Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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NH 63 alignment changed to protect Neolithic site

News

• Historians and archaeologists have finally had their way in their effort to protect the ‘ash mound’ an important proof of the Neolithic period located on National Highway 63, between Torangal and Kuditini, in Ballari district from a road project.

Beyond News

• Responding to the concerns of historians, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and Gammon India, which is executing the four-laning of NH 63, have decided to realign the road to protect the archaeological site. They have also decided to fence the site, raise a garden and provide all facilities to make it a tourist attraction.
• The ash mound, known as ‘Budi dibba,’ according to archaeologist, is the largest among 300 sites known from the districts of Ballari, Chitradurga, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura and Bidar in Karnataka, and Mahbubnagar, Anantapur, and Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh. Protection of such sites is of tantamount importance as archaeologists from across the globe hope to visit the mound, especially those engaged in unravelling the agricultural way of life in India in that period.
• The site, which was found in the 1840s by Captain Newbold and Colin Mackenzie (the first Surveyor-General of British India), is one of the most important in southern India, and represents the pastoral community settlements of 5,000 years ago. It is associated with the neolithic period when hunter-gatherers became agriculturists and is the centre of a series of ash mounds located in the district.
• A year and a half ago, experts expressed concern over the threat to the Neolithic site with the four-laning of NH 63. As per the original design, the road was to pass through the ash mound.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Nurturing peace, stability in Indian Ocean priority for India’s foreign policy: Swaraj

News

• Emphasising the economic importance of the Indian Ocean, External Affairs Minister has said that nurturing a climate of peace and stability in the region is a priority for India’s foreign policy which is based on “inter-dependence rather than dominance”.

Beyond News

• Addressing the 3rd Indian Ocean Conference, External Affairs Minister said with the eastward shift of the engines of the global economy, the Indian Ocean is at the centre of the emerging “Age of Asia” and those who live in this region bear the primary responsibility for peace, stability and prosperity in the region.
• External Affairs Minister said the economic importance of the Indian Ocean and its vital role in the continued prosperity and development of the littoral nations is well established.PTI
• The Indian Ocean Conference was initiated by India Foundation, an independent research centre based in New Delhi. Along with its partners from Singapore, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, this organisation holds the Indian Ocean Conference, which is an annual effort to bring together Heads of States/Governments, Ministers, thought leaders, scholars, diplomats, bureaucrats and practitioners from across the region.
• Since the Conference’s launch in 2016, three editions of the meet have been hosted so far in 2016, 2017 and 2018 in Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam respectively. All the three Conferences were supported by the Ministry of External Affairs of India, with Sushma Swaraj as its Vice-Chairperson.
• The theme for this year’s meet was ”Building Regional Architectures’’. It was inaugurated by Sushma Swaraj along with a few other dignitaries. Around 43 participant countries and over 28 ministers and officials spoke at the event.
• The key speakers included Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Vietnam, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Singapore.

Doctors flag leptospirosis outbreak

News

• Kerala could see more outbreaks of leptospirosis in the post-flood scenario, if the data available with the Health Department are any indication.

Beyond News

• There is a possibility of more casualties due to communicable diseases during the rehabilitation period of any disaster even if an area is not prone to the diseases, a senior government doctor in community medicine told.
• Around half of the over 300 people who had sought treatment for suspected symptoms this month have tested positive for leptospirosis, according to Health Department sources.
• A bacterial disease affecting humans and animals, leptospirosis killed more people in Kerala than other communicable disease in the past eight years, except in 2012 and 2017, as per the data available with the department.
• A senior official with the Health Department said there was a possibility of undetected or under-detected cases too.
• The doctors may prescribe medicines for fever, which is one of the symptoms of leptospirosis. Such patients approach the government medical college hospital only after it affected their brain, liver or heart. When they die, the cause of death would be described as multiple organ dysfunction syndrome.
• However, post-floods, the department has directed doctors even in private hospitals and clinics to examine the possibility of leptospirosis in each fever case.
• Details such as the job of the patients and their native place were also being recorded.
• It is to find out if there was a chance of contact with contaminated water during the course of their job and if they belonged to flood-hit areas.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

99.3% of demonetised currency returned: RBI

News

• Over 99% of the ₹ 500 and ₹ 1000 that were withdrawn from circulation in November 2016 were returned, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its annual report, released.

