Assam Current Affairs September 15-21, 2018

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Current Affairs Assam – September 2018

( Covers all important Assam Current Affairs & GK topics for the month of September 2018 )

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September 17

Hyderabad International Airport gets World no. 1 Airport award
  • Hyderabad International Airport (Rajiv Gandhi International Airport) was awarded Airports Council International Airport Service Quality World no.1 Airport award in the 5-15 Million Passengers Per Annum (MPPA) category.
  • This is for the second consecutive year, Hyderabad airport has won this award. The award was bestowed in recognition of airport’s service excellence and customer delight.

FACTFILE – Rajiv Gandhi International Airport

  • It is an international airport located in Shamshabad, about 24 kilometres south of Hyderabad.
  • It is operated by GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd, a public-private venture, opened in March 2008 to replace Begumpet Airport as primary commercial airport for Hyderabad.
  • It is the sixth busiest airport by passenger traffic in India.
ISRO launches PSLV-C42 carrying two British Satellites
  • The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launches PSLV-C42 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, carrying two British Earth Observation Satellites viz. NovaSAR and S1-4 of Surrey Satellite Technology Limited, UK. 
  • This is the first commercial launch in arrangement with Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organization in 2018.
  • The PSLV injected the satellites into orbit 17 minutes and 45 seconds after lift off and placed them in a sun synchronous orbit 583 km from the earth.
  • NovaSAR weighing 445 kg is a S-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite intended for forest mapping, land use and ice cover monitoring, flood and disaster monitoring.
  • S1-4 weighing 444 kg is a high resolution Optical Earth Observation Satellite, used for surveying resources, environment monitoring, urban management and for disaster monitoring.

FACTIFLE – Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)

  • PSLV is an expendable launch system developed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
  • It is a Medium-lift launch vehicle, developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites into sun-synchronous orbits
  • PSLV can also launch small size satellites into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).
Indian Air Force plans to make Andhra Pradesh as Strategic Base
  • The Indian Air Force (IAF) has come up with major plans for Andhra Pradesh to make it a ‘strategic base’. Prime among them are IAF’s plans to set up a major helicopter training facility at Donakonda in Prakasam district.
  • The other plans are establishing a drone manufacturing facility in Anantapur district, a cyber security centre in Amaravati and making Rajahmundry and Vijayawada airports asset positioning bases.
  • A preliminary ground survey has also been done to identify suitable locations and have asked the IAF to submit detailed project reports.
  • The IAF, as part of its strategy to strengthen vigil along the east coast, has proposed the use of existing civilian airports at Rajahmundry and Vijayawada for positioning its assets; fighter and other aircraft.
  • IAF currently has a base at Arakkonam near Chennai, while the Navy has INS Dega in Visakhapatnam.
  • IAF helicopters and other aircrafts that could be used for rescue and relief operations in case of natural calamities would be positioned at these bases.
  • The state government initially offered 2,700 acres of land at Donakonda, along the abandoned World War-II airstrip, for the proposed helicopter training facility.
HDFC Bank remains the most valuable Indian brand
  • HDFC Bank has retained India’s most valuable brand for the fifth year in a row with a 21 per cent rise in its brand value to $21.7 billion over the previous year, according to the “WPP and Kantar Millward Brown’s BrandZ 75 Most Valuable Indian Brands” ranking, which was started in 2014.
  • HDFC Bank’s brand value has grown consistently over the past 5 years, from $9.4 billion in 2014 to $21.7 billion in 2018.
  • This year the study covered 120,000 Indian brands across 414 categories with insights from 3.1 million consumers.
  • HDFC Bank is also the only Indian brand to be featured in the BrandZTM Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking released recently by WPP.
  • LIC, a new entrant, secured the second spot at $19.8 billion, given the key role played by its pension plan business. TCS secured the third spot at $15 billion.
  • Since its launch, total value of the BrandZ top 50 Indian brands has more than doubled to $146.1 billion, compare to a rise of 76 per cent for the BrandZ’s top 50 Chinese brands, and 60 per cent for the top 50 global brands over the same period.
  • Automobile and insurance brands lead the growth chart, while Financial services (banking and insurance) is the most valuable category.

September 18

ISRO inaugurates S–Band Polarimetry Doppler Weather Radar
  • Indian Space Research Organisation has inaugurated S–Band Polarimetry Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
  • It will be used to watch and study the weather system up to a range of 500 km and also for early warning of severe weather events.

