Addapedia Odisha | Daily Current Affairs | 08 January 2024 | Download PDF

• IIT-Delhi team makes first hi-res landslide risk map for India
• The ‘Indian Landslide Susceptibility Map’ is the first of its kind by virtue of being on a national scale in the country.
• The map and the researchers’ study will be published in the journal Catena in its February 2024 issue.

Key points

• Landslides are a unique and deadly problem. They are less widespread and harder to track and study with satellites. 
• Landslides happen in localised areas and affect only about 1-2% of the country.
• The map acknowledged some well-known regions of high landslide susceptibility, like parts of the foothills of the Himalaya, the Assam-Meghalaya region, and the Western Ghats. 
• It also revealed some previously unknown places with high risk, such as some areas of the Eastern Ghats, just north of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

• A paper published in the journal Nature revealed that the oldest evidence of photosynthetic structures reported to date has been identified inside a collection of 1.75-billion-year-old microfossils.
• The discovery helps to shed light on the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis.

Key points

• Oxygenic photosynthesis is unique to cyanobacteria and related organelles within eukaryotes.
• It is in which sunlight catalyses the conversion of water and carbon dioxide into glucose and oxygen.

• The Union Health Ministry notified revised rules under Schedule M of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945.
• It aimed at ensuring robust quality control for pharma and biopharmaceutical products.

Key points

• • Schedule M prescribes the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for pharmaceutical products and the revised Schedule M has been notified as rules to ensure that GMP is adhered to and requirements of premises, plant, and equipment for pharmaceutical products are met.
  • The GMP is the mandatory standard that builds and brings quality into a product by way of control of materials, methods, machines, processes, personnel, facility/environment and so on. 
• GMP was first incorporated in Schedule M of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 in 1988 and was last amended in June 2005.

• With the amendment, the words ‘Good Manufacturing Practices’ (GMP) have been replaced with ‘Good Manufacturing Practices and Requirements of Premises, Plant and Equipment for Pharmaceutical Products’.

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has placed the Aditya-L1 spacecraft in a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point (L1).
• India’s maiden solar mission, Aditya-L1, reached the L1 point, 127 days after it was launched on September 2, 2023.

Key points

• Aditya-L1 is the first space based observatory class Indian solar mission to study the Sun from a substantial distance of 1.5 million kilometers. It will take approximately 125 days to reach the L1 point.
• The mission aims to provide valuable insights into the solar corona, photosphere, chromosphere, and solar wind.
• The primary objective of Aditya-L1 is to gain a deeper understanding of the Sun’s behavior, including its radiation, heat, particle flow, and magnetic fields, and how they impact Earth.

• Europa Clipper is a robotic solar-powered spacecraft built to conduct the first detailed investigations of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. 
• The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter and make nearly 50 flybys of Europa to determine whether there are places below Europa’s surface that could support life.
• Europa Clipper will launch in October 2024 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 
• The spacecraft will fly by Mars, then back by Earth, using the gravity of each planet to increase its momentum. 
• These so-called “gravity assists” will provide Europa Clipper with the velocity needed to reach Jupiter in 2030.

Goal:

• After it begins orbiting Jupiter, Europa Clipper will spend about a year altering its trajectory to prepare for its first Europa flyby. 
• The spacecraft will then spend about three years soaring past Europa dozens of times and sending data back to Earth. 
• Over the course of the mission, the spacecraft will investigate nearly the entire moon.

Europa Clipper Fast Facts

• With its solar arrays deployed, Europa Clipper spans more than 100 feet (about 30 meters) – about the length of a basketball court.
• The spacecraft has 24 engines.
• Europa Clipper will orbit Jupiter and make nearly 50 flybys of Europa.
• The spacecraft has 9 dedicated science instruments, plus gravity/radio science.
• At launch, Europa Clipper will weigh approximately 13,000 pounds (6,000 kilograms). Nearly 6,000 pounds (2,750) will be propellant.

• Chief Minister will inaugurate the newly constructed Malkangiri Airport
• In the first phase, nine-seater aircraft will operate from the airport while larger aircraft will be pressed into services later. 
• The airport’s runway is 1,500 meter long and 30 meter wide.
• The airport has been constructed on over 94.5 hectares of land at an expenditure of around Rs 33 crore.

• Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and Minister for Ports, Shipping & Waterways will lay the foundation stone for the project on modernisation and upgradation of fishing harbour at Paradip
• It is done at an estimated cost of Rs 108.91 crore with 100% Central financial assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) in convergence with Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways’ Sagarmala scheme.

• Odisha government has simplified the provisions regarding sanction of study leave and payment of salary during the period for the doctors serving under Odisha Homeopathic Service (OHMS) cadre.
• This done In order to facilitate specialisation and super specialisation studies in homeopathy.

• Chief Minister launched sports projects worth more than Rs 120 crore for Odisha’s Sambalpur.
• He inaugurated Burla indoor stadium and laid foundation stone of Sambalpur Football Academy and Sambalpur University sports complex, which will include a hockey stadium.
• Sambalpur Football Academy is being established to provide top quality coaching and competition facilities for the local talents, considering its popularity in the district.

• Union Railway Minister inaugurated Nuagaon-Daspalla section of Khurda Road-Balangir Rail Line project, and the Daspalla railway station building in Nayagarh district.
• Nuagaon Road-Daspalla line is part of the Khurda-Balangir railway project.
• When fully complete, the Khurda-Balangir line would connect coastal Odisha with the western region of the state.
• The Rail Minister also assured people from Phulbani that the town will be included in the proposed railway connectivity from Gopalpur to Rairakhole under ‘Janjatiya Gaurav Corridor’.

All rights are reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of Adda247.