Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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India not to allow its share of water from Indus network of rivers to flow into Pakistan

News

• India will not allow its share of water from the Indus network of rivers to flow into Pakistan, Minister for Road Transport and Water Resources said.

Beyond News

• Minister reiterated India’s position that has been under consideration, saying the water from the “eastern rivers” that fell in the Indian share would be diverted to Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
• As per the Indus Waters Treaty, signed between India and Pakistan in 1960, India has full rights to utilise the waters of the Ravi, the Beas and the Satluj rivers, while the waters of the Indus, the Chenab and the Jhelum belongs to Pakistan.
• Minister announced that the construction of a dam had started at Shahpur-Kanti on the Ravi and the Ujh multi-purpose project would store the Indian share of the water for use in Jammu and Kashmir and the balance water would flow from second the Ravi-Beas link to provide water to other basin States. These schemes had been declared national projects.
• On December 6, 2018, the Union Cabinet approved the implementation of the Shahpur-Kanti Dam Project with the allocation of ₹485.38 crore for five years. The project aims to minimise the wastage of water that now goes to Pakistan through the Madhopur Headworks downstream.
• The Ujh Project in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir, aims to irrigate about 30,000 hectares and produce 300 MW electricity from the waters of the Ujh, a tributary of the Ravi.

Lakhs of forest dwellers face eviction

News

• A recent Supreme Courtorder may lead to the eviction of lakhs of persons belonging to the Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs) categories across 21 States their claim as forest dwellers have been rejected under the Forest Rights Act of 2006.

Beyond News

• A three-judge Bench had ordered the Chief Secretaries of many of these States to evict those whose claims as forest dwellers have been finally rejected under the law. The court directed that the eviction should be carried out on or before July 24, 2019, that is, the next date of hearing.
• The Bench, in a 19-page order, cautioned the States that if the evictions are not carried out within the stipulated time, “the matter would be viewed seriously.”
• The court ordered the States’ Chief Secretaries to also file affidavits by July 12, explaining why the rejected claimants were not evicted even after their claims were junked.
• The court ordered the Forest Survey of India (FSI) to make a satellite survey and place on record the “encroachment positions.” It directed FSI to also place on record the position “after the eviction as far as possible.”
• Section 6 of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act of 2006 shows a multi-layered and hierarchical procedure for recognition or rejection of forest-dweller claims starting at the gram sabha level with multiple appellate committees at the State level.
• The Act is intended to provide a framework to “recognise and vest the forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded.”
• In Andhra Pradesh, the court recorded that not a single order of eviction has been complied though 66,351 claims across 1,14,400 acres of forest land have been rejected.
• In Tamil Nadu, 7,148 claims of STs and 1,881 claims of OTFDs were rejected. In Karnataka, the number of rejected claims of OTFDs far surpass that of STs at 1.42 lakh to 35,521. Over 82,000 claims of STs were rejected in Telangana alone. Kerala’s statistics show that out of 39,999 claims, 894 were rejected. West Bengal records the rejection of 50,288 claims of STs and 35,856 claims of OTFDs.
• Other States under the spotlight are Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Tripura, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Gujarat.

Pakistan bans Hafiz Saeed-led JuD, its charity wing FIF

News

• Pakistan banned the 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed-led Jamat-ud-Dawa and its charity wing Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, amid intense global pressure to rein in the militant groups following the Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF soldiers.

Beyond News

• The decision to ban these groups was taken during a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan at his office.
• Earlier, the two outfits were kept on the watchlist of the interior ministry.
• JuD’s network includes 300 seminaries and schools, hospitals, a publishing house and ambulance service. The two groups have about 50,000 volunteers and hundreds of other paid workers.
• The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the LeT which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people. It has been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014.
• The US Department of the Treasury has designated its chief Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the US, since 2012, has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice.
• The NSC meeting also reviewed the National Action Plan against terrorism in detail.

Russian Helicopters signs MoUs to localise Kamov-226T components production

News

• Russian Helicopters has signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) with five Indian companies to localise components for the Kamov-226T utility helicopter chosen by India.

