Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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The Himalayan glaciers are melting away

News

• The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, an intergovernmental organisation focussed on environmental and social change in Hindu Kush Himalaya, findings of a report.
• It warned that one-third of the glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region could disappear by the end of the century even if the world limits the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C. And if greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current levels, the region could lose as much as two-thirds of its ice.

Findings

• Seventy per cent of the earth’s surface is water. Of the remaining 30%, 20% is land and 10% is ice. Most of the ice is in the Arctic and the Antarctic, and the rest is scattered around the world in the form of mountain glaciers.
• The Himalaya-Karakoram-Hindu Kush mountain ranges contain the third-largest deposit of ice and snow in the world.
• Glaciers are slow moving ice masses formed over many years of accumulation of snow – the snow that escaped melting and sublimation over the years. Glaciers flow due to stress from their own weight. They abrade rocks on their way and form crevasses. Glaciers form only on land, unlike the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the water surface.
• Glaciers store water in the form of ice during the colder seasons and release it during warmer seasons by way of melting. This serves as a water source for humans, animals and vegetation.
• The Hindu Kush-Himalayan region covers some 3,500 km across Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. There are about 46,000 glaciers in the region, which provide water resources to around a quarter of the world’s population.
• The glaciers feed 10 of the world’s most important river systems, including the Ganges, Indus, Yellow, Mekong and the Irrawaddy.

Reasons

• The current report suggests global warming as the primary reason for glacial melt here. It also says the melting could accelerate because of increased air pollution.
• Air pollution from the Indo-Gangetic Plains also deposits black carbon and dust on the glaciers, hastening the thaw.
• In general, deforestation, land-use changes, changes in precipitation and decrease in snowfall could also impact the rate of glacial retreat.

Impact of glacial melt

• The changes have a direct impact on freshwater flow. As millions are dependent on this water source, the effect is multidimensional. Drinking water supplies, hydropower, industry, agriculture and biodiversity will all be affected.
• When glacial mass melts on a large scale, it contributes to sea level rise. Large quantities of fresh water will be added to the ocean every day.
• Glaciers are like reserves which provide water when it is most needed during the dry season and during times of drought. With the glacial retreat, we could lose this ‘buffer’ eventually. The region that loses glaciers will be subject to erosion and decreased stability.
• The most worrying outcome of glacial recession is the increase in the formation and size of glacial lakes. They are formed when a glacier erodes the land, and then melts within the hole it has created. This in turn could lead to glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) when there is an avalanche or an earthquake.
• Satellite data shows that the number of such lakes in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region grew to 4,260 in a decade from 3,350 in 1990.

Temperature and day length play an important role in flowering, fruiting in Sikkim’s rhododendrons

News

• In the Sikkim Himalaya temperature, day length and genetic relatedness between species determine when rhododendrons put out their first buds, flowers and fruits.

Findings

• Researchers studied rhododendron trees in sub-alpine and alpine forests between 3,400-4,230 metres above sea level in Sikkim’s Kyongnosla Alpine Sanctuary.
• Between 2013 and 2015, the team monitored budding, flowering, fruiting (arrival of first fruits, immature green fruits and mature brown fruits) and fruit dehiscence (splitting open of fruit to release seeds) and the duration of phenology in 320 trees of 10 rhododendron species for every 15 days. Simultaneously, they collected data on temperature.
• Results from these, combined with data on day length in this region, reveal that the onset of budding, flowering and initial fruiting were mainly associated with a longer day length (around 13 hours) and higher temperature.
• When resources (sunshine as reflected by day length, and temperature) decreased as winter neared, all rhododendrons experienced later phenology events the arrival of immature green fruits, mature brown fruits and finally, fruit dehiscence regardless of whether they were closely related or not.
• Similarly, relatedness did not play a role in phenology of rhododendrons with increasing altitude. Harsher environments at higher elevations including lower temperatures, heavy snowfall and barren and rockier lands higher up could be trumping over the species’ common evolutionary history here.
• Different factors play a role in rhododendron phenology and the study contributes to baseline information about the species in India and the world.

Fewer migratory birds reported at Vaduvoor bird sanctuary post cyclone Gaja

News

• The number of migratory birds, especially flamingos and painted storks, visiting Vaduvoor bird sanctuary in Tamil Nadu, has come down post cyclone Gaja.

Findings

• According to the recent census carried out by the Forest Department, conservationists and volunteers recorded 114 species of birds in the sanctuary as against 138 last year.
• As many as 23,687 birds were counted during the annual synchronized bird census recently. It was 29,284 last year.
• Several of them had flown down to Vaduvoor from far away countries and continents including Siberia, Kazakhstan and Central Asian countries.
• The cyclone could have disturbed the ecosystem of nesting and breeding grounds of the winged visitors. Branches of trees were the nesting grounds for them. But, several branches have fallen during the cyclone.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

After Kerala, Punjab and Gujarat to get PMRU

News

• After Kerala, it is now the turn of Punjab and Gujarat to have Price Monitoring & Research Unit (PMRU), set up by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) in collaboration with the Department of Health and State Drug Controller.

