GK UPDATES

Gujarat Government to provide 10 % reservation to economically backward of higher castes

1. Gujarat Government has decided to provide 10 percent reservation for economically backward classes (EBCs) in general category. In this regard, state government is going to promulgate ordinance and will be applicable in government jobs as well as admission to the educational institutions from next academic year. This 10 percent reservation for EBCs in general category will be available to all non-reserved class, whose total family income is less than 6 lakh annually. The new reservation will not affect the present reservation available to Scheduled Castes (SC)/ Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC). This decision will breaches Supreme Court’s reservation limit of 50 percent as the State Government is already providing 50 percent reservation to SC, ST and OBC.

NASA launches OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to collect samples from Bennu asteroid...

. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a US space agency has launched OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to collect samples from an asteroid 101955 Bennu and return to Earth. The spacecraft was launched onboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.....
Key Facts

1. OSIRIS-Rex stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer.
2. It is an unmanned spacecraft and NASA’s first mission to collect samples from an asteroid and return to Earth.
3. OSIRIS-Rex will travel for two years on a journey to Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid about the size of a small mountain.
4. Primary aim of the mission: To study asteroid 101955 Bennu , a carbonaceous asteroid.
5. Also to return a sample at least 60 grams dirt and debris from its surface and return to Earth in 2023 for detailed analysis.
NASA scientists feel that the Bennu asteroid hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of water and organic molecules found on Earth