China operationalised the world’s largest radio telescope, FAST
Context : China operationalized the world’s largest radio telescope in southwest China’s Guiyang city, the capital of Guizhou province. The FAST telescope is was launched after three years of trial operation.
FAST telescope :
- The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) telescope is with a diameter of half-a-kilometer. It is dubbed as China Sky Eye.
- The device is expected to make major scientific discoveries.
- FAST is 2.5 times as sensitive as the second-largest telescope in the world.
- It is capable of receiving a maximum of 38 gigabytes (GB) of information per second.
- The receiving area of the telescope is around 30 football fields.
- The cost of the telescope is around the US $170 million.
- The telescope includes a 5 km radius as the core zone, 5 km to 10 km radius as the intermediate zone and a peripheral zone that covers 10 km to 30 km in radius.
RBI to impose fines on banks with poor progress
Context : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is to impose heavy penalties on banks, and stipulate higher provisioning for stressed loans. RBI announced it earlier on 7 June 2019. For the first time, RBI has said that the chief executive officers (CEOs) and senior management of banks can also be held liable for lack of progress. The fresh set of guidelines will be in the public domain by the end of March.
New guidelines :
- The new guidelines are expected to usher in a stricter compliance regime.
- The RBI indicated that banks can start the resolution of stressed loans less than Rs.1,500 crore without waiting for a formal notification.
- It also mentioned that the 7 June 2019 circular was only applicable for stressed accounts in excess Rs.2,000 crore.
- RBI review of 7 June circular notes Inter-creditor Agreement (ICA) (of 13 banks) yet to be signed for exposures amounting to Rs.3,610 crore
- Embedded frauds will be monitored as it might hold up stressed loan resolution
- It highlighted the number of frauds of Rs.50 crore and above in H1 FY20 rose to 398 involving Rs.1.056 trillion up from 322 cases and Rs.61,759 crore in FY19
Note : Outlier frauds are defined as those in excess of Rs.1,000 crore. Such fraud cases have increased up to 21 cases and Rs.44,951 crore up from 4 cases and Rs.6,505 crore in FY19.
Indian harvest festivals
Context : The Harvest season is on and festivities have gripped the nation from the north to down south.
Various festivals being celebrated across the Nations :
Makar Sankranti: The festival of Makar Sankranti will be celebrated in Karnataka when the Sun enters the Makar zodiac and the days begin to lengthen compared to nights.
Pongal: In South India and particularly in Tamil Nadu, it’s the festival of Pongal which is being celebrated over 4 days at harvest time.
Magha Bihu: In Assam and many parts of the North East, the festival of Magha Bihu is celebrated. It sees the first harvest of the season being offered to the gods along with prayers for peace and prosperity.
Uttarayan: Gujarat celebrates it in the form of the convivial kite festival of Uttarayan.
Maghi: In Punjab, Makar Sankranti is celebrated as Maghi. Bathing in a river in the early hours on Maghi is important.
Saaji: In Shimla District of Himachal Pradesh, Makara Sankranti is known as Magha Saaji. Saaji is the Pahari word for Sankranti, start of the new month. Hence this day marks the start of the month of Magha.
Kicheri: The festival is known as Kicheri in Uttar Pradesh and involves ritual bathing.
Outside India:
Shakrain is an annual celebration of winter in Bangladesh, observed with the flying of kites.
Maghe Sankranti is a Nepalese festival observed on the first of Magh in the Bikram Samwat Hindu Solar Nepali calendar (about 14 January).
Sources: The Hindu.
Central accident database management
In news :
- The government launched a central accident database management system that will help in analysing causes of road crashes and in devising safety interventions to reduce such accidents in the country.
- The IT tool, known as the Integrated Road Accident Database (IRAD) developed by the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M)
- Implemented by the National Informatics Centre.
- Project supported by the World Bank
National Informatics Centre (NIC) :
- National Informatics Centre (NIC) is an attached office under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India.
- NIC provides infrastructure to help support delivery of Government IT services and delivery of some of the initiatives of Digital India
Integrated Road Accident Database (IRAD)
Context : The database has been launched by the government.
Developed by the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M).
It will be implemented by the National Informatics Centre.
The project costs ₹258 crore and is being supported by the World Bank.
The system will be first piloted in the six States with highest fatalities from road crashes — Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
How it works?
- The IRAD mobile application will enable police personnel to enter details about a road accident, along with photos and videos, following which a unique ID will be created for the incident.
- Subsequently, an engineer from the Public Works Department or the local body will receive an alert on his mobile device.
- He or she will then visit the accident site, examine it, and feed the required details, such as the road design.
- Data thus collected will be analysed by a team at IIT-M, which will then suggest if corrective measures in road design need to be taken.
- Road users will also be able to upload data on road accidents on a separate mobile application, which is expected to go live from April 1.
Significance and benefits:
It will help in analysing causes of road crashes and in devising safety interventions to reduce such accidents in the country.
Need for this data:
India sees the largest number of road fatalities in the world. More than 1.5 lakh people lost their lives in road crashes in the country in 2018, according to government data. Of the total people killed in road crashes in 2018, 48% were between 18 years and 35 years old, and more than 60% of such fatalities were due to overspeeding.