PIB and AIR News 9-10th April, 2019

Questions: 
1.What does a VVPAT slip contains?
2.Who exercises the general superintendence, direction and control of the National Disaster Response Force?
3. "Gamaka" a unique form of singing & storytelling, belongs to which state?

Today's News:

1. Data Users’ Conference Deliberates on strategy and questionnaire for Census 2021

• The decennial Census of India has been conducted 15 times, as of 2011. 
• While it has been undertaken every 10 years, beginning in 1872, the first complete census was taken in 1881. 
• Post 1949, it has been conducted by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. All the censuses since 1951 were conducted under the 1948 Census of India Act. The last census was held in 2011. The next will be held in 2021.
• For the first time in the 140 year long Census exercise in India, data is proposed to be collected through a mobile app, officials of  Registrar General of India said
• Enumerators would be encouraged to use their own mobile phone for which they would be paid appropriate remuneration or else there is also option to collect and record the data through paper schedules which will eventually be submitted electronically by them.
• Census 2021 will be the world’s largest such exercise
• 33 lakh enumerators would be mobilized for data collection for which notification has already been issued. 
• The reference date is 1st October 2020 for Jammu & Kashmir and snow bound areas of Himachal Pradesh & Uttarakhand  while for the rest of country the reference date is 1st March 2021. 
• Census is not just an exercise of head count but also provides invaluable socio-economic data which forms credible basis for informed policy formulation and allocation of resources. The changing demographics and socio economic parameters reflected by the census helps in reformulation of country’s plans for the economic development and welfare schemes for its people.
• Besides, census data caters to the Constitutional requirement of delimitation of constituencies and reservation of seats for SCs & STs
• The data users conference is the first formal interaction of the census organization with various stakeholders.

2. ECI invokes powers under Article 324 to prohibit display/exhibit any biopic/publicity material during MCC period

• The Election Commission of India today issued an order prohibiting display in electronic media including cinematograph of any biopic or publicity material in the nature of biography/hagiography sub-serving the purposes of any political entity or any individual entity connected to it.

3. President Ram Nath Kovind recently launched ‘Veer Parivar App’, a mobile application for families of CRPF personnel killed in the line of duty.

• The application will act as an interface between the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) authorities and the next of kin of the slain personnel.
• It will render all assistance to the families of the martyred CRPF personnel with regard to issuance of ex gratia, pensionary benefits and all information regarding the welfare schemes introduced for them by the government.
• The assistance will be provided to the families on a real-time basis. The CRPF headquarters in Delhi and various group centres across the country will respond to these issues.
• The Android-based app will be installed by the force’s officials securely on the phone of the families and will not be available over the app stores.

4. New sensor can detect dangerous chemicals

• Scientists have developed a novel sensor that can be used in smartphone-sized devices to detect dangerous chemicals based on a unique fingerprint of absorbed and emitted light
• Devices called spectrometers are light-splitting instruments that have long been both bulky and expensive, preventing their use outside the lab.
• US researchers have now developed a spectrometer so small and simple that it could integrate with the camera of a typical cellphone without sacrificing accuracy. 
• The device also has an advanced capability called hyperspectral imaging, which collects information about each individual pixel in an image to identify materials or detect specific objects amidst a complicated background
• Hyperspectral sensing, for example, could be used to detect seams of valuable minerals within rock faces or to identify specific plants in a highly vegetated area, according to the research published in the journal Nature Communications.
• Spectrometers usually rely on prisms or gratings to split light emitted from an object into discrete bands -- each corresponding to a different wavelength
• To resolve the difference among a mixture of different colours, spectrometers usually must be relatively large with a long path length for light beams to travel and separate
• The small size was possible because the researchers based their device on specially designed materials that forced incoming light to bounce back and forth several times before reaching the sensor. 
• Those internal reflections elongated the path along which light travelled without adding bulk, boosting the devices' resolution.

5. Small finance banks

• The phenomenal growth of small finance banks has come on a very small base which is why bigger banks and NBFCs don’t see them as competition yet.
• The small finance bank will primarily undertake basic banking activities of acceptance of deposits and lending to unserved and underserved sections including small business units, small and marginal farmers, micro and small industries and unorganised sector entities.

6.  ‘Bold Kurukshetra 2019’, a India- Singapore joint military exercise

7. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued guidelines for banks to set up new currency chests.

• Currency chests are branches of selected banks authorised by the RBI to stock rupee notes and coins.
• The responsibility for managing the currency in circulation is vested in the RBI.
• The central bank advises the Centre on the number of notes to be printed, the currency denominations, security features and so on.
• The Government has, however, reserved the right to determine the amount of coins that have to be minted.
• The RBI offices in various cities receive the notes from note presses and coins from the mints. These are sent to the currency chests and small coin depots from where they are distributed to bank branches.

8.  Scientists have found a new state of physical matter recently

• Chain melted state-  The new state is solid and liquid at the same time. Atoms can exist as both solid and liquid simultaneously.
• In physics, a state of matter is one of the distinct forms in which matter can exist. 
• Four states of matter are observable in everyday life: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. 
• Many other states are known to exist, such as glass or liquid crystal, and some only exist under extreme conditions, such as Bose–Einstein condensates, neutron-degenerate matter, and quark-gluon plasma, which only occur, respectively, in situations of extreme cold, extreme density, and extremely high-energy. 
• Some other states are believed to be possible but remain theoretical for now.