UPSC Prelims News 13 December 2022

UPSC Prelims News of 13 December 2022

HAKUTO-R Mission-1

Context: iSpace Inc of Japan has launched HAKUTO-R Mission-1 (M1) to moon, which will be the first for the nation and for a private company.

More on the News:

The company will attempt a soft-landing on moon’s surface and will use SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for liftoff. The mission took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Previously, national space agencies of the United States, Russia and China have achieved soft landings on moon but no companies have.

The Mission:

The ispace craft aims to deploy a small NASA satellite into lunar orbit to search for water deposits before touching down in the Atlas Crater, located in the moon’s near side.
The M1 lander will deploy two robotic rovers from Japan’s JAXA space agency and the four-wheeled Rashid explorer made by the United Arab Emirates.
iSpace:
- iSpace was set up as a team competing for the Google Lunar Xprize under the name Hakuto.
- The company shares a contract with NASA to ferry payloads to the lunar surface from the year 2025. It aims to develop a permanently staffed lunar colony by the year 2040.

UPSC Prelims News 12 December 2022

New Species of Wren Babbler

Context: Researchers have discovered a new species of Wren Babbler during an expedition to Arunachal Pradesh.

More on the News:

Researchers were looking for rare Grey-bellied Wren Babbler, which has been previously recorded in Mugaphi peak area.
They found a bird which looked similar to the Grey-bellied Wren Babbler but its sound was similar to Naga Wren Babbler.
The new species of Wren Babbler:
- Researchers have named the bird they found Lisu Wren Babbler, after the Lisu community of the state.
- The genetic material has to be compared with grey-bellied Wren Babbler to establish if it is a new species/ sub-species.
- The new species has a white coloured belly, different from the grey colour of Grey-bellied Wren Babbler.

Grey-bellied Wren Babbler:

The Grey-bellied Wren Babbler is mostly found in Myanmar, with some sightings reported in nearby China and Thailand.
Its natural habitat is subtropical moist montane forest of South Asia.
Protection status: It is classified as a Species of Least Concern by the IUCN.

Kochi-Muziris Biennale

Context: Kerala Chief Minister inaugurated the 5^th edition of Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB).

About Kochi-Muziris Biennale:

Theme 2022: ‘In Our Veins Flow Ink and Fire’,
It is India’s largest contemporary art exhibition.
It was founded in 2011 by Kerala-born, Mumbai-based artists Bose Krishnamachari and Riyas Komu.
Aim: To create a platform that will introduce contemporary, global visual art theory and practice to India.
Objective: It sought to “create a new language of cosmopolitanism and modernity that is rooted in the lived and living experience of this old trading port, which, for more than six centuries, has been a crucible of numerous communal identities”.
Kochi is among the few cities in India where pre-colonial traditions of cultural pluralism continue to flourish.

About Art Biennales:

An international large-scale showcase of art that takes place every two years at a particular site.
They are usually non-commercial enterprises that centre around a curatorial theme.
Venice Biennale: It is one of the most prestigious and oldest biennales in the world, established through a resolution by the city council in 1893 to celebrate national artistic talent.
Global Biennale Foundation: It was established in 2009, with an “aim to create a platform for dialogue, networking, and knowledge sharing among contemporary art biennials around the world”.

Udyam Sakhi Portal

Context: A total of 1067 women entrepreneurs have registered from the state of Tamil Nadu on Udyam Sakhi portal till October 2022, according to a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

About the Udyam Sakhi Portal

The portal was launched in 2018 by the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME).
It provides the information regarding financial schemes, policies, and programmes of the Ministry of MSME to existing/prospective women entrepreneurs in the MSME sector.
Mission: To encourage women entrepreneurs and to aid, counsel, assist and protect their interests.
The portal is a network for nurturing entrepreneurship and creating business models for low cost products and services in order to empower women and make them self-reliant and self-sufficient.

Other Initiatives to Promote Women Entrepreneurship:

Mahila e-Haat: It is an online marketing platform to support women entrepreneurs. The platform offers an opportunity for women entrepreneurs to leverage technology for showcasing products manufactured by them.
Women Entrepreneurship Platform by NITI Aayog: It is an aggregator portal that aims to catalyze the entrepreneurial ecosystem for women and address information asymmetry.
WE Hub: It is an initiative of the Telangana Government. It is India’s first State-led Incubator to promote and foster women’s entrepreneurship.
Stand-up India: According to the available data, 81% of beneficiaries of this scheme are women entrepreneurs.

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