Tigray
●The Tigray Region is the northernmost region of Ethiopia.
●Tigray is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob and Kunama peoples.
●The Tigray War is an ongoing armed conflict that began around midnight of 3–4 November 2020 in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia.
●The federal forces captured the Tigrayan capital Mekelle on 28 November, after which Prime Minister Abiy declared the Tigray operation ‘over’.
Spectrum Auction
●The Department of Telecommunications conducts auctions of licenses for electromagnetic spectrum.
●India was among the early adopters of spectrum auctions beginning auctions in 1994.
●Devices such as cellphones and wireline telephones require signals to connect from one end to another.
●These signals are carried on airwaves (medium of radio waves), which must be sent at designated frequencies to avoid any kind of interference.
●Interference may prevent reception altogether, may cause only a temporary loss of a signal, or may affect the quality of the sound or picture produced by one’s equipment.
●These airwaves are called spectrum, which is subdivided into bands which have varying frequencies.
●All these airwaves are sold for a certain period of time, after which their validity lapses, which is generally set at 20 years.
Saint Ravidas
●Ravidas was an Indian mystic poet-sant of the Bhakti movement and founder of Ravidassia (Orthodox Sikh structure) religion during the 15th to 16th century CE.
●Scholars state he was born in 1450 CE and died in 1520 CE. Ravidas was also known as Raidas.
●A known poet, his written verses are included in Sikh scriptures, Guru Granth Sahib.
●Meera Bai, an eminent personality in the sphere of Hindu spiritualism recognised Guru Ravidas as her spiritual guide.
Cybercrime Volunteers
●India’s home affairs ministry recently flagged off a ‘Cyber Crime Volunteers Concept’, an initiative aimed at inviting ordinary citizens to sign up as volunteers who would help identify the circulation of digital “unlawful content”.
●The volunteer programme is supposed to act as a facilitative tool between ordinary citizens and the government for the prevention of cybercrime.
● Any citizen can register herself under one of three categories: ‘Cyber Volunteer Unlawful Content Flagger’, ‘Cyber Awareness Promoter’, and ‘Cyber Expert’.
● Post-registration, the individual can directly report “unlawful content” being circulated over the Internet, which presumably includes social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, among others.
Iron ore in India
●India’s leading state that produces iron ore is Odisha. It accounts for more than 55% of the total production followed by Chhattisgarh producing almost 17%.
●This is followed by Karnataka and Jharkhand producing 14% and 11% respectively.
●In India we get four types of iron ores, (a) Hematite (Fe203)- It is mainly found in the Dharwad and Cuddapah rocks of the Peninsular India.
Vachana:
●(b)Magnetite is found in the southern states of Karnataka (73%), Andhra Pradesh (14%) and Tamil Nadu (5%).Magnetite is the finest iron ore with a very high content of iron up to 70 per cent.
●(c)Limonite- Inferior ores; yellowish in colour; 40 to 60 per cent iron metal. It is found in Damuda series in Raniganj coal field, Garhwal in Uttarakhand, Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh and Kangra valley of Himachal Pradesh.
●(d)Siderite: It has more impurities. It contains about 48 percent metallic iron content in it. It is brown in colour. It contains a mixture of iron and carbon. It is a low-grade iron ore.
Tax Deduction at Source(TDS)
●TDS in India is a means of collecting tax on income, dividends or asset sales, by requiring the payer to deduct tax due before paying the balance to the payee.
●Under the Indian Income Tax Act of 1961, income tax must be deducted at source as per the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
●TDS is income tax reduced from the Monet paid at the time of making specified payments such as rent, commission, professional fees, salary, interest etc. by the persons making such payments.