Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Blind belief makes tribals flee hamlet in Chikkamagaluru

News

• Around 25 families of Havugolla, a tribe, vacated their dwellings near Bale village in N.R. Pura taluk in Karnataka believing that deaths would occur in their families during the total lunar eclipse.

Beyond News

• According to members of the community, they left on the “advice of deities” they worship.
• Two youngsters from the community died on July 7 and July 21, respectively, triggering fear. The families believe they died suddenly with no serious prior health problems.
• Following this, some tribals visited temples at Balehonnur, Karkeshwara, Mangaluru and other places.
• The families have dispersed to many other towns and villages, some even in Kerala.
• The Havugolla families, known for capturing snakes, keep moving from one place to another. When they came to Bale village about 15 years ago, they put up their tents on a vacant plot, which happened to be a forest land. As the years passed, the younger generation gave up capturing snakes and became agricultural labourers and small-time traders.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Protect critical personal data of citizens: draft Bill

News

• The draft personal data protectionBill 2018, submitted by the Justice B.N. Srikrishna-headed expert panel, has proposed that critical personal data of Indian citizens be processed in centres located within the country.

Beyond News

• The draft law, which comes after a year-long consultation process, however, has left it to the Central government to notify categories of personal data that will be considered as critical.
• Other personal data may be transferred outside the territory of India with some riders. However, at least one copy of the data will need to be stored in India. The draft Bill, which India hopes will become a model framework for protection of personal data for the world, will apply to processing of personal data within India, including the State.
• For data processors not present in India, the Act will apply to those carrying on business in India or other activities such as profiling which could cause privacy harms to data principals in India.
• The draft also provides for penalties for data processor as well as compensation to data principal to be imposed for violations of the data protection law. It has suggested a penalty of ₹15 crore or 4% of the total worldwide turnover of any data collection/processing entity, for violating provisions. Failure to take prompt action on a data security breach can attract up to ₹5 crore or 2% of turnover as a penalty.
• Personal data, the draft law states, may be processed on the basis of the consent of the data principal, given no later than at the commencement of the processing. It added that processing of sensitive personal data should be on the basis of “explicit consent.” The law, the committee in its recommendations said, will not have retrospective application and will come into force in a structured and phased manner. Processing that is ongoing after the coming into force of the law would be covered.
• Justice stated that this report is the first step towards data protection and as technology changes, it may become necessary to fine-tune the law.
• The draft Bill, which has recommended that a Data Protection Authority be set up to prevent misuse of personal information, also provides for setting up an Appellate Tribunal.
• On right to be forgotten, the draft states that data principal will have the right to restrict or prevent continuing disclosure of personal data by a data processor.

India to give flash flood warning to Asian nations

News

• India has been designated as a nodal centre for preparing flash-flood forecasts by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Beyond News

• That means India will have to develop a customised model that can issue advance warning of floods in Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand, according to Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences.
• On the sidelines of the Earth Sciences Foundation Day, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences said the IMD would be working to customise a weather model, developed by the United States and donated to the WMO, to warn of flash floods at least six hours in advance.
• A test version of this, was being tried out by the IMD, and that was able to give a flood warning about an hour in advance. Using a combination of satellite mapping and ground-based observation, this system called the Flash Flood Guidance System aims to provide forecasts six hours in advance.
• Like India, several southeast Asian countries depend on the monsoon and are prone to its vagaries. The proposed model would provide forecasts by computing the likelihood of rainfall and the soil moisture levels to warn of possible floods. Though Pakistan was among the list of countries that would benefit from the forecast, it had refused to participate in the scheme.
• While the science to warn of floods could be developed, India was yet to work out how exactly it would warn countries of potential inundation. India currently has a warning system for tsunamis that also doubles up a warning system for several Asian countries.
• The Central Water Commission, which monitors India’s dams, warns of rising water levels in the reservoirs, which are usually taken to be signs of imminent floods. The organisation has recently tied up with Google to develop a software application to visualise rising water levels during heavy rains.
• The WMO says flash floods account for 85% of flooding incidents across the world, causing some 5,000 deaths each year.

‘Indian firms flouting norms to import Chinese goods ’

News

• Companies in India are side-stepping the anti-dumping measures imposed by the government by deliberately misclassifying items imported from China, according to a report tabled by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce.

