Prelim Booster

News Discussion
16-May-2022
 BHARAT TAP Initiative
The Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs has launched the BHARAT TAP
initiative and Nirmal Jal Prayas Initiative at the ‘Plumbex India’ exhibition.
This exhibition is aimed at products and services related to the plumbing,
water and sanitation industry.

👉 About
◎ It is a concept to use low flow tap and
fixtures.
◎ It will provide low-flow, sanitary-ware at scale,
and thereby reduce water consumption at the
source considerably.
 BHARAT TAP Initiative
◎ Benefits è It is estimated to save approximately 40% of water. This will in
turn result in water saving and energy saving due to less water and energy
will be required for pumping, transporting, and purification.
◎ Significance è This initiative will also be accepted quickly in the country
and will lead to a renewed focus on water conservation efforts.

👉 Nirmal Jal Prayas Initiative

◎ It is an initiative of NAREDCO-MAHI.
◎ Aim è To map groundwater as it is very important to save underground
water.
◎ Target è The initiative will work to save around 500 crore litres of water
per year.
 BHARAT TAP Initiative
👉 NARDECO
◎ National Real Estate Development Council(NAREDCO) was established as an
autonomous self-regulatory body in 1998 under the aegis of the Ministry of
Housing and Urban Affairs.
◎ Purpose è It is an apex body at the national level representing all spheres
of stakeholders engaged in various aspects of real estate development.

👉 NARDECO-MAHI
◎ NAREDCO has established NAREDCO-MAHI Women’s Wing in 2021 for
empowering women entrepreneurs and encouraging participation of
women in the real estate sector and allied fields.
 Try this PYQ 2012
Q. If National Water Mission is properly and completely implemented, how will it impact the
country?
1. Part of the water needs of urban areas will be met through recycling of waste-water.
2. The water requirements of coastal cities with inadequate alternative sources of water
will be met by adopting appropriate technologies that allow for the use of ocean water.
3. All the rivers of Himalayan origin will be linked to the rivers of peninsular India.
4. The expenses incurred by farmers for digging bore-wells and for installing motors and
pumpsets to draw ground-water will be completely reimbursed by the Government.
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
A. 1 only
B. 1 and 2 only
C. 3 and 4 only
D. 1, 2, 3 and 4 Ans: B
 National Data & Analytics Platform
NITI Aayog has launched the National Data & Analytics Platform (NDAP)
for open public use.

👉 About
◎ Initiative of è NITI Aayog.
◎ Aim è To democratize access to public
government data by making data accessible,
interoperable, interactive and available on a
user-friendly platform.
◎ It hosts foundational datasets from various
government agencies
 National Data & Analytics Platform
◎ Key Features of NDAP è
○ Accessibility à The platform makes data more accessible by hosting
data in clean, machine-readable formats, ensuring datasets are
interoperable, and providing detailed documentation on the contents of
each dataset.
○ Use case-based Approach à It follows a use-case based approach to
ensure that the datasets hosted on the platform are tailored to the
needs of data users from government, academia, journalism, civil society
and the private sector.
Try this PYQ 2019
 Excavations of Iron in Tamil Nadu
Recent carbon dating of excavated finds in Tamil Nadu pushes evidence of
iron being used in India back to 4,200 years ago.

👉 About
◎ The excavations are from Mayiladumparai
near Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu.
◎ Mayiladumparai is an important site with
cultural material dating back between the
Microlithic (30,000 BCE) and Early Historic
(600 BCE) ages.
◎ This site was discovered by Prof Rajan in the
1990s.
 Excavations of Iron in Tamil Nadu
◎ What did the researchers find at this site?
○ Researchers recovered Iron Items from this site. The carbon dating of
these iron items pushes evidence of iron being used in India back to
4,200 years ago.
○ Before this, the earliest evidence of iron use was from 1900-2000 BCE for
the country and from 1500 BCE for Tamil Nadu. The latest evidence dates
the findings from Tamil Nadu to 2172 BCE.
○ Iron is not known to have been used in the Indus Valley, from where the
use of copper in India is said to have originated (1500 BCE).
◎ When did the use of Iron started?
○ In 1979, the use of iron was traced to 1300 BCE at Ahar in Rajasthan.
○ Later, samples at Bukkasagara in Karnataka indicated iron production
dated back to 1530 BCE.
 Excavations of Iron in Tamil Nadu
○ The date was subsequently pushed back to 1700-1800 BCE with
excavations finding evidence of iron smelting at Raipura in the Mid-
Ganga valley and then to 1900-2000 BCE based on investigations in sites
at Malhar near Varanasi and Brahmagiri in North Karnataka.
○ A series of dating results on finds from various parts of India have shown
evidence of iron-ore technology before 1800 BCE.
◎ What is the significance of these findings?
○ With the latest evidence tracing India’s Iron Age to 2000 BCE from 1500
BC, one can assume that Tamil’s cultural seeds were laid in 2000 BCE.
○ And the benefit of these socio-economic changes and massive
production triggered by the iron technology gave its first fruit around
600 BCE.
 Macolin Convention
The 12th meeting of Interpol’s Match-Fixing Task Force (IMFTF), in which
the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was one of the participants.

