PIB Notes
Civil Services Chronicle Online, October, 2019 :
Chennai –Vladivostok Maritime Route
- India and Russia agreed to open a maritime route between the ports of Chennai and Vladivostok to ensure connectivity between the two countries.
SpaceCom: A New Pentagon Command
- SpaceCom is a new command of Pentagon (United States’ Department of Defense), dedicated to warfare in space.
- Air Force General John Raymond, will lead the new command.
Motihari-Amlekhgunj Pipeline
- The recently launched Motihari (Bihar)-Amlekhgunj (Nepal) pipeline is the first cross-border petroleum products pipeline in South Asia.
- The 69km pipeline will transport fuel from Barauni in Bihar to Amlekhgunj in Nepal.
- Construction of the pipeline was undertaken by Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOCL), India’s largest refiner, in collaboration with Nepal Oil Corp. Ltd (NOCL).
Chilahati- Haldibari Rail Link
- The foundation stone was laid at Chilahati in Bangladesh for undertaking the work of up-gradation and laying of missing tracks from Chilahati to the border with India near Haldibari.
- The 7.5-kilometre long railway track will help in providing connectivity from West Bengal into Assam via Bangladesh.
- The Haldibari-Chilahati railway track was part of the broad gauge main route from Kolkata to Siliguri during British undivided India. Trains from Bangladesh to Darjeeling via Siliguri operated till 1965 which stopped functioning after the 1965 Indo-Pak war.
Taiwan: Losing Diplomatic Allies
- Kiribati is the seventh country to sever its diplomatic ties with Taiwan since President Tsai Ing-wen came to office in 2016, following Burkina Faso, the Dominican Republic, Sao Tome and Principe, Panama, El Salvador and the Solomon Islands.
- China claims Taiwan as its territory, and says the democratic island has no right to formal ties with any country.
- Taiwan now has formal relations with only 15 countries worldwide.
- India has no official diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
Operation Matterhorn
- It was the largest peacetime repatriation of British Govt. after travel company Thomas Cook declared bankruptcy, stranding hundreds of thousands of holiday-makers.
- The effort was to fly 150,000 travelers who were booked on Thomas Cook flights back home to Britain.
World Patient Safety Day
- In World War II, Operation Matterhorn was a military operation of the United States Army Air Forces for the strategic bombing of Japanese forces. The name comes from the Matterhorn, a mountain the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy, traditionally considered particularly difficult to climb.
- The World Health Organization hosted the first-ever World Patient Safety Day on September 17, 2019.
- It is an awareness campaign, to be observed annually, to prevent harms to patients due to errors in diagnosis, errors in medicine prescriptions and treatments, and the inappropriate use of drugs. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 138 million patients are harmed every year by doctors' errors.
- 17 September was established as World Patient Safety Day by the 72nd World Health Assembly in May 2019.
- The theme of the very first World patient Safety Day was “Patient Safety: A Global Health Priority” and the slogan was “Speak up for Patient Safety”.
Radioactive Cesium Technology To Measure Soil Erosion
- Researchers at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun have come up with a way to monitor soil erosion and decrease in carbon content in soil by correlating it with levels of radioactive cesium in soil.
- Radioactive cesium technology is a more rapid and less expensive method for soil erosion studies in the severely intensive croplands. It gives more accurate results for all types of erosion studies including historic, comparative and long-term soil and soil organic carbon erosion.
- For measuring cesium levels in soil, gamma spectroscopy technique is used. Different sites were found to have varying levels of cesium pointing at different degrees of soil degradation in different sites. By applying various formulas, the cesium loss was then used to calculate erosion and associated carbon loss in soil.
- This method can help in monitoring the effects of soil erosion and effectiveness of soil conservation strategies.
First Indigenous Fuel Cell System
- The first Indigenous High Temperature Fuel Cell System developed by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in partnership with Indian industries under India’s flagship program named “New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI)” was launched on the occasion of CSIR Foundation Day.
- The 5.0 kW fuel cell system generates power in a green manner using methanol / bio-methane, with heat and water as bi-products for further use; amounting to greater than 70% efficiency, which otherwise may not be possible by other energy sources.
- The Fuel Cells developed are based on High Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane (HTPEM) Technology.
NIRVIK Scheme: To Ease Lending Process
- The Ministry of Commerce & Industry through Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) has introduced a new Export Credit Insurance Scheme (ECIS) called NIRVIK to enhance loan availability and ease the lending process.
- Enhanced cover will ensure that Foreign and Rupee export credit interest rates will be below 4% and 8% respectively for exporters.
- Under ECIS, insurance cover percentage has also been enhanced to 90% from the present average of 60% for both Principal and Interest.
