NATIONAL COMMON MOBILITY CARD (NCMC) &MORE (CURRENT AFFAIRS 30 DEC 2020 )

 NATIONAL COMMON MOBILITY CARD (NCMC)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated fully operational National Common Mobility Card service on the Airport Express Line of Delhi Metro, which was started in Ahmedabad last year.

About:

• This one card will give integrated access to the commuters wherever they travel, whichever public transport they take.
  
  
• The idea of NCMC was floated by the Nandan Nilekani committee set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
  
  
• NCMC will allow passengers with RuPay debit card, issued in the last 18 months by 23 banks to be swiped for Metro travel. This facility will become available on the entire Delhi Metro network by 2022.
  
  
• NCMC is an automatic fare collection system. It will turn smartphones into an inter-operable transport card that commuters can use eventually to pay for Metro, bus and suburban railways services.
  
  
• It will allow entry and exit from Metro stations with the help of a smartphone, known as the automatic fare collection (AFC) system.
  

NMPB CONSORTIA FOR MEDICINAL PLANTS

National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Ministry of AYUSH has launched Consortia for Medicinal Plants.

About:

• NMPB envisages the necessity of connectivity between stakeholders in the supply chain and value chain of Medicinal Plants.
  
  
• NMPB Consortia will address/deliberate (not limited to) on Quality Planting Material, Research & Development, Cultivation, Trade of medicinal plants/market linkage etc.
  
  
• To establish the linkage between the farmers and manufacturers, a ‘Seed to Shelf’ approach is being introduced, wherein, aspects related to Quality Planting Materials (QPM), Good Agriculture Practices (GAP’s), Good Post Harvest Practices (GPHP’s) would be addressed.
  
  
• In the first phase NMPB consortia is proposed for medicinal plant species - Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), Pippali (Piper longum), Aonla (Phyllanthus emblica), Guggulu (Commiphora wightii), Satavari (Asparagus racemosus).
  

PNEUMOSIL

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan inaugurated India's first pneumococcal conjugate vaccine "Pneumosil".

About:

• It has been developed by the Serum Institute of India Private Limited (SIIPL) in collaboration with partners like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
  
  
• SIIPL developed and got the license of the first indigenous Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) from the Government of India during COVID-19 pandemic lock-down.
  
  
• This Indigenous Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine will be available in the market under the brand name "Pneumosil" at an affordable price in a single dose (vial and pre-filled syringe) and Multidose (vial) presentations.
  
  
• Pneumosil is effective in the prevention of Pneumonia disease

SUNIL KOTHARI

Eminent dance scholar and critic Sunil Kothari, 87, passed away because of COVID-19-related complications.

About:

• Sunil Kothari (1933 – 2020) was a noted Indian dance historian, scholar and critic.
  
  
• He was instrumental in establishing the School of Arts and Aesthetics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and mentored many art scholars.
  
  
• Books:
  • He has written 12 books on different forms of Indian classical dance and allied art-forms.
    
    
  • He wrote extensively on Bharatanatyam, Kathak and Manipuri dance forms.
    
    
  • His scholarly work, Sattriya: Classical Dance of Assam, helped in creating a better understanding of the dance form in the national and global circuit.
    
    
  • His other notable contributions include New Directions in Indian Dance and Kuchipudi Indian Classical Dance Art.
    
    
  
  
  
• Awards:
• He received Padma Shri award in 2001. He also received Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 1995 for overall contribution to the Indian classical dance.
  
  
• He was awarded a D.Litt. by the Rabindra Bharti University for his research on dance sculptures in the medieval temples of north Gujarat.

HYPOTHERMIA

Predicting a severe cold wave in the national capital and several other parts of North India, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) urged residents of India’s northernmost states to protect themselves from the biting cold by avoiding alcohol.

IMD Advisory:

• To avoid an adverse reaction to the cold wave, the IMD shared a list of recommendations, one of which was avoiding alcohol as it “reduces your body temperature”.
  
  
• According to Health Experts, while alcohol may make you feel warmer, it actually reduces your body temperature and compromises your immunity if you then venture out into the cold.
  
  
• Alcohol can decrease the core temperature of the body and increase the risk of hypothermia during cold exposure.
  
  
• Alcohol is a vasodilator, which means that it causes blood vessels to relax and dilate or open. So after consuming alcohol, the volume of blood brought to the skin’s surface increases, making you feel warmer as a result.
  