👉 About meeting
◎ Purpose è Call for harmonised global efforts to
curb competition manipulation.
◎ The members deliberated on various
mechanisms to improve intelligence sharing
“such as the establishment of national
platforms, as outlined in the Macolin
Convention, that centralise and analyse
information on irregular and suspicious trends”.
 Macolin Convention
👉 Macolin Convention
◎ The Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports
Competitions better known as the Macolin Convention is a multilateral
treaty that aims to prevent, detect, and punish match-fixing in sports.
◎ The convention was concluded in Macolin, Switzerland in 2014.
◎ A major focus of the convention is to prevent and punish illegal sports
betting operations and to prevent conflicts of interest between legal sports
betting operators and sports organizations.
 Amalthea
According to recent findings, Amalthea appears to radiate out more heat
than it receives from the sun, which NASA suggests may be due to Jupiter’s
magnetic field or from tidal stresses.

👉 About
◎ The moon Amalthea is one of Jupiter’s 53
named satellites; it was the first to be
discovered after the four Galilean moons, and it
is the fifth-largest overall.
◎ In terms of proximity to Jupiter, Amalthea is the
planet’s third moon — it takes just 12 hours to
make a full orbit.
 Amalthea
◎ Only two missions have visited Amalthea: Voyager and Galileo. Both the
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft photographed the Jovian moon during
their flybys in 1979.
 HS200 Solid Rocket Booster
Recently, ISRO successfully tested the HS200 solid rocket booster for the
Gaganyaan programme.

👉 About
◎ It is a 20-metre-long booster with a diameter of
3.2 metres and is the world’s second largest
operational booster using solid propellants.
◎ Designed and developed by è Vikram Sarabhai
Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram
over two years.
 HS200 Solid Rocket Booster
◎ Applications è
○ The GSLV Mk-III rocket which will be used for the Gaganyaan mission will
have two HS200 boosters which will supply the thrust for lift-off.
○ Since Gaganyaan is a crewed mission, the GSLV Mk-III will have
improvements to increase reliability and safety to meet the
requirements of 'human rating.'
◎ Significance è The successful completion of this test marks a major
milestone for the prestigious human space flight mission of ISRO, the
Gaganyaan.
 HS200 Solid Rocket Booster
👉 Gaganyaan Mission
◎ Aim è Gaganyaan is an Indian crewed orbital spacecraft that is intended to
send 3 astronauts to space for a minimum of seven days by 2022 (delayed due
to COVID-19).
◎ Launched by è ISRO's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle GSLV Mk III (3
stages heavy-lift vehicle)
◎ Components è Consists of a service module and a crew module, collectively
known as an Orbital Module (Crew Module carries astronauts & Service
Modules carries propellants.)
◎ It will circle Earth at a low-earth-orbit at an altitude of 300-400 km from the
earth for 5-7 days.
◎ Vyom Mitra è ISRO to send humanoid Vyommitra in unmanned Gaganyaan
spacecraft ahead of human spaceflight (Monitoring module parameters).
 Quick revision (True/False)

Question True / False

1. BHARAT TAP Initiative -> Initiative of NITI Aayog. False

2. Macolin Convention -> related to the conservation of biological False

diversity.

3. Amalthea -> is one of Jupiter’s 53 named satellites. True

4. Gaganyaan Mission -> will circle Earth at a high Earth orbit. False

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