FACTFILE – Doppler Weather Radar (DWR)

  • The radar has been indigenously developed by Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), Bengaluru under ToT (Training of Trainers) from ISRO.
  • It is the seventh radar of such type manufactured in the country under “Make in India”.
  • It will provide advanced information, enhances lead-time essential for saving lives and property in event of natural disaster associated with severe weather.
  • It will also provide detailed information on storm’s internal wind flow and structure as compared to conventional radars which are only able to track and predict cyclones.
  • Severity of weather systems can be quantitatively estimated and more precise advanced warnings can be generated to minimize damages due to these natural calamities.
Child death below 5 declined faster in India, shows UN report
  • Death of children below the age of five continues to steadily reduce in India declining from nearly 22 per cent in 2012 to 18 per cent in 2017 which is now for the first time below the one million mark.
  • The under-five mortality rate of India at 39 per 1000 now equals that of the world highlighting the much faster decline by India in the last five years as compared to the global decline.
  • According to the report, the gender gap in child survival has reduced almost four-fold in the last five years with under-five mortality of girl child now being 2.5 per cent higher compared to nearly 10 per cent in 2012.
  • Globally in 2017 half of all deaths under five years of age took place in sub-Saharan Africa and another 30 per cent in Southern Asia.
  • As per the UN most children under five die due to preventable or treatable causes such as complications during birth pneumonia diarrhoea neonatal sepsis and malaria.
Delhi IGI Airport gets top honor at ASQ Awards 2017
  • Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) has bagged the title of Best Airport to handle over 40 million passengers per annum (MPPA) by the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards 2017.
  • According to the statement, the Delhi airport is now the seventh busiest airports in Asia and among the top 20 busiest airports across the world.
  • List of Airport Service Quality Award winners is a representation of the world’s airports, which have been recognised by the Airports Council International (ACI) to be leading in customer satisfaction and have thus received an Airport Service Quality Award (ASQ). The ACI gives out the ASQ, based on passenger satisfaction ratings in the ASQ Survey, which is a global survey based on interviews with passengers on the day of travel.

FACTFILE – Indira Gandhi International Airport

  • Indira Gandhi International Airport is the primary civilian aviation hub for the National Capital Region of Delhi, India.
  • It is the busiest airport in India in terms of passenger traffic since 2009. It is also the busiest airport in the country in terms of cargo traffic.
  • The Delhi–Mumbai air route is the third most-travelled passenger air route in the world.
  • In calendar year 2017, it was the 16th busiest airport in the world and 7th busiest airport in Asia by passenger traffic handling over 63.4 million passengers.
  • It is the world’s busiest airport for Airbus A320 aircraft.
  • With the commencement of operations at Terminal 3 in 2010, it became India’s and South Asia’s largest aviation hub.
  • The Terminal 3 building has a capacity to handle 34 million passengers annually and is the world’s 8th largest passenger terminal.
  • In 2010, IGIA was conferred the fourth best airport award in the world in the 15–25 million category. The airport was rated as the Best airport in the world in the 25–40 million passengers category in 2015, by Airports Council International.
  • Delhi Airport was awarded The Best Airport in Central Asia and Best Airport Staff in Central Asia at the Skytrax World Airport Awards 2015. IGI also stood first in the new rankings for 2015 Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards conducted by Airports Council International.
  • The airport, along with Mumbai Airport was adjudged “World’s Best Airport” at Airport Service Quality Awards 2017 in the highest category of airports handling more than 40 million passengers annually.

FACTFILE – Airports Council International (ACI)

  • Airports Council International is the only global trade representative of the world’s airport authorities.
  • Established in 1991, ACI represents airports’ interests with governments and international organizations, develops standards, policies and recommended practices for airports.
  • It is governed by the ACI Governing Board. ACI World is located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
NASA’s planet explorer satellite TESS shares first science image
  • NASA’s newest planet hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), is now providing valuable data to help scientists discover and study exciting new exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system.
  • Part of the data from TESS’ initial science orbit includes a detailed picture of the southern sky taken with all four of the spacecraft’s wide-field cameras. This “first light” science image captures a wealth of stars and other objects, including systems previously known to have exoplanets.
  • During its first year of operations, the satellite will study the 13 sectors making up the southern sky, then TESS will turn to the 13 sectors of the northern sky to carry out a second year-long survey.
  • TESS transmits images every 13.7 days, each time it swings closest to Earth. NASA’s Deep Space Network receives and forwards the data to the TESS Payload Operations Center at MIT for initial evaluation and analysis.

FACTFILE – The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)

  • TESS is a space telescope for NASA’s Explorers program, designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method in an area 400 times larger than that covered by the Kepler mission.
  • It was launched on April 18, 2018 and during its primary mission, it is expected to find more than 20,000 exoplanets.
  • The primary mission objective for TESS is to survey the brightest stars near the Earth for transiting exoplanets over a two-year period.
  • The TESS satellite uses an array of wide-field cameras to perform a survey of 85% of the sky.
  • TESS will find a large number of small planets around the nearest stars in the sky. TESS records the nearest and brightest main sequence stars hosting transiting exoplanets, which are the most favorable targets for detailed investigations.
  • TESS uses a novel highly-elliptical orbit with an apogee approximately at the distance of the Moon and a perigee of 108,000 km, above the geosynchronous satellites.
  • TESS orbits Earth twice during the time the Moon orbits once.

 

September 2018 – eBook Monthly PDF | eBook Monthly Quiz

Go To Assam Current Affairs                                                                                               Go To Assam Current Affairs Quiz

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