04-01-22 Daily -Goa- GPSC Current Affairs

As a special measure to address the rise inpowerproject costs due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the finance department has permitted the electricity department to acceptcostescalations from the contractor as long as it does not exceed10%of the original amount. The finance department said that if cost escalations exceed the expendituresanctionby more than 10%, a revised expenditure sanction will have to be sought from the finance department.
However, cost escalations will be permitted only if the cost of the project is more than Rs 2 crore and if the time frame for project completion is more than four months.

The relaxation and delegation of powers to accept revised expenditure sanctions comes based on recommendations of a special committee constituted by the to study the shortage of labour and non-availability of material as a result of the lockdown and the restrictions thereafter, due to the increase in Covid-19.

The Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman K Sivan recently announced about plans for 2022. He also provided details about the missions accomplished in 2021.

Earth Observation Satellites 4 and 6 are to be launched on PSLV.

ISRO will also launch Aditya L1, Chandrayaan 3, XpoSat, Technology demonstration missions and IRNSS in 2022.

The other 2022 plans are DISHA, Venus Mission, ISROCNES, TRISHNA

In Trishna,t he satellite aims to map the surface temperature of land. It is jointly developed by India and France. TRISHNA will also monitor water use. Similar India France operations include Megha Tropiques and SARAL AltiKa. SARAL mission will study the ocean from space using ARGOS. ARGOS is a data collecting system. Megha Tropiques will study the energy exchanges in the tropical region and water cycle. It will also study the <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/natural-Resources“>Natural Resources using thermal infrared imaging. Currently, the earth temperature from space is obtained at a resolution of 100 metres. TRISHNA aims to increase the resolution to 57 metres. With this, scientists can understand the physical, biological and climatic phenomena of water cycle.

DISHA is a twin satellite system. It will study the aeronomy of the earth. That is, the uppermost layer of the earth Atmosphere.

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) announced to develop and launch a <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change Awareness Campaign and a National Photography Competition.

Both the events will be held in Surat, Gujarat on February 4th and 5th 2022. Events will be held as a part of ministrys preparatory activities under the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.

Both the campaign and the competition will be organised with the aim of raising concerns regarding climate change, advance climate action in cities and inform the participants of alternative approaches.

Bye-bye campaigns will be led by municipal Commissioners, top heads of Urban Local Bodies, and Smart City CEOs, in a bid to bring the attention of young minds towards the challenges and solutions arising from Urban Climate Change and Sustainable solutions across their municipalities.

UnionEducationMinister & Skill development MinisterDharmendra Pradhan launched National Educational Alliance for Technology (NEAT) 3.0.

NEAT 3.0 was launched as a single platform for providing the best-developed ed-tech solutions and courses to the students in India.

On the occasion, minister also launched AICTE prescribed technical books in regional languages. Learning in regional languages will help in developing critical thinking capacity as well as enable youth to become global citizens.

NEAT is an initiative for providing the use of best-developed technological solutions in educationsector for enhancing the employability of youth on a single platform for the convenience of learners. These solutions make use of for a customised and personalised experience for better learning outcomes and skill development across Niche areas.

The project was launched by AYUSH Ministry. Ayush Aahaar is a healthy diet. The ministry is to make this diet available in its canteen.

It was launched at Ayush Bhawan canteen of the ministry. The project aims to promote healthy living through nutritious diet. The healthy diet that includes kokum drink, gajar ka halwa, bhajani vada and vegetable poha. These dishes are rich in Nutrition and are very popular among the public. Also, they are easily digestible.

The Ayush Aahaar is being launched as a test. Forms will be issued to people taking the dishes. Feedbacks are to be collected. Based on the feedback, a new diet is to be regularised. This is a precursor to promote Ayush Lifestyle. The ministry has plans to spread awareness about Ayush lifestyle.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan launched the ‘Padhe Bharat’ 100-day Reading Campaign on 1 January.

Highlights:

The Padhe Bharat Campaign was launched to help students improve their academic performance.

It is a significant step toward improving Learning levels because it fosters creativity, critical thinking, vocabulary, and the ability to express oneself verbally and in writing.

It will assist children in making connections with their surroundings and real-life situations.

The campaign will cover children in Balvatika from kindergarten to eighth grade. On January 1, 2022, the Padhe Bharat campaign began.

It will take place over the course of 100 days, or 14 weeks. On April 10, 2022, it will come to an end

A team of astronomers recently discovered the signature of a on an Exoplanet using Hubble Space Telescope data.

Highlights:

The research was published in the journal Nature Astronomy. For the first time, such a feature has been discovered on an exoplanet.

The observations of an extended region of charged carbon particles are explained by the planet’s magnetic field. It forms a long tail that flows away from it.

Magnetic fields play an important role in planetary Atmosphere protection.

Thus, the ability to detect the magnetic fields of exoplanets is an important step toward a better understanding of what alien worlds might look like.