20th Dec Daily current affairs for UPSC Civil Service Exam 2017

Kepler 90i

• NASA has recently announced that it found another solar system with 8 planets.
• The historic discovery was made by new scientific analysis of data obtained by the Kepler space telescope.
• Kepler 90 is the first star to host as many planets as our own solar system.
• The new planet “Kepler 90i” is a small rocky planet, but very close to the sun which is hotter than Earth
• It is located 2,500 light years from Earth and it orbits its home star every 14 days and is about 30% bigger than Earth.
• The planets in the Kepler 90 system orbit much closer to their host star than Earth is to the sun.
• It is similar to the seven planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system, previously thought to be the next biggest solar system.

Institute of National Importance (INI)

• INI is a status conferred to a premier public higher education institution in India by an Act of Parliament.
• It is conferred on an institution which "serves as a pivotal player in developing highly skilled personnel within the specified region of the country/state".
• INIs receive special recognition and funding.
• All IITs, NITs, AIIMS’, School of Planning and Architecture and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research are considered Institutes of National Importance.

SAKALA Scheme

• The scheme is being implemented in the State of Karnataka to curb corruption in public service delivery in key departments.
• More than 725 services are being provided under this mission.
• Now, the state government has proposed to launch the version 2 of SAKALA scheme with the existing SAKALA-1 fails to curb corruption.
• SAKALA -2 will address shortcomings in the existing Act by including a provision for imposing penalty of Rs. 250 per day for delay in addressing complaints.
• The proposed Bill includes mandatory display of citizens’ charters and job charts in all government departments, social audits, public hearings and district & state level grievance redress processes.

Kapra Lake

• Kapra Lake is located in north east part of Greater Hyderabad.
• The lake is polluted, choked by water hyacinth and acts as a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
• The discharge of industrial waste and sewage into waterbodies leads to the growth of water hyacinth which affects the lake’s ecosystem and causes groundwater contamination.
• The Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) has come out with a plan that turns the water hyacinth into organic manure.
• Good quality organic fertilizer with adequate content of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium is produced through the process of anaerobic composting method.

Water Hyacinth

• Water hyacinth is a free-floating perennial plant, native to South America.
• It can grow to a height of 3 feet with dark green leaves with flowers above the water and heavily branched, dark fibrous root system underneath.
• It is a very aggressive invader forming thick mats which can cause oxygen depletion in the waterbodies and kills the aquatic plants and fish.
• Submerged portion provide habitats for many micro and macro invertebrates.
• After aquatic plants die, their decomposition by bacteria and fungi provides food for many aquatic invertebrates.
• It has no known direct food value to wildlife and is considered a pest species.

National Programme on use of Space Technology for Agriculture (NPSTA)

• NPSTA is a proposed programme which envisages integrated use of Space and Geospatial Tools for Mapping, Monitoring and Management of Agriculture.
• The current running programmes will be subsumed under this. They are

1. Project FASAL (for crop forecasting),
2. Project NADAMS (for drought assessment),
3. Project CHAMAN (for horticultural assessment and development),
4. Project KISAN (for crop insurance) and Crop Intensification planning.

• The programme will have four sub-programmes

1. Crop Assessment & Monitoring;
2. Agricultural Resources Management;
3. Disaster Monitoring and Mitigation
4. Satellite Communication and Navigation Applications.

Source: The Hindu, PIB