PIB Analysis : 21st and 22nd June 2020

PIB Analysis for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. UNICEF Kid Power
2. Pokhran potteries
3. Study showing stars of varied ages can co-exist in open clusters
4. Foldscope
5. Decarbonising Transport in India
6. Facts for Prelims

1 . UNICEF Kid Power

Context : UNICEF Kid Power’  has listed 13 Yoga stretches and poses for children

About UNICEF Kids Power

• UNICEF Kid Power is an innovative child health initiative that encourages elementary school-age kids in the United States to get physically active in order to help save the lives of their peers in developing countries.
• UNICEF Kid Power, with the help of California-based technology firm Calorie Cloud and design studio Ammunition, developed the world’s first “Wearable for Good” activity tracker called Kid Power Bands.
• These bands act as a kids’ fitness tracker bracelet that connects to a smartphone app. The app lets users complete missions, which counts total steps and awards points. The points then unlock funding from partners, which is then used by UNICEF to deliver packets of therapeutic food to severely malnourished children around the world.

2 . Pokhran potteries

Context : Seeking to restore the lost glory of the once-most famous pottery of Pokhran, a small town in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan where India conducted its 1st nuclear test, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) distributed 80 electric potter wheels to 80 potter families in Pokhran which has a rich heritage in terracotta products. Pokhran has over 300 potters’ families that are engaged with pottery for several decades, but potters started looking for other avenues due to heavy drudgery in the work and no market support.

Pottery in Rajasthan

• The main pottery centres in Rajasthan are Jaipur, Sikar, Sawaimadhopur Ajmer,and Bharatpur
• The artists of Jallore and Ahora districts are very religious and make beautiful terracotta horses for religious offerings.
• The Nohar centre of Bikaner is famous for terracotta products and Bikaner also has artists working with lac and designing the pottery. Special rich effects are transferred through the use of gold.
• Alwar artists show their skills by making paper thin pottery, known as kagzi pottery and items made are very light in their weights.
• Geometrical etchings can be traced in the Pokhran pottery maintaing the traditional styles.
• Blue Pottery is widely recognized as a traditional craft of Jaipur, though it is Turko-Persian in origin. The name ‘blue pottery’ comes from the eye-catching blue dye used to color the pottery.
  • It was first developed by Mongol artisans who combined Chinese glazing technology with Persian decorative arts. This technique travelled east to India with  early  Turkic conquests in the 14th century.
  • Blue pottery, made out of a similar frit material to Egyptian faience, is glazed and low-fired.
  • No clay is used: the ‘dough’ for the pottery is prepared by mixing quartz stone powder, powdered glass, Multani Mitti (Fuller’s Earth), borax, gum and water. Another source cites Katira Gond powder (a gum), and saaji (soda bicarbonate) as ingredients.
  • Some of this pottery is semi-transparent and mostly decorated with animal and bird motifs. Being fired at very low temperature makes them fragile. The range of items is primarily decorative,

Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana

• The main objective of Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana is to bring back the potters’ community to the mainstream. 
• Under the scheme, the KVIC also provides equipment like blunger and pug mills for mixing clay for making pottery products.
• The machines have eliminated drudgery from the process of pottery making and resulted in higher income of potters by 7 to 8 times.

3 . Study showing stars of varied ages can co-exist in open clusters

Context : Astronomers at the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), an autonomous science institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST) Govt. of India, have found that stars of varied ages can co-exist in open clusters. This challenges earlier understanding that stars in an open cluster have the same age.

Background

• Stars in our Galaxy are formed from the molecular clouds present in the Galaxy.
• It is believed that the majority of stars in our Galaxy are formed in the star clusters making them important clues to understand the star formation mechanism.
• Open star clusters are a system of stars bound by gravity in which stars are born from the same molecular clouds.
• All the stars in a cluster follow the evolutionary sequence as per their initial masses at the time of formation of these stars.  Open clusters are also important in probing formation and evolution of Milky Way Galaxy as they are distributed throughout the Galactic disk.

About the findings

• The scientists measured the light from three poorly studied open clusters NGC 381, NGC 2360, and Berkeley 68 observed using the 1.3-m telescope at Devasthal situated in the lap of the Himalaya for studying the evolution of stars in these clusters.
• They found two different stellar evolutionary sequences in the cluster NGC 2360, which has been observed in very few open clusters in the Milky Way Galaxy until now.
• They observed thousands of stars in three open clusters NGC 381, NGC 2360, and Berkeley 68. The clusters are found to be relatively older, having ages between 446 Million years to 1778 million years.
• Other than the stellar evolution, the researchers also studied the dynamical evolution of these clusters for the first time. The mass distributions of stars belonging to the clusters have shown the preferential distribution of massive stars in the inner part of the clusters while low mass stars are found towards outer region of the clusters.
• It is believed that some of the very low mass stars have in fact, left their parent clusters and may be roaming as a free star like our own Sun. Their study lent important insight about the stellar and dynamical evolution of these clusters.

