Current Affairs 8th November 2017

Current Affairs 8th November 2017 - Important Points

• WCD Ministry to address grievances of sexual harassment at work place on - 7th November 2017
•  India to contribute USD 100 million towards -  UN partnership fund
• EPCA: Cut metro fares, quadruple parking fees to tackle pollution crisis in -  Delhi
• DRDO conducts successful flight trial of 'NIRBHAY' Cruise Missile on - 7th November 2017
• Ozone hole over Antarctica smallest in 30 years reported by - NASA
• MC Mary Kom wins Gold in 48 kg category on - 8th November 2017
• China unveils Asia’s largest island-building vessel on - 3rd November 2017

Current Affairs 8th November 2017 - Details

WCD Ministry to address grievances of sexual harassment at work place on - 7th November 2017

The Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi on 7th November 2017 stated that the Ministry is devoted to address offence of sexual harassment at work place.
The minister stated this while inaugurating the online complaint management system ‘SHe Box’ against sexual harassment at offices in New Delhi.
The online complaint system was introduced in July 2017 for government employees only and around 346 complaints have been lodged.
Now, the system has been opened for all working women anywhere in the country.
Apart from this, the Minister explained that government as well as NGOs has been guided to set up internal harassment committees.

Key Highlights

• The Women and Child Development ministry inaugurated the online program-‘SHe Box’- to facilitate Central government women employees to file complaints related to sexual harassment at the workplaces.
• ‘SHe-box’, sexual harassment electronic box, looks forward to ensure “effective implementation” of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace, Prevention, Prohibition and Redressed Act, 2013.
• After lodging the complaint to the SHe-Box, it will be directly sent to the internal complaints committee of the concerned Ministry.

 India to contribute USD 100 million towards -  UN partnership fund

India has decided to further give an aid of additional amount of USD 100 million dollars towards the UN partnership fund which will rise up its support towards sustainable development projects globally.
The news was shared by Anjani Kumar, Counselor at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nation on 6th November at the 2017 UN Pledging Conference for Development processes.
Kumar detailed that the contribution would be in an addition to India's present contribution of US 10.582 million dollars to various other UN programs. He said that India feels that the UN should have the necessary resources to finance its actions, in an appropriate and balanced way.
A total of USD 398.98 million was promised by about 20 Nations during the conference.

Key Highlights

• The India-UN Development Partnership Fund was started earlier in year 2017 as a cooperation between India and the UNs Office for South-South Cooperation.
• The 1st project from this fund is being performed in partnership with seven Pacific Island Nations.
• The fund since then has identified 15 other projects.
• Among the USD 5 million India donated to the fund this year, USD 2 million would be used for reconstruction in Antigua and Dominica, Barbuda that were hit by destructive hurricanes.

EPCA: Cut metro fares, quadruple parking fees to tackle pollution crisis in -  Delhi

The Environment Pollution - Prevention and Control Authority has issued a series of measures including decreasing Metro fares during off-peak hours and quadrupling of parking fares temporarily to handle the severe pollution crisis in Delhi.
The ideas were announced by EPCA chairman Bhure Lal and member Sunita Narain under the Graded Response Action Plan. Delhi has been covered by a choking blanket of smog for the 2nd consecutive day with air quality hitting the worst category.

Key Instructions-

• The EPCA has ordered the Delhi Metro to decrease the fares during off-peak hours for at least 10 days and introduce extra coaches and frequent services.
• It has also ordered Delhi and its neighbor states including UP, Rajasthan and Haryana to boost their public transport system by introducing extra buses.
• Further, the green body has instructed the municipal corporations in the region to increase parking fees in Delhi-NCR by 4 times.
• It has also instructed a fine of Rs 50,000 on road construction agencies violating dust pollution rules in Delhi-NCR.
• It has also released warnings to the Delhi-NCR governments to start preparing for extreme ways such as ordering a complete ban on construction activities and introducing the odd-even rule if the pollution condition aggravates.
• Other ideas recommended by the body include complete shutdown of brick kilns, hot mix plants and stone crushers across the region till next notice.
• The pollution levels in the Delhi have ruptured permissible standards many times. The situation has reportedly been initiated by the mixing of local pollutants with smoke-carrying air from the neighboring states of Punjab and Haryana and the moisture-heavy air from the eastern areas.

DRDO conducts successful flight trial of 'NIRBHAY' Cruise Missile on - 7th November 2017

The Defense Research and Development Organization on 7th November 2017 completed the successful test flight of ‘NIRBHAY’, India’s first indigenously developed and designed Long Range Sub-Sonic Cruise Missile.
The missile cruised for total time duration of 50 minutes, reached the range of 647 km. The missile was trailed with the ground based radars.  It was successfully fired from the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, Odisha. This was the 5th experimental test of the missile system.

