Current Affairs 29 April 2021 – IAS Current Affairs

Current Affairs 29 April 2021  focuses on Prelims-Mains perspective. Major events are :

1. Customs Cooperation and Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters
2. Agriculture Infrastructure Fund applications cross the Rs. 8,000 crore mark
3. Python-5 Missile maiden Trial
4. Exercise VARUNA-2021
5. Explosion mechanism of supernovae
6. Earthquake in Assam

Customs Cooperation and Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters

Why in News ?

Cabinet approved the signing and ratification of an Agreement on Customs Cooperation and Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters.

Countries involved : Government of Republic of India and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Key Facts

• Agreement will help in the availability of relevant information for the prevention and investigation of Customs offences.
• Besides it facilitate trade and ensure efficient clearance of goods traded between the countries.
• It may enter into force from the first day of the month following signature by duly authorised representative of both parties.
• Need for an agreement
  • Legal framework for sharing of information and intelligence between the Customs authorities of the two countries and help in the proper application of
    1. Customs laws, prevention
    2. investigation of Customs offences and the facilitation of legitimate trade.

Source : PIB

GS II : Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests

Agriculture Infrastructure Fund applications cross the Rs. 8,000 crore mark

Why in News ?

Agriculture Infrastructure Fund has crossed the Rs. 8000 crore mark after receiving 8,665 applications worth Rs. 8,216 crores.

Key Facts

• The largest share of the pie is contributed by
  • Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) (58%)
  • Agri-entrepreneurs (24%)
  • Individual farmers (13%)
• States leading the front are
  • Andhra Pradesh (2,125 applications)
  • Madhya Pradesh (1,830)
  • Uttar Pradesh (1,255)
  • Karnataka (1,071)
  • Rajasthan (613)
• While most of these states are leveraging their strong cooperatives network to take the lead, Madhya Pradesh stands out with the highest non-PACS applications.

Source : PIB

GS III : Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation

Python-5 Missile maiden Trial

Why in News ?

India’s indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas added the 5th generation Python-5 Air-to-Air Missile (AAM) in its air-to-air weapons capability.

Key Facts

• Trials also aimed to validate enhanced capability of already integrated Derby Beyond Visual Range (BVR) AAM on Tejas.
  • Derby missile achieved direct hit on a high-speed maneuvering aerial target.
• Python-5 missile live firing was conducted to validate target engagement from all aspects as well as beyond visual ranges. In all the live firings, missile hit the aerial target.
• Python missiles also achieved 100% hits, thereby validating their complete capability.
• Other Planned objective
  • Completed a series of missile trials to validate its performance under extremely challenging scenarios.

Air-to-Air Missile
A missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying another aircraft. Air-to-air missiles have two groups : Within Visual Range” missiles and Beyond Visual Range Missiles.

Source : PIB

GS II : Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life

Exercise VARUNA-2021

Why in News ?

The 19th edition of the Indian and French Navy bilateral exercise ‘VARUNA-2021’ concluded on 27th April 2021.

Between : Indian and French Navy

Key Facts

• VARUNA enable in building interoperability and strengthening the coordination between the two navies.
• This exercise has matured over the years with increase in scope, complexity of operations and level of participation.
• Conducted from 25-27 Apr 2021 in the Arabian Sea, the exercise witnessed high naval operations at sea, including
  • Advanced air defence and anti-submarine exercises,
  • intense fixed and rotary wing flying operations  including cross deck helicopter landings, tactical manoeuvres, surface and anti-air weapon firings,
  • underway replenishment and other maritime security operations.
• Also both demonstrate their ability as an integrated force to promote peace, security and stability in the maritime domain.
• It helped further strengthen mutual confidence, inter-operability and sharing of best practices between both Navies.

Source : PIB

Major focus for Prelims

GS II : Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate.

Explosion mechanism of supernovae

Why in News ?

A team of Indian astronomers observing distant supernovae have narrowed down the possible mechanisms of explosion of such supernovae which provide key measures of cosmological distances.

Background

Nobel Prize 2012 was awarded to three scientists for discovering that the Universe is expanding at an ever-accelerating rate through observations of distant supernovae.

What is Supernovae ?

A supernova is a powerful and luminous stellar explosion and astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star.

Key Facts

• Detailed study of a supernova called SN 2017hpa, a particular type of supernovae called I a supernova, which exploded in 2017 helped narrow down the explosion mechanism of the supernovae by observations of unburned carbon in the early phase spectra.
• The expansion velocity calculated using these unburned features can provide an essential hint towards the velocity structure of the ejected material.
• The authors have shown that the unburned layer is moving with photospheric velocity indicating that mixing of the explosion materials is dominant within the ejected material.
• The explosion mechanisms which create these supernovae (SNe), and the exact nature of their progenitor systems are still not yet clearly understood.

Source : PIB

GS III : Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights

Earthquake in Assam

Why in News ?

Several houses and buildings were damaged after an earthquake of magnitude 6.4 on the Richter scale hit Assam and Six aftershocks, of magnitude ranging from 3.2 to 4.7, occurred in the two-and-a-half hours following the main tremor.

Key Facts

• The epicentre was in Dhekiajuli town in the state’s Sonitpur district.
• The primary earthquake had its epicentre at latitude 26.690 N and longitude 92.360 E, about 80 km northeast of Guwahati, and a focal depth of 17 km.
• The events are located near to Kopili Fault closer to Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT).
  • The area is seismically very active falling in the highest Seismic Hazard zone V
  • It is associated with collisional tectonics where Indian plate sub-ducts beneath the Eurasian Plate.
  • The Kopili Fault is a 300-km northwest-southeast trending fault from the Bhutan Himalaya to the Burmese arc.
  • HFT, also known as the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT), is a geological fault along the boundary of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
• Northeast is located in the highest seismological zone, so we must have constant earthquake preparedness at all levels.
• If the duration continued for more than 30 seconds with the same intensity, the resultant acceleration and resonance could have cause greater damage to structures.

History of Earthquakes in the region

• The great Assam-Tibet Earthquake that occurred on Independence Day in 1950.
  • The earthquake had a moment magnitude of 8.6.
• Another great earthquake, of magnitude 8.1, had shaken Assam earlier on June 12, 1897.

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