4 . Foldscope

Context : Dr. Alka Rao‘s group at the Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), Chandigarh, in collaboration with a team of doctors from a government hospital in Panchkula, Haryana, a private hospital in the National Capital Region (NCR), and a medical college from Imphal, have explored and validated the clinical utility of Foldscope in the diagnosis of diseases using various patient samples.

About Foldscope

• Foldscope is an affordable origami-based microscopy device composed of a series of paper clippings.
• Upon assembly, the device can hold a specimen slide for observation, and this specimen can be viewed via a mobile phone camera attached to it.

Details of the Study

• The study evaluated the use of the Foldscope in the clinical diagnosis of oral and urinary tract infections and evaluated its efficacy as a motivational tool for improving oral health among school children in India.
• The study identifies that Foldscope is particularly convenient to diagnose urinary tract infection (UTI) and monitor kidney stone.
• Using this tool, one can easily monitor own-kidney stone status at home with a simple glass-slide, a Foldscope and a phone in hand. Such monitoring could perhaps avoid kidney stone reaching a painful state or surgery in recurring cases.
• The researchers qualitatively compared the Foldscope to a clinical microscope by examining five different types of clinical samples. Of the different types of clinical samples, the Foldscope was effective in detecting infection in dental plaque samples and urine samples. The team further analysed 31 dental plaque samples of patients aged 3–13 years and 25 urine samples of patients aged 11–62 years.
• Based on the study findings, Foldscope appeared to be capable of visualizing calcium oxalate crystals, which are a major cause of kidney stones. “This tool can thus be applied successfully in regions where people are more prone to kidney stones due to environmental factors such as water quality,” said Dr Rao. Taken together, the study data suggest that the Foldscope can be used as an in-house diagnostic tool and personal health monitoring tool on a routine basis due to its affordability and zero maintenance cost.

5 . Decarbonising Transport in India” project

Context : NITI Aayog in collaboration with International Transport Forum (ITF) will launch the “Decarbonising Transport in India” project on 24 June, with the intention to develop a pathway towards a low-carbon transport system for India.

About the Project

• The “Decarbonising Transport in India” project will design a tailor-made transport emissions assessment framework for India. It will provide the government with a detailed understanding of current and future transport activity and the related CO₂ emissions as a basis for their decision-making.
• The India project is carried out in the wider context of the International Transport Forum’s “Decarbonising Transport” initiative. 
• It is part of the “Decarbonising Transport in Emerging Economies” (DTEE) family of projects, which supports transport decarbonisation across different world regions. India, Argentina, Azerbaijan, and Morocco are current participants.
• The DTEE is a collaboration between the ITF and the Wuppertal Institute, supported by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

About International Transport Forum

• The International Transport Forum at the OECD is an intergovernmental organisation with 60 member countries.
• It acts as a  think tank for transport policy and organises the Annual Summit of transport ministers. ITF is the only global body that covers all transport modes. The ITF is administratively integrated with the OECD, yet politically autonomous.
• The ITF works for transport policies that improve peoples’ lives. Our mission is to foster a deeper understanding of the role of transport in economic growth, environmental sustainability and social inclusion and to raise the public profile of transport policy.
• ITF organises global dialogue for better transport.It acts as a platform for discussion and pre-negotiation of policy issues across all transport modes. We analyse trends, share knowledge and promote exchange among transport decision-makers and civil society.
• Background : The International Transport Forum was created on 18 May 2006 by ministers from 43 countries. The roots of ITF go back to 1953, when 16 European nations established the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT), an international organisation by treaty, to “coordinate and rationalise European inland transport of international importance”. The ECMT remains the legal core of today’s International Transport Forum.

6 . Facts for Prelims

Extreme Helium Star

• An extreme helium star or EHe is a low-mass supergiant that is almost devoid of hydrogen, the most common chemical element of the universe.
• There are 21 of them detected so far in our galaxy. The origin and evolution of these Hydrogen deficient objects have been shrouded in mystery.
• Their severe chemical peculiarities challenge the theory of well-accepted stellar evolution as the observed chemical composition of these stars do not match with that predicted for low mass evolved stars.

Blazar

• A blazar is a feeding super-massive black-hole (SMBH) in the heart of a distant galaxy that produces a high-energy jet viewed face-on from Earth.
• Blazars are one of the most luminous and energetic objects in the known universe with a jet composed of ionized matter traveling at nearly the speed of light directed very nearly towards an observer.

International Yoga Day

• Yoga is an ancient physical, mental and spiritual practice that originated in India. The word ‘yoga’ derives from Sanskrit and means to join or to unite, symbolizing the union of body and consciousness.
• Recognizing its universal appeal, on 11 December 2014, the United Nations proclaimed 21 June as the International Day of Yoga
• The International Day of Yoga aims to raise awareness worldwide of the many benefits of practicing yoga.
• 2020 Theme: “Yoga for Health – Yoga at Home”