Prelim Bits 09-10-2017

Mission Bhagiratha

It is being implemented in the State of Telangana to ensure safe and sustainable piped drinking water supply from surface water sources.
It is aimed at providing tap connection to every household, the surface water sources being Krishna and Godavari Basin.
It involves integration of all existing water supply schemes and ongoing drinking water projects.
Water will also be provided to Industrial requirements.
There is also a plan to install optical fibre pipelines using the extensive water pipeline network being laid under the mission.
This will save the state a large amount of funds that would have been needed to install a separate OFC network.
This Telangana model is also being emulated in Bihar, Karnataka and Maharashtra states.

International Conference on Dialogue of Civilisation

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in collaboration with National Geographic Society is hosting an “International Conference on Dialogue of Civilizations” at Delhi, Gandhinagar and Dholavira.
The first conference of this series was inaugurated in Guatemala in 2013 followed by Turkey in 2014 and China in 2015.
The present conference is the fourth in this series, with the final dialogue planned in Egypt.
It was launched with an objective to encourage scholarly and public discourse about the five ancient, literate civilizations of the world, i.e. Egypt, Mesopotamia, South Asia, China and Mesoamerica.

Project Loon

Project Loon developed by Google with the mission of providing Internet access to rural and remote areas.
The project uses high-altitude balloons placed in the stratosphere at an altitude of about 18 km to create an aerial wireless network.
It helps to improve communication during natural disasters to affected regions.
It was recently deployed in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP)

It is the world’s first initiative that aims to conserve high mountain ecosystems by protecting snow leopard in the region.
It unites all 12 range country governments, nongovernmental and inter-governmental organisations, local communities, private sector.
Arunachal Pradesh is one of the 22 priority landscapes of the GSLEP.
Recently, Scientists have obtained the first evidence of presence of Snow leopard in Community Conserved Area (CCA) in Arunachal Pradesh.
In 2004, WWF-India introduced the concept of CCAs in the State to empower local communities to become active decision-makers and implement conservation initiatives.
Snow leopard, native of central and south Asia, is listed as a ‘vulnerable’ category in the Red List of IUCN.
12 range countries - Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR)

The EDGAR information system is a joint project of the European Commission Joint Research Centre and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL).
It stores global emission inventories of greenhouse gases and air pollutants from anthropogenic sources both on a per country and region basis as well as on a grid.
According to its data, India’s emissions have gone up by 4.7% in 2016.
For most major GHG emitters in the world, the emission figures have gone down, barring India and Indonesia.
U.S. saw a fall of 2%, the Russian Federation 2.1%, Brazil 6.1%, China 0.3%, and, within the European Union, the United Kingdom 6.4%.

INS Trishul

INS Trishul belongs to Talwar class of frigates.
The Talwar-class guided missile frigate use stealth technologies and a special hull design to ensure a reduced radar cross section.
Recently, it thwarted a piracy attempt near Gulf of Aden.

Hurricane Nate

It is the fourth major storm to strike the United States in less than two months after Hurricane Harvey, Irma and Maria.
It has weakened to tropical storm after attaining a wind speed of 70 miles per hour (110 km per hour).

Source: PIB, The Hindu, BusinessLine