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IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

Egypt unearths 59 ancient coffins buried more than 2,600 years ago near Saqqara pyramids

News

• Egypt’s tourism and antiquities minster said archaeologists have unearthed dozens of ancient coffins in a vast necropolis south of Cairo.
• 59 sealed sarcophagi, with mummies inside most of them, were found that had been buried in three wells more than 2,600 years ago.

Saqqara plateau

• The Saqqara plateau hosts at least 11 pyramids, including the Step Pyramid, along with hundreds of tombs of ancient officials and other sites that range from the 1st Dynasty (2920 B.C.-2770 B.C.) to the Coptic period (395-642).
• The Saqqara site is part of the necropolis of Egypt’s ancient capital of Memphis that includes the famed Giza Pyramids, as well as smaller pyramids at Abu Sir, Dahshur and Abu Ruwaysh. The ruins of Memphis were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1970s.
• The Saqqara discovery is the latest in a series of archeological finds that Egypt has sought to publicize in an effort to revive its key tourism sector, which was badly hit by the turmoil that followed the 2011 uprising.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

India & Japan deliberate on ways to strengthening health care for elderly

Source: PIB

News

• Experts from India and Japan discussed ways in which the two countries can collaborate to strengthening health care for older people and reimagine aging and the research, demonstration, and implementation required for the same at a webinar organised to celebrate International Day of Older Persons.  

 Strengthen health care

• Expansion of initiatives likes the National Program for Health care of the elderly, Ayushman Bharat and implementation of WHO’s long term care protocol (ICOPE) could help in strengthening health care for older people.
• A collaborative model will provide an opportunity to explore new directions in research on population ageing as well as the need to design and develop S&T interventions for providing comprehensive health services to elderly at all levels.
• Various initiatives of the Government of India for the health and socio-economic security of elderly people and provided a framework for Indo-Japan collaboration on Geriatric Research and Development, Healthcare, and Assistive technologies for promoting active aging.
• Several scientists, researchers, policymakers, students, and industry partners from both India and Japan took part in the discussions to explore possibilities of collaboration between groups in Japan and India.

India Maintains top Global Ranking with Maximum Recoveries

Source: PIB

News

• India continues to occupy the top global position as the country with the maximum number of recoveries.

Maximum Recoveries

• The total recoveries has crossed 54 lakhs (54,27,706). It accounts for 21% of the global recovered cases, while its share in the total cases stands at 18.6%.
• India has maintained its global position with one of the lowest case fatality rates (CFR) when compared to several other countries.
• The global CFR stands at 2.97% as on date, the comparative figure for India is 1.56%.
• The deaths per million population in India is one of the lowest in the world. While the global average is 130 deaths /million population, India is reporting 73 deaths /million population.
• India’s steady trend of posting high number of daily recoveries continues with 75,628 recoveries registered in the last 24 hours.
• Higher number of single day recoveries is also reflected in the continuous increase in the national recovery rate, which is at present 83.84%.

US federal judge bars authorities from enforcing H-1B visa ban

News:

• In further relief for Indian information technology (IT) companies, a federal judge of the northern district of California barred the US government from enforcing order banning the entry of H-1B visa workers in the country till December 31.

H-1B visa ban

• This is the second relaxation on travel of H-1B and other work visa such as L-1 holders to the US.
• US State Department had itself announced some relaxations on travel of such job visa curb holders, and had said that it had decided to allow certain categories of workers and non-immigrant visa holders in “national interest”.
• The US state-department had then allowed H-1B visa holders who were public or private healthcare professionals or were engaged in medical research “in an area with a substantial public health benefit” to come to the US.
• In the IT space, work visa holders whose services had been requested by any US government agency such as those working the information technology and support services had been allowed, whereas non-government IT workers were allowed to travel back to the US to resume employment with the same organisation they were before the June 22 proclamation.
• New order will be enforced across the US. In his order, the judge while noting that Trump had exceeded his authority also said that such “unrestricted authority would be contrary to Congress’ explicit delegation of powers in foreign affairs and national security”.
• Earlier,Judge had in another order put a nationwide preliminary injunction on the fee hikes proposed for H-1B and L1 work visa programmes for the current year.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

NASA launches SS Kalpana Chawla Cygnus spacecraft to International Space station

News

• The International Space Station (ISS) is gearing up to receive the flight which will supply thousands of kilograms essential space supplies and related-equipments to the astronauts.
• Launched another flight to the International Space Station, named after late astronaut ‘Kalpana Chawla’.

