UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 29-07-2020

Status of Tigers in India Report

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has released a detailed ‘Status of Tigers, Co-predators and Prey in India (2018) Report’ on the eve of the Global Tiger Day (29th July).
The report compares information obtained from the earlier three tiger surveys (2006, 2010, and 2014) with data obtained from the 2018-19 survey to estimate tiger population trends at country level.
India’s Project Tiger was launched in 1973 with 9 tiger reserves.
India has 70% of the world's tiger population, it is tirelessly working with all 13 tiger range countries towards nurturing the tiger.

Highlights of the report

The national tiger status assessment of 2018-19 estimated the overall tiger population in India at 2,967 - 33% increase from 2014 (2,226).
Tigers were observed to be increasing at a rate of 6% per annum in India from 2006 to 2018.
Uttarakhand’s Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) has reported the highest tiger density among India’s 50 reserves with 14 tigers per 100 sq km, followed by Kaziranga, Nagarhole and Orang tiger reserves.
Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of tigers at 526, closely followed by Karnataka (524) and Uttarakhand (442).
The Northeast has suffered losses in population.
Further, the tiger status in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha has steadily declined, which is a matter of concern.
With 2,967 tigers, India is four years in advance, has achieved the target set in the 2010 St Petersburg Declaration of doubling tiger population by 2022.

BIS-Care App

Union Ministry for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has launched the ‘BIS-Care’ app and e-BIS portal.
Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Care app enables Consumers to check the authenticity of the ISI-marked and hallmarked products and lodge complaints using this app.
It is important to ensure that consumers are aware of the standards and quality products and help in eliminating the supply of sub-standard products.
e-BIS portal - It has three components namely the Standardization, Conformity Assessment and Training Portals for consumers.
It is an integrated portal covering all functions of BIS, enlisting the services of outside agencies for factory and market surveillance.
BIS is a statutory body established under the BIS Act 1986, it replaced the Indian Standards Institution (ISI).

Mausam Mobile App

Union Minister for Earth sciences launched a mobile App "Mausam” for India Meteorological Department (IMD).
It is designed to communicate the weather information and forecasts to the general public in a lucid manner without technical jargons.
It has the following services

MoES-Knowledge Resource Centre Network (KRCNet)

Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) aims to develop a World-Class Knowledge Resource Centre Network (KRCNet).
Under it, the traditional libraries of the MoES system will be upgraded into a top-notch Knowledge Resource Centres (KRC).
KRCs will be connected with each other and integrated into the KRCNet portal.

Lyfas App

KAWACH initiative is supporting market-ready innovations for the control of COVID-19.
Under this initiative, a Covid risk assessment profile called Lyfas is being developed.
Department of Science and Technology has selected Acculi Labs, a Bangalore based startup.
Lyfas is an android application in which, when any person keeps the index finger on the rear phone camera of a mobile phone for five minutes, it captures the capillary pulse and blood volume change.
The technology is focused on population screening, monitoring of quarantined individuals and surveillance at the community level.

Inter-planetary Contamination in Mars

Recently, astrobiologists have expressed concerns about possible ‘interplanetary contamination’ on Mars.
Interplanetary contamination refers to biological contamination of a planetary body by a space probe or spacecraft, either deliberate or unintentional.
In the past, space missions have established physical contact with astronomical bodies such as comets and asteroids, and crewed missions have landed on the Moon.
However, since these bodies are known to be hostile to life, the possibility of their contamination has not been a pressing issue.
Type of Contaminations

Forward Contamination- It means the transport of Earth-based microbes to other celestial bodies.
Back Contamination - It is the transfer of extraterrestrial organisms (if they exist) into the Earth’s biosphere.

‘Planetary protection policy’ aims to limit the number of microbes sent to other planets, as well as ensuring that alien life does not cause havoc on Earth.
The policy was laid down by Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) established by International Council for Science (ICSU).

Joykali Matar Temple

India inaugurated the reconstructed Joykali Matar temple at Natore in Bangladesh.
It was built approximately 300 years back in the early 18th century by Shri Dayaram Roy.
He was an influential Dewan of Queen Bhahani of Natore and the founder of Dighapatia Royal Family.
The MoU for the reconstruction of the temple at Lalbazar, Natore was signed between India in Bangladesh in 2016.
The Government of India provided a grant assistance for the reconstruction of the historic temple under its High Impact Community Development Project (HICDP) scheme.

Source: The Hindu, PIB, News on AIR, Indian Express