TARUN GOGOI
Former Assam chief minister and senior Congress leader Tarun Gogoi passed away. He was 86.
About:
- Tarun Gogoi (1936 – 2020) was an Indian politician. He was a member of the Indian National Congress.
- He served as the Chief Minister of Assam from 2001 to 2016 and was the longest serving Chief Minister of the state.
- During his tenure as the chief minister, he is credited with ending militant insurgency and mitigating violence in addition to improving the state's fiscal condition.
- He had also served five terms as a Member of parliament, Lok Sabha and had also served as an Union Minister of State in the Ministry of Food and Ministry of Food Processing Industries.
UMANG APP
To mark the occasion of 3 years of UMANG, the Union Minister for IT launched the UMANG’s international version in coordination with Ministry of External Affairs for select countries that include USA, UK, Canada, Australia, UAE, Netherlands, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.
About:
- It will help Indian international students, NRIs and Indian tourists abroad, to avail Government of India services, anytime. It will also help in taking India to the world through ‘Indian Culture’ services available on UMANG and create interest amongst foreign tourists to visit India.
- The UMANG mobile app (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) is a Government of India all-in-one single multi-lingual, multi-service Mobile App providing access to high impact services of various Government of India Departments and State Governments.
KATCHAL ISLAND
The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) towed a fuel tanker back to safe waters. The tanker was dangerously drifting towards the pristine Katchal Island in Nicobar due to power failure.
About:
- Katchal is one of the Nicobar Islands, India.
- Katchal Island was previously known as Tihanyu.
- Katchal is inhabited by Nicobari Tribes and Migrated Tamilians (For Rubber plantation workers under Sastri-Srimao Bandaranayaka Pact of 1964).
CYCLONE ‘NIVAR’
Tamil Nadu is readying contingency plans to face Cyclone ‘Nivar’. The meteorological department has said that Nivar may make a landfall on Wednesday.
About:
- The Bay of Bengal will see its second Severe Cyclone of the year, after Super Cyclone Amphan formed in May. It is likely to hit Tamil Nadu coast by midweek. The next three days shall see extremely heavy rain, strong winds along with highly rough sea conditions.
- The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast the development of a cyclone in the Southwest region of the Bay of Bengal, off Tamil Nadu coast.
- After cyclone Gaja in 2018, this will be the second cyclone to cross Tamil Nadu in the last two years.
- The Met department has said that it will strengthen into a cyclone. Once intensified, it would acquire its name ‘Nivar’, proposed by Iran.
TUNNEL BORING MACHINES
A tunnel boring machine has been stuck in Mumbai for the past one year. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has not been able to retrieve it due to lack of expertise and an overreliance on foreign entities to operate these machines.
About:
- With major cities in India opting for urban transportation systems underground, Tunnel Boring Machines, that help dig tunnels underground, are being deployed extensively in the country.
- They are used to excavate tunnels through a variety of soil and rock strata –– from hard rock to sand. These machines are capable of digging tunnels with diameters 3.3 feet to 58 feet.
- In India, TBMs have been deployed in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata, among others, to help build underground Metro lines. These TBMs are also being used to help build water tunnels as well as the coastal road in Mumbai.
CHANG’E-5
On November 24, China’s Chang’e-5 lunar mission will become the first probe in over four decades to attempt to bring back samples of lunar rock from a previously unexplored portion of the Moon. The spacecraft is set to return to Earth around December 15.
About:
- Chang’e-5 probe is the Chinese National Space Administration’s (CNSA) lunar sample return mission that is set to launch on November 24 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on Hainan Island in China.
- The goal of the mission is to land in the Mons Rumker region of the moon, where it will operate for one lunar day, which is two weeks long and return a 2 kg sample of the lunar rock possibly by digging about 2 metres deep into the surface of the Moon.
- The mission comprises a lunar orbiter, a lander and an ascent probe that will lift the lunar samples back into orbit and return them back to Earth.
- The probe is named after the Chinese Moon goddess who is traditionally accompanied by a white or jade rabbit.
MOUNT VESUVIUS
The Italian Culture Ministry announced the discovery of well-preserved remains of two men, who perished during the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The eruption was a catastrophic event that destroyed the ancient Roman city of Pompeii and killed around 16,000 people.
About:
- Located in southern Italy near the coastal city of Naples, the 4,203-ft tall Vesuvius is the only active volcano in mainland Europe.
- Vesuvius has been classified as a complex volcano (also called a compound volcano), one that consists of a complex of two or more vents.
- Vesuvius typically has explosive eruptions and pyroclastic flows –– defined as a high-density mix of hot lava blocks, pumice, ash and volcanic gas.
- It has erupted more than 50 times, and is considered among the most dangerous volcanoes in the world due to its proximity to Naples and surrounding towns.
- Its last serious eruption, lasting two weeks, was in 1944 during World War II, which left 26 Italian civilians dead and around 12,000 displaced
NEGATIVE-YIELD BONDS
Last week, China sold negative-yield debt for the first time, and this saw a high demand from investors across Europe. As yields in Europe are even lower, there was a huge demand for the 4-billion-euro bonds issued by China.
About:
- Negative-yield bonds are debt instruments that offer to pay the investor a maturity amount lower than the purchase price of the bond.
- These are generally issued by central banks or governments, and investors pay interest to the borrower to keep their money with them.
- Negative-yield bonds attract investments during times of stress and uncertainty as investors look to protect their capital from significant erosion.
- At a time when the world is battling the Covid-19 pandemic and interest rates in developed markets across Europe are much lower, investors are looking for relatively better-yielding debt instruments to safeguard their interests.
ATAL FACULTY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES (FDPs)
Union Education Minister inaugurated 46 online AICTE Training and Learning (ATAL) Academy Faculty Development Programmes (FDPs) to train teachers of higher education institutions associated with All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) in emerging areas in technology.
About:
- The FDPs will be conducted in 22 Indian states according to the new National Education Policy (2020).
- The main objective of ATAL Academy is to provide quality technical education in the country and to promote research and entrepreneurship through training in various emerging fields. IITs, IIITs, NITs CU and research labs are organizing these ATAL FDPs.
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