TNPSC Current Affairs July 14, 2020

www.tnpsc.academy – TNPSC Current Affairs July 14, 2020 (14/07/2020)

 

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Topic: Latest Diary of Events

Tiger Census 2018: Guinness Book of World Records

Why in News?

India’s 2018 Tiger Census has made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for being the world’s largest camera trapping wildlife survey.

India has also fulfilled its resolution to double the Tiger numbers made at St. Petersburg Tiger Summit in 2010, before the target year of 2022.

The tiger numbers in India have increased from around 1500 in 2010 to 2976 in 2020.

Key facts:

Comprehensive: The fourth cycle of the Tiger Census 2018, conducted in 2018-19 is the most comprehensive in terms of both resource and data recorded.

It counted 2976 tigers which is 75% of the global tiger population.

The census is done quadrennially (every four years) by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) with technical help from the Wildlife Institute of India. It is done with cooperation from the state Forest Departments and partners.

Project Tiger:

It was launched in 1973 with 9 tiger reserves for conserving our national animal, the tiger. It is an ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

Currently, the Project Tiger coverage has increased to 50 Tiger reserves, spread out in 18 tiger range states which amounts to around 2.21% of the geographical area of our country.

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Topic: India and its Foreign Relations, International Events

USA: India’s Top Trading Partner

Why in News?

As per the data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the USA remained India’s top trading partner for the second consecutive fiscal year in 2019-20. This indicates increasing economic ties between the two countries.

Trade with the USA:

In 2019-20, the bilateral trade between the USA and India stood at USD 88.75 billion as against USD 87.96 billion in 2018-19.

The USA is one of the few countries with which India has a trade surplus.

India’s trade surplus with the USA increased to USD 17.42 billion in 2019-20 from USD 16.86 billion in 2018-19.

In 2018-19, the USA surpassed China to become India’s top trading partner.

Trade with China:

The bilateral trade between India and China has dipped to USD 81.87 billion in 2019-20 from USD 87.08 billion in 2018-19.

Trade deficit between the two neighbours has declined to USD 48.66 billion in 2019-20 from USD 53.57 billion in the previous fiscal.

China was India’s top trading partner from 2013-14 till 2017-18.

Before China, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was the country’s largest trading nation.

Further, India is considering certain steps like framing technical regulations and quality control orders for host of items with a view to cut import dependence on China and boost domestic manufacturing.

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Topic: Profile of States

Language of the Tangams

Why in News?

Recently, the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh has released a book titled “Tangams: An Ethnolinguistic Study Of The Critically Endangered Group of Arunachal Pradesh”.

The book has valuable data on endangered oral narratives like ritual songs, lamentation songs, lullabies and festival songs in Tangam language spoken by the Tangam community, which has reportedly 253 speakers left now.

Tangam People:

It is a little-known community within the larger Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh which resides in the hamlet of Kugging in Upper Siang district’s Paindem circle.

For long, the only account of the Tangams could be found in a book, “Tangams” (1975) where the community’s population was pegged at 2,000 spread across 25 villages.

Tangam Language:

Tangam is an oral language that belongs to the Tani group, under the greater Tibeto-Burman language family.

It has been marked ‘critically endangered’ by the UNESCO World Atlas of Endangered Languages (2009).

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Topic: International Relations

Arad and Carmel

These are two new Israeli assault rifles now set to be manufactured in India. The assault rifles will be manufactured under Make in India initiative in Madhya Pradesh by joint venture PLR Systems.

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Topic: Latest inventions on Science and Health

SHUDH UV Sanitizing Device

The IIT Kanpur has developed an Ultra Violet Sanitizing product called “Shudh”. The device is capable to disinfect 10 ×10 square feet room in just 15 minutes.

Key facts:

The disinfection helper, SHUDH is smartphone operated and is handy. It has six UV lights. Each UV light is of 15 watts. The device can be used to assist at highly prone places such as hotels, hospitals, malls, offices and schools.

As it has the feature of smartphone attached to it, the device can be operated remotely as well.