Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Pune tops Ease of Living index; Patna ranked lowest of 111 cities

News

• Three cities in Maharashtra Pune, Navi Mumbai and Greater Mumbai  top the first Ease of Living Index brought out by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

Beyond News

• The national capital, New Delhi, is ranked 65 among 111 cities, while Chennai is in 14th place. Kolkata did not participate in the survey.
• A city’s ranking reflects its ability to provide data, as well as its actual performance on four different parameters institutions or governance, social indicators, economic indicators and physical infrastructure.
• Senior Ministry officials told  that cities which were unable or unwilling to provide data received low scores.
• New Delhi has a score of “zero” on indicators regarding inclusive housing and mixed land use and compactness, and a score of just 0.12 on economy and employment.
• This does not mean that the capital actually performs so poorly on these indicators, according to members of the consortium which carried out the survey and produced the Index for the government. Instead, it probably means that the NDMC and the three Municipal Corporations which govern the city simply failed to provide any data on those indicators.
• A consortium member admitted that it was a challenge to collect some of this information from data-starved urban local bodies.
• Particular complications were seen in indicators such as health where local governments did not have access to data from private hospitals. The consortium assisted cities in plugging the data gap with regard to certain indicators.
• The other cities in the top 10 include Tirupati, Chandigarh, Thane, Raipur, Indore, Vijayawada and Bhopal. The three cities at the bottom of the rankings are Rampur, Kohima and Patna.

Amazon droughts reducing forest’s CO2 absorption: NASA

News

• A single season of drought in the Amazon rainforest can reduce its capacity to absorb carbon dioxide for years after the rains return, a NASA study has found.

Beyond News

• The study, is the first to quantify the long-term legacy of drought in Amazon, the largest tropical forest on Earth.
• Researchers used satellite data to map tree damage and mortality caused by a severe drought in 2005. In years of normal weather, the undisturbed forest can be a natural carbon “sink,” absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it puts back into it.
• Starting with the drought year of 2005 and running through 2008 the last year of available data  the Amazon basin lost an average of 270 million metric tonnes per year of carbon, with no sign of regaining its function as a carbon sink. Scientists estimate that it absorbs as much as one-tenth of human fossil fuel emissions during photosynthesis.
• If droughts continue to occur with the frequency and severity of the last three events in 2005, 2010 and 2015, the Amazon could eventually change from a rainforest to a dry tropical forest. That would reduce the forest’s carbon absorption capacity and its biological diversity.
• Even if trees eventually survive defoliation, this damages their capacity to absorb carbon while under stress. Observers on the ground also notice that droughts tend to disproportionately kill tall trees first. Without adequate rainfall, these giants can not pump water more than 100 feet up from their roots to their leaves. They die from dehydration and eventually fall to the ground, leaving gaps in the forest canopy far overhead.
• However, any observer on the ground can monitor only a tiny part of the forest. There are only about hundred plots used for research and a few tower sites for long-term monitoring of the Amazon forests.
• The research team used high-resolution maps derived from the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System aboard the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat). These data reveal changes in canopy structure, including leaf damage and gaps.
• The researchers found that following drought, fallen trees, defoliation and canopy damage produced a significant loss in canopy height. The most severely impacted region declined an average of about 0.88 metres in the year after the drought, they said.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

U.K. anti-immigration lobby slams Indian IT firms

News

• A lobbying group, which pushes for greater curbs on Britain’s immigration regime, has accused multinational IT companies, “typically based in India”, of exploiting a “gaping” loophole in Britain’s immigration system, and has called for the system to be overhauled.

Beyond News

• In a report published, Migration Watch said a small number of multinational IT companies were exploiting a system intended to post senior executives to and from the U.K. to bring “thousands of migrant workers to fulfil contracts with private and public sector organisations”.
• This is known as third-party contracting and usually involves an international IT company, typically based in India, obtaining a contract to deliver a project or support services to a U.K. entity and then staffing it with workers form the company’s home country.
• Though part of the Tier 2 visa category, intra-company transfers (ICTs) are not subject to a cap, and have over time represented an increasing share of the Tier 2 work visas, the lobby group said. About 58,000 of 94,000 Tier 2 work permits issued in 2017 were via the ICT route, the group said. It accused the companies of undercutting British competitors and “reducing” opportunities for British IT professionals to work and develop skills.
• Britain’s immigration regime has become an increasingly contentious area: while those on the Right have pressed for tougher restrictions, industry and others have expressed concerns that even the existing system could threaten Britain’s ability to remain open to business and talent at a time when it is particularly important for the country.
• Last week, the Confederation of British Industry published a report calling for the government to scrap immigration targets, to help encourage investment and help foster better trade relations.
• The government has given no indication that it would push for a tightening of the ICT regime.It pointed to changes brought in 2017 that included increasing the minimum salary requirement, and ensuring workers left the U.K. after five years unless they earned more than £120,000, which it said were made to ensure that workers domestic workers would not be undercut.