THERMOPOLIUM

Researchers have unearthed a thermopolium, Latin for hot drinks counter, in the Roman empire town of Pompeii, today one of the world’s largest and most significant archaeological sites.

About:

• The snack food counter called the thermopolium at the Pompeii archaeological park’s Regio V was partially excavated in 2019.
  
  
• It was found complete with an image of a Nereid riding a sea-horse, decorative still-life frescoes, food residues, animals bones and victims who died during the volcanic eruption of 79 CE.
  
  

Significance:

• The find is significant because it shows the variety of food consumed by the residents of the town — traces of pork, fish, snails and beef have been found in the containers of the stall.
  
  
• It is also the first time an entire thermopolium has been excavated, complete with pateras, or bronze drinking bowls, ceramic jars used for cooking stews and soups, wine flasks etc.

COUNTING THE COST 2020: A YEAR OF CLIMATE BREAKDOWN

A new global report in its analysis of 15 most destructive climate disasters of 2020 has found that nine of these extreme events, including two in India, caused damage worth at least $5 billion.

About:

• The report, ‘Counting the Cost 2020: A Year of Climate Breakdown’ has been prepared by the UK based non-profit organisation Christian Aid.
  
  
• Though hurricanes in the US and central American countries turned out to be the most expensive ($41 billion), floods in India during June-October period caused the loss of highest number of human lives.
  
  
• In fact, India’s floods, which killed 2,067, caused loss of more human lives than casualties in all other 14 destructive climate disasters put together.
  
  
• Floods in Pakistan which claimed 410 lives figured at second spot followed by the US and central American countries (400 lives lost in hurricanes) at the third position in the list of 15.
  
  
• The cyclone ‘Amphan’, which struck the Bay of Bengal in May, had caused financial losses valued at $13 billion in just a few days in India and Bangladesh and caused loss of 128 human lives.

PORTULACA LALJII

Botanists have discovered a new species of wild sun rose from the Eastern Ghats in India.

About:

• The new species, named Portulaca laljii, discovered from Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh has unique features such as a tuberous root, no hair in its leaf axils, a reddish pink flower, prolate-shaped fruits, and copper brown seeds without lustre.
  
  
• The flowers are very attractive and bloom for months from June to February.
  
  
• The plant bears beautiful, tiny pink flowers for eight months. It is because of the succulent nature of tuberous roots that the plant can survive on rocky crevices.

R P TIWARI PANEL

The UGC set up a seven-member committee, headed by Vice-Chancellor of Central University of Punjab R P Tiwari, "to consider the issue (of) holding common entrance test at undergraduate level only from the next academic year. "

About:

• The new National Education Policy (NEP), released in July this year, advocates reducing the number of entrance tests to “eliminate the need for taking coaching for these exams”.
  
  
• There are 40-odd central universities run by the Ministry of Education (MoE) and, collectively, all of them have about 1 to 1.25 lakh seats across different disciplines at the undergraduate level.
  
  
• Of these, currently about 16 central universities, all set up under the UPA-II government, have a common entrance test for Bachelor’s study.
  
  
• If the NEP suggestion is implemented, the National Testing Agency will be tasked to conduct a common aptitude test as well as specialised common exams for different disciplines at least twice a year, for admission to bachelor’s in central universities.

ZERO COUPON BONDS

The government has used financial innovation to recapitalise Punjab & Sind Bank by issuing the lender Rs 5,500-crore worth of non-interest bearing bonds valued at par.

About:

• Punjab & Sind Bank MD and CEO said these are special types of zero coupon bonds issued by the government after proper due diligence and these are issued at par.
  
  
• Since these bonds are not tradable, the lender has kept them in the Held-To-Maturity (HTM) bucket, not requiring it to book any mark-to-market gains or losses from these bonds.
  
  
• Though these will earn no interest for the subscriber, market participants term it both a ‘financial illusion’ and ‘great innovation’ by the government where it is using Rs 100 to create an impact of Rs 200 in the economy.
  
  
• Unlike the previous tranches of recapitalisation bonds which carried interest and were sold to different banks, these “non-interest bearing, non-transferable special GOI securities” have a maturity of 10-15 years and issued specifically to Punjab & Sind Bank.