06-10-21 Daily-Punjab-PPSC Current Affairs

Worsening arrival of coal and dwindling supply is triggering a power crisis in Punjab that can hit the state economy. Over 10,000 industrial units have already been closed due to Covid in the state and any outage is likely to worsen the situation.

Punjabs coal-fired power stations are now left with less than three-day stock. With demand expected to go down after October 10, the state still faces power crisis, if the coal situation does not improve in the coming week.

Supplies to power Plants are currently short following prolonged rains that have drenched coal pits as unusually heavy rain last month in major coal mining centres have worsened the situation.

At present, the power demand is around 9,924 MW, out of which central sector contributes 5,010 MW, private plants 2,510 MW, two state-owned plants 1,091 MW, while state-owned hyrdo projects supply 392 MW and solar and 291 MW.

American Space Agency, NASA, is set to send its Psyche Mission to visit a giant asteroid called Psyche, which could be the frozen remains of molten core of a bygone world.

Psyche asteroid orbits around the Sun in main asteroid belt, in betweenMarsandJupiter.

According to data gathered through Earth-based radar and optical telescopes, Psyche is made largely of Metal.

Psyche could be part or all of the iron-rich interior of any earlier planetary building block which got stripped of its outer rocky shell because of repeated collision with other large bodies during the initiation phases of formation of <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/the-solar-system”>The Solar System.

The asteroid is about 280 kilometres at its widest point.

NASA will send its Psyche Mission in August 2022 launch. This spacecraft will orbit around the asteroid for two years. In two years, it will take pictures, map the surface, and look for evidence of an ancient Magnetic Field. Aircraft will also study the neutrons and gamma rays coming from the asteroids surface in order to determine its elemental composition.

The missile, named Zircon missile, was launched from the Severodvinsk. submarine. Zircon hit a designated target in the Barents Sea.

It was Zircons first launch from a submarine.

Missile has been repeatedly test-fired from a navy frigate in the past.

Missile would be commissioned in to Russian Navy in 2022.

Zircon missile has been developed to arm Russian cruisers, frigates and submarines. It is one among several hypersonic missiles being developed in Russia.

Zircon Missile have the capability to fly at nine times the speed of Sound. It has a range of 1000 kilometres. Missile is believed to be a maneuvering, winged hypersonic cruise missile.

Ministry of Textiles has approved the continuation of Comprehensive Handicrafts Cluster Development Scheme (CHCDS) on October 5, 2021.

CHCDS scheme was approved with a total outlay of Rs 160 crore.

Scheme will continue up to March 2026 now.

Under the scheme, infrastructural support, design & technology upgradation, market access etc will be provided to handicrafts artisans.

CHCDS schemes was launched to create world-class Infrastructure which will caters to the business needs of local artisans & SMEs in order to boost production and export. These clusters have been set with the objective of assisting the artisans & entrepreneurs in setting up world-class units with modern infrastructure, adequate training, latest technology, and Human resource development inputs. It is also coupled with market linkages and production diversification.

Under CHCDS, interventions such as Baseline Survey & Activity Mapping, Skill Training, Marketing events, Improved Tool Kits, Publicity, Seminars, capacity building, Design workshops, etc will be provided. Scheme will also provide for Emporiums, Common Facility Centres, Raw Material Banks, Trade Common Production Centres, Facilitation Centres, Design & Resource Centres.

These products will focus on integration of scattered artisans, building grass root level enterprises for them and linking them to SMEs in the handicrafts sector in order to ensure economies of scale. Mega handicraft clusters comprising of 10,000 artisans will be selected for overall development under the scheme.

As per NOAAs National Center for Environmental Information analysis, August 2021 was the 6^thhottest month on the Earth, despite the fact that, Central Texas went through a cooler than Average month.

August 2021 was the 6th warmest month in 142 years.

While analysing the Augusts heat, scientists found that the average global land & ocean surface temperature was 1.62 degrees F more than the average of 20th-century.

North America witnessed its top-10 warmest August.

Asia had its 2nd warmest August while Africa had 3rd warmest August.

Since 2009, 9 out of 10 warmest Augusts on Earth have happened.

Year 2021 was also the 2nd hottest summer on record in Northern Hemisphere. Year 2020 witnessed the hottest summer on record in the Northern Hemisphere. August end also wrapped up meteorological summer, a summer which was tied with 2019 as second hottest summer on record in the Northern Hemisphere.

June-August is known as meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere. June-August was the 4th warmest on record for Earth while Southern Hemisphere was going through winter. Global temperatures were recorded as 1.62 degrees F above the 20th Century.

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is planning to find a customer relationship management (CRM) as well as enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions on the basis of Free and open-source Software (FOSS).

These solutions would be planned in such a way that it could deploy on its own platform and use it in future for developing other citizen-facing interfaces like Aarogya Setu app or a COWIN platform.

Primary goal of coming up with the solution is to create an open-source software repository which can be accessed and used across the departments, States and countries.

Currently, Indian government is working on using FOSS in order to find solutions in agritech, Governance, healthcare and Education segments.