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Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Cyclone Phethai makes landfall at Andhra’s Konaseema, triggers heavy rain

News

  • Cyclone Phethai crossed the Andhra Pradesh coast between Kakinada and Yanam.

Beyond News

  • Under its impact, heavy rains are pounding the East and West Godavari districts and gales with a top speed of 80 kmph are lashing Kakinada, Yanam and Tuni and surrounding areas, according to an update by the Real-Time Governance Society (RTGS).
  • The Konaseema region in the East Godavari district and adjoining areas are expected to receive a downpour in a few hours.
  • The RTGS alerted the departments concerned to the likelihood of Phethai leaving a trail of destruction in its wake while the India Meteorological Department has forecast heavy rains across coastal Andhra in the next 48 hours.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

India announces $1.4 billion aid to Maldives

News

  • India declared an aid of $1.4 billion to the Maldives.
  • The financial package that was prepared over the last month was formally announced at a joint press conference held by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of the Maldives and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Beyond News

  • India would be there to support the Maldives in its human-oriented development plans. New Delhi would also support Male in improving connectivity links between the two nations.
  • In response, President Solih said his government would walk the path of cooperation and development. His discussion with India covered a wide swath of issues such as health, education, and defence.
  • Both sides signed four agreements.

Transgender Bill passed in Lok Sabha

News

  • The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016, which aims at defining the transgender people and prohibiting discrimination against them, was passed with 27 amendments in the Lok Sabha .
  • The Bill was introduced in the House two years ago.

LPG scheme to cover all poor people

News

  • The Union Cabinet approved the expansion of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, which aims to provide deposit-free LPG connections to all poor households.

Beyond News

  • So far, the scheme targeted the poor and underprivileged so listed in the Socio-Economic and Caste Census, 2011.
  • Following the Cabinet decision, poor people will be able to opt for the scheme even if they so far were not eligible, after furnishing the required identification documents and an affidavit saying that they do not have an existing LPG connection.
  • The mandate of the scheme was to provide LPG connections to eight crore households.
  • LPG coverage stood at 89.5% as of December 1, 2018. As on December 12, more than 1.03 crore LPG consumers had voluntarily surrendered their subsidy under the ‘Give It Up’ campaign.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

ISRO’s GSAT-7A to add more heft to Air Force

News

  • Military communication satellite GSAT-7A, due to be launched from Sriharikota, is expected to add a new space-based dimension to the way Indian Air Force interlinks, operates and communicates with its aircraft as they fly and with command centres on ground, according to multiple sources.

Beyond News

  • Although all Indian communication satellites offer capacity to the armed forces, GSAT-7A will be the first one built primarily for the IAF to qualitatively unify its assets and improve combined, common intelligence during operations.
  • With integrated action being a buzzword it will also support aerial activities of the Army and the Navy where required.
  • Satellite using Ku band will enable superior real time aircraft-to-aircraft communication; and between planes that are in flight and their commanders on the ground.
  • It would enhance by many times the coverage now provided by ground communication systems such as radars and stations of the Army.
  • Out-of-sight and remote areas where ground infrastructure and signals are difficult would get into the critical information loop.
  • Since August 2013, the Navy has a satellite largely for its use, the GSAT-7, for similarly linking its ships to command on land.
  • The GSAT-7A/GSLV-F11 mission will also wrap up the calendar year for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The GSLV-F11 space vehicle will release it to an eventual geostationary orbit about 36,000 km from Earth. However, it will become fully functional after a month of testing payloads.

India recorded 95 tiger deaths in 2018, 41 outside reserves

News

  • According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority’s (NTCA) records till December 15, 2018, there were 95 cases of tiger deaths in the country.
  • Of this, 41 cases of tiger deaths outside tiger reserves have been reported.

