Facts in News

Facts in News

Foam Path

• It is an aviation safety practice of spreading a layer of fire suppression foam on an airport runway prior to an emergency landing.
  • Following a crash-landing, liquids leaking from the aircraft, which are not yet burning, start evaporating, thereby resulting in forming an air-vapour mixture that is flammable or even highly explosive.
• In such cases, extinguishing foam is used preventively and the liquid is covered with a foam carpet as a vapour barrier to suppress sparking and burning of any aircraft metals due to friction with the runway surface.
• Although originally it was thought that foam paths would prevent fires, the practice is now discouraged.
• The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) does not recommend it stating that its effectiveness is not fully substantiated by the real evidence of operational incident studies.
  • ICAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations.
  • It is funded and directed by 193 national governments (India is a member) to support their diplomacy and cooperation in air transport as signatory states to the Chicago Convention (1944).
    • The Convention on International Civil Aviation, drafted in 1944 by 54 nations established the core principles permitting international transport by air and led to the creation of ICAO.
  • It is not an international aviation regulator.

‘ID-Art’ App

• It uses cutting-edge image recognition software to help identify the stolen cultural property, reduce illicit trafficking, and increase the chances of recovering stolen items.
• It enables users to
  • Get mobile access to the INTERPOL database of stolen works of art.
  • Create an inventory of private art collections.
  • Report cultural sites potentially at risk.
• Using international standards known as Object ID, museums and private collectors can capture images and record features of their works which can be provided to the law in the event of a theft.
• It enables recording of the geographical location and the resulting ‘site cards’ can then be used as evidence or basis for reconstruction if ever the site is looted or destroyed.
• It has been launched by INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organization).
  • It is an intergovernmental organization with 194 member countries (India is a member).
  • It helps police to work together and provides a range of expertise and services to member countries.
  • It connects all countries via a communications system called I-24/7, allowing members to access the databases and services in real-time, from both central and remote locations.

(Image Courtesy: INTERPOL)

Dahla Dam

• Also known as Arghandab Dam is located in the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar Province in Afghanistan.
• It was constructed in 1952 by the USA on the Arghandab River.
• It provides irrigation to farmers via a network of canals as well as drinking water for the provincial capital.

Rabindranath Tagore

• He was born on 7 May 1861 to Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi in Kolkata (Calcutta).
• He is popularly known as ‘Gurudev’.
• He was primarily known as a writer, poet, playwright, philosopher and aesthetician, music composer, choreographer, a painter.
• He was influenced by the classical poetry of Kalidasa and started writing his own classical poems.

Writings 

• He released his first collection of poems under the pen name ‘Bhanusimha’ at 16 years of age.
• He published several books of poetry in the 1880s and completed Manasi (1890), a collection that marks the maturing of his genius.

• He wrote the National Anthems of India and Bangladesh.
• He wrote the song Banglar Mati Banglar Jol (Soil of Bengal, Water of Bengal) to unite the Bengali population after the Bengal partition in 1905.
• He also wrote the famed ‘Amar Sonar Bangla which helped ignite a feeling of nationalism amongst people.

Role in the freedom struggle

• He started the Rakhi Utsav where people from Hindu and Muslim communities tied colourful threads on each other’s wrists.
• He denounced British imperialism, yet he did not fully support or agree with Gandhi in the Non-cooperation Movement.
  • He viewed British rule as a symptom of the overall “sickness” of the social “disease” of the public.
• He renounced the knighthood that had been given to him by Lord Hardinge in 1915 in protest of the violent Amritsar massacre in which the British killed unarmed Indian citizens

Awards

• In 1913, he became the first Indian to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel ‘Geetanjali

Rupsi Airport

Recently, the Rupsi airport near Dubri, Assam, which lay defunct since 1984, has re-operational for commercial flights under the subsidised UDAAN scheme.

Historical Background

• The airport was built for warplanes in 1939.
• It was one of South Asia’s largest airports with a 1.8 km runway used by Allied aircraft for supplying arms, manpower and ammunition to forces in Burma and China during World War II.
• The US Air Force had used it in the China-Burma-India theatre.
• The airport lost its importance after India- Pakistan partition in 1947.
• After the India- Pakistan war in 1965, the river port was closed and the railway service was also suspended in the region since 1988.
• The East-West Corridor connecting the northeast with India’s “mainland” through Kokrajhar district to the east also reduced the dependence on the old highway via Gauripur (Dhubri).
  • Dhubri used to be the gateway to northeast India during the British era. It was a strategic river port (the Brahmaputra flows by Dhubri town) and an important stop on the pre-1947 railway line (via present-day Bangladesh).

Significance

• Rupsi is vital not only for western Assam, but also for western Meghalaya, Cooch Behar, and Alipurduar districts of West Bengal and south-western Bhutan, besides fuelling small-scale industries.
• The Kolkata-Guwahati-Rupsi flight under the subsidized UDAAN scheme will enhance the regional connectivity.

Birth Anniversary of Maharana Pratap

• Maharana Pratap hailed from the Sisodiya clan of Rajputs in Kumbhalgarh, Rajasthan.
• He was the 13^th King of Mewar and was the eldest son of Maharaja Udai Singh II.
  • Maharana Udai Singh II was the founder of the present Udaipur city and ruled the kingdom of Mewar, with his capital at Chittor.
• Other facts:
  • According to the Julian calendar, the great Mewar king Maharana Pratap was born on May 9th, 1540 but as per the Proleptic Gregorian calendar, he was born on May 19^th, 1540.
  • Maharana Pratap Jayanti is celebrated according to the Hindu calendar.
    • According to the Hindu calendar, the birthdate of Maharana Pratap falls on Tritiya, Jyeshtha, Shukla Paksha, 1597 Vikram Samvat.

Battle of Haldighati

• It was fought in the year 1576 between Maharana Pratap and Mughal forces led by Raja Man Singh of Amber (general of the Mughal emperor Akbar).
• Maharana Pratap bravely fought the war but eventually lost it.
• According to some mythological texts, Chetak who was Maharana Pratap’s loyal horse, also gave up his life when Maharana Pratap was leaving the battlefield.

2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG)

The DCGI has given its permission for the emergency use of anti-COVID-19 therapeutic application of the drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG).

About 2-DG Drug

• Developed by: Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a lab of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in collaboration with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL), Hyderabad.
• It is a generic molecule and analog of glucose, it can be easily produced and made available in plenty in the country.

Utility

• This drug can be used as an adjunct therapy in moderate to severe COVID-19 cases.
• It accumulates in the virus-infected cells and prevents virus growth by stopping viral synthesis and energy production. 
• It will help in the faster recovery of hospitalized patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence.

About Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI)

• DCGI comes under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the apex department of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization of the Government of India.
• Functions:  Approval of licences of specified categories of drugs.
  • Sets standards for the manufacturing, sales, import, and distribution of drugs in India.