Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Giant cavity in Antarctic glacier signals rapid decay

News

• NASA scientists have discovered a gigantic cavity, almost 300 metres tall, growing at the bottom of the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica, indicating rapid decay of the ice sheet and acceleration in global sea levels due to climate change.

Findings

• The findings, highlight the need for detailed observations of Antarctic glaciers’ undersides in calculating how fast sea levels will rise in response to warming.
• Researchers expected to find some gaps between ice and bedrock at Thwaites’ bottom, where ocean water could flow in and melt the glacier from below.
• The size and explosive growth rate of the hole, however, surprised them. It is big enough to have contained 14 billion tonnes of ice, and most of that ice melted over the last three years.
• The cavity was revealed by ice-penetrating radar in NASA’s Operation IceBridge, an airborne campaign beginning in 2010 that studies connections between the polar regions and the global climate.

Ocean mixing that drives climate found in surprise spot

News

• One of the key drivers of the world’s climate is an area in the North Atlantic Ocean, where warmer and colder water mix and swirl.

Findings

• When scientists went for their first close look at this critical underwater dynamo, they found they were looking in the wrong place. By hundreds of miles.
• The consequences are not quite yet understood, but eventually it could change forecasts of one of the worst-case global warming scenarios still considered unlikely this century, in which the mixing stops and climate chaos ensues.
• It’s called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, and scientists describe it as a giant ocean conveyor belt that moves water from Greenland south to beyond the tip of Africa and into the Indian Ocean.
• Warm, salty water near the surface moves north and mixes with cold, fresher water near Greenland. As that water cools and sinks it drives a slow circulation of the oceans that is critical to global climate, affecting the location of droughts and frequency of hurricanes.
• It also stores heat-trapping carbon dioxide deep in the ocean. The faster it moves, the more warm water gets sent into the depths to cool.
• The area where warm water turns over in the North Atlantic is considered to be the engine of the conveyor belt.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Law Ministry gets additional ₹666.66 crore for conducting Lok Sabha elections

News

• The Law Ministry has been allocated an additional sum of over ₹666 crore for conduct of Lok Sabha elections due this summer.
• According to Vote on Account 2019-2020, an additional provision has been made for the Law Ministry of ₹666.66 crore (voted) in revenue section for conduct of the polls.

Beyond News

• The Law Ministry is the administrative ministry for the Election Commission. Certain funds are also allocated to the Home Ministry for elections which is largely used for transportation and logistics related to security personnel.
• Some of the amount spent by the Home Ministry is later reimbursed by the Law Ministry.
• Separately, the Election Commission has been allocated an additional ₹12.14 crores (voted) in revenue section and ₹16.67 crores (voted) in capital section for voters’ awareness campaign under and for acquisition of land from DDA for construction of office building.
• The term of the present Lok Sabha ends on June 3 and the next House to be formed before that.

New panel for welfare of nomadic communities

News

• The Centre will form a welfare panel for nomadic, semi-nomadic and de-notified communities.

Beyond News

• To start with, a committee will be set up under Niti Aayog to complete the task of identifying de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic communities, especially as they move from place to place in search of a livelihood.
• The committee will follow up on the work of the Renke Commission and the Idate Commission.
• A Welfare Development Board will also be set up under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to design and implement programmes for these hard-to-reach communities.

Several Indians held across U.S. on visa fraud charges

News

• Tens of people, the overwhelming majority of whom are highly likely to be Indian citizens or of Indian origin, have been arrested across cities in the U.S. in connection with student visa fraud charges, according to court documents, news reports, first hand witness accounts.
• Emerging patterns suggest most of the individuals are of Telugu origin.

Beyond News

• Eight of these individuals were arrested on counts of conspiracy to commit visa fraud and to harbour aliens (non-U.S. citizens) for profit. Of these eight arrests, six were made in Detroit, one in Florida and one in Virginia.
• In addition to the eight “educational agents” allegedly running the racket, an unspecified number of Indian students have been detained by the Department of Homeland Security in connection with the above case.
• The American Telugu Association has put the number of students arrested at 100 and says it has confirmation of arrest warrants for 600 students based on conversations with attorneys.
• It has reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and is awaiting a response to confirm the numbers.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

4.9% hike in funds for Home Ministry

News

• The Home Ministry has been allocated over ₹1 lakh crore for the next fiscal, with special emphasis on improving border infrastructure of police forces, in the interim Budget announced.

Beyond News

• The Ministry has got ₹1,03,927 crore for 2019-20 which is 4.9% more than ₹99,034 crore given in 2018-19. This figure includes ₹78.09 crore for the promotion of Hindi language.
• The Delhi Police, which maintains law and order in the national capital, has been allocated ₹7,496.91 crore while ₹2,000 crore has been allocated for the development of border infrastructure.
• The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), engaged in anti-militancy operations in Jammu and Kashmir, the Northeast, and often deployed for internal security duties, has been allocated ₹23,742.04 crore for 2019-20, in comparison to ₹22,646.63 crore given in 2018-19.
• The Border Security Force, which guards the Indo-Pak and Indo-Bangladesh borders, has been allocated ₹19,647.59 crore for the next fiscal, in comparison to ₹18,585.96 crore given in 2018-19.
• The total allocation to Central Armed Police Forces, including the CRPF, Border Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Central Industrial Security Force, Sashastra Seema Bal, Assam Rifles and National Security Guard is ₹71,618.70, in comparison to ₹67,779.75 crore in 2018-19.
• The Special Protection Group, responsible for the security of the prime minister, former prime ministers and their close family members, has been allocated ₹530.75 crore over ₹411.68 crore in 2018-19.

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