Panel on changing financial year
- 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 network consisting 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 organic carbon 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.
