Prelim Bits 15-10-2019

Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

The SverigesRiksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel is the biggest prize in economics.
Although not an official Nobel prize, the Economics Sciences award is massive recognition for academic achievement and comes with 9 million Swedish krona.
This year, it hasAhas been handed to Abhijit Banerjee&Esther Duflo of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Michael Kremer of Harvard.
It is for their work into the causes of poverty and their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.
They were also recognised for using randomised control trials to discover which educational outcomes or child health initiatives actually work.
Indian American economist Abhijit Banerjee, is firmly rooted in Indian economic policies and research, especially in the fields of microfinance and financial inclusion.
He was also one of the advisors to Congress on its ambitious NYAY scheme, proposed ahead of 2019 general elections.

LOTUS-HR

The project Local Treatment of Urban Sewage streams for Healthy Reuse (LOTUS-HR) is an Indo-Netherlands joint program.
It is supported by Department of Biotechnology.
It was initiated in 2017 and the 2^nd phase was launched recently.
The project aims to demonstrate a novel holistic (waste) water management approach that will produce clean water for reuse purposes.
The pilot scale plant upon commissioning will treat 10,000 L sewage water per day.
Special attention is paid to pathogen removal and removing conventional and emerging pollutants.
The project was launched in India-Netherlands water laboratory at the Barapullah drainin Delhi.
Wetlab – A design challenge competition for Indian and Dutch young professionals to provide innovative ideas to solve India’s urban water challenges.
It is jointly supported by Department of Biotechnology and Netherlands Enterprise Agency.

RashtriyaSanskriti Mahotsav

The 10th edition of RashtriyaSanskriti Mahotsav was recently organised by the Ministry of Culture in the State of Madhya Pradesh.
It was conceived in 2015 to showcase the rich cultural heritage of the country in varied dimensions in one place - Handicrafts, Cuisine, Painting, Sculpture and Performing Arts-Folk, Tribal, Classical and Contemporary.
It will cover a profusion of folk-artforms from 22 States.
It was launched under EkBharat Shrestha Bharat initiative under Ministry of Human Resource and Development.

Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat - It was launched in 2016 to promote bonding amongst the people of different States/UTs and diverse cultures, thereby securing unity and integrity of India.
Each year, every State/UT would be paired with another State/UT in India for reciprocal interaction between the people.

Clean Air Cities Declaration

The declaration was signed in at the C40 World Mayors Summit in Copenhagen.
It commits cities to set ambitious pollution reduction targets and implement substantive clean air policies by 2025.
Totally 35 cities signed this declaration in which Delhi is also a part.
Through the declaration, mayors commit to using their power and influence to reduce air pollution and work towards meeting the WHO guidelines.
C40 cities is a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change.
It connects 94 of the world’s greatest cities to take bold climate action, leading the way towards a healthier and more sustainable future.

UK Sinha Committee

Former SEBI chairman UK Sinha led committee recommended comprehensive framework for Insolvency resolution and liquidation of companies.
Its recommendations are,

Single insolvency professional and single adjudicating authority
Creation of a group creditors committed
Implementation of group insolvency framework should be in a phased manner
Cross-border group insolvency to be taken up at a later stage
Single application to commence insolvency proceedings against multiple companies of a group.

Black Hole System

Indian, British astronomers have recently discovered new details of black hole 10,000 light years away.
The black hole system ‘MAXI J1820+070’ was first discovered in 2018.
Its mass is the equivalent of seven Suns compressed into a region smaller than the city of London.
The effect of the black hole’s strong gravity and the material’s own magnetic field can cause rapidly changing levels of radiation, which are emitted from the system as a whole.
This radiation was detected in visible light by the HiPERCAM instrument on the Gran Telescopio Canarias, Spain and in NASA’s NICER observatory aboard the International Space Station.
This kind of observations are not possible even by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) as the distance make them too faint and too small.

Source: The Hindu, PIB, The Indian Express