30th Sept Daily current affairs for UPSC Civil Service Exam

Earthquake

• The Ritcher Scale measures the magnitude, which is the amount of energy released during an earthquake.
• The magnitude is derived from a formula involving a logarithm, which makes the scale exponential rather than linear.
• For e.g. an earthquake of magnitude 8.1 is 10 times larger than one of magnitude 7.1, and 100 times larger than one of magnitude 6.1.
• But in terms of energy released, magnitude 8.1 is 31.623 times stronger than magnitude 7.1, and 1,000 times (31.623 times 31.623) stronger than magnitude 6.1.
• The Mercalli Scale measures the intensity, which measures the effects of an earthquake.
• These readings are based on factors such as how people perceive the shaking.
• The same earthquake will have different intensity readings at different places.
• The effects will depend upon the distance (i.e) the farther one moves away from the epicentre, the less intense the shaking.

Decline in IMR

• The Sample Registration System (SRS) of Census of India has been released recently.
• According to the SRS bulletin, India has registered a significant decline in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR).
• IMR has declined by three points (8% declines), from 37 per 1000 live births in 2015 to 34 per 1000 live births in 2016, compared to two points decline last year.
• The total number of estimated infant deaths have come down from 930000 (9.3 Lakhs) in 2015 to 840000 (8.4 lakhs) in 2016.
• According to the SRS Bulletin the gender gap in India for child survival is reducing steadily.
• The gender difference between female and male IMR has now reduced to <10%, giving a major boost to the scheme ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’.

Global Entrepreneurship Summit, 2017

• NITI Aayog, in partnership with the US administration, will host the eighth annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad.
• This is the first time the Global Entrepreneurship Summit is being held in South Asia
• The theme for this year's summit -- Women First, Prosperity for All -- will celebrate entrepreneurship in all its strength, diversity and entirety.
• It will empower Indian entrepreneurs to build partnerships and helps secure funding.
• The four primary focus areas are health care and life sciences, digital economy and financial technology, energy and infrastructure, and media and entertainment.

Jan Sampark

• It is a monthly to facilitate adoption, organized by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD).
• The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) under MoWCD is the nodal authority.
• The first of its kind programme was held recently in New Delhi.
• The Programme enables the public to have interaction with its officials and staff for seeking information related to Adoption.

Divyang Sarathi

• It is the mobile application, developed for accessible and easy information dissemination to ‘divyangjans’
• It is an integral part of the ICT component of the Accessible India Campaign launched by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
• The unique features is its audio notes (text-to-voice conversion software) which converts the written information into an audio file as well as the adjustable font size which can be altered as per the user’s requirement.
• The application is compliant with the principles of UNCRPD for Universal Access and the provisions of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

Antarctica Glacier

• An iceberg over 250 square kilometres in size, has broken off from an enormous Pine Island glacier in Antarctica.
• It is second such incident in the last two years.
• The Pine Island Glacier is one of the largest in West Antarctica.
• The glacier loses 45 billion tonnes of ice to the ocean each year equivalent to one millimeter of global sea level rise every eight years.
• This may be due to warmer ocean waters reaching the base of the glacier and weakening it.

Source: PIB, The Hindu, Indian Express.