Poultry birds - Fowl, Duck, Emu, Turkeys, Quail and other poultry birds
The three key highlights of the 2019 census are,
The total Livestock populationis 535.78 million, an increase of 4.6% over the previous census 2012,
Total Bovine population (Cattle, Buffalo, Mithun and Yak) is 302.79 Million, an increase of about 1% over the previous census,
The total number of cattle is 192.49 million, an increase of 0.8 % over previous Census.
The major thrust given to 20th Livestock Census is the collection of data through tablets computers, coordinated by National Informatics Centre.
Food Safety Mitra
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched Food Safety Mitra Scheme on the occasion of World Food Day,2019.
It is to strengthen food safety administration and scale up the ‘Eat Right India’ movement.
The scheme will support small and medium scale food businesses to comply with the food safety laws and facilitate licensing and registration, hygiene ratings and training.
The Food Safety Mitras would undergo training and certification by FSSAI and get paid by food businesses for their services.
It would also create new employment opportunities for youth, particularly with food and nutrition background.
GOAL
Going Online as Leaders (GOAL) is a Facebook program launched for underprivileged young tribal women.
It aimed at inspiring, guiding and encouraging tribal girls from across India to become village-level digital young leaders for their communities.
It connects tribal women with senior expert mentors in the areas of business, fashion and arts to learn digital and life skills.
Ministry of Tribal Affairs associated with Facebook have recently launched the 2nd phase of this program.
In the second phase of the program, will digitally mentor 5000 young women in India’s tribal dominated districts.
It will give provide the tools and guidance they need to succeed, using technology they may otherwise have not had access to.
Exoplanets and Dark Matter
Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the University of Geneva, for discovering for the first time a planet outside our solar system orbiting a Sun-like star.
The other half of the prize is to James Peebles, Princeton University, for his contribution to physical cosmology.
Exoplanets - It is an extrasolar planet i.e a planet outside our solar system.
51 Pegasi b was the first exoplanet to be discovered by Mayor and Queloz in December, 1995.
The constellation Pegasus has a star 51 Pegasi which is some 50 light years away from earth.
According to the NASA exoplanet archive, as of October 10, 2019, there are 4,073 confirmed exoplanets.
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) –40,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe expanded and cooled to a few 10000C.
This causes it to become transparent, allowing light to pass through it and the observation of the remnants of this ancient glow is known as CMB.
It was detected first in 1964, winning for its discoverers a Nobel Prize in 1978.
It consists of light in the microwave range because the expansion of the universe stretched the light so much. Microwave radiation is invisible light.
By studying the microwave, it could reveal how much energy and matter does the universe contain.
Dark Energy - In 1998, it was discovered that the universe is expanding, and that this expansion was gaining speed or accelerating.
There had to be an “invisible” energy that was driving this.
Calculations showed that this dark energy did not interact with the observed mass and makes up about 70% of the universe.
Microbial Fuel Cells
Microbial fuel cells are devices that use bacteria as the catalysts to oxidise organic and inorganic matter and generate current.
The electrons produced by the bacteria are transferred to the negative terminal and flow to the positive terminal.
Plants naturally deposit biomatter as they grow, which in turn feeds the natural bacteria present in the soil, creating energy that can be harnessed by fuel cells.
It is used to power a wide range of vital conservation tools remotely, including sensors, monitoring platforms and camera traps.
Among conventional power sources, batteries must be replaced while solar panels rely on a source of sunlight.
On the other hand, plants can survive in the shade, naturally moving into position to maximise the potential of absorbing sunlight.
Zoological Survey of London has deployed microbial fuel cells in fern to power camera traps and sensors in the wild.
