Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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

Another blast from the past: Over 500 unused war rockets found in Shivamogga district

News

• Over 500 unused war rockets, said to belong to the time of Tipu Sultan, were found during a field excavation, conducted by Department of Archeology, Museums and Heritage, in Nagara village in Hosanagar taluk in Karnataka.

Beyond News

• In 2002, 102 unused war rockets dumped in an open well on land owned by Nagaraja Rao in Nagara were found.
• The archaeologists then opined that the rockets belong to the 18th century.
• The department conducted a field excavation at the same site.
• The mound formed from accumulation of the silt, which was removed from the open well in 2002, was excavated by workers from the department during which the unused rockets were found.
• Nagara, then called Bidanooru, was an important administrative centre of Mysore State and Tipu Sultan had even established a mint and an armoury here. Tipu Sultan had used rockets in the wars against the British East India Company.
• Based on these facts, the historians have come to the conclusion that the unused war rockets belong to the time of Tipu Sultan. Like the earlier rockets, those found also are iron-cased with black powder, a mixture of sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate filled inside.
• Each unused rocket is of 7 to 10 inches in length and 1 to 3 metre in diameter and they have become corroded.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Lok Sabha passes Anti-Trafficking Bill

News

• The Lok Sabhapassed the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018.

Beyond News

• The Bill lays down a stringent punishment of 10 years to life imprisonment for aggravated forms of trafficking, which include buying or selling of persons for the purpose of bonded labour, bearing a child, as well as those where chemical substances or hormones are administered, and a survivor acquires life-threatening illnesses such as AIDS.
• The Bill proposes establishing a National Anti-Trafficking Bureau (NATB) for coordinating, monitoring and surveillance of trafficking cases.
• It also provides for a Relief and Rehabilitation Committee and Rehabilitation Fund with an initial allocation of ₹ 10 crore.
• It prescribes forfeiture of property used or likely to be used for the commission of an offence.
• Trafficking is a borderless crime but jurisdiction issues come in the way of investigation. This Bill provides for the NATB to effectively address this aspect.

Pakistan ready to improve ties with India: Imran Khan

News

• Pakistan is ready to improve its ties with India, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan said.

Beyond News

• His government would like leaders of the two sides to resolve all disputes, including the “core issue” of Kashmir, through talks, the former cricketer-turned-politician said and asserted that the blame game between the two neighbours, detrimental to the subcontinent, should stop.
• The PTI has emerged as the single largest party in the National Assembly elections, amid claims by rival political parties “blatant” rigging in the counting.
• Khan said good India-Pakistanrelations will be beneficial for the entire region and suggested to increase trade ties between the two neighbours.
• India-Pakistan ties nose-dived in recent years with no bilateral talks taking place.
• Khan also said he was very disappointed with the Indian media which had projected him like a “Bollywood villain” in recent weeks. On ties with the U.S., Pakistan wants a balanced relations with America which should be mutually beneficial, not one-sided.

India to help Bangladesh in warship design

News

• Garden Reach Ship Builders (GRSE) of Kolkata, a defence public sector undertaking, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Khulna Shipyard Limited (KSY) of Bangladesh to help the country in design and construction of warships, Parliament was informed. The MoU was signed on May 8 this year.

Beyond News

• KSY, an independent commercial enterprise under the Ministry of Defence, Government of Bangladesh, and operated by the Bangladesh Navy, had earlier expressed keenness to develop its skills and know-how for design and construction of ships at its facility at Khulna and other subsidiary locations.
• Incidentally, Bangladesh has procured two conventional diesel-electric submarines from China.
• When Navy chief visited Bangladesh last month, both sides explored new avenues for cooperation. The two countries also instituted the Indian Navy-Bangladesh Navy Coordinated Patrol (CORPAT), which will be an annual feature.
• Of late, assistance in capacity-building and supply of military hardware have emerged as major tools of India’s defence diplomacy in the region.

West Bengal Assembly passes resolution to rename State as ‘Bangla’

News

• The West BengalAssembly passed a resolution to rename the State as ‘Bangla’ in three languages  Bengali, English and Hindi.

Beyond News

• The move is aimed at climbing the alphabetical sequence of State names in which West Bengal appears last in the list now.
• The State will have to wait for the nod from the Union Home Ministry for the final approval of the resolution.
• Earlier, the Centre had rejected the State government’s proposals of having three names Bangla (in Bengali), Bengal (in English) and Bangal (in Hindi).
• The Mamata Banerjee government’s proposal to rename West Bengal as Paschim Bango in 2011 was turned down by the Centre.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Underground lake detected on Mars

News

• Using a radar instrument on an orbiting spacecraft, scientists have spotted what they said appears to be a sizeable salt-laden lake under ice on the southern polar plain of Mars, a body of water they called a possible habitat for microbial life.

Beyond News

• The reservoir they detected roughly 20 km in diameter, shaped like a rounded triangle and located about 1.5 km beneath the ice surface represents the first stable body of liquid water ever found on Mars.
• Water is considered a fundamental ingredient for life.
• The researchers said it could take years to verify whether something is actually living in this body of water that resembles a subglacial lake on Earth, perhaps with a future mission drilling through the ice to sample the water below.
• The detection was made using data collected between May 2012 and December 2015 by an instrument aboard the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft that transmits radar pulses, which penetrate the Martian surface and ice caps.
• The location’s radar profile resembled that of subglacial lakes found beneath Earth’s Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.
• Mars long ago was warmer and wetter, possessing significant bodies of water, as evidenced by dry lake beds and river valleys on its surface. There had been some signs of liquid water currently on Mars, including disputed evidence of water activity on Martian slopes, but not stable bodies of water.
• Water in the Martian lake was below the normal freezing point but remained liquid thanks in large part to high levels of salts. Researchers estimated the water temperature at somewhere between 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees Celsius) and minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 70 degrees Celsius).

Red planet and ‘blood moon’ pair up to dazzle sky-gazers

News

• The longest “blood moon” eclipse this century will coincide with Mars’ closest approach in 15 years to offer sky-gazers a thrilling astronomical double bill on Friday (July 27), astronomers say.

Beyond News

• For about half the world, the moon will be partly or fully in Earth’s shadow from 1714 to 2328 GMT – six hours and 14 minutes in all.
• The period of complete eclipse known as “totality”, when the moon appears darkest  will last from 1930 to 2113 GMT.
• At the same time, Mars will hover near the moon in the night sky, easily visible to the naked eye.
• Our neighbouring planet will appear unusually large and bright, a mere 57.7 million kilometres from Earth on its elliptical orbit around the sun.
• Amateur astronomers in southern Africa, Australia, India and Madagascar will be best-placed to enjoy the spectacle, though it will also be partly visible in Europe and South America.
• A total lunar eclipse happens when Earth takes position in a straight line between the moon and sun, blotting out the direct sunlight that normally makes our satellite glow whitish-yellow.
• The moon travels to a similar position every month, but the tilt of its orbit means it normally passes above or below the Earth’s shadow so most months we have a full moon without an eclipse.
• When the three celestial bodies are perfectly lined up, however, the Earth’s atmosphere scatters blue light from the sun while refracting or bending red light onto the moon, usually giving it a rosy blush.
• This is what gives the phenomenon the name “blood moon”, though Mark Bailey of the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland said the colour can vary greatly.
• The long duration of this eclipse is partly due to the fact that the moon will make a near-central passage through Earth’s umbra — the darkest, most central part of the shadow.

• CLICK HERE TO SEE DATE WISE CURRENT AFFAIRS.