Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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India revokes Most Favoured Nation status granted to Pakistan

News

• India announced that it had decided to withdraw the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) statusgranted to Pakistan and would also take all possible steps to isolate the country at the international level after car bomb attack in which at least 37 CRPF men were killed in the Kashmir Valley.

Beyond News

• Minister Arun Jaitley said outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence that the Ministry of External Affairs would announce the diplomatic steps to be taken against Pakistan. A notification would be issued by the Commerce Ministry withdrawing the MFN status.
• The government would call for an all-party meeting after Home Minister Rajnath Singh returned from a visit to the Kashmir Valley.
• Prime Minister assured people that the perpetrators of the terror strike would be punished. Prime Minister said it was important that the country spoke in one voice after the terror strike. India would give a befitting response to the terror attack. Prime Minister called on the international community to stand together to defeat terrorism.
• Top security officials are learnt to have made a presentation on the incident and the overall security situation in the State.

Vijay Mallya seeks UK court permission to appeal against extradition order

News

• Beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya, wanted in India for alleged fraud and money laundering amounting to an estimated ₹9,000 crores, has filed an application in the U.K. High Court, seeking permission to appeal against an extradition order signed by the British Home Secretary.

Beyond News

• The application has been sent for a judge on papers decision, which is expected any time between two to four weeks.
• A judge on papers decision will involve a High Court judge determining the merits of the application and if it is accepted, the case will proceed to a substantive hearing in the next few months’ time.
• In the event that Mr. Mallya’s application is rejected at this stage, he will have the option to submit a renewal form .
• Following the outcome at the High Court level, both sides could apply for the right to appeal to the Supreme Court, which would involve at least another six weeks.
• However, that process is more complex as the U.K. High Court must certify that the appeal involves a point of law of general public importance, and either the High Court or the Supreme Court gives leave for the appeal to be made.
• The former boss of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines took to Twitter again this week to urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to accept his settlement offer in relation to the airline’s loan default.

U.S. travel advisory refers to PoK as Azad Kashmir

News

• A U.S. State department travel advisory issued has drawn attention here as it described Pakistan Occupied Kashmir as ‘Azad Kashmir’.
• This indicated a change in the U.S. terminology as PoK is usually described in U.S. official declarations as Pakistan Administered Kashmir.

Beyond News

• The travel advisory refers to increased risk of terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province of Pakistan and informs that there is risk of ‘terrorism and the potential for armed conflict” in PoK.
• Though the advisory was issued hours before the attack in Pulwama, it indicates that the U.S. had been aware of worsening security scenario in South Asia.
• KPK has been witnessing protests due to ongoing agitation by Pashtun groups who are demanding political rights from Islamabad.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

PM flags off Vande Bharat Express, India’s fastest train

News

• India’s first semi-high-speed train, Vande Bharat Express, was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the New Delhi Railway Station amid sombre mood in the backdrop of the terror attack in Pulwama.

Beyond News

• The train will travel from Delhi to Varanasi in 9 hours and 45 minutes. This includes a stoppage time of 40 minutes each at Kanpur and Allahabad where there will be special programmes.
• Train 18, which has been recently rechristened Vande Bharat Express, can run up to a maximum speed of 160 kmph and has travel classes like Shatabdi trains but with better facilities. It aims to provide a totally new travel experience to passengers.
• It has 16 air-conditioned coaches of which two are executive class. The total seating capacity is 1,128. It is much more than the conventional Shatabdi rakes of equal number of coaches, thanks to shifting of all electric equipment below coaches and seats in the driving coach also.
• All coaches are equipped with automatic doors, GPS-based audio-visual passenger information system, on-board hotspot WiFi for entertainment purposes and very comfortable seating. All toilets are bio-vacuum type. The lighting is dual mode, that is diffused for general illumination and personal for every seat.
• Adding up the green footprints, the train has regenerative braking system, which can save up to 30 per cent of electrical energy.

Scientists upcycle plastic bags to create battery parts

News

• Scientists have created a way to convert plastic bags into carbon chips that could be used in batteries powering our smartphones and other devices.

Findings

• Plastic bag pollution has become a huge environmental problem, prompting some cities and countries to heavily tax or ban the sacks.
• Many plastic bags are used only once and then disposed, ending up in landfills, oceans and elsewhere in the environment, where they can take hundreds of years to decompose.
• According to researchers, polyethylene in plastic bags could be an inexpensive source of energy-storing carbon.
• However, previous methods to upcycle polyethylene into pure carbon have been inefficient or required expensive, complex processes.
• The researchers immersed polyethylene plastic bags in sulphuric acid and sealed them inside a solvothermal reactor, which heated the sample to just below polyethylene’s melting temperature.
• This treatment caused sulfonic acid groups to be added to the polyethylene carbon-carbon backbone so that the plastic could be heated to a much higher temperature without vapourising into hazardous gases.
• Then, they removed the sulphonated polyethylene from the reactor and heated it in a furnace in an inert atmosphere to produce pure carbon.
• The team ground the carbon into a black powder and used it to make anodes for lithium-ion batteries. The resulting batteries performed comparably to commercial batteries.

Turtle conservation zones planned

News

• In a bid to ensure the safety of turtles during nesting and hatching seasons, there are plans to set up turtle conservation zones along the coastline between December and April every year.

Beyond News

• They will first list out the nesting and breeding grounds of the Olive Ridley turtles and notify them. Precautionary measures such as regulating and prohibiting activities along the coast to safeguard the eggs and the turtles will be taken up.
• It was also proposed in the meeting that strict action would be taken against resorts functioning after 11.00 p.m. during the conservation season.
• This year, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department has set up two hatcheries in the stretch from Marina to Kovalam. The department is planning to set up another hatchery in Pulicat, where there has been an increase in nesting activity of Olive Ridleys this year.
• This year, close over 17,000 eggs have been collected in Besant Nagar from 81 nests and 2,300 in Kovalam from 21 nests. On an average nearly 40,000 eggs are collected every year,” said C.H. Padma, Wild Life Warden, Chennai.
• There are also plans to introduce an Information Education Campaign for school and college students in association with the Wild Life Warden, Chennai.
• The phased implementation of Turtle Excluder Devices (TED) is also on the anvil. This will help turtles to slip out of the nets easily if they are caught.

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