Bio-Jet Fuel
Category: Sc/tech
- The Russian made AN-32 aircraft was formally fleet certified to fly on blended aviation fuel containing up to 10% of indigenous bio-jet fuel.
- The indigenous bio-jet fuel was first produced by the CSIR-IIP lab at Dehradun in 2013, but could not be tested or certified for commercial use on aircraft due to lack of test facilities in the civil aviation sector
- This is a huge step in promoting the ‘Make in India’ mission as this bio-fuel would be produced from Tree Borne Oils (TBOs) sourced from tribal areas and farmers, augmenting their income substantially.
Liquidity coverage ratio
Category: Economy
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proposed introducing a liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) for large non-banking financial companies (NBFC) to help tackle liquidity issues in the sector.
- The central bank said it planned to implement LCR, a liquidity buffer, “in a calibrated manner” over four years starting from April 2020.
- The liquidity coverage ratio is proposed for all deposit-taking NBFCs and non-deposit-taking NBFCs with an asset size of ₹5,000 crore ($720 million) and above.
- NBFCs will have to maintain minimum high quality liquid assets of 100% of total net cash outflows over the following 30 calendar days according to the RBI.
- The central bank was concerned about the liquidity issues facing some of the so-called shadow banks such as mortgage or auto lenders and wanted to ensure the problems dd not become a systemic issue.
- The collapse of the Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) last year triggered a series of defaults across the shadow banking sector, as borrowing costs for the sector surged.
Starlink
Category: Sc/tech
- SpaceX has launched the first 60 satellites of its “Starlink” constellation, which is intended to provide Internet from space in an array that could one day contain over 12,000 transponders.
- The final orbit is slightly higher than the International Space Station, but well below terrestrial satellites.
NOTA
Category: Polity
- The percentage of votes for NOTA, or the none-of-the-above option, this year has remained virtually unchanged from last time.
- In 2019, about 1.04% of the voters felt that none of the candidates deserved their vote.
- In the 2014 LokSabha election, this was around 1.08% of the voters.
- NOTA numbers varied widely across States, with a high of 2.08% in Assam and Bihar to 0.65% in Sikkim.
- The NOTA option was introduced in India following a 2013 Supreme Court directive in the People’s Union for Civil Liberties v Union of India judgment.
- It was first used in the 2013 Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and the former Union Territory of Delhi.
CFC-11
Category: Environment
- Rogue emissions of a gas that harms the ozone layer are coming from eastern China, primarily from two heavily industrialised provinces.
- The findings confirm what many scientists, environmental groups and policymakers had suspected after an initial study a year ago reported new global emissions of the gas, CFC-11, but could only locate the source generally as East Asia.
- CFC-11 is one of a class of compounds called chlorofluorocarbons that destroy atmospheric ozone.
- They are also potent greenhouse gases that contribute to atmospheric warming.
- Chlorofluorocarbons were outlawed for almost all uses by the Montreal Protocol, an international pact negotiated decades ago to preserve the layer of ozone that blocks ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
- Excessive amounts of some types of UV radiation can cause skin cancer and eye damage in people and are harmful to crops and other vegetation.
