Prelim Bits 07-11-2019

Shaala Darpan Portal

It is an E-Governance school automation and management system for Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) in New Delhi.
Navodaya Vidyalaya is the country’s largest residential schooling system that provides education to the talented children predominantly from the rural areas without regard to their family's socio-economic conditions.
This portal has been developed for information sharing and knowledge dissemination for employees and students across schools and offices of NVS.
It is the first major initiative to enable automation of all activities of the NV’s through a single umbrella - 636 schools, 8 Regional Offices, 8 NLIs and Head Quarter.
There is also another portal with the same name for Kendriya Vidyalayas.
Kendriya Vidyalaya Shaala Darpan is an e-Governance platform for all KVs in the country.
It aims to improve quality of learning, efficiency of school administration, governance of schools & service delivery to key stakeholders namely, students, parents, teachers, community and schools.

Other Related Portals

Shaala Sarathi is a State-NGO-CSR Portal to aid the collaboration among the stakeholders in sharing innovative practices in various schools.
Shaala Siddhi is a comprehensive school evaluation system focused on well-defined quality-based parameters that facilitates Schools to make professional judgments for improvement.

IndAIR

Indian Air quality Interactive Repository (IndAIR), is a web facility launched by CSIR-NEERI.

It has archived research articles, reports, case studies and statues to provide the history of air pollution research and legislation in the country.
It has the maximum number of studies (262) concerning Delhi-NCR.
It reveals that air pollution was recognised as a subject in India even in 1905.
This portal would be a useful platform for the scientific community to share its current work and exchange ideas.

Voyager 2

Voyager 2 is the space probe launched by NASA in 1977 to study the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune).
In 2018, It has passed an incredible milestone in its journey to explore the solar system by entering interstellar space (exited the heliosphere).
Voyager probes (Voyager 1 and 2) are the first spacecraft to date that humans have sent to this boundary, called the heliopause.
Recent developments - Scientists have decoded the signals sent by Voyager 2 from interstellar space.
The signals will help scientists paint a clearer picture of cosmic shoreline, where the heliosphere ends, and interstellar space begins.
The findings also confirmed that the plasma inside the heliosphere is significantly less dense and less cold than the plasma in local interstellar space.
Another surprising revelation was the magnetic field in the region just beyond the heliopause is parallel to the magnetic field inside the heliosphere.

Heliosphere, Heliopause and Interstellar Space

The sun creates heliosphere by sending a constant flow of particles and a magnetic field out into space at over 670,000 miles per hour. This stream is called the ‘solar wind.’
Heliopause marks the end of a region created by our sun that is called the heliosphere.
It is the boundary between our Solar System and the interstellar medium.
It is the place where the sun’s constant flow of material and magnetic field stop affecting its surroundings.
Interstellar Space is the part of space that exists between stars with cold particles around it.
Inside the heliosphere, the solar particles are hot but less concentrated. Outside of the bubble, they are very much colder but more concentrated.
Once an object arrives in interstellar space, there would be an increase of “cold” particles around it.

BIMSTEC Ports’ Conclave

Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a regional organization of 7 members - Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.
The first ever BIMSTEC Ports’ Conclave is going to be organised at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
The conclave is expected to explore the possibility of increasing economic cooperation by furthering EXIM trade and coastal shipping.
It will also discuss on various investment opportunities, best practices adopted for productivity and safety at Ports.
Objective of BIMSTEC is to harness trade and accelerated growth with mutual cooperation in different areas of common interest by utilising the regional resources and geographical advantage.

Office of Profit

President has rejected a petition demanding disqualification of 11 Delhi MLAs belonging to Aam Aadmi Party for allegedly holding office of profit.
In March 2017, a petition was filed before the President seeking disqualification of the lawmakers claiming that they were enjoying office of profit by being co-chairpersons of district disaster management authorities in 11 districts of Delhi.
The issue was referred to Election Commission which gave an opinion that holding the office of co-chairperson of a district disaster management authority does not attract disqualification as MLA since there is no remuneration by way of salary and allowances.
As per law, the President accepts the opinion of the Election Commission in cases of office of profit.

‘Office of profit’ (OoP) is not clearly defined in the Constitution.
But deriving from the past judicial pronouncements, five tests have been laid down to check if an office is an OoP or not.
They are:

whether the government makes the appointment
whether the government has the right to remove or dismiss the holder
whether the government pays remuneration
what the functions of the holder are
does the government exercise any control over the performance of these functions

In all, the word ‘profit’ has always been treated equivalent to or a substitute for the term 'pecuniary gain' (financial gain).

Source: PIB, The Indian Express, AIR