UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 03-11-2020

Earliest Dairy Production

• Recently study by archaeologists has found that dairy products were being produced by the Harappans as far back as 2500 BCE.
• The finding reveals the earliest evidence of dairy production.
• The results of the study are based on molecular chemical analysis of residue in shards of pottery found at the archaeological site of Kotada Bhadli, in Gujarat.
• Highlights of the study

1. Traces seen in cooking vessels indicate the presence of milk, which may have been boiled for consumption.
2. There are also remains of a perforated vessel, which indicates processing of milk into different forms.
3. Pots are porous and absorb liquid from food.
4. This helps the pots to preserve the molecules of food such as fats and proteins.
5. The large herd indicates that milk was produced in surplus so that it could be exchanged and there could have been some kind of trade between settlements.
6. This could have also given rise to an industrial level of dairy production.
7. Through a process called stable isotope analysis, the researchers were also able to identify that cattles used for dairy production
8. Most of the cattle and water-buffalo died at an older age, suggesting they could have been raised for milk, whereas the majority of goat/sheep died when they were young, indicating they could have been used for meat.

Excavations in Indus Valley

• In the 1920s, the Archaeological Department of India carried out excavations in the Indus valley wherein the ruins of the two old cities, viz. Mohenjodaro and Harappa were unearthed.
• In 1924, John Marshall, Director-General of the ASI, announced the discovery of a new civilisation in the Indus valley to the world.
• From the excavations it is found that IVC was faceless, means no king, no bureaucratic organisations, but there were very close regional interactions between settlements, a symbiotic relationship of give and take that helped the civilisation survive for so long.
• The year 2020 marks 100 years of discovery of Indus Valley Civilisation.

Guru Ram Das

• Guru Ram Das was the fourth of the ten Gurus of Sikhism, he lived between 1534 – 1581.
• His birth name was Jetha, he became the Guru of Sikhism in 1574 and served as the Sikh leader until his death in 1581.
• He appointed his own son as his successor, and unlike the first four Gurus who were not related through descent, the fifth through tenth Sikh Gurus were the direct descendants of Ram Das.
• Guru Ram Das is credited with founding the holy city of Amritsar in the Sikh tradition.
• He shifted his official base to lands identified by Guru Amar Das as Guru-ka-Chak.
• This newly founded town was eponymous Ramdaspur, later to evolve and get renamed as Amritsar.
• While Guru Amar Das introduced the manji system of religious organization, Ram Das extended it with adding the masand institution.
• The masand were Sikh community leaders who lived far from the Guru, but acted to lead the distant congregations, their mutual interactions and collect revenue for Sikh activities and temple building.
• Birth anniversary of guru ram das has commemorated recently.

Maharani Jindan Kaur

• Maharani Rani Jindan Kaur was the youngest wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh empire.
• She was also the mother of Maharaja Duleep Singh, the last ruler of the empire, who was raised by the British.
• Duleep Singh was five years old when he was placed on the throne in 1843 after the death of two heirs to Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
• Since he was just a child, Maharani Jindan was made the regent.
• She took an active interest in running the kingdom, introducing changes in the revenue system.
• As the only surviving widow of Ranjit Singh, Jindan Kaur led a spirited resistance to the encroachment of the British into the Punjab, but was eventually forced to surrender.
• Recently some of the jewellery used by her were auctioned in London.

Asteriod 16 Psyche

• Asteroid 16 Psyche is located 370 million kilometres away from earth between Mars and Jupiter and has a diameter of 140 miles.
• It was discovered in the year 1853 by the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gaspard and was named after the ancient Greek goddess of the soul, Psyche.
• Unlike most asteroids that are made up of rocks or ice, scientists believe that Psyche is a dense and largely metallic object thought to be the core of an earlier planet that failed formation.
• Psyche’s shape is like a potato which takes about five earth years to complete one orbit of the sun but only a bit over 4 hours to rotate once on its axis.
• Recently NASA has found out that asteroid 16 Psyche could be made entirely of metal.
• Highlights of the recent findings

1. The latest study through the Hubble Space Telescope and ultraviolet observation gives a clearer picture of Psyche’s composition.
2. It was found that Psyche could be a unique asteroid composed of iron and nickel almost completely which is similar to earth's core.
3. The iron alone would be worth more than 10,000 quadrillion US dollars.
4. Scientists noted that the manner in which Psyche reflected ultraviolet light was very similar to the way iron reflects sunlight.

NASA’s Psyche mission

• The primary target of the Psyche mission to be launched in 2022 by NASA is to study this asteroid completely and confirm the assumptions being made by the scientists.
• Psyche mission will be the first mission to investigate this metallic asteroid.
• Psyche spacecraft will land on the asteroid in early 2026.
• As the composition of Psyche is very similar to earth’s own core, its study will also give an insight to earth’s violent history of collisions and accretion that created it.

Aero India

• Aero India is a biennial international military and civil air show.
• It is a premier event that draws international and Indian military and civil aircraft makers, their support industries, military brass and government dignitaries and business visitors.
• It provides a unique opportunity for the exchange of information, ideas and new developments in the aviation industry, in addition to giving a fillip to the domestic aviation industry furthering the cause of Make in India.
• The Yelahanka air base, about 30 km from the city centre Bengaluru, has been hosting the air show in February since it was started in 1996.
• In 2019, it was organised by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) and in 2021, it will be organised by the Defence Exhibition Organisation, Ministry of Defence.

Defence Exhibition Organisation

• DEO is an autonomous organisation of the Indian Government established in 1981, to promote the export potential of the Indian defence industry.
• It is responsible for organising international exhibitions such as DefExpo and Indian participation at overseas exhibitions.

World Cities Day and Urban October

• United Nations General Assembly has designated the 31st of October as World Cities Day.
• The Day is expected to greatly promote the international community’s interest in addressing challenges of urbanization
• Sustainable Development Goal 11 formulates the ambition to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, underlying the relevance of UN-Habitat’s mission.
• Urban October was launched by UN-Habitat in 2014 to emphasize the world’s urban challenges and engage the international community towards the New Urban Agenda.

Source: Indian Express, the Hindu, Live Mint, UN