Blue stickers for petrol, CNG; orange for diesel

News

• The Supreme Court agreed to a proposal of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) to have hologram-based coloured stickers on vehicles to indicate the nature of the fuel used in them.

Beyond News

• The MoRTH told a Bench that hologram-based sticker of light blue colour will be used for petrol and CNG-run vehicles while similar sticker of orange colour would be placed on diesel vehicles.
• The date of registration of the vehicle would also be printed on these stickers, the Ministry told the court.
• The Bench, asked the Ministry to implement the use of coloured stickers on vehicles plying in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) by September 30.
• The Supreme Court also asked Additional Solicitor General, who was representing the MoRTH, to consider having green number plates for electric and hybrid vehicles.

Launch of health scheme likely

News

• Prime Minister is likely to announce the launch of the Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Scheme (AB-NHPS), which aims to provide a medical coverage of ₹5 lakh a family every year.

Beyond News

• The scheme, estimated to benefit more than 10 crore poor families, will be implemented on a pilot basis in select States. The nationwide rollout will be in September-end.
• A senior health official said the scheme will target poor, deprived rural families and identified occupational category of urban workers’ families. While Punjab, Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi are yet to come on board, Odisha has refused to be part of the scheme.
• Currently, 22 States have preferred to run the scheme on a “trust model”.
• The Centre has allocated about ₹10,000 crore for the project, which is claimed to be the world’s largest government-funded healthcare insurance programme.
• It is yet to release its share of the funds to the participating States.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Measures in place to check hacking of govt. websites

News

• The Telangana State government has initiated steps to streamline uploading data and other operational procedures on a host of websites of different departments.

Beyond News

• The measures are the result of Irrigation Department’s websitetelangana.gov.inbeing hacked. The official website, maintained by the Centre for Good Governance, was found hacked when unauthorised files were uploaded in the circulars and proceedings section of the website. The uploaded files included .php ones and some unauthorised images stating “Dracula is here”.
• The department stopped all access to the website and it was set aside for two days with a message that the website was under maintenance. Subsequently, the CGG advised the Irrigation Department to adopt Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) certificate to the website as one of the solutions.
• Later, all unauthorised uploaded files were deleted from the database.
• The department sent one-time password to the mobile number and e-mail id of the employee at Engineer-in-Chief’s office as a security measure for logging in the system to upload files and proceedings.
• IT Department officials said steps have been initiated to streamline data uploading process into government-operated websites. Though there were standard operating procedures that the departments followed, the fact that these websites were scattered across multiple data centres gave scope for hacking.
• The department has decided to put in place a mechanism where learning from such experiences would be shared by the departments concerned to avoid recurrence of such events.

Mahadayi Tribunal recommends ‘Cauvery-like board’ to manage river water sharing

News

• The Mahadayi Water Tribunal has recommended that a board, called the Mahadayi Water Management Authority, be constituted on the lines of the Cauvery Management Board to ensure the river’s water is equitably used by Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra, according to a statement from the Union Water Resources Ministry.

Beyond News

• In its verdict that was submitted to the Ministry, the Mahadayi tribunal has allowed Karnataka to use 5.4 tmcft of river water for drinking, irrigation and dam storage purposes.
• Maharashtra has been allowed to use 1.33 tmcft and Goa, a maximum of 24 tmcft for 59 projects provided they adhere to certain ground rules. This will be over and above Goa’s existing utilisation of 9tmcft. It has rejected demands by Karnataka to divert nearly 12 tmcft for hydroelectric projects
• The Tribunal, has stated that demands by Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka for future use of the Mahadayi waters aren’t “fully justified” as there were “severe” loopholes in the way the States had calculated their future demands.
• The recommendations made by the Tribunal, ought to be adhered to until August 2048.

India raises terror, UNSC reforms with UNGA president

News

• Ahead of the convening of the 73rd session of the U.N. General Assembly, India has indicated that the campaign against global terrorism will be on top of its U.N. agenda.

Beyond News

• External Affairs Minister conveyed India’s concerns regarding the issue to the visiting U.N.GA president María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, who maintained that there is not yet a consensus among the member-states about the definition of terrorism.
• The External Affairs Minister emphasised the need for U.N. Security Council (UNSC) reforms, especially continuation of the Inter-Governmental Negotiations, as well as early finalisation of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.
• In an interaction at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), U.N.GA president said India’s demand for expansion of the U.N.SC featured in the discussion with the Prime Minister and indicated that she would try to build consensus among all U.N. member-states regarding issues such as expansion of the UNSC and counter-terrorism.
• N.GA president said she will appoint two co-facilitators to help her address reform issues.
• The U.N. is currently in the process of implementing reform process on fronts such as peace and security, development and management reforms and better coordination among the principal organs of the U.N.
• The visit also provided Indian decision makers to inform the U.N. official about India’s continued commitment on South-South cooperation.

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