Beyond News

• According to the report, after verification and reconciliation, the total value of the ₹ 500 and ₹,1000 as on November 8, 2016,  the day before note ban came into effect, was R₹15,417.93 lakh crore. The total value of the such notes returned from circulation was ₹15,310.73 lakh crore.
• According to the RBI data, the value of banknotes in circulation increased by 37.7% over the year to ₹18,037 lakh crore as at end-March 2018.
• With more ₹500 notes pumped into the system over the last one year, the share of ₹2,000 notes by value declined to 37.3% as on March 2018 as compared to 50.2% a year ago. The share of ₹ 500 note, in terms of value, increased from 22.5% to 42.9% during the same period.
• Post demonetisation, the RBI spent ₹7,965 crore in 2016-17 on printing new ₹500 and ₹2,000 and other denomination notes, more than double the ₹3,421 crore spent in the previous year.
• In 2017-18 (July 2017 to June 2018), it spent another ₹4,912 crore on printing of currency, the report said.
• The demonetisation was hailed as a step that would curb black money, corruption and check counterfeit currency, but the RBI said, Counterfeit notes detected in SBNs decreased by 59.7 and 59.6 per cent in the denominations of ₹500 and ₹1,000, respectively.
• The RBI said that,Compared to the previous year, there was an increase of 35 per cent in counterfeit notes detected in the denomination of ₹100, while there was a noticeable increase of 154.3 per cent in counterfeit notes detected in the denomination of ₹50.

Coffee, cow dung and man-animal conflict

News

• Fluctuating coffee prices, lower demand for cow dung as manure and increasing foreign cattle varieties may be part of the changing local economy, fuelling man-carnivore conflict around Bandipur Tiger Reserve.

Findings

• Researchers looked at six primary villages in Gudlupet taluk of Chamarajanagar district, which borders the northern edge of the Bandipur Tiger Reserve. Previous research had shown that 15% of households in the economically-backward area had suffered livestock loss due to leopards and tigers. The average loss was around ₹2,190, a significant amount when considering that a majority of households earn less than ₹5,000 monthly.
• In the 1990s and early 2000s, rising coffee prices had seen many locals earn an income through sale of dung from their indigenous scrub cattle, which are bred in herds and allowed to graze in forests. One sack of dung brought the villagers around ₹40 per sack when sold to coffee planters.
• However, by the late 2000s, coffee prices stagnated, while the cost of labour shot by over three times in the State. Coffee planters interviewed as part of the study said during this time, they shifted to less labour-intensive synthetic fertilizer sprays instead of using cow dung.
• Hit by the decline and with curbs of grazing in forests, the population of scrub cattle declined, while the more-expensive hybrid cattle which yielded better milk was preferred. In Gundlupet, researchers note that between 2003-12, ownership of scrub cattle reduced by 40.6%, while, ownership of hybrid cattle increased by a staggering 85.5%. However, considering that hydrid cattle was more expensive, villagers had fewer such cattle while the Scheduled Tribe community could not afford this shift.
• The loss of scrub cattle during grazing in forests was tolerated as, the loss of one of these cattle, did not have an economic impact while there was an understanding that carnivores would feed on them in forests. However, hybrid cattle, which can’t be allowed to graze in forests and is kept in cow sheds in villages, is expensive. There was a perception that tigers preyed on this cattle in villages, breaking an “unwritten” contract that wild animals should prey on livestock in villages.
• Forest Department compensation, of around ₹10,000, does not cover the cost and livelihood loss of cows. Moreover, with little employment opportunity in the tourism sector, which hires an estimated 0.0002% of the employable population of Chamarajanagar, these attacks were worsening cultural tolerance towards tigers, says the study.

India’s most polluted: 30% have no clean up plan

News

• A good number of India’s most polluted cities are not too keen to clean up their act, according to a list maintained by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

Beyond News

• Of the 102 cities singled out by the Centre for their alarming pollution levels, only 73 have submitted a plan of remedial action to the CPCB. Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Nagpur and Jaipur are among the prominent cities that are yet to submit their plans.
• These so called ‘non-attainment cities’ were among those marked out by the CPCB and asked as part of the National Clean Air Campaign (NCAP) to implement 42 measures aimed at mitigating air pollution. These included steps such as implementing control and mitigation measures related to vehicular emissions, re-suspension of road dust and other fugitive emissions, bio-mass, municipal solid waste burning, industrial pollution, and construction and demolition activities.
• The directives to take remedial measures were initially issued to Delhi NCR, and subsequently to the State pollution control boards for implementation in other ‘non-attainment’ cities. The non-attainment cities are those that have fallen short of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for over five years. Union Environment Minister had said in April that the aim of pollution mitigation measures was to cut overall pollution in these cities by 35% in the next three years.
• Among other plans, the NCAP also 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).
• In May, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that Delhi and Varanasi were among 14 Indian cities that figured in a global list of the 20 most polluted cities in terms of PM 2.5 levels.

Software to aid during disasters

News

• The government would soon launch a software Tamil Nadu System for Multi-hazard Potential Impact Assessment and Emergency Response Planning, Alerting and Tracking (TNSMART) to consolidate disaster management efforts in cluding preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation.

Beyond News:

• The software would analyse geography-specific data of the disaster collected along with dynamic data from agencies, such as cyclone or flood prediction in a specific area to give alerts as to which areas need to be focussed on.

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