08.12.21 Daily [Assam] APSC Current Affairs

Black rice is well suited for Assam soils and weather conditions, carrying a huge opportunity for its commercial production. The -funded Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation project (APART), has begun production of new black rice varieties from different states of India. The crop is expected to be harvested within the next week from the project wherein the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has embarked on this ambitious collaboration with the Government of Assam under the APART, IRRI said in a release.

The seeds of these varieties were sown on a total area of 17.6 bighas of land, comprising Manipuri black rice in 10 bigha, Kalavati in 3.6 bigha and Kalamalifula in 4.0 bigha as demonstration plots. These demonstrations are aimed to link the farmers with the buyers for higher returns and to make available good quality seed for future use. “With the current demand for black rice due to its high nutritional value and Health benefits, IRRI under APART aims at increasing areas with black rice production in the coming days,” the release said.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to inaugurate Delhi Dehradun corridor.

Highlights

The PM will also launch several other projects along with the corridor, which will reduce the distance between the two cities from 248 km to 180 km.

The primary purpose of the corridor is to decongest North East Delhi.

The corridor will improve the Mandola Vihar Yojana of the Government of Uttar Pradesh and also the Growth potential of Tronica city.

PM Modi will set the foundation stone for the Delhi Dehradun corridor, which will be built at Rs 8,300 crores.

The project is to be executed in Engineering, Procurement and Construction mode, where the government pays the private developer for constructing roads. And the toll revenue accrues to the government.

The highway is divided into four sections, and Section 1 is to be developed as 6 lanes.

Also, it is divided into two packages where package 1 falls in the Delhi portion, and Package 2 falls in the Uttar Pradesh portion.

The Exercise Ekuverin is a joint military exercise held between India and Maldives. It is held between the armies of India and Maldives.

Ekuverin means Friends in Dhivehi language. It is an Indo Aryan language. It is spoken in India, Lakshadweep and Maldives.

The Exercise is being conducted between India and Maldives since 2008.

In 2019, the exercise was held in Pune, Maharashtra and in 2018, it was held in Maldives.

The exercise focused on enhancing inter operability between the armed forces of India and Maldives.

It also included counter insurgency and counter terrorism operations.

The joint exercise in 2021, also conducted Sports and cultural activities to enhance the bilateral and DEFENCE relations.

Agro Climatic Zone is suitable land for growing a particular crop type.

Highlights:

It is essential to delineate the land in the country into agro-climatic zones for sustainable agricultural production.

The Agro Climatic Zone has two significant modifications – Climate and growing periods.

The Agro-Ecological Zone has four vital variables – climate, types, Landforms and length of the growing period.

An Agro-Ecological Zone is created from the Agro Climatic Zone. The land unit acts as a conditioner to climate and length of the growing period. There are 20 agro-ecological zones in India.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research began the National Agricultural Research Project to set up zonal research centres in each agro-climatic zone.

These centres will analyse agro-ecological requirements and Cropping patterns in the regions.

There are 15 agro-climatic zones in India. They are,

Western Himalayas

Eastern Himalayas

Lower Gangetic plains

Middle Gangetic plains

Upper Gangetic plains

Trans Gangetic plains

Eastern plateau and hills

Central plateau and hills

Western plateau and hills

Southern plateau and hills

East coast plains and hills

West coast plains and hills

Gujarat Plains and Hills

Western dry region and islands.

The COVID 19 Vaccine Booster Shots are recommended by the INSACOG (Indian SARS CoV 2 Genomics Consortium) for people above 40.

Highlights:

The advice arises to counterbalance the Omicron risks in the country. The Omicron is a COVID-19 variant that was later identified in South Africa.

The World Health Organisation declared it a “Variant of Concern”. According to INSACOG, it isn’t easy to identify the presence of the variant in the more initial stages of its entry into the country.

Booster shots

The booster shots are the supplementary use of the vaccine, given after the protection afforded by the original shots begin to decline.

The booster shots help keep the immunity levels in people, and all Vaccines have booster shots.

The booster shots are given after a person has completed his vaccine series to increase the protection against the virus.

This is because the protection against the virus decreases over some time.

The Davis Cup 2021 was won by the Russian Tennis Federation.

Highlights:

The Davis Cup finals happened between Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev of Russia.

And Daniit Medvedev won the match, taking victory to the Russian Tennis Federation.

The Davis Cup is also named the World Cup of Tennis as it is an international team competition in men’s tennis.

The Billie Jean King Cup is the Women‘s equivalent of the Davis Cup. The International Tennis Federation conducts it on hard courts.

It first happened in 1900 as a trial between the US and Britain, and by 2016, 135 countries were participating in the tournament.

The most victorious countries of the Davis cup are the USA, Australia, New Zealand, where the USA has won the Davis Title 32 times, Australia has won 28 times.

It is a single-elimination tournament, as each match’s loser is immediately eliminated from the tournament.