Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Close watch on climate change

News:

• The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) is considering a ₹79-crore proposal to study the impact of climate change on Kerala.

Beyond News

• The project has been proposed by the National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR) under the Council of Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR).
• The project involves experts from various scientific institutions across the country. It consists of 25 work packages and covers all the aspects of climate change adaptations for Kerala.
• The ambitious project, spread over a period of three years, will assess the impact of climate change on agriculture (including plantation crops and spices); fisheries (marine and inland); industries; health; transport — vehicular and inland water transports; tourism; biodiversity; forestry; and landslips.
• It assumes significance in the wake of devastating floods that ravaged many parts of the State as the research initiative will specifically assess the dynamics of riverine discharge and saline water incursion under the climate change scenario.
• The experts will study the spatial and temporal changes in water resources (surface and groundwater quantity and quality).
• The Kerala project will analyse the trends in climatic elements, their spatial pattern and its relationship with extreme events such as El Nino, cyclones etc.
• It is part of the vulnerability assessment and development of adaptation strategies for climate change impact with special reference to coasts and island ecosystems of India project launched by CSIR-NISCAIR in 2015.
• Researchers associated with the project will assess the monsoonal variations and its impact, besides looking at the climate change scenario on the islets of Kerala.
• The objective of the project was to develop a framework and decision support tool to assess the climate change impact on livelihood and developmental processes.
• The study will look into suitable sectoral mitigation options under changing climate scenarios and assess the carbon sequestration potential of Kerala.

Millions in India may face nutritional deficiencies due to CO2 rise: study

News

• Millions of Indians are at the risk of becoming nutrient deficient by 2050, as rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂) are making staple crops such as rice and wheat less nutritious, according to a study.

Findings

• Researchers found that rising CO₂levels from human activity could result in 175 million people worldwide becoming zinc deficient and 122 million people becoming protein deficient by 2050.
• The study, also found that over one billion women and children could lose a large amount of their dietary iron intake, putting them at increased risk of anaemia and other diseases.
• It found that India would bear the greatest burden, with an estimated 50 million people becoming zinc deficient. As many as 38 million people in India are at the risk of becoming protein deficient, and 502 million women and children becoming vulnerable to diseases associated with iron deficiency, the researchers said.
• Other countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East would also be significantly impacted, they said.
• Presently, over two billion people worldwide are estimated to be deficient in one or more nutrients. In general, humans tend to get a majority of key nutrients from plants: 63 % of dietary protein, 81 % of iron and 68 % of zinc comes from vegetal sources, researchers said.
• It has been shown that higher atmospheric levels of CO₂result in less nutritious crop yields.
• Concentrations of protein, iron, and zinc are 3-17 % lower when crops are grown in environments where CO₂concentrations are 550 parts per million (ppm) compared with crops grown under current atmospheric conditions, in which CO₂ levels are just above 400 ppm.
• Researchers created a unified set of assumptions across all nutrients and used more detailed age- and sex-specific food supply datasets to improve estimates of the impacts across 225 different foods.
• The researchers also emphasised that billions of people currently living with nutritional deficiencies would likely see their conditions worsen as a result of less nutritious crops.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Punjab Assembly passes Bill seeking life sentence for sacrilege of religious texts

News

• Punjab state Assembly unanimously passed Bills for an amendment to the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc) to make sacrilege of all religious texts punishable with life imprisonment.

Beyond News

• The Indian Penal Code (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, which was passed has inserted Section 295AA to the IPC to provide that, “whoever causes injury, damage or sacrilege to Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Srimad Bhagwad Gita, Holy Quran and Holy Bible with the intention to hurt the religious feelings of the people, shall be punished with imprisonment for life.”
• The Bill further states ”In the Indian Penal Code, 1860, in its application to the state of Punjab, in section 295, for the words ”two years”, the words ”ten years” shall be substituted.
• The Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018 provides to insert section 295AA ”injuring, causing any damage or sacrilege to Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Srimad Bhagwad Gita, Holy Quran and Holy Bible with an intention to hurt the religious feeling of the people.”
• The amendments would need the assent of the President. Under the existing Section 295A, punishment is for a maximum of three years imprisonment with or without fine.