More about NIRBHAY cruise missile-

• The missile was manufactured by the DRDO at its aeronautics R&D laboratory Aeronautical Development Establishment based in Bengaluru.
• The avionics of the missile was provided by the Research Centre Imarat, Hyderabad. The DRDL also helped for the development of the missile.
• The missile has the ability to linger and cruise at 0.7 Mach at altitudes as low as 100 meters.
• It can carry conventional and nuclear war weapons.
• It is maneuverable and can fly at tree-top height, making it difficult to be detected on radar.
• It can hit the targets more than 700 km away carrying nuclear explosive heads giving India the capability to hit deep into enemy area.

Ozone hole over Antarctica smallest in 30 years reported by - NASA

The ozone hole that creates over Antarctica every year in September was noted to be the smallest this year since 1988.
This was explained by the NASA satellite measurements from 2017. As per the NASA scientists, the hole in the ozone layer got its peak extent on September 11, covering an area about 2.5 times the size of the US - and then it decreased through the remaining part of September.
The ground- and balloon-based measurements from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also represented as the least amount of ozone depletion above the continent during the peak of the ozone depletion cycle since 1988.
Important Information

• The NOAA and NASA collaborate to study the growth and recovery of the ozone hole every year.
• An Unstable and warmer Antarctic vortex  strongly affected the smaller ozone hole.- the stratospheric low pressure system that revolves clockwise in the atmosphere above Antarctica.
• This helped in minimizing the polar stratospheric cloud formation in the lower stratosphere.
• The formation and presence of these clouds are the 1st steps that lead to the chlorine- and bromine- catalysed reactions that destroy the ozone.
• These Antarctic conditions resemble those which are found in the Arctic, where ozone depletion is minimal.
• In year 2016, the ozone hole stretched a maximum 8.9 million square miles, 2 million square miles less than in 2015.
• The smaller extent of the ozone hole in years 2016 and 2017 is due to natural variability and not a signal of rapid healing, as stated by the scientists.

MC Mary Kom wins Gold in 48 kg category on - 8th November 2017

Indian boxer MC Mary Kom on 8th November 2017 won the Gold Medal at the Asian Boxing Championship 2017 in 48 kg category.  Hyang Mi Kim  from North Korea was defeated by Mary Kom by 5-0 in the 48 kg class of the Asian Women's Boxing Championship. She entered into the finals of the tournament on 7th November 2017 after knocking out Japan's Tsubasa Komura.
This was her 5th gold medal in the Asian Boxing Championship. Till now; Mary won four gold and one silver in the Asian Boxing Championship.

About Mary Kom

• She was Born on 24th November 1982, Chungneijang Mery Kom Hmangte is an Olympic Indian boxer.
• She is a five-time World Boxing champion, and the only woman boxer to won a medal in every six world championships.
• Only Indian woman boxer to qualify for 2012 Summer Olympics to compete in the flyweight  under 51kg  class and won the bronze medal.
• In 2014, she became the 1st Indian woman boxer to get a Gold Medal in the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.
• She has also been placed as No. 4 AIBA World Women's Ranking Flyweight category.
• She was awarded with the country's highest sporting award the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2009 followed by the 3rd highest civilian award the Padma Bhushan in 2013, apart from winning the Arjuna Award in Boxing and Padma Shree in Sports.

China unveils Asia’s largest island-building vessel on - 3rd November 2017

China on 3rd November 2017 launched a huge ship, which is being referred as Asia's largest dredging vessel, at a port in eastern Jiangsu province. The vessel described as a ‘magic island maker’ is able to build artificial islands.
Key Highlights

• Named Tian Kun Hao, the ship is capable of digging 6,000 cubic meters/hour, which is equivalent to three standard swimming pools.
• Its weight is 17000 metric tons and the deck is 140-meter-long.
• It can break underwater rocks and then sucked-out sand, water and mud and transfer the substance up to 15 kilometers away.
• It can also dredge about 6,000 cubic meters an hour from a depth of about 35 meters.
• It will be the most powerful such vessel in Asia, after completing its testing in June 2018.
• China’s activities in the South China have been a point of concern with neighboring nations that lay claim to parts of its oceans.
• The ocean, which is reported to be storing a mass wealth of oil and gas deposits, is an important trade route through which shipping trade worth USD 5 trillion passes yearly.
• China declares nearly all of the sea. Other countries including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also lay claims same for it.