Current Affairs - 2019-20

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The Vishakhapatnam railway station in Andhra Pradesh has been adjudged as the cleanest railway station among the 75 busiest stations in the country in category A1, followed by Secunderabad, Jammu Tawi, Vijayawada and Anand Vihar railway stations. This was revealed by Third Party Audit Report on Station Cleanliness i.e. released by Ministry of Railway in New Delhi on May 17, 2017. The railway stations are categorised — A1, A, B, C, D, E and F — based on their annual passenger revenue by the ministry. Among the ‘A’ category stations, Beas railway station in Punjab was rated the cleanest station followed by Khammam station in Telangana and Ahmednagar station in Maharashtra. Zone wise South-East Central railway has been ranked first followed by East Coast railway and Central Railway. The survey was carried out by the Quality Council of India (QCI) and was based on criteria such as toilets on platforms, management of tracks and dustbins.

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Before 5 August 2019, Part VI was not applicable to Jammu & Kashmir state. On 6 August 2019, parliament of India declared all the clauses of Article 370 except clause 1 to be inoperative. After this, Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act was passed dividing the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories viz. Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

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The term “Third World” arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The Third world countries are mostly the underdeveloped and developing countries.

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The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has recently given its approval for the development of Advanced Ultra Super Critical (AUSC) technology for thermal power plants. 

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Recently, NTPC started the power generation from India’s largest floating solar power plant at Kayamkulam in Kerala. Kerala was chosen for the installation due to abundant availability of water bodies and lack of enough land. The 100 kWp floating solar generation plant is the largest of its kind in India, and was indigenously developed as a part of ‘Make in India’ initiative, at Rajiv Gandhi Combined Cycle Power Plant (RGCCPP) in Kerala’s Kayamkulam district. Solar panels mounted on floating boards hold them in place saves land usage. The solar panels in water have been found to be efficient than the ones installed on land. These floating platforms were indigenously developed by NTPC Energy Technology Research Alliance, the R&D arm of NTPC Ltd BSE -0.30 %, in collaboration with Central Institute of Plastic Engineering & Technology (CIPET), Chennai and a patent has been applied for. 

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Scientists of the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru and the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Japan have discovered two new ant species. The two new ant species have been named as Tetramorium krishnani and Tetramorium jarawa respectively in honour of late scientist K.S. Krishnan of the NCBS, and after the Jarawas, an indigenous people of the islands. The newly discovered ants are found in leaf litter in the evergreen forests of Havelock Island and are endemic to the Andamans.

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Recently, the government launched options trading in guarseed on the commodity bourse NCDEX. NCDEX is the second exchange after MCX to launch options trading in commodities. In October 2017, MCX had launched gold options. Guarseed is the first agri-commodity options.

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The Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) is an externally-aided project being funded by the World Bank. Nearly 80% of the total cost is being funded by the World Bank as loan/credit and remaining is borne by the States/Central Governments. The Central Dam Safety Organization of Central Water Commission, assisted by Engineering and Management Consultant, is coordinating and supervising the Project implementation. There are 223 dams in seven states being improved under the Phase-I of the project. The phase-I of the project will be implemented till 2020. Recently, the phase-II of the project is proposed to be implemented over the six years (2020-26) at an estimated cost of Rs 7000 crore. Under Phase-II of the project, the safety and operational performance of 700 large dams across 18 states will be improved through repair and rehabilitation work.

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The Economic Survey 2017-18 has suggested six key areas that can be taken up as national missions. These are as follows: National Mission on Cyber-Physical Systems; national missions on dark matter; genomics; energy storage systems; mathematics and agriculture. National Mission on Food Processing was launched in 2012 for the 12^th five-year plan.

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Hatupur Diamond mineral block is located in Panna district of Madhya Pradesh. It was in news for being auctioned. As estimated, the Diamond mineral worth Rs 106 crore is available in the Hatupur block.