Essential Facts (Prelims) – April 12 , 2019


Solar e-Waste

Category: Environment

  • India will likely stare at a pile of a new category of electronic waste, namely solar e-waste.
  • Currently, India’s e-waste rules have no laws mandating solar cell manufacturers to recycle or dispose waste from this sector.
  • India’s PV (photovoltaic) waste volume is estimated to grow to 200,000 tonnes by 2030 and around 1.8 million tonnes by 2050.
  • India is among the leading markets for solar cells in the world, buoyed by the government’s commitment to install 100 GW of solar power by 2022.
  • So far, India has installed solar cells for about 28 GW and this is largely from imported solar PV cells.
  • Solar cell modules are made by processing sand to make silicon.
  • These modules are 80% glass and aluminium, and non-hazardous. Other materials used, including polymers, metals, metallic compounds and alloys, and are classified as potentially hazardous.


IRGC and FTO

Category: International

  • US has designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including its Qods Force, as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO).
  • The designation as FTO will impose sweeping economic and travel sanctions.
  • IRGC was set up in 1979 after Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution as an ideologically-driven branch of the armed forces of Iran, to protect the newly established Islamic system from hostile foreign powers and internal dissensions.
  • The IRGC is today a 125,000-strong force with ground, naval, and air wings, tasked with internal and border security, law enforcement, and protection of Iran’s missiles.
  • It controls the Basij militia, a semi-government paramilitary force estimated to have up to a million active members.
  • The elite Quds Force or Qods Corps is an elite wing of the IRGC, reporting directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It has perhaps 10,000-20,000 members, and carries out unconventional warfare beyond Iran’s borders, often working with non-state actors such as the Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and the Palestine.

FMPs

Category: Economy

  • An FMP (Fixed Maturity Plan) is one of the debt products that are offered to many first-time investors looking for an alternative to fixed deposits because they are tax efficient.
  • FMPs are closed end debt funds with a maturity period that can range from one month to five years.
  • Because debt funds enjoy long-term capital gains tax after three years, typically three-year FMPs are now popular.
  • FMPs are predominantly debt-oriented, and their objective is to provide steady returns over a fixed-maturity period, thereby protecting investors from market fluctuations.

Bank Credit

Category: Economy

  • Total bank credit exposure stood at ₹111 lakh crore in 2018 with the mid and large corporate segment accounting for the largest share of 43%.
  • Consumer lending [retail, agriculture and priority sector lending] is the second biggest segment with a share of 35%.
  • The MSME segment [business lending to both corporate entities and individuals] stands third with a share of 23%.

Homo luzonensis

Category: Sc & tech

  • A new species of ancient human has been discovered in a cave in the Philippines.
  • Excavated in Callao Cave in Luzon island, the specimen is named Homo luzonensis and is dated to 67,000 years ago.
  • The newest discovery challenges the fairly straightforward idea of human evolution.
  • The traditional narrative suggests that homo sapiens evolved from the ancient species of homo erectus in Africa and dispersed from there around 50,000 years ago.
  • With the new finding, it becomes clear that the homo sapiens were definitely coexisting with other human species in other parts of the globe.
  • The fossils suggest that the species was less than 4 ft tall and possibly even shorter than yet another ancient species called Homo floresiensis, sometimes called the “hobbit”.

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