Zero tillage is an agricultural practice. It maintains permanent soil cover. It increases natural biological processes that occur in the soil. It improves sustained crop production and increases soil nutrition. There is no soil disturbance.
Tillage is land preparation. Tilling of land means agitating the soil particles by overturning, digging and stirring. This is done to kill weeds, crop residues and to aerate the soil. However, tilling destroys natural structure of the soil. If greater soil area is exposed to sunlight (which usually happens while tilling with the help of tractors), the moisture retaining capacity of soil is lost. On the other hand, zero tillage skips the tilling process. Here the crop seed is sown without land preparation. And the seeds are drilled into the soil.
It reduces crop duration. Thus, early cropping is obtained. It aids in getting higher yields. It reduces inputs of land preparation. It utilizes residual moisture in the soil reducing the need for external irrigation. It decreases greenhouse effect due to increase in carbon sequestration. It prevents soil erosion, water loss by runoff. Also, it reduces soil compaction. It slows evaporation. This leads to better rainwater absorption. Ultimately land yield increases.
In India, Zero Tillage is followed in Indo – Gangetic plains. Here, wheat is planted immediately after harvesting paddy. The major challenges faced by Indian farmers in following the method is that, in due course, the land yield decreases. This is mainly because of long time gap between the successive crops. The land should not be left barren for more than ten days before sowing the next crop. Most of the farmers fail to stick to the time gap strictly.
If the level of tilling is reduced, it is called conservation tillage. Here tilling is not avoided. It is only reduced. This is also called strip – tillage. If the tilling is done once in two years (or alternate year), it is called rotational tillage.
The Quadrantid meteor shower occurs in January every year. The radiant of the shower lies in the Bootes constellation.
The meteor showers are caused due to debris or trail of dust left by a comet. When the earth moves through the left-over dust particles, they catch fire. How do they fire up? Earth revolves around the sun at a speed of 1,00,000 km/sec! When the dust particles encounter such huge speeds, large amounts of frictional forces are generated. These frictional forces produce the heat energy and fire the particles. Just like a match stick! Match stick is the earth and match box is the particle (not considering the weight).
The Geminids meteor shower occurs in December. The Perseids meteor shower occurs in August. The Quadrantid meteor shower is not as bright as the Geminids and Perseids. This is because the duration of peak occurrence is comparatively less. It lasts only for hours. Also, the meteors are faint. Their magnitudes are between 3 and 6. The magnitude of meteor storm is around 1000. Meteor storms occur during Perseids and Geminids. But is rare during Quadrantid.
The meteor shower is short because of its thin stream of particles. More the number of particles, heavier and longer the shower. Also, earth crosses the particles at right angles. This generates less frictional force against the particles. Thus there is no enough heat energy generated to fire the particles for longer time.
The radiant point is the celestial point from where the meteors originate. Bootes constellation is located in the northern sky. It has the fourth brightest star known to humans, orange giant Arcturus.
C/1490Y1. It was first observed by the Chinese and Japanese 500 years ago.
The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) recently released the unemployment status report of India for the month of December, 2021. According to the report, the unemployment rate in the country was 7.91% in December. It was 7% in November.
The lowest unemployment rate was recorded in Karnataka (1.4%). Karnataka was followed by Gujarat and Odisha with an unemployment rate of 1.6%, Chhattisgarh (2.1%), Telangana (2.2%).
The states were forced to impose restrictions due to increasing Omicron cases in the country. For instance, the capital closed gyms, schools and cinemas. States such as Haryana and West Bengal restricted public gatherings and imposed other similar curbs. This hit the economic activities very badly and increased the unemployment rate. The pandemic is shutting down the labour markets all over the world. This has huge impact in India where one million enter the job market every month.
The report is used by researchers and economists as the most reliable data. This is because India lacks nationwide official unemployment data. CMIE is a business information company. It was established in 1976. It creates business and economic databases. Also, it delivers specialised analytical tools to its customers.
It is measured as the percentage of number of unemployed (X) among the total number in labour force (Y). Mathematically, it is expressed as X/Y * 100. The total labour force is the number of unemployed and employed.
