Current Affairs Uttarakhand PMT

  The National Deworming Day is being observed on 10 February across the country. Children and adolescents in the age group of 1 to 19 years are being administered a single dose of a safe medicine Albendazole in all states and Union Territories on the occasion. The objective of the day is to deworm children and adolescents to reduce the prevalence of parasitic worms in the intestine. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare initiated the observation of the National Deworming Day. The first National Deworming Day in India was observed on 10 February 2015.

  World Pulses Day proclaimed on February 10 of each year since 2019. World Pulses Day is a designated United Nations global event to recognize the importance of pulses (chickpeas, dry beans, lentils, dry peas and lupins among others) as a global food. World Pulses Day is a recognition of the decisive role that pulses can play in achieving the comprehensive, far-reaching and people-centred set of universal and transformative goals and targets of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a plan of action that seeks to strengthen universal peace.

 American Author Roger Kahn passed away. He wrote at least 20 books in his lifetime. In 1989 he collaborated with Pete Rose for the Biography of legendary Boxer Jack Dempsey before Jack gets banned from the game. His best-selling book in 1972 “The Boys of Summer”.

 Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) has ranked 3rd in MOOCLab’s Business School Rankings 2020 for its provision, design and delivery of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). IIM Bangalore succeeds HEC Paris (France) and Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (USA). The 2020 edition of the rankings has surveyed 16 business schools across the world offering courses on the three leading MOOC platforms: Coursera, edX and FutureLearn. This is the first-ever Business School rankings based on the provision of MOOCs. 
The college was ranked based upon 4 parameters:
  • School’s performance across the number of MOOCs provided.
  • Facilities of learning pathways.
  • Provision of credit-granting credentials.
  • School’s teaching quality.

  India has been ranked 40th out of 53 countries on a global intellectual property index 2020. India was placed at 36th position among 50 countries in 2019. India’s score, however, increased from 36.04 per cent (16.22 out of 45) in 2019 to 38.46 per cent (19.23 out of 50) in 2020, a 2.42 per cent jump in an absolute score. The US, UK, Sweden, France and Germany remained the top five economies on the intellectual property index in 2019 retaining their spots from the last year. The index was released as part of the annual report prepared by the Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) of the US Chambers of Commerce.

 Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar released the first look of a biopic on former President APJ Abdul Kalam in New Delhi. Javadekar along with Producer and Director Madhur Bhandarkar and Hollywood Producer and Director Johnny Martin released a poster of the film on the occasion. Hollywood actor Muhammad Ali is playing Dr Kalam’s role in the movie.

  The Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL) has established a research and development centre, named ‘Science and Applied Research Alliance and Support (SARAS)’. This research and development centre focuses on the sustainable model for development in coal mining. The R&D centre will be the centre of excellence, infrastructure up-gradation and IT initiatives for the subsidiary of the Coal India Ltd. NCL has come up with a unique concept/model ‘SARAS’ to ensure advance preparation with current and future challenges of the mining sector.

 The International team of astronomers led by scientists at the University of California, United States(US) have discovered an Ultramassive monster galaxy dubbed as XMM-2599. This galaxy existed around 12 billion years ago just 1.8 billion years after the formation of the universe. The galaxy XMM-2599 was formed more than 1,000 solar masses a year in stars during the peak of the stars’ activity and was discovered by the astronomers during XMM-2599 inactive phase.

 On February 10, 2020, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu announced that Cauvery Delta is to be declared as Protected Special Agricultural Zone. In 2019, the Central Government had awarded the oil and gas exploration projects in the Cauvery basin. This invoked large protests amid water crisis in the state. Extraction of hydro carbon requires excess amount of fresh water.
  • Highlights
With the zone being Agricultural protected Zone, the permission of State government is required to undertake projects. This infers that oil exploration projects cannot be undertaken by the private firms without the permission of state government.
  • Agricultural Protection Zone
When a land is announced as Protected Agricultural Zone, it cannot be used for any other non-agricultural activities.
  • Significance
The Environmental Impact Assessment of 2006 that was recently amended by the central government gives permission for ONGC and other private firms. And since Cauvery Delta is rich in Hydrocarbons, it is essential to protect the agricultural land in the region.

 NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) of the United States and the ESA (European Space Agency) will send space probes to the sun to map its poles. The solar orbiter was launched on February 9, 2020.
  • Highlights
The probe will use gravitational influence of the Earth and Venus to position itself at 26 million miles from the sun. It is 95% of distance between the sun and the earth. The probe will map the poles for the first time. This will help scientists to observe the solar winds. The solar winds permeate the solar system.
  • Solar Winds
The solar winds are released from the upper atmosphere of the sun. These winds carry charged particles and magnetic clouds from the sun. These winds are capable of damaging life on the earth. Therefore, it is important to learn about these winds. They are now being filtered by the thick atmosphere around the earth. The winds are a reason for the planets including the earth to revolve around the sun.


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