DAILY GK: 6 JAN 2021
1. INDIAN SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION TO
ANTARCTICA
• India flagged off the 40th Indian
Scientific Expedition to Antarctica (40-ISEA) from the Mormugao Port, Goa.
• The Expedition will have 43 members and the chartered ice-class
vessel MV Vasiliy Golovnin will take the team to Antarctica.
• On return, the vessel will bring back the
members of the 39th Expedition.
• The Ministry of Earth Science launched the
expedition.
• National Centre for Polar & Ocean
Research (NCPOR), Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) is the implementation
agency of the Indian Antarctic Programme.
• They are responsible for carrying out
expedition programs to Antarctica.
2. FSSAI REDUCES PERMISSIBLE LEVEL
OF TRANS-FATTY ACIDS
• Food Safety and Standards Authority of
India (FSSAI) released guidelines to reduce the permissible level of
Trans-Fatty Acids (TFA) in oils and fats to 3% for 2021 & 2% by 2022 from
the current permissible limit of 5%.
• The change has been brought through an
amendment to the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on
Sales) Regulations.
• The regulation applies to edible refined
oils, vanaspati (partially hydrogenated oils), margarine, bakery shortenings
& other mediums of cooking like vegetable fat spreads & mixed fat
spreads.
3. PATNA METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY
CONFERRED WITH ‘CENTENNIAL STATUS’
• Patna Meteorological Observatory has been
conferred the status of ‘Centennial
Observing Station Status’ by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to
recognize its contribution towards long-term meteorological observation
exceeding over 100 years.
• The decision to confer the status was
taken during the 72nd WMO Executive Council Meeting held virtually from
September-October, 2020.
• The Patna meteorological observatory was
established in 1867 by the British Corps of Engineers.
• Centennial Weather Stations maintain the
world’s longest robust records of weather observations, they are key to
understanding of the climate system & global warming.
4. INDIA’S 1ST OF ITS KIND MIGRANT
WORKER CELL
• Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan
Inaugurated India’s 1st of its kind Migrant Worker Cell at Surat, Gujarat.
• An initiative of Surat Municipal
Corporation (SMC) it aims to help Migrants from Odia & other parts of the
country working in different industries of Surat.
• The cell
will be based at iLab, Udhna,
Surat and has been created under the ‘National Urban Livelihood Mission
Scheme’.
5. KOCHI-MANGALURU NATURAL GAS
PIPELINE
• PM Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated the
450 Km Long Kochi-Mangaluru Natural Gas Pipeline.
• The pipeline has been constructed by GAIL
(India) Ltd at a cost of INR 3, 000 crores.
• The pipeline will carry natural gas from
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) regasification terminal at Kochi, Kerala to
Mangaluru, Karnataka.
• The PM cited the inauguration of the
pipeline as a step towards Government’s ‘One Nation One Gas Grid’.
6. GENERAL MM NARAVANE VISITS
REPUBLIC OF KOREA
• General Manoj Mukund(MM) Naravane, Chief
of the Army Staff(COAS) of Indian army undertook a 3 day visit to South
Korea(officially, Republic of Korea-ROK).
• He received a Guard of Honour at Republic
of Korea Army(ROKA) Headquarters at Gyeryong, South Korea.
• It is the first-ever visit of an Indian
Army COAS to the ROK.
7. INDIA’S 1ST TESTING PLATFORM FOR
AUTONOMOUS NAVIGATION SYSTEMS
• Union Minister for Education, Ramesh
Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ virtually laid the Foundation stone for ‘TiHAN Foundation’
– Technology Innovation Hub at the IIT Hyderabad (IITH).
• It will be India’s 1st Testing hub for
Autonomous Navigation & Data Acquisition Systems (Terrestrial and Aerial).
• Department of Science & Technology,
Government of India sanctioned INR 135
Crore to IIT Hyderabad under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary
Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) to establish ‘TiHAN-IIT Hyderabad’.
8. WORLD’S FIRST WOODEN SATELLITE
• Sumitomo Forestry company and Kyoto
University of Japan is all set to launch the world’s first wood-based space
satellite by 2023 to combat the problem of space junk.
• In this regard, several wooden materials
are being tested by the research team to find a suitable one for space
missions.
• According to the European Space Agency
(ESA) statistical model, there are more than 130 million pieces of
anthropogenic space debris due to human activities.
• ESA is also planning to launch a mission
to collect space debris in 2025.
• The debris can travel at a speed of more
than 22,300 mph and can impact other satellites.