WBCS Current Affairs 26th aug to 1th sep 2017 Part 2

36) Scientists from CSIR’s National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (CSIR-NIIST), Thiruvananthapuram have developed new technique to produce bioethanol from discarded cotton-stalks. The technique uses combination of chemical and biological techniques. The new technique will help to produce bioethanol, a clean fuel from cotton stalk wastes. Converting the agro-residues such as cotton stalks and wheat and rice husks etc to ethanol reduces the food vs fuel competition. India has about 9.4 million hectares under cotton cultivation and every hectare generates 2 million tonnes of cotton stalk wastes. New Technique: In new technique, cotton stalks first are treated with acid, alkali and different enzymes to breakdown its complex organic polymers. The acid treatment remove hemicellulose, a polymer of cell wall and alkali makes easier to extract lignin, a binding matrix in cell wall, made of complex phenolics. These treatments exposes cellulose of cotton stalks made of glucose to the action of enzymes. It converts glucose into final product bioethanol by the process of fermentation using a novel yeast strain. The novel yeast strain used was Saccharomycescerevisiae-RRP-03N, obtained from a rotting wild fruit we found in the Silent Valley National Park, Kerala. Significance: The Saccharomycescerevisiae-RRP-03N yeast performs better than distiller’s yeast strains commonly used in fermenting the cotton stalk hydrolysate. It has glucose conversion efficiency of 76% and it utilised entire glucose in just 24 hours and converted into alcohol. The final alcohol obtained after distillation can be made to fuel grade bioethanol (>99% purity).Continue Reading WBCS Current Affairs 26th aug to 1th sep 2017 Part 2.

37) The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has given a nod to Spice Digital Ltd. for processing bill payments under the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) as a Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit (BBPOU). Spice Money Ltd, a fintech company had received an in-principle approval to set-up as a BBPOU under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 in May 2016. In August 2016, NPCI had launched a pilot project for BBPS with eight BBPS operating unit, Spice Digital was one of them. Need: Bill payments is a major component of the retail payment transactions in India. It is characterized by the presence of large number of billers and aggregators who provide a variety of payment options to customers. According to the Digital Payments 2020 report by Google and Boston Consulting Group, cashless payments contribution in the consumer payments segment will double to 40%. Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS): BBPS is an integrated bill payment system offering interoperable and accessible bill payment service to customers through a network of agents, enabling multiple payment modes and providing instant confirmation of payment. The BBPS initiative aims to provide a major push to digital payments as it is a big step forward in formalizing the bill payment system in the country. Under the BBPS framework, a customer will be able to pay several bills such as electricity, telephone, water, gas, and DTH television at a single location—physical or electronic—and receive instant confirmation once the payment is made. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI): NPCI is the umbrella organisation for all retail payments system in India. It is being promoted the Reserve Bank of India. It was founded in 2008 as a not-for-profit organisation registered under section 25 of the Companies Act, 2013.

38) The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in the Union Commerce Ministry has banned duty free imports of gold, silver items from South Korea. These restrictions were imposed against the backdrop of sudden surge in imports of precious metals from South Korea, with which India has a free trade agreement (FTA) since January 2010. Now, importers will now have to obtain a license from the DGFT for importing gold and silver from South Korea. Sudden surge: Under the India-South Korea FTA, India has allowed duty free import of gold and silver items. However, 12.5% countervailing duty was imposed to offset equal level of excise duty on gold and silver jewellery items produced domestically. After goods and services tax (GST) regime was implemented from 1 July 2017, countervailing duty was abolished as it subsumed excise duty and only 3% GST was imposed on gold. This created a situation where importing gold via South Korea became profitable due to its duty free status with India even as government continued to impose 10% basic customs duty on gold imports from other countries. Between 1 July and 3 August 2017, gold imports from South Korea surged to $339 million against import of only $70.5 million in 2016-17. Background: India is the world’s second largest gold consumer after China, with consumption of 674 tonnes in 2016. According to the World Gold Council (WGC), India’s gold demand is projected to rise to between 850 tonnes and 950 tonnes by 2020 from an estimated 650-750 tonnes in 2017. Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT): The DGFT is the nodal agency responsible for execution of the import and export Policies of India. It is entrusted with responsibilities for formulating and implementing the foreign trade policy with the main objective of promoting India’s exports.

39) The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry has constituted a Task Force on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for India’s Economic Transformation. The 18-member panel will be headed by Dr. V. Kamakoti of IIT Madras. It will comprise of experts, academics, researchers and industry leaders. Key Facts: The Task force will explore the possibilities to leverage AI for development across various fields. It will submit concrete and implementable recommendations for government, industry and research institutions. In addition to regular members, official participation from the following organizations such as NITI Aayog, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Department of Science & Technology, UIDAI and DRDO will be also requested. Background: With rapid development in the fields of information technology and hardware, the world is about to witness a fourth industrial revolution. It will be driven by the power of big data, high computing capacity, artificial intelligence and analytics. It is going to digitise the manufacturing sector.