Beyond News

  • 14 occurred in Maharashtra, which accounted for over 34% of all deaths outside tiger reserves in the country. A total of 19 tiger deaths were recorded in Maharashtra in 2018, so deaths outside tiger reserves comprise more than 70% of all tiger deaths in the State.
  • The NTCA maintains the official database of tiger mortality in the country, and compiles figures from reports sent by different States on the basis of recovery of bodies or seizure of body parts.
  • According to the last tiger estimation exercise in the country in 2014, Maharashtra is home to 190 tigers, but more than a third of its tigers, or about 74 of them, live outside tiger reserves in the State.
  • One of the major reason why tigers are dying in Maharashtra is because many of the tigers are living outside tiger reserves.
  • In several areas, tigers are not only living outside reserve areas, but are venturing into human dominated landscapes, which increases the probability of human-animal conflict and results in deaths.
  • Three States comprise 60% of tiger deaths.
  • Till December 15, of the 95 tigerd that died in the country, 41 deaths occurred outside protected areas. After Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh recorded 22 deaths (11 outside and 11 inside tiger reserves), followed by Karnataka, with 15 deaths (six outside tiger reserves and nine inside) being recorded.

NTCA seeks penal action over death of T1

News

  • The National Tiger Conservation Authority has sought action against Odisha officials after concluding that the death of a tiger brought from Madhya Pradesh took place in the Satkosia Reserve due to poaching, and that there were attempts to conceal the truth.

Beyond News

  • According to NTCA probe report, death of T1 on November 14 had happened under unnatural circumstances and the postmortem report was inadequate.
  • Prima facie analysis and nature of injury sustained, tracking team observations and independent interactions with field staff reveal that the death is due to injury sustained from a snare trap and a clear case of poaching. Evidently, the concerned field authorities are attempting to conceal facts in respect of the death of T1 which is due to snaring.
  • The NTCA report has also expressed concerns over condition of T2, the tigress imported from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve.
  • The tigress has been put through tremendous stress and needs to be conditioned or ‘rewilded’ before it is fit for release into the wild. The rehabilitation enclosure holding T2 needs adequate wilderness enrichment and modification.
  • The two big cats were brought to Satkosia Tiger Reserve as part of revival of tiger population in Satkosia. Another four tigers were proposed to be introduced in Satkosia in phases.
  • But the ambitious project has been kept in abeyance following death of tiger and recapture of tigress which used to stray into human habitations.

Hubble discovers planet vanishing at record speed

News

  • Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered a planet roughly the size of Neptune, evaporating at a rate 100 times faster than a previously identified exoplanet of similar size.

Findings

  • The findings advance astronomers’ knowledge about how planets evolve.
  • The speed and distance at which planets orbit their respective blazing stars can determine each planet’s fate whether the planet remains a longstanding part of its solar system or evaporates into the universe’s dark graveyard.
  • Planets such as “super” Earths and “hot” Jupiters orbit more closely to their stars and are therefore hotter, causing the outermost layer of their atmospheres to be blown away.
  • While these larger Jupiter-sized and smaller Earth-sized exoplanets are plentiful, medium Neptune-sized exoplanets roughly four times larger than Earth are rare.
  • Researchers hypothesise that these Neptunes get stripped of their atmospheres and ultimately become smaller planets.

India, Nepal and Bhutan plan task force to protect wildlife

News

  • The governments of India, Nepal and Bhutan are actively considering having a joint task force for allowing free movement of wildlife across political boundaries and checking smuggling of wildlife across the Kanchenjunga Landscape, a trans-boundary region spread across Nepal, India and Bhutan.

Beyond News

  • The development comes after forest officials and representatives of non-governmental organisation of the three countries visited parts of the landscape and later held a meeting at Siliguri in north Bengal.
  • Participants from India and Bhutan, who attended the meeting, told  that setting up of a joint task force was a key requirement in the road map on achieving the objectives of free movement of wildlife and checking smuggling.
  • The landscape stretches along the southern side of Mount Kanchenjunga and covers an area of 25,080 sq km spread across parts of eastern Nepal (21%), Sikkim and West Bengal (56%) and western and southwestern parts of Bhutan (23%).
  • According to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development ( ICIMOD), a regional knowledge development and learning centre, 1,118 sq km of riverine grassland and tree cover were lost in the landscape between 2000 and 2010.
  • Around 74% of the area was converted into rangeland and 26% to agricultural land. Other than seven million people, the Kanchenjunga Landscape is also home to 169 species of mammals and 713 species of birds.
  • Studies by ICIMOD suggest that between 1986 and 2015, as many as 425 people were killed by elephants (an average of 14 human deaths every year) and 144 elephants were killed between 1958 and 2013 (an average of three elephants every year).

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