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RaghukulCS
February 17, 2021

Daily Prelims Newsletter For UPSC
| RaghukulCS

17 FEB 2021

Environment……………………………………………………………………….1

Mandarin Duck…………………………………………………1
Karlapat Wildlife Sanctuary, Odisha…………….1

Science and Technology…………………………………………………………2

Bhuvan Portal…………………………………………….2

Economy………………………………………………………………………………….2

Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC)……………2

Art and Culture……………………………………………………………………….2

Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti………………………………………..2

Indices……………………………………………………………………………………..3

Corruption Perception Index, 2020………………………….3

News in Short…………………………………………………………………………3

Digital Intelligence Unit…………………………………………….3
Sandes App…………………………………………………………………3

Environment

Mandarin Duck

Why in News?

In Assam’s Maguri – Motapungbeel wetland, a Mandarin duck was recently spotted.

About Mandarin Duck:

It is considered as the most beautiful duck in the world.
Native Habitat: East Asia.
Breeding Areas: Russia, Korea, Japan and north-eastern parts of China.
Given its migratory nature, it now has established population in Europe and America too.
Presence in India: The duck rarely visits India as it is outside its usual migratory route.
IUCN Status: Least Concern.

About Maguri Motapung Wetland:

Located near Dibru Saikhowa National Park in Assam.

It is an Important Bird Area declared by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).

Karlapat Wildlife Sanctuary, Odisha

Why in News?

Recently, six elephants died of a contagious disease of Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (HS) in Karlapat Wildlife Sanctuary located in Odisha district.

About Haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS)

Mode of spreading: Animals that come in contact with contaminated water or soil become infected.
It is caused by bacteria- Pasteurella multocida.
In this disease the respiratory tract and lungs of the animals are affected, causing severe pneumonia.
Vulnerable Animals: Water buffaloes, cattle, and bison
There is a high mortality rate in infected animals.
The disease generally spreads in the period right before and after the monsoon.

Karlapat Wildlife Sanctuary

Located in Kalahandi district of Odisha.
Vegetation: Dry Deciduous Forest.
Fauna:
- Mammals: Elephant, Leopard, Gaur, Sambar, Barking deer, Indian wolf, Malabar giant squirrel, Pangolin, etc.
- Birds: Peacock, Hornbill, Red jungle fowl, etc.
- Reptilians: Mugger, crocodile, monitor lizard etc.
Flora: Sal, Bija, Bamboo, medicinal plants, etc.
Phurlijharan waterfall is located nearby the sanctuary.

Science and Technology

Bhuvan Portal

Why in News?

Recently, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Indian technology company MapmyIndia have partnered to come up with an indigenous geospatial portal known as Bhuvan.

About Bhuvan Portal:

BHUVAN, also sometimes referred as the Indian version of Google Maps, is a multi-purpose end-user satellite application platform.
It runs with ISRO’s high-end satellite catalogue and earth data.
It allows the users to explore a 2D or 3D representation of the surface of the Earth.
The application is specifically tailored for India, offering the highest resolution in the Indian region, with spatial resolutions ranging up to 1 metre.
The images of any military installations in India are not included.
The content is multi-lingual i.e., can be used in many Indian languages.

Economy

Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC)

Why in News?

According to a report published recently, stressed assets of NBDCs are likely to touch67.5%of their assets under management (AUM) by the end of present fiscal.

About NBFCs:

NBFCs are registered under the Companies Act, 1956.
It is engaged in the business of loans and advances, acquisition of shares/stocks/bonds/debentures/securities issued by GoI or state or local authority or other similar marketable securities.
NBFC does not include any institution whose principal business is that of agriculture, industrial nature, purchase or sale of any goods (other than securities) or providing any services and sale/purchase/construction of immovable property.

Features of NBFCs:

NBFCs cannot accept demand deposits;
NBFCs do not form part of the payment and settlement system and hence they cannot issue cheques drawn on itself.
Deposits made in an NBFC are not covered under Deposit insurance facility of Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation.

Art and Culture

Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti

Why in News?

Urs (death anniversary) festival is being obserbedin Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer.

About Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti:

Moinuddin Chishti was a sufi mystic saint and philosopher of 12^th century AD (1141 and 1236 AD).
He was born in present day Iran in 1141-42 CE.
Later in his life, he started living and preaching in Ajmer.
The shrine has been visited by Muhammad bin Tughlaq, Sher Shah Suri, Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, Dara Shukoh, Jahanara Begum, Aurangzeb, etc
He established Chisti order in South Asia and contributed to the spreading of Islamic Sufi mystic order.

He is also known as Gharib Nawaz (benefactor of the poor)
After his death a dargah was erected in Ajmer by lltutmish and was later enlarged by Mughal Emperor Humayan.

Indices

Corruption Perception Index, 2020

Why in News?

Corruption Perception Index 2020 has been recently released whereby India’s rank has slipped six places i.e., from 80^th(in 2019) to 86^th (in 2020) among 180 countries.

About Corruption Perception Index:

It is released by Transparency International.
The index ranks countries by the perceived level of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople.
The scale used indicates zero for highly corrupt and 100 for very clean countries.

Related Information:

Transparency International is an international NGO based in Berlin, Germany.
Other notable publication by Transparency International is The Global Corruption Barometer.

News in Short

Digital Intelligence Unit

Recently, Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) has been setup by the Ministry of Communications as a nodal agency to deal with complaints of unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) and cases of financial fraud, particularly in the digital payments space.
It aims to coordinate with various law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, and telecom service providers in investigating any fraudulent activity involving telecom resources.
This system does not address the issue of fraudulent activity on over-the-top (OTT) service providers such as WhatsApp.

Sandes App

It is an instant messaging platform launched by NIC (National Informatics Centre), MEITY (Ministry of Electronics andInformation Technology).
Initially it was open only to government officers, and recently has been released for the common public.
Sandes app uses a valid mobile number or email id to register the user for the first time.
It has an additional safety feature, that allows a user to mark a message as confidential, will allow the recipientto be made aware the message should not be shared with others.
Confidential tag, however, does not change the way the message is sent from one user to another.