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Monday, July 20, 2020

Important Current Affairs

1. India's Only Golden Tiger 'KAZI 106F' in Kaziranga National Park:


               'KAZI 106F', described as the country's only Golden Tiger, has emerged as the social media sensation right after its picture tweeted by an IFS officer went viral

 KAZI 106F, the tigress, resides in world heritage Kaziranga National Park of Assam. It is also known as 'Tabby tiger' or 'Strawberry tiger'. The skin of tigers is orange-yellow with black stripes and whitish abdominal region.

 The yellowish background is controlled by a set of 'agouti genes' and their alleles and the black colour stripes are controlled by 'taddy genes' and their alleles. Suppression of any of these genes may lead to colour variation in tiger.

Kaziranga National Park:    It is located in the State of Assam and covers 42,966 ha. It is the single largest undisturbed and representative area in the Brahmaputra Valley floodplain. It was declared as a National Park in 1974.It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.It is the home of the world's most one-horned rhinos. Much of the focus of conservation efforts in Kaziranga are focused on the 'big four' species----- Rhino, Elephant, Royal Bengal tiger and Asiatic water buffalo. The 2018 census had yielded 2,413 Rhinos and approximately 1,100 elephants. The National Highway 37 passes through the park area.The park also has more than 250 seasonal water bodies, besides the Diphlu River running through it.

2. Pema Khandu releases book “The Tangams: An Ethnolinguistic Study Of The Critically Endangered Group of Arunachal Pradesh”:

        The book titled 'The Tangams: An Ethnolinguistic Study Of The Critically Endangered Group of Arunachal Pradesh' was released by Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu.

The Tangams are a little-known community within the larger Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh and reside in the hamlet of Kugging in Upper Siang district's Paindem circle.

Tangams are now concentrated in only one village (Kugging), with  253 reported speakers.

As per the UNESCO World Atlas of Endangered Languages (2009), Tangam- an oral language that belongs to the Tani group, under the greater Tibeto-Burman language family- is marked 'critically endangered'.

Arunachal Pradesh:  Capital: Itanagar

Districts: 25

Governor: B. D. Mishra

Chief Minister: Pema Khandu

High Court: Guwahati High Court

3. UAE's historic 'Hope' Mars Mission:

    The United Arab Emirates(UAE) Mars Mission or 'Hope' is scheduled for launch on 16th July,2020.

    It is one of three missions launching to Mars this month.

    The USA and China, both have surface rovers in the late stages of preparation.

    It is the first interplanetary mission for the Arab World.

    The 'Hope Orbiter' will be lifted on an H-IIA rocket from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a machinery maker in Japan. It will be launched from Tanegashima Island in Japan.

    The UAE does not have its own rocket industry.

    Once launched, it is expected to arrive in orbit around Mars in February 2021( the year of 50th anniversary of UAE's founding).

     It costs about USD 200 million and will carry three instruments: an infrared spectrometer, an ultraviolet spectrometer and a camera.

4. Low-cost Supercapacitor from  Industrial waste cotton:

        Recently, Scientists at the International Advanced Research Center for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARIC) have developed a simple, low-cost, environment-friendly, and sustainable supercapacitor device.

        ARCI is an autonomous organization of the Department of Science And Technology, Government of India.

        Supercapacitor is a next generation energy storage device. They are also known as ultracapacitors.

        It has significant advantages such as high power density, long durability, and ultrafast charging characteristics as compared to conventional capacitors and Lithium-Ion batteries(LIB).

         Main components of  supercapacitors include electrode, electrolyte, separator, and the current collector.

Supercapacitor Device:  The supercapacitor is developed from industrial waste cotton based electrode & natural seawater electrolyte.

    Industrial waste cotton converted into highly porous carbon fibers by activation process and then utilized to make high-performance supercapacitor electrodes.

    Natural seawater was explored as an environment-friendly, cost-effective and alternative aqueous electrolyte.

    This supercapacitor showed great potential for practical implementation. It exhibited maximum capacitance, good durability and high efficiency.

5. Dolphin number dips in Chambal river:    According to the latest census report prepared by the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, the number of dolphins in Chambal river has been reduced by 13% in 4 years.

     There are just 68 dolphins left in the 435 kilometer long Chambal river sanctuary which passes through three states i.e. MadhyaPradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, Gangetic Dolphins are the sanctuary's main attraction.

     The decreasing trend is continuing from 2016 when there were 78 dolphins.

     The maximum carrying capacity of dolphins in Chambal is 125. The carrying capacity of an environment is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained in that specific environment , given the food, habitat, water and other resources available.

Gangetic Dolphin:   Scientific Name:  Platanista gangetica

It is India's National aquatic animal and is popularly known as 'Susu'. It is found in part of the Ganges-Meghna-Brahmaputra and Karnaphuli-Sangu river systems in India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

It is among the four freshwater dolphins in the world. The other three are: 1) The 'Baiji' now likely extinct from the Yangtze River in China

2) The 'Bhulan' of the Indus in Pakistan, and

3) The 'Boto' of the Amazon River in Latin America.

           Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary (VGDS) in

Bihar's Bhagalpur district is India's only sanctuary for dolphins.


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