Lalitgiri Museum
- Earliest Buddhist settlements in Lalitgiri, Cuttack district, Odisha has been recently converted in to a museum.
- it will be the third site museum of the Bhubaneswar circle of the Archaeological Survey of India after Ratnagiri and Konrak.
- Excavations at Lalitgiri shows the cultural community from the post-Mauryan period till the 13th century CE.
- Lalitgiri along with the Ratnagiri and Udayagiri sites are known as the "Diamond Triangle".
- Excavations at the site shows that "Tantric Buddhism" was practiced.
- Tantric Buddhism is a tradition that focuses on mystical practices and concepts as a path to enlightenment and is associated with the Vajrayana sects.
Tsunami in Indonesia
- Anak Krakatau Volcano in the middle of the Java and Sumatra islands in the Sunda Strait erupted and triggered underwater landslides.
- This has led to Volcano triggered Tsunami in the region.
- Also called the "Child of Krakatoa", it emerged around 1928 in the caldera of Krakatoa, a volcanic island that violently erupted in 1883.
- It has become a small volcanic island with subsequent lava flows at an altitude of 1000 feet above sea level.
- The island is part of the Ujung Kulon National Park, listed in UNESCO's World Heritage site.
- Since its birth, it has been in a state of semi-continuous eruptive activity.
- Indonesia has nearly 130 active volcanoes, forming part of the pacific "Ring of Fire".
- Indonesia's proximity to the junction of 3 continental plates, makes it particularly vulnerable to earthquakes and eruptions.
- According to the International Tsunami Information Centre, Tsunamis triggered by volcanic eruptions are relatively rare, caused by the sudden displacement of water or "slope failure".
- Unlike earthquake triggered Tsunami, which trigger alert systems, Volcano triggered give little time to give warning.
Chennai Andaman Nicobar Island (CANI) Cable System
- CANI is a proposed project to provide high speed internet to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in order to augment their communication infrastructure.
- It is a 2,200-km-long optical fibre system with a speed of 100 Gigabit per second.
- It will connect the Indian mainland from Chennai with the 8 islands of UT.
- They are Port Blair, Little Andaman (Hut Ba), Car Nicobar, Kamorta, Great Nicobar (Campbell Bay), Havelock, Long and Rangat.
- Under the proposal, the sub-marine cable system will be laid on the sea bed and the total route length will be 2,199.66 km.
- It is set to provide a fillip to defence communication infrastructure in the islands and improve communication during natural disasters.
- At present, telecom connectivity between the mainland and the islands is through satellites with limited bandwidth capacity.
Climate Vulnerability Report
- Climate Vulnerability Assessment for the Indian Himalayan Region Using a Common Framework is a first-of-its-kind report prepared by the Department of Science and Technology.
- According to the report, all the 12 Himalayan states in India are extremely vulnerable to global warming.
- It is based on 4 indicators such as
- The economic and sociological status of the people and their health,
- Possible impact on agriculture production,
- Forest-dependent livelihoods and
- Access to information services and infrastructure
- States having low per capita income, low area under irrigation and low area under forests per 1,000 households and high area under open forests received a high vulnerability score.
- Assam, Mizoram and Jammu & Kashmir topped the list.
- Sikkim is the least vulnerable state.
Source: The Hindu, The New Indian Express
