27th Oct Daily current affairs for UPSC Civil Service Exam

Red Sanders

• Pterocarpus santalinus (Red sanders) is a species of Pterocarpus with a common name red sandalwood, and saunders wood.
• It is endemic to the southern Eastern Ghats mountain range of South India.
• It is listed in the category of “Endangered” by the IUCN because of overexploitation for its timber in South India.
• It is also listed in the appendix II of the CITES.
• This tree is valued for the rich red color of its wood and it is highly in demand in China.
• The wood is not aromatic and it is not to be confused with the aromatic Santalum sandalwood trees that grow natively in South India.

Typhoon Lan

• Typhoon Lan, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Paolo was the second largest tropical cyclone in terms of a gale diameter on record.
• It is the most intense of the Northwest Pacific Ocean in 2017.
• It made a landfall in Japan as a category 2 equivalent typhoon.
• The areas affected by this include Caroline Islands, Phillippines, Japan and South Korea.
• Gale - The most common way of measuring winds is with the Beaufort scale, which defines a gale as wind from 50 to 102 km/h.
• It is an empirical measure for describing wind speed based mainly on observed sea conditions.

Global Investors’ India Forum

• It is the global event of investors and investees organized by ASSOCHAM, India’s oldest apex chamber for commerce and industry.
• The event is officially supported by the Ministry of External affairs and Department of Industrial policy and promotion, Ministry of commerce and Industry.
• It was started in 2015 and this year it is organized with a theme “Ideate, Innovate, Implement and Invest in India”.

Asian Development Bank

• India signed a USD 300 million loan pact with ADB for fiscal reforms in West Bengal to improve the quality of public service delivery.
• ADB is a regional development bank established in 1966, headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines.
• ADB now has 67 members of which 48 from within Asia and Pacific while remaining 19 from outside.
• It admits the members of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and non-regional developed countries.
• Its voting system was modeled closely on the World Bank where votes are distributed in proportion with members' capital subscriptions..
• It assists its members by providing loans, technical assistance, grants, and equity investments to promote social and economic development.

Ban of Pet coke in NCR

• The Supreme Court has recently directed the prohibition of industrial use of pet coke and furnace oil in NCR regions from November 1, 2017.
• It also imposed a fine of Rs. 2 lakh on the Ministry of Environment for not fixing any emission standards for industries using pet coke and furnace oil in the NCR region.
• Petroleum coke, abbreviated coke or petcoke, is a final carbon-rich solid material that derives from oil refining.
• Petcoke is over 90 percent carbon and emits 5 to 10 percent more carbon dioxide (CO2) than coal on a per-unit-of-energy basis when it is burned.
• It can contain vanadium, a toxic metal which is toxic in tiny quantities, 0.8 micrograms per cubic meter of air.
• It is sometimes a source of fine dust, which can get through the filtering process of the human airway and lodge in the lungs.

Source: PIB, The Hindu