Science & Technology Current Affairs October 2015 (Part 2)

NGT Passed a Slew of Directions to Prevent Pollution of the Yamuna

• The National Green Tribunal (NGT) passed a slew of directions on September 16, 2015 to prevent pollution of the Yamuna river including a ban on immersion of idols except those made from bio-degradable material and only those colours should be used on the idols which are environment-friendly.
• The tribunal directed the Irrigation Department of the Delhi government and Uttar Pradesh to hold a meeting with the Vice-Chairman of Delhi Development Authority to ‘immediately identify’ such sites during the festive season.
• The bench has asked DDA to ensure maintenance of nearly 63.56 hectare of ‘river banks/flood plains’ which have been developed as biodiversity parks. It has also ordered all the public authorities including the Delhi government to provide mobile toilets or bio-toilets near the ghats.

Antarctic Ocean’s Carbon Dioxide Absorption Increased

• As on September 10, 2015, a new study found that the Antarctic Ocean has been absorbing increasing levels of carbon dioxide over the past decade. The research study was published in journal Science.
• It was assumed that a direct relationship existed between the magnitude of the carbon sink and the concentration of atmospheric C0₂, i.e., higher the concentration of C0₂ in the air, greater the amount of C0₂ absorbed by the sea.
• But now, researchers found that since the beginning of the millennium the Southern Ocean carbon sink has become much stronger, thereby regaining its expected strength. From the year 2005, however, scientists pointed out that the Southern Ocean carbon sink might have begun to ‘saturate’.
• The Antarctic Ocean, also known as the Southern Ocean, seasonally absorbs vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and releases it back later in the year. On an annual average the seas surrounding Antarctica absorb significantly more C0₂ than they release.

• These^– seas remove a large part of the C0₂ that human activities emit into the atmosphere, thereby slowing down the growth of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, lessening the rate of climate change.

Read Also – Smart Practice Current Affairs September 2015 .

US Ambassador Launched Dialogue for TB-free India

• The US Ambassador to India Richard Verma along with legendary Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and Ratan Tata, Chairman, Sir Ratan Tata Trusts launched the Mumbai Dialogue : Towards a TB-Free India on September 10, 2015.
• According to the World Health Organisation Global TB Report 2014, 240000 Indians die of TB each year and 61000 suffer from multidrug-resistant TB.
• The goal of this dialogue is tQ engage the corporate sector to further strengthen the government of India’s Call to Action for a TB-Free India that launched nationwide on April 23, 2015.
• TB is a treatable and curable disease that largely strikes adults in their prime working years, making it difficult for them to support themselves and their families. In India, there is a loss of 100 million work days per year due to TB.

Space Current Affairs

India’s First Dedicated Satellite Astrosat Successfully Launched

• ISRO successfully launched India’s first astronomy satellite Astrosat on September 28, 2015, eleven. years after the government cleared the project. It was launched into a low Earth orbit atop ISRO’s work horse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C30 (PSLV-C30).

• Along with six foreign satellites, AstroSat lifted-off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
• Designed for a five year mission the satellite has five mission objectives. They are

• To help scientists develop an understanding of highly energetic physical processes at work in binary systems consisting of a star and either a neutron star or a black hole.
• To determine the properties of magnetic fields produced by neutron stars.
• To study regions of stellar birth in other galaxies.
• To detect new short-lived interstellar x-ray sources and to conduct a partial ultraviolet deep-field sky survey.
• It will be located at ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), Bangalore, Karnataka. With^– the successful launch of this space observatory, India became member of select group of nations after the US, Japan, Russia and Europe having its own space observatory.

Visit Current-Affairs.org for latest current affairs, previous year question papers, free online quiz for SSC and others, Study material and lot more.