DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

It is part of the necropolis (burial place) of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis.

• It is located on the western bank of the Nile, 40 kilometers south of Cairo, the capital of Egypt.
• Saqqara’s name derives from the name of the burial god Sokar.
• It was an active burial ground for more than 3500 years and is Egypt’s largest archaeological site.
• It is where the transition from the use of the mastaba (ancient Egyptian tombs, in the form of a massive brick or stone mound with battered walls on a rectangular base) as a burial site to the pyramid design that is more popularly known today took place.
• Sakkara is best known for the Step Pyramid, the oldest of Egypt's 97 pyramids.
  • It was built in 2700 BC for King Djoser (Zoser) of the 3rd Dynasty by the architect and genius Imhotep, who was the first to build stone tombs in honor of the king's majesty.
  • Today, it is considered one of the oldest stone structures built by man, and it was the first time the Ancient Egyptians would attempt to use limestone.
  • Zoserís Pyramid is entirely built of limestone, small bricks of limestone, and not of the best quality, and yet it has remained for more than 4700 years.

Imhotep?

Imhotep was an Egyptian polymath (a person expert in many areas of learning) best known as the architect of King Djoser's Step Pyramid at Saqqara. Although his Step Pyramid is considered his greatest achievement, he was also remembered for his medical treatises which regarded disease and injury as naturally occurring instead of punishments sent by gods or inflicted by spirits or curses.

Lidar, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (variable distances) to the Earth. These light pulses—combined with other data recorded by the airborne system — generate precise, three-dimensional information about the shape of the Earth and its surface characteristics.

A lidar instrument principally consists of a laser, a scanner, and a specialized GPS receiver. Airplanes and helicopters are the most commonly used platforms for acquiring lidar data over broad areas.

A huge city hidden by the luxuriant vegetation of the Amazon rainforest was recently discovered in Ecuador by a LiDAR survey.

How Does it Work?

• • A LiDAR system calculates how long it takes for beams of light to hit an object or surface and reflect back to the laser scanner.
  • The distance is then calculated using the velocity of light. These are known as ‘Time of Flight’ measurements.

Two types of lidar are topographic and bathymetric.

• • Topographic lidar typically uses a near-infrared laser to map the land, while bathymetric lidar uses water-penetrating green light to also measure seafloor and riverbed elevations.

Lidar systems allow scientists and mapping professionals to examine both natural and man-made environments with accuracy, precision, and flexibility. It is used in a wide range of land management and planning efforts, including hazard assessment (including lava flows, landslides, tsunamis, and floods), forestry, agriculture, geologic mapping, and watershed and river surveys.

What is the difference between Radar and LiDAR?

LiDAR works in a similar way to Radar and Sonar yet uses light waves from a laser, instead of radio or sound waves.

Radar?

The word radar comes from the acronym radio detection and ranging. As the name implies, radars use radio waves to determine the distance and velocity of the targets they hit. A radar system usually consists of a transmitter to send out radio signals and a receiver to catch any reflected energy from targets.

1. Cabinet approves “PM-eBus Sewa” for augmenting city bus operations; priority to cities having no organized bus service
2. 10,000 e-Buses to be deployed on PPP model in 169 cities; Infrastructure to be upgraded in 181 cities under Green Urban Mobility Initiatives
3. Total estimated cost of the scheme to be Rs.57,613 crore
4. Expected direct employment generation over 45,000

PM-eBus Sewa Scheme

• Under the PM-eBus Sewa Scheme, 10,000 e-buses will be deployed across cities in the country.
• The scheme was introduced to give a push to the slow adoption of e-buses in public transport.

Support for Operation:

• • Under this scheme, city bus operations will be done on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.
  • This scheme will support bus operations for 10 years.
  • States/Cities shall be responsible for running the bus services and making payments to the bus operators.
  • The Central Government will support these bus operations by providing subsidies to the extent specified in the proposed scheme.

Funding:

• • It has been allocated a total funding of Rs 57,613 crore.
  • Out of this financial provision, the central government will contribute Rs 20,000 crore, while the remaining portion will be covered by the state governments.

Coverage: It will cover cities with a population of 300,000 and above and will include all the capital cities of the ‘Union Territories, North Eastern Region, and Hill States’.

There are two segments of the scheme: Augmenting the city bus services and Associated Infrastructure, and Green Urban Mobility initiatives.

• • Augmenting the city bus services and Associated Infrastructure: Under this segment, the scheme will augment city electric bus operations by extending Central Assistance (CA) for 10,000 electric bus operation on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, bus depots and behind-the-meter power infrastructure.
  • Green Urban Mobility Initiatives (GUMI): Under this segment, the scheme will support the implementation of GUMI projects for complementing bus services and demonstrating a reduction in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in urban areas.

