Current Affair 1:

India’s 1st space think tank takes off

 

With increasing efforts underway from various quarters to enable a more participatory ecosystem for the private space industry, members within the community have come together to launch the country’s first dedicated space think tank, Spaceport SARABHAI (S2).

The organisation will be based out of Bengaluru, with a satellite presence in Delhi, Berlin (Germany), Sendai (Japan) and Boston (US). It’s named after Vikram Sarabhai, who founded and spearheaded India’s space programme.

The think tank aims to elevate the current Indian space industry — largely occupied by ISRO and accompanying private companies that add to its services — to an industry-friendly, financially supportive, regulated space, by providing policy guidance, stakeholder feedback, and research data to the government and the Department of Space.

The organisation’s founding team includes space entrepreneurs Susmita Mohanty and Narayan Prasad, space lawyers Ashok G.V. and Ranjana Kaul, space robotics engineer Shreya Santra, and political science fellow Meera Rohera.

Current Affair 2:

Fibonacci series

 

You can obtain the Fibonacci series by taking two initial numbers, say 0 and 1, and then calculating the next term by adding the two previous terms. So, the series goes thus:

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, …

Current Affair 3:

National Food Security Act, 2013

 

Very important topic. This topic comes daily in news. Every year it troubles student. But from this year it won’t if you read entire document we have given now.

The National Food Security Act, 2013 was notified on 10th September, 2013 with the objective to provide for food and nutritional security in human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity.

1.  Priority households are entitled to 5 kgs of food grains per person per month, and Antyodaya households to 35 kgs per household per month. The combined coverage of Priority and Antyodaya households (called “eligible households”) shall extend “up to 75% of the rural population and up to 50% of the urban population”.

 

2. For children in the age group of 6 months to 6 years, the Bill guarantees an age-appropriate meal, free of charge, through the local anganwadi. For children aged 6-14 years, one free mid-day meal shall be provided every day (except on school holidays) in all schools run by local bodies, government and government aided schools, up to Class VIII. For children below six months, “exclusive breastfeeding shall be promoted”.

3. Every pregnant and lactating mother is entitled to a free meal at the local anganwadi (during pregnancy and six months after childbirth) as well as maternity benefits of Rs 6,000, in instalments.

 

4. The Central Government is to determine the state-wise coverage of the PDS, in terms of proportion of the rural/urban population. Then numbers of eligible persons will be calculated from Census population figures.

5. The identification of eligible households is left to state governments, subject to the scheme’s guidelines for Antyodaya, and subject to guidelines to be “specified” by the state government for Priority households.

6. The Act provides for the creation of State Food Commissions. Each Commission shall consist of a chairperson, five other members and a member-secretary (including at least two women and one member each from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes).

The main function of the State Commission is to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the act, give advice to the states governments and their agencies, and inquire into violations of entitlements (either suo motu or on receipt of a complaint, and with “all the powers of a civil court while trying a suit under the Code of Civil Procedure 1908”). State Commissions also have to hear appeals against orders of the District Grievance Redressal Officer and prepare annual reports to be laid before the state legislature.

7. The Centre should provide all possible resource and funds to prevent scarcity.

8. Obligation of Local Authorities:

9. . Food security to people living in hilly areas:

 

10. . The Act has three schedules. Schedule 1 prescribes issue prices for the PDS.

 

11. Schedule 2 prescribes “nutritional standards” for midday meals, take-home rations and related entitlements. For instance, take-home rations for children aged 6 months to 3 years should provide at least 500 calories and 12-15 grams of protein.

 

12. Schedule 3 lists various “provisions for advancing food security”, under three broad headings:

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