It is a new species recently discovered in India. Along with Monoceromyia flavoscutata, researchers also found Monoceromyia nigra. These newly discovered species were classified as a new type Syrphid flies.
The Monoceromyia genus is generally referred to as syrphid fly. They are generally found in Australasian, Afrotropical, Neotropical and Oriental regions. Afrotropical includes Africa, Arabian Peninsula, south of Sahara Desert, southern Iran, Madagascar, islands of western Indian Ocean and extreme south west Pakistan. The oriental region refers to East, South and Central Asia. Neotropical region includes South America, Caribbean and Central America.
They are also called hoverflies or flower flies. They are the major enemies of slow-moving insects and aphids. As they resemble bees or wasps they are some times called syrphid bees. They often hover around flowers. Just like the newly discovered species, most of them have black and yellow stripes. These stripes give them the bee like appearance. They are hairy with short antennae and thin abdomen. They lay white coloured eggs. Summer is their egg laying season. One single female lays several hundreds of eggs in a single season.
They are listed as endangered in the western ghats and north eastern India.
The species feed on nectar and pollen grains. Their larvae feed on decaying plants and animal matter, aphids and other plant sucking insects. Aphids are crop pests. As these bees or flies, help in pollination and their larvae control pest population, they are the best friends of farmers. Sometimes, gardeners and farmers cultivate companion plants to attract these flies.
According to World Bank’s Sri Lanka Development Update (SLDU), Sri Lanka is facing an acute economic crisis because of job & earning losses, and high food inflation.
The COVID-19 pandemic has not impacted all the economic sectors equally. As per sectoral GDP data and discussion in Chapter 1, industries have been affected more than services and agriculture. But subsectors witnessed large variations. Weak external demand has impacted export-oriented subsectors. Among industrial subsectors, textile manufacturing and construction suffered the largest decline because these sectors are sensitive to demand shocks and require workers to be physically present.
Because of financial crisis, rating agencies such as Moody’s, S&P and Fitch have downgraded their sovereign ratings for Sri Lanka. Moody’s downgraded its rating by two notches to Caa1, on the other hand, S&P downgraded its rating down to B- in September and CCC+ in December.
World Bank has suggested to focus on four priorities for Sri Lanka to transform its economy, achieve a sustainable trajectory and create more jobs in order to reduce poverty and recover from the impact of covid-19. The four priorities are:
Union Environment Ministry has extended measures to conserve the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats. It will be delayed by another six months. Deadline to notify new rules have been extended till June 30, 2022.
Experts had called for demarcation of ecologically sensitive areas immediately, following floods and landslides in the Western Ghats in Maharashtra and Kerala in June 2021.
Western Ghats is a mountain range, covering an area of 160,000 km2 in a stretch of 1,600 km parallel to western coast of Indian peninsula. It covers the states of Goa, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one among the eight biodiversity hotspots of the world. As per UNESCO, Western Ghats are older than the Himalayas.
The Energy Transition Advisory Committee was formed by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. It is headed by Tarun Kapoor, former Secretary of Petroleum Ministry. It will focus on increasing the share of clean energy sources such as hydrogen, biofuel, nuclear, geothermal, tidal in the energy mix of the country.
The committee will primarily focus on biofuel and green hydrogen of all the clean energies. It will create plans to improve their supply chains.
The bio fuel plans will focus on creating sustainable biomass supply chain. Also, it will focus on increasing the biofuel infrastructure in the country. India is currently planning to set up 5,000 biogas plants. These measures are being adopted because India is primarily looking for options to increase domestic production of fuels. And this can be achieved only by increasing biofuel production.
The committee will focus on increasing green hydrogen production in the country. This has been prioritised of all the other functions of the committee. Also, the committee will focus on creating a strong value chain for green hydrogen. The committee’s plan towards Green Hydrogen will help India’s National Hydrogen Mission (NHM) largely. The mission was announced during 2021-22 Budget. The NHM aims to produce hydrogen from renewable sources. It had put green hydrogen at the centre of India’s climate change plans and energy security measures.
The committee will create transition plans for oil companies. It will help the transport sector to move towards clean energy.
