Topics
- Greater One-Horned Rhino
- NISAR
- TIGRAY
- BEAMLINE PROJECT
Greater One-Horned Rhino
Context: The claims by different political parties over significant reduction in poaching of Greater One-Horned Rhino has become an issue in Assam Assembly Elections.
- The Greater One-Horned Rhino is one among the five different species of Rhino and out of 5 only the Great One-Horned Rhino is found in India.
- There are three species of rhino in Asia—Greater one-horned (Rhinoceros unicornis), Javan and Sumatran.
- IUCN Red List: Vulnerable.
- Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Schedule I.
- Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES): Appendix I
NISAR
Context: NASA and ISRO are collaborating on developing a satellite called NISAR
- NISAR is an SUV-sized satellite that is being jointly developed by the space agencies of the US and India.
- The name NISAR is short for NASA-ISRO-SAR. SAR here refers to the synthetic aperture radar that NASA will use to measure changes in the surface of the Earth.
- Essentially, SAR refers to a technique for producing high-resolution images.
- Because of the precision, the radar can penetrate clouds and darkness, which means that it can collect data day and night in any weather.
- The partnership agreement was signed between NASA and ISRO in 2014.
- NASA will provide one of the radars for the satellite, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers and a payload data subsystem.
- ISRO, on the other hand, will provide the spacecraft bus, the second type of radar (called the S-band radar), the launch vehicle and associated launch services.
- The satellite will be launched in 2022 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India, into a near-polar orbit.
- It will scan the globe every 12 days over the course of its three-year mission of imaging the Earth’s land, ice sheets and sea ice to give an “unprecedented” view of the planet.
TIGRAY
Context: Eritrea will pull its troops out of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, said
- The Tigray Region is the northernmost of the nine regions (kililat) of Ethiopia.
- Tigray is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob and Kunama peoples.
- Tigray is also known as Region 1 according to the federal constitution.
- Its capital and largest city is Mekelle.
- Tigray is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, the Amhara Region to the south and the Afar Region to the east and south east.
BEAMLINE PROJECT
Context: The third phase of the Indian beamline project, a facility for materials research set up under India-Japan Scientific and Technological Cooperation, was initiated on March 23, 2021, with special focus on industrial application research.
- The phase would increase the number of young researchers from India to be trained in advanced X-ray techniques of material research.
- Besides, steps will be taken to allocate more beamtime so that more researchers can get access to it. At present, only 50 % of Indian researchers who apply receive beamtime.
- The Indian beamline has been constructed and maintained by Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Kolkata and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore; in Japanese synchrotron light source Photon Factory (PF) of High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), with support from Nano Mission, Department of Science and Technology (DST).
- This India-Japan Scientific and Technological Cooperation project was initiated between the DST and the KEK on 24 July 2007.
- In the first phase (2009-2015) of this project, an X-ray beamline (BL18B) was constructed by SINP in PF. In the second phase (2016-2021), JNCASR and SINP jointly developed the beamline further to cater to the need of various users from India.
