UPSC Daily Current affairs | Prelim Bits 08-09-2020

Dictionary of Martyrs

Ministry of Culture has released the Dictionary of Martyrs of India’s Freedom Struggle which contains an account of the martyrs from India’s First War of Independence in 1857, to India’s Independence in 1947.
The Dictionary was officially released on 07 March 2019.
Information of about 13,500 martyrs has been recorded in 5 volumes.
The project for compilation of "Dictionary of Martyrs" was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, to the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) to commemorate the 150th anniversary of uprising of 1857.
In this dictionary a martyr has been defined as a person who died or who was killed in action or in detention, or was awarded capital punishment while participating in the national movement for emancipation of India.
It includes ex-INA or ex-military personnel who died fighting the British.
It includes the martyrs of

Recently, the Indian Council for Historical research (ICHR) has constituted a three-member committee to review the entries in the book Dictionary of Martyrs.

Read also: Moplah Rebellion 1921

Indian Council of Historical Research

ICHR is an autonomous organization, established under Societies Registration Act, 1860 in 1972.
It is under the Ministry of Education (not under Ministry of Culture).
To promote, accelerate, coordinate research for scientific writing of history and ensure its dissemination.
The council also provides grants, assistance and fellowships for historical research.

Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle

Recently, DRDO successfully flight tested the Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV).
HSTDV is an unmanned scramjet demonstration aircraft that can travel at hypersonic speed.
It uses hypersonic air-breathing scramjet technology.
The vehicle travelled its desired flight path at a velocity of six times the speed of sound i.e. Mach 6.
It describes an aircraft’s speed compared with the speed of sound in air, with Mach 1 equating to the speed of sound i.e. 343 meter per second.
The test was conducted from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Launch Complex at APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha.
India became the fourth country to have demonstrated this technology after the USA, Russia and China.
The successful demonstration is certainly a significant milestone towards Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Air Breathing Engine

Air-breathing engines use oxygen from the atmosphere in the combustion of fuel.
They include the turbojet, turboprop, ramjet, and pulse-jet.
This system is lighter, efficient and cost-effective than other systems in use.
Presently, satellites are launched into orbit by multi-staged satellite launch vehicles that can be used only once (expendable).
These launch vehicles carry oxidizer along with the fuel for combustion to produce thrust.
A propulsion system which can utilize the atmospheric oxygen during their flight will considerably reduce the total propellant required to place a satellite in orbit.
If those vehicles are made reusable, the cost of launching satellites will further come down significantly.
Types of Air Breathing engines

Ramjet - A ramjet is a form of air-breathing jet engine that uses the vehicle’s forward motion to compress incoming air for combustion without a rotating compressor.

Ramjets work most efficiently at supersonic speeds but they are not efficient at hypersonic speeds.

Scramjet - A scramjet engine is an improvement over the ramjet engine as it efficiently operates at hypersonic speeds and allows supersonic combustion.
Dual Mode Ramjet (DMRJ) - A dual mode ramjet (DMRJ) is a type of jet engine where a ramjet transforms into a scramjet over Mach 4-8 range, which means it can efficiently operate both in subsonic and supersonic combustion modes.

First World Solar Technology Summit

The first World Solar Technology Summit (WSTS) is being organized by the International Solar Alliance (ISA) on 8th September, 2020.
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), as the convener of ISA Global Leadership Task Force on Innovation, is working with ISA in organizing the summit.
The summit will witness the announcement of agreements between ISA and following institutions

A tripartite agreement between India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the World Bank and the International Solar Alliance is also set to be inked.
ISA’s technology journal, Solar Compass 360 will also be launched during the summit.

Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme

Start-Up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) is implemented by Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM).
It is as sub scheme of Ministry of Rural Development launched 2016.
It aims to support rural poor to come out of poverty by helping them setup enterprises and provide support till the enterprises stabilize.
SVEP addresses three major pillars of rural start-ups namely - finances, incubation and skill ecosystems.
Key area under SVEP is to develop pool of Community Resource Person Enterprise Promotion (CRP-EP), who are local and support entrepreneurs setting-up rural enterprises.
It also aims to promote block resource center (BRC) in SVEP blocks, to monitor and manage the community resource persons.
Recent report on SVERP highlighted that as of August 2020, around one lakh enterprises are being supported out of which 75 % are managed by women.

Back to Village (B2V) Programme

Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has announced the third phase of ambitious Back to Village (B2V) programme.

The Phase-I of B2V was an introductory and interactive programme to understand the people’s grievances and demands.
Phase-II focused on the devolution of powers to panchayats and tried to understand how these panchayats are functioning and what are the grievances and demands.
Phase-III has been designed on the format for grievance redressal.

Yanomami Tribe

Guarani, Kaingang, Pataxó, Hã Hã Hãe, Tupinambá, Yanomami, Tikuna and Akuntsu are popular tribes of the Amazon basin.
Amazon is a river of South America and its basin is the largest tropical rainforest in the world.
The Yanomami live in the rainforests and mountains of northern Brazil and southern Venezuela.
Yanomami’s are the largest relatively isolated tribe in South America.
They live in large, circular houses called yanos or shabonos, some of which can hold up to 400 people.
The Yanomami consider all people to be equal, and do not have a chief.
Instead, all decisions are based on consensus after long discussions and debates.
They are speakers of a Xirianá language.
A Brazilian indigenous leader Davi Kopenawa who secured the land rights of the Yanomami people was awarded the Right Livelihood Award-2019, also known as Sweden's alternative Nobel Prize.
Recently Yanomami tribe has launched a global campaign to expel 20,000 gold miners from their land.

Source: PIB, Business Line, the Hindu