Prelim Bits 13-12-2022 | UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Current Affairs

Orion - Artemis 1

The Orion capsule splashes down in the Pacific Ocean marking the end of the inaugural Artemis 1 lunar mission.

The Orion spacecraft is specifically designed to carry astronauts into deep space on future missions.
The Orion spacecraft in Artemis 1 carried a simulated crew of three mannequins wired with sensors.
The mannequins are made of material that mimic human bones, skin, and soft tissue and equipped with a host of sensors to record the various impacts of deep-space atmosphere on the human body.
Skip Entry - Orion capsule landed in the Pacific Ocean performed ‘skip entry’ landing technique.
This is a new landing technique designed to help the spacecraft accurately splash down at the landing site.
Orion enters the Earth’s upper atmosphere and used the atmosphere and its lift to ‘skip’ back outside the atmosphere.
Then re-enter for final descent under parachutes and splashdown. It’s a little like skipping a rock across the water in a river or lake.

Artemis 1

Artemis 1 is the first in a series of missions that are planned to take humans back to the Moon.
Artemis 1 is an unmanned lunar Orbiter mission with Orion Space Capsule.
It also explores the possibilities of extended stay in the moon and to investigate the potential to use the Moon as a launch pad for deep space explorations.

NASA’s previous moon landing missions were named after Apollo. Artemis is Apollo’s mythological twin sister.

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Unakoti - Angkor Wat of North East

Unakoti, the chiselled ‘Angkor Wat of the North-East’ is competing for a UNESCO world heritage classification.

Unakoti means one less than a crore in Bengali and in the local Kokborok language, it is called Subrai Khung.
Unakoti is a Saivite pilgrimage site with marvellous rock carvings, murals with their primitive beauty and waterfalls.
The site is nestled in the Raghunandan hills in Unakoti District of Tripura.
The site dating back to the 7th-9th centuries is now under Archaeological Society of India (ASI).

Rock Sculptures - There are two types of images found at Unakoti
1. Rock-carved figures
2. Stone images
Among the rock-cut carvings, the central Shiva head and gigantic Ganesha figures are prominent.

unakoti

The central Shiva head - Also known as Unakotiswara Kal Bhairava.
The head is about 30 feet high, including an embroidered head-dress which itself is 10 feet high.
On each side of the head-dress of the central Shiva, there are two full-size female figures - one of Durga standing on a lion and another female figure on the other side.
In addition, 3 enormous images of Nandi Bull are found half-buried in the ground.

Hindu mythology says that Lord Shiva once spent a night here on way to Kashi. Unakoti or one less than a crore gods and goddesses followed him.

Ashokastami Mela - Thousands of pilgrims visit this site every year during ‘Ashokastami Mela’ which takes place in the month of April.
Angkor Wat of North-East - The structures of the rock-cut sculptures are gigantic and have distinct mongoloid features.
They display almost the same mystical charm as in the Angkor Wat temple of Cambodia and hence got the name.

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A potentially new species of Wren Babbler was discovered at a remote corner of Arunachal Pradesh.

A team of birdwatchers set out in search of the rare Grey-bellied Wren Babbler in the Mugaphi peak.
They spotted a song bird similar to the Grey-bellied Wren Babbler, but sounded different.
This new species of wren babbler has whitish belly and sings similar to the songs of the Naga wren babbler.
The team has named (English name) the bird they found ‘Lisu Wren Babbler’, after the Lisu community of the state.

Grey-bellied Wren Babbler

Grey-bellied Wren Babbler (Spelaeornis reptatus), a song bird was recognised as a distinct species in 2008.
It is mostly found in Myanmar with some birds occurring in adjoining China and Thailand.
The wren babbler has grey coloured bellies.
There has been only one reported spotting of the bird in India back in 1998.
Two specimens of the species were collected from the same mountain.
IUCN Status – Least concern

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Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana aims at transforming 36,428 villages with significant tribal population into model village.

The existing Scheme of ‘Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub-Scheme (SCA to TSS) was revamped with nomenclature ‘Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana (PM-AAGY)’.
Ministry of Tribal Affairs has revamped this scheme for implementation during 2021-22 to 2025-26.
Aim - Mitigating gaps and providing basic infrastructure in villages with significant tribal population.
Objective - To achieve integrated socio-economic development of selected villages through convergence approach. It includes following components
1. Preparing Village Development Plan based on the needs, potential, and aspirations;
2. Maximizing the coverage of individual / family benefit schemes of the Central / State Governments;
3. Improving the infrastructure in vital sectors like health, education, connectivity and livelihood;
Adarsh Gram - The scheme now works at transforming villages with significant tribal population into model village (Adarsh Gram) covering about 40% of the total Tribal Population.
It is envisaged to cover 36,428 villages having at least 50% tribal population and 500 STs across States / UTs with notified STs.
The scheme envisions to mitigate gaps prominently in 8 sectors of development.

pmaagay

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A survey shows emotional labour falls to women in the workplace and at home than men.

The process of managing, modulating and suppressing one’s emotions to fulfil expectations from others or to achieve professional goals is called ‘Emotional labour’.
The marginalised people have to deal with this extra invisible work while living within systems that oppress them.
Emotional labour was never intended to be a gendered term, but it falls disproportionately on women.
Women are fearful of being seen as difficult and more likely to agree to take on the invisible and unpaid labour that detracts from their other responsibilities.
In academia, Black and brown women may have to perform more emotional labour than men and white women.
American sociologist Arlie Hochschild first introduced the concept of emotional labour in 1983 in her book ‘The Managed Heart’.
In her book, she refers emotional labour as the need to induce or suppress feeling in order to sustain the outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others.

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