Hindu Notes from General Studies-01
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‘2017 may be among top 3 hottest years’
News:
- The year 2017 will likely be among the three warmest years on global record, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Beyond News:
- Researchers said that the first 11 months of 2017 were the third warmest on record, behind 2016 and 2015, with much-warmer-than-average conditions engulfing much of the world’s land and ocean surfaces.
- Arctic and Antarctic sea ice coverage remain at near record lows.
- 2017 may also be the warmest year without an El Nino — a climate phenomenon that causes global temperatures to shoot up.
- Data from NASA and the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) shows that the past meteorological year (December 2016 to November 2017) is the second warmest on record.
Hindu Notes from General Studies-02
No plan to take away J&K’s special status, says Centre
News:
- The government informed Parliament that there was no proposal as of now for abolition of Articles 35A and 370 which give special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
Beyond News:
- Abrogation of Article 370, gives autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir.
- In case of Section 35A, a writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court by an NGO seeking its abrogation.
- The PIL said the Jammu and Kashmir government, under the guise of Articles 35A and 370, was discriminating against non-residents who are debarred from buying properties, getting a government job or voting in the local elections.
- Article 35A was added to the Constitution by a presidential order in 1954 and it empowers the State legislature to define the State’s “permanent residents” and their special rights and privileges.
‘Poverty, major threat to children’s well-being’
News
- About 17% of the girls were avoiding school during their menstrual cycle, and 26% of girls stopped going to schools due to lack of toilets, water and other amenities, according to a survey done by Young Lives, an NGO, and Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS).
Findings of the Survey
- Children of the marginalised sections in the State continue to lag behind when it comes to education facilities, toilets in schools and nutrition.
- Giving the details of the survey at a one-day workshop on ‘Poverty and Well-being of Children in Andhra Pradesh’, CESS chairman said that one third of the children in India were living in families with very low income, and that researches showed that poverty was a great threat to children’s well-being.
- The survey said that close to 40% of the children were suffering from malnutrition (25% stunting and 23% thinness) and one third of adults (parents) were suffering from chronic energy deficiencies, the chairman said.
Hindu Notes from General Studies-03
Floating solar cells to produce fuel from water
News:
- Scientists have developed floating solar cells that can harness the Sun’s energy to produce hydrogen fuel from water.
Beyond News:
- Hydrogen is a clean fuel that is currently used to propel rockets in NASA’s space programme and is widely expected to play an important role in a sustainable energy future.
- Water electrolysis using electricity from solar photovoltaic (PV) offers a promising route to produce hydrogen without any associated CO2 emissions.
- The floating device can be thought of as a “solar fuels rig” that bears some resemblance to deep-sea oil rigs, except that it would produce hydrogen fuel from sunlight and water instead of extracting petroleum from beneath the sea floor, researchers said.
- The new device relies instead on a novel electrode configuration that allows the gases to be separated and collected using the buoyancy of bubbles in water.
- Based on the concept of buoyancy-induced separation, the simple electrolyzer architecture produces H2 with purity as high as 99 per cent.
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