Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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Wuhan spirit should spur ‘natural partner’ India to join Belt and Road initiative: China

News

• China called India its “natural partner” in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and advocated better ties between New Delhi and Islamabad within the Eurasian framework.

Beyond News

• At a media conference on the BRI, China’s assistant minister of foreign affairs, threaded India and China’s deep bonds established during their far history with recent diplomatic initiatives, including the Wuhan summit in April between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
• The Chinese official stressed that, CPEC is an economic initiative. Implementing CPEC does not jeopardise China’s position on Kashmir.
• So far India has not formally endorsed BRI, and last year New Delhi did not participate in a summit of the grouping, leading to considerable consternation in Beijing.
• China’s assistant minister of foreign affairs cited India and China’s collaboration in the infrastructure arena through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) one of the pillars that also props BRI projects.
• Separately, the Chinese Foreign Ministry welcomed India and Pakistan’s joint participation in a Eurasian counterterrorism military exercise under the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
• Applauding participation of the two estranged neighbours in the exercise, Foreign Ministry spokesperson said ties between New Delhi and Islamabad were significant to the peace and development of the region and the whole world.

India, Pakistan to resume talks on Indus Waters Treaty in Lahore on Wednesday

News

• India and Pakistan will resume their talks on various aspects of the Indus Waters Treatyin Lahore, the first bilateral engagement since Prime Minister Imran Khan took office.

Beyond News

• India’s Indus Water Commissioner is expected to reach to begin the two-day discussions with his Pakistani counterpart, quoted a government official as saying.
• The last meeting of the Pakistan-India Permanent Indus Commission was held in New Delhi in March during which both the sides had shared details of the water flow and the quantum of water being used under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty.
• The Pakistani side will reiterate its objections over two water storage and hydropower projects being built by India, during the two-day talks scheduled for August 29-30.
• The official said Pakistan would raise its concerns over 1000MW Pakal Dul and 48MW Lower Kalnai hydroelectric projects on the Chenab river.
• The official said that the two sides would also finalise the schedule of future meetings of the Permanent Indus Commission and visits of the teams of the Indus commissioners.
• The two-day session is also expected to discuss ways and means for timely and smooth sharing of hydrological data on shared rivers.
• The 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, brokered by the World Bank and signed by then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan’s president Ayub Khan, administers how the water of the Indus river and its tributaries that flow in both the countries will be utilised.
• Under the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty 1960, waters of the eastern rivers Sutlej, Beas and Ravi had been allocated to India and the western rivers the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab to Pakistan, except for certain non-consumptive uses for India.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

NASA shows aerosols around the world in one vibrant image

News

• Aerosols are all around and are inhaling millions of them this very second. These minute solid and liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere, include dust, smoke, pollen, soot and even volcanic ash.

Beyond News

• Earth-observing satellites use the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to measure the aerosol optical thickness from hundreds of kilometers above the Earth.
• These measurements are based on the fact that aerosols change the reflection and absorption of visible and infrared light in the atmosphere. NASA has now released a vivid image that shows the aerosol flow across the face of Earth. According to NASA, An optical thickness of less than 0.1 (palest yellow) indicates a crystal clear sky with maximum visibility, whereas a value of 1 (reddish brown) indicates very hazy conditions.
• The blue colour indicates sea salt aerosols, which are natural aerosols carried into the atmosphere and come from sea spray.
• The red denotes black carbon particles. Wildfires, emissions from industries and automobiles are the common source.
• Dust particles are marked in purple.
• According to NASA, On that day, huge plumes of smoke drifted over North America and Africa, three different tropical cyclones churned in the Pacific Ocean, and large clouds of dust blew over deserts in Africa and Asia.

BMRCL plans to buy land near Bhadra Tiger Reserve

News

• Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) is planning to buy a 67-acre private plot near Bhadra Tiger Reserve in lieu of forest land in Kadugodi, which will be used to construct a depot under phase-II of Namma Metro.

Beyond News

• BMRCL will be acquiring 45 acres of land in Kadugodi from the Forest Department. As per the policy, it will have to purchase and hand over a plot of land of the same size for the Forest Department to carry out afforestation work.
• According to BMRCL officials, the land near Bhadra Tiger Reserve was selected based on a suggestion by the department. The corporation recently purchased 29 acres of land from 14 property owners in Dandeli, at a cost of ₹3 lakh per acre.
• The department had identified an additional 15 acres in the area, but owing to various factors BMRCL could not acquire it.

Human activity turning birds into pests

News

• Human activity is increasingly tipping the ecological balance against birds, turning them to pests, suggests by a group of researchers.

Findings

• Researchers from Telangana State Agricultural University observed unusual feeding of four species of birds on sorghum and sunflower when testing acoustic equipment to keep birds away.
• Unusual instance of Red-breasted Parakeet in Hyderabad feeding on sorghum was observed. Similarly, unusual instances of Great Tits, Indian Peafowl and Large Grey Babbler were observed to feed on sunflower heads, said researchers.
• They explained it was unusual because these four species are not on the list of 18 species, considered depredatory, known to feed on sorghum or sunflower.
• These birds feeding on sunflower and sorghum indicate that their natural sources of food are not easily available. Parakeets, for instance, are fruit-eaters. Without fruit trees around, they are bound to turn to crop.
• Birds like Peafowls and Babblers prefer sunflower seeds as a major diet and food source expansion. This is mainly due to unsustainable levels of exploitation, non-availability of preferred food, habitat destruction and less predatory pressure, increasing new depredatory bird populationand diminishing dependency on alternative food resources,” the researchers concluded.
• As part of the project, the pest management team developed acoustic equipment that produces sound in frequency ranges that is disturbing to the birds and drives them away from the crop.
• The group is also working on non-fatal techniques to keep pests like wild boars away.

NASA spacecraft approaches asteroid Bennu, snaps first pic

News

 NASA spacecraft is closing in on an ancient asteroid, Bennu, for a sample of space dust that could reveal clues to the start of life in the solar system.

Beyond News

• The spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer has even snapped its first, blurry picture of the cosmic body, which is about the size of a small mountain, about 500 meters in diameter.
• The spacecraft is designed to circle Bennu, and reach out with a robotic arm to “high-five” its surface, then return the sample it collects to Earth in 2023.
• The first images of Bennu were taken on August 17 at a distance of 2.3 million kilometers from the $800 million spacecraft.
• Bennu was chosen from the some 500,000 asteroids in the solar system because it orbits close to Earth’s path around the sun, it is the right size for scientific study, and is one of the oldest asteroids known to NASA. Astronomers say it poses a slight risk a one in 2,700 chance of colliding with Earth in 2135.
• It is also a carbon-rich asteroid, the kind of cosmic body that may have delivered life-giving materials to Earth billions of years ago. The OSIRIS-REx mission is not the first to ever visit an asteroid and attempt a sample return Japan has done it before and Europe has managed to land on a comet. It is the first asteroid-sample-return mission for NASA, and it aims to bring back the biggest sample ever, on the order of 60 grams.

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