The QuantumScape Corp, a battery start-up backed by Volkswagen AG is working on a technology called “Iron-Air Battery”.
Iron–air rechargeable batteries are an attractive technology, having the potential of grid-scale energy storage. Main raw-material of this technology is iron oxide (rust), which is non-toxic, abundant, inexpensive and environmentally friendly. Most of the iron- batteries are currently being developed using iron oxide for generating or storing hydrogen through a redox reaction.
Power in the iron-air batteries comes from interaction of iron with oxygen. The steel oxidizes in the same manner as it would during its corrosion phase in that procedure. Necessary oxygen for the reaction can be taken from ambient air. Thus, it eliminates the requirement of cell to store it. Iron-air batteries save more energy as compared to lithium-ion batteries with 600wh/kg.
Iron-air batteries are significance because, both ferrous and sodium are highly abundant. They are the building blocks of alkali solutions. They have a high potential to grow. They have a life span of around 30 years. Iron-oxygen batteries are also resilient to overcurrent, overcharging, and partial discharge. A rechargeable iron-oxygen battery could supply 100 hours of energy at operating cost as compared to traditional power stations. It is less than a tenth as compared to price of lithium-ion batteries. These batteries have gained interest due to their energy density, reversibility and environmental acceptability.
Assistant professor Subodh G of Kerala University and research scholar Vidhya Lalan have developed fifth-generation (5G) microwave absorbers.
The problems generated by EMI requires immediate attention in this era of 5G technology and Internet of Things (IoT). This is because it has become difficult to undertake routine chores without using electronic devices and internet, which work around electromagnetic waves. Thus, the development of 5H microwave absorbers is significant for high frequently applications.
The research on mayenite electride was undertaken as part of ‘Microwave Materials Laboratory scheme’, which is funded by Kerala University.
EMI is a disturbance generated by an external source, affecting an electrical circuit by electromagnetic induction, conduction or electrostatic coupling. This disturbance may disturb the performance of circuit or even stop it from working. EMI could be cause by man-made as well as natural sources generating changing electrical currents and voltages.
On January 2, 2022 India donated 500,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Afghanistan and will further send another 500,000 doses in coming days as a part of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
India had also offered to provide 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan via land routes in Pakistan. However, it has been held up because of conditions provided by Pakistan. On December 3, Pakistan stated to allow wheat and medicines supply via Wagah land border crossing in Afghan trucks. But modalities have not yet finalised.
As per World Food Programme, around 98% of Afghans are starving in the country, because of a worsening economic crisis, conflict and drought. This figure has increased by 17% since August 2021.
Relations between the people of Afghanistan and India dates back Indus Valley Civilisation. The Mauryan brought Buddhism from India and controlled southern part of Hindu Kush. Afghanistan has been influenced by Buddhist, Hindu and Zoroastrian cultures, before Islam arrived in 7th century. Both the countries see imprint of bilateral timeless relationship through Buddhist symbols of Aynak & Bamyan in Afghanistan as well as through majestic monuments in Delhi & in Indian cultures, arts, languages, foods, literatures, and festivals.
Natural gas shortage in Pakistan is impacting its most important export industry and is putting more stress on its economy, which is already struggling with weak currency and high inflation. Shortfall in supply is due to the inability of energy ministry to arrange supply.
Pakistan has emerged as a fast-growing import market for LNG, in the backdrop of subsidence of local supply and diminishing local gas sources over the last few years. The competition for the fuel has increased due to global shortages. This competition is sending princes to level which Pakistan cannot afford. In Pakistan, fuel is used as an electricity feedstock and for heating and cooking. Energy crisis is worsening due to increasing cost of LNG.
Pakistan faces gas shortages every winter because its natural gas fields are witnessing a depletion of around 9 per cent each year while importing LNG is very expensive.
Government in Pakistan will need to increase taxes. It has recently increased petrol price levies, on a pre-condition to resume its $6 billion bailout program with International Monetary Fund.
The much-awaited Water Taxi Services is likely to start in Mumbai, from January 2022.
Water Taxi Service is expected to be inaugurated in first week of January 2022, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Presently, there are three operators ready. Fourth operator will join after their catamaran is certified fit.
