Prelim Bits 07-04-2018

Van Dhan Vikas Kendra

• The Ministry of Tribal affairs has approved establishment of the first multipurpose “Van Dhan Vikas Kendra” on pilot basis for establishment in Bijapur District of Chhattisgarh State.
• The Kendra will provide for skill up-gradation and capacity building training and setting up of primary processing and value addition facility.
• This Kendra to start with will have processing facility for Tamarind brick making, Mahua flower storage facility and chironjee cleaning and packaging.
• TRIFED has assigned the work for establishment of this pilot Vikas Kendra to Chhattisgarh Minor forest produce (CGMFP) Federation.
• The Collector, Bijapur will be the coordinating force.
• Minor Forest Produce (MFP) is a major source of livelihood for tribal living in forest areas.
• The Tribals derive 20-40% of their annual income from MFP on which they spend major portion of their time.
• Click here to know about TRIFED.

World health Day

• World Health Day is celebrated every year on 7 April under the leadership of World Health Organization (WHO) to create global health awareness.
• This day also marks the establishment of WHO.
• The celebration focuses on increasing the life expectancy of people by promoting healthier living habits.
• The 2018 theme is ‘Universal Health Coverage: Everyone, Everywhere’.
• Universal Health Coverage (UHC) refers to the providing of essential healthcare services to a person while ensuring that the use of these does not expose the user to financial distress.
• The day is one of the nine official global health campaigns marked by WHO.

• The last year’s theme was ‘Depression: Let’s Talk’.
• Around 100 million people are still being pushed into poverty because they have to pay for health care.
• WHO also observes World Antibiotics Awareness Week in November.

Oxytocin

• The Union government banned imports of the hormone oxytocin to stop its misuse in the livestock industry.
• It is believed to stimulate the mammary gland and induce milk production in farm animals.
• The drug’s abuse in animals shortens their lives and makes them barren sooner.
• Oxytocin is a hormone secreted by the pituitary gland in human.
• It is also called as Love Hormone.
• It plays a role in reproduction, child birth and lactation, apart from social interaction in humans.
• It also has physical and psychological effects, including influencing social behavior and emotion.
• Oxytocin is used both for humans and animals, to accelerate normal labour.

Exercise Gaganshakti-2018

• Gaganshakti is a coordinated and composite exercise conducted by the Indian Air Force.
• The aim of the exercise is real time coordination, deployment and employment of Air Power in a short & intense battle scenario.
• Full spectrums of operations are planned by IAF with special focus on `Network Centric Operations', and ‘Effect Based Operations'.
• Apart from wartime drills, IAF will also practice and validate various Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief drills.

VSS Unity

• Virgin Galactic conducted a supersonic test flight over the Sierra Nevada Mountains of its SpaceShipTwo passenger rocket ship recently.
• SpaceShipTwo is a reusable spaceflight system.
• It consists of WhiteKnightTwo, a custom-built, carrier aircraft, and SpaceShipTwo, the world’s first passenger carrying spaceship to be built by a private company and operated in commercial service.
• VSS Unity is the first Virgin Galactic spaceship to enter service.
• It offers everyone the opportunity to become private astronauts and experience the wonder of space for themselves.
• The flight of VSS Unity plans to carry tourists on suborbital hops into the lower reaches of space to see the Earth far below and the stars beyond.

Women suffering from anemia

• A report that was based on a pan-India survey data of over 3 lakh men and women during 2015-2017 revealed the following findings.
• Owing to rapidly changing lifestyles, nearly 40% women in India suffer from anemia than men.
• Women aged 61 years onwards were more likely to suffer from anemia.
• While over 20% men suffer from abnormal sugar levels than women.
• Nearly 80% of people were either deficient or insufficient in Vitamin D levels.
• Women were more commonly Vitamin D insufficient while men were vitamin D deficient.
• Prevalence of abnormal levels of vitamin B12 was more commonly found in men (33.28%) than women (27.85%).

Map of the Day

India Ganga

• The river’s source is Gaumukh (Gangotri Glacier) at 4,000 km above Mean Sea Level.
• The basin spans over more than one million sq. km.
• The Ganga basin is drained by 14 rivers: Betwa, Chambal, Damodar, Gandak, Ganga, Ghagra, Gomti, Hindon, Kali, Khan, Kosi, Kshipra, Ramganga and Yamuna.
• The river flows through some of the most populous cities of India, including Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, and Calcutta.
• The five headstreams of river Ganga—the Bhagirathi, the Alaknanda, the Mandakini, the Dhauliganga, and the Pindar—all rise in the mountainous region of northern Uttarakhand state.

• Tehri dam was constructed on river Bhagirathi.
• Yammuna meets Ganga at Kanpur and is the longest right bank tributary of Ganga.
• The main left-bank tributaries are the Ramganga, the Gomati, and the Ghaghara.
• The largest tributary to the Ganga is the Ghaghara, which meets it before Patna, in Bihar.
• River son is the important southern bank territory.
• The river flows along the Rajmahal Hills to the south and flows southeast to Farakka in central West Bengal state, which is the last Indian state before entering Bangladesh.
• In West Bengal in India, as well as in Bangladesh, the Ganges is locally called the Padma.
• Jamuna (Brahmaputra in Bangladesh) joins Padma to form Meghna.

Source: PIB, The Hindu, Indian Express