40) The Parliamentary Standing Committee has recommended that no genetically modified (GM) crop should be introduced unless the biosafety and socio-economic desirability is evaluated in a transparent process. It also called for placing an accountable regime in this regard. The recommendation was made by department-related parliamentary standing committee on science and technology and environment and forest in its 301st report on “GM crop and its impact on environment”. Report Highlights: The Committee has also recommended that the Environment Ministry (MoEFCC) should examine the impact of GM crops on the environment thoroughly, in consultation with all stakeholders, so that all its probable effects are very clear. It also noted that the GM crop regulator GEAC (Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee) gave its approval for commercialisation of GM mustard inspite of matter pending for decision in Supreme Court. It held that GM mustard being herbicide-tolerant GM organism (GMO), there are evidences on adverse impacts of such GMOs elsewhere in world. Background: The Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGMCP), Delhi University, had submitted an application to the GEAC for the environmental release of GM mustard hybrid DMH-11 and the use of parental events (EH2 mod bs 2.99 and varuna bn 3.6) for the development of a new generation of hybrids. The MoEFCC had received over 700 comments from various stakeholders, including farmers and researchers, on the Assessment of Food and Environmental Safety (AFES) report on GM Mustard.

41) The Union Civil Aviation Ministry has eased several norms of Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN), a flagship regional flying scheme to attract more airlines and helicopter operators to participate in regional connectivity scheme (RCS). The new norms were announced when the process for second round of bidding for the RCS were announced. . The winners of the second round of bidding will be announced by November 2017. Key Facts: The relaxations of the norms include dilution of the exclusivity clause mandating that only one airline may fly on one route in the initial years. It will allow selected airline operator of a particular route may issue no-objection certificate (NOC) to other airlines who want to operate on the selected RCS route. The norms restricting two airports in close proximity from participating in the bidding also has been relaxed. It will allow routes with a stage length less than 150 km for operations through fixed wing aircraft. About Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) Scheme: The UDAN Scheme aims at providing connectivity to un-served and under-served airports of the country through revival of existing airstrips and airports. It aims to develop the regional aviation market and make flying affordable. It is applicable on flights which cover between 200 km and 800 km. The distance limit is lower limit for hilly, remote, island and security sensitive regions. It reserves minimum number of UDAN seats i.e. seats at subsidized rates and also cap the fare for short distance flights. It has a unique market-based model to develop regional connectivity.

42) According to Japanese scientists, delicate mosses found on rocks and trees in cities around the world can be used as low-cost bioindicator to monitor urban pollution and to measure the impact of atmospheric change. As a bioindicator, mosses respond to pollution or drought-stress by changing its shape, density or disappearing. This characteristic will allow scientists to calculate atmospheric alterations and air pollution. Key Facts: Mosses are a common flowerless plant found in all cities especially in damp (humid) or shady locations. It generally absorb water and nutrients from their immediate environments, so it can reflect changes to ecosystems. So it can be used as potential bioindicators. In the study, Japanese researchers studied the effect of nitrogen pollution, air quality and drought-stress on moss. They found that drought-stress tends to occur in mosses found in areas with high levels of nitrogen pollution, which has negative impact on health and biodiversity. It can be cost effective and important for getting information about atmospheric conditions especially effect of nitrogen pollution and air quality in urban area.

43) Software giant Microsoft has launched Project Brainwave, a deep learning acceleration platform for real-time artificial intelligence (AI). Its launch is important as the real-time AI has increasingly became important as cloud infrastructures process live data streams, whether they be videos, sensor streams, search queries or interactions with users. Key facts: The ‘Project Brainwave’ uses the massive field-programmable gate array (FPGA) infrastructure which has been deployed by Microsoft over the past few years. It can processes requests as fast as it receives them with the help of ultra-low latency. The Project Brainwave system architecture reduces latency, since its Central Processing Unit (CPU) does not need to process incoming requests. It als allows very high throughput, with the FPGA processing requests as fast as the network can stream them. The system has been architected to yield high actual performance across a wide range of complex models, with batch-free execution. It can handle complex, memory-intensive models such as Long Short Term Memories (LSTM), without using batching to juice throughput. Artificial Intelligence (AI): Artificial intelligence is branch of computer science concerned with making computers behave like humans. In contrast to normal hardware and software, AI enables a machine to perceive and respond to its changing environment.

44) The Union Government has appointed Ashwani Lohani as the new Chairman of the Railway Board (Ministry of Railways). Prior to this appointment, he was serving as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Air India. His appointment comes after A.K. Mital resigned from post, owing moral responsibility of Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express derailment in Uttar Pradesh due to several lapses in track maintenance work. About Ashwani Lohani: Mr. Lohani is an Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineering (IRSME) cadre. Earlier he had served as DRM, Delhi Division; Chief Administrative Officer, Rail Alternate Fuel and Director, National Rail Museum. He holds the Guinness Record for successfully running the ‘Fairy Queen Express’, the world’s oldest working steam locomotive. He holds four engineering degrees, has authored two books (one on steam engines and the other on management). He is credited with the turnaround of the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (MPTDC) and the India Tourism Development Corporation. Railway Board: It is the apex body of the Indian Railways. It reports to the Parliament through the Ministry of Railways headed by the Union Railway Minister. The Chairman of the Board with the status of a Secretary to Government in the Ministry of Railways is responsible for decisions on technical and policy matters of Indian Railways.

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