22 June 2020: PIB Summary & Analysis

June 22nd, 2020 PIB:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Puri Rath Yatra
2. Locust control operations
3. Blazars
4. Decarbonising Transport in India

1. Puri Rath Yatra

About Puri Rath Yatra:

• The Rath Yatra festival at the Jagannath Temple at Puri, Odisha is on 23^rd June this year.
• As per a Supreme Court ruling, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rath or the chariot shall be pulled by no more than 500 people.
• Each of those 500 persons shall be tested for the coronavirus.
• There shall be an interval of one hour between two chariots.
• All those pulling the three chariots shall maintain social distancing at all times.
• The Odisha State Government has imposed a curfew on Puri on all the days and during all the time when the chariots are taken in procession. Nobody would be allowed to come out of their places of residence during the procession.

To know more about this important festival, check CNA dated 5^th May 2020.

Context:

Vice President wishes the people on the occasion of the Jagannath Puri Rath Yatra.

2. Locust control operations

Context:

Locust control operations in full swing mainly in Rajasthan, Gujarat and MP in coordination with State Agricultural Departments, Local Administration and the BSF.

Details:

• Locust control operations are being carried out with the help of vehicle mounted sprayers, tractors, fire tender vehicles and drones.

For more on Locust Swarms, click on the linked article.

3. Blazars

Context:

Study of optical properties of super-massive black-holes can provide clues to emission mechanism from its close vicinity.

About the Study:

• Scientists from nine countries in Asia and Europe observed changes in a very high energy gamma-ray emitting blazar ‘1ES 0806+524’.
• The study was conducted by taking 2263 image frames and observing the changes through 153 nights.
• The images were taken by seven optical telescopes in Europe and Asia.

To know more about black holes, check PIB dated 21st June 2020.

What is a Blazar?

• A blazar is a feeding super-massive black-hole (SMBH) in the heart of a distant galaxy that produces a high-energy jet viewed face-on from Earth.
• Blazars are one of the most luminous and energetic objects in the known universe with a jet composed of ionized matter traveling at nearly the speed of light directed very nearly towards an observer.
• Relativistic beaming of electromagnetic radiation from the jet makes blazars appear much brighter than they would be if the jet were pointed in a direction away from Earth.
• Blazars are powerful sources of emission across the electromagnetic spectrum and are observed to be sources of high-energy gamma ray photons.
• Blazars are important topics of research in astronomy and high-energy astrophysics.
  • They are among one of the most favourite astronomical transient objects because they emit radiation in the complete EM spectrum, and their flux and polarization are highly variable.
• To explain it in simple words, blazars are the same as quasars, but pointed at a different angle.
  • What are quasars?
    • At the centre of most galaxies, there’s a gargantuan black hole that can have the mass of millions or even billions of Suns.
    • In some galaxies, this supermassive black hole may collect a swirling disk of gas, dust and stellar debris around it to eat from.
    • As material in the disk falls towards the black hole, its gravitational energy can be converted to light, making the centres of these galaxies very bright and giving them the name active galactic nuclei (AGN).
    • Some of these active galactic nuclei also shoot out colossal jets of material that travel close to the speed of light, called quasars.
    • When the galaxy happens to be oriented so that the jet points towards the earth, it’s called a blazar.

4. Decarbonising Transport in India

Context:

NITI Aayog in collaboration with International Transport Forum (ITF) will launch the “Decarbonising Transport in India” project, with the intention to develop a pathway towards a low-carbon transport system for India.

About the project:

• The “Decarbonising Transport in India” project will design a tailor-made transport emissions assessment framework for India.
• It will provide the government with a detailed understanding of current and future transport activity and the related CO₂ emissions as a basis for its decision-making.
• The India project is carried out in the wider context of the ITF’s “Decarbonising Transport” initiative.
• It is part of the “Decarbonising Transport in Emerging Economies” (DTEE) family of projects, which supports transport decarbonisation across different world regions.
• India, Argentina, Azerbaijan and Morocco are the current participants.
• The DTEE is a collaboration between the ITF and the Wuppertal Institute, supported by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

June 22nd, 2020 PIB:- Download PDF Here

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