Cygnus vehicle S.S Kalpana Chawla

• The Cygnus vehicle S.S Kalpana Chawla along with Antares rocket for NG-14 mission was launched
• They wanted to name their next Cygnus vehicle after someone who has played an instrumental role in space exploration and then decided to name it after Kalpana Chawla on her family’s permission.
• This S.S Kalpana Chawla Cygnus spacecraft is made by Thale Alena Space in Turin, Italy and has a composition of pressurized cargo module.
• The vehicle consists of two solar arrays, navigation equipment and propulsion element. The launch of the vehicle was carried out by Antares 230+ rocket, parts of which have been built by Yuzmash factory in Ukraine.

PM Modi inaugurated strategic Atal Tunnel at Rohtang

News

• Prime Minister inaugurated the Atal Tunnel in Himachal Pradesh’s Rohtang, which connects Solang Valley near Manali to Sissu in Lahaul and Spiti district.

Atal Tunnel

• The Atal Tunnel is the longest highway tunnel in the world (9.02-km), built at an altitude of 3,000 meters.
• The tunnel cuts through a mountain west of the Rohtang La and will now shorten the distance between the two points by around 46 km. What was a nearly 4 hour will now take around 15 minutes.
• The double-laned tunnel can handle around 3,000 cars and 1,500 trucks per day, with a maximum speed of 80 km per hour.
• Such border connectivity projects will also aid the security forces in ensuring regular supplies to them and also in their patrolling.
• The tunnel has been named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The construction, which used 15,000 tonnes of steel, took nearly a decade and cost around Rs 3,200 crore.
• The tunnel holds a strategic advantage as well. While it will be a boon to the residents of the Lahaul and Spiti Valley who remain cut off from the rest of the country in winters for nearly six months due to heavy snowfall, the tunnel will provide almost all-weather connectivity to the troops stationed in Ladakh.
• The unique features of this tunnel begin a fair distance away from it on the approach roads to the north and south portals. Bridges in rivers on the approach to the tunnel from both the portals have also been completed and are now being painted.
• Snow galleries have also been built at the approach road to the tunnel from Manali side, and this will ensure all-weather connectivity.
• Other features include an emergency escape tunnel under the main tunnel. This would provide an emergency exit in case of any untoward incident which may render the main tunnel unuseable.
• The tunnel also provides a telephone every 150 metres, fire hydrant every 60 metres, emergency exit every 500 metres, turning cavern every 2.2 km, air quality monitoring every one km, broadcasting system and automatic incident detection system with CCTV cameras every 250 metres.

Gujarat govt plans to focus on sloth bear corridor for conservation, tourism purposes

News

• The Gujarat government plans to focus on “sloth bear corridor” covering the stretch between Banaskantha district in the north, where the density of the animal is the highest, and Narmada in Centre-South of the state, aiming at its conservation and potential for tourism.

Conservation of sloth bear

• The state is known as the last abode of the Asiatic lion, has a sanctuary for wild ass and is known for its migratory birds. The government has planned to start an outreach centre for the bear at Ratanmahal Sloth Bear Sanctuary in Dahod district soon, the other sanctuary being in Jessore of Banaskantha district.
• The plan has come to the table even as experts warn of possibilities of bear-human conflict with little awareness among common people about conduct in the vicinity of the beast, largely known to be unpredictable.
• As per the 2016 estimation of the Gujarat Forest Department, there are 342 sloth bears in the state covering seven districts.
• This region, of which five districts are largely tribal, form the bear corridor. Forest and Environment Minister said that the main focus of Gujarat government is Sasan-Gir and Asiatic lions.
• The government has started exploring tourism possibilities in North Gujarat region with focus on sloth bear.

Sloth bear is a protected animal under Schedule-I of Wildlife Protection Act. It is also one of the eight species of bear found across the world. Out of the total eight species of the bear, four – Asiatic Black Bear, Sloth Bear, Brown Bear and Sun Bear – are found in India.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-04

NCRB data: Maharashtra tops country in corruption cases but conviction rate less than 15%

News

• For the fourth year in a row, Maharashtra recorded the highest number of corruption cases in the country in 2019 but the conviction rate was less than 15 per cent, according to NCRB data.

Corruption cases

• Maharashtra recorded 891 cases in 2019 under the Prevention of Corruption and related Acts, which is more than double the figure of Rajasthan that is second at 424 cases. The cases registered in 2019 are, however, less than the 936 cases registered in 2018 in the state.
• Of the 891 cases, 866 were ‘trap cases’ where a person was caught allegedly taking a bribe, 21 related to Disproportionate Assets where a government servant is found to have assets disproportionate to his known sources of income while four cases related to criminal misconduct on the part of government officials.
• The only state worse off than Maharashtra, with 14.9 per cent conviction rate, is Himachal Pradesh that has a conviction rate of 14.7 per cent.