Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 2nd Oct 2023

Intelligent Grievance Monitoring System (IGMS) 2.0:

The union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology, MoS Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions launched the Intelligent Grievance Monitoring System (IGMS) 2.0

• Intelligent Grievance Monitoring System (IGMS) 2.0 is a public grievance portal and Automated Analysis in Tree Dashboard portal of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG).
• It has been implemented by IIT Kanpur.
• The Dashboard provides instant tabular analysis of Grievances Filed & Disposed, State-wise & District-wise Grievances Filed & Ministry-wise data.
• It will also help the officials identify the root cause of the grievance.
• This portal will help the DARPG with creation of draft letter for selected scheme/ministry and expedite the grievance redressal process by the concerned ministry/department.
• It has been enabled with Artificial intelligence (AI) capacity.

Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS)

• It is an online platform available to the citizens 24×7 to lodge their grievances to the public authorities on any subject related to service delivery.
• It is a single portal connected to all the Ministries/Departments of Government of India and States.

2023 SASTRA Ramanujan Prize:

Ruixiang Zhang, Assistant Professor, University of California, Berkeley, USA will be awarded with the 2023 SASTRA Ramanujan Prize for his outstanding contributions in mathematics.

• Ruixiang Zhang is a young mathematician whose fundamental work spans from analytic number theory, combinatorics, and Euclidean Harmonic Analysis to geometry.
• Building on his Princeton PhD thesis, Zhang in collaboration with Shaoming Guo proved a multivariable generalisation of the main conjecture in Vinogradov’s Mean Value Theorem.

Sastra Ramanujan Prize :

• It was instituted in the year 2005.
• It is awarded every year by the SASTRA University on its campus near Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu, on Ramanujan’s birth anniversary, December 22.
• The prize is conferred annually to mathematicians from across the world who is less than 32 years of age, working in an area influenced by the Srinivasa Ramanujan.
• The age limit is 32 years to commemorate the fact that Ramanujan accomplished a phenomenal body of work in this short span.
• It carries a citation and an award of $10,000.

Staghorn Coral : Endangered

A genome-wide survey of highly endangered staghorn coral in the Caribbean has identified 10 genomic regions associated with resilience against white band disease.

• Staghorn coral is one of the most important corals in the Caribbean.
• It, along with elkhorn coral and star corals built Caribbean coral reefs over the last 5,000 years.
• Staghorn coral can form dense groups called “thickets” in very shallow water.
• These provide important habitat for other reef animals, especially fish.
• Staghorn coral colonies are golden tan or pale brown with white tips and they get their color from the algae that live within their tissue.
• These corals have antler-like branches and typically stem out from a central trunk and angle upward.
• Each staghorn coral colony is made up of many individual polyps that grow together.
• These coral get food from photosynthetic algae that live inside the coral’s cells. They also feed by capturing plankton with their polyps’ tentacles.

Pygmy hog : Released In Manas National Park

Eighteen captive-bred pygmy hogs were released in western Assam’s Manas National Park and Tiger Reserve.

• Pygmy hog is the smallest and rarest species of wild pig in the world.
• It is one of the very few mammals that build its own home, or nest, complete with a ‘roof’.
• It is an indicator species as its presence reflects the health of its primary habitat, tall and wet grasslands.
• It prefers undisturbed patches of grassland dominated by early succession riverine communities, typically comprising dense tall grass intermixed with a wide variety of herbs, shrubs and young trees.
• Currently, the viable population of this pig in the wild is in the Manas Tiger Reserve in Assam.
• Conservation status:
  • IUCN: Critically Endangered
  • The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Schedule I

Manas National Park:

• It is located in the state of Assam. It is contiguous with the Royal Manas National Park in Bhutan.
• It is a national park, UNESCO Natural World Heritage site, a Project Tiger reserve, an elephant reserve and a biosphere reserve

Badis limaakumi : New Fish Species

A new fish species named ‘Badis limaakumi’, was recently discovered in the Malak River in Nagaland.

• Badis limaakumi is a new badis fish species discovered in Nagaland.
• It is locally known by many names, like “Tepdang” or “Akngashi (Chungli)” or “Aokngatsü (Mongsen)” or “Sempi” etc.
• It appears black in its natural habitat but undergoes a remarkable color change when placed in an aquarium or different environments.
• It has a comparatively large and slender body.
• Badis species is a genus of small freshwater fish belonging to the family Badidae.
• Fish from the Badis species are also called Chameleon fish due to their ability to change colour rapidly when breeding, when wanting to blend into their surroundings, or when stressed.
• They are found in freshwater bodies like rivers, ponds, and marshes in northern India, eastern Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal, including the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Mahanadi, and Indus basins.

Sela Tunnel Project:

The BRO officials recently said that nearly 96 percent of the work on the strategically crucial Sela Tunnel is complete, and it is likely to be inaugurated by year-end.

• Sela Tunnel Project is located in the West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.
• Once completed, the Sela tunnel will be the world’s longest bi-lane tunnel at an altitude above 13,000 feet.
• It will ensure all-weather connectivity between Guwahati in Assam and Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.
• It is being excavated below the Sela Pass on the NH-13 component of the Trans-Arunachal Highway system.
• It is being built by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO)under Project Vartak and the tunnel’s construction commenced on April 1, 2019.

Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve: Restrict The Entry Of Outsiders

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently ordered notice to the State on a public interest litigation petition that sought a direction to restrict the entry of outsiders and vehicles inside Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve.

• Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve is located in the Southern Western Ghats in the Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari districts of Tamil Nadu.
• It was established as a Tiger Reseve in 1988.
• This reserve is a mixture of three main sanctuaries: Kalakad Sanctuary, Mundanthurai Sanctuary, and a part of Kanyakumari Sanctuary.
• Nestled between Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the Agastya Malai Hill Range forms the core area of the sanctuary and is part of one of the world’s 18 biodiversity hotspots.
• The reserve is also known as the “River Sanctuary”, with as many as 14 rivers originating from this Tiger Reserve.

Prachand Attack Helicopters:

Indian Air Force (IAF) is set to place orders for 156 ‘Made-in-India’ Prachand attack helicopters from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

• Prachand attack helicopters is an indigenously developed Light Combat Helicopter (LCH).
• It is developed by state-run aerospace major Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
• The multi-role attack helicopter has been customized as per the requirements of the Indian armed forces to operate both in desert terrains and high-altitude sectors.
• It is the only attack helicopter in the world that can land and take off at an altitude of 5,000 metres (16,400 ft).

Greater Sand : Spotted

A Greater sand-plover (Charadrius leschenaultii) that normally prefers sea shores, has been spotted in an urban tank in Coimbatore.

• Greater sand-plover is known for long distance migration.
• It is a medium-sized plover with a long hefty bill.
• Breeding adults have a dark mask and orangish chest, neck, and forehead; females duller than males.
• Non-breeding birds and immatures are sandy brown above and white below, with a white throat and “eyebrows.”
• Unlike some Lesser Sand-Plovers, Greater never has a black boundary around the throat.
• It breeds in high-elevation areas, where it favors arid, open habitats, sometimes near water. Winters on coastal mudflats and estuaries.
• It breeds during April to May in central Asia, late March to late May in Turkey and upto late June in Armenia.
• It winters in the shores of Indian and Australian Oceans after the breeding.

Geospatial Intelligence:

The summer of 2023 has witnessed a series of unprecedented natural disasters across the United States, including record-breaking temperatures, Canadian wildfires, historic flooding, and a powerful hurricane where usage of geospatial intelligence can mitigate such crises.

• Geospatial technology uses tools like GIS (Geographic Information System), GPS (Global Positioning System) and Remote Sensing for geographic mapping and analysis.
• These tools capture spatial information about objects, events and phenomena (indexed to their geographical location on earth, geotag). The location data may be Static or Dynamic.
• Static location data include position of a road, an earthquake event or malnutrition among children in a particular region while dynamic location data include data related to a moving vehicle or pedestrian, the spread of an infectious disease etc.
• The technology may be used to create intelligent maps to help identify spatial patterns in large volumes of data.
• The technology facilitates decision making based on the importance and priority of scarce resources.

Sarna Religious Code For Tribals : Jharkhand

Jharkhand Chief Minister wrote a letter to Prime Minister, requesting the recognition of the Sarna religious code for tribals.

• Concerns have been raised regarding the neglect of Sarna Code, which could adversely affect tribal development policies under Fifth Schedule and Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.
• Sarna religion, followed by a significant tribal population in Jharkhand, is unique, based on nature worship, and distinct from mainstream religions.
• There is need to protect the cultural and religious identity of tribals who worship nature.
• Fifth Schedule lays out provisions for the Administration and Control of Scheduled Areas and STs in states other than 6th Schedule States.
• Sixth Schedule deals with the administration of the tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.

Toto Shabda Sangraha:

A dictionary titled “Toto Shabda Sangraha” is set to be released with the aim of preserving the Toto language, which is spoken by a mere 1,600 people in parts of West Bengal bordering Bhutan.

• The Toto language, a Sino-Tibetan language, is primarily spoken orally and is currently written in the Bengali script.
• While a script for Toto was developed in 2015 by Dhaniram Toto, a prominent community member, most Toto speakers still use the Bengali script or write in Bengali.
• The trilingual dictionary will translate Toto words into Bengali and English, making it accessible to a wider audience, as the Toto script is still in its early stages of development, and the tribe is more familiar with the Bengali script.

International Shipping Emissions : Increased

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from international shipping have increased by 20% over the last decade, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

• The shipping industry accounts for nearly three per cent of global GHG emissions and more than 80% of global trade volume.
• The sector faces challenges in transitioning to alternative fuels, as 98.8% of the global fleet still uses conventional fuels.
• Only 1.2% of vessels use alternative fuels, such as liquefied natural gas (LNG), battery/hybrid, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and methanol.
• To address emissions, the International Maritime Organization has set a target of achieving net-zero GHG emissions by around 2050 and aims to ensure that zero or near-zero GHG fuels represent at least five per cent of energy used by international shipping by 2030.