Current Affairs - 2019-20

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Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve became part of World Network of Biosphere Reserves in 2016. ABR includes the Indian Ecoregions of South Western Ghats moist deciduous forests, South Western Ghats montane rain forests and Shola. It is the habitat for 2,000 varieties of medicinal plants, of which at least 50 are rare and endangered species. Rare animals include the tiger, Asian Elephant, and Nilgiri tahr. 

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The 5/20 rule is a norm of the Indian Aviation Ministry according to which under which national carriers are required to have five years of operational experience and a fleet of minimum 20 aircraft to fly overseas. Recently, the Cabinet gave its approval for partial abolition of the 5/20 rule, which will enable new carriers like Vistara and Air Asia to start international operations sooner. The government has decided to scrap a requirement that mandated airlines to have five years of domestic operations to be eligible to fly overseas. However, an airline will have to allocate 20 aircraft or 20% of their total fleet of aircraft, whichever is higher, to the domestic sector if they wish to fly overseas. So in place of 5/20 rule, the new proposed options are like 0/10 and 0/20.

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ISRO made successful test of Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstration Program or RLV-TD

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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 ministry of earth science (MoES) launched a high performance computer (HPC) system named Mihir. The system is meant to improve India’s weather forecasting. It will be India’s largest in terms of peak capacity and performance and will propel the country’s ranking from the 368th position to the top 30 in list of HPC facilities across the world. India will now also be ranked 4th, after Japan, UK and US for dedicated HPC resources for weather/climate community.

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Ministry of Communications has launched the Cool EMS Service. It is a one-way service that allows customers in India to import Japanese food for personal use. All the Food items will be carried by Japan Post in special cool boxes containing refrigerant to preserve the quality of the food items and then collected in India.

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The member states of Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) are: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Armenia.
Moldova has been granted the Observer Status in April 2017.

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Nadar is a Tamil caste of South India and Sri Lanka. Nadars are predominant in the south Indian districts of Tuticorin, Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli and Virudhunagar.

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Diyarbakir is one of the largest cities of Turkey. It is situated on the banks of the Tigris River. The city was in news for in news for revolutionary activities led by Kurdish militants for self-rule.

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Swayam is a 1-U picosatellite (CubeSat) developed by the students of College of Engineering in Pune. This satellite provides point-to-point communications for the UHF HAM band. The Satellite was launched by ISRO on June 22, 2016 along with Cartosat-2C by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C-34. The satellite has been placed in low earth orbit (LEO) around the Earth at a height of 515 km. The project was completed over a span of 8 years and more than 200 students worked on it. The scientific objective of the satellite is to demonstrate passive attitude control to stabilise and appropriately orient the satellite. This technique has been used for the first time on an Indian Satellite.