UPSC Prelims News of 26th September 2022
Super Typhoon Noru
Context: Thousands of people have fled their homes in the Luzon Island of Philippines because of Super Typhoon Noru.
About Super Typhoon Noru
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- Typhoon Noru, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Karding, is a strong tropical cyclone that made a very powerful landfall over Central Luzon.
- It is the eighth typhoon of the 2022 Pacific typhoon season.
- It originated as a tropical depression in the Pacific Ocean, east of Philippines and headed west towards Luzon Island.
What are Typhoons?
- Typhoons are tropical cyclones that originate in the Northwestern Pacific Basin and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for almost one-third of the world’s annual tropical cyclones.
- Main requirements for typhoon formation and development:
- Sufficiently warm sea surface temperatures
- Atmospheric instability
- High humidity in the lower-to-middle levels of the troposphere
- Enough Coriolis effect to develop a low-pressure center
- A pre-existing low-level focus or disturbance
- Low vertical wind shear.
- Direction of rotation: Counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Philippines
- Philippine Archipelago comprises about 7,641 islands, of which only about 2,000 are inhabited.
- It is divided into three major island groups of Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
- Luzon ranks as the Philippine’s most populous and largest island.
UPSC Prelims News of 24 September 2022
Bathukamma Festival
Context: The nine-day Bathukamma festival has begun.
About Bathukamma Festival:
- Bathukamma is celebrated for nine days during Durga Navratri in the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
- Bathukamma celebrates the relationship between earth, water and the human beings.
- The festival starts with “Engilipoola Bathukamma”, one of the variants of the festival of flowers and ends with “Saddula Bathukamma”.
- Meaning: Bathukamma is a beautiful flower stack, arranged with different unique seasonal flowers in seven concentric layers in the shape of temple gopuram.
- It means “festival of life”. It is a festival for feminine felicitation and primarily celebrated by unmarried young girls who are in the marriageable age.
- Celebrations:
- Women form a circle and revolve around the Bathukamma and sing folk songs.
- The festival is marked with dance performances, music, dramas and a variety of entertainments. ‘Jataras’ are held during the month-long celebrations.
Asian Palm Oil Alliance (APOA)
Context: Edible oil trade associations from five palm oil importing countries in South Asia – India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal have set up Asian Palm Oil Alliance (APOA).
- Aim: To gain collecting bargaining power and make imports sustainable.
Significance
- It empowers several Asian countries for whom palm oil is a source of affordable food and nutrition.
- It is expected to safeguard the economic and business interests of the palm- oil consuming countries and create a level playing field for all fats and oils used in food, feed and oleochemicals in Asia.
- It will work towards increasing the consumption of sustainable palm oil in member countries
- It will strengthen Asia’s role in palm oil sustainability disclosure.
- It would work towards ensuring that palm oil is recognised as a high-quality, economical, and healthy vegetable oil and to change the negative image of palm oil.
India’s Palm Oil Stats
- India’s annual imports of edible oil is around 13-14 million tonne (MT).
- Around 8 MT of palm oil is imported from Indonesia and Malaysia, while other oils, such as soya and sunflower, come from Argentina, Brazil, Ukraine and Russia.
- India is the largest importer of palm oil in Asia, accounting for 15% of global imports, followed by China (9%), Pakistan (4%) and Bangladesh (2%).
- Asia accounts for around 40% of the global palm oil consumption while Europe accounts for 12% of palm oil trade.
- Indonesia and Malaysia are the biggest palm oil exporters in the world.
Real-Time Train Information System (RTIS)
Context: Indian Railways is installing Real-Time Train Information System (RTIS).
- RTIS has been developed in collaboration with ISRO, on locomotives and trains “for automatic acquisition of train movement timing at the stations, including that of arrival and departure or run-through.
Significance
- It will provide train’s movement information as current as 30 seconds to railway passengers.
- The Train Control can now track the location and speed of RTIS enabled locomotives /train more closely, without any manual intervention.
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