Smart India Hackathon-2018
- Smart India Hackathon 2018 is a non-stop digital product development competition, where problems are posed to technology students for innovative solutions.
- Smart India Hackathon (SIH) – 2018 is organized by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) under the aegis of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).
- In the finale the teams would build innovative digital solutions for problems on different areas of Official Statistics identified by Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation.
- The event will
- Harnesses creativity & expertise of students
- Spark institute-level hackathons
- Build funnel for ‘Startup India’ campaign
- Crowdsource solutions for improving governance and quality of life
- Provide opportunity to citizens to provide innovative solutions to India’s daunting problems
- It is the second massive scale hackathon initiative following the last year’s event.
- SIH 2018 will have 2 sub-editions – Software as well as Hardware:
- Software Edition will be 36 hour software product development competition.
- The new Hardware Edition will be a hackathon where teams will be work for 5 straight days and build their hardware solutions.
- SIH 2017 had only software edition and hardware edition is a new addition to this year event, which will be held later.
Lonar Crater
- Around 50,000 years ago, a meteorite about 50 to 60 km in diameter hit the ground in the Lonar region creating a crater.
- Lonar is in Buldana district in Maharashtra.
- The site was discovered by a Britisher, C. J. E. Alexander in 1823.
- Lonar crater is unique because it’s the world’s only high-velocity meteor crater in hard basalt.
- It is an impact crater or meteorite crater which is a bowl-shaped depression with a raised rim, formed by the impact of a meteoroid.
- Crater can be volcanic in origin too.
- The Lonar Lake formed in this depression is remarkable because its water is both saline and alkaline.
Komodo dragon
- Komodo dragons are the largest, heaviest lizards in the world and one of the few with a venomous bite.
- The lizards prey on dogs, pigs, goats and other animals.
- Komodo dragons are limited to a few Indonesian islands of the Lesser Sunda group including Rintja, Padar and Flores, and island of Komodo.
- Acoording to IUCN, the species is in vulnerable category.
GSAT-6A Satellite
- India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F08) successfully launched GSAT-6A Satellite into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
- A geosynchronous orbit is a high Earth orbit that allows satellites to match Earth's rotation.
- A spacecraft is first launched into an elliptical orbit called Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) to attain geosynchronous (and also geostationary) Earth orbits later.
- GSAT-6A is a communication satellite built by ISRO to provide mobile communication services through multi beam coverage.
- It is equipped with S and C band transponders.
- A transponder is a device that receives and transmits radio signals at a prescribed frequency range.
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
- The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is an Explorer-class planet finder by NASA.
- The principal goal of the TESS mission is to detect small planets with bright host stars in the solar neighborhood
- The spacecraft will be launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
- The spacecraft will be looking for a phenomenon known as a transit, where a planet passes in front of its star, causing a periodic and regular dip in the star’s brightness.
Map of the day
World Volcanoes
- A stratovolcano (or composite volcano) is a conical volcano consisting of layers of solid lava flows mixed with layers of other rock.
- Examples of Strato volcano Mt Vesuvius, Mt Krakatau, Mt Rainier, Mt Etna, Mt Fuji, Mt Cotopaxi, Mt Peele, Mt Kilimanjaro
- A cinder cone volcano doesn’t have any horizontal layers, and is instead a steep conical hill of tephra (volcanic debris) that accumulates around and downwind from the vent.
- Mt Paricutin in Mexico and Mount Nuovo in Italy are the best examples of cinder cone volcanoes.
- A shield volcano is entirely or mostly composed of fluid lava vents.
Example- Mauna kea (Hawaii)
Source: PIB, The Hindu, Business Standard
