Prelim Bits 29-09-2017

New species in Western Ghats

• Scientists have described a new species of non-venomous endemic snake “Aquatic Rhabdops” from the Western Ghats.
• It is 3 foot long nocturnal snake hunts for prey underwater.
• The new species is named after its aquatic nature since the adults are mostly associated with freshwater forest streams.
• All Rhabdops snakes are endemic to India.
• The Aquatic Rhabdops is found only in the laterite plateaus of the Northern Western Ghats in Goa, Southern Maharashtra and Northern Karnataka.

INS Tarasa

• INS Tarasa, a Water Jet Fast Attack Craft was commissioned into the Indian Navy.
• It is primarily designed for extended coastal and offshore surveillance and patrolling.

Information Utility

• India’s first Information Utility (IU) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) was launched recently.
• The IBC regulator Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBC) granted the National e-Governance Services Ltd (NeSL) renewal registration for Information Utility till 2022.
• IU will serve as a store of information on all financial transactions of lenders and authenticated by borrowers and creditors.
• It store details of borrowers, defaults and security interest with safeguards.

Mega Internal Security Scheme

• Cabinet committee on Security gave its approval for implementation of the umbrella scheme “Modernisation of Police Forces” for 2017 to 2020.
• This is the biggest ever internal security scheme in the country.
• Ministry of Home affairs is the nodal ministry.
• The expenditure for the scheme will be shared by both the central and state government.
• Special provisions have been made for internal security, law and order, women security, mobility of police forces, CCTNS, e-prison etc.,

Fourth Gravitational Wave

• A fourth gravitational wave has been detected with help from Italy-based equipment Virgo detector.
• The latest space-time ripples were detected two giant black holes about 1.8 billion light-years away.
• The Virgo detector is an underground L-shaped instrument that tracks gravitational waves using the physics of laser light and space.
• The underground stations are known as interferometers, do not rely on light in the sky, but instead sense vibrations in space created by a gravitational wave.
• Previously, gravitational waves have been found using two U.S.-based detectors known as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).

Source: The Hindu, Business Line