25-05-21 Daily-Himachal Pradesh-HPPSC Current Affairs

The Himachal Pradesh State Depots Association has urged the to defer the use of biometric machines for the distribution of ration to card holders in all government fair price shops in the state immediately.

Associations state spokesperson Sudarshan Sharma said that these machines posed the risk of the spread of Covid among the ration card holders as well as the depot holders. He added that in view of the rise in Covid cases, the card holders were also hesitating from using the machines to avail of the ration from the fair price shops.

He said the families of 5,000 depot holders and 18.50 lakh consumers were under the constant threat of contracting Covid while using these biometric machines at the depots.

Government data shows almost all small states and union territories are still entirely or mostly dependent upon government facilities.

According to the government’s CoWIN portal, 13 small states and union territories have less than 10 private facilities where vaccination against Covid-19 infection is being conducted and out of these, five states and union territories have no private facilities for vaccination.

The states and union territories with less than 10 private facilities for vaccination are – Andaman and Nicobar (0 private facility), Arunachal Pradesh (0), (2), Daman and Diu (0), Ladakh (0), Lakshadweep (0), Manipur (3), Meghalaya (7), Nagaland (4), Puducherry (7), Sikkim (1), Tripura (1) and Mizoram (2), according to the CoWIN portal’s dashboard.

Interestingly, Tamil Nadu is the only state in the country with over 1,000 private facilities conducting vaccinations. It has 1118 facilities.

Two celestial occasions – Total Lunar Eclipse and Supermoon – collectively coincide on 26th May 2021.

Supermoon:

A supermoon happens when the Moon’s orbit is closest to the Earth at the equal time that the Moon is full.
As the Moon orbits the Earth, there is a time when the distance between the two is the least (called the perigee) and a factor of time when space is the most (called the apogee).
Since a full moon appears at the point of least distance from earth, not only does it appear to be brighter, but it is also significant than a typical full moon.
According to NASA, the term supermoon was once coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979. There may be two to 4 full supermoons in a typical year and two to 4 new supermoons in a row.

Lunar Eclipse:

The lunar eclipse takes the vicinity when the Moon strikes into the Earth’s shadow. The Earth has to be without delay between the Sun and the Moon, and a lunar eclipse can only take vicinity at some stage in a full Moon.
Initially, the Moon moves into the penumbra the section of the Earth’s shadow were no longer all of the Light from the Sun is blocked out. Part of the disc of the moon will look dimmer than an every day full Moon.
And then the Moon strikes into the Earth’s umbra, where direct mild from the Sun is blocked out through the Earth. This skill, the solely mild reflecting off the Moon’s disc, has already been refracted or bent through the Earth’s Atmosphere.

Total Lunar Eclipse:
During this, the total of the lunar disc enters the Earth’s umbra, so the Moon seems reddish (Blood Moon). This won’t be final forever, though.
About after 14 minutes, the Moon will move out of Earth’s umbra and back into its penumbra. In total, the lunar eclipse will ultimate a few hours.
Red light has a high wavelength than blue light, which offers the lunar eclipse its attribute reddish colour.
We see the same effect throughout sunrises and sunsets on Earth, when the sky has a more reddish glow than during the day.