Prelim Bits 08-03-2018

Ranthambore Tiger Reserve

• The tiger reserve, named after the Ranthambore fort, is situated in Karauli and Swai Madhovpur districts of Rajasthan.
• The reserve is located at the junction of Aravallis and Vindhyan ranges.
• The reserve was established in the year 1969.
• It was earlier the private hunting grounds of Maharajas of Jaipur.

• The reserve comprises Ranthambore national park and two sanctuaries namely Sawai Mansigh and Keladevi.
• Poaching, habitat loss and fragmentation are the threats to the reserve.
• Tiger populations in Ranthambore are smaller, isolated populations.
• This makes them less genetically diverse due to lesser intermixing of different populations.

National Tiger Conservation Authority

• The National Tiger Conservation Authority is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
• It was constituted under enabling provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
• The objectives of the NTCA are

1. Providing statutory authority to Project Tiger so that compliance of its directives becomes legal
2. Fostering accountability of Center-State in management of Tiger Reserves
3. Providing for an oversight by Parliament
4. Addressing livelihood interests of local people in areas surrounding Tiger Reserves

• The main function of NTCA is to approve, co-ordinate, research and monitor tiger, co-predators, prey habitat, related ecological and socio-economic parameters and their evaluation.
• NTCA gave a statutory backing to Project Tiger.

Flawed Quota Provision

• Telegana Government passed a bill to enhance reservation for Muslims and Scheduled Tribes to 12% and 10% respectively.
• However, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has said that the provisions of the Telangana legislation are in violation of a 1992 Supreme Court order that capped quota at 50%.
• In the Indra Sawhney case 1992, the Supreme Court ruled that clause (4) of Article 16 of the Constitution speaks of adequate representation and not proportionate representation.
• Article 16 ensures equality of opportunity in matters of public employment.
• Particularly, clause 4 of Article 16 empowers the state to make provisions for reservation of appointments or posts for inadequately represented backward classes.

Swatantra Sainik Samman Yojana (SSSY)

• The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister has approved the continuation of Swatantra Sainik Samman Yojana (SSSY) during 2017-2020 beyond the 12th Five Year Plan.
• In 1969, Government of India introduced the 'Ex-Andaman Political Prisoners Pension Scheme'.
• This was to honor the freedom fighters who had been incarcerated in the Cellular Jail at Port Blair.
• Later, a liberalized scheme, namely the 'Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme, 1980' was implemented.
• From the financial year 2017-18 onwards, the nomenclature of the Scheme has been changed as 'Swatantrata Sainik Samman Yojana'.
• Besides the freedom fighters, spouses (widows/widowers), unmarried and unemployed daughters and parents of deceased freedom fighters are eligible for pension under the scheme.
• The scheme is implemented by the Division of Freedom Fighters and Rehabilitation under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Pritzker Prize

• Balkrishna Doshi became the first Indian to receive the Pritzker Prize also dubbed as ‘architecture Nobel’.
• The international Pritzker prize is awarded each year to a living architect/s for significant achievement.
• It was established by the Pritzker family of Chicago through their Hyatt Foundation in 1979.
• It bestows laureates with $100,000 along with a bronze medallion.
• Balkrishna Doshi is a pioneer of low-cost housing design, committed to sustainable architecture that brought modernist design to a country rooted in traditionalism.
• His noted works include Life Insurance Corporation Housing in Ahmedabad, Vidhyadhar Nagar in Jaipur, Aranya Low cost Housing in Indore.

      Aranya Low cost Housing

Parker Solar Probe

• NASA is inviting people around the world to submit their names online to be placed on a microchip aboard its Parker solar probe.
• Parker Solar Probe is a historic mission, as it is flying into the sun's atmosphere (or corona) for the first time.
• The corona is the outermost part of the sun's atmosphere that is unstable, producing the solar wind, flares and coronal mass ejections.
• In 2017, NASA renamed the spacecraft from the Solar Probe Plus to the Parker Solar Probe in honor of astrophysicist Eugene Parker.
• The spacecraft will travel directly into the sun’s atmosphere about 4 million miles from the star’s surface.
• Parker Solar Probe has three detailed science objectives:

1. Trace the flow of energy that heats and accelerates the solar corona and solar wind.
2. Determine the structure and dynamics of the plasma and magnetic fields at the sources of the solar wind.
3. Explore mechanisms that accelerate and transport energetic particles.

Radiation Technologies in Agriculture

• Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in particular are engaged in extensive research on use of radiation processing.
• Irradiation is very effective process in treating agricultural produce to enhance its shelf life.
• Unique advantages of radiation processing of products (including fruits, vegetables, cereals, pulses, spices, sea foods and meat products) are:

1. Cold and clean process
2. Effective elimination of harmful bacteria and insects/pests
3. Treatment after final packaging to avoid recontamination
4. Significant increase in shelf life

• DAE has developed crop varieties with desirable traits such as higher yield, seed size, improved agronomic and quality traits, early maturity and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses.
• These were achieved using radiation induced mutation (and conventional) breeding.
• Two  technology demonstration  plants  were set  up based on R&D carried out at  BARC:

1. KRUSHAK at Lasalgaon, Nashik, Maharashtra
2. Radiation Processing Plantat Vashi, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra

• These plants are set up under the guidance of Board of Radiation & Isotope Technology (BRIT) under the Department of Atomic Energy.

Map of the day

Caribbean Islands

• Caribbean Islands comprises of the Greater and lesser Antilles along with Lucayan Archipelago (The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos).
• The islands border the Caribbean Sea and largely situated on the Caribbean plate.
• The Lesser Antilles is super set of three groups of islands namely Leeward in the north, Windward in the south and Lesser Antilles in east.
• Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados are also part of the Lesser Antilles.
• Last year hurricane Irma had a severe impact on the Antilles.

Source: PIB, The Hindu, Business Standard