TNPSC Current Affairs October 30, 2019

www.tnpsc.academy – TNPSC Current Affairs Oct 30, 2019 (30/10/2019)

Topic: Persons in News, Latest Diary of Events

Paramahansa Yogananda

Finance Minister Releases Commemorative Coin on Paramahansa Yogananda to Mark his 125th Birth Anniversary.

About Paramahansa Yogananda:

Born in 1893, he was an Indian monk, yogi and guruwho introduced millions to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his organization Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) / Yogoda Satsanga Society (YSS) of India.

He is considered as the “Father of Yoga in the West.” He was the first major Indian teacher to settle in America, and the first prominent Indian to be hosted in the White House. He published his book Autobiography of a Yogiin 1946.

Topic: New Inventions on Science and Health

Dirac metals

Researchers from IIT Bombay have discovered special properties in a class of materials called “semi-Dirac metals”- such materials would be transparent to light of a given frequency and polarisation when it is incident along a particular direction. The material would be opaque to the same light when it falls on it from a different direction.

What are Dirac metals?

The quality of conduction in normal metals like gold and silver depends on the way energy depends on the momentum of electrons.

Dirac metals differ from normal metals in that the energy depends linearly on the momentum. This difference is responsible for their unique properties.

Semi-Dirac metals behave like Dirac metals in one direction and like normal metals in the perpendicular directions.

Topic: Awards and Honours, Latest Diary of Events

SEED awards

Fourteen start-ups selected for 2019 SEED Awards. The awards, an annual affair, are granted to organisations working on sustainable development. The award highlights the contribution of green and social enterprises to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Every year, awards are decided under various categories. This year’s categories includes SEED Low Carbon, SEED Africa Awards, SEED South Africa Climate Adaptation Awards and SEED Gender equality award.

What is SEED?

Founded by the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.

It is a global partnership for action on sustainable development and the green economy.

This initiative works in Asian and African countries including Ghana, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Thailand and Uganda and supports small and growing enterprises with business and capacity-building support.

SEED was originally conceived as an acronym for Supporting Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development.