Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Climate change threatens King penguins: study

News

• Climate change is likely to have a devastating impact on King penguins if global warming continues at its present rate, scientists warn.

Beyond News

• The main issue is that there is only a handful of islands in the Southern Ocean and not all of them are suitable to sustain large breeding colonies.
• Researchers said that,king penguins are in fact picky animals: in order to form a colony where they can mate, lay eggs and rear chicks over a year, they need tolerable temperature all year round, no winter sea ice around the island, and smooth beach of sand or pebbles.
• The study predicts that, for most colonies, the length of the parents’ trips to get food will soon exceed the resistance to starvation of their offspring, leading to massive King penguin crashes in population size, or, hopefully, relocation.
• Using the information hidden away in the penguin’s genome, the research team has reconstructed the changes in the worldwide King penguin population throughout the last 50,000 years.

Impact of human activities

• They discovered that past climatic changes, causing shifts in marine currents, sea-ice distribution and Antarctic Polar Front location, have always been linked to critical episodes for the King penguins.
• Researchers said tht, King penguins have already survived such crises several times (the last time was 20 thousand years ago), and they may be particularly good at it.
• For the first time in the history of penguins, human activities are leading to rapid and/or irreversible changes in the Earth system, and remote areas are no exception, researchers said.
• In addition to the strongest impact of climate change in Polar Regions, Southern Ocean is now subject to industrial fishing, and penguins may soon have a very hard time fighting for their food.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

CBSE to allow children with special needs to write board exams with laptops

News:

• Children with special needs appearing for class 10 and 12 board examination will be able to use computer or laptops to write their exam from this year, with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) approving the proposal, according to an official order.

Beyond News:

• The candidates will have to submit a certificate issued by a registered medical practitioner or qualified psychological consultant recommending use of a computer facility while also citing the grounds for the recommendation.
• The CBSE’s Examination Committee in its recent meeting resolved to grant the additional concession for Candidates With Special Needs (CWSN) category from this year.
• The order said that,the use of computer shall be limited to only for typing the answers, for viewing the questions in enlarged font size and for listening the question items.
• Concerned candidates shall bring his/ her own computer or laptop duly formatted and the Centre Superintendent (CS) shall allow the candidate only after inspection of the computer by a computer teacher.
• The invigilator will sign the printouts of the answers typed by the candidate which will be facilitated by the CS.
• The board also approved the provision for a reader in case the student with disability does not want scribe facility and needs a person to read the question paper.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

North Atlantic right whales may face extinction

News

• The dwindling North Atlantic right whale population is on track to finish its breeding season without any new births, prompting experts to warn again that without human intervention, the species will face extinction.

Beyond News

• Scientists observing the whale community off the US east coast have not recorded a single mother calf pair this winter. Last year saw a record number of deaths in the population.
• The combination of rising mortality and declining fertility is now seen as potentially catastrophic. There are estimated to be as few as 430 North Atlantic right whales left in the world, including just 100 potential mothers.
• Whales becoming entangled are now far less able to break free. Some are killed outright, others cannot swim properly, causing them to starve or to lose so much blubber that females become infertile.
• Scientists believe rapid warming of the Gulf of Maine, is drastically depleting that food source. Several environmental groups demand greater protection for right whales.

Threats

• Threats to the whales include entanglement in lobster fishing ropes and an increasing struggle to find food in abnormally warm waters.

₹9,435 crore small arms procurement cleared

News:

• The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) gave approval for various procurement proposals at an estimated cost of about ₹9,435 crore.

Beyond News:

• This includes 41,000 Light Machine Guns (LMG) and over 3.5 lakh Close Quarter Battle (CQB) carbines for the three services.
• DAC approval is the first step in the long drawn Defence Procurement Procedure and will take several years for the final deals to be concluded. In the past all these deals have been repeatedly cancelled.
• These small arms would be procured under the Buy and Make (Indian) category and of the total quantities envisaged, 75% will be through Indian industry under “Buy and Make (Indian)” category and balance through Ordnance Factory Board (OFB).
• The cost of carbines and LMGs is ₹4,607 crore and ₹3,000 crore respectively.
• The DAC also approved the procurement of essential quantity of High Capacity Radio Relay (HCRR) for the Army and Air Force at a cost of over Rs 1092 crore and the Coast Guard will get two Pollution Control Vessels (PCV) at an approximate cost of Rs 673 crore.
• The HCRRs would provide fail-safe and reliable communication along with increased bandwidth in the Tactical Battle Area.
• The PCVs in addition to carrying out pollution control would also be capable of undertaking patrolling, search and rescue and limited salvage and fire-fighting operations at sea.

• CSIR project to find pollution spots

  

  • To warn people of pollution hotspots, the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS) the policy arm of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)  is rolling out a project to install pollution sensors at the Capital’s traffic junctions.

  Aim

  • The aim was to develop a messaging alert system that will warn people of spikes in pollution in certain localities.

  Test project

  • For over a year, NISTADS researchers have been running a test project that involved a pollution-monitoring unit affixed on a van which went around specific localities in Delhi.
  • It recorded the waxing and waning of particulate matter throughout the day.
  • Generally, pollution levels tended to be higher in the morning and ebbed as the sun ascended.
  • The process of data collection is still on and the NISTADS is also looking to develop a prototype of pollution sensor that can be easily affixed atop traffic junctions.

  ‘Clean Air for Delhi’

  • Recently, the Delhi government and the Union Environment Ministry had joined hands for ‘Clean Air for Delhi’ campaign which witnessed nearly 7,000 environmental violations and 3,000 challans being issued for a range of infractions, ranging from open burning of waste, construction and road dust violations and vehicular pollution, and 635 cases of traffic congestion.

   

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