Rapid Fire Current Affairs | 20 Oct 2023

REC Limited Honoured with Golden Peacock Award

REC Limited (formerly Rural Electrification Corporation Limited) a Maharatna Central Public Sector Enterprise under the Ministry of Power, has received the Golden Peacock Award in Risk Management for its commitment to implementing effective risk assessment strategies.

• The Golden Peacock Awards, established by the Institute of Directors (IOD), India in 1991, has emerged as an internationally acclaimed standard for corporate excellence.
  • The IOD is an apex professional association for Directors in India under the Societies Registration Act, XXI of 1860 to fill the need for professional development of Corporate Directors and building effective Boards.
• REC Limited is a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) focused on Power Sector Financing and Development in India. It provides financial assistance to various entities in the power sector.
  • REC's funding contributes to lighting every fourth bulb in India.

Read more: Maharatna Status to REC

Little Ice Age Was Wet

A recent study on the Little Ice Age (LIA), a global climatic event spanning CE 1671-1942, has unveiled significant variations in rainfall patterns, challenging the traditional assumption of a uniformly cold and dry climate during the LIA.

• The Western Ghats, influenced by both the southwest summer monsoon (SWM) and northeast winter monsoon (NEM), was chosen for the study.
• Researchers reconstructed vegetation dynamics and climate variability from CE 1219-1942 using pollen-based analysis from the Western Ghats, India.
  • Pollen analysis uses pollen(male spores in a seed plant) to reconstruct past environments
• The study indicated a record of a moist (wet) LIA in the Western Ghats due increased NEM contributed to the moist conditions during the LIA.
  • Vegetation types in the study area were primarily moist/semi-evergreen and dry tropical deciduous forests.
• The study also suggests that factors like the movement of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), temperature anomalies, sunspot numbers, and solar activity influenced the climate during the LIA.

Read more: Western Ghats