Beyond News

• The government has announced that more States are in the process of setting PMRUs.
• Earlier this year, Kerala became the first State to set up a price monitoring and research unit to track violation of prices of essential drugs and medical devices under the Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO).
• PMRU is aimed at monitoring the notified prices of medicines, detection of violation of the provisions of DPCO (revised from time to time), pricing compliance and ensuring availability of medicines, among other objectives.
• The units will function under the direct supervision of the State drug controller.
• Meanwhile, for the purpose of staffing and providing the required infrastructure to the PMRU, it has been proposed to categorise States/ UTs into three categories: States/ UTs having population of more than 3% of total population, States/ UTs having population of less than 3% but more than 1% of the total population; and those having a population of less than 1% of the total population, said the senior official.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Scientists discover massive mountains under Earth’s crust

News

• Scientists have discovered massive mountains in the Earth’s mantle, an advance that may change our understanding of how the planet was formed.
• Most school children learn that the Earth has three layers: a crust, mantle and core, which is subdivided into an inner and outer core.
• While that is not wrong, it does leave out several other layers that scientists have identified within the Earth.

Findings

• In a study, scientists used data from an enormous earthquake in Bolivia to find mountains and other topography on a layer located 660 km straight down, which separates the upper and lower mantle.
• Lacking a formal name for this layer, the researchers simply call it “the 660-km boundary.”
• To peer deep into the Earth, scientists, used the most powerful waves on the planet, which are generated by massive earthquakes.
• Data from earthquakes that are magnitude 7.0 or higher send out shockwaves in all directions that can travel through the core to the other side of the planet and back again.
• For this study, the key data came from waves picked up after a magnitude 8.2 earthquake the second-largest deep earthquake ever recorded that shook Bolivia in 1994.
• Scientists used powerful computers to simulate the complicated behaviour of scattering waves in the deep Earth.
• The technology depends on a fundamental property of waves: their ability to bend and bounce.
• Just as light waves can bounce (reflect) off a mirror or bend (refract) when passing through a prism, earthquake waves travel straight through homogenous rocks but reflect or refract when they encounter any boundary or roughness.
• The researchers were surprised by just how rough that boundary is rougher than the surface layer that we all live on.
• The roughness was not equally distributed, either; just as the crust’s surface has smooth ocean floors and massive mountains, the 660-km boundary has rough areas and smooth patches.
• The presence of roughness on the 660-km boundary has significant implications for understanding how our planet formed and evolved.

With rise in cybercrime, firms take cover

News

• With cybercrime increasing exponentially, firms from varied sectors such as information technology, banking and telecommunications, including start-ups, are queuing to purchase cyber insurance.

Beyond News

• Though there are no concrete statistics yet to quantify the number and value of cyber insurance policies taken by firms in Tamil Nadu, there has been an upswing in demand, according to insurance firms.
• Indian cyber market has seen a big upswing in the last 18 months. India is the third most heavily cyber-attacked country in the world.
• Tata AIG, HDFC Ergo, ICICI Lombard, Bajaj Allianz and New India are the major players in the cyber insurance market.
• Data provided by Marsh shows that approximately 325-350 standalone cyber insurance policies have been sold, with a gross underwritten premium of $10 million -$12 million (₹65 crore-₹80 crore) roughly 0.4% of global premium.

Space harpoon that captures junk tested

News

• A harpoon flung from a satellite has successfully captured a piece of pretend space junk, like a whale.
• The British-led experiment is part of an effort to clean up debris in orbit, hundreds of miles above the Earth.

Beyond News

• The harpoon no bigger than a writing pen pierced an aluminum panel the size of a table tennis racket attached to the end of a satellite boom. The distance was just 5 feet, but researchers were delighted.
• Thousands of old satellite and rocket parts, and other junk circle the Earth, a potential threat to working spacecraft, including the International Space Station (ISS).
• The same team used a net to capture a piece of space junk, in a test. And they tracked a tiny satellite ejected from the mother ship, using lasers.
• All that remains is for the 400-km-high satellite to re-enter the atmosphere and burn up. If all goes according to plan, a sail will inflate and eventually drag the satellite down, its mission accomplished.

RBI turns net buyer of dollars in FY19

News

• The Reserve Bank of India has turned net buyer of dollars in December, first time in the current fiscal, as it purchased $607 million of the greenback on a net basis from the spot market.

Beyond News

• The RBI bought $837 million and sold $230 million in the spot market during the reporting month.
• As against this, in December 2017, the RBI was a net buyer of $5.647 billion, after it bought $6.008 billion from the market and sold $361 million.
• Between April and November 2018, the central bank had net sold $26.51 billion in the spot market against net purchase of $18.017 billion in the same period in 2017.

New NASA telescope to explore origins of universe

News

• NASA will launch a new space telescope that could provide a glimpse of the first moments in the history of the universe, and explore how common are the ingredients for life in our galaxy’s planetary systems.

Beyond News

• The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) mission is a planned two-year mission funded at USD 242 million.
• SPHEREx will survey the sky in optical as well as near-infrared light which, though not visible to the human eye, serves as a powerful tool for answering cosmic questions.
• Astronomers will use the mission to gather data on more than 300 million galaxies, as well as more than 100 million stars in our own Milky Way.
• SPHEREx will survey hundreds of millions of galaxies near and far, some so distant their light has taken 10 billion years to reach Earth.
• In the Milky Way, the mission will search for water and organic molecules in stellar nurseries, regions where stars are born from gas and dust, as well as disks around stars where new planets could be forming.

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