Daily Current affairs - May 17th, 2017 for all competitive exams
For skills
development of youth in coastal areas, the Ministry of Shipping signed an MoU
with the Ministry of Rural Development.
- The
MoU is for convergence of the Ministry’ prestigious project
Sagaramala and Ministry of Rural Development’s flagship programme Deen
Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDUGKY).
- DDU-GKY
is expected to bring in its skilling expertise to provide skilling for the
coastal communities, thereby preparing them to take advantage of the job
opportunities that are expected to come up in the maritime sector follwing
port led development under Sagarmala.
- This
MoU will meet the exact skill needs of industries in the port and maritime
sector and provide the coastal communities right skills for better
opportunities emanating from the large scale impact of Sagarmala projects.
- The
Sagarmala project seeks to develop a string of ports around India’s
coast. The objective of this initiative is to promote
“Port-led development” along India’s 7500 km long coastline.
India
working with World Gold Council to create a spot exchange
The World Gold
Council is working with the Indian government on plans to create a local
physical spot-gold exchange that may start up as soon as next year. this is
expected to bring more order and structure to the market.
- The
plans still face many hurdles including that the state-level rather than
central government has responsibility for gold-related matters in India.
Increased infrastructure such as gold vaults and reliable receipts for
metal are also needed.
Indian Navy signs MoU with Space Application Centre
The Indian Navy and Ahmedabad-
based Space Application Centre (SAC) inked a pact on data
sharing and scientific cooperation in the field of meteorology and
oceanology.
- The
pact provides for the creation of a common platform for sharing
expertise achieved by SAC with the Navy in a number of areas, including
satellite data acquisition technology.
- The
Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Vice Admiral S N Ghormade,
Director General Naval Operations, and SAC Director Tapan Misra at an
event in Ahmedabad.
IIEST creates India's first smart grid
project
IIEST has successfully created the country's
first smart grid project, which will generate power from renewable sources of
energy.
- The
project will be inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee.
- The
smart grid will be synchronized to generate power from solar, wind and
vegetable waste resources, depending on the weather conditions and
availability of waste products. It is the first of its kind in the
country.
India’s
first technological park for ornamental fishery at Chennai:
India’s first
Aquatic Rainbow Technology Park (ARTP) in Chennai, an ultra modern exclusive
facility for ornamental fish equipped with multi-species hatchery and live feed
culture units, will become operational in the next three months, fulfilling a
major requirement of the industry for mass production of high-value aquarium
fish.
- The
facility is being developed by Fisheries College and Research Institute
(FCRI), Ponneri in Tamil Nadu, the second largest exporter of ornamental fish
after West Bengal.
- After
the completion, it will be handed over to ornamental fish breeders and
farmers on lease for three years.
Karnataka
State gets its own butterfly:
- The
Southern Bird Wing has been designated as the ‘State butterfly’ of
Karnataka. It is the largest butterfly in India and is endemic to south
India, particularly Karnataka.
- Karnataka is second state in the country to adopt a state butterfly. Maharashtra had chosen the Blue Moron in 2015.
Andhra Pradesh ropes in Singapore firms to develop
start-up area in Amaravati
Singapore-based Ascendas-Singbridge Pvt
Ltd and Sembcorp Development Ltd were awarded a contract by
the Andhra Pradesh government to act as the master developer for a
start-up area in the capital city of Amaravati.
- For
the speedy implementation of the project, a high-level joint
implementation steering committee (JISC) will also be formed.
- The
JISC will be co-chaired by the AP CM chief minister N. Chandrababu
Naidu and Minister of trade and industry of Singapore
govt S.Iswaran.
Bengal
to set up ‘cage culture’ for rearing fish in deep sea
A new method
of deep-sea pisciculture is soon going to be introduced in Bengal – cage
culture.
- As
the name suggests, the practice consists of culturing fish inside big
floating cages in the middle of the sea.
- This
type of fish culture is being successfully practised in Norway, Thailand,
Japan, Philippines and some other countries.
- The cages are covered with nets to prevent sea birds from feeding on the fish. They are tied down with buoys to provide stability.
ISRO, NASA to jointly inspect 'oldest civilization'
site in Haryana
Teams of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) of the United States and the Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO) would inspect the excavation being carried
out at an archaeological site in Haryana's Fatehabad district to
verify claims of it being the oldest civilization in the world.
- Archaeologists
have recovered artifacts pre-dating the Harappan Civilisation from the
site, located in village Kunal in Fatehabad district.
Henderson
island- Most polluted place on the Earth:
Henderson
island, located in south Pacific Ocean, has been classified as the most
polluted place on the earth by Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Aquatic
Studies. The island contained 37.7 million pieces of debris.
- The
island is a world heritage site. It lies between Chile and New Zealand.
- It
is one of the world’s last two raised coral atolls.
SpaceX launches Inmarsat communications satellite
The USA based SpaceX has launched
a communications satellite for Inmarsat, marking its first
launch for the London-based mobile broadband company.
- The
Inmarsat-5 F4 satellite, built by Boeing, blasted off atop Falcon 9 rocket
from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Yellow-eyed
penguins could be wiped out in 25 years:
Researchers
have predicted that New Zealand’s iconic Yellow-eyed penguins may go extinct
within the next 25 years due to rising ocean temperatures and climate change.
- The
study highlights where conservation efforts could be most effective in
building penguins’ resilience against climate change.
- It
is classified as endangered by the IUCN.
India ranked second in renewable energy
attractiveness index
India has moved up to the second
spot from third position in this year's (2017) 'Renewable energy country
attractiveness index' released by EY (Earnest and Young).
- China, which has been ranked first in the index and India have surpassed the US, which fell for the first time since 2015 to third place in the ranking of top 40 countries.
Ovais
Sarmad appointed as Deputy executive secretary of UNFCCC
Ovais Sarmad,
a senior Indian official, has been appointed as the deputy executive secretary
of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), under which
the landmark Paris agreement was negotiated and adopted. He was appointed by
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
- With
197 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of
the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
Deepti Sharma, Poonam Raut create cricket history
with record 320-run stand
India women’s cricket team openers Deepti Sharma
and Poonam Raut became the first-ever pair to share a 300-run stand in a
One-Day International.
- This feat was accomplished in a match against Ireland at Potchefstroom during the quadrangular series in South Africa.
