Daily Current Affairs 29 November 2019

Current Affairs of Today are

Daily Current Affairs 29 November 2019 daily news teller


    1) Defense Acquisition Council (DAC) 

    • The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh  on Thursday and approved the procurement of weapons and equipment worth ₹22,800 crore
    • Among them are six additional P­8I long­range patrol aircraft to be procured from the U.S. for the Navy and additional indigenous Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF).
    • Among them are six additional P­8I long­range patrol aircraft to be procured from the U.S. for the Navy and additional indigenous Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF).
    • The successful indigenous Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) program, the DAC revalidated the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for the procurement of additional AWACS aircraft
    • The mission system and sub­systems for these aircraft would be indigenously designed, developed and integrated into the main platform by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
    • The IAF now operates three Israeli Phalcon AWACS and three smaller indigenous Netra AEW&C systems mounted on Embraer aircraft
    Daily Current Affairs 29 November 2019 daily news teller

    Why the AEWC System needed?

    • A shortage of these force multipliers was felt during the aerial engagement with the Pakistan Air Force, a day after the Balakot airstrike in February.  
    • These platforms would provide on­board command and control and ‘early warning’, which would assist the IAF in achieving effective air space dominance in the least possible time, the statement said. The new systems are likely to be mounted on Airbus aircraft.

    Thermal Imaging Night Sights

    • The DAC approved the indigenous design, development, and manufacture of ‘thermal imaging night sights’ for assault rifles, and these will be made by the “Indian private industry and used by troops deployed on the front line.
    • It also approved the procurement of twin­engine heavy helicopters for the Coast Guard. 

    2)  Army test-fires Israeli anti-tank missile

    The Army successfully tested two newly­acquired Spike long-range anti­tank guided missiles at the Infantry School at Mhow, Madhya Pradesh. The Army has recently procured a small batch of 12 launchers and 250 missiles from Israel using its new financial powers to make emergency procurements

    3)  Chennai–Kanyakumari Industrial Corridor (CKIC)

    The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India today signed a $451 million loan to strengthen power connectivity between the southern and northern parts of the Chennai–Kanyakumari Industrial Corridor (CKIC), which is part of the East Coast Economic Corridor (ECEC), in Tamil Nadu. ADB is the lead partner of the Government of India for developing ECEC.

    Benefits

    • The project will help Government of Tamil Nadu meet the increasing demand for power supply from industry and commercial enterprises in the State through the transfer of power from new generation facilities, including renewable energy, in the southern CKIC to the industrial hubs in the state’s northern region
    • The project will provide an impetus to the industrial development of CKIC, which ADB has been assisting through strategic planning and investments in infrastructure while facilitating industrial investments. They are expected to enhance industrial competitiveness while creating well-paid jobs to support the state’s rapid economic transformation
    • The state is aiming to develop the northern Chennai–Tiruchirappalli area of CKIC as a manufacturing center while targeting the relatively poor southern Madurai–Thoothukudi portion for the development of renewable energy-based power generation because of the availability of wind and solar resources.

    About the Project

    The project will help establish an extra-high-voltage transmission link between Virudhunagar and Coimbatore to transfer the additional generation capacity of 9,000 megawatts (MW), including 6,000 MW from renewables, by 2025 to meet the increased power demand in the CKIC. This will help reliably evacuate power from these new power plants in the southern CKIC. The project will also build the operational capacity of TANTRANSCO, the state-owned company responsible for transmission, by supporting a financial restructuring plan, better facilities and work environment for women workers, and improved monitoring system for social and environmental impacts. To support this end, ADB has approved a complimentary technical assistance grant of $650,000.

    4) Generation of Solar Power in India

    • The Government of India has set a national target of installing 1,00,000 MW grid-connected solar power capacity in the country by December 2022. As on 31.10.2019, a total grid-connected solar power generation capacity of 31,696 MW has been set up in the Country, projects of 17998 MW capacity are at various stages of installations and tenders for 36278 MW capacity projects have been issued.
    • Most of the Solar power projects in the country have been/are being set up with private investment.
    • The Union Government has been implementing the National Solar Mission under which various Schemes have been launched for promoting the generation and use of solar power in the country. 
    • This apart, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy makes publicity for effective implementation of all schemes including Solar Schemes through print, social, electronic and other media. The Ministry has also launched a Mobile App for solar rooftop systems.

