Rapid Fire
Rapid Fire Current Affairs
- 14 Oct 2023
- 4 min read
Tamil Author Sivasankari Conferred Saraswati Samman
- Tamil writer Sivasankari was honoured with the Saraswati Samman 2022 for her memoir(biography) "Surya Vamsam."
- "Surya Vamsam" is a two-volume memoir that traces the author's literary journey and societal transformations over seven decades.
- This award is given annually to literary works published in the last 10 years by Indian writers of 22 languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
- The award is presented by the K.K. Birla Foundation includes a citation, plaque, and a prize of Rs. 15 lakh.
- The Saraswati Samman is among the highest recognitions in the field of Indian literature. Besides the Saraswati Samman, the Vyas Samman and the Bihari Puraskar are other literary awards instituted by the foundation.
Read more: Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
NASA Finds Carbon and Water in Asteroid Bennu Samples
- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confirms the presence of high-carbon content and water-bearing clay minerals in samples collected from the asteroid Bennu(formerly 1999 RQ36).
- Bennu is a 4.5-billion-year-old small near-Earth asteroid that passes close to Earth every six years. The asteroid was discovered by a team from the NASA-funded Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research team in 1999.
- The material collected from Bennu acts as a time capsule from the early days of our solar system and can help answer questions about the origins of life and the nature of asteroids.
- NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx), the first U.S. effort to retrieve an asteroid sample, launched in 2016 for the journey to Bennu.
- The mission's success enhances our understanding of asteroids, including those that could pose threats to Earth.
- Scientists will analyze the samples further over the next two years to unlock insights into our solar system's origins.
Read more: NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission
Passport to Earning (P2E) Initiative
UNICEF's global learning-to-earning solution, Passport to Earning (P2E), has skilled and certified more than one million young people in India in areas of financial literacy and digital productivity.
- Aligned with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the P2E program offers free access to certificate courses in digital productivity, financial literacy, employability skills, and other in-demand, job-ready skills.
- Notably, 62% of the beneficiaries of P2E courses in India are adolescent girls and young women.
- With the goal of providing long-term sustainable skills to 5 million youth in India aged 14-29 by 2024 and connecting them to employment and entrepreneurship opportunities, P2E is a vital contribution to the nation's educational and economic landscape.
Read more: National Education Policy 2020
INS Sagardhwani
INS Sagardhwani, the oceanographic research vessel of the Naval Physical & Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), Kochi under the DRDO, set sail on the Sagar Maitri (SM) Mission-4 from South Jetty, Southern Naval Command (SNC), Kochi.
- INS Sagardhwani's mission includes scientific deployments in the Northern Arabian Sea and collaborative research programs with institutions like Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, fostering stronger working relationships between Indian and IOR ocean researchers.
- INS Sagardhwani is a marine acoustic research ship that is constructed indigenously and was launched in July 1994.
