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Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Primitive art: Neanderthals were Europe’s first painters

Neanderthal SHELLS

News:

  • The world’s oldest known cave paintings were made by Neanderthals, not modern humans, suggesting our extinct cousins were far from being uncultured brutes.

Beyond News:

  • A high-tech analysis of cave art at three Spanish sites dates the paintings to at least 64,800 years ago, or 20,000 years before modern humans arrived in Europe from Africa.
  • That makes the cave art much older than previously thought and provides the strongest evidence yet that Neanderthals had the cognitive capacity to understand symbolic representation, a central pillar of human culture.
  • Some archaeologists already viewed Neanderthals as more sophisticated than their commonplace caricature, the evidence until now has been inconclusive.
  • The early cave art at La Pasiega, Maltravieso and Ardales includes lines, dots, discs and hand stencils and creating them would have involved specific skills, such as mixing pigments and selecting appropriate display locations.

Precise system:

  • Scientists used a precise dating system based on the radioactive decay of uranium isotopes into thorium to assess the age of the paintings. This involved scraping a few milligrams of calcium carbonate deposit from the paintings for analysis.
  • The technique can determine the age of calcium carbonate formations going back as far as 5,00,000 years, much further than the widely used radiocarbon method.

Ancient weapons unearthed in Odisha

News:

  • Recent archaeological excavations carried out by Sambalpur University in Odisha’s Bargarh district has unearthed stone tools, weapons and artifacts made by early humans centuries ago.

Beyond News:

  • The excavation site, located in the upper Danta stream, a tributary of the river Jira, near Torajunga village, is a “storehouse of treasure”.

Used for hunting:

  • This discovery will help in understanding migration and subsequent colonisation by human beings in this part of India.
  • The tools bear striking similarities with those found in eastern and southern Africa. Most of them were designed for hunting large animals, he said.
  • The equipment and artefacts are a witness to the potential skills of early humans. We have recovered projectile points, hand axes, among other things.
  • The soil samples collected will be sent to different geophysical laboratories of the country for carbon dating.

Scientific investigations will also be carried out in the area to find out more about the environmental conditions in which the early humans thrived.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

TN ranked lowest on discom performance

TN ranking report

News:

  • Tamil Nadu has been ranked lowest in terms of State distribution companies’ quarterly performance as of December 2017, post joining the Centre’s Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY).

Beyond News:

  • The State had joined the scheme over a year ago. The scheme, covering 31 States and Union Territories, emphasises both financial turnaround and improvement in operational efficiencies of the distribution companies.
  • A key parameter in which the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (Tangedco) is lagging is the gap between the average cost of supply per unit of power and per unit average realised.
  • The target for Tamil Nadu was Rs. 0.06 per unit and its achievement was Rs. 0.22 per unit, as per the data.
  • N. government has taken over 75% of Tangedco’s Rs. 30,420 crore debt. Tangedco is yet to issue the mandated government-guaranteed bonds for the remaining debt.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Pakistan to face monitoring by international review group

News:

  • Pakistan, which has put back on the “Grey List” for terror financing by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Plenary, will, under a “Compliance Document,” now be required to furnish a fresh report to the International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG).

Beyond News:

  • Earlier this week, Pakistan had claimed victory in the ongoing FATF meeting, as a preliminary discussion in the ICRG failed to build a consensus on putting it again on the watch list, after China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and GCC countries objected to Pakistan’s nomination.
  • S. and Indian officials had called the claim “premature” and said that a final decision was still to come.
  • FATF Chair said that, there were no objections to the nomination of Pakistan, a move that could see it face financial strictures, and ratings downgrades by international banking and credit rating agencies until Islamabad carries out a full crackdown on terror groups.

Forest dept. embarks on survey of water sources.

News:

  • For the first time, the Telangana Forest department has deployed volunteers for survey of water sources in wildlife sanctuaries across the State as a preparatory measure for quenching the thirst of wild animals during coming summer.

Beyond News:

  • A total of 126 volunteers from various walks of life, apart from NGOs and forest officials, are all set to scour the tiger reserves, protected areas and sanctuaries on February 24 and 25, looking for sources of unpolluted water for wild animals.

Challenges for animals:

  • Availability of water is set to become a challenge for the wild animals during summer, as many of their regular waterholes dry up due to heat.
  • The volunteers have been assigned beats in five major wild life areas, and told to look out for one waterhole for every four square kilometres.
  • The volunteers have also been asked to watch out for pollution seeping into the waterholes, instances of man-animal conflict, the distance from the waterhole to the area where movement of wild animals is noted, and alternative places where water can be provided. 

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