Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Cold wave sweeps across north India

News:

• A piercing cold wave swept across the hilly States in north India even as a blanket of fog covered the plains, hampering the movement of air, rail and road traffic.

Beyond News:

• The mercury continued its downward spiral in Jammu and Kashmir.
• Leh in the Ladakh region braved the coldest night so far this year at minus 15.2 degrees Celsius.

Cold wave:

• A cold wave(known in some regions as a cold snap) is a weather phenomenon that is distinguished by a cooling of the air.
• Specifically, as used by the U.S. National Weather Service, a cold wave is a rapid fall in temperature within a 24-hour period requiring substantially increased protection to agriculture, industry, commerce, and social activities.
• The precise criterion for a cold wave is determined by the rate at which the temperature falls, and the minimum to which it falls. This minimum temperature is dependent on the geographical region and time of year.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

‘16 children go missing every day’

News:

• Every day, an average of 16 children are reported missing in the Capital, according to Delhi Police data.

Beyond News:

• This number is despite efforts made by the police through its various programmes like ‘Operation Smile’, ‘Operation Milap’, and ‘Operation Muskaan’ aimed at reuniting missing children with their families.
• The success rate of such programmes is in question as of the missing kids who were eventually found this year, 66% returned on their own.
• The Delhi police have reunited 2,658 children who were reported missing from other States and were staying in Delhi, working as rag pickers, beggars, or in factories.
• All traced children are also produced in counselling centres to assess the reason behind them going missing. In some cases parents are also counselled.
• The police said that they have special units in every district and have anti-human trafficking unit (AHTU) under the crime branch.

Reasons:

• During several investigations of such missing cases, the police found that the main reasons for children running away were academic pressure, elopement, job opportunities, or because they were scolded by parents.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Incidents of Maoist violence reduce in 2017, govt. data show

News:

• For the first time in more than a decade, in 2017 the incidents in left-wing extremism (LWE) affected States remained below the 1,000 mark.

Findings from the Data:

• According to Home Ministry data, 851 incidents were reported till December 15 in 2017, compared to 1016 incidents during the corresponding period last year. The total number of incidents in 2016 was 1048.
• The violent incidents in the 10 LWE-affected States have always been above the 1,000 mark, with 2,258 the maximum number of incidents reported in 2009.
• The Border Security Force (BSF) deployed for anti-Maoist operations apart from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) established base at four new locations in Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
• A senior Home Ministry official said the top Maoist leadership was ageing and many suffered from ailments.

The recruitments were also at an all-time low as security forces had penetrated many territories in the past decade.

Nanogenerators go wireless

News

• Scientists from Clemson University, U.S. have developed a new tribolelectric nanogenerator that can generate over 2,000 volts just by tapping on it and also wirelessly transfer the energy produced to a nearby battery.

Beyond News

• The scientists say that this is the first time wireless transmission of electrical energy has been achieved. It is also the first time a triboelectric nanogenrator has been directly 3D printed from biodegradable materials.
• The nanogenerator harvests mechanical energy and converts into electrical energy and transferred wirelessly over a distance of three metres to a storage device like capacitor or battery.

Application of the Generator

• We can install the nanogenerator at airports, sidewalks and place the battery on the nearby walls to store the energy. Because there are no wires involved, there is no need of power outlets and can be installed easily.
• These generators have a wide range of applications. They can be used to light up our homes, control doors and even set burglar alarms. The scientists are now working on developing fingerprint sensitive generators for home-security applications.

NASA’s 2018 to do list includes mission to ‘touch’ Sun

News: 

• NASA is turning 60 in 2018 and the agency is looking forward to launching a slew of important missions in the coming year, including one to “touch” the Sun.

Beyond News:

• NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is scheduled for launch in 2018 to explore the Sun’s outer atmosphere.
• The spacecraft will fly through the Sun’s atmosphere as close as 6.2 million kilometres , well within the orbit of Mercury and closer than any spacecraft has gone before.
• The primary science goals for the mission are to trace how energy and heat move through the solar corona and to explore what accelerates the solar wind as well as solar energetic particles.

 Other Missions:

• The US space agency’s first asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx, is scheduled to arrive at the near-Earth asteroid Bennu in August 2018, and will return a sample for study in 2023.
• Launching no later than June 2018, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will search for planets outside our solar system by monitoring 200,000 bright, nearby stars.
• To continue the long—term record of how Earth’s ice sheets, sea level, and underground water reserves are changing, NASA will also launch the next generation of two missions — ICESat-2 and GRACE Follow-On — in 2018.

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