th century intellectual.
• He was perhaps the first Indian reformer to put forward the issues of women.
• His Bengali primer, Borno Porichoy, remains, more than 125 years after his death in 1891, the introduction to the alphabet for nearly all Bengali children.
• He was a polymath who reconstructed the modern Bengali alphabet and initiated path breaking reform in traditional upper caste Hindu society.
• He studied Sanskrit grammar, literature, Vedanta philosophy, logic, astronomy, and Hindu law for more than 12 years at Sanskrit College in Calcutta, and received the title of Vidyasagar — Ocean of Learning — at the age of just 21.
• Privately, he studied English literature and philosophy and was appointed principal of Sanskrit College on January 22, 1851.
• He launched a powerful attack on the practice of marrying off girls aged 10 or even younger, pointing to social, ethical, and hygiene issues, and rejecting the validity of the Dharma Shastras that advocated it. He showed that there was no prohibition on widows remarrying in the entire body of ‘Smriti’ literature (the Sutras and the Shastras).
• He campaigned against polygamy.
• On October 14, 1855, Vidyasagar presented a petition to the Government of India praying for early passing a law to remove all obstacles to the marriage of Hindu widows and to declare the issue of all such marriages to be legitimate.
• On July 16, 1856, The Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act, known as Act XV, was passed.

 

Islamic Cooperation Countries

Organization of Islamic Cooperation is an international organization founded in 1969, consisting of 57 member states.

 

It is the second largest inter-governmental organization after the United Nations.

 

The organization states that it is “the collective voice of the Muslim world” and works to “safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony“.

 

The OIC has permanent delegations to the United Nations and the European Union.

Permanent Secretariat is in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

 

 

 

Project 75i

• P75I was first cleared in 2007, but lay dormant until now after undergoing numerous changes.
• The P75I project is part of a 30-year submarine building plan that ends in 2030.
• The project cost is about Rs. 45,000 crore.
• As part of this plan, India was to build 24 submarines — 18 conventional submarines and six nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) — as an effective deterrent against China and Pakistan.
• This project envisages the construction of six conventional submarines with better sensors and weapons and the Air Independent Propulsion System (AIP).
• The project has been cleared under the strategic partnership model.

 

National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT)

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is a quasi-judicial body in India that adjudicates issues relating to companies in India.

It was established on 1^st June, 2016 (Companies Act, 2013).

The NCLT has eleven benches, two at New Delhi (one being the principal bench) and one each at Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai.

The NCLT has been given wide powers under the Companies Act, 2013 to adjudicate:

• Cases initiated before the Company Law Board under the previous act (Companies Act, 1956)
• All proceedings pending before any District court or High Court under the Old Act
• Cases pending before the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), including those pending under the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act, 1985
• Appeals or any other proceedings pending before the Appellate Authority for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (AAIFR)
• Fresh proceedings pertaining to claims of oppression and mismanagement of a company, winding up of companies and all other powers prescribed under the Companies Act.
• In addition, the recently enacted Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (Bankruptcy Code), also provides wide powers to the NCLT to adjudicate upon the ‘insolvency resolution process’ and liquidation of corporate debtors.

 

Many Moods of Mahatma –

Lalit Kala Akademi gears up to present ‘Gandhi through the Eyes of Artists’.

For the Lalit Kala Akademi’s celebration of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Chairman Uttam Pacharne has selected four sculptures by the 94-year-old master as an ode to Bapuji’s life and values. In recent years, Sutar is better known as the creator of ‘Statue of Unity’ in Gujarat. His works embody hard work, unbridled passion and love for his land.

On October 2, Sutar’s four sculptures will memorialise significant touch-points in Indian and world history. Bronze in Berlin, marble in Madrid, cement in Sri Lanka- sculptural busts, heads and tall figures of Gandhi in diverse material, sizes and expressions have been installed around the world.