Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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U.S. announces new H1-B visa approval policy,Indian firms to be hit

News

• The United States administration has announced a new policy that makes very tough the procedure of issuing H-1B visas to those to be employed in one or more third-party worksites, a move that will hugely impact Indian IT companies and their employees.

Beyond News

• Under the new policy, a company will have to go an extra length to prove that its H-1B employee at a third-party worksite has specific and non-qualifying speculative assignments in a speciality occupation.
• Indian IT companies, which are among the major beneficiaries of H-1B visas, has a significant number of its employees deployed at third-party worksites.
• A significant number of American banking, travel and commercial services depend on on-site IT workers from India to get their job done.
• Effective immediately, the new guidance comes weeks ahead of the beginning of the H-1B visas filing season, which is expected to be April 2, for the fiscal year 2019 beginning October 1, 2018.
• The guidance says in order for an H-1B petition involving a third-party worksite to be approved, the petitioner must show by a preponderance of evidence that the beneficiary will be employed in a speciality occupation and the employer will maintain an employer-employee relationship with the beneficiary for the duration of the requested validity period.

CRPF to guard Indian embassy in Baghdad

News

• In a first, the government is planning to send Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) commandos to provide security to the Indian embassy in Baghdad.

Beyond News

• A Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) official said the deployment was being made on the request of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
• The embassy in 2014 issued an advisory asking Indians living in Iraq to leave the country owing to the “precarious security situation.” The Iraqi government is locked in an armed conflict with the terrorist outfit Islamic State.
• The CRPF has agreed, in principle, to provide a contingent of 45 personnel.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

A soft robot that crawls like a snake

News

• Harvard scientists have developed a soft, crawling robotic snake using kirigami an ancient Japanese paper-cutting technique.

Beyond News

• As the robot stretches, the flat kirigami surface is transformed into a 3D-textured surface, which grips the ground just like snakeskin.
• These soft robots could be used in exploration, inspection and search and rescue missions.

Rainwater harvesting structures raise groundwater table

News

• The city-based NGO, Siruthuli’s efforts in construction of rainwater harvesting (RWH) structures in public places across the city in Tamil Nadu has helped in improving the groundwater table.

Beyond News

• The NGO said that the district is situated in the rain-shadow region of the western ghats. Prevailing rocky earth condition of the region prevents natural percolation of rainwater into the earth.
• Sensing this, the Siruthuli had intervened and conducted a geo-hydrological study in 2004 to assess the feasibility of construction of rainwater harvesting structures to enable the recharge the groundwater table with the available run-off water that flows on the streets/roads of the city.
• This had resulted in recommendation of construction of about 2000 RWH structures across the city.
• Following the survey, the NGO took strenuous efforts to construct RWH structures such as digging borewells and other structures across the city depending on the formation of the location.
• It has constructed over 600 RWH structures since 2005.
• These structures efficiently recharge run-off surface water to the underground aquifers to increase the water level and its quality. This has resulted in creating sustainable groundwater table even where there is less rainfall.

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