Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

Editorials are covered separately. HINDU NOTES are available free date wise| CLICK HERE

Cycas circinalis: ‘living fossil’ with a deadly twist

News

• A plant species that has outlived the dinosaurs, the Cycas circinalis, a ‘living fossil’ found only in the Western Ghats, faces the threat of extinction due to the over-harvesting of its leaves for commercial purposes.

Beyond News

• While there are nine species of Cycas found across the country, almost all of which are classified as being endangered, the Cycas circinalis, found at altitudes between 1,500 and 1,800 meters, has traditionally been used by tribal communities for a variety of purposes.
• In the Nilgiris and other parts of the Western Ghats, where the plant is found, the seed is sometimes soaked in water (to remove a strong poison contained within) and ground into flour, after which it is eaten, while the seed is also said to be used in traditional, indigenous medicine.
• However, over the last few decades, the leaves of the circinalis, which are used for ornamental purposes like for setting up ‘pandals’ have been harvested in bulk from the remaining plants, often leading to them becoming stunted and unable to reproduce and increase in number.

Crcinalis plants do not grow in large numbers in the wild, and the over exploitation of the leaves from the plant has caused a further decline over the last few decades.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

All students in Telangana to get health cards

News

• The State government has decided to conduct health tests for over 30 lakh students across the State and issue health cards to them from the next academic year.

Beyond News

• Health Department officials had been directed to start comprehensive health check-ups for students from July and complete the process within six months.
• This would be followed by issue of health cards to the students.
• In addition, the government will distribute health and hygiene kits to close to eight lakh students enrolled in the SC/ST/BC/minority residential educational institutions, KGBVs, government high schools and other institutions.
• The Ministers directed the officials of the Health and Education departments to prepare a joint action plan for ensuring that there were no students in the state who were left uncovered by the scheme.
• Ministers said that,officials should accordingly prepare and release institution-wise schedules for the health tests so that all students in the State were covered under the first-of-its kind programme in the country.
• The government was already distributing health kits to more than 3 lakh girl students through the Education Department and efforts should be made to cover the remaining 5 lakh students enrolled in these institutions.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Oldest detected supernova discovered

News

• An international team of astronomers has discovered the oldest supernova ever detected – a huge cosmic explosion that took place 10.5 billion years ago.

Beyond News

• A supernova is the explosion of a massive star at the end of its life cycle.
• The exploding star, named DES16C2nm, was detected by the Dark Energy Survey (DES), an international collaboration to map several hundred million galaxies in order to find out more about dark energy – the mysterious force believed to be causing the accelerated expansion of the universe.
• Light from the event has taken 10.5 billion years to reach Earth, making it the oldest supernova ever discovered and studied.
• The universe itself is thought to be 13.8 billion years old.
• The researchers used three powerful telescopes – the Very Large Telescope and the Magellan, in Chile, and the Keck Observatory, in Hawaii – to measure the exploding star’s distance and brightness.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-04

India more corrupt than China, better than Pak: Transparency International

News

• India has been ranked worse than China and Bhutan in terms of ‘corruption perception’, but fares better than its other neighbours including Pakistan and Bangladesh, as per a global list released by graft watchdog Transparency International.

Beyond News

• In the Corruption Perception Index for 2017, India was ranked at the 81st place with a score of 40.
• Among the neighbouring countries, Pakistan was ranked at the 117th place with a score of 32, Bangladesh at 143th (score of 28), Myanmar at 130th (score 30) and Sri Lanka 91st (score 38).
• Bhutan has the best score of 67 among India’s neighbours and has been placed high on the index at the 26th place. China also fared better than India with a rank of 77 and score of 41.
• The index ranks 180 jurisdictions by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people and uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 denotes highly corrupt and 100 very clean.
• In the BRICS block of major emerging economies, South Africa is ranked the best (71st), followed by China and India, while Brazil is at 96th and Russia at 135th.

New Zealand and Denmark have topped the list, while Syria, South Sudan and Somalia have been ranked the lowest with scores of 14, 12 and 9 respectively.

CLICK HERE TO SEE DATE WISE CURRENT AFFAIRS