Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Another year in Telugu calender cycle discovered.

News

• A Telugu calender year by name Nandidhata Samvatsara, which was celebrated by Telugu speaking people during the Kakatiya dynasty Rudra Deva’s reign (AD 1158 – 1195) was recently discovered by Archaeological Survey of India.

Beyond News

• Archaeologists managed to decipher an inscription found on a slab fixed to a wall in a temple at Sayampeta Haveli in Geesukonda mandal of Warangal district.
• Superintend archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India, Chennai,said people are unaware of this year, either in the traditional list of 60 Telugu calendar years or in lithic records of historical times.
• Somehow, the name is missing from the list of traditional years of Telugu calender.
• They are examining if it matches with another name in the present calender with the help of astronomical texts.
• As part of the Temple Survey Project, the ASI officials visited the ancient Panchalaraya Swamy temple, which was constructed in the Kakatiya era and discovered the damaged inscription on the rear wall of sanctum sanctorum.
• Elucidating further details, Mr. Babu said that the inscription spanned six lines and was probably written in 13th century Telugu script.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

China stresses on ties with Nepal, India

News

• China proposed an understanding with India on Nepal, to help develop a trilateral partnership, which would include setting up a trans-Himalayan economic corridor.

Beyond News

• China’s Foreign Minister and State Councilor’s appeal for a trilateral bonhomie came at a time when India and China are trying to impart buoyancy to their post-Doklam ties.
• In parallel, India-Nepal ties are also in the reset mould, highlighted by a red carpet welcome that was accorded to Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli during his visit to New Delhi last week.
• India-Nepal ties had been earlier hit following New Delhi’s unofficial blockade of essential supplies to its Himalayan neighbour, prompting Nepal’s outreach to China via Tibet.
• But once these projects were complete, it could further yield the emergence of a trans-Himalayan corridor, which could benefit China, India and Nepal.
• In an apparent signal to India, China’s Foreign Minister and State Councilor pointed to Nepal’s geography its linkages with both China and India  as the basis of trilateral cooperation.
• Nepal and China had agreed to start a feasibility study for a cross-border railway linking the countries.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

NASA’s new planet-hunting mission begins

News

• NASA’s latest planet hunting satellite was successfully launched today on the first-of-its-kind mission to find new worlds beyond our solar system and identify the ones that could support alien life.

Beyond News

• Over the course of several weeks, TESS will use six thruster burns to travel in a series of progressively elongated orbits to reach the Moon, which will provide a gravitational assist so that TESS can transfer into its 13.7-day final science orbit around Earth.
• TESS will be watching for phenomena called transits. A transit occurs when a planet passes in front of its star from the observer’s perspective, causing a periodic and regular dip in the star’s brightness.
• TESS will focus on stars between 30 and 300 light-years away and 30 to 100 times brighter than Kepler’s targets. The brightness of these target stars will allow researchers to use spectroscopy, the study of the absorption and emission of light, to determine a planet’s mass, density and atmospheric composition.
• Water, and other key molecules, in its atmosphere can give us hints about a planets’ capacity to harbour life.

Java expedition team discovers over a dozen new species

News

• A hermit crab, a shiny-eyed shrimp and a crab with fuzzy spines are among over a dozen new species discovered in a deep-sea expedition off the Indonesian island of Java, scientists said.

Beyond News

• The team from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) carried out the expedition. The area covered included a long stretch of the Indian Ocean off Java’s southern coast as well as the Sunda Strait that separates the island from Sumatra.
• Three new species of spider crabs were discovered during the expedition, the scientists said in a statement. One of them had a plate protecting its eyes which resembled oversized ears while another was bright orange in colour.
• Another discovery was a new species of hermit crab with bright green eyes, according to Indonesian scientist Dwi Listyo Rahayu, also a crab expert and the expedition’s co-leader. One new species of shrimp had shiny eyes that reflect light, the scientists said.

Supreme Court website hacked

News

• The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology confirmed that the Supreme Court’s website had been hacked.

Beyond News

• The website, which had turned “non-functional” from 11.35 a.m. IST, became accessible only at around 7.50 p.m.
• The National Informatics Centre (NIC) does not maintain the Supreme Court’s system.
• Cert-IN, the Ministry’s emergency response team, had advised the Supreme Courton the steps to be taken to restore the website and would analyse the details of the incident, said a Ministry spokesperson.
• One of the screen shots of the top court web page circulating on some social media sites showed signs left by some Brazilian hackers who may have targeted it.

No pollution-reduction targets in Central plan

News:

• In a strange move that is unlikely to impress anyone concerned over the worsening air quality in our cities, the government has refrained from specifying pollution-reduction targets in its draft National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).

Beyond News:

• This is despite the fact that Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan had earlier said the programme would aim to reduce pollution in specific cities by “50% in five years.”
• The NCAP was conceived as a detailed strategy to ensure that cities across the country meet specified air quality norms.
• The draft NCAP will be open to public comments until May 17.
• It envisions setting up 1,000 manual air-quality-monitoring stations (a 45% increase from the present number) and 268 automatic stations (triple the current 84).
• It also, for the first time, plans to set up pollution-monitoring stations in rural areas.
• The NCAP follows from the Environment Ministry’s submissions to the Supreme Court on March 8, 2018.
• The Ministry submitted in the court that it was taking steps to address air pollution not only in Delhi but in around 100 cities.

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