UTTARAKHAND

After Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand to declare monkeys ‘vermin’

After Himachal Pradesh, the forest department of Uttarakhand has decided to declare monkeys “vermin” in the state, allowing the local authorities to cull the animal.

Incidentally, Uttarakhand had put wild boars in vermin category in 2016. The state has also decided to get permission to cull wild boars extended as it expires this month.
According to the forest department, Uttarakhand is home to around 1.5 lakh monkeys and their population is increasing 36% every year.

The ones causing menace in the state are the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta), which is in the Red List of IUCN’s threatened species.

INTERNATIONAL

Gotabaya Rajapaksa sworn-in as new President of Sri Lanka
Gotabaya Rajapaksa sworn-in as new President of Sri Lanka at Anuradhapura.
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and several MPs will be present on the occasion as Anuradhapura holds significance as a sacred city for Buddhism.
Previously, Sri Lanka’s former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has won the Presidential election.
He is the brother of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Gotabaya got 52.25 per cent of the total valid votes.

NATIONAL

· India joins with China, Russia, Japan to oppose the use of 26 GHz spectrum band for 5G operations

Indiais to partner with China, Russia, and Japan to oppose the use of a 26 GHz spectrum band for 5G operations. The Countries announced their decision at the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) 2019. China, Russia, and Japan supported the use of alternative bands for 5G services with around 3000 Mhz of frequencies, whereas India is yet to decide on alternative bands.
Earlier, China and Russia have opposed 5G operations in the 26 GHz band in order to defend their military operations. India has aligned with the countries as the 26 GHz spectrum has been used by theIndian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for satellite services.

· IBM to launch a new weather forecasting system

IBMis to launch IBM GRAF,the Global High-Resolution Atmospheric Forecasting System, which will be able to predict conditions up to 12 hours in advance. Such kind of precise forecasting system has been available in the United States, Japan, and some west European countries.
The new weather forecasting system will cover parts of the world which did not have access to such detailed data.
The move by IBM is due to the demand for very precise and quicker weather forecasts has grown as more extreme conditions increase due to climate change and as more variable renewable energy goes to the grid.
IBM GRAF will run on asupercomputer and provide more detailed and higher quality forecasts.
The weather forecasting system will provide data to cover the world, including Asia, Africa, and South America, some of the regions most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
The current global weather models cover 10-15 kilometres squared (km sq) and are updated every 6to 12 hours. IBM’s new weather forecasting system will forecast down to 3 km sq and update hourly.
Access to high-resolution weather data will help plan better for planting or harvesting.

· Government to lower penalties under the Companies Act

Governmentplans to lower the penalties under theCompanies Act. It also plans to offer concessions to startups, smaller entities and farmer producer companies. The move is a part of the Centre’s efforts to improve compliance. The plan is to move a bill to amend the Companies Act during the winter session of Parliament.
Centre constituted Company Law Committeeto introduce amendments in the Companies Act.The changes are a part of the amendments that have been finalized by the Company Law Committee. The two-member panel is headed by corporate affairs secretary Injeti Srinivas. The committee also has banker Uday Kotak and lawyer Shardul Shroff. The committee has identified about 60 amendments to the Companies Act. It includes around 45 related to dropping criminal prosecution.
AirVisual data showed Delhi as the most polluted city
IQAirVisual, a Swiss-based group, named India’s Capital Delhi,is the most polluted city in the world. The report also showed thatKolkata and Mumbai on its list as the world’s sixth and ninth most polluted cities.
The top 10 polluted cities include Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, the Chinese cities, namely Chengdu, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Beijing, and Pakistan’s Lahore, Uzbekistan’s Tashkent, and Nepal’s Kathmandu.
IQAirVisual data gathers air-quality data globally. It is updated frequently, so the Air Quality Index (AQI) count and the ranking changes during the day.
Mumbai tops, Delhi at bottom of tap water quality ranking
Mumbai has topped the quality of tap water ranking released by Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.
Delhi is at the bottom, with all 11 samples failing on 19 parameters.
The Minister released the much-awaited investigation report of samples of drinking water taken from capitals of 20 states across the country in New Delhi.
None of the samples drawn from Chandigarh, Thiruvananthapuram, Patna, Bhopal, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Gandhi Nagar, Lucknow, Jammu, Jaipur, Dehradun, Chennai and Kolkata complied with the requirements of the Indian Standard.
Drinking water testing will be completed by January 15, next year in 100 smart cities.

· WCD to announce the Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh

Ministry of Women and Child Development is to announce the Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh (BPKK). The announcement will be made by the Union Minister of Women and Child Development (WCD) and Textiles, Smriti Zubin Irani,in a function. It will be Co-chaired by Bill Gates.

Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh:

It aims to reduce malnutrition through a multi-sectoral results-based framework.
It aims to address malnutrition and reinforce healthy dietary behaviours both at the individual and community level, including the variation in such practices across India.
It will create the first-ever database that links relevant agro-food system data at the district to map the diversity of native crop varieties that will be more cost-effective and sustainable over the long run.
First Night trial of surface-to-surface medium-range missile Agni-II conducted successfully
India has successfully conducted the first night trial of Agni-II, its versatile surface-to-surface medium-range nuclear-capable missile from Dr Abdul Kalam Island off Odisha coast.
Agni-II, an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), has already been inducted into the armed forces.
This was the first time that the sophisticated missile was testfired at night.
The two-stage ballistic missile can carry a payload of 1000 kg over a distance of 2000 km.

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