TELANGANA
- Telangana No. 1 in power consumption growth
- Putting up a power charged performance, Telangana has registered a nearly 14% growth in annual power consumption for fiscal 2017-18 to emerge at the top in the country. Telangana’s power consumption shot up to 60,237 million units (MU) in 2017-18 as against 53,017 MU in 2016-17.
- The state also stood first when it comes to per capita power consumption at 1,727 units in 2017-18, clocking over 11% growth. In 2016-17, the state’s per capita consumption stood at 1,551 units. This is as per data on performance of power utilities in 2017-18, based on various power development indices, announced by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).
- Uttar Pradesh, one of the country’s biggest states, registered a growth of only 11.92% to emerge second, followed by AP at third spot with 7.43% growth in power consumption. The national power consumption grew only by 2.4% during 2017-18. Prior to the formation of Telangana in 2014, the power consumption growth in united AP stood at just 6%.
- Telangana could achieve this due to 24-hour free power supply to agriculture and uninterrupted power supply to both domestic and industrial sectors.
INTERNATIONAL
- India-Japan military exercise Dharma Guardian-2018 begins in Mizoram
- Armies of India and Japan began their first-ever joint military exercise at Mizoram’s Vairengte.
- The focus of the two-week-long exercise ‘Dharma Guardian-2018″ will be to enhance tactical skills against global terrorism and increase interoperability between the two forces.
- The Japanese contingent is represented by 32nd Infantry Battalion, while the Indian side by 6/1 Gorkha Rifles.
- Pather Panchali’ is only Indian movie to feature in BBC’s 100-best foreign language films
- Satyajit Ray’s epic masterpiece ‘Pather Panchali’ has been included by BBC’s 100 best foreign language films but it is the only film from India to feature in the list.
- Ray’s film, released in 1955, was placed at number 15 in the list, which has been topped by Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Seven Samurai’.
- 27 of the highest-rated films were in French, followed by 12 in Mandarin, and 11 each in Italian and Japanese.
· Oceans are heating up 60 percent faster : IPCC
- Scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) said that the world’s oceans have absorbed60% more heat than previously thought over the last quarter of a century leaving Earth more sensitive still to the effects of climate change.
- The Scientists also said that the world’s oceans have absorbed 90%of the temperature rise caused by man-made carbon emissions.
- The IPCC warned that drastic measures need taking in order to limit global warming to 1.5 Celsius by the end of the century but the world produced a record amount of carbon emissions in 2017.
GK bit –IPCC
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to assess climate change based on the latest science.
- IPCC reports cover the “scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. The IPCC does not carry out original research.
NATIONAL
· India will become 3rd largest aviation market in world by 2020: Government
- Foreign Secretary Vijay Keshav Gokhale announced that India is aimed at laying 40 kilometres of highways every day by 2018 and 2019 – a three-time jump from four years ago.
- Projects which lift India’s position to 3rd largest aviation market by 2020 are:
Chabahar port being develped in Iran to improve connectivity to the West.
Activities in Bangladesh include inland waterways container ports.
The Kaladan project being implemented in Myanmar.
· AQI of Delhi remains very poor
- National Capital Region has been tested with air quality still atvery poor range. The Centre-run System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research(SAFAR) recorded the Capital’s Air Quality Index at 368, which denotes a very poor range. It also said if it is maintained so, then there are chances that the next three days will see little improvement.
- It stated that about 12% of pollution by PM 2.5 (presence of particles in the air with a diameter of fewer than 2.5 micrometres) was caused due to stubble burning.
- System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR):
- SAFAR functions under the planning scheme “Metropolitan Advisories for Cities for Sports, Tourism (Metropolitan Air Quality and Weather Services), Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Govt. of India
- The SAFAR system is developed by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, along with ESSO partner institutions namely India Meteorological Department (IMD) and National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF)
- The objective of the project is to increase awareness among the general public regarding the air quality in their cities well in advance so that appropriate mitigation measures and systematic action can be taken up for the betterment of air quality and related health issues.
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