Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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China slams Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh

News:

China has slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, saying it was not helpful in creating “enabling conditions” for boundary talks and improvement of Beijing-New Delhi ties.

Beyond News

Xinhua news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang as saying that China was “firmly opposed” to Mr. Modi’s visit to the “disputed area.”

The Chinese government has never recognised the so-called Arunachal Pradesh and is firmly opposed to the Indian leader’s visit to the disputed area.

Mr. Geng said that China and India had reached “important consensus” on properly managing disputes, and the two sides were working to resolve the territorial disputes through negotiation and consultation.

He urged India to cherish “the hard-won momentum of improvements in bilateral relations and create enabling conditions for the boundary talks and the development of bilateral relations.”

Kerala has pressed for ban on Popular Front of India

News

Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju has said that,Kerala has sought a ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI), a Muslim organisation that is mainly operating out of the State.

Beyond News

The issue was discussed at the annual DGP meet held in Madhya Pradesh’s Tekanpur in January, where Kerala police chief Lokanath Behera gave a detailed presentation on the PFI’s growth and activities in the State.

The session was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and other senior officials in the security establishment.

Mr. Behera listed four cases where members of the PFI were involved in criminal activities.

Last year, the National Investigation Agency sent a detailed report to the Home Ministry and mentioned four cases where cadres of the PFI had either been charge-sheeted or convicted.

In 2010, some armed members of the PFI attacked Professor T. J. Joseph in Muvattupuzha, Ernakulam district, and chopped off his right palm.
Mr. Joseph was targeted over a question paper he set for a college examination that had some references to the Prophet Mohammad, which the attackers said insulted the Prophet.
In May 2015, a court convicted 13 PFI activists in the case.

The NIA said it examined nine cases where men and women converted to Islam and in at least four of them, the involvement of members of the PFI was established.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Electrons behind colourful auroras observed for the first time

News

Scientists have, for the first time, directly observed the shower of electrons bouncing across Earth’s magnetic field, which causes the spectacular, colourful phenomenon commonly known as the Northern Lights.

Beyond News

While the cause of these colourful auroras has long been hypothesized, researchers had never directly observed the underlying mechanism until now. The spectacle of these subatomic showers is legendary.
Green, red, and purple waltz across the night sky, blending into one another for a fantastic show widely considered one of the great wonders of the world.

Among a variety of auroras, pulsating auroral patches appearing at dawn are common but the physical mechanisms driving this auroral pulsation had so far not been verified through observation.

With the advent of a new satellite with advanced measuring tools, researchers have now identified that this wonder is caused by the hard-to-detect interaction between electrons and plasma waves.
This interaction takes place in the Earth’s magnetosphere, the region surrounding the Earth in which the behaviours of the electric particles is usually governed by the planet’s magnetic field.

The global reconfiguration often drives a specific type of plasma waves called chorus waves, to rain electrons into the upper atmosphere. This stabilizes the system, and gives off a colourful light as the electrons fall.

Straw management now mandatory in Punjab

News

In an attempt to check the dangerous trend of stubble burning, the Punjab government has decided to make use of Super Straw Management System while using the combine harvester machines mandatory for harvesting the paddy (rice) crop.

Beyond News

These instructions are aimed at saving the environment from air pollution caused by stubble burning.

The owners of combine harvesters desirous of undertaking the harvesting of paddy in the State would now have to attach super straw management system with the harvester combine.

Punjab Pollution Control Board have also instructed that no harvester combine shall be allowed to harvest paddy in Punjab without functional super straw management system.
Instructions have been issued under section 31 A of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.

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