Important Points @ Glance: Part 14
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A Chinese supercomputer built using domestic chip
technology has been declared the world’s fastest. The Sunway TaihuLight takes
the top spot from previous record-holder Tianhe-2 (also located in China), and
more than triples the latter’s speed. The new number one is capable of
performing some 93 quadrillion calculations per second (otherwise known as
petaflops) and is roughly five times more powerful than the speediest US
system, which is now ranked third worldwide. The TaihuLight is comprised of
some 41,000 chips, each with 260 processor cores. This makes for a total of
10.65 million cores, compared to the 560,000 cores in America’s top machine. In
terms of memory, it’s relatively light on its feet, with just 1.3 petabytes
used for the entire machine. It’s also unusually energy efficient, drawing just
15.3 megawatts of power — less than the 17.8 megawatts used by the 33-petaflop
Tianhe-2. The previous fastest supercomputer, China’s Tianhe-2, was built using
US-made Intel processors.
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Visakhapatnam Port has been declared as the second
gateway port for Nepal after Kolkata-Haldia. The movement of traffic-in-transit
between Port of Visakhapatnam and Nepal will be in sealed containers and in
full rake only and the cost of transhipment will be borne by the
consignor/consignee. Visakhapatnam Port has the deepest container terminal
among major ports with permissible draft of 15 metres and LOA up to 320 metres.
Most of the transit cargo of Nepal will be from China. The terminal can act as
an ideal gateway for east-bound cargo. Handling of cargo will be advantageous
in terms of ocean freight and liner detention, export-import traders say. India
and Nepal signed the agreement recently to provide the additional transit
facility to Nepal through the Visakhapatnam Port as second gateway port.
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India has retained its ranking as the tenth-highest
recipient of foreign direct investment in 2015, receiving $44 billion of
investment that year compared to $35 billion in 2014, according to the United
Nations. The World Investment Report 2016 released by the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) recently found that India also
jumped a place in terms of attractiveness as a business destination in 2015, to
sixth place, with 14% of the respondents naming it as their destination of
choice. US has occupied the first place.
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The first Phase-1 human clinical trial of a vaccine
for the Zika virus is set to begin in the coming weeks, with the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) green-lighting it. The DNA vaccine (GLS-5700)
developed by the U.S-based Inovio Pharmaceuticals and GeneOne Life Science,
South Korea, has already been tested on animals and found to elicit “robust”
antibody and T cell responses. The human trial will be carried out on 40
healthy adults to evaluate safety, tolerability and immunogenicity and the
interim results are expected before the end of the year. But it may take a
couple of years to know if the vaccine works against Zika. According to the
World Health Organization (WHO), four of the 14 companies working on a
candidate vaccine have reached the preclinical stage. WHO declared Zika as a
global public health emergency of international concern in February 2016.
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The iconic high courts of Bombay and Madras may soon
undergo a change in their nomenclature. Amid demands, the Centre is mulling
changing the names of the two high courts through an Act of Parliament. The Law
Ministry has started working on a bill to rename Bombay and Madras high courts
to correspond to the present names of the cities. There have been demands to
rename the high courts as Mumbai High Court and Chennai High Court after the
metros were rechristened in the 1990s. The proposal of the Department of
Justice in the Law Ministry is to bring a bill to rename the two high courts
established in the 1860s under the Indian High Court Act, 1861. The ‘Indian
High Court Act’ of 1861, vested in the Queen of England to issue letters patent
to establish high courts of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay.
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The Cabinet has approved the establishment of ‘Fund of
Funds for Startups‘ (FFS) at Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI)
for contribution to various Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) registered with
SEBI which would extend funding support to startups. The fund will be built up
over the 14th and 15th Finance Commission cycles to provide a stable and
predictable source of funding for startup enterprises and facilitate large
scale job creation. The central government has already sanctioned Rs 500 crore
for the project in 2015-16, while Rs 600 crore has been earmarked in the
2016-17. Provisions will also be made to grant assistance through gross
budgetary Support by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP),
which will monitor and review performance in line with the ‘Start up India
Action Plan’.
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Expanding its horizons, the Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO) recently launched 20 satellites through a single rocket,
surpassing its 2008 record of launching 10 satellites in a single mission.
Besides the primary Cartosat-2 Series satellite, the PSLV C-34 rocket launched
two satellites from Indian universities and 17 foreign satellites, including
one for a Google company. The 725.5-kg Cartosat-2 series satellite would be for
Earth observation and its imagery would be useful for cartographic
applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation,
and utility management like road networking. In 2014, Russian Dnepr rocket
launched a record 37 satellites in a single mission.
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Former Indian test captain Anil Kumble has been
appointed as the head coach of Team India for one year. This was announced by
BCCI recently. Kumble is the first Indian to be appointed full-time India coach
since Kapil Dev resigned in September 2000.
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China has launched its first dark sky reserve for
astronomical observation in the Tibetan prefecture of Ngari, bordering Nepal
and India. The reserve covers an area of 2,500 square kilometre and aims to
limit light pollution by stepping up protection of dark-sky resources for
education and tourism development. It was jointly launched by the China
Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation and the regional
government of Tibet. The reserve will also try to seek accreditation from the
International Dark-Sky Association, a non-profit organisation based in the US
that is devoted to preserving and protecting the night time environment and
dark skies globally. Ngari is among the best sites for astronomical observation
on earth, due to its high altitude and large number of cloudless days
throughout the year.
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As part of a Swachh Bharat Mission drive, the Union
Ministry of Environment and Forests has decided to do away with garbage bins in
10 prominent wildlife parks and make visitors take their litter home. This was
done because people dropped litter around garbage bins, inviting animals and
thus aggravating the man-animal conflict. The parks have been compelled the
visitors to arrange for jute bags to collect their trash. The ten wildlife
parks identified are- Jim Corbett National Park, Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary in
Andhra Pradesh; Gir Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park in Gujarat; Kanha
Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh; Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra;
Flamingo Sanctuary in Maharashtra; Nagarhole Tiger Reserve in Karnataka;
Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala; Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan; and
Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu.
Important Points @ Glance: Part 2
Important Points @ Glance: Part 3
Important Points @ Glance: Part 4
Important Points @ Glance: Part 5
Important Points @ Glance: Part 6
Important Points @ Glance: Part 7
Important Points @ Glance: Part 8
Important Points @ Glance: Part 9
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