Daily Current Affairs : 9th April

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. VVPAT Verification
2. Dhanush Artillery Guns
3. Airborne Warning And Control System
4. National Institutional Ranking Framework
5. Currency Chest

1 . VVPAT Verification

Context : The Supreme Court on Monday increased Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) verification to five random Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in each Assembly constituency.

About the Order

• The number of EVMs that would now be subjected to verification so far as the VVPAT paper trail is concerned would be five per Assembly constituency or segment in a parliamentary constituency as per the Supreme Court order.
• Earlier, under the ECI guideline 16.6, only the VVPAT slips from one EVM in every Assembly segment/constituency was subjected to physical verification. 
• EVM-VVPATs are subjected to physical verification in order to “ensure the greatest degree of accuracy, satisfaction in election process.

What is VVPAT

• The Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail is a method that provides feedback to voters. It is an independent verification printer machine and is attached to electronic voting machines. It allows voters to verify if their vote has gone to the intended candidate.

How do VVPAT machines work?

• When a voter presses a button in the EVM, a paper slip is printed through the VVPAT. The slip contains the poll symbol and name of the candidate. It allows the voter to verify his/her choice.  After being visible to the voter from a glass case in the VVPAT for seven seconds, the ballot slip will be cut and dropped into the drop box in the VVPAT machine and a beep will be heard. VVPAT machines can be accessed by polling officers only.

2 . Dhanush Artillery Guns

Context : The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) on Monday handed over the first batch of six Dhanush artillery guns to the Army. Dhanush is the indigenously upgraded version of the Swedish Bofors gun procured in the 1980s.

About Artillery

• Artillery is a class of heavy military weapons built to fire munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry’s small arms

About Dhanush Artillery Guns

• Dhanush is a 155 mm, 45-calibre towed artillery gun with a range of 36 km and has demonstrated a range of 38 km with specialised ammunition. It is an upgrade of the existing 155m, 39 calibre Bofors FH 77 gun. It is compatible with all North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) 155 mm ammunition system
• The first phase of trials were conducted between July and September 2016 at Pokhran and Babina ranges and the second phase was held between October and December 2016 at the Siachen base camp with three guns. The last round of user exploitation trials were completed with six guns in June last year.
• The gun is fitted with inertial navigation system with global positioning system- (GPS) based gun recording and auto-laying, an enhanced tactical computer for onboard ballistic computations, an onboard muzzle velocity recording, an automated gun sighting system equipped with camera, thermal imaging and laser range finder
• Indigenisation to the extent of about 81%, has already been achieved. By the end of 2019, the indigenisation level of the gun will go up to 91%

3 . Airborne Warning And Control System

Context : The images from the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) show the tracks of PAF jets and one IAF jet in combat and in the second image one of the PAF jet disappeared.

About Airborne Warning and Control System

• AWACS is capable of detecting hostile aircraft, Missiles and other aerial threats
• It is an aircraft fitted with sophisticated radar
• It can provide warning as well as track enemies target in air
• In 2004, India ordered three AWACS (A-50EI variants) developed on the basis of the Russian Il-76MD military transport plane and fitted with the Israeli-made Phalcon radar system
• India also developed an indigenous mini-AWACS in a $ 400 million project under which AEW&C (airborne early warning and control) systems developed by DRDO will be mounted on three Embraer-145 jets bought from Brazil.

4 . National Institutional Ranking Framework

Context : Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-Madras) has topped the Centre’s ranking of higher education institutions, followed by the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and IIT-Delhi. Seven IITs appear in the top 10 list of the National Institution Ranking Framework (NIRF) for 2019

About National Institutional Ranking Framework

• The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) was approved by the MHRD and launched by Honourable Minister of Human Resource Development on 29th September 2015.
• This framework outlines a methodology to rank institutions across the country.
• The methodology draws from the overall recommendations broad understanding arrived at by a Core Committee set up by MHRD, to identify the broad parameters for ranking various universities and institutions.
• The parameters broadly cover “Teaching, Learning and Resources,” “Research and Professional Practices,” “Graduation Outcomes,” “Outreach and Inclusivity,” and “Perception”.

5 . Currency Chest

Context : Reserve Bank of India on Monday came out with guidelines for banks to set up new currency chests

What is it?

• Currency chests are branches of selected banks authorised by the RBI to stock rupee notes and coins.
• The responsibility for managing the currency in circulation is vested in the RBI. The central bank advises the Centre on the number of notes to be printed, the currency denominations, security features and so on.
• The number of notes that need to be printed is determined using a statistical model that takes the pace of economic growth, rate of inflation and the replacement rate of soiled notes.
• The Government has, however, reserved the right to determine the amount of coins that have to be minted.
• The RBI offices in various cities receive the notes from note presses and coins from the mints.
• These are sent to the currency chests and small coin depots from where they are distributed to bank branches.
• The RBI has set up over 4,075 currency chests all over the country. Besides these, there are around 3,746 bank branches that act as small coin depots to stock small coins.

Revised Guidelines

• Area of the strong room/ vault of at least 1,500 sq ft. For those situated in hilly/ inaccessible places, the strong room/ vault area of at least 600 sq ft
• Besides, the new chests should have a processing capacity of 6.6 lakh pieces of banknotes per day.
• For those situated in the hilly/ inaccessible places, capacity of 2.1 lakh pieces of banknotes per day.
• Earlier, a RBI appointed committee had recommended that the apex bank should encourage banks to open large currency chests with modern facilities and Chest Balance Limit (CBL) of at least ₹1,000 crore.