TNPSC Current Affairs December 16, 2020

Topic: General Administration, Latest Diary of Events

12th GRIHA Summit

Recently, the inaugural session of the 12th Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) Summit was organised virtually.

12th GRIHA Summit:

Theme: Rejuvenating Resilient Habitats.

Purpose: To serve as a platform to deliberate on innovative technologies and solutions which shall help in creating robust mechanisms for developing sustainable and resilient solutions for the benefit of the entire community.

Launch Event: The Vice President of India launched the SHASHWAT magazine and the book ’30 Stories Beyond Buildings’ during the event.

Objective: To help design green buildings and, in turn, help evaluate the ‘greenness’ of the buildings.

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Topic: Latest Discovery of Rare Species

Himalayan Serow

A Himalayan serow has been sighted for the first time in the Himalayan cold desert region (Spiti, Himachal Pradesh). Himalayan serow resembles a cross between a goat, a donkey, a cow, and a pig.

Physical Features: It’s a medium-sized mammal with a large head, thick neck, short limbs, long, mule-like ears, and a coat of dark hair.

 

Species Type:

There are several species of serows, and all of them are found in Asia. The Himalayan serow, or Capricornis sumatraensis thar, is restricted to the Himalayan region. Taxonomically, it is a subspecies of the mainland serow (Capricornis sumatraensis).

Diet: Himalayan serows are herbivores.

Latest Sighting: The animal was spotted near Hurling village in Spiti, Himachal Pradesh.

Conservation Status:

IUCN Red List:Vulnerable

CITES: Appendix I

The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Schedule I

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Topic: Latest Diary of Events

Vijay Diwas: 50 Years of Indo-Pak War – Dec 16

India will celebrate 50 Years of Indo-Pak War, also called Swarnim Vijay Varsh on 16th December 2020. Inaugural event of the celebration will be held at the National War Memorial (NWM) in New Delhi which will be attended by the Prime Minister.

The National War Memorial is a tribute to the soldiers who laid down their lives defending the nation, post-independence it also commemorates the soldiers who participated and made the supreme sacrifice in Peacekeeping Missions, and Counter Insurgency Operations.

Key facts:

Vijay Diwas is observed on 16th December every year to mark India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war. The Government of India decided on 3rd December 1971, that India would go for war with Pakistan to save Bengali Muslims and Hindus.

This war was fought between India and Pakistan for 13 days. On 16th December 1971, the chief of the Pakistani forces with 93,000 soldiers had surrendered unconditionally to the allied forces consisting of Indian Army and Mukti Bahini in Dhaka.

Mukti Bahini refers to the armed organizations that fought against the Pakistan Army during the Bangladesh Liberation War. It was a guerrilla resistance movement.

Bangladesh was born on this day. Hence, Bangladesh celebrates its independence day (Bijoy Dibos) on 16th December every year.

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Topic: Profile of States

Amma Mini Clinics

The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Edapadi K Palaniswami recently inaugurated 2000 Amma Mini covid-19 clinic in Tamil Nadu. The state of Tamil Nadu is the fourth most affected in the country with more than 8 lakh people infected with covid-19.

key features:

 

The clinic has been named after late Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalitha. Each Amma clinic will have a doctor, an assistant, a nurse and it will help in basic investigation and public consultation.

Around hundred patients are to visit the clinic every day. The state government is to sanction 20 crores of rupees initially. Each clinic is to be provided with 1 lakh rupees. Also, the fund from National Health Mission is to be used in establishing the clinics.

The clinics are to work from 8 a.m. to noon and from 4 p.m. To 7 p.m. The drugs for the clinics are to be procured from the state run Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation.

Out of these 2000 Amma Mini clinics, 200 are to be located in Chennai, 1500 to be located in villages and 200 are mobile clinics.

The Amma clinics have been modelled from that of the Mohalla clinics launched by the Aam Aadmi government of New Delhi in 2015.

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Topic: Profile of States, Places in News

Protected monuments of Tamilnadu

The Tamilnadu State government announced following two monuments in the State as protected sites. Ammakulam at Keezhravanthavadi village in Tiruvannamalai district and An elephant statue at Azhagarmalai village in Ariyalur district.

 

 

Ammakulam might date back to the 16th century during the reign of the Nayakkar kings. The elephant statue at Azhagarmalai likely dates back to 16th -17th century. The Tamil Nadu archaeology department has already had 92 protected ancient monuments under its control.

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Topic: Latest Diary of Events

Human Development Report, 2020

United Nations’ Human Development Index was released recently.

What is HDI?

Published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), it is a statistical tool used to measure a country’s overall achievement in its social and economic dimensions. The social and economic dimensions of a country are based on the health of people, their level of education attainment and their standard of living.

What’s unique about this year’s index?

For the first time, the United Nations Development Programme introduced a new metric to reflect the impact caused by each country’s per-capita carbon emissions and its material footprint, which measures the amount of fossil fuels, metals and other resources used to make the goods and services it consumes.

This metric is called- the Planetary Pressures-adjusted HDI, or PHDI.

India’s performance:

India dropped two ranks, standing at 131 out of 189 countries. If the Index were adjusted to assess the planetary pressures caused by each nation’s development, India would move up eight places in the ranking, according to the report.

Performance of other countries:

Norway, Ireland and Switzerland occupied the top 3 ranks in the report. These countries were followed by Hong Kong, Iceland and Germany at 4th, 5th and 6th places respectively. China was ranked at 85th position and Pakistan was ranked at 154th position.

Impact of pandemic:

Although this year’s report covers 2019 only, and does not account for the impact of COVID, it projected that in 2020, global HDI would fall below for the first time in the three decades since the Index was introduced.

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Topic: Awards and Honors

2020 Goldman Environmental Prize

It is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, one from each of the world’s six geographic regions – Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands & Island Nations, North America, and South & Central America. It is also called the Green Nobel.The award is given by the Goldman Environmental Foundation headquartered in San Francisco, California.

 

2020 Award list:

Chibeze Ezekiel, Ghana

Kristal Ambrose, The Bahamas

Leydy Pech, Mexico

Lucie Pinson, France

Nemonte Nenquimo, Ecuador

Paul Sein Twa, Myanmar