Prelim Bits 06-12-2017

Akash Missile

Akash is an indigenously developed medium-range, surface-to-air missile defence system.
It can target aircraft up to 30 km away, at altitudes up to 18,000 m.
It consists of Rohini radar that detects incoming aircraft with a range of 120 km.
It can intercept fighter jets, cruise missiles as well as ballistic missiles.
Recently, it was test fired with an indigenous radio frequency seeker.
This is the first surface-to-air missile with indigenous seeker that has been test fired.
With this success, India has achieved the capability of making any type of surface-to-air missile
This missile is being inducted into Army as Short Range Surface to Air Missile (SRSAM).

Gulf Cooperation Council

The Gulf Cooperation Council is a regional political and economic alliance of six Gulf States.
Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates are the member countries.
It is headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Its aim is to achieve ever closer union between the energy rich Gulf countries.
The UAE has recently announced that it has formed a new economic and partnership group with Saudi Arabia, separate from the GCC.
This move could undermine the popularity of GCC.

Global Education Monitoring Report

The Global Education Monitoring Report 2017-18 of UNESCO has been released recently.
The report expresses concern over school textbooks in many countries glorifying war and military heroes rather than teaching peace, non-violence and reconciliation.
It says that that just 10% of the textbooks across the world include explicit statements on the need for conflict prevention and resolution.
Click here to know more about UNESCO.

Soil Health Card Scheme

Soil Health Card scheme was launched in 2015 in Rajasthan.
The card informs farmers about nutrients status of the soils along with the recommendation on appropriate dosage of nutrients to improve soil health and fertility.
The card will be issued once in every 2 years to a farm so that nutrients deficiency can be regularly detected and improved.
The aim is to provide Soil Health Card to all 120 million farm holdings by Dec, 2017.
In the first phase of the scheme (2015-17), 100 million SHC have been distributed.
The second phase began on May 1, 2017, and will continue for the year 2017 to 2019.
This scheme is being implemented in collaboration with State Governments.
Every year World Soil Day is celebrated on 5th December

International Solar Alliance

The ISA is an Indian initiative, jointly launched by India and France in Paris, on the sidelines of COP-21, the UN Climate Conference.
It has recently become a treaty-based international intergovernmental organization with the ratification by Guinea as the 15^th country.
It aims to channel $300 billion in 10 years to promote renewable energy projects under a global mega fund for clean energy.
The framework agreement was opened for signatures in the 22nd session of the UN Climate Change Conference held at Marrakech, Morocco in 2016.
So far, 46 countries have signed and 19 countries have ratified the Framework Agreement of ISA.
The Headquarters is in India with its Interim Secretariat being set up in National Institute of Solar Energy, Gurgaon.
Further, ISA has also been developing a Common Risk Mitigating Mechanism (CRMM) for de-risking and reducing the financial cost of solar projects in the ISA member countries.

Panchteerth

Union government has decided to develop five places “Panchteerth” in honor of Babasaheb Dr. B.R.Ambedkar.
It includes,

Source: The Hindu, PIB, Economic Times