A government-appointed panel, headed by former chief economic adviser Shankar Acharya, has recommended changing the financial year from the current April to March to the calendar year.
China’s Remote Sensing Satellite
China plans to form a BeiDou networkconsisting of 35 satellites for global navigation services by 2020.
BeiDou is expected to compete with America’s Global Positioning system.
China successfully launched a pair of high-resolution remote sensing satellites SuperView-1 01/02 to get commercial images.
The satellite is launched on the back of a Long March 2D rocket and they are able to provide commercial images at 0.5-meter resolution.
New RBI Deputy Governor
The Centre has appointed Viral V Acharya as a Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, for a three-year term.
As in-charge of monetary policy, he will become a part of the six-member interest-rate setting monetary policy committee.
Black carbon and Brown Carbon
Black Carbon is inorganic in nature consisting of soot particles that directly come out of combustion processes.
Brown Carbon or organiccarbon comes from complex organic reactions in the airborne atmospheric particles. This includes
Tar materials form smoldering fires or coal combustion.
Breakdown products from biomass burning.
A mixture of organic compounds emitted from soil and volatile organic compounds given off by vegetation.
Both Black carbon and Brown carbon absorbs sunlight and thus in turn warms the atmosphere and when inhaled, causes severe health hazards.
Black carbon absorbs light in the visible spectrum whereas Brown carbon is light brown in colour and absorbs light in the ultraviolet region.
Brown Carbon leads to the formation of ground level ozone in the atmosphere.