    5) Use of Plastic Waste in Development of Road

    Indian Roads Congress (IRC) has formulated IRC SP: 98:2013 ‘Guidelines for the use of Waste Plastic in Hot Bituminous Mixes (Dry process) in Wearing Courses’ based on the laboratory as well as field performance studies/investigations carried out in India.  To encourage the use of waste plastic on National Highway (NH), Ministry has issued Guidelines for its use within 50 km periphery of urban areas having population 5 lakh or more. The Guidelines also stipulate to take up a stretch of at least 10 km as a pilot project for assessment of its performance.  Waste plastic has already been utilized in wearing a course of about 50 km of NH stretches.

    Bituminous Mixes

    Bituminous binder course A bituminous-aggregate mixture used as an intermediate coarse between the base and surface courses or as the first bituminous layer in a two-layer bituminous resurfacing. It is sometimes called a leveling course.

    6) Acute Malnutrition in India

    • As per the report of the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) conducted by UNICEF during 2016-18, the prevalence of severe acute malnutrition among children is 4.9%, which indicates further reduction when compared to the levels reported by NFHS-4 as 7.4%.
    • As per the report of NFHS-4 conducted in 2015-16, 38.4% children under 5 years of age are stunted indicating a reduction and information from the previous NFHS – 3 conducted in 2005-06, which reported 48% children under 5 years of age as stunted and hence there is an improvement from the previous status. As per the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) conducted by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, the rate of stunting among children has further reduced to 34.7%.

    Reason Of Malnutrition in India

    • The important determinants are inadequate food, level of poverty leading to low purchasing power, poor socio-economic status of women, female illiteracy, high rate of population growth and low access of the population to health education, safe drinking water, environmental, sanitation, hygiene, and other social services
    • Key reasons for malnutrition set in early life are early marriage, faulty and sub-optimal infant and young child feeding practices, childhood illnesses, and low birth weight.

    Government Scheme to Fightback Malnutrition

    • The Government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition and is implementing several schemes/programs of different Ministries/Departments through States/UTs to address various aspects related to nutrition.
    • This Ministry is implementing POSHAN Abhiyaan, PradhanMantriMatruVandanaYojana, Anganwadi Services and Scheme for Adolescent Girls under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS) as direct targeted interventions to address the problem of malnutrition in the country. Children with Severe Acute Malnutrition are treated at the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres established by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

    7) Google Phishing

    Google sent out over 12,000 warnings to users globally, including about 500 in India, during the period from July to September this year, alerting them to “government­backed” phishing attempts against them. 

    What is Phishing?

    • Phishing is a fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by disguising oneself as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Typically carried out by email spoofing or instant messaging, it often directs users to enter personal information at a fake website that matches the look and feel of the legitimate site.
    • Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques being used to deceive users. Users are often lured by communications purporting to be from trusted parties such as social web sites, auction sites, banks, online payment processors or IT administrators.
    • Attempts to deal with phishing incidents include legislation, user training, public awareness, and technical security measures (the latter being due to phishing attacks frequently exploiting weaknesses in current web security).
    • The word itself is a neologism created as a homophone of fishing.

    Threat Analysis Group (TAG) of Google

    • Threat Analysis Group (TAG) works to counter targeted and government-backed hacking against Google and its users.
    • The TAG tracks more than 270 targeted or government­backed groups from more than 50 countries.
    • These groups have many goals, including intelligence collection, stealing of intellectual property, targeting dissidents and activists, destructive cyberattacks, or spreading coordinated disinformation 

    8) Cleaning of Ganga River

    Under Namami Gange Programme, diverse set of interventions like pollution abatement activities including sewage, industrial effluent, Solid Waste, etc., River Front Management, Aviral Dhara, Rural Sanitation, Afforestation, Biodiversity Conservation, Public Participation, etc. have been taken up for cleaning and rejuvenation of river Ganga.
    • A total of 305 projects have been sanctioned at an estimated cost of Rs. 28,613.75 Crore, out of which 109 projects have been completed and made operational; the rest of the projects are at various stages of implementation.
    • 97 cities/towns have been identified along river Ganga which is estimated to discharge 2953 Million Litres per Day (MLD) (the Year 2016) in the river.
    • For Ganga stem cities/town, projects have been taken up to create 3308 MLD sewage treatment capacity against the generation of 2953 MLD (the Year 2016). The sewage treatment capacity in Ganga main stem towns have now increased from 1305 MLD (the Year 2014) to 1954 MLD, excluding 410 MLD sewage treatment through East Kolkata Wetland
    • As per Detailed Progress Report (DPR) prepared by Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun, an area of 1,34,106 hectares is to be brought under plantation in the five Ganga States of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal by December 2020. The DPR prescribed 43 numbers of models under four major heads namely Natural landscape, Agricultural landscape, Urban landscape, and Conservation intervention.
    • Since the launch of the Namami Gange Programme, an area of 30,761 hectares has been planted during the period 2016-20.

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