Important Current Affairs 31st January 2021

National

Microsoft launches its new Taj Mahal inspired Engineering Hub

• Tech major Microsoft has launched its new India Development Center (IDC) facility in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The new centre will serve as a leading hub for driving advanced engineering and innovation. The centre will build on Microsoft’s commitment to tap India’s world-class engineering talent and create solutions for a global impact.

• IDC NCR is the third development centre of Microsoft in India after Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The IDC NCR workspace architecture is inspired by the Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world.

• The IDC NCR facility will collaborate with Microsoft teams globally to build products and services for driving digital innovation. The centre will provide opportunities for engineering talent in the areas of Business & Productivity tools, AI, Cloud & Enterprise, Core Services, and the new Gaming division.

• The IDC NCR workspace architecture is inspired by the Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world. The structure is a unique amalgamation of the latest Microsoft technologies and locally sourced materials.

• The intricate artwork by local artisans and graphics inspired by India’s rich cultural heritage elevate the aesthetics of the office. Its stunning marble inlays, vaulted doorways, arches, and marble domes created by stonemasons and carpenters, are a tribute to the country’s historical and rich craftsmanship.

Environment Minister releases National Marine Turtle Action Plan

• National Marine Turtle Action Plan has been recently released by the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) in New Delhi. The Ministry also released the ‘Marine Mega Fauna Stranding Guidelines’ along with the Marine Turtle Action Plan.

• National Marine Turtle Action Plan and Marine Mega Fauna Stranding Guidelines have been released acknowledging the need for a conservation paradigm for marine turtles and marine megafauna.

• At the launch, the minister called for conserving both floral and faunal diversity including marine biodiversity.

• Both these documents include the ways and measures to promote inter-sectoral action for conservation.

• The documents also provide guidance for enhanced coordination amongst the government, all relevant stakeholders, and civil society on the response to cases of entanglement, stranding, injury, or mortality of marine mammals. All of them should also have better coordination to chalk out plans for the conservation of marine turtles.

Prakash Javadekar launches 2021 as Indo-French Year of the Environment

• The Union Minister of Environment, Forest & Climate Change Prakash Javadekar has launched the Indo-French Year of the Environment, along with Barbara Pompili, the French Minister for Ecological Transition in New Delhi. The basic objective of this partnership is to strengthen Indo-French cooperation in sustainable development, increase the effectiveness of actions in favour of global environment protection and give them greater visibility.

• This collaboration and the Indo-French Environment year will be held under the Ministry of Ecological Transition, in association with the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs along with the support of the Embassy of France in Delhi and its partners from the French side.

• The Indo-French Year of the Environment is the Indo-French partnership on Environment, Biodiversity, Climate Change and other allied areas to be undertaken throughout 2021.

• The Indo-French Year of the Environment will be implemented over the period 2021-2022.

Science & Technology

ISRO to launch city college’s academic satellite

• ISRO chairman K Sivan is likely to inaugurate the ‘SriShakthiSat’ ground station at Sri Shakthi Institute of Engineering and Technology in Coimbatore. The station will help monitor the satellite developed by the institute, which is set to be launched by the ISRO. A satellite communication lab was established in the college in 2010.

• The satellite can detect fire and leaks on underground pipelines and collect info on bank thefts. ISRO is expected to launch this satellite, along with two other satellites built by JPR Institute, Chennai & GH Raisoni College of Engineering, Maharashtra.

Obituary

Oscar winning-actor Cloris Leachman passes away

• Oscar winning-actor Cloris Leachman has passed away. The late star was known as one of Hollywood’s most prolific performers having won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and eight Primetime Emmy Awards.

• Leachman’s character Phyllis in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which she claimed was close to her own persona, brought the actress two Emmys as a featured actress in a series during the mid-’70s and made Leachman a household name. Leachman also won a supporting actress Oscar for a far different character, an embittered small-town housewife in Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show.

Malayalam singer Somadas passes away

• Popular Malayalam singer Somadas Chathannoor died of a cardiac arrest on Sunday. The 42-year-old singer, a native of Chathannur of Kollam passed away at 3am on Sunday. He was receiving treatment at Government Medical College Hospital Kollam following complications arising out of COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Although he had recovered and tested negative for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19 had caused an infection to his kidneys.

Appointment & Resignation

Senior IAS officer Rajeev Ranjan is new Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary

• Senior IAS officer Rajeev Ranjan was named as the next chief secretary by the Tamil Nadu government on Sunday.

• He will be replacing K Shanmugam who will be retiring from the post but will continue as an advisor to the government for a year. Last week, the Union government had approved the repatriation of the IAS officer to his parent cadre on the state government's request.

Banking & Ecconomics

Airtel announces 5G ready network in Hyderabad

• Bharti Airtel took an edge by becoming the first telecom operator in India to demonstrate 5G services successfully. Bharti Airtel announced that it orchestrated live fifth-generation (5G) service over a commercial network in Hyderabad.

• Bharti Airtel explained that it used state of the art dynamic spectrum sharing so as to operate both 4G and 5G networks in the same spectrum block.

• One of India’s major telecom companies managed to do this atop the existing spectrum in the 1800 MHz band through the Non-Stand Alone (NSA) network technology.

• Airtel claimed that it took only a few seconds to download a full-length film during its demonstration of the 5G network.

• The company said that the 5G network could deliver ten times the speed and latency attained previously with 100 times the concurrency when compared to the technology in use.

• The government is conducting the auction of 2,251 MHz of spectrum through the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) at a reserve price of Rs 3.92 trillion from March 1, 2021.

• The government has not included the spectrum in the 3,300-3,600 MHz bands recommended for 5G by the telecom operators.