An eventful year on Mars
On June 24, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Mars rover, Curiosity, which soft-landed on the floor of the Gale Crater on a never-before-used contraption called sky crane, successfully completed one Martian year — 687 Earth days.
Its primary objective — providing much sought after information on whether past environmental conditions there were favourable for microbial life. The most important parameter that can prove that such a condition existed, is the presence of liquid water at some point in the planet’s history.
Some of the work done in this direction:
- detection of well-rounded pebbles in the rock layers on a dry river bed. Sharp-edged stones can become well-rounded only when transported over a long distance and above a particular speed by surface running water.
- deposition of alternate layers of pebbles aligned at a particular angle is strongly suggestive of a paleoriver.
- The presence of clay minerals inside a drilled rock suggests that water was present for extended periods of time.
- The detection of mineral orthoclase, abundantly seen in Earth’s crust but never before detected on Mars, in the Windjana sandstone sample is yet another surprise find.
Despite the presence of liquid water, the lack of atmospheric methane greatly reduces the possibility of any extant or extinct microbial life on Mars.
The biggest question now is whether Curiosity can reconfirm on the ground the latest find of glacial, periglacial and fluvial (including glacio-fluvial) activity within the Gale Crater some 3,500 million years ago. The potential evidence of paleoglaciers was gathered by cameras on board NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the European Space Agency’s Mars Express.
Issue: fire in a leaking natural gas pipeline in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh
Importance of the issue:
1. Gas is a clean fossil fuel and it will be a part of our energy mix in future. Its main drawback is its transportation through pipelines which are set to increase in future. So safety framework around these pipelines is a must.
2. If safety concerns are not taken care of then these can again hamper the infrastructure growth plans of our nation.
What can be done?
1. statutory safety regulator for the oil and gas sector
2. comprehensive, ongoing system of checks and oversight along routes operated by all the players in the field
3. round-the-clock monitoring employing advanced technology in quick-response mode.
China invites India to join Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
Treat gold deposits as part of CRR/SLR: bankers
State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda feel a portion of the gold deposits held by banks should be treated as part of the mandatory cash reserve ratio (CRR) or statutory liquidity ratio (SLR).
The Union Commerce Ministry is trying to modify the Price Stabilisation Fund Scheme so as to lower the price threshold at which the fund gets activated. The Rs.500-crore Fund, which lapsed in 2013, is being re-launched, according to a Union Commerce Ministry official.
Tea Board Chairman Siddharth said that the commodity fund was established in 2003 to help industries engaged in producing four commodities —- tea, coffee, tobacco and natural rubber. “The idea behind setting up the fund was to help the trade stay in business by extending them support if there is a drop in their commodity prices… the idea was to establish India as a reliable supplier in the international markets.”
As per current rules, prices of certain commodities have to drop 20 per cent in international markets for the fund to kick in.
This was considered stringent, and the Commerce Ministry has never had to operate the fund.
Now a move is afoot to revive the fund and lower the threshold to 10 per cent.
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