Beyond News

• The report also notes that the government has been reluctant to review the effectiveness of its anti-dumping measures.
• The anti-dumping framework also suffers with lax implementation, the report on the impact of Chinese goods on the Indian economy said. The unscrupulous elements are able to import the Chinese goods by circumventing the goods put under the anti-dumping framework through misclassification of products.
• This mis-declaration while importing the goods which otherwise have been put under anti-dumping measures nullify the whole effort to protect the domestic industry from unfair trade practices.
• The Standing Committee named the steel industry as one of the major offenders in this regard, saying that there have been complaints from the domestic steel industry that Chinese non-alloy steel is being imported by being declared as alloy steel.
• The committee noted that though nearly 75-80% of Chinese steel imports are covered under the anti-dumping duty, the import of such steel products have increased 8%.
• The committee feels that the government must take strong punitive measures so that the importers desist from such activities, the report said. The committee finds that while anti-dumping measures are being evaded on the one hand proving to be ineffective; on the other hand, there is a general reluctance on the part of the government to review the effectiveness of anti-dumping measures undertaken by it.
• The committee recommended that the Ministry of Steel, in consultation with the Directorate General Of Anti-Dumping And Allied Duties (now the Directorate General of Trade Remedies), look into the rationalisation of anti-dumping duties and make them realistic to “ward off any adverse consequences of dumping of Chinese steel goods in the country.”

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Scientists confirm Einstein’s supermassive black hole theory

News

• A team of international scientists observing a star in the Milky Way have for the first time confirmed Einstein’s predictions of what happens to the motion of a star passing close to a supermassive black hole.

Beyond News

• Einstein’s 100-year-old general theory of relativity predicted that light from stars would be stretched to longer wavelengths by the extreme gravitational field of a black hole, and the star would appear redder, an effect known as gravitational red shift.
• A team of scientists at the European Southern Observatory started monitoring the central area of the Milky Way using its Very Large Telescope to observe the motion of stars near the supermassive black hole 26 years ago. The black hole is 26,000 light years away from Earth and has a mass 4 million times that of the Sun. The scientists selected one star, S2, to follow. With an orbit of 16 years, they knew it would return close to the black hole in 2018.
• Over 20 years, the accuracy of their instruments has improved and so in May 2018, they were able to take extremely precise measurements in conjunction with scientists from around the world.
• This showed the star’s orbital velocity increasing to more than 25 million kph (15.5 million mph) as it approached the black hole. The star’s wavelength stretched as it sought to escape the gravitational pull of the supermassive black hole, shifting its appearance from blue to red.
• The scientists now hope to observe other theories of black hole physics.
• This is the first step on a long road that the team has done over many years and which we hope to continue in the next years.

‘Marine wilderness rapidly shrinking’

News

• Shipping, pollution and over fishing have reduced areas of “wilderness” to just 13% of the world’s oceans, a study said, warning that untouched marine habitats could completely vanish within half a century.

Findings

• International researchers analysing the impact of human activity on underwater ecosystems have mapped the dwindling zones considered pristine.
• The bulk of remaining ocean wilderness, classed as “mostly free of human disturbance”, was found in the Arctic and the Antarctic, and around remote Pacific islands.
• Improvements in shipping technology mean that even the most remote wilderness areas may come under threat in the future, including once ice-covered places that are now accessible because of climate change.
• Just 5% of the wilderness areas are in protected zones, leaving the rest vulnerable.
• It called for greater international coordination to regulate the world’s oceans, clamp down on overfishing, limit destructive ocean-mining and reduce fertilizer run-off.
• Marine wilderness areas are home to unparallelled levels of life, holding massive abundances of species and high genetic diversity, giving them resilience to threats like climate change.
• These areas are declining catastrophically, and protecting them must become a focus of multilateral environmental agreements. If not, they will likely disappear within 50 years, researchers warned.

Ganga water between Haridwar and Unnao unfit for drinking, bathing: NGT

News

• The National Green Tribunal (NGT)expressed concern at the level of pollution in the Ganga, between Haridwar and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, and said “the water is unfit for drinking and bathing”.

Beyond News

• A Bench, directed the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) to install display boards at a gap of 100 kilometres, indicating whether the water is fit for drinking and bathing, to make devotees aware of the level of pollution.
• Innocent persons are drinking and bathing in the Ganga out of reverence and respect. They don’t know that it may be dangerous to their health. If cigarette packets can contain a warning saying it is ‘injurious to health,’ why not the people be informed of the adverse effects [of the river water] the Bench said.
• It is of utmost necessity to comply with the right to life of persons using Ganga water, and that they are put to notice about the fitness of water.
• Meanwhile, the Central Pollution Control Board and the NMCG have been asked to indicate, on their websites, the areas where the water is good for bathing and drinking.

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