2 & 5 Markers for Civil Services General Studies Mains Examination
Objective of RKVY
The objective of the RKVY (Rastriya Krishi Vikas Yojana) is to achieve 4 % annual growth in the agriculture sector during the 11th plan by ensuring a holistic development of Agriculture and Allied Sectors.It’s a state plan scheme and funds provided under RKVY are given to the states as 100% grant by the central Government.
India’s Installed Capacity of Nuclear Power
There are 19 nuclear power reactors in operation with an installed capacity of 4,560 MW in the country and four are under advance stage of construction with a capacity of 2,720 MW. In addition, four indigenous pressurized heavy water reactors of 700 MW have been launched. Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), a public sector enterprise of Department of Atomic Engery (DAE), is responsible for design, construction, commissioning and operation of nuclear power plants in the country.
Role of Thattekadu in Rubber Industry of India
The commercial cultivation of natural rubber was introduced in India by the British planters. The first experimental efforts to grow rubber on a commercial scale were initiated in 1873 at the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta. The Rubber Plant (genus: Havea) plantations were started in India in Thattekadu in Kerala in 1902 and the rubber produced in those times was known as “Indian Rubber”
International Rubber Study Group
The headquarters of International Rubber Study Group are located in Singapore. It was established in 1944 in London but was relocated in Singapore in 2008.
Round Tripping
Round tripping refers to money from one country going out through unofficial channels and being invested back into the same country from outside to avail of tax benefits under the double tax avoidance agreement (DTAA).
Round Tripping makes the government lose large amount of revenue because the domestic firms, route the investment through Mauritius. So, now finally CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes) proposes that the Domestic companies routing their investments through Mauritius would soon have to pay capital gains tax. For this, a review of the capitals gains tax provisions is required and CBDT is pressing for it.
Graphene
Graphene is the name given to a flat monolayer of carbon atoms tightly packed into a two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb lattice, and is a basic building block for graphitic materials of all other dimensionalities. The material has enormous potential particularly in the high-speed electronic devices.
Caronene
The scientists at the Germany’s Max Planck Institute, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Utah, and Tsinghua University, Beijing have now created a Graphene transistor composed of 13 benzene rings. It has been named as Caronene.
It is special because it shows an improved electronic band gap, a property which may help to overcome one of the central obstacles to applying Graphene technology for electronics.
Limitations of Graphene production
Graphene’s huge electrical mobility — the ease with which electrons can flow through the material. Such high mobility is a critical parameter in determining the speed of components like transistors. However, at present producing usable amount of Graphene has been very tricky. There are only two methods of producing graphics and the popular method is a peel a single layer from the sheet of graphite. Graphene’s limitation is using it in transistors is that it has intrinsic property. This property must be overcome. Intrinsic property means that it should be able to turn off and on. A Graphene transistor is very fast , but it’s on off ratio is very low. This is because; band gap (the space between the valence and conduction bands) is zero in Graphene. The process of enlarging the band gap of Graphene is laborious and involves high cost, so there are no viable sources of commercial mass production of Graphene.
