TNPSC Current Affairs January 09, 2018

www.tnpsc.academy – TNPSC Current Affairs January 09, 2018 (09/01/2018)

 

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Topic : Space Technology, International Current Events

Zuma Mission

It is the US government’s secret satellite mission.

SpaceX has successfully launched the secretive Zuma mission from Cape Canaveral.

SpaceX on Sunday blasted off a secretive U.S. government payload known as Zuma, a mission whose nature – and the agency behind it – remains a mystery.

SpaceX and the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment about the nature of the mission.

SpaceX has launched national security payloads in the past, including a spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office, and an X-37B space plane for the U.S. Air Force.

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Topic : General Administration, Latest Diary of Events, Public Awareness

All India Whips’ Conference

The 18th All India Whips’ Conference was recently inaugurated at Udaipur, Rajasthan.

The conference is hosting around 90 Delegates belonging to 19 States and Centre.

Significance of the conference:

The purpose of this conference is to strengthen the parliamentary democracy, its institutions and ultimately serve the people at large.

The conference provides a platform to Whips of various political parties – ruling as well as opposition at the Centre as well as the States to exchange their views and experiences and discuss the challenges facing them in discharge of their Parliamentary duties and evolve norms for efficient working of parliamentary machinery.

Who is a whip?

A whip is an important member of a political party’s parliamentary body, having a central role in ‘Floor Management’ in both the Houses of Parliament and is responsible for discipline within the party.

Their main job is ensuring that their members in Parliament and legislature vote in line with the party’s official policy on important issues and make sure that the members turn out for important votes.

Importance of whips in our political system:

In the parliamentary form of Government, Whips of various political parties are the vital links of the internal organization of parties, inside the legislatures.

The efficient and smooth functioning of Parliament and State Legislatures depends, to a considerable extent, upon the office of the Whip.

The Whips can be rightly said to be the managers of the parties within the legislatures.

Key Facts:

First All India Whips Conference was organized at Indore in 1952, in the very first year of general elections to the First Lok Sabha.

Organizing the All India Whips Conference is one of the functions assigned to the Ministry of Parliamentary affairs, under Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961 made under article 77(3) of the Constitution.

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Topic : Informationa and Technology, New inventions, General Administration

India’s Pratyush – Fastest supercomputer

India has unveiled Pratyush, an array of computers that can deliver a peak power of 6.8 petaflops.

One petaflop is a million billion floating point operations per second and is a reflection of the computing capacity of a system.

Key Facts:

With this, India will now occupy the fourth position, next only to United Kingdom, Japan and USA in terms of dedicated capacity for HPC resources for weather and climate proposes.

Applications of Pratyush:

The Pratyush HPC will improve weather forecasts and extended range forecasts.

It will also predict cyclones and tsunami accurately, with more lead time.

It will also help those dependent on agriculture, hydrology and power sectors.

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Topic : General administration, Public Awareness, Latest Diary of Events

Indian Railways uses “Drone” cameras

Indian Railways has decided to deploy “Drone” cameras (UAV/NETRA) for various railway activities especially project monitoring and maintenance of tracks and other railway infrastructure.

Under this initiative, West Central Railways with headquarter at Jabalpur (M.P) has become the first Zonal Railway to procure “Drone” cameras in Indian Railways.

Topic : General administration, Public Awareness, Latest Diary of Events

Delhi Government Launches Common Card for Bus & Metro Rides

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal launched a common card for rides on public buses and the metro.

Delhi is the first city in the country to have a common mobility card.

The card, which will function like a debit card, will be operational in all DTC and cluster buses from April 2018.

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Topic : New Appointments, Latest Diary of Events

A R Rahman – Sikkim’s Brand Ambassador

Music composer A R Rahman became the brand ambassador of Sikkim.

The declaration was made by Sikkim CM Pawan Kumar Chamling.

This appointment was announced during an inauguration of the 11-day Sikkim Red Panda Winter Carnival at Palzor Stadium in Gangtok.

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Topic : Latest Diary of Events

World Champion Powerlifter Saksham Yadav Passes Away

Powerlifting world champion Saksham Yadav died of his injuries after the road accident near Delhi.

Yadav had won a gold medal for the country in the 2017 powerlifting championship in Moscow, Russia.

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Topic : Awards and Honours

75th Annual Golden Globe Awards

The 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards were held at Beverly Hills, California.

The Golden Globe Awards are the annual awards that honour the best in Motion Pictures and American Television for the previous year by Hollywood Foreign Press Association since January 1944.

Among the many winners Indian origin from Tamil Nadu actor Aziz Ansari has won the Best Actor for Comedy at the Golden Globes 2018 for his role in Netflix’s “Master of None”.

He is the first Asian actor to win a Golden Globe for best actor in a TV comedy category.