Current Affairs bits...

v  The ‘South Asia Satellite, helps in natural resources mapping, telemedicine, education, deeper IT connectivity or fostering people-to-people contact . The GSAT-09 offers a full range of applications and services in telecommunication and broadcasting: Television, Direct-to-Home (DTH), Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs), Tele-education, Telemedicine and Disaster Management Support. The 2,230-kg satellite was built by the Indian Space Research Organisation and has 12 Ku-band transponders. It has a mission life of over 12 years.

v  Six tigers would be relocated to the Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) in north Bengal from neighbouring Assam as part of a plan for augmentation of the tiger population in the reserve which was approved by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

v  China and Europe are planning to build the first-ever “moon village” that could serve as a launching pad for deep space missions such as one to Mars, as a spot for space tourism and lunar mining.

v  A meeting of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization says there have been only eight wild-type poliovirus (type 1 and type 3) cases reported in Afghanistan and Pakistan recently, down from 32 cases during the same period last year. SAGE is working under WHO.

v  Survey of India, The National Survey and Mapping Organisation of the country under the Department of Science & Technology, is the oldest scientific department of the govt. of India. It was set up in 1767

v  A team from the Department of Textile Technology at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi has been successful in 3D bioprinting of cartilage using a bioink. The bioink has high concentration of bone-marrow derived cartilage stem cells, silk proteins and a few factors. The chemical composition of the bioink supports cell growth and long-term survival of the cells. The cartilage developed in the lab has remained physically stable for up to six weeks.

v  The Centre has amended the definition of a start-up by broadening the term to include scalability of business model with a potential for employment generation or wealth creation

v  In a first for Asia, Taiwan’s Constitutional Court ruled in favour of same-sex marriage

v  The 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is on the edge to become the largest free trade agreement in the world, covering about half of its population. Planned RCEP pact would group the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

v  The world’s smallest republic, Nauru — has become the sixth country to ratify the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Framework pact initiated by the Indian and French Governments at the climate change summit held at Paris in 2015.

v  The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is an international mechanism set up at the Conference of the Parties-16 (COP-16) in Cancun in 2010. As per the international agreement, advanced economies should provide an annual assistance of $100 billion, through public and private sources, by 2020 — the deadline is now extended to 2025. The fund currently has pledges worth $10 billion from various developed countries and there is a commitment to fund projects that enable the lowering of emissions and help in dealing with the effects from climate change.

v  India surpassed Japan to become the second-largest producer of stainless steel in the world, behind China, in 2016, according to data released by the International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF)

v  Swiss voters are supporting a referendum to withdraw the country from nuclear power in favour of renewable energy

v  Madhya Pradesh government has tasked the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur with finding a quantifiable answer to what constitutes happiness and how happy are people really. The State government had set up the Anand Mantralaya or the Ministry of Happiness, with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as its first “happiness minister.” IIT-Kharagpur is the only institute to have a Happiness Centre. India is at 122nd spot in the World Happiness Report for 2017, brought out by the United Nations, down five points from the 2016 survey, where it stood at the 118th spot

v  Scientists have discovered a new moon orbiting the third largest dwarf planet that resides in the frigid outskirts in our solar system. This moon is orbiting the dwarf planet 2007 OR10 in the Kuiper Belt. Kepler revealed that 2007 OR10 has a slow rotation period of 45 hours. Typical rotation periods for Kuiper Belt Objects are under 24 hours. The dwarf planet is about 1,528 kilometres across, and the moon is estimated to be 240 kilometres to 400 kilometres in diameter. 2007 OR10, like Pluto, follows an eccentric orbit, but it is currently three times further than Pluto is from the sun.

v  With a view to facilitating easier access to information, the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) will set up State Legal Services Authorities’ offices all over the country with facilities that enable litigants to access court documents, case status and connect to their advocates online and through dedicated phone numbers. The facility called ‘Legal Assistance Establishments’ or Nyaya Sanyog will cater to poor litigants and the families of undertrials languishing in jails to get quick access to justice.

v  The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was presented with the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for the year 2014.

v  China stressed that the doctrine of Panchsheel would be the template for addressing India’s concerns over the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the Belt and Road Initiative. The five principles include “mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty”.

v  The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is a key input into making and assessing policies, particularly those pertaining to the manufacturing sector, inflation, interest rates and the flow of credit in the economy. Aim of the IIP is to capture the direction and the trend of industrial production in the country.

v  An ‘Earth-like’ planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, about 4.2 light years away may have water and the potential to support alien life, a new study has found. The planet Proxima B was discovered in August last year, and is thought to be of similar size to Earth, creating the possibility that it could have an ‘Earth-like’ atmosphere.

v  Non-performing assets, restructured loans and written-off assets — collectively called ‘stressed assets’