Beyond News

• Russia was ready to localise after sales support, which has been a constant worry for the Armed Forces with respect to Russian equipment.
• India and Russia have concluded an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) for 200 helicopters estimated to cost over $1 billion. As per the deal, 60 helicopters will be imported from Russia and at least another 140 will be built in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) with technology transfer.
• As part of the IGA, a Joint Venture (JV) has already been set up between HAL and Russia’s Rostec– JSC Rosoboronexport and Russian Helicopters.
• They were also keen to offer the maritime variant of the Kamov-226T for the Indian Navy’s tender for 111 Naval Utility Helicopters.
• The Kamov-226T helicopters are meant to replace the ageing and obsolete Cheetah and Chetak fleets of the Indian Armed Forces. The number is expected to go beyond 200, given the large requirement of the services. India and Russia also intend to export the Kamov-226T to other countries, after meeting the domestic requirement.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Deadlier version of BrahMos to be tested in three years

News

• A sleeker, more lethal version of the supersonic cruise missile BrahMos is under development and the prototype should be ready for testing in about three years.

Beyond News

• The idea is to have a smaller missile with the same capabilities. So the missile will fly at 3.5 times the speed of sound instead of 2.8 Mach. The range will remain at 300 km.
• For this several mechanical components in the missile are being replaced with electrical components which will also reduce the size. A structural study has been carried out and several sub-systems have already been developed.
• BrahMos is a joint venture between India and Russia and named after Brahmaputra and Moscowa rivers. It is capable of being launched from land, sea, sub-sea and air against surface and sea-based targets. The development trials of an anti-shipping variant began in 2003 and combat trials began in 2005.
• The reduced weight enables the NG variant to be carried by the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). An LCA can carry two missiles while a Su-30MKI can carry five of them.
• The land and sea variants of BrahMos are already operational with the Army and Navy and the air-launched version is under development.
• The original range of the missile was 290 kms in line with the limitations of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). After India joined the grouping in June 2016, the range was extended to 450 kms and is to be further extended to 600kms.
• Recently India had also successfully test-fired the missile with an indigenous seeker, a critical technology, in missiles. So far the seeker, a critical technology in missiles, came from Russia. The plan is to replace all the seekers with indigenous ones.
• The seeker was jointly developed by Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad and BrahMos Aerospace.
• Presently the missile is deployed on most of the Navy’s frontline warships and will be a standard fitment on all major warships in future. The Army has deployed three BrahMos regiments on the Western and Eastern borders. More BrahMos units are on order.
• The IAF is modifying some Su-30MKIs to enable them to carry the air launched variant. This gives the IAF a long range standoff capability to target key enemy infrastructure.

Website to curb pollution of Yamuna launched

News

• Complaints and suggestions regarding pollution of the Yamuna river can now be lodged with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) appointed monitoring committee at its newly launched website.

Beyond News

• NGT had directed the committee to set up a website to receive and share information related to the river . The website promises to be a one-stop destination for all information related to the river.
• It will have various NGT orders related to Yamuna, the monitoring committee’s action plans and reports, notes on flood plain rejuvenation and improvement of ‘e-flow’, information regarding wetlands, relevant laws, reports of expert committees, minutes of important monitoring committee meetings and links to various stakeholder agencies.
• The website will also act as a ‘knowledge sharing platform’ where members of the public may register suggestions for improvement of the Yamuna or provide information regarding pollution of the river at specific locations. There is also a provision to upload relevant pictures.
• Those complaints, which provide specific information such as the location and date of the issue, would then be cross-checked with GSDL (Geospatial Delhi Limited) which has mapped the drainage system in the city.
• The drain owning agency, whether it is the municipal corporations or the Jal Board will be identified, following which the relevant agency will be instructed to take appropriate action. In genuine cases, the complainant will receive acknowledgement of the action taken within 15 days.

Two new bat species discovered

News

• A new species of bat has been discovered in wooded areas of Europe, , another “very rare” species that lives in caves in North Africa.

Findings

• The findings add to the family of roughly a thousand species of bats, an order of mammals which are capable of transmitting and receiving ultrasound, allowing them to fly and navigate in total darkness.
• The new bat species discovered in Europe is called “Myotis crypticus” and lives in wooded areas in Italy, France, Switzerland and Spain.
• The bats had “gone unnoticed until now” because they “are represented by 53 species in Europe but many of them are enormously similar,” said Javier Juste, a researcher at the Donana biological station in southern Spain.
• The same study discovered a new species in North Africa called “Myotis zenatius” which is “extremely rare and vulnerable”.
• This species can only be found in a few caves in mountainous regions of Morocco and Algeria.

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