1.LOTUS-HR

Why in News?

• India and Netherlands launched the second phase of the LOTUS-HR in Delhi.

LOTUS-HR:

• The project was initiated in July 2017 and aims to demonstrate a novel holistic (waste) water management approach that will produce clean water which can be reused for various purposes.
• The innovative pilot-scale modular plant upon commissioning will treat 10,000 L sewage water per day and will showcase a self-sustaining model for the end-user.
• This pilot-scale facility will employ multiple technologies so that the data generated at the pilot-scale becomes a tool-box of treatment technologies for replication at other sites in Delhi as well as other parts of India where similar drains exist.
• The rationale is that the mixing and matching of technologies from this tool-box will depend on the quantity (flow rate) and quality (pollutant load) of drain water, land availability, site accessibility as well as topography.
• The LOTUS-HR project is jointly supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India and Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research/STW, Government of Netherlands.

2.World Standards Day

Why in News?

• The Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & PD inaugurated the 60^th celebration of the ‘World Standards Day’ by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

Highlights:

• The theme of this year’s celebration is “Video Standards create a global stage”.
• The theme is highly relevant in the Indian context as India is the fastest-growing entertainment and media market globally.
• It is also relevant because mobile phones and other electronic devices and IT have boosted video production and it is estimated that by 2020, 80% of all internet traffic will be consumed by ‘Video Streaming Data’.

World Standards Day (WSD):

• World Standards Day (WSD) is celebrated each year all over the world on 14 October by the members of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to pay tribute to the collaborative efforts of thousands of experts worldwide, who develop voluntary technical agreements that are published as International or National Standards.
• It is also called International Standards Day.
• The aim of WSD is to raise awareness among regulators, industry and consumers as to the importance of standardization to the global economy.
• The first WSD was observed in 1970.

3.Typhoon Hagibis:

Why in News?

• Recently Typhoon Hagibis has hit the coast of Japan

About:

• The storm could be the strongest to hit Japan since 1958.
• It hits the main of island of Japan, Honshu on 12th October 2019.
• Typhoon is a region-specific name of the Tropical Cyclone (swirlingsystem of clouds and thunderstorms that originates over tropical orsubtropical oceans).
• In the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, the term “hurricane” is used. Thesame type of disturbance in the Northwest Pacific is called a “typhoon”and “cyclones” in the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean.

4.Maharaja Jayachamarajar of Mysore

Why in News?

• The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, graced and addressedthe birth centenary celebrations of Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wadiyar of Mysore

About:

• He was the 25th Maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore, was anexceptional ruler and able administrator.
• He was also a noted philosopher, music exponent, political thinker and philanthropist.
• When India won independence, he was the first among the rulers ofIndiaʼs princely states to accept the Instrument of Accession.
• He was the first president of the Philharmonia Concert Society, Londonin 1948.
• He was the First Chairman of the Indian Wildlife Board. He was theFounder-president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
• Wadiyar dynasty was a Hindu Yaduvanshi dynasty in Indiansubcontinent that ruled the Kingdom of Mysore from 1399 to 1950, witha brief interruption in the late 1700s.

5.Vertiport

Why in News?

• The worldʼs first “vertiport” for electric aircraft is being built inSingaporeʼs Marina Bay

About:

• Essex-based Skyports Ltd. a British company plans to show off the“Volocopter vertical take-off and landing station, dubbed a VoloPort orvertiport” at Marina Bay during the Intelligent Transport Systems WorldCongress from Oct. 21-25.
• Germanyʼs Volocopter GmbH, a German aircraft manufacturer, will bringalong its electric aircraft for a demonstration flight.
• Urban air transport isnʼt new helicopters have been doing it fordecades. Whatʼs changing is that better batteries and innovativedesigns are making it cheaper, cleaner and quieter. A report fromCitigroup said sales of air taxis could reach $5 billion by the end of thenext decade.