Current Affairs Question - 02 March 2020

Explanation :

• The Project Monitoring Group (PMG) is an institutional mechanism for the expedited resolution of issues and regulatory bottlenecks in projects with investments upward Rs. 500 Crores in India.
• It aims to facilitate issue resolution in projects that are facing delays or awaiting regulatory clearances with State and/or Central Ministries.
• It was set up as a special cell in the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India in 2013 and was subsequently brought under the administrative control of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in 2015.
• In February 2019, PMG was merged with Invest India, Department of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce.
• PMG seeks to enlist unresolved project issues of all Public, Private and ‘Public–Private Partnership’ (PPP) Projects and undertakes fast-tracking of approvals, sectoral policy issues and removal of bottlenecks in expeditious commissioning.

Explanation :

• Watermelon snow, also called snow algae, pink snow, red snow, or blood snow, is a phenomenon caused by Chlamydomonas nivalis, a species of green algae containing a secondary red carotenoid pigment (astaxanthin) in addition to chlorophyll.
• Capable of surviving in extreme cold, this algae is found throughout the world in polar and mountainous regions. It is the carotenoids in the algae's chloroplasts that give snow a red color.
• The more sunlight the algae receive, the more it produces the “watermelon red” pigment, which causes the snow to melt faster.
• Snow blooms contribute to climate change because of the red-crimson color, the snow reflects less sunlight and melts faster. As a consequence, it produces more and more bright algae.