Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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Cabinet approves hybrid energy policy

News

• The Andhra Pradesh State Cabinet approved AP Wind, Solar Hybrid Power Policy 2018.

Beyond News

• The policy is aimed at encouraging hybrid renewal energy projects in the State and thus generate 18,000 MW renewable energy by 2021-22.
• The government has set a target that Andhra Pradesh should be able to generate 10% of the total renewable energy generated in the country.
• The Cabinet also decided to bring out a new policy to replace the existing AP Wind Policy-2015, AP Solar Policy 2015 with a focus on clean energy. The proposed policy aims at achieving 5,000 MW of solar power in the next five years.
• The Cabinet approved Industrial Development Policy 2015-20 to promote mega projects by providing incentives.
• Cabinet decided to increase the subsidy under Adarana II from the existing 70% to 90%. Over eight lakh families would stand to benefit. It would impose a burden of Rs. 195 crore on the government. The Cabinet also approved amendments to beneficiaries’ eligibility.
• The Minister said that AP Maritime Infrastructure Development Corporation would be established to develop ports and shipyards. The government would send a proposal to the Central government for encouraging zero budget natural farming at a cost of Rs. 2,046 crore in the State.

Panel to explore alternatives for RO waste water

News

• National Green Tribunal (NGT) has constituted an expert committee to explore various issues including the possibility of making secondary usage of the water rejected by the RO system.

Beyond News

• The expert committee will be constituted by representatives from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Central Pollution Control Board, Bureau of Indian Standard, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI).
• It may also have to be explored whether deficiencies in the filtered-treated water can be made up and whether the purified water needs to be re-mineralised so as to compensate for the minerals lost during the process and how the refiltered water can be utilised.
• The committee has also been asked to state whether “customised solutions” for different States are required.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Rs. 2,250-cr. scheme for farmers in Jharkhand

News

• Jharkhand Chief Minister announced a Rs. 2,250-crore scheme to help 22.76 lakh medium and marginal farmers of the State double their income by 2022.

Beyond News

• The State government will give Rs. 5,000 per acre to 22.76 lakh medium and marginal farmers from the next financial year.
• Under the new Mukhya Mantri Krishi Yojana, Rs. 2,250 crore will be spent.
• The scheme will start from the 2019-20 financial year.

Projects to mitigate man-animal conflict

News

• The Forest and Wildlife Department is gearing up to implement various projects to the tune of Rs. 15.57 crore to mitigate man-animal conflict on the fringes of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) in Kerala.
• As part of this, a 10-km stretch of rail fencing will be erected on the forest border from Moodakkolly to Sathramkunnu under the sanctuary.

Beyond News

• The Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) had earmarked Rs. 15 crore for the project and tender proceedings for the same were in its final stages.
• Also, Rs. 57.40 lakh had been allocated for the construction of a 410-metre elephant-proof wall in various parts of the sanctuary and tender proceedings for the purpose were also under way.
• Preliminary steps were taken to construct an 11-km stretch of crashguard steel rope fencing and it would be constructed utilising funds from KIIFB in the second phase.
• The sanctuary authorities had submitted a proposal to complete maintenance work on 22 km of a 30-km elephant trench at Vadakkanad.
• A sum of Rs. 1,02,51,316 has been disbursed to 1,105 farmers this year as compensation for crop loss in wildlife attacks.

Super Earth discovered in constellation Cassiopeia

News

• Researchers have discovered a new exotic planet outside our solar system in the constellation Cassiopeia.

Findings

• Located 21 light years away from us, this planet, dubbed HD219134 b, has a mass almost five times that of Earth, which is considered a so-called “super-Earth”.
• Unlike the Earth, however, it most likely does not have a massive core of iron, but is rich in calcium and aluminium alongside magnesium and silicon.
• The inner structure is so different, their cooling behaviour and atmospheres will also differ from those of normal super-Earths.
• Perhaps it shimmers red to blue like rubies and sapphires, because these gemstones are aluminium oxides which are common on the exoplanet.
• HD219134 b is one of three candidates likely to belong to a new exotic class of exoplanets.
• The other two exoplanets studied, 55 Cancri e and WASP-47 e, orbit their star so closely that their surface temperature is almost 3000 degrees.

NASA’s InSight Lander places first instrument on Mars

 News

• NASA’s InSight lander has deployed a seismometer on the surface of Mars, completing a major mission milestone that will allow scientists to peer into the Martian interior by studying ground motion also known as marsquakes.
• New images show the seismometer on the ground, its copper-coloured covering illuminated in the Martian dusk.

Planets with oxygen don’t necessarily have life

News

• The presence of oxygen and organic compounds on planets may not necessarily mean that they harbour life.

Findings

• In their search for life in solar systems near and far, researchers have often accepted the presence of oxygen in a planet’s atmosphere as the surest sign that life may be present there.
• Researchers recommend a reconsideration of that rule of thumb.
• Simulating in the lab the atmospheres of planets beyond the solar system, researchers successfully created both organic compounds and oxygen, absent of life.
• The findings, serve as a cautionary tale for researchers who suggest the presence of oxygen and organic compounds on distant worlds is evidence of life there.
• Oxygen makes up 20 per cent of Earth’s atmosphere and is considered one of the most robust biosignature gases in Earth’s atmosphere.
• The researchers tested nine different gas mixtures, consistent with predictions for super-Earth and mini-Neptune type exoplanet atmospheres.
• Such exoplanets are the most abundant type of planet in our Milky Way galaxy.
• Each mixture had a specific composition of gases such as carbon dioxide, water, ammonia, and methane, and each was heated at temperatures ranging from about 26 to 371 degrees Celsius.
• This suggests that even the co-presence of commonly accepted biosignatures could be a false positive for life.

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