IASbaba Press Information Bureau (PIB) - 25th Dec to 31st Dec 2016
Note: The number of articles covered is just three as all Ministries and Departments have uploaded Year End Reviews, Christmas and New Year Wishes. Important articles from year end reviews will be uploaded separately. Keep track of it.
GS-2
Swachh Swasth Sarvatra initiative
(Topic: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to health)
About-- An inter-ministerial joint initiative between the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched Swachh Swath Sarvatra initiative to strengthen health centres in open defecation-free (ODF) blocks.
The three key components of Swachh Swasth Sarvatra are:
- Community Health Centres (CHCs) in ODF blocks supported to achieve Kayakalp certification
- Gram Panchayat of Kayakalp Primary Health Centres (PHCs) prioritized to become ODF
- Training in WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene ) of CHC/PHC nominees
GS-3
Successful Test Flight of Agni-5
(Topic: S&T)
About- Agni-5, the Long Range Surface-to-Surface Ballistic Missile was successfully flight tested by DRDO from Dr. Abdul Kalam Island (formerly known as Wheeler Island), Odisha.
Ballistic Missile
- A ballistic missile is a missile that follows a ballistic trajectory (the path of a missile moving only under the influence of gravity, neglecting all other forces, such as friction from aerodynamic drag) with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target.
Insertion of LEAP SECOND in the Indian Standard Time
(Topic: Science and Technology)
About-- Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) -National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL) is the custodian of Indian Standard Time (IST) and has the responsibility for realization, establishment, maintenance and dissemination of IST through an act of Parliament.
LEAP SECOND
- A leap second is a one-second adjustment that is occasionally applied to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) in order to keep its time of day close to the mean solar time, or UT1.
- Atomic clocks are very accurate and are stable within 1 second over a period of millions of years.
- Since 1972, 36 “Leap Seconds” have been added at intervals varying from six months to seven years.
- 37th “Leap Second” added to UTC at the midnight of December 31, 2016 in the countries within this time zone. However, countries in other time zones will have “Leap Second” inserted according to their longitude.
- The “Leap Second” adjustment is not so relevant for normal everyday life; however this shift is critical for applications requiring of time accuracies in the nanosecond e.g. astronomy, satellite navigation, communication networks etc.