Current Affairs - 2019-20

Notes:
Tamil poet S. Abdul Rahman (79), popularly known as ‘Kavikko,’ has passed away in Chennai, Tamil Nadu on June 2, 2017. He belonged to the Vanambadi literary movement and was one of the most admired poets of modern Tamil literature. His poetry collection ‘Aalapanai’ won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award in the year 1999. Apart from that he has won a lot of awards. His noted works includes Aalapanai, Paal veedhi, Neyar viruppam, Pithan, etc.

Notes:
Tianwen-1 is China’s first independent interplanetary mission to Mars. The mission was launched on July 23, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The mission consists of six spacecraft:

• An orbiter
• Two deployable cameras
• A lander
• A remote camera
• The Zhurong rover

Tianwen-1 reached Mars in February 2021. The Zhurong rover landed on May 14, 2021. China became the third country to land on Mars, after the US and the Soviet Union.

The mission has attracted the participation of institutions and organizations from around the world, including the European Space Agency, the French National Center for Space Studies, and Argentina’s National Space Activities Commission.

Notes:
Under the Part XXI of the Constitution of India, which deals with “Temporary, Transitional and Special provisions”, Article 370 is a temporary provision granting special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir. However, all sections of article 370 except article 370(1) have been abrogated in 2019.

Notes:
The Ministry of Railways has signed MoU with Ministry of AYUSH in New Delhi on February 6, 2018 to augment Ayush services in Railway hospitals i.e. New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Guwahati. As per MoU, Ministry of Railways will provide logistics and infrastructure in the form of Land & building, Equipments, Furniture, AYUSH medicines and consumables as well as Manpower. It will organize and provide orientation training to newly recruited AYUSH Doctors and AYUSH Paramedicals. Ministry of AYUSH in turn will provide all other technical inputs required for introduction of AYUSH Systems in the five identified Railways Hospitals. The Ministry will also provide technical knowhow regarding the pharmacopoeia, medicine inventory, hospital planning. Presently, Indian Railways is running 126 Homeopathic Clinics and 40 Ayurvedic Clinics through Staff Benefit Fund under Welfare Section of Establishment Directorate.

Notes:
The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has started its Twitter Seva. The Twitter Handle is ‘DARPGSEVA’. The Twitter Seva aims to address issues relating to the DARPG like Public Grievances and Administrative Reforms etc. The Twitter Seva will enable the DARPG to reach out to the common public and various stakeholders for facilitating redress of grievances and other issues of importance relating to the department.

Notes:
World’s First “Smart Train” based on Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit (ART) has been launched in China. The train is currently only operating on a small 3.1-kilometre-long stretch with just four stations and will soon go into regular service from next year. The rail system is capable of carrying 300 passengers in its three carriages and has a top speed of 70 kilometres per hour.

Notes:
Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya was born on September 25, 1916, in a village Nagla Chanderabhan in district Mathura of Uttar Pradesh. He was regarded as an ideal Swayamsevak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He is known for starting a monthly magazine “Rashtra Dharma”, a weekly “Panchajanya”, and a daily “Swadesh”. He conceived the political philosophy called “Integral Humanism”. Recently, the government celebrated his 100^th birth anniversary on 25^th September 2017.

Notes:
As per the India State of Forest Report 2017, Arunachal Pradesh has the maximum carbon stock of 994.5 million tonnes followed by Madhya Pradesh (695.5 million tonnes), Chhattisgarh (560.9 million tonnes) and Maharashtra (493 million tonnes).

Notes:
As per the Indian State of Forest Report 2017, the total carbon stock is estimated to be 7083 million tonnes. Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) is the largest pool of carbon followed by Above Ground Biomass (AGB), Below Ground Biomass (BGB), Litter and dead wood The report shows that the per hectare carbon stock of different states/UTs as Andaman & Nicobar Islands (170.68 tonnes) with highest carbon stock per hectare, followed by Arunachal Pradesh (148.52 tonnes), Sikkim (145.14 tonnes) and Karnataka (126.52 tonnes).

Notes:
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