TNPSC Current Affairs December 06, 2019

www.tnpsc.academy – TNPSC Current Affairs Dec 06, 2019 (06/12/2019)

Download as PDF

 

Topic: Awareness in Space, International Diary of Events

Hera mission

The European Space Agency (ESA) has approved the budget of Hera, the European component of the mission to slam a spacecraft into an asteroid.

What is Hera? Hera is the European contribution to an international double-spacecraft collaboration. Hera is named after the Greek goddess of marriage.

How is it planned? Due to launch in 2024, Hera would travel to a binary asteroid system – the Didymos pair of near-Earth asteroids.

NASA will first perform a kinetic impact on the smaller of the two bodies, then Hera will follow-up with a detailed post-impact survey that will turn this grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and repeatable planetary defence technique.

_

Topic: Latest Reports and Events

Global Climate Risk Index 2020

The international environmental think tank ‘Germanwatch’ has recently released the Global Climate Risk Index 2020.

The annually published Risk Index analyses to what extent countries have been affected by the impacts of weather-related loss events (storms, floods, heat waves etc.).

Germanwatch, based in Bonn and Berlin (Germany), is an independent development and environmental organisation which works for sustainable global development.

Key facts:

India is the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change. In 2020, India’s rank has worsened from the 14th spot in 2017 to 5th in 2018 in the global vulnerability. India has also recorded the highest number of fatalities due to climate change and the second highest monetary losses from its impact in 2018.

India’s high rank is due to severe rainfalls, followed by heavy flooding and landslide that killed over 1000 people.

_

Topic: Persons in News, Latest Historical Diary of Events

Maharaja Duleep Singh

He was the last ruler of the Sikh empire, born to Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1838 in Lahore.

In 1849, after the British defeated the Sikhs in the war, Singh was forced to sign a legal document that amended the Treaty of Lahore, requiring him to not only give up claims of sovereignty over the region, but also the Koh-i-noor diamond. In 1853, he converted to Christianity, and settled in the UK in 1854.

Why in news? Congress MP Pratap Singh Bajwa recently made a demand in the Rajya Sabha to exhume the remains of Maharaja Duleep Singh from his grave in England, and have them brought to Amritsar.

_

Topic: Geographical Events

8th cyclone formed in the North Indian Ocean region

Cyclone Pawan is the 8th cyclone formed in the North Indian Ocean Region. This is the highest number of cyclones in a single year since 1976, when nine cyclonic storms had formed in the region. Six of the cyclones this year were of the ‘Severe’ or ‘Higher’ category.

Cyclones so far: Bulbul, Maha, Kyarr, Fani, Vayu, Hikaa and Pabuk.

_

Topic: Awards and Honours, Persons in News

Alternative Nobel Prize

Yanomami shaman Davi Kopenawa, the “Dalai Lama of the Rainforest,” has received this year’s Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”.

The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to “honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today.” The prize was established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull, and is presented annually in early December.

_

Topic: Latest Diary of Events

Sukapaika

Sukapaika is one of the several distributaries of the mighty Mahanadi river in Odisha.

Why in News?

Sukapaika is being choked to death gradually due to government apathy. The riverbed has suffered erosion and it is full of hyacinth.

_

Topic: India’s Exercises with other countries

Exercises India

Hand-in-Hand-2019: The 8th India-China joint training exercise Hand-In-Hand 2019 is being conducted at Umroi, Meghalaya from 7 to 20 December 2019. The exercise is being conducted under the theme of counter terrorism under United Nations mandate.

Indra: Joint tri service Exercise between India and Russia

The Joint tri service exercise between India and Russia, INDRA 2019 is to be held between December 10-19, 2019 in Pune. The event is planned for 10 days between army, naval and air force forces of both the countries.

_

Topic: Profile of States, Latest Diary of Events

Sarai Sewage Treatment Plant inaugurated in Uttarakhand

King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden inaugurated Sarai Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in Uttarakhand. The Swedish King and Queen are on a five-day visit to India to strengthen bilateral ties.

It is the first STP to be completed under Hybrid Annuity (HAM) Based Public Private Partnership Model (PPPM). The 14 million litres per day (MLD) Sarai STP has been constructed at a cost of Rs.41.40 crore under Centre government’s Namami Gange Programme.