Work on the Water Taxi Services project was accelerated after Nitin Gadkari assumed charges as Shipping Minister.
The Water Taxi Service project is a joint initiative of Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT), Maharashtra Maritime Board and City & Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO).
Fares from DTC to Navi Mumbai will be around Rs 1200 to 1500 per passenger, while fares from DTC to JNPT will be around Rs 750. The fares are high at present. Rates will be decreased once operators get a large catamaran.
Water Taxi will take 30-minute to ferry from DCT to Navi Mumbai while 15-20 minutes to ferry from DCT to JNPT. These services can operate from 300 to 330 days in a year. However, it will not operate in extremely heavy rains.
The Gateway of India was earlier connected to Navi Mumbai and Girgaum was connected to Juhu by catamaran. But the services were shut down in 1994. Currently, there are speedboats, catamarans, and launches, running on the Mumbai-Mandwa route. Launches also connect Mumbai with Uran, Rewas, Mora, Mandwa and Elephanta Caves.
Central Government has postponed the first phase of the census and collection of details for updating the National Population Register (NPR) at least till September, 2022.
First phase of Census 2021, involving House listing, Housing Census and updating the NPR, was scheduled to be held from April-September, 2020. However, it was postponed indefinitely amid COVID-19 pandemic.
The second and main phase of the census, involving population enumeration, was scheduled to be concluded by March 5, 2021. But it could not happen since States were banned to create new administrative units from January 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021.
NPR is a list of all the people residing in India. It includes both citizens and non-citizens. NPR was first compiled in 2010. It was updated in 2015. It has already compiled a database of 119 crore residents. NPR was to be updated along with the first phase of 2020 census.
It was founded in 1961 by Ministry of Home Affairs, to arrange, conduct and analyse the results of demographic surveys of India including Linguistic Survey and Census of India. The position of Registrar is held by a civil servant, who holds the rank of Joint Secretary.
Census in India is the largest single source of several statistical information on different characteristics of citizens in India. First synchronous census was conducted in 1881.
Following mass protests in the capital city Khartoum, Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announced his resignation on January 2, 2022.
Resignation of Hamdok is another blow to fragile attempts by Sudan in transitioning to democratic rule, following a popular uprising which led to the overthrow of long-term authoritarian President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
Sudan’s army had staged a coup on October 25, 2021. This coup had placed Prime Minister Hamdok under house arrest initially. Following this, the civilian and military leaders had signed a power-sharing agreement.
Prime Minister Hamdok had reached to power-sharing agreement with Army in November 2021. Under the agreement, reinstated prime minister was supposed to lead the cabinet of technocrats until new elections were held. However, it was not clear that how much power the new civilian government would have. While, protesters showed distrust towards the military.
Sudan is a Northeast African country. It was declared an independent state on January 1, 1956. It shares border with countries of Central African Republic, Egypt, Chad, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Libya, and the Red Sea. As of 2021, Sudan has the population of 44.91 million people. Sudan is the third-largest country by area in Africa as well as in Arab League. Until the secession of South Sudan in 2011, it was the largest country by area in Africa & Arab League. Khartoum is the capital city of Sudan while Omdurman is the most populated city.
Sudan’s economy is described as lower-middle income. The economy relies on oil production irrespective of long-term international sanctions and isolation. The country is also a member of the United Nations, African Union, the Arab League, COMESA, Organisation of Islamic Co-operation and Non-Aligned Movement.
PowerGrid Corporation Limited celebrated the anniversary of the achievement of “One Nation One Grid”, as a part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.
On this occasion, Free health check-up and medical camps were organised across 70 locations.
Currently, India has a total inter-regional transmission capacity of about 1,12,250 MW. It is likely to enhance to about 1,18,740 MW by 2022.
Synchronisation of all regional grids will help in utilizing the natural resources optimally, by transferring Power from Resource centric regions to Load centric regions. It will also lead to the establishment of vibrant Electricity market facilitating trading of power in India.
Power Grid is an Indian statutory corporation, working under the parent head of Ministry of Power. It is headquartered in Gurugram. The organisation engages mainly in transmission of bulk power across India. Power Grid transmits around 50% of the total power generated in India.