Online registration of drones must from Dec. 1

News

• Drones, their operators and pilots will have to be mandatorily registered on aviation regulator DGCA’s online portal, effective December 1.

Beyond News

• The use of remotely piloted aircraft, a kind of drone, is allowed for taking photographs, conducting surveys such as for laying of pipelines and agricultural purposes and surveillance, as per the regulations on remotely piloted aircraft system unveiled by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
• The rules bar use of drones for delivery of items. They can be deployed for spraying of pesticides and delivery of relief material during a natural disaster only on a case-by-case basis.
• Remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) have been divided into five categories; nano (less than 250gm), micro (between 250 gm and 2kg), small (between 2 and 25 kg) and large (more than 150 kg).
• Users will have to go online to seek a unique identification number for each drone as well as an operator’s permit licence.
• They will have to provide details of flight path to be undertaken for every flight. However, nano drones are exempt from all these pre-requisites.
• Operations are allowed in daylight and within the visual range or a range of 450 m. Wedding photographers are allowed to use micro drones during night, if they are taking pictures in an enclosed premises which is also well-lit.
• Drones are barred from being flown near airports, international border, coastline, Parliament, Secretariat complex in State capitals, military installations and eco sensitive zones.
• Small and large drones can fly up to a maximum height of 400 feet. Nano drones must not fly beyond 50 feet and micro drones must be within 200 feet from ground level.

Centre allows law enforcement agencies to hold banned currency notes

News

• The Centre has come to the rescue of law enforcement agencies like tax department and Enforcement Directorate, which are faced with a situation of holding confiscated currency notes beyond specified limits, by making changes in the law.

Beyond News

• A notification in this regard has been issued by the Ministry of Finance allowing agencies such as Central Board of Direct Taxes, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Enforcement Directorate to hold banned currency notes.
• Under the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Act, 2017, banned currency notes beyond a certain limit could be held only by the Reserve Bank, its agencies, or other person authorised by it, and in pursuance of court order.
• An individual is not allowed to hold more than 10 banned notes. Besides, not more than 25 such notes could be kept for study, research or numismatics.
• According to the Finance Ministry’s notification, law enforcement agencies had seized or confiscated the ₹ 500/1,000 notes on or before December 30, 2016 (the last day to exchange the banned notes) without specific directions from the court and need to deposit or exchange those on production of the documents authorising the seizure or confiscation.
• However, there is no provision in the Act to authorise such deposit of the specified bank notes seized or confiscated by the enforcement agencies.
• To deal with the difficulty, the government has come out with an order ‘Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Removal of Difficulties Order, 2018’ using its power under Section 12 of the Act.
• Now, besides others, the law enforcement agencies, such as the Central Board of Direct Taxes, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Enforcement Directorate on production of the documents authorising such seizure or confiscation, as the case may be can hold the banned currency notes.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

NASA’s Spitzer telescope completes 15 yrs in space

News

• NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, the youngest member of the “Great Observatory” programme, has completed 15 years in space.

Beyond News

• Launched into solar orbit on August 25, 2003, Spitzer was initially scheduled for a minimum 2.5-year primary mission. But the space telescope has lasted far beyond its expected lifetime, the US space agency said in a statement.
• Spitzer has logged over 106,000 hours of observation time in the past 15 years.
• It has illuminated some of the oldest galaxies in the universe, revealed a new ring around Saturn, and peered through shrouds of dust to study newborn stars and black holes.
• The space telescope also assisted in the discovery of planets beyond our solar system, including the detection of seven Earth-size planets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1, among other accomplishments.
• Spitzer orbits the Sun in an Earth-trailing orbit (meaning it literally trails behind Earth as the planet orbits the Sun) and has continued to fall farther and farther behind Earth during its lifetime.

In 2016, Spitzer entered an extended mission dubbed “Spitzer Beyond”. The spacecraft is currently scheduled to continue operations into November 2019, more than 10 years after entering its warm phase.

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