The segment will include support for implementing the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC)-based Automatic Fare Collection System (AFCS), bus priority infrastructure, etc.

National Common Mobility Card (NCMC)?

This one card will give integrated access to the commuters wherever they travel, whichever public transport they take. The idea of NCMC was floated by the Nandan Nilekani committee set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). NCMC is an automatic fare collection system. It will turn smartphones into an inter-operable transport card that commuters can use eventually to pay for Metro, bus and suburban railways services.

Recently, an official delegation from the Department of Science and Technology visited Mauna Kea to discuss “challenges” to the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project.

Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT)

• It has been conceived as a 30-metre diameter primary-mirror optical and infrared telescope that will enable observations into deep space.
• It is proposed as a joint collaboration involving institutions in the U.S., Japan, China, Canada, and India.
• It will be the world’s most advanced and capable ground-based optical, near-infrared, and mid-infrared observatory.
• It will integrate the latest innovations in precision control, segmented mirror design, and adaptive optics.
• At the heart of the telescope is the segmented mirror, made up of 492 individual segments. Precisely aligned, these segments will work as a single reflective surface of 30m diameter.
• Location: Mauna Kea, an inactive volcano on the island of Hawai’i in the United States.

Indian contribution

• India expects to be a major contributor to the project and will provide;
  • hardware (segment support assemblies, actuators, edge sensors, segment polishing, and segment coating), instrumentation (first light instruments),
  • software (observatory software and telescope control systems) worth $200 million
• The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIAP) is leading the consortium of Indian institutions that are involved with the TMT project.
• India TMT will be jointly funded by the Departments of Science and Technology and Atomic Energy.

Infrared telescope?

It is an instrument designed to detect and resolve infrared radiation from sources outside Earth’s atmosphere such as nebulae, young stars, and gas and dust in other galaxies.

Researchers from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) found a new butterfly species in Karnataka’s Bramhagiri Wildlife Sanctuary, Kodagu.

Conjoined Silverline butterfly

• The butterfly species -- Conjoined Silverline (Cigaritis conjuncta) found from the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot, India.
• Features
  • The new butterfly is the size of a one rupee coin but is invaluable to conservationists.
  • It is endemic to mid-elevation evergreen forests of the Western Ghats.
  • It has fused spots and bands on the underside of wings, and shiny silver lines in the centre of those bands.
  • The two sites where they have been located are at an elevation of 900 meters (Iruppu Falls) and 1,300 meters (Honey Valley).
• India houses more than 1,400 species of butterflies, but very few new ones have been discovered in the last few decades.

Key points about the Bramhagiri Wildlife Sanctuary

• It is situated on the southern side in Kodagu district of Karnataka.
• It is named after the highest peak of the sanctuary called Brahmagiri Hill.
• River: River Laxman Tirtha, a very important tributary of river Cauvery originates in it.
• Vegetation: It is covered with semi evergreen to wet evergreen forests with high altitude grassland shoal forests.
• Flora: Rosewood, Nandi, Mathi, Honne, Sura Honne, White Cedar, Red Cedar and Saldhupa etc.
• Fauna: Tiger, Elephants, and Indian Gaur are the big mammals commonly found here.

Western Ghats located?

It is also called Sahyadri, a north–south-running range of mountains in western India. It forms the crest of the western edge of the Deccan plateau parallel to the Malabar Coast of the Arabian Sea. The Western Ghat is a biodiversity hotspot, a biologically rich but threatened region and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

• The Bobbili veena is a large plucked string instrument used in Carnatic classical music, also known as the Saraswati veena and is named after the town of Bobbili, where it was invented.
• In 2011, the Government of India gave the instrument a Geographical Indication tag.
• The Bobbili veena is known for its distinctive notes and fine tune which is made from a single piece of jackfruit tree wood.

The making of the veena began in the 17^th century during the reign of Pedda Rayudu, the king of Bobbili Samsthanam in Andhra Pradesh.

• January 5 is observed as National Birds Day introduced by U.S.A in 2002 and followed in some parts of the world.
• It is aimed at raising awareness for the conservation of avian species that have been adversely affected by habitat destruction, reducing food choices and climate change.
• The theme of the National Birds Day 2024 is ‘Right to Fight’.

Birds in News - Jungle Babbler, Oriental Magpie-Robin, Common Hoopoe, Indian Roller, Indian white-eye, Brown